thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (06/09/89)
>>TWO<< new travesties on the Amiga?
Yep. SimCity and ELITE.
SimCity doesn't function on an '020 Amiga, and ELITE doesn't function on either
or both an '020 or a memory-expanded Amiga.
-------
SimCity
-------
Booting the disk, clicking on the SimCity icon, the "Road Sign" comes up and
all seems normal. Per instructions: Click on "Start New City", the mouse
pointer changes, disk gronks for awhile, then return to Workbench, and nada.
Not even after waiting 10 minutes does anything happen. Sort of like the
Spectrum Holobyte "FALCON". Hmmm, wonder if Broderbund/Spectrum Holobyte/Maxis
are in cahoots? Prior comments in this newsgroup alluded to the author of
SimCity being a C=64 hack ... it shows. Turning off the instruction cache
makes no difference; this "program" claims to need expanded memory, so I didn't
try the "tricks" as with ELITE (below). Almost as bad as "BALANCE OF POWER";
gee, what IS it with these Macintosh ports to the Amiga? :-(
Well, this turkey goes out the window and over the fence unless someone wants
to buy it before the FAUG meeting; best offer over $30 gets it.
-----
ELITE
-----
The instructions WARN not to even try it on a memory-expanded system. Sheesh.
Where have those cretins been the past 3+ years? In any event, fire up the
NoFast program (which permits other junk such as Archon and Archon II to
function on a memory expanded '020), insert the ELITE disk, and the screen
goes all rainbow, with nothing being read from the disk after the bootblock.
Needless to say, this one's for sale, too. :-(
Kinda wish I was going to DevCon so I'd have the opportunity to jam these
disks down the authors' throats instead of creating another landfill behind
my fence; the old fence collapsed last year from the mound of *C*R*A*P*
software that had accumulated since September 1985.
Don't even waste time suggesting the disk drive is out of whack; all of:
"Starglider II",
"The DUEL: Test Drive II",
"Interceptor",
"Scrabble",
"Ports of Call",
"Barbarian (the '020 version)",
"S.D.I.", and
"STAR FLEET I"
work just fine ... I just ran them again as a "control." And, yes, this is
under 1.3 Kickstart; SimCity loads its own copy of SetPatch, etc. etc etc.
If anyone's interested, the NoFast program is included below; it does permit
most troublesome software to function on an expanded system. Being only 3
lines of code, this shouldn't exceed network bandwidth requirements! :-)
Original author of NoFast is "Anonymous"; no name appeared on any docs.
;
; Introducing -- 'NoFast'!
; ============================================================
; NoFast is a simple system reboot program with an added kick!
; If your system has any external FAST ram, it will not be
; included in the system memory list, thus giving you a 512K
; machine at the WORKBENCH PROMPT!!!!
;
; To use this utility just type in 'NOFAST' at a CLI prompt.
; The Amiga will begin going through its reboot procedure. At
; this time, remove your disk and insert the disk you want to
; run with only CHIP ram.
;
; ps. I have not tried this with $C00000 type memory yet. I
; hope it works.
;
; NOTICE: I am placing this in the Public Domain. The object
; and source are freely redistributable.
;
; ------------------------------------------------------------
; I assembled this with the Amiga Assembler (Metacomco) and
; linked with BLINK using the amiga.lib library file.
