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 -- UUCP: ...!{ utzoo,decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!watmath!daroloson ARPA: daroloson%watmath%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa CSNET: daroloson%watmath@waterloo.CSNET "I don't need a disclaimer. Nobody will admit to even knowing me."
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 -- UUCP: ...!{ utzoo,decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!watmath!daroloson ARPA: daroloson%watmath%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa CSNET: daroloson%watmath@waterloo.CSNET "I don't need a disclaimer. Nobody will admit to even knowing me."