Megatraveller slave

[BlueAchenar]

Originally Posted by Wepl

option Expert set?
correct hrtmon used?
hrtmon configured properly?

option Expert? Where do I set that?

I think HrtMon is configured properly, but I press the FreezeKey and nothing happens.

[BlueAchenar]

Finally, I got it to show up. Looks like the monitor I used to use back in the days.

[BlueAchenar]

I thought HDINIT would mount a partition DH0 automatically but HRTmon only lists DF0. Is this normal?

[Wepl]

Originally Posted by BlueAchenar

I thought HDINIT would mount a partition DH0 automatically but HRTmon only lists DF0. Is this normal?

HRTmon doesn't know anything about the virtual hd. How should that work?
He only supports disks on the builtin ide controller.

[BlueAchenar]

I can't see nothing abnormal in the load/save routines so far.

Do I have to do something to enable writing on the virtual DH0: or is it enabled by default?

[BlueAchenar]

Great news! The game is now saveable/loadable! It was not whdload related. The game just doesn't like to be run in the hard drive's root directory.

Just one more thing to solve before doing an installer. I might need some help on this one. It goes like this. Quitting the game normally quits to an OS 1.3 screen. The problem is this. The game is started with 'trav' which in turn runs 'startup.exe' and immediately returns. 'startup.exe' in turn does the same with 'space.exe', 'ground.exe', 'cgen.exe'. All '.exe' executables basically call each other and immediately return, so I have no way so far to know the game has quit.
Any hints anyone?

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by BlueAchenar

I just don't like the AsmPro's IDE. I don't even know where the file is being assembled to.

No idea if you still wonder, but AsmPro always assembles into RAM, it doesn't write anything to disk when you assemble your source.

[BlueAchenar]

Originally Posted by StingRay

No idea if you still wonder, but AsmPro always assembles into RAM, it doesn't write anything to disk when you assemble your source.

I got that sorted quickly: 'wo' (Write Object)

[StingRay]

For some reason I already guessed that.

[musashi5150]

Good work so far fella

[BlueAchenar]

Originally Posted by musashi5150

Good work so far fella

Thanks musashi!

Is it forbidden to upload uncracked game files to the zone like it is with IPFs? I'm almost finishing the main parts of the slave and maybe someone could test it while I finish that little quit thingie and the install script.

[Retro-Nerd]

Upload a preinstalled version. It's allowed to upload original non-IPF images.

[BlueAchenar]

Now I started getting a "Line 1111 Emulator" error on WHDLoad for no reason.

Phew, this is just one of those days...

[BlueAchenar]

Looks like there's still one problem to solve. The game treats DH0: as a floppy sometimes and others like an hard drive, so basically it will only search for saved games in the root directory (like it does for floppies) but will fail to open games in the root directory (like it does with hard drives).

[Mad-Matt]

Have the disk names been assigned to the virtual hd, incase its looking for its own floppies ?

[BlueAchenar]

I've tried that, but the game is prepared to run from an HD and so it didn't work. It is just getting a little confused.

If I do exactly the same thing as the slave by hand, it works fine.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by BlueAchenar

If I do exactly the same thing as the slave by hand, it works fine.

Does not compute If you would do exactly the same things it would work exactly the same. Jokes aside, what happens? Does the game show any "please insert disk xx" requesters?

[BlueAchenar]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Does not compute If you would do exactly the same things it would work exactly the same. Jokes aside, what happens? Does the game show any "please insert disk xx" requesters?

Ok, detailed info.

Directory structure:

WHD_MT -> slave and launcher icon
|
+-> data -> this directory is mounted as DH0: and WHDLoad:
........|
........+-> MT -> game files (executables, saved games, data, etc...)
........+-> LIBS -> libraries used by the game
........+-> C -> just the 'endcli' command

The slave does a DOSBOOT with HDINIT (I think, don't have the source here), then changes dir to "MT" and executes "trav", the main executable. If I try to load a game it says something like "saved games not found" and it loops trying to find games.
If I copy the saved games to 'data', the DH0: root directory it finds the games but is "unable to restore", same thing that happens if I try to open saved games in a physical HD root dir.

If I open a shell, change dir to MT and run 'trav' everything works ok. Same thing if I run it double-clicking its icon.

I've resourced 'ground.exe', the relevant file, but the code is assembled C and that makes it a little hard to understand with all the indirect references it uses.

[StingRay]

Sounds like assign would do the trick. I just post the relevant part from my Jonathan slave as that's probably the easiest way for you to see what I mean.

; assign jon1: - jon10: to current dir
	lea	diskname(pc),a3
	moveq	#10-1,d6
.loop	move.l	a3,a0
	sub.l	a1,a1
	bsr	_dos_assign		; assign jon1: ""
	addq.b	#1,3(a3)
	cmp.b	#"9",3(a3)
	ble.b	.isok
	move.b	#"1",3(a3)		; 68000 compatible :)
	move.b	#"0",4(a3)
.isok	dbf	d6,.loop

So you see, in your slave you just assgin each disk to the current directory of the slave ("slv_CurrentDir"), that way the game would "think" it runs from floppy.

[BlueAchenar]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Sounds like assign would do the trick. I just post the relevant part from my Jonathan slave as that's probably the easiest way for you to see what I mean.

; assign jon1: - jon10: to current dir
    lea    diskname(pc),a3
    moveq    #10-1,d6
.loop    move.l    a3,a0
    sub.l    a1,a1
    bsr    _dos_assign        ; assign jon1: ""
    addq.b    #1,3(a3)
    cmp.b    #"9",3(a3)
    ble.b    .isok
    move.b    #"1",3(a3)        ; 68000 compatible :)
    move.b    #"0",4(a3)
.isok    dbf    d6,.loop

So you see, in your slave you just assgin each disk to the current directory of the slave ("slv_CurrentDir"), that way the game would "think" it runs from floppy.

But I want it to think it is running from the hard drive. It must be just a small thing to figure out.