JST Kickstart 1.3

[dr.zeissler]

Hi and thx for your support! I really appreciate this!

If I start a working JST game from the CLI "JST14 xenon2.hd /EXECUTE" and quit it by pressing F10 I hear the clicking of the floppy again, but the screen gets black and stay black. If I use the "up-key" to get the text in the console again and press "enter" the game starts again, quitting leads back to a black screen. My machine has 8MB Ram but only 6MB is usable, because the installed bridgeboard. Does this give You an Indication what the problem is?

EDIT1:
Every working JST port behaves the same. I use 1.3.2 and a GVP Controller. The machine has 8MB, 6 MB are usable. I copied the jst-executive in the "c" folder and also tested it in the game folder. It make no difference. I always get a black screen.

What do You informations do you need ?
Should I do a video of it?

EDIT2:
I'll test my A500 with ACA500 and Kick13 Config with it. Perhaps it works...but I think it 'll be the same black screen. I'll report later...

Doc

[dr.zeissler]

I have tested:

1. A500 with ACA500 and a booting 1.3.2 Installation does exactly the same.
(When quitting I get a black screen and hear the clicking of the floppy drive again)

2. Testing different JST Versions (like 13a and 14) does not make any difference. It must be something with the ported Games perhaps.

I don't think that quitting a JST Port under 1.3.2 will always go to a black screen
because I never heard about that. Perhaps I use the wrong 1.3.2 software?

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Thx
Doc

[dr.zeissler]

Can someone please verify that JST will crash when quitting the game under KS/WB 1.3 ?
I think I am doing something wrong. People on a1k.org said, that JST has problems when quitting a game.

[Retro1234]

Obviously JOTD is the author but now supports WHDload and writes .slaves and JST is no longer supported but you can try tooltypes/parameters HDLOAD or LOWMEM
JST14 xenon2.hd HDLOAD
as I understand JST will trash wb allowing games to run on low specs but from my own tests kick 1.3 seems to need more ram than kick2.x, its lucky they even run at all on kick1.3.
If that doesn't work ill try and test but I wouldnt hold your breath.

Under Kick2.x type "JST ?" for full list of parameters - I tested xenon2 under kick1.3 and couldnt quit back to wb.

[dr.zeissler]

Using /HDLOAD or /LOWMEM flag does not solve the problem must be something different.

[dr.zeissler]

As you said before:

The difference between LOWMEM and HDLOAD AFAIR is that HDLOAD does load small files, whereas LOWMEM does not load any files.

The thing that JST does and what WHDLoad does not is the ability to accept to never return to the OS. In that case, you can run games like 1MB game Magic Pockets on a CD32 where WHDLoad insists to be able to save all memory to return back to WB.

JST sacrifices the quit option in that case and really destroys the WB, but the game runs (or just crashes badly)

So it's quite clear, no way back to the os, so I don't have to check various options. I'll post everything that runs under my config (signature) perhaps someone will use JST under 1.3 too

Thx for this excellent software !

Greetings
Doc

[dr.zeissler]

Please link working pre v13-whd-slaves for JST14 here
found none yet

[jotd]

Robocop whdload slave qualifies, just tested it. On a plain 68000, it does not quit back to OS. If someone requests it I could add the quitkey.

and BTW you're right, quitting just kills the display. Well I think something could be done to restore it, like re-applying the wb screenmode, something like that.

What you'd need is a python/perl script to scan through the whdload installers and find the ones bearing version around 5, 6 maybe, and hope that it works (some functions were not/partially supported)

AFAIR, I'm sure Shadow of the Beast worked too (it's one of the first ones that worked), but I updated it with a higher whdload version so now it does not work anymore I think. That would be easy to "downgrade" the slave, though, since I have the source of the slave and generally I release the source of the MrLarmer/Harry slaves when I fix bugs on them (I don't have source for JST 1.4 anymore, maybe on an old backup but I doubt it, will check).

[Retro1234]

If you name a game ill have a look. I know I tried Great Giana and B.C kid and they worked.
Plus theres some here http://whdload.de/whdload/old-games/

Looking at http://whdload.de/ There are a lot a of slaves that say Requires: WHDLoad 10

[dr.zeissler]

I already looked into some of the linked "old-games" mostly they are created after 2000,
but I think I need WHDLoad slaves that are created in the 90th. JST14 freezes or tells
me that "these WHDslaves are not supported yet".

Some games I would really like to play under 1.3 are:

- BodyBlows
- BattleSquadron
- AlienBreed
- TestDrive 1+2
- Speedball1
- North&South
- F16-Falcon
- F19-Interceptor
- F15-II
- DesertStrike/JungleStrike

I think I'll remember much more "must-haves"

Doc

[Retro1234]

The only one I think ive got is Alien Breed92 JST and Testdrive games might work from Rad disk.Ill have to have a look. and some of the flight sims might have there own HD installs

[jotd]

about the problem of gfx destroyed when quitting: I got it too and could not fix it with a 3rd party tool for now.
I haven't tried to apply the current screenmode for example. Could do the trick since I think that's the system copperlist pointer that is lost.
Or a degrader program that you would run on a small command so it quits at once...

