Amiga 500 + HC508 Issues with certain WHDLoad Games

[zorblon98]

Hi all, I am working through some problems with certain WHDLoad games not running on my A500, and hoping to get some input as to what might be causing the issues.

Here's my current hardware and setup:

1. Amiga 500 Rev 6A motherboard NTSC
2. PA501 trapdoor RAM expansion
3. DKB MegAChip 1MB (EDIT: when I originally posted this thread I did not have this installed, currently makes no difference)
4. HC508 accelerator (http://irixlabs.com/hc508)
5. 4GB CF card booting into WB3.1 Classic
6. 32GB CF card booting into WB3.1 Classic

Many WHDLoad games are running, however several are not. (Note I am using the WHDLoad games from Retroplay's thread here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=61028) I tested several of the games that are not running on my A500 with the person who created the HC508 to see if there might be any issue with the expansion, but he was able to launch the following games and play them without any issues whatsoever on his A500 setup:

Adrenalynn_v1.1.lha
Carnage_v1.0.lha
Flashback_v3.3_1163.lha
Flashback_LowMem_v3.3_1163.lha
Speedball_v2.0_0581.lha
Speedball_v2.0_NTSC_0086.lha

For me, these are doing the following:

Adrenalynn - does not load at all
Carnage - does not load
Flashback: The Quest for Identity - does not load at all
Speedball 2 - loads to a pre-load screen, then flips out graphically and does not load

Note this is not any type of exhaustive list of what is not working, there are many others that are not loading. (Also many others that play just fine). Just wanted to make the list somewhat short to hopefully get some input from others on what I might start in regards to troubleshooting, or if anyone has any helpful info. It's totally possible I'm missing something that seems like a no-brainer to people here, but could use some input as I'm not figuring out what's wrong.

Lastly I ran several memory tests on my A500, used Memory Tester v1.0 :: http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/MemoryTest on my A500 with the HC508 attached just finished, no errors. Also ran http://aminet.net/package/util/moni/MemCheck12 and it returned 0 errors, and another package that Viktor from HC508 provided that looped through copying files to RAM and ran for several hours, with no errors.

Hope this is the right forum to be posting in, I wasn't quite sure if this was hardware or software related and just picked one. Appreciate any help!

[darefail]

Hi, i have the same setup, except that my chipmem is 2MB and everything plays fine..
Maybe this is the problem..?

[zorblon98]

Originally Posted by darefail

Hi, i have the same setup, except that my chipmem is 2MB and everything plays fine..
Maybe this is the problem..?

Hi darefail, thank you for the reply. For your setup, are you also using the HC508? Which method are you using to get the 2MB chipmem on your A500?

Per the HC508 manual (http://irixlabs.com/files/HC508%20qu...guide%20EN.pdf) I am seeing: Recommended configuration is: Amiga 500, OCS / ECS chipset with rev. 6 or newer motherboard and
1 MB of chip RAM (8372 Agnus is required to support 1 MB RAM, while any Denise and Kickstart ROM can be used).

Also seeing: 1.8 – 2Mb memory expansions boards with Gary adapter cause conflict with the HC 508. Please remove this type of memory expansion if your Amiga has it.

I *had* been using an ICD AdRam 540 with 2MB (I still have it - http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/adram540) however per the above note from the HC508, it is not compatible since it has an expansion board with the Gary adapter

[darefail]

Yes i have the hc508. I replaced the agnus with a megachip to get 2MB chipmem.
Why are you using the adram540 as the hc508 gives 8MB?

[zorblon98]

Originally Posted by darefail

Yes i have the hc508. I replaced the agnus with a megachip to get 2MB chipmem.
Why are you using the adram540 as the hc508 gives 8MB?

Thanks - is it difficult to find one of these (megachip)? I just ran a search through ebay an am seeing one listed for an Amiga 2000, but nothing for an A500. Regarding the adram, I previously mistakenly assumed this would allow for chipmem as well.

[darefail]

I don't know if you can modify the mobo and the adram can be shown as chipmem.
For the megachip, i'll take a look at ebay when i'll be at home.
The megachip for the 2000 is the same for the 500 but wait for my reply.

[zorblon98]

Thank you darefail, I appreciate all the input and help. It’s odd, Viktor from irixlabs confirmed he is using the HC508 with a regular 6a and 1mb of chip and the games load fine. I must just be having bad luck, or some issue with my hardware, not sure. I’ll probably go the megachip route once I can find one, to test if that is part of the issue or not.

[zorblon98]

Added the MegAChip in my A500, it sees the 2MB just fine which is great.

However it's the same result! - the games listed previously just plain will not run.

Anyone have an NTSC A500 with HC508 that can test these few games out (see first post for list) to see if they're working or not? Hoping to rule something out or get confirmation.

Also wondering if I somehow have a bad motherboard. I bought this last year as a new old stock 6A from a seller on ebay, was in pristine condition and has been working just fine, save for these specific issues. I'm not sure what hardware issues would be causing this though, everything is running fine other than these games and several others. Would love to know if some NTSC A500 + HC508 folks are having success with these or not. I believe everyone that has tested is using PAL, but also not sure that should matter.

