Darkmere problem

[jotd]

found a first nasty crash (with Saimo saves) and fixed it, but when exiting I'm fighting a troll that pops up at this point. Several access faults occur. Ignoring or fixing them work, until the troll is killed. Then the game freezes...

There is a bug with the monsters at the second level. I think it is there regardless of the version.
Sometimes respawned monsters just don't work and mess things up.

I confirm that the game is pretty buggy probably from IPF/floppy on 68k as well (whdload is not the issue)

I don't know f I can fix that. I'll try.

[kremiso]

Originally Posted by jotd

I confirm that the game is pretty buggy probably from IPF/floppy on 68k as well

I can confirm this, i remember at time having a lot of savedisks around.
Btw, i reached the same to entirely play it, my personal stuck point was in the last level (caverns), an unavoidable crash before the last fight

iirc saving in some particular screens helped in some cases...
played at time on an Amiga500 1MB ks1.2 1 floppy

wondering if the lately Flashtro version fixed something

[CFou!]

Originally Posted by jotd

found a first nasty crash (with Saimo saves) and fixed it, but when exiting I'm fighting a troll that pops up at this point. Several access faults occur. Ignoring or fixing them work, until the troll is killed. Then the game freezes...



I confirm that the game is pretty buggy probably from IPF/floppy on 68k as well (whdload is not the issue)

I don't know f I can fix that. I'll try.

If I remember correctly I had an unofficial JST or WHDLoad patch that I was able to finish the game with (save redirected on hd).

I will research but there is a good chance that the sources are not clean (one of my first patch, Jeff, you will be scared if he reads them!)

i'll look that ths evening

[CFou!]

Jeff, I doubt it helps, but as promised ...

I don't know if the patch was for a cracked version with files anymore.

SAve games were done on a virtual disk (an example in the archive)

From memory, I was able to finish the game without boredom.

ps: si besoin, je peux retrouver la version pré-installée

ps2:
I had added little trainer (unlimited magic/mana),
it would be nice to add it via CUSTOM tooltype if you update this old patch

[jotd]

aaaargh my eyes! this source is horrible

Did you remember fixing something fishy besides the protection? I'll add trainer all right. But first bug must be fixed.

[CFou!]

Originally Posted by jotd

aaaargh my eyes! this source is horrible

Did you remember fixing something fishy besides the protection? I'll add trainer all right. But first bug must be fixed.

Unfortunately I don't remember any more; it dates from 1999 all the same !!
On the other hand I remember that the game crashed is because of a corrupted or missing file far enough in the game (pb of cracked version?).
By finding or replacing the file, I was able to finish the game without any problem.
Obviously I don't remember the file
At the time, I played on an A1200 + blizzard 030.
On the other hand, looking quickly at the source, I tell you that the memory allocation manager had been patched.
Maybe it's with the memory allocation table for the game that the problem lies?
Unfortunately, I don't have much time to investigate.
But I'll try to redo some not too time-consuming slave updates in a while.

[jotd]

thanks Cfou, yes, the whdload slave also allocates memory in some other way.

But adapting your code doesn't change a lot: game still locks up, in a different way, with a different memory layout.

[jotd]

I changed fake memory allocation (there was not enough memory allocated by previous slave), fixes one crash, not sure it fixes everything. With savegames the game locks up when a troll appears.

Is it a problem to play from the start again (in case savegames were corrupted by the memory issue?) and test that level 2 issues again

Darkmere.zip?

[saimo]

Originally Posted by jotd

I changed fake memory allocation (there was not enough memory allocated by previous slave), fixes one crash, not sure it fixes everything. With savegames the game locks up when a troll appears.

Is it a problem to play from the start again (in case savegames were corrupted by the memory issue?) and test that level 2 issues again

Attachment 70876?

First off, thanks for the hard work!
I have to be honest: the idea of playing everything again is discouraging (last time it took me 20 years to finally overcome my reluctance ). I'll see if I can recover some earlier savegame in level 2 and where that brings me.
I gave the new slave a spin (in UAE), and I confirm that the game has issues when the troll (or ogre, as the game calls it) appears: the first thing that happens is clearly a Blitter artifact, i.e. instead of getting the ogre graphics, a 2-word column of junk gets drawn (the only thing that seems correct is the width). Then, the junk disappears and reappears in a different form - I'll post a video later with some more considerations. it's worth noting that the ogres encountered before worked fine.
Other notes:
* orcs are not a problem (I managed to fight with one without issues);
* when I had fought the orc that had wounded the unicorn (so, before I posted in this thread) for the first and only time I had noticed that the orc was rendered erroneously, as if its mask were drawn too on a single plane, with an offset of one word (the end result looked as if the ogre has a greenish shadow) - I just remembered this;
* audio is corrupt in places (but that happened also with the old slave).

[saimo]

Here's the video:

[ Show youtube player ]

Things worth noting:
* the first time the ogre is drawn, the blit height is taller than the next times;
* the first blit probably goes off the screen, overwriting other stuff;
* the height of the other blits seems to be correct;
* the start position of the next blits seems to be off (beyond the backgrond graphics and not matching with what the last point in this list);
* the blitting is synchronized with the ogre snoring, which seems to indicate that the problem is related to the data structures describing the graphical frames;
* the crash happens when moving closer to the ogre - in fact, ogres wake up when certain points are reached.

