sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (01/03/90)
I recently bought SSI's "Heroes of the Lance" and found out that it will not work on Amiga 1000's or with the New super Agnus chip (at least not with 1 meg of memory on your machine). That's the word I got when I called SSI's hotline. At least that's what I was told as the reason. But the person I talked to seemed to be repeating what he was told to say if someone asked about the Amiga and this game. He didn't seem to understand what I was talking about when I asked him: "Well, why doesn't it work on my Amiga 1000 then? It doesn't have the new Agnus chip." He just repeated what he said earlier. A real-nice hotline (tech support) , eh? He did tell me that they would exchange the game for another of equal value, or give me a refund. I thought I would throw this news out as a warning for owners and potential buyers out there. -- John Sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps. Accessable thru Starlink (Louisville KY) sparks@corpane.UUCP <><><><><><><><><><><> D.I.S.K. ph:502/968-5401 thru -5406 We are the people our parents warned us about.
jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu (James Treworgy) (01/04/90)
In article <1277@corpane.UUCP>, sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes: > I recently bought SSI's "Heroes of the Lance" and found out that it > will not work on Amiga 1000's or with the New super Agnus chip (at least not > with 1 meg of memory on your machine). > > That's the word I got when I called SSI's hotline. At least that's what I was > told as the reason. But the person I talked to seemed to be repeating what he > was told to say if someone asked about the Amiga and this game. He didn't seem > to understand what I was talking about when I asked him: > -- > John Sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps. Accessable thru Starlink (Louisville KY) > sparks@corpane.UUCP <><><><><><><><><><><> D.I.S.K. ph:502/968-5401 thru -5406 > We are the people our parents warned us about. That's strange; I have an Amiga 1000 (1.5 meg) and it works fine... I bought it soon after it was released, maybe you have a newer version. Since it works on my machine I can't see why it couldn't work on your 1 meg machine (not a fast memory problem)... Have you tried kickstart 1.2 and 1.3? (I have a few things that won't run under 1.3 but work fine under 1.2). Strange, in any event. -- James A. Treworgy -- No quote here for insurance reasons -- jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu jtreworgy%eagle@WESLEYAN.BITNET
cmcmanis@stpeter.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (01/05/90)
In article <1277@corpane.UUCP>, (John Sparks) writes: > I recently bought SSI's "Heroes of the Lance" and found out that it > will not work on Amiga 1000's or with the New super Agnus chip (at least not > with 1 meg of memory on your machine). In article <5378@eagle.wesleyan.edu> (James Treworgy) comments: >That's strange; I have an Amiga 1000 (1.5 meg) and it works fine... No, what John has encountered is a whole new problem which once again demonstrates that you can lead a games programmer to a pile of documentation but you can't make him think. (Must be my day for flaming a particular group of folks.) (Note: Real programmers also program games, but theirs work on all Amiga models and configurations) The problem is will allocating memory. Some people allocate memory with AllocMem() or AllocRemember() and use the attribute MEMF_FAST. Why ? I suppose because they want to insure they get fast memory, but this has a nasty side effect on 512K Amigas and 1Meg Amigas with a Super Agnus. Namely, THERE IS NO FAST RAM. Oops, the allocation fails and the game goes Ptooey! This of course is the evil twin of those same programmers not specifying MEMF_CHIP on the early games when they needed it and having people with expanded Amigas yell and scream because the images and such looked like garbage! Read and understand : Don't ask for MEMF_FAST unless you *must* have it, just ask for 0 (essentally MEMF_ANY). If there is fast ram available you will get it, if there isn't you will get chip ram. This is generally the desired behaviour. Flame off... --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "If it didn't have bones in it, it wouldn't be crunchy now would it?!"
