CD32Load

[jotd]

Lvos in the zone for you. Just standard lib offsets.

Good find for Shadow Fighter CD32. I'll look into it. Is it AGA?

Now it's more than time to credit you in cd32load readme!

[earok]

thanks, LVO's worked, compiled just fine!

I believe Shadow Fighter CD32 is AGA


Edit: Is there any reason why D-Pad directions couldn't also be mapped to keyboard? It might be useful in games that either don't use the joystick at all (eg Pinball), or a single player with lots of buttons that need to be mapped (a specific case I thought of was on a typical flight sim, the port 0 dpad could be used to look forward/left/right/back). I might try implementing it myself.

[jayminer]

I have done some tests with the latest version (with UAE) and these are my findings so far, might be some games already posted here but I'm just posting my entire list:

* Alfred Chicken - Works!
* Alien Breed - Fades to black screen, nothing happens
* Arabian Nights - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Banshee - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Benefactor - Crashes
* Bubble'n Squeak - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Chaos Engine - Works!
* Death Sword - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Elf - Crashes after a while: Line-f exception
* E-Motion - Starts but locks up after title-screen
* Fire & Brimstone - Crashes, WHD_Abort code $00000009
* Fire & Ice - Works!
* Fire & Ice CD32 - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Fury of the Furries
* Fuzzball - Works!
* Globdule - Unknown Control tag $88000000
* Gods - Works!
* Golden Axe - Unknown Control tag $88000001
* Head over Heels - Starts
* IK+ - Works, but 'flickered'
* Impossible Mission 2025 - Crashes with a guru
* Impossible Mission 2 - Unknown control tag: $88000014
* Indy Heat - Works!
* James Pond 2 - Error Basemem > cdbuffer
* James Pond 3 - Error Basemem > cdbuffer
* Jet Strike AGA - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Kid Chaos - Crashes with guru
* Kid Chaos CD32 - Error Basemem > cdbuffer
* Kid Gloves - Works!
* Kid Gloves 2 - Nothing happends
* Killing Game Show - Nothing happends
* Krustys Super Fun House - Works!
* Leander - Works!
* Legends - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Lionheart - Line-f exception
* Liquid Kids - Unknown control tag $8800001b
* Marvins Marvelous Adventure - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Marvins Marvelous Adventure CD32 - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Mega Typhoon - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Micro Machines - Works!
* Mr Nutz - Crashes, Read buffer overlap
* Naughty Ones - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Nebulus - Crashes and reboots
* Nebulus 2 - Works!
* New Zealand Story - Unknown control tag $00030000
* Nicky 2 - Requires Kickstart-emulation
* Nicky Boom - Works!
* Nitro - Works!
* Pac-mania - Works!
* Pang - Unknown control tag $8800001c
* Parasol Stars - Works!
* Puggsy - Nothing happends

Gonna try the working games on real hardware, probably tonight.

[Amigajay]

Yay Indy Heat! me and my son love that game, he was disappointed because i used to emulate it on my PS3 which had two players, then my PS3 died and i got a Shield TV and UAE4all2 only allows one player which sucks, but we have been playing the original arcade version on MAME, but he actually prefers the Amiga version, the pit crew make funnier noises! So at least i will be able to play two players on my CD32 now!

[Amiga1992]

Can this be tried on a hard drive equipped Cd32/A1200 or is it specifically meant to run on CD? Because if it can, I can offer myself to test as many ganes as possible.

[jotd]

thanks for the testing jayminer!, I'll update my list

There's a list of 'tested_games.txt' in the archive. But with the new "unknown tag" restriction breaks some compatibilities. I think I'll check the tags explicitly with an option, but won't do it by default, which will make all those game work.

@earok joydirection mapping to keys yes could be done. If you fell like doing it, do, and I'll merge your changes in the next version.
(I believe I've used a stupid way of defining structure offsets, could be better, be careful)

[earok]

@jotd I'll give it a try! I have very limited experience with ASM though, so it'll be a learning experience at least.


Incidentally I noticed that on the "Mutation Gold" collection, there seems to be HD loading versions of all of the games as well as CD loading ones - maybe it's a RNC HD-loader? I thought that might be of some interest.

Edit: I forgot to mention, one of the games is Tin Toy Adventure. Codetapper made these notes on the page for his WHDLoad slave for the game:

Some of you might say "Why a hard drive installer for this game when it already has one?". The original doesn't work with all hard drives, it forces you to install in one of 3 paths that it chooses, and it does not quit.

[earok]

Minor test report:

- Alcatraz was previously reported as unplayable (jerky) actually works with NoCache.
- Alien Breed was previously reported as broken (black screen), actually works with NoCache.
- Last Ninja 2 was previously reported as broken, appears to work OK with forcechip=$A000 (possibly unreliable? Not sure if it's start-to finish playable, but at least Central Park seems to work)
- Zeewolf 1 works with the new beta perfectly, Zeewolf 2 crashes

JayMiner would you like to contribute to my compatibility board? If so I'd be happy to give you edit access
https://trello.com/b/7aCLYcnc/jotd-cd32-load



Edit: I've zoned a version of the 11 beta with optional dpad mapping. Tested with just Zeewolf on Port 1. Nothing fancy, just a copy+paste job of stuff that was already written.

I've altered the bit definitions for the directions from say JOY_R to BTN_RIGHT, I hope this doesn't cause any confusion,

[jotd]

Thanks earok for all the testing (did not think about NOCACHE for Alien Breed, must have missed something since it works with WHDLoad & JST)

I have started adding items to trello, but that's a lot of copy/paste tedious work. Too bad it's not possible to add several items with one list (and it cannot be sorted). Or I missed a lot of things.

