Playing "Legend of Faerghail", suddenly "Software error - Task Held"?

[arto]

When I try to dismiss a character from my party (very routine task) the game kicks me out into Amiga Desktop and says "Software Error - Task Held, press Cancel to debug/restart" and then it jumps to:

"GURU MEDITATION, #87000008.265F48F1"

I've been using WinUAE for six months with no problems, wonderful software, have finished "Crossbow - Legend of William Tell" and have played "Legend of Faerghail" since this summer, but tonight something happened.

In LoF, when I am in any Tavern ( http://i.imgur.com/0rU9K1D.jpg ) I can temporarily dismiss characters from my party and add others from the roster (to store rations and equipment on "packmule" characters), I have had no problem juggling these characters for six months, and just two hours ago I did my last search through all my characters in the roster to find an artifact that I nabbed and put on my thief.

I never save the game on virtual floppy disks, I just save the "Game State" in .uss files under WinUAE's "Miscellaneous". I've never had a problem with it.

This error code ("Software Error - Task Held") started happening when dismissing a character an hour ago, and even if I reload to an earlier state and erase a few characters from the roster I still cannot dismiss characters from my existing party without the emulator crashing.

So all the gear and artifacts that lie on my mule characters (some of the artifacts are required for the endgame) are inaccessible right now. What can I do?!

I cannot imagine that the game files have suddenly grown too big from my hoarding, because I am only on level 7 with my characters and the recommended level for taking on the end boss is lvl 25-30.

My settings are:

CPU: 68000

Chipset: OCS

ROM: Kickstart v1.3 rev 34.5 (1987)(Commodore)(A500-A1000-A2000-CDTV).romc

RAM: 512 Kb

Edit: I tried to boot the game in WinUAE from scratch, instead of just starting WinUAE and reloading a saved .uss-state, but when I put in the three .adf floppy disks under "Floppys" and press start, I can't get the game to boot anymore, it says this: http://i.imgur.com/QcDfGvV.jpg

Also, if I load a week-old save state and try to do anything now, like open a character menu, I get kicked out and get above error message.

[Toni Wilen]

It isn't safe to use statesaves if game will update part of save data (or have sort of temp save file) or character data in some situations. For example some RPG games do it when entering/exiting town. You need to do "normal" save to update all.

Above example can cause inconsistent game state if you create state file, exit town (game updates internal temp save file), load state file: When you exit town again, game can get confused if it firsts loads part of game state and data isn't what game expected (wrong state, game state was supposed to be "town state" but unexpected it was "world map state")

I think in your case game has separate on disk roster save file and game got confused when it attempted to read or write it but it was wrong size or contained unexpected data. (Character has disappeared or is already in roster file and at the same time in party or some other unexpected state)

You can try saving normal game save, perhaps it rewrites full roster file too.

Statefile does not include possible modified disk image files, you can of course manually copy and match statefiles and disks if you want but it is quite boring..

EDIT: It is good idea to create normal save periodically and keep back up of save disk to prevent complete data loss if game gets confused.

[arto]

Aha, that's very interesting. Thank you for the response. I found this thread ( http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=70216 ) when reading up about saves in the game, and I added the savegame disk ("Legend of Faerghail v2.0e (1990)(Rainbow Arts)[save disk]") to slot DF3. I can now reach this screen (attached picture) when pressing "O" and choosing "Save Game", but I don't know what to write in the slot "Directory". If I just press "Save" it says "Gamesave1 could not be created". Do I need to write some detailed directory?

By the way, does this mean I have to start the game by booting it up every time? I can't start it using a save state? It goes so much faster when starting from a state.

[arto]

Another issue: I can't start the game by choosing the three game disks in Floppy and just pressing "Start" anymore, then I just get this: http://i.imgur.com/QcDfGvV.jpg

The only way I can get into the game is by loading a save state. I can quit the game and drop out into Workbench, but if I doubleclick the game icon on the Amiga Workbench it plays the game intro and then jumps back to above "illegal instruction".

Maybe I need to download the latest WinUAE 3.2.2 with 64-bit support? I am running the 3.0.0 version, and I think it's 32bit.

[Arnie]

Can you upload the adf's you use (including the save disk), the savestate and the config file for WinUAE?

[arto]

Yes! Here are the files, it's LoF-version 2.0e.

I just updated to WinUAE 3.2.2 64bit, I managed to boot the game. My characters were in the roster, and my money was even still in the bank. I immediately left town to try and save the game in the wilderness, and it worked! I am going to try and load that save now, but the problem is that the game is super slow, like 5% of normal speed, moving one grid-frame takes 2 minutes.

Any idea how to speed the game up? It seems to have the same settings as my older WinUAE (68000, OCS, 512 Chip RAM/512 Slow RAM)...

[Arnie]

Unfortunately I don't have a 64bit PC to test it on. It does however load O.K on my 32bit PC using your save disk but only if I use 2 disk drives.

Plays smooth using default A500 1.2, 512/512.

Try setting CPU and FPU setting to fastest possible.

[arto]

Thank you! I will try it as soon as I get home.

Settings like this? https://thecakeisaliegaming.files.wo...nd-fpu-tab.jpg
But still 68000?

[thomas]

Originally Posted by arto

Another issue: I can't start the game by choosing the three game disks in Floppy and just pressing "Start" anymore, then I just get this: http://i.imgur.com/QcDfGvV.jpg

You should use the config specified in your first post. This hardcopy looks like you didn't use any config, just WinUAE's default (which is AROS ROM, not Kickstart).

Or just select "a500" from the quickstart menu.

[arto]

Okay, quickstart preset, sounds good. Do I need to point to a Kickstart 1.3 file physically? Or does the preset provide actual KS, not Aros?
I think I got a KS 1.3 before, but it was a year ago so I don't remember if it was WinUAE or Winfellow that required it.

[arto]

UPDATE: I have tried running the game with the CPU setting "Fastest Possible", but if I do, there is screen tearing when I move in the wilderness and after about ten moves the game gives me this warning about "structure table" that I have never seen before (attached picture). What do I do?

[Arnie]

You could try moving the slider to the left until you reach a happy medium of speed vs playability.

[arto]

Is "Floppy drive emulation speed" under "Floppy" something worth messing with? Or is it meaningless?

Can you send me your config file? Of what you used when you got into the game with my chars?