lindholm@cheddar.cc.ubc.ca (George Lindholm) (01/05/90)
In article <5378@eagle.wesleyan.edu> jtreworgy@eagle.wesleyan.edu (James Treworgy) writes: >In article <1277@corpane.UUCP>, sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes: >> I recently bought SSI's "Heroes of the Lance" and found out that it >> will not work on Amiga 1000's or with the New super Agnus chip (at least not >> with 1 meg of memory on your machine). >> . . . >memory problem)... Have you tried kickstart 1.2 and 1.3? (I have a few things >that won't run under 1.3 but work fine under 1.2). Strange, in any event. Heroes of the Lance does NOT work with 1.3 (!@&$^%) even though the manual says it will. George_Lindholm@mtsg.ubc.ca lindholm@cc.ubc.ca USERGNL@UBCMTSG.BITNET University of British Columbia Computing Services
pv_troia@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Paolo V Troia-Cancio) (01/06/90)
In article <6157@ubc-cs.UUCP> lindholm@cheddar.cc.ubc.ca (George Lindholm) writes: >Heroes of the Lance does NOT work with 1.3 (!@&$^%) even though the manual >says it will. Hmmm... I've playing the game on my 500 (KS/WB 1.3, 1MB, no FatterAgnus, Supra HardDrive) with no problems whatsoever. Perhaps someting else is causing the trouble. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paolo V. Troia BITNET: pv_troia@jhuvms.bitnet The Johns Hopkins University, MD Phone: (301)889-8613 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (Bela Lubkin) (01/06/90)
In article <129894@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Chuck McManis writes: >The problem is will allocating memory. Some people allocate memory with >AllocMem() or AllocRemember() and use the attribute MEMF_FAST. Why ? I >suppose because they want to insure they get fast memory, but this has >a nasty side effect on 512K Amigas and 1Meg Amigas with a Super Agnus. >Namely, THERE IS NO FAST RAM. Oops, the allocation fails and the game >goes Ptooey! This of course is the evil twin of those same programmers >not specifying MEMF_CHIP on the early games when they needed it and >having people with expanded Amigas yell and scream because the images >and such looked like garbage! Read and understand : > > Don't ask for MEMF_FAST unless you *must* have it, just ask for > 0 (essentally MEMF_ANY). If there is fast ram available you will > get it, if there isn't you will get chip ram. This is generally > the desired behaviour. Perhaps it's time for another program along the lines of 'FastMemFirst' and 'NoFastMem', etc. 'SatisfyMEMF_FAST' should cause requests for MEMF_FAST to be satisfied on machines with no fast RAM, returning chip RAM instead. A good design for this would be to A) fail to run (returning an error) on machines which do have fast RAM; B) trap memory allocations and clear the MEMF_FAST bit. I could see C) a flag which tells SatisfyMEMF_FAST 'I do have fast RAM, but stay in memory and if a MEMF_FAST request fails, retry it without that flag'. I don't think that is safe or desirable default behavior; we're talking about essentially a single-purpose program: running brain-dead games on 512K A1000/500's and 1MB Super Agnus A500/2000's). * Newgroup vote in progress: comp.sys.amiga.hardware; see call for votes in * * news.announce.newgroups. Unambiguous YES/NO votes to trent@ucscb.ucsc.edu * -- Bela Lubkin * * // filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us CI$: 73047,1112 (slow) @ * * // belal@sco.com ..ucbvax!ucscc!{gorn!filbo,sco!belal} R Pentomino * \X/ Filbo @ Pyrzqxgl +408-476-4633 and XBBS +408-476-4945
donw@zehntel.zehntel.com (Don White) (01/09/90)
Is anyone interested in reviewing this for the net? I am curious about this
game.
Don White
Box 271177 Concord, CA. 94527-1177
zehntel!donwsparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (01/10/90)
donw@zehntel.zehntel.com (Don White) writes: > Is anyone interested in reviewing this for the net? I am curious about > Don White Review (short version): The game is great, it just won't work with anything. Won't work with stock A1000 (might work with kickstart 1.2, I will have to check on this), nor with A500 or A2000 with the new agnus chip. The only thing I have seen it work on was my brother's A500 with KS1.2 ROMS and 512K memory. Read some recent articles posted here about the game. -- John Sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps. Accessable via Starlink (Louisville KY) sparks@corpane.UUCP <><><><><><><><><><><> D.I.S.K. ph:502/968-5401 thru -5406 If we weren't supposed to juggle, tennis balls wouldn't come three to a can.