[AmigaCD] The Big Red Adventure - .HDF & .LHA (for real Amiga users)

[DamienD]

Heya mk1,

More details would help i.e. what OS etc...

I presume that you have extracted the .LHA file without issue and it's just when running the game?

Sounds similar to what zoopster experienced and this was down to stuff being loaded in the "S/Startup-Sequence".

Have you tried using SnoopDOS also?

[mk1]

Actually, I think I solved it.

I went through my startup-sequence and noticed that SetPatch was skipped (due to my 68060 being incompatible with my current SetPatch version). I have the exact same "Workbench setup" on my WinUAE and at least there it worked with a vanilla A1200 config after SetPatch was executed. Still have to try on the real machine, but I think I need to remove/disable the accelerator board first.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[DamienD]

Ok, good news

[mk1]

Yes, that fixed it.

Those graphics bugs also now turned into error messages about some missing assets (in part 3, that is). Is this a known bug or is my version somehow corrupted?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by mk1

Those graphics bugs also now turned into error messages about some missing assets (in part 3, that is). Is this a known bug or is my version somehow corrupted?

Must admit that I haven't come across that before...

I have thoroughly tested both the .HDF and .LHA file though in WinUAE using:

a) Classic WB 3.1 Lite
b) Standard WB 3.1

Does this happen with the .HDF I created?

At work currently so can't look further but try extracting the .LHA file again and make sure there are no errors / data is intact afterwards.

[mk1]

Yes, it's on all versions it seems.

I googled the error and came across this post which seems to be what its about: http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=222949&postcount=19

I don't know how other people have managed to avoid or fix this problem, but it seems that one can finish the game without coming across the missing files.

[DamienD]

Hmmm, I've tested loading all 4 parts and don't have that issue.

When does it occur?

Once at home I'll look at the folders / directories and compare with the original CD-ROM files...

[mk1]

Well, I'm playing without a walkthrough so this is the best I can explain: once you've switched from Donna to Doug you go knock on Dino's cabin. You can then switch to Dino who is sent to pick up a cup of coffee from the bar. Once you try to return to the cabin with the coffee cup it gives the error cammolo1 (or could have also been cabin1).

[DamienD]

Have just checked an .ISO of the original CD-ROM and also the .LHA archive. The folders / files are identical.

There are no such files "cammolo1" or "cammolo2"... There are loads of "cabina1" files though:



I wonder where Lemmi got these files from? You would expect them to be present on the original CD-ROM...

Originally Posted by mk1

Well, I'm playing without a walkthrough so this is the best I can explain: once you've switched from Donna to Doug you go knock on Dino's cabin. You can then switch to Dino who is sent to pick up a cup of coffee from the bar. Once you try to return to the cabin with the coffee cup it gives the error cammolo1 (or could have also been cabin1).

Ok, will test this when I get home.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by mk1

Well, I'm playing without a walkthrough so this is the best I can explain: once you've switched from Donna to Doug you go knock on Dino's cabin. You can then switch to Dino who is sent to pick up a cup of coffee from the bar. Once you try to return to the cabin with the coffee cup it gives the error cammolo1 (or could have also been cabin1).

Am home now and have tested

Followed the walkthrough here.

Grabbed the coffee cup from the bar, went into room 10 and all was fine

The screenshot below is proof, you can see Dino in room 10 and the coffee cup in my inventory:

[DamienD]

Finally, I managed to find 4 different images of the CD-ROM.

Not one of them has the files "cammolo1" or "cammolo2"...

Also extracted / installed the .ADFs from TOSEC i.e:

... Big Red Adventure, The v1.2 (1997)(Power Computing)(AGA)(M4)(Disk 01 of 20)[HD, CD rip].adf
-->
... Big Red Adventure, The v1.2 (1997)(Power Computing)(AGA)(M4)(Disk 20 of 20)[HD, CD rip].adf

Again, this doesn't contain the files "cammolo1" or "cammolo2"...

Going off lemmi's post, these files are already there though:

• \part3\ras\cabina1.ras_shdw [and other "cabina1" files as listed in post #29]
• \part4\ras\dente.ras
• \part4\ras\dente.ras_shdw

[mk1]

Hmm, I'll have to try starting that part from the main menu to see if it makes a difference. Other then that, I seem to have followed the same path as the walkthrough.

I could also send you my savegame file to test if you get a different result?