The biggest problem when using a 68000 with old whdload games is the lack of hardcoded quitkey. Newer slaves fix that, but back in the days whdload relied on the VBR so 68010+ required to quit.

[dr.zeissler]

Thx! The quit-key is nice to have but not a "must-have", it is by fare more important that the games WORK under 1.3.
The Rebooting of the 1.3er Workbench is done very quick, so no problem if the is "no quit-key" back to the workbench.

[jotd]

Well sad news for now: jst14 does not seem to support resload_Patch and most of recent slaves are full of it.
So even the beast slave won't work (well could, with some tweaking).

I'll try to find the source OR find the 2.0 or higher functions in the latest JST versions (of which I have the source) and convert them to 1.3.
I think there's more future in that. AFAIR latest versions JST could emulate WHDLoad slaves up to v13.
They were very buggy in terms of MMU management (despite all Ralf Huvendiek efforts thx mate!) and other stuff but who cares for a 68000 setting!

I'll try to resurrect the JST project, this time will be targeted to kick1.3/no MMU machines. The others just have WHDLoad which is much better!

Holidays approaching: good time to do some geeky stuff!

[dr.zeissler]

This is gonna be VERY COOL! thx!

[Cylon]

Originally Posted by jotd

I'll try to resurrect the JST project, this time will be targeted to kick1.3/no MMU machines. The others just have WHDLoad which is much better!

Holidays approaching: good time to do some geeky stuff!

+1 for this.
You've always been (and still are) the scnd half of the founders of retro-game-resurrection on Amiga.
Keep up the good work, maintain your legacy for the best of all Amiga community.

[Retro1234]

+1

[jotd]

@+oners: thanks I feel honored!

New JST version in the zone!!

New v5.0 (beta) Features:

- works with 68000/kick1.3 (tested with WinUAE)
- no more black screen on quit even on kickstart 1.3
- For Kickstart 1.3, command line options are:
SLAVE,USERDATA/K,LOADDIR/K,EXECUTE/S,NOQUIT/S,NTSC/S,PAL/S,QUITKEY/K,TRAINER/S,PRELOAD/S,QUIET/S,NOCACHE/S,NOFAST/S,
JOYPAD/S,HDLOAD/S,LOWMEM/S,DELAY/S,BUTTONWAIT/S,LEAVECACHES/S,NOTRAPHANDLER/S,TEST/S,VERBOSE/S,
NOVBRMOVE/S,FORCEWHD/S
- fixed a long-time bug in whdload emulation, that allows 68000/ECS CPUs to run slaves
- also works with high-end CPUs, just like the previous v4 versions, with their problems (MMU stuff is not so great,
directory scan tends to lock up sometimes, and all the reasons that made me give up JST in the first place...)

Example of use:

jst robocop.slave LOADDIR=data
jst battlesquadron.slave FORCEWHD

Limitations (I won't do anything to fix them):

- most WHDLoad kickstart-emulated games / kickfs won't work
- XPK pack is not supported: please decrunch all XPK data files/diskfiles before using
- In kick1.3, LOADDIR will also set SAVEDIR (JST-only feature) to avoid confusion. It was not such a good idea to separate LOAD & SAVE directories...
=> in case of problems, just put all data files in the .slave directory, and avoid LOADDIR

Limitations (I'll try to fix them):

- some WHDLoad slaves crash/lockup: report them, I'll try to do something

[jotd]

@dr Zeissler:

I tested a few games and tried to fulfill your requests at the same time.

- BodyBlows: OK
- BattleSquadron: OK (with FORCEWHD option)
- AlienBreed: OK
- TestDrive 1: unsupported (kickemu)
- TestDrive 2: unsupported (kickemu)
- Speedball1: OK
- North&South: unsupported (kickemu)
- F16-Falcon: OK
- F19-Interceptor: unsupported (kickemu)
- F15-II: not working (yet)
- DesertStrike: not working (yet)
- JungleStrike: not working (yet)

I tested other (good) games:

- Shadow Of The Beast: OK
- Final Fight: OK
- James Pond: OK
- Body Blows Galactic: OK
- Magic Pockets: OK
- Cadaver & levels: OK
- Chaos Engine: OK
- Z-Out: OK
- Full Contact: OK
- Gods: not working (f**k!!!)
- Assassin: OK (FORCEWHD)
- Shinobi: OK
- Zool: OK
...
well I guess most of games will work

If someone wants to create an exhaustive list of working/non-working be my guest.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by jotd

New JST version in the zone!!
New v5.0 (beta) Features:
- works with 68000/kick1.3 (tested with WinUAE)

Great, I'll make some time to test it out on my A1000!
Been loading a few games onto it's CF hard disk where they support it (RPGs mostly so far).
Will be great try this out..

Thanx!

desiv
(I have and love WHDLoad (registered) on my A1200, but my A1000 was feeling neglected.. ;-)