[zorblon98]

I just measured the voltages on my Amiga 312503-01 DSP-A500 power supply.

(+5) = +5.16
(+12) = +12.06
(-12) = -11.97

Those seem within tolerance, but I ordered a new power supply (non-vintage) off ebay just now and will try this out once it arrives. Anyone know if those being a bit over or under cause any noted issues? I figured it probably couldn't hurt to have a spare power supply anyways.

[Hewitson]

Those voltages are acceptable, provided they were measured correctly (with the power supply connected to a load).

Most IC's are designed to run at between 4.75-5.25 volts.

[zorblon98]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Those voltages are acceptable, provided they were measured correctly (with the power supply connected to a load).

Most IC's are designed to run at between 4.75-5.25 volts.

Thanks @Hewitson, I did not have a load connected, it was just direct measurements to the pins. I'll look up methods for connecting a load to remeasure voltages.

[zorblon98]

Update: I received the new power supply and it's the same issue. Also tried using a new CF card and Classic Workbench, and still the same issue.

I did some new testing with the follwing WHDLoad games and encountered the following issues:



I created an entire image of my CF card with only the problem games above included for Viktor from iRIXlabs to test out, he was able to run everything that he spot tested in the list from the same card and archives.

I'm still troubleshooting with him currently. Right now at the point of testing, the machine will not boot with Turbo disabled (which is configured in the HC508 boot menu by holding down the left mouse button during boot) at all, it either goes into a recoverable error message loop, or just a black screen and a flashing power LED. Still working with Viktor on this, not sure if there's something up with my Amiga, the software, the HC508, some other hardware, not sure.

My A500 runs fine without the HC508, and can load and run real physical floppies of Speedball 2, Weird Dreams, Flashback, and Savage (I have all those floppies). I am not having other issues with my A500 with the HC508 removed, or when I have the HC508 plugged in and run a real physical disk game. The HC508 also seems to run just fine with the default options (Turbo enabled etc), the only issues I'm having are that several WHDLoad games will not load.

Here's my current hardware and setup:

1. Amiga 500 Rev 6A motherboard NTSC
2. PA501 trapdoor RAM expansion
3. DKB MegAChip 1MB
4. HC508 accelerator (http://irixlabs.com/hc508)
5. 4GB CF card booting into WB3.1 Classic
6. 32GB CF card booting into WB3.1 Classic

I've also tested this on the following monitors (no difference between them):

Commodore 1084S-P
Commodore 1080
Magnavox 1CM135/294I

I am seeing that there are a few other people on this forum that have, or at least at one point had a HC508. Are there any NTSC Amiga people on this forum anyone is aware of that has a HC508 that can test/verify the above games are running on your setup?

I've put so many hours into troubleshooting this, would like to get to the bottom of what's causing the issues, but honestly just want to get back to using my A500 and live this dream (hopefully eventually).

[zorblon98]

After troubleshooting further with Viktor from iRIXlabs, it was found that running the games using the option PAL from shell resolved the issue.

That seemed pretty odd since the Speedball 2 WHDLoad archive I'm using states it is specifically for NTSC (Speedball2_v1.0_NTSC_2006.lha) - but it will not run at all after the intro screen on my NTSC Amiga unless I run it from Shell using 'whdload speedball2ntsc.slave preload pal'. Running the other games in the list using the pal option from command line fixes the issue. I haven't tested every game in the above list yet but the 5 I spot checked ran perfectly.

Using the PAL option in shell also resolves the screen issues with other pal games that had the bottom portion of the screen cut off, which is great news. So at the moment by Amiga accelerator / whdload dreams on my NTSC A500 are being realized.

Another odd thing to mention is that using a MegAChip with a 8375 318069-11 Agnus in my A500 rev 6a NTSC, it switches properly between NTSC and PAL just fine by all my tests. But on the hardware compatibility lists it only shows Agnus (2MB) 8375 318069-11 A500+(NTSC) and A600(NTSC)
on these lists:
https://www.pmsoft.nl/amiga/amiga-parts-chips.html
https://www.bigbookofamigahardware.c...t.aspx?id=1478

Is this just old information or some anomaly I'm not aware of? I was able to switch my workbench to PAL 640 x 256 screen mode with the 8375 and it looks perfect, I compared the screen to my stock 8372A and it was the same.

I took the MegAChip out completely and tested the same games using my original 8372A 318069-02 and they perform / look exactly the same.

Happy that this has been resolved finally and surprised it was such an easy fix (technically), but frustrated that it took this long to get to it.

A quick question for anyone familiar: how would I go about fixing the specific games in question to run with the PAL option by default? I'm using Tiny Launcher as my game frontend, not quite sure how to achieve this. I'm guessing the games themselves might need to be patched in some way (not sure)?

*Edit* - Found it, open the folder for the game and left click once on the game icon, hold down right mouse button and select Icons > Information to add a new line with PAL, save it.

*Edit* - Even though I've added PAL with the above and confirmed the game runs from the icon properly, it runs the old way when launching it in TinyLauncher (3.52) Anyone have any advice for this by chance?