List of WHDLoad games that (potentially or actually) work on OCS Amigas

[A500]

Hi,

Some time ago I acquired a stock A500/KS1.2 equipped with the excellent ACA500+ expansion card. Eager to test the setup, I started searching for a list of WHDLoad games that work on OCS Amigas, but all I could find was requests for one. Out of love for the old workhorse (I had one for years in the old days) and a desire to use it for all things fun and perhaps even useful, I decided to try and make such a list. Of course one may already exist somewhere, but it was the thought of the journey that lured me into doing it...

On June 30 2017, Wepl very kindly provided a list of memory requirements for all slaves released so far, including older versions. This was the starting point for the list:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=51964&page=2

[Update] The list is now updated on basis of new slave information published at whdload.de. As of this writing the number of entries is approximately 2100!

Massive thanks to Wepl and all the WHDLoad slave creators, Zetro for AG-Launch, Solo761 for AGLGen, and Turran, KG and everybody else involved!

[Wepl]

nice work

Originally Posted by A500

- slave release date is often not reported in cases where it is slightly different than those appearing in the original list provided by Wepl. However, in most cases the slave release date was the same as that in the list, or there was a difference of a few days between the dates which I'd guess is simply the difference between the date a slave was created and the date it was published on the WHDLoad site. Of course I could be wrong here...

The date in the database is date when the install has been published. The file date of the Slave in the archive should be always older.

[A500]

Originally Posted by Wepl

nice work

The date in the database is date when the install has been published. The file date of the Slave in the archive should be always older.

Aha, thanks for the clarification

[A500]

A small but nice update: the latest version of Shadow of the Beast 3 works on OCS Will try to find time to test other updates at some point, may take long to get there though...

[jotd]

if you have an IDE drive (A600) you could make some games run using CD32load HD mode (and stop the flashing due to lack of memory).

The drawback is the lack of game/hiscore saving. ATM limited to non-diskfiles because HD mode doesn't perform a partial read of files. For instance Silkworm works. A lot of file-based (not diskimage based) 512k games should work, without OS flashes

[A500]

(Very late) thanks for the tip Jotd!

Time for more celebration, these now work on 512Kb chip RAM:
(* = newest version not yet detected in Turran's pack)

Superfrog (NB: this is the only one in this list that has so far been tested on my OCS A500/ACA500+)
Switchblade 2
Armourgeddon 2*
Wonderdog
Premiere
Bubble and Squeak

New ones (as in 'released after Nov 2017 and work on 512Kb'):

Starflight
Barney Bear Goes to School
Barney Bear Goes to Space
Fraction Action
Skaut Kwatermaster
Spacewrecked*
Laterna Magica
Vengeance of Excalibur
Spirit of Excalibur
Cougar Force
Cardinal of the Kremlin
Bundesliga Manager Professional
Math Wizard
Decimal Dungeon
Kinderama
Read & Rhyme

[A500]

Another nice game has been updated to work on 512k chip memory, the prehistoric Space Taxi relative called Ugh!. Thanks Asman & JOTD!

[A500]

Thanks to Mr. Larmer and Stingray, Assassin now requires only 512k chip memory. Hooray!

[jotd]

Premiere was recently updated for that too. In fact some games use 1MB chip just because they don't like 32-bit fastmem, so setting 512K chip means the other half-meg is fastmem and that crashes unless EXPCHIP is set.

That's the case with Premiere BTW (too fast: blitter errors even if there are a lot of blitterwaits). So sometimes using only 512k chip can be an issue for 32-bit fastmem machines, and the only non-32 bit memory is ... the remaining chipmem.

I wish there would be a flag for "24bitmem" in whdload like WHDLF_24BitExpmem: if 24bit fast available, use it, else use chipmem (AFAIR JST had a "Alloc24bitmem" function for that purpose)

I know Xenon 2 uses 528kb ($81000) I have to find out why and if it's possible to reduce to $80000. We're taking low-end machines seriously, don't worry.

[Wepl]

There are options ExpChip/S, ExpLocal/S, Exp24Bit/S to use special memory for expansion memory if available. See http://whdload.de/docs/en/opt.html#Exp.
But these kinds of memory are rarely present IMHO.

[jotd]

Exp24bit is great. I suppose that if no 24 bit mem is available as fastmem, whdload tries chipmem?

The only catch is that if a game cannot work with 32-bit expmem, this option should be "hardcoded" in the slave.

BTW do you remember why Xenon 2 required $81000 bytes chipmem and not $80000 ?

[Asman]

Originally Posted by A500

Another nice game has been updated to work on 512k chip memory, the prehistoric Space Taxi relative called Ugh!. Thanks Asman & JOTD!

Great.

