Future suggestions for WHDizing

[MethodGit]

How about the WHDLoad team start work on coverdisk demos? After all, they've already done installs for a few coverdisk demos (ATR Xmas, Putty Squad Demo, Fire & Ice Xmas etc.), so why not do some more of them? I can make a list of which demos need to be HD-installable if you like. And I will consider uploading a few coverdisks to start off with if you like. What do you think?

Also, speaking of WHDLoad in general, maybe they could have a look at these games as well:

Dennis (ECS & AGA)
Virocop (ECS & AGA)
FIFA International Soccer (doesn't want to work on HD thru emulators, even with the required assigns)
Project X Extra Level (I remember obtaining this from somewhere and it basically had one level that you went to instantly, no titles, no intros, no options, nothing - you went straight in there. I think it's a level that's not in the original game (Original or SE) and it might do with some help)
Wibble World Giddy (or "Giddy" as it's sometimes known)
Giddy 2
Gravity Force
Sonic Boom
California Games
California Games 2
Battle For The Ashes
Fireforce CD³² (has problems starting up on HD)
Sensible Soccer (Floppy & CD³²)
Tennis Champs
Super Tennis Champs (+ Data Disks)
Carnage
Wrath Of The Demon CDTV (has problems starting up on HD)
Pinball Prelude (ECS & AGA)
Game Boy Tetris
Dizzy's Excellent Adventures
Fantastic Dizzy
Bandit Mania
Winning Post
Technology 2
Mental Image Game Disks 1 & 2

There's definitely more, but I want to start out with a small list for now, so it's easier.

[Codetapper]

If there were hundreds of hours in a day and there was any point to installing all those demos you want done, I am sure they would be done.

However, most of those demos have full games already patched and it's just more work to support a single level demo in most cases. So why bother? Unless it's a special track (ATR Xmas) or an unreleased game (Putty Squad) then it's pointless imho...

Again you haven't bothered to search properly:

- Giddy 1 and 2 are already WHDLoad installed by Kyzer.
- Sonic Boom installed years ago by Bored Seal.
- All Dizzy games are already HD afaik.

Galahad is doing all the Sensi games afaik, but he's a busy boy

I am slowly working on the Bandit Mania games, I have registered versions of them (ie. they don't crap out after 5 mins play or whatever). But they are low priority atm.

California Games I have got "semi" working but it crashes all over the place in some events and corrupt graphics. Nowhere near releasable. I don't know if I will ever bother to finish it as it has wasted hours of time with no reward. I assume Cal 2 will be the same.

Super Tennis Champs is too O/S friendly so that's another difficult one. Same as Bubble and Squeak.

Marz: Tell me again why you don't learn assembler yourself and patch some demos? Demos are easier than games usually as the loaders are very basic. You could at least help out the WHDLoad guys by making icons, making up documentation from LSD docs disks (ie. reformatting so it's readable) rather than just demanding others do all the work and send you games all the time. I am sure there are plenty of things the WHDLoad guys want done which are boring tasks to them (after all why should the coders time be wasted on boring tasks when any schmuck with time on their hands could do it?).

[Twistin'Ghost]

Originally posted by MarzAttakz
There's definitely more, but I want to start out with a small list for now, so it's easier.

?!?!? So what's easier? That's anything but a small list, especially when you consider the amount of work that goes into making a WHD game. It's not as simple as copying files to an adf file and not something that can just be kncoked up in a short time.

Furthermore, why would they need you to upload the coverdisks when they can just get them from the same place as you - the two coverdisk sites. Unless you have coverdisks not on those sites?

Also, I believe the idea of these WHD-installed games was to work on real Amigas and if they happen to work in emulation, great. I don't recall seeing any of them for the purpose of working in WinUAE (ex. your FIFA International Soccer reference)

Also, I think that Project X Extra Level was from a coverdisk.

[MethodGit]

Originally posted by Codetapper
However, most of those demos have full games already patched and it's just more work to support a single level demo in most cases. So why bother? Unless it's a special track (ATR Xmas) or an unreleased game (Putty Squad) then it's pointless imho...

I know that there are some coverdisks which claim to have exclusive levels (like The One's Alien Breed 2 demo). If you like I can filter these ones out of the others and point them out in a list later on if you want.

Originally posted by Codetapper
- Giddy 1 and 2 are already WHDLoad installed by Kyzer.

Umm, could you direct me to the site which has these patches then, since they are not on the WHDLoad page and they're not on any of the WHD members' spinoff sites (Action, Whirlpool, etc.)?

Originally posted by Codetapper
- Sonic Boom installed years ago by Bored Seal.

Okay, I HIGHLY apologise for failing to notice this before, in fact I noticed the patch shortly after I posted that first message! Yes, I can admit I did bad in THIS part of the topic. How dumbass of me...