EDIT: No difference if I start from the main menu instead of a savegame. Though it crashes randomly here and there when walking off a screen to another. Tried two different versions that I've downloaded and the result is pretty much the same.

I don't know if it makes a difference but the installs are located on CF0: card, but the savegames are on my hard drive.

[DamienD]

Sure, you can send me your savegame but I'm not sure if this will help the situation; especially as you say you started "Part 3" from scratch...

As mentioned, I've looked at:

... loads of different images of the CD-ROM and compared the contents with my .HDF & .LHA archive.
... tested my .HDF (which should work for you also unless you have some funky configuration set).
... tested extracting the .LHA file to a freshly installed "Classic WB 3.1 Lite" .HDF.
... tested extracting the .LHA file to a freshly installed "standard WB 3.1" .HDF.

It has to be something with your system; no idea what though

[mk1]

Here's a savegame to test. You can just walk Dino right in to the cabin to see what happens.

[DamienD]

Works fine here:



I have another *personal* .HDF that I use (standard WB 3.1 install with screenmode changed to "DBLPAL: HiRes" in order to get rid of distortion / interlaced issues)... can't upload due to WB system files etc...

Let me PM you that (not that the bare bones .HDF file or .LHA file I've shared give any problems).

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by DamienD

I have another *personal* .HDF that I use (full WB 3.1 install with screenmode changed to "DBLPAL: HiRes" in order to get rid of distortion / interlaced issues)... can't upload due to WB system files etc...

Let me PM you that (not that the bare bones .HDF file or .LHA file I've shared give any problems).

Uploaded to a file hosting website and PM sent

[DamienD]

So have been corresponding with mk1 about his issue...

Originally Posted by mk1

Thanks!

I tested my savegames with your personal HDF AND with the HDF found on the EAB FTP server and everything works just fine on my FS-UAE! (See, I got a PC at work, Mac & Amiga at home).

So it really seems to be an issue with my Amiga. I'm still going to try the savegames at work tomorrow since the WinUAE there has a mirror of my Amiga's Workbench setup and thus should produce some similar results.

I now know it's not the Blizzard board I have since I've disabled it to get the old SetPatch running. Might be some issue with the savegames being in a different drawer then BIGRED:saves since one can navigate to another folder, or it could be the game running from CF0:

Originally Posted by mk1

Hi again,

so I tested everything with WinUAE with the mirror setup of my Amiga's HD and everything works just perfect, even with the savegame file. I'm now convinced that it's something to do with my A1200. I'll try copying the game to the actual hard drive instead of CF0 to see if there's any difference. If that doesn't help I'm out of ideas...

The good news is that there's nothing wrong with the .HDF & .LHA archive that I've created / shared

The bad news is that mk1 still needs to work out what the issue is with his real A1200...

[DamienD]

Heya Toni,

One thing I should mention...

When I created this .HDF everything was working perfectly in WinUAE v3.4.0

Yes, I had to set "DblPAL" mode in Workbench in order to get rid of blinking plus ghosting when moving etc. as mentioned in this thread: The Big Red Adventure

Anyway, the other day I was testing this in WinUAE v3.5.0. Unfortunately there's some weird stuff going on when moving the mouse pointer that wasn't present in v3.4.0 i.e. a 5cm bar of garbage below the mouse pointer intermittently... You can see this immediately on the main selection screen below but also in the game:



It's hard to describe what's going on and difficult to take a screenshot of; best if you test my personal .HDF in v3.4.0 and v3.5.0 so I've sent you a PM.

Would you mind taking a look?

[DamienD]

Heya Toni,

Problem solved; I swear I tried this the other day before posting...

Basically, using the same configuration and .HDF file, the mouse issue is now gone in v3.5.0.

The only thing I changed was the Kickstart ROM from:

a) KS ROM v3.1 (A1200) rev 40.68 (512k).rom

-->

b) KS ROM v3.0 (A1200) rev 39.106 (512k).rom

[mk1]

So I finally managed to get the game working and finish it. And what a f***ing nightmare (and a disappointment at that) it was!

I had to copy the game to my hard drive instead of running it from CFO, boot w/o startup, run setpatch and then it would work beyond the point we talked about earlier.

BUT! That wasn't all I'm afraid, as the further you got the buggier the game got too, not to mention the total absence of sound in the last part. Did they test or QA the game at all?

I hope the prequel is better than this as I've still to play that one.