@jotd

About Ugh, thanks for updating the slave. I should update my installs and at least insert sources . Also I should back to my origins and finish some WHD slaves

[A500]

Originally Posted by jotd

Premiere was recently updated for that too. In fact some games use 1MB chip just because they don't like 32-bit fastmem, so setting 512K chip means the other half-meg is fastmem and that crashes unless EXPCHIP is set.

...

I know Xenon 2 uses 528kb ($81000) I have to find out why and if it's possible to reduce to $80000. We're taking low-end machines seriously, don't worry.

Yes, Premiere is mentioned in my previous post and I think it's a great release, works like a charm Many thanks!

It's really great to see support for the low-end machines, it always feels good to be able to use WHDLoad with the humble old KS1.2 A500. Also, thanks for the discussion guys, very interesting to read about the problematics of memory usage!

[A500]

Since my last post in July 2019, there have been dozens of great fixes and many new game slaves as well that work with 512kb chipmem. Many thanks to everybody who contributed to this!

Slaves fixed to work with half a meg:

Xenon II
Crazy Cars
Soccer Kid
Borobodur
Garrison
Skærmtrolden Hugo
Lorna
Kwasimodo
Circus Attractions
Prince of Persia
OutRun Europe
Battle Storm
Fantastic Dizzy
Midwinter

New slaves (the more the merrier!)

Atlantyda
Forest Dumb Forever
Last Soldier
Pacman 87
American Poker
Nibbly Nibble
Ball Raider II
Sword of Aragon
Sol Negro
Rolling Thunder
Metro-Cross
StarQuake
Vindex
Gotcha
Chinese Karate
Count Duckula II
Final Command
Playdays
Wrangler
Ancient Art of War
Vortex
Cosmo Ranger S.O.L. AD 2000
I Ludicrus
Phantasm
Street Hockey
Albedo
Liverpool: The Computer Game
Simulman 1-11
Tex 1-12
Tex - Piombo Caldo
Wipe Out
Lothar Mätthaus Super Soccer

Game on!

[jotd]

Good initiative ! This will continue. There aren't many amigas around, and I'm not going to deprive some machines from using whdload when it could totally be possible

Sometimes the reason why slaves use 1MB is because they're old and predate the time where Wepl introduced expansion memory support. Or lazy coders
Why slaves can use 513kb and not 512kb? there's a special explanation for each slave. 2 examples:

- Premiere had access faults on $80000 memory boundary. Instead of fixing it properly, I just upped the memory to $81000. At the time, only highend amigas were customers for whdload. that's no longer the case now with new accelerators on old machines.
- Prince of Persia uses Wepl savegame system, which needs $3000 bytes of chipmem for screen. I could have added $3000 fastmem and swapped/unswapped, but even easier: I noticed a blank area of memory, so I used it (it's a 8-bit port, fortunately doesn't use all 512k)

Some other games have issues with 32-bit memory. Whereas it could be fixed in some cases, it's generally a difficult task. So in that case, a 1MB chipmem slave fixes the issue. But in that case, I try to provide a 512k chip + 512k exp slave, that will run only on machines that don't have 32-bit extra mem.

I have python scripts which are able to create a comprehensive list (except for recent slaves like Albedo) using a list of slaves up to end 2019. I'm going to create a special script for that case.
The combination 512k + small files also allows to run the games from hd from a A600 1MB with a IDE harddrive using CD32load (example: Silkworm)

[jotd]

I've zoned a .xlsx file with all slaves that only require 512k. There are 1900+ slaves!

75 games require slightly more chipmem. They probably need a rewrite to fit.

[A500]

Wow, thanks jotd for the explanation AND the new list of 512k-compliant slaves! As I said before, for some reason it feels oddly satisfying to be able to run WHDLoad slaves with the OCS/ACA500+ setup so I'm really happy to see the list get longer and longer

[CFou!]

Originally Posted by jotd

I've zoned a .xlsx file with all slaves that only require 512k. There are 1900+ slaves!

75 games require slightly more chipmem. They probably need a rewrite to fit.

great your xls database

many of my old patches used more 512ko


when it is not always necessary!

i have some updates to do!:

my list:
AquaticGames
Boston Bomb Club Without
Bunny Bricks
Captain Blood
Circus Attractions => done with v1.1
Colorado without fast=>done with 1.5
Disc
Intact no extra memory
Kwasimodo=>done with 1.6
Maya Le fetiche Without
Metal Mutant
Starblade without fast
Storm Master without
Targhan without fast
The quest for the time
Compilation The Raiders
Wind Surf Willy

[jotd]

good! I can create a full database of all existing slaves too with my tools.

on my github repository (https://github.com/jotd666/amiga68ktools):

tools/scan_slaves.py: scans a directory tree for whdload slaves/games and creates a sheet with characteristics (memory, ecs/aga...)

[A500]

*A500 user stares at the thread in amazement* :