[net.micro.atari] Help needed with "Fractalus" load error

daroloson@watmath.UUCP (Dani A. Roloson) (05/23/85)

[ ... but I don't want to buy a 1050. ]

The Atari store here in Kitchener-Waterloo recently received
Epyx's "Rescue from Fractalus" by Lucasfilm Games.
Unfortunately, it appears to load correctly only on Atari-brand 
disk drives.  When I attempted to load it on my Indus or
the Trak's in the store, after going past sector 07 for the
second time, a multicolored screen appeared with LOAD ERROR
in large letters.

Does any one have any suggestions?

I did not have any such problems with "Ballblazer" and 
"Fractalus" worked on the 130XE with the 1050 drive so
I'm pretty sure it is not a computer compatibility problem.
It did not work with with my Indus and 800XL with
basic in/out and/or translator loaded/not loaded 
or the store's Trak's and old 800's ( we tried 4 disks that
came in two different shipments to the store ).

It was suggested to me that they placed extra protection
because of the large number of pirated copies but I find
it a bit unreasonable to make "Fractalus" work only on
Atari-brand drives ( checks disk speed??? ).

If anyone could make a LOCAL call to Epyx (Lucasfilm??) to
check whether this LOAD ERROR was intended ( maybe the
distributer up here just got a bad batch )
or if anyone knows of a disk-drive translator that makes
an Indus behave like a 1050 ( make it munch disks :-),
I would greatly appreciate it.

Someone mentioned that they had a copy that did work on their drive
but that they also got it before Epyx released it.  I do NOT want
to get my copy like this since I feel "Ballblazer" ( and possibly
"Fractalus", I didn't get accustomed to playing it in the store)
is one of the best games for the Atari and I want to
make sure that Epyx/Lucasfilm are encouraged to produce similar
high quality games.

BTW, Is Lucasfilm going to produce more Atari games for the XL/XE/ST
or was the agreement with Atari terminated instead of transferred to Epyx??

   Thanks,
      Dani A. Roloson
      Math Faculty Computing Facility, University of Waterloo, Canada

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kek@mgweed.UUCP (Kit Kimes) (05/23/85)

Your problem may very well be the disk drive speed.  A review of the
Astra 1620 disk drive in the June 1985 issue of ANALOG COMPUTING 
mentioned that they couldn't load BLUE MAX at first and the problem 
turned out to be the speed.  Use a good disk drive speed check program
to see what you are set at.  It should be 290 RPM.  The Astra was set
at 300 and was causing problems, so it is fairly critical.

Hope this helps...
 
					Kit Kimes
					AT&T Consumer Products
					Montgomery Works
					Montgomery, Il. 60538-0305
					..!ihnp4!mgweed!kek

daroloson@watmath.UUCP (Dani A. Roloson) (06/07/85)

[ ... but I don't want to buy a 1050. ]

> The Atari store here in Kitchener-Waterloo recently received
> Epyx's "Rescue from Fractalus" by Lucasfilm Games.
> Unfortunately, it appears to load correctly only on Atari-brand 
> disk drives.  When I attempted to load it on my Indus or
> the Trak's in the store, after going past sector 07 for the
> second time, a multicolored screen appears with LOAD ERROR
> in large letters.
> ....

One of the guys from the above store went to the show in Chicago
and told Epyx about my problem.  Epyx is aware of the problem
and will soon release a version that will run on all disk drives.
So, unless you have an Atari drive, you will have to wait a bit.
Anyways, I highly recommend the Lucasfilms games and will be
impatiently waiting for the two new titles.

   Thanks,
      Dani A. Roloson
      Math Faculty Computing Facility, University of Waterloo, Canada

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