I have merged your changes (asm is not so hard after all ) At least you made the effort of trying to change something and it worked!
I have changed struct.i so it uses structures, much easier to maintain now.

I did not post v11 yet, still struggling with a lot of stuff: PatchSeg, whdl ctrl tags, decrunchers, "file not found" strange messages ... hopefully I'll post a new version tonight once it is stabilized.
I can already say that Globdule works now (how to go to next level? I could not pass first level, and cannot find any manual on the www except in german ach).

Zeewolf crashes for me (will be fixed soon), and cannot even load megalomania (file not found, maybe a CD mastering error since you seem to go a bit further).

Once again, thanks for all the cross-testing: gives me a lot of info about where to look.

[jayminer]

I noticed something, I started getting errors on all games I tried after a while, and I was trying all my games alphabetically so after T or something everything errored out on me. Always with a "File read error: Disk.1" or similiar.

I have an almost full (over 600MB) CD I am trying with so I was wondering if there is possably a problem with the loader if the games are at the end of the CD ? I tried starting the games with WHDLoad and it can read the files, and I did try with some games I know should work.

I have only tried with UAE, I could try it on real hardware later just to check if there's any difference.

[jotd]

I m suspecting this too (see my other post)
Looks like there's a limitation in the cd loading routine maybe more in terms of number of files. Or isocd option problem?

[jayminer]

Originally Posted by earok

JayMiner would you like to contribute to my compatibility board? If so I'd be happy to give you edit access
https://trello.com/b/7aCLYcnc/jotd-cd32-load

Sure, I'd be happy to help in any way I can

[earok]

@jayminer Great! Send me your email address (either in PM or to my email, earok 3d at gmail dot com) and I'll give you edit rights to the board.

@jotd Looking forward to the new build. Regarding the file-not-found messages etc, ISOCD does have a few file system settings that can be tweaked, it might be worth investigating those.

[jotd]

new 0.11 version on my website.
I found a nasty bug that could explain the "file not found" bug. Zeewolf 2 now works (should use your joystick mapping to UP/DOWN... or keyboard is needed)

here are the new working games:

- Globdule
- Cannon Fodder 2 (just for fun, since you cannot load or save)
- Zeewolf
- Zeewolf2
- Chase HQ
- Myth (system 3)

[jayminer]

Awesome!

[earok]

I've zoned an ugly hack to V11 (I'm not an Assembly programmer :/) for a virtual keyboard (Arcade high score table style, non-visual). It's clunky and buggy but it appears to work (at least with the Zeewolf password screen).

How it works:
- Press Reverse to enter virtual keyboard mode (if you're on a password screen, you should immediately see "A")
- Press Left to backspace
- Press Right to enter a new character
- Press Up/Down to increase or decrease the current character (this does an immediate backspace, waits 50 frames and then inserts a character at the new value)
- Press Reverse again to exit virtual keyboard mode (this does an immediate enter, so if you're on a password screen it may exit it)

It *IS* buggy, if you tend to tap up/down rapidly the whole thing locks up. I'm not sure if there's a good way to schedule subsequent key presses? In any case I'd love to be able to use something like this in games like Zeewolf or Desert Strike where passwords are required. I know Galahad's got a proper Virtual Keyboard planned but I wanted something to use in the interim (and an excuse to learn a little ASM).

JOTD maybe you can make my code less terrible? please ignore the first two lines of VK:..



Edit: I think I might have stumbled on to something..

A lot of the games I'm having trouble with - Moonstone, Flashback and Mega Lo Mania - have "data" in their slaves, the ws_CurrentDir thing I think. Could it be related? I noticed if I put all of the files for MLM in a data subfolder, at least the intro works.

[jayminer]

Originally Posted by jotd

new 0.11 version on my website.
I found a nasty bug that could explain the "file not found" bug.

I'm still getting File not found towards the end of my CD :/

[SolderPCB]

Could Street Racer be adapted for CD32Load?

[jotd]

- Moonstone won't work because of wrong relocate function & possibly bad decrunch
- Flashback needs patchseg which I'm currently developping
- Megalomania boots and crashes after the intro so it's basically a whdload emulation problem not a CD load problem.
ws_CurrentDir can be overridden by "DATA=" directive. The difference with before it that it trashed memory, and did not work. Now it works.

File not found towards the end of my CD: OK let's make lighter CDs... I did not reverse engineer the cd loading routine. Maybe I should but it's a lot of work plus it would not fix the bug!
And the source is with other RN stuff: lost forever.

About Shadow Fighter: it's not a RN loader. It's a custom whdload-like loader that is specific to the game. The game is somehow OS-friendly / not killing the OS and they took advantage of that. Which means that you can include it in a compilation as-is, in another folder probably.

Street Racer is possible. I've tried and failed, but I'll retry.

Good work with the virtual keyboard system Earok even if I haven't looked at it yet.
Edit: I have looked at it and all I can say is that I'm taking it as-is. The code may be ugly but located in 1 file and other files don't change much, so good job (and good idea!)

What I would do next is an option to activate virtual keyboard. Some games don't need it (hiscore entry is not saveable so RETURN does it) and pressing bwd by mistake while playing would probably have disastrous effects on the current game.
But it's not a problem to have it except that it takes one button, and I'll have to remove the fwd+bwd combination for ESC, just map ESC to fwd+yellow for instance. what do you think?

[earok]

Is Moonstone theoretically fixable? It's the one game that Steve asks me for the most

Done a few more tests and updated the trello accordingly. Great to see Zeewolf 2 works, we'll do a two pack release of this sometime

Glad that you're OK with the Virtual Keyboard routine My idea was going to be that the virtual keyboard is assigned to whatever key you want through the command line. Eg off by default but something like VK=$11 to assign it to the Play button (BTN_PLAY). I could try implementing this myself?