JST Kickstart 1.3

[jotd]

Originally Posted by arongooch

Hi all,

I have recently been getting back into using JST after quite some time. I have a really nice setup of WHDLoad under 3.1 but wanted a more classic setup for my A500 so am using JST. Ive been through many games and keeping a list of what I got to work, what doesnt work loading from the traditional icon based execution in WB but recently switched to using AmigaShell and many games that I thought previously would not work actually worked!

I am not sure if anyone has had problems with games that save? Ive tried many games now that have the ability to save but all crash with a black screen when I try to do so. Is this a known problem with JST? They all save correctly under WHDLoad.

Absolutely awesome work that JST is still being worked on after all these years and like many others who have mentioned, I also really appreciate the efforts. Cheers

Thanks for your feedback.

for your questions: yes and yes...

- starting from icon used to work, but either it was broken along the years or it's specifically broken for kickstart 1.3
- more annoying: the save feature isn't so great. It works, but not in all cases. It's a challenge to get the same quality as in whdload because it means implementing a writethough disk cache in assembly

My motivation to develop or fix stuff varies depending on the time. It was mostly fixing whdload slaves, then it switched to creating arcade games, then fixed more whdload slaves (I still have 200 assigned issues in mantis whdload base, some go back to 2004...), so maybe I'll try to make this write operation reliable on JST one day. I hate forcing myself. It's a hobby after all.

[arongooch]

Never force yourself. The work you already have done with JST is amazing and much appreciated by the Amiga community.

[sviru]

Originally Posted by arongooch

Never force yourself. The work you already have done with JST is amazing and much appreciated by the Amiga community.

Does JST work as intended on 3.1 A500 1mchip REV 6A? Or does it only support 1.3 A500? Thank you.

[jotd]

it works on 3.1 as well. command line even has more options (1.3 command line has a length limit)

[sviru]

Originally Posted by jotd

it works on 3.1 as well. command line even has more options (1.3 command line has a length limit)

great! will test soon

[dr.zeissler]

@jotd Thank you for this very nice software...I am a daily user, so thx!
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[jotd]

very nice & original setup!

[wardo]

Hi All,

I just joined EAB after a few years of reading only. Learned so much from reading this thread (and forum) and from all of your expertise, so thank you chaps!

To introduce myself, my name is wardo and I am running the following setup. Forgive the detail, but I had to tell somebody

• Amiga 500 - stock, no mods (security seal still in place). 512K chip, 512K trapdoor expansion.
• Kickstart 1.3, Workbench 1.3 (modified to "warda bench"!).
• GVP Impact Series II A500-HD8+ (running 8MB memory expansion).
• HD8+ SCSI2SD - 4GB SD card with 4x 500 MB partitions (I have the original (working) quantum drive too!). Faastprep prepared. WB 1.3 loaded to System:
• 3D designed and printed bracket for the SCSI2SD within the HD8+ - fits perfectly.
• Mouster and wired Xbox 360 controller - works a treat.
• 30" Panasonic Quintrix (widescreen, flatscreen) CRT (it's enormous!) via Scart RGB (Retro Computer Shack cable - thank you Mr Priddey, looks grand)
• Sound from A500 2x RCA to Rotel (separate Pre / Power) Amp & (large) Castle floorstanding speakers via high end QED interconnects - awesemo!
• Amiga Explorer, Belkin Null Modem cable to / from PC
• JST v7.2 from the GIT (cherry on the cake!)

// ====================================

First off, for any of you who have taken this journey, I am sure you understand the pleasure involved - it's a wonderful, step by step process!

I have been heavily inspired and encouraged by these two dudes (amoung others), so major cudos to:

Shot97
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The Retro Roadshow
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// ====================================

Secondly, thank you soooo much JOTD for not only writing, but also maintaining JST in 2022 and beyond. Without JST, us (stock) A500 users would be dead in the water using HDD slaves.

I think it is fair to say that JOTD is a true A500 hero! Although I love the disk experience (who doesn't), JST and the HD8+ has opened up a whole new world for my humble A500. It is so much more ...

// ====================================

I have a few questions. I am sure this will expose my fundamental lack of understanding but, no matter, here goes.

Pretty much all of the software I have been testing has come from the grandis server, which I believe you guys are using too and that is where the latest file versions are stored - please correct me if wrong?!

I grab the file from grandis, extract the .lha archive and send all extracted files to the GVP HDD via Amiga Explorer and the Null Modem cable - all good (I love progress bars ... no, really!). Most software works well using this method.

// ====================================

However, I am experiencing some errors which I can't quite work out. For example, when I try and run the Settlers game, I get an error:

jst settlers.slave -> "** Not enough chip memory for this slave!"

Looking at the "Readme" for Settlers, it states: "The installed program requires 0.5 MB ChipMem and 5 MB OtherMem." I reckon I should be good to go?

So I am somewhat confused. I have the same issue with some other software I have tried. I have tried passing various parameters to JST, but nothing seems to help (VERBOSE is interesting).