;
; ============================================================
; ==== NoFast - SourceCode ===================================
; ============================================================
;
XREF _AbsExecBase * ptr to ptr to ExecBase
XREF _LVOSuperState * offset for SuperState()
movea.l _AbsExecBase,a6 * get ptr to ExecBase
jsr _LVOSuperState(a6) * do SuperState();
jmp $F80000 * jump to Amiga ROM start
ENDerk@americ.UUCP (Erick Parsons) (06/09/89)
From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) Message-ID: <19289@cup.portal.com> >< >>TWO<< new travesties on the Amiga? >< Yep. SimCity and ELITE. ><SimCity doesn't function on an '020 Amiga, and ELITE doesn't function on either ><or both an '020 or a memory-expanded Amiga. ^^^^^ >< ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hmm.. funny I just bought Elite and after reading the same thing in the manual I decided to try it anyhow.. Worked fine for me. I have an A-500 w/ 3 Megs and a GVP hardcard hooked up through a subsystem, i.e. Expanded ! Game play is REAL nice and true to the original as far as I can see. I've only played for about an hour though. The interface is pretty darn nice as you can use the mouse, joystick or keyboard without informing the program that you want to change i.e. joystick in one hand, mouse in your second hand and operate the keyboard with the other :-) The trading screen has been totally revamped and uses icons to trade and a psuedo calculator pad on screen to adjust quantities. Of course the ships are all solid now as is the space station and planets, and much faster. Go figure :-) -- ------------------ // -----------Cut-Here---------------------------------- Erick Parsons // Words for the wise: *If it works don't fix it.* Sacramento Ca // mail to: ...pacbell!sactoh0!americ!erk ------------- \\// --------------------------------------------------------
dwl10@uts.amdahl.com (Dave Lowrey) (06/10/89)
In article <19289@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: > > >>TWO<< new travesties on the Amiga? > > Yep. SimCity and ELITE. > >SimCity doesn't function on an '020 Amiga, and ELITE doesn't function on either >or both an '020 or a memory-expanded Amiga. > >------- >SimCity >------- > >Booting the disk, clicking on the SimCity icon, the "Road Sign" comes up and >all seems normal. Per instructions: Click on "Start New City", the mouse >pointer changes, disk gronks for awhile, then return to Workbench, and nada. >Not even after waiting 10 minutes does anything happen. Sort of like the >Spectrum Holobyte "FALCON". Hmmm, wonder if Broderbund/Spectrum Holobyte/Maxis >are in cahoots? Prior comments in this newsgroup alluded to the author of >SimCity being a C=64 hack ... it shows. Turning off the instruction cache >makes no difference; this "program" claims to need expanded memory, so I didn't >try the "tricks" as with ELITE (below). Almost as bad as "BALANCE OF POWER"; >gee, what IS it with these Macintosh ports to the Amiga? :-( > >Well, this turkey goes out the window and over the fence unless someone wants >to buy it before the FAUG meeting; best offer over $30 gets it. > You didn't mention what type of "'020" system you were using but... Does it work if you boot it in 68000 mode? On an amiga 2500, you still have 1 Meg to use in 68000 mode. Is that enough memory? BTW - The simcity DEMO works fine on my 2500, in '020' mode or not. -- "What is another word | Dave Lowrey | [The opinions expressed MAY be for 'Thesaurus'?" | Amdahl Corp. | those of the author and are not | Houston, Texas | necessarily those of his Steven Wright | amdahl!dwl10 | employer] (`nuff said!)
nop@cup.portal.com (Randy G Jouett) (06/10/89)
Thad, Maxis is indeed in cahoots with Broderbund :). Anywho, Maxis is is actually the now defunct Interactive Softworks. Jeff Braun, the original owner of Interactive, sold the company and had to retire the name. Anywho, they all decided that Maxis would be their name of fame. Will Wright, Maxis' link to Broderbund, was on contract -- and probably still under non-discloser agreements -- with Broderbund, and still has some ties to the company. So, anywho, Maxis wrote it and Broderbund publishes the thing. I'll put the problem on my grape vine and see if I can get the problem fixed. -- Randy Jouett sun!portal!cup.portal.com!nop nop@cup.portal.com
stephan@cup.portal.com (Stephen Derek Schaem) (06/11/89)
Thad, I have friends that runned elite 2 month ago on a 68010 amiga2000 using the 2 meg of ram... Also people how wrote those games want to survive and most of the games player dont have a 2500/4meg amiga. And the games are monotasking, in that mode everything should be autorized! But I know the way you feel about other kind of programes! I hope the amiga market will stay free, and that if people want to make 'C*R*A*P*E' for it so let it be. They just have to say on the label /*CRAPE FOR THE AMIGA 500 ONLY*\ :-) I got 4 or 5 things recently that didn't run, and none warned me! Well one worked but was unusable for my memerory configuration and HD size! You guessed ; B.A.D . And it hell to give it back and get a credit, money back?:-)
ali@polya.Stanford.EDU (Ali T. Ozer) (06/13/89)
In article <19289@cup.portal.com> thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes: >SimCity doesn't function on an '020 Amiga... >What IS it with these Macintosh ports to the Amiga? :-( A friend who works at Apple bought the Mac version of SimCity after playing with the Amiga version all day. She couldn't find a single Mac at Apple on which the program would run. Finally it ran on her Mac Plus at home. Sigh... Let's hope those guys read their registration cards and give us a new version which works right in interlaced screens, on '020 machines, and so forth. Those of you who buy SimCity and keep it --- fill in those "comments" fields in your registration cards! Maybe it'll help. Ali