Originally posted by Codetapper
- All Dizzy games are already HD afaik.

No, you see, Dizzy's Excellent Adventures was the other Dizzy compilation alongside, um, the "Dizzy Collection". Whereas the Dizzy Collection has both JST and WHD patches, Excellent Advs only has a JST patch, and I was wondering whether you lot thought it was worth WHDizing. Most other Dizzy WHD installs are for single games, btw. (Although I'd love to be able to obtain seperate versions of Dizzy Panic, Prince Of The Yolkfolk, Seymour Goes To Hollywood (okay this ain't a Dizzy game, but he was largely compared to Dizzy back then, and I bet some people even mistook him for the popular eggy hero back then ), and others from someone since I can't find those versions anywhere on the net!).

Originally posted by Codetapper
I am slowly working on the Bandit Mania games, I have registered versions of them (ie. they don't crap out after 5 mins play or whatever). But they are low priority atm.

Just thought I'd say that the full version was released for free on BTTR and other sites anyhow. Unless you mean that your properly registered version from its non-freeware days is different in any way to the ex-commercial version on those Amiga sites, is it?

Originally posted by Codetapper
California Games I have got "semi" working but it crashes all over the place in some events and corrupt graphics. Nowhere near releasable. I don't know if I will ever bother to finish it as it has wasted hours of time with no reward. I assume Cal 2 will be the same.

Well, have you tried using the KickROM emulation idea? Jeff and Bored Seal use it regularly, and it appears to make compatibility of several old games a lot more tolerable. And I think you should try your hand at Cal 2 first and see what you get out of that, besides considering that Cal 1 was released somewhere in the late 80's and Cal 2 was released in 1991/92, I reckon you'll end up with better results. Don't most 80's Amiga games have several compatibility problems anyway?

Originally posted by Codetapper
Super Tennis Champs is too O/S friendly so that's another difficult one. Same as Bubble and Squeak.

I have been trying to work out what people mean by a game being too "O/S friendly". Perhaps you'd care to explain the term to me, 'Tapper?

Originally posted by Codetapper
Marz: Tell me again why you don't learn assembler yourself and patch some demos? Demos are easier than games usually as the loaders are very basic. You could at least help out the WHDLoad guys by making icons, making up documentation from LSD docs disks (ie. reformatting so it's readable) rather than just demanding others do all the work and send you games all the time. I am sure there are plenty of things the WHDLoad guys want done which are boring tasks to them (after all why should the coders time be wasted on boring tasks when any schmuck with time on their hands could do it?).

Are you kidding??!! Considering that I haven't even learnt BASIC language to the extreme, there's a big chance that I'm going to be utterly HOPELESS at trying to understand assembler now, am I right? Even my sister, who's a 19-year old university student and a bigger computer literate than I am, was totally baffled and stuffed by said programming language. I bet you could handle it though since you must have taken other programming courses before that, and besides, doesn't it take nearly a whole DECADE to finally learn the ins and outs, every nook and cranny of assembler???

[Amiga1992]

do you actually DO something by yourself?

Just wondering, you know. Searching for stuff cannot be that hard

[MethodGit]

Originally posted by Twistin' Ghost
Furthermore, why would they need you to upload the coverdisks when they can just get them from the same place as you - the two coverdisk sites. Unless you have coverdisks not on those sites?

Also, I think that Project X Extra Level was from a coverdisk.

I only uploaded the coverdisks just in case they really couldn't be arsed to trudge through the many pages in order to find certain coverdisks in particular - I was only trying to make their task easier.

You would be correct on me having coverdisks not on Nth Dimension or Amiga Coverdisks, in fact I hope to dump these ones not very long now. Definitely sometime between August and end September, anyway.

Project X: Are you sure you're not getting confused with CU Amiga's "Project X Bonus Stage" demo? That demo did have a presentation before the main game, and besides, the "Extra Level" game I'm talking about is a normal shoot-aliens level, not a speedy bonus stage. I think I'll make screenshots of both demos in order to show the difference between them.

[Codetapper]

Originally posted by MarzAttakz


Umm, could you direct me to the site which has these patches then, since they are not on the WHDLoad page and they're not on any of the WHD members' spinoff sites (Action, Whirlpool, etc.)?

If you can't find them yourself then no. Hint: KYZER

Okay, I HIGHLY apologise for failing to notice this before, in fact I noticed the patch shortly after I posted that first message! Yes, I can admit I did bad in THIS part of the topic. How dumbass of me...

I finally agree with you on something...

Well, have you tried using the KickROM emulation idea? Jeff and Bored Seal use it regularly, and it appears to make compatibility of several old games a lot more tolerable. And I think you should try your hand at Cal 2 first and see what you get out of that, besides considering that Cal 1 was released somewhere in the late 80's and Cal 2 was released in 1991/92, I reckon you'll end up with better results. Don't most 80's Amiga games have several compatibility problems anyway?