What am I missing here chaps? Any pointers are gratefully received. Forgive the long post!

Many Thanks,

wardo.

[jotd]

Hi,

thanks for your feedback, much appreciated

The readme says as you quoted:

"The installed program requires 0.5 MB ChipMem and 5 MB OtherMem."

But it's an error because the autoanalysis from the whdload site just below states:

required Chip Memory 1024 KiB ($100000)
required Expansion Memory 4352 KiB ($440000)

So you need 1MB chip to run it. I'm pretty sure it can be lowered to 512K and Stingray forgot to do it. Slave needs to be updated.

BTW I don't want to minimize JST features (and the unique ability to run on 1.3) but with all the memory you have you could easily softkick to 3.1 and use whdload (or JST ).

[wardo]

Hey jotd! Thanks for your swift response. No problem on the feedback, I'm a daily user so happy to help out if I can.

>> But it's an error because the autoanalysis from the whdload site just below states:

Is that the whdload.de? May I ask, where would I find the "autoanalysis" to check these things?

>> with all the memory you have you could easily softkick to 3.1 and use whdload

I have not really looked into whdload much as always been happy with JST. But would whdload help with only having 512K chip memory and not being able to run games that require 1MB chip mem (sorry if stupid question)?

[jotd]

check at the bottom of the page

http://whdload.de/games/TheSettlers.html

whdload won't help for memory issue. It's more the opposite. JST is keen on running software with PRELOAD even if the only way to exit the game is to reboot.

whdload is more compatible and less buggy. It also is much better for games which save to disk like adventure ones.

I'm on another project right now, but I may check why Stingray left the 1MB chipmem setup that we tend to avoid to be able to run on OCS machines.

[wardo]

>> check at the bottom of the page

Ah, I see. I'll check these pages from now on for compatibility.

>> whdload won't help for memory issue

Ok, understood.

>> whdload is more compatible and less buggy.

Right thanks, I'll have a look into softkick and whdload as an alternative when JST doesn't run things.

>> but I may check why Stingray left the 1MB chipmem setup that we tend to avoid

Is this something I could do?

[Jacques]

Hello there, thanks for jst
Is there a way to set options like HDLOAD or LOWMEM somewhere globally (config file), to avoid necessity of setting them in each icon's tool-type, please?

[jotd]

no, not done yet as I always refused to parse a text file from assembly. Plus LOWMEM and HDLOAD aren't particularly reliable

I suppose that you could wrap JST in a shell or a command that would add those for all games you run. If you're using a game launcher, it's probably simple to generate the same script with the same command.

[Jacques]

Hello jotd, thank you four your reply and all the great work you do, it's much appreciated!

As for the reasons behind the need of global settings file, in my case I'm RAM-limited to 2MB Chip + 2MB Fast on A500+ with A570. I'm preparing myself a bootable WB 1.3 CD including selected utilities and games. That includes JST ones using WHDLoad slaves for those not HD-installable which I selected around 100 of them, each runnable from icon. Of course the only chance to run the ones with 2 or more disks is LOWMEM/HDLOAD, so now I got into the trap of adding tool-types for that many icons
Of course some launcher could be used (1.3 is limitation, though), but all the fun here was to run them from under Workbench.

Oh, one more thing would be useful, if JST could accept wildcards in slave filename argument.

[jotd]

2MB fast + 2MB chip looks enough for a lot of games. So if you put LOWMEM in each slave that will be a pity as the game could be cached.

About wildcard, good idea but implementing it in kick 1.3 urgh ...

Another approach would be to use my tool called "compilation maker". Some people have used it, it basically takes a whdload game tree and creates scripts to run them on JST or whdload, that run with AGS. If it finds a whdload slave in the dir, then it uses it to create an entry.

Someone created a AGS game menu that works with 1.3. More info here: https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1606749

The cool point is that it could detect that the game needs LOWMEM on your configuration by computing data PRELOAD size too.

I'll look into this global settings file anyway, not too much work.

[Jacques]

Well, 2MB Fast + 2MB chip are not bad for A500(+), yet in case of 2 or more disks and whdload slaves requirements the trouble start

A wildcard support or an option to load first .slave jst finds in current directory would be great, the same for global settings file.

I also noticed a really weird problem when running some .slave(s) using jst under Kick/WB 1.3 where jst is set as default tool in the icon.
Let's say, I have a SYS:Games/JST/MortalKombat/MortalKombat,slave.
And also many other game directories in SYS:Games/JST/ .
Not all, but MortalKombat fails when I try to load it from an icon with JST as default tool. Output window is opened, it attempts to load disk images and then it's "freeing up..." everything and a GURU. It happens even if I close previous drawers(windows) fo free-up RAM.
As soon as I take MortalKombat directory higher up in the SYS: directory tree (e.g. SYS:MortalKombat/) it works just fine when loaded from the very same icon(!). Madness...

Oh, a one more thing: your github contains jst 7.1, which I believed was the latest one. But just from elsewhere, I found and downloaded one that prints to be 7.3?