[DamienD]

Considering you guys are saying that the .IPFs, all .ADFs, and WHDLoad versions of this game are borked...

What I want to know is; how did HOL take the all the completed game screenshots?

[jotd]

I'm going to transfer your savegame to floppy and try the .IPF version which has different memory layout (game uses OS to allocate memory, this is probably the big difference)

@DamienD not implying that. I'm beginning to wonder if the game works properly on 2MB chip, fastmem, or just 512k/512k. Testing the .IPF with Saimo saves and different memory configurations will tell.

[saimo]

Originally Posted by jotd

I'm going to transfer your savegame to floppy and try the .IPF version which has different memory layout (game uses OS to allocate memory, this is probably the big difference)

@DamienD not implying that. I'm beginning to wonder if the game works properly on 2MB chip, fastmem, or just 512k/512k. Testing the .IPF with Saimo saves and different memory configurations will tell.

Just for the record, I have tried the IPFs, too. Also, I've tried configurations with and without FAST, A500, A600, A1200, all kinds of the CPU settings in UAE and, of course, real A1200 (no IPFs in this case, though): always the same results.

Edit: here's what happens with IPFs:



Thinking/loading goes on forever.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by saimo

Edit: here's what happens with IPFs:



Thinking/loading goes on forever.

I'm sure I've experienced this; and it happens if you set anything but "Floppy Drive Emulation Speed" to "100%".

Also, this game is one level per disk i.e:

... Level 1 = Disk 2
... Level 2 = Disk 3
... Level 3 = Disk 4

If the issue is on say Level 2, then maybe some files / code there is funky under certain conditions / circumstances?

[saimo]

@DamienD

Originally Posted by DamienD

I'm sure I've experienced this; and it happens if you set anything but "Floppy Drive Emulation Speed" to "100%".

Also, this game is one level per disk i.e:

... Level 1 = Disk 2
... Level 2 = Disk 3
... Level 3 = Disk 4

If the issue is on say Level 2, then maybe some files / code there is funky under certain conditions / circumstances?

Yes, it indeed depends on the circumstances. For example, now I have tried an older savegave which restarted after talking with Ascomecetes, I met an ogre, and everything worked fine; the next ogre I met, instead, crashed things.
I think I had tried to 100% speed setting, but not I'm not that sure anymore (way too many tests). I'll give it a(nother) try. Thanks for the hint.

Edit: just tried with a stock A1200 configuration, with 100% compatible settings everywhere: same results. For a truly reliable test, I should try that on the real A1200, but it really looks unlikely to succeed. And - ehm - these days I've started working on a new little game (for all Amigas, and with AGA enhancements) so my plans for this afternoon were somewhat different


@jotd

I have tried various older savegames with the new slave. One of them restarted before talking with the unicorn. I talked with it and fought and killed the bad orc, and this time the 1-plane shadow wasn't there. It could well be an improvement brought by your new slave.
Then, I returned to the unicorn, took its horn, brought it to Malthar, went to Ascomecetes, returned north to free her sisters and... usual Blitter-junk crash at the other ogre I had reported (the one met when going eastward).

[jotd]

it's a memory issue, maybe blitter issue too, and there are sound issues. If I can make it work from floppy I'll replicate the mem layout. Also will fix blitter bugs & access faults & sound bugs.

100% floppy disk emulation is only useful when encountering the protected track. DOS tracks are read perfectly by Rob Norhten floppy loader.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by jotd

100% floppy disk emulation is only useful when encountering the protected track. DOS tracks are read perfectly by Rob Norhten floppy loader.

I'm just going off my experience with .IPFs.

Some load no matter what "Floppy Drive Emulation Speed"; others only work with "100%" set.

This game is one of them; otherwise as saimo says; the pre level image / text just keeps loading forever.

[dlfrsilver]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Considering you guys are saying that the .IPFs, all .ADFs, and WHDLoad versions of this game are borked...

What I want to know is; how did HOL take the all the completed game screenshots?

I think exactly the same. Devil hides in the details.

If this game was borked, it would have been known since the release of this game. The problem lies elsewhere. Otherwise = no HOL screens of the completed game.

[jotd]

okay so suddenly 2 people have nearly the same issue with darkmere level 2. But the whdload slave works perfectly... yeah right.

If you read previous posts, people say that they avoided some areas/saved frequently.

A lot of games have access faults that aren't noticeable unless you run them on a MMU system. A lot of games also don't work with 2MB chipmem, AGA, ... because of memory, caches, self-modifying code, etc...

Another example: my Immortal slave has been broken for nearly 20 years at level 8, and noone ever noticed. I ended up noticing it when I trained the game... It may be because the game is so friggin' hard that not a lot of people reached higher levels.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by jotd

okay so suddenly 2 people have nearly the same issue with darkmere level 2. But the whdload slave works perfectly... yeah right.

Who said anything about the WHDLoad version working perfectly? Plus I wouldn't know as I've never had the need to install / use it...

As per my comment here, what I'm saying is that I find it very difficult to believe that the original game when played via floppy has these bugs.

As mentioned, HOL somehow got the completed screenshots so surely the .IPFs and some .ADFs are ok.