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[nickoteen]

Hiya there ...

A noob seeking help here !
Here's the case. I have an A500 unit (m.b. rev 6A), a nice little PC-Amiga Explorer setup, file transfer working, no problems, but ...

Some games I transfered to fdds work without a problem (Another World, Dune, Monkey Island to name just a few), some won't work at all (Canon Fodder, Lotus Esprit, Prince of Persia, Turrican(s) ... etc.). The intro/cracktro loads fine, but than the screen (usually) goes black, fdd light glows orange, and nothing happens. The Amiga freezes as far as I can tell.

I have a ks 2.04 so I thought, ok, I must be having a compatibility issue here, and got my self a nice little ks switcher board and installed both, 1.3 and 2.04 ks, but to no avail. Games that didn't work on 2.04, won't work on 1.3 either.

The ADF's are fine, checked with WinUAE. They work in the emulator, but won't start on a real hardware. Any ideas greatly appreciated.

[spaceman88]

Hi,
How much RAM do you have on your A500?

[runequester]

As he said, how much RAM? A lot of games require 1 MB.

Also, is your machine PAL or NTSC?

[nickoteen]

Ah, yes, 4got to mention, 1 MB of ram. It's a german A500, so It must be a PAL machine.

[runequester]

1 MB PAL machine should be the optimal. Have you tried different disk images?

[nickoteen]

Well, as I mentioned, adfs work in winuae, so ... no. Although, I DL-ed 2-3 versions of Turrican II (I REALLY wanted to be able to play this particular game on a real hw), but none of them worked. I also tried three different adf versions of State of Art's Spaceballs, but none worked. Won't start. Other demos, like Arte, Elysium (sanity), Mega Demo II (alcatraz) work just fine. Really puzzled here.

[runequester]

I've found that emulators sometimes are less finicky and sometimes more so than real hardware. It's basically black magic.

I'm not sure why multiple versions wouldn't work though. Where in the world are you located? I could probably make you a copy and mail it or something, though I can only test it on my 1200, so that's not a guarantee it'd work.

[nickoteen]

I'm located in Europe. Thanks for the offer of making a copy, but I'm much more interested in why some stuff works and other doesn't. Could it be a compatibility issue still ? Newer Agnus, Denis, Paula chip(s) ? Maybe ? I'm a noob, so don't laugh.

[runequester]

Some old games are notoriously picky about the setup they'll run on.

For Turrican 2 and Cannon Fodder, I doubt that's the case though, given both runs on a 1200, which would be far less compatible.

[nickoteen]

Originally Posted by runequester

I've found that emulators sometimes are less finicky and sometimes more so than real hardware. It's basically black magic.

I'm not sure why multiple versions wouldn't work though. Where in the world are you located? I could probably make you a copy and mail it or something, though I can only test it on my 1200, so that's not a guarantee it'd work.

Err, since I've exhausted all my options by now (changed the floppy drives used to write adfs to disks (external, internal), changed the homemade null modem cable with a factory one, changed the floppy disks themselves (a new unopened box with another new unopened box), I think I'll take your offer and ask you not to make a copy of some games for me, since that would involve time and money, but to send a few adfs to my email just to check whether maybe there's something wrong with my adfs.
So, if it's not to much of a trouble, could you send me at least one of the following 880K adfs please: Turrican 2, North & South, Prince of Persia, Syndicate, Cannon Fodder, Lotus Esprit Turbo Challange, Moonstone ...

Any of them will do. I'm loosing my mind here trying to figure out WHY some of the games work and a whole lot of them won't work on my machine. Thanks in advance.

[runequester]

yeah for sure.
Let me try transferring one to disk later today, to verify it works, and then I'll email the same disk image to you. Might not be until this evening.

Can you email me at runequester@gmail.com ?

[nscaleworld]

The best Amiga 500 setup for classic Amiga games is Kickstart 1.3, 512k chip, 512k fast, normal Denise, 512k Fat Agnus. Anotherwards, nothing fancy, a stock Amiga 500. Also, make sure your disk drive can read past track 82. Newer Amiga disk drives will not read past track 82, so many games, especially with copy protection, will not work, because the copy protection tells the drive to load code from track 83, 84, or 85. So, make sure that the disk drive in your Amiga 500 computer can read past track 82. Just google for the drives specs on the internet.

[nickoteen]

Originally Posted by nscaleworld

The best Amiga 500 setup for classic Amiga games is Kickstart 1.3, 512k chip, 512k fast, normal Denise, 512k Fat Agnus. Anotherwards, nothing fancy, a stock Amiga 500. Also, make sure your disk drive can read past track 82. Newer Amiga disk drives will not read past track 82, so many games, especially with copy protection, will not work, because the copy protection tells the drive to load code from track 83, 84, or 85. So, make sure that the disk drive in your Amiga 500 computer can read past track 82. Just google for the drives specs on the internet.

Crap. Some of the games I transferred usig AExplorer, after loading intro and me clicking the left mouse button make a floppy drive produce a sound similar to: trrrrrrrrr (like there's something very strange going on while trying to read the disk). Could it be this "past track 82" thing ?

Otherwise the fdd works just fine, loads WB and a hole pile of other disks, without any problems.

[nickoteen]

Originally Posted by nscaleworld

The best Amiga 500 setup for classic Amiga games is Kickstart 1.3, 512k chip, 512k fast, normal Denise, 512k Fat Agnus. Anotherwards, nothing fancy, a stock Amiga 500. Also, make sure your disk drive can read past track 82. Newer Amiga disk drives will not read past track 82, so many games, especially with copy protection, will not work, because the copy protection tells the drive to load code from track 83, 84, or 85. So, make sure that the disk drive in your Amiga 500 computer can read past track 82. Just google for the drives specs on the internet.

I know Denise, Fat Agnus and Lisa are main components of OCS/ECS chipset (right ?), but I don't know what are "normal" Denise and 512k Fat Agnus. What other Denis/Agnus chips are there ? I bought my Amiga from a guy (it's been opened, can tell by looking at the bottom silver sticker being damaged), so maybe ... ah, I don't know, looking (grasping ? ) for straws here, just trying to figure out why 15 out of 20 top games on my "I REALLY want to play list" games don't work.

Thanks for your suggestions anywayz.

[nscaleworld]

Originally Posted by nickoteen

I know Denise, Fat Agnus and Lisa are main components of OCS/ECS chipset (right ?), but I don't know what are "normal" Denise and 512k Fat Agnus. What other Denis/Agnus chips are there ? I bought my Amiga from a guy (it's been opened, can tell by looking at the bottom silver sticker being damaged), so maybe ... ah, I don't know, looking (grasping ? ) for straws here, just trying to figure out why 15 out of 20 top games on my "I REALLY want to play list" games don't work.

Thanks for your suggestions anywayz.

The 512k Agnus is 8370. The normal Denise chips are 8362R6 and 8362R8 (Half-Bright Denise). These numbers are for the NTSC versions of the chips. Check the Big Book of Amiga Hardware website for the PAL versions. Give me a list of the games you like and I will make the disks, test them on my stock Amiga 500, and then I will ship them to you, just pay me for postage Also, I do have a spare 8370 Agnus chip I can mail to you for FREE, but, I do not know if it will also work in PAL mode.