Creatures (disk 2) Always a Black screen

[Lewis]

Hi everyone,
I've been trying the Creatures game and the disc 2, the cracked version always goes black when loading, I've tried many versions of the ones in the package and even downloaded others and always the same.
Could it be that the extraction was bad and that's why it went bad?
I tried it in various configurations AGA, ECS, OCS

[TCD]

When I use only one drive in WinUAE I get the black screen when loading stage 3-1. If I use two drives it works.

[kremiso]

what a curious discover
strange nobody mentioned this back then

[Don_Adan]

Can be bad cracked or game bug.
Check IPF version with one drive only.

[TCD]

Works with the IPF and a single floppy drive.

[Don_Adan]

Then bad crack.
Maybe exist 100% cracked version.

[TCD]

In TOSEC is only the Crystal cracked version.

[Lewis]

Thank you all for your responses.

[Lewis]

Well... I've been trying and apparently everything indicates that it's the emulation of the WinUAE floppy drive, if you change the disk before it asks you, for example in the shop the game loads correctly and the game continues. What I understand is that something happens when it verifies the disk and then accesses the load, that's where it fails. I don't know about programming but that's what happens, the strange thing is that it doesn't happen in other games.

[gimbal]

Could be worth reporting in the support.winuae subforum; who knows, you might have discovered another case of software hitting the hardware in an unusual way that WinUAE does not cater for yet.

[ransom1122]

I tried Creatures (1993-02-08)(Thalamus)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr CSL][t +21 UP].adf in WinUAE (Quickstart A500) 1 & 2 drives enabled game loads and plays fine

Which ADF is giving you problems?

[Lewis]

Originally Posted by ransom1122

I tried Creatures (1993-02-08)(Thalamus)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr CSL][t +21 UP].adf in WinUAE (Quickstart A500) 1 & 2 drives enabled game loads and plays fine

Which ADF is giving you problems?

Hi, It's not the disk "Creatures (1993-02-08)(Thalamus)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr CSL][t +21 UP]", that works like a charm!
It's the disk "Creatures (1993-02-08)(Thalamus)(Disk 2 of 2)[cr CSL]" at level 3.1 after torture 2, you can check it with the trainer by choosing 3.1, you go straight to the problem.
On another note, I inform you that the version of the disk "Creatures (1993-02-08)(Thalamus)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr CSL][t +21 UP][a]" is wrong and does not load a level, the Amiga 500 is reset leaving it in the blue hand 1.3, it is not important at all since the version that is not alternative (that does not contain the[a]) works correctly but I report it in case someone puts together a package with this Disk 1[a].adf and deletes the rest.

[ransom1122]

Creatures (1993-02-08)(Thalamus)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr CSL][t +21 UP].adf
Creatures (1993-02-08)(Thalamus)(Disk 2 of 2)[cr CSL].adf

Indeed with 1 disk drive you get a black screen when inserting disk 2 in df0

But if you have disk 2 in drive df1 or insert it in df1 when prompted it works

[TCD]

Sometimes it feels like nobody reads my posts

[ransom1122]

Originally Posted by TCD

Sometimes it feels like nobody reads my posts

Sorry man

I will try these 2 disks on my real 500 later today

[giantclam]

Originally Posted by TCD

Sometimes it feels like nobody reads my posts :nervous

Know then, that I read all your posts... even when topic material doesn't matter to me ;)

..as for the feeling, yes..bit of dejavu there ~ same thought hit me in another (automotive) forum I've been a member of for 2decades ; turns out, I was probably right, but not for any reason I imagined ; ppl accessing the site from mobilephones, rather than desktop browser, has a lot to do with it =)

Wrt topic, it's true (the issue)...but easy enough to work around in amiberry by assigning the 'insert next disk in df0:' action to a controller button....but I'm unlikely to get too excited, unless someone wants to bottle-up a whdload game pak... =^)

[TCD]

Originally Posted by giantclam

Wrt topic, it's true (the issue)...but easy enough to work around in amiberry by assigning the 'insert next disk in df0:' action to a controller button....but I'm unlikely to get too excited, unless someone wants to bottle-up a whdload game pak... =^)

Hmm, I don't want to spent more time testing this, but it might be worth looking into if the disk swapper feature of WinUAE can be used in a similar way to work around the issue.

[giantclam]

Originally Posted by TCD

Hmm, I don't want to spent more time testing this, but it might be worth looking into if the disk swapper feature of WinUAE can be used in a similar way to work around the issue.

As we know, there are numerous disk based games out there, that only entertain a basic Amiga A500 setup, with only one floppy drive (DF0:) ~ to cater for that scenario, we introduced the 'load next/previous disk (in disk swapper list) into DF0:' as a single action ...it sort of spawn off the fact, that at a minimum most amiberry users will have a game-controller, and even if that were a simple SFC gamepad, you're going to have a button or two 'left over', that you can assign a custom event to. I'm not really sure if this exists in WinUAE ...it's the concatenation of "select next slot in disk mapper" + "load currently selected slot into DF0:" ..uh-huh? As processing of the disk swapper list rolls-over, in practice you only need the 'next' option. The whole story is here =)

[TCD]

Originally Posted by giantclam

I'm not really sure if this exists in WinUAE

It has been a part of WinUAE for a very long time. The Green Amiga Alien guide mentions the feature in 2007.

[ransom1122]

Tried it on my a500 single gotek drive and fails to swap to disk 2.

Tried booting with Creatures (1993-02-08)(Thalamus)(Disk 1 of 2)[cr CSL].adf in case the trainer corrupts it and it still fails to boot when disk 2 is required...

It seems the only way Creatures (1993-02-08)(Thalamus)(Disk 2 of 2)[cr CSL].adf works is only when it's in df1

... Disk Swapper in WinUAE "End + 2" swaps disk 2 into df0, still fails to work