What kind of a fuckwit do you take me for? I've done over 100 patches and you think I might not have tried the bleeding obvious? Of course I tried KickEmu and KickDos. That's all you can use on O/S friendly games like that!

I have been trying to work out what people mean by a game being too "O/S friendly". Perhaps you'd care to explain the term to me, 'Tapper?

They use the Amiga operating system calls legally rather than killing the operating system and doing everything dirty. These are a right pain-in-the-arse to patch.

Are you kidding??!! Considering that I haven't even learnt BASIC language to the extreme, there's a big chance that I'm going to be utterly HOPELESS at trying to understand assembler now, am I right? Even my sister, who's a 19-year old university student and a bigger computer literate than I am, was totally baffled and stuffed by said programming language. I bet you could handle it though since you must have taken other programming courses before that, and besides, doesn't it take nearly a whole DECADE to finally learn the ins and outs, every nook and cranny of assembler???

If you can't code then you could at least contribute (and I don't count requesting a tonne of games helping the cause). I did my first patches within a few months of learning, and I have never done a course on Amiga assembler. Get some books out. It doesn't take years to learn, just years to get good and fast. You don't have to understand the whole Amiga to start writing patches. Doing a few coverdisk games would be an easy start I would imagine, particularly any which were on Amiga Power compiled by Kenny Grant as he effectively cracked them back to standard loaders.

[Ian]

Califonia Games and corrupt GFX, do you mean through WinUAE or on a real Amiga??

If it's through WinUAE the problem has now been fixed on the 0.8.16 release's, it was an emulation problem.

If you were talking about a real Amiga then god only knows whats wrong

[Codetapper]

IanCharge: Yeah, under an emulator it's probably fine.

But the WHDLoad slave for California Games itself has major problems - 2 events (surfing and BMX, the best 2) just crash, skating and footbag have major graphical bugs (ie. your player is invisible half the time) etc... And I only release fixes which I consider 100% so this one is either a long way off or will be scrapped.

[Ian]

Could it be that California Games is un-fixable??

Put it on the back burner my friend, besides I'm sure you've got far better things to fix than that

[MethodGit]

What a shame. Just thought I'd tell you, I also had trouble running this game through an emulator (cracked version, mind). Could it be anything to do with what the crackers did?

And hey, Codey (don't confuse with Cody), why don't you try fixing California Games 2 if you're having major problems with the first one? As I've said, whereas Cal 1 was an 80's game, Cal 2 was a 90's game, so you might receive different results if you're lucky.

[Amiga1992]

Why don't YOU try to crack it?

[Twistin'Ghost]

I find it hard to believe that Codemaster hasn't considered fixing California Games 2. If he has the game, I feel certain he investigates how complex it might be to WHD-fix the thing.

It's just hard for me to envision Codetapper by his system with an original copy of CG2 by his side, he reads this thread and goes "Hey, why didn't I think of fixing that game! Thanks for the idea!!!"

[MethodGit]

Just thought I'd post pics of the CU Amiga Project X Bonus Level Demo and the Extra Level thing I'm talking about so that Twist can understand which version I'm talking about here.

First off, here's the Extra Level version.


Removed screenshot

[MethodGit]

is the CU Amiga Bonus Level. Sorry for the incredibly large picture, but the title screen was displayed in hi-resolution and shortening the dimensions would have fucked up that snapshot in particular (IMO)...

Hope I have helped some of you lot in this thread.


Removed screenshot

[MethodGit]

Originally posted by Twistin' Ghost
I find it hard to believe that Codemaster hasn't considered fixing California Games 2. If he has the game, I feel certain he investigates how complex it might be to WHD-fix the thing.

Codemaster?

Either that was just a typo, or was yas referring to somebody else?

[MethodGit]

Originally posted by Codetapper
If you can't find them yourself then no. Hint: KYZER

And how exactly do you expect me to contact this Kyzer guy?! I need more details than that! Does he have a web page? Is he still working on WHD installs? Help me a little bit.

[TikTok]

Marz, I haven't seen the CU bonus version before...is there any chance you could upload it please? I actually remember those bonus levels but can't remember how you accessed them in the game at the moment. Never was any good at Project-X anyway Incidently the level looks a lot like the PD game Hyperdrive.

[MethodGit]

I'll upload it here for you anyway, since I'm nice

Check out the ADF Zone for your pleasure...

[Twistin'Ghost]

I still think that the other bonus level is from a coverdisk. Unfortunately, my coverdisk collection is in California and I cannot compare, but special demos like that are a common thing on coverdisks and just because one magazine had a special level doesn't mean that another couldn't cop a different demo special. Have seen this occur several times. Otherwise, where would the bloody thing have come from? Certainly not a commercial release of a bonus level...