Amiga questions you've always been too embarrassed to ask

[Hewitson]

It's really an insult to the Amiga to use the built in sound of the monitor, it sounds terrible. Get yourself an amp or a set of quality PC speakers.

[ransom1122]

That's right Hewy. Amiga is well known for many many great sounding games. Some with intros that I still will never forget. Away from gods, agony beast turican. One game musically sounding amazing on loud amp is time soldiers
I have mine hooked up to a rock solid stereo with subby.

There still hasnt been a generation of consoles that has had the same level of music as the amiga to this day. So do it justice and hook up those rcas to an amp or stereo. :0

[Mrs Beanbag]

i had to mix from stereo to mono when i wanted to record some of my ProTracker music to tape, because Amiga stereo is unlistenable on a walkman. Why they insisted on such a left/right split across the channels, it's as if they imagined we would only play music as one big sample, i don't know.

If i got to design a new Amiga sound hardware, i'd allow each channel independent volume on both left and right speakers. i suppose that means doubling the DACs though

[Nekoniaow]

Originally Posted by Mrs Beanbag

i had to mix from stereo to mono when i wanted to record some of my ProTracker music to tape, because Amiga stereo is unlistenable on a walkman. Why they insisted on such a left/right split across the channels, it's as if they imagined we would only play music as one big sample, i don't know.

If i got to design a new Amiga sound hardware, i'd allow each channel independent volume on both left and right speakers. i suppose that means doubling the DACs though

I remember using headphones with my Amiga to not disturb anyone in the house and experiencing the same issue: unbearable.

The left/right assignation of channels is quite puzzling actually because analog mixing is quite doable electronically with a few summing amplifiers. Unless these costed a fortune in 1985?

[mc6809e]

Originally Posted by Nekoniaow

I remember using headphones with my Amiga to not disturb anyone in the house and experiencing the same issue: unbearable.

The left/right assignation of channels is quite puzzling actually because analog mixing is quite doable electronically with a few summing amplifiers. Unless these costed a fortune in 1985?

I think the designers believed that more complex stereo effects would be done by simply duplicating most channel settings and altering the volume on pairs of channels to place the audio in space.

This effectively limits the system to two pure stereo channels.

Of course there's also software mixing.

[Nibbler]

ähhh,
What was the Programm called to reset the Amiga and then execute a script.

That little CLI Programm was very usefull for Demos n Stuff that needed
the full CHIP-MEM.

Hmmm, i cant remember....

I think it began with the letter R, but i am not 100% sure

[Cobe]

You're thinking of RAD?

[lesta_smsc]

Why "Guru meditation" for errors?

EDIT: Nevermind... Wiki to the rescue:
The term "Guru Meditation Error" originated as an in-house joke in Amiga's early days. The company had a product called the Joyboard, a game controller much like a joystick but operated by one's feet, similar to the modern-day Wii Balance Board. Early in the development of the Amiga computer operating system, the company's developers became so frustrated with the system's frequent crashes that, as a relaxation technique, a game developed where a person would sit cross-legged on the joyboard, resembling an Indian guru.[3] The player tried to remain extremely still; the winner of the game stayed still the longest. If the player moved too much, a "guru meditation" error occurred.[4] The final unlockable balance activity in Wii Fit represents a similar game. The same game is unlocked from the start in Wii Fit Plus.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Nibbler

ähhh,
What was the Programm called to reset the Amiga and then execute a script.

That little CLI Programm was very usefull for Demos n Stuff that needed
the full CHIP-MEM.

Hmmm, i cant remember....

I think it began with the letter R, but i am not 100% sure

http://aminet.net/package/game/patch/RebootStartV42

[Nibbler]

Originally Posted by Cobe

You're thinking of RAD?

No, RAD: is no "CLI Tool" , but thanks for the effort


THANK YOU THOMAS, that´s it, "REBOOTSTART" !!
You´re the best !! ; and Nibbler is very happy now, thanks to you

[Retrofan]

Yes. RebootStart is a great program. I use it to run ScummVm and avoid the problem with CyberbugFix.

[daxb]

Originally Posted by Nibbler

No, RAD: is no "CLI Tool" , but thanks for the effort

THANK YOU THOMAS, that´s it, "REBOOTSTART" !!

RebootStart uses RAD: device. In fact RAD1:.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by xArtx

What’s the correct driver bit to open a 1084S?
I’ve got to buy a long shaft driver for mine, so might as well get the right one if someone knows!
Cheers, Art.

I don't know for sure, but my guess would be PH2. Put a little light in to the hole and you should be able to see.

[Nibbler]

Originally Posted by daxb

RebootStart uses RAD: device. In fact RAD1:.

I know, but that was not the question but thanks

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by demolition

I don't know for sure, but my guess would be PH2. Put a little light in to the hole and you should be able to see.

that is the size of the bit bud

[xArtx]

Ok thanks

Next question from me:

How does a crack/trainer program alter RAM before the game has loaded?
or is something running the whole time to keep the right bytes set as desired,
or is the game altered to listen to the trainer program?

[B14ck W01f]

I know that the original Amiga chip sets were named after women's name (Agnus, Alice, Denise, Gary, Lisa, Paula)

Wait... Gary's a woman?

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by xArtx

How does a crack/trainer program alter RAM before the game has loaded?
or is something running the whole time to keep the right bytes set as desired,
or is the game altered to listen to the trainer program?

The code is patched to skip/disable the protection checks, for trainers parts of the code are changed to allow unlimited lives/energy etc.

Most of the time there is no need for any patch code to stay in RAM (i.e. not like TSR's on the PC) but there are exceptions, for example when a trainer offers in-game keys the code to check the keys needs to stay in memory for obvious reasons.

There's not much difference between cracking and training, you have to find the code which has to be changed to perform certain actions. E.g. if there's a "JSR PROTECTION" somewhere you have to find and disable/adapt the code. Same for trainers, you have to find where lives are decreased and then disable that part of the code.

[xArtx]

Ok, so I imagine you’d be looking at changing a hex dump of the disk more than what gets loaded into RAM right?
Then you’d have to recalculate all the checksumming you broke on the floppy by changing anything.

I wrote some code for UAE, and posted it here a while back that does exactly what I want
for any game I tried, by dumping all RAM in game, and then again straight after you die (for example).
Then it can iterate all of the differences in a fresh game.
The thing is that needs to run under UAE and useless on the real Amiga..
other than identifying some RAM locations of course. and it will have code to calculate floppy checksums.

[roy bates]

Originally Posted by B14ck W01f

I know that the original Amiga chip sets were named after women's name (Agnus, Alice, Denise, Gary, Lisa, Paula)

Wait... Gary's a woman?

gary's a gate array