[comp.sys.amiga] Three big warnings about "RGB" in the binaries group

denbeste@bbn.com (Steven Den Beste) (01/01/89)

I just got through downloading "RGB" from the binaries group, and there are
three big warnings, which I'll give to you in rising order of importance:

Warning 1: The first disk must be named "ArteMatica #3" and the second disk
must be named "ArteMatica #3.1". These volume names are buried in the animation
- there is no simple place you can change them. (Of course, you could do an
assign, but why bother?)

Warning 2: Don't bother downloading RGB if you have less than 2.5 megabytes of
RAM. It won't run with less. (If you have 2.5 MB and a HD, you'll have to build
standalone disks as described above which don't mount the harddrive. Otherwise
you will run out of chip RAM.)

Warning 3: Don't bother downloading RGB unless you have a PAL Amiga. Yep,
that's right, buckaroos, all you Amigoids here in the States are shit out of
luck. Our Italian friends won't be getting any ten dollar bills in the mail
from here. (The Germans and Danes have the choice of sending either $10 or
10,000 Lira...  yep, it's shareware.)


Rats. What I could see of it looked mighty fine, too. Our Italian friends seem
to have been justly proud of what they've done.


Steven C. Den Beste,   BBN Communications Corp., Cambridge MA
denbeste@bbn.com(ARPA/CSNET/UUCP)    harvard!bbn.com!denbeste(UUCP)

scotth@harlie.SGI.COM (Scott Henry) (01/02/89)

From article <33990@bbn.COM>, by denbeste@bbn.com (Steven Den Beste):
> 
> I just got through downloading "RGB" from the binaries group, and there are
> three big warnings, which I'll give to you in rising order of importance:
> 
> Rats. What I could see of it looked mighty fine, too. Our Italian friends seem
> to have been justly proud of what they've done.
> 
> Steven C. Den Beste,   BBN Communications Corp., Cambridge MA
> denbeste@bbn.com(ARPA/CSNET/UUCP)    harvard!bbn.com!denbeste(UUCP)

Rats! and I spent all that effort bringing it down and setting it up!
BTW, do the same "Gotchas" go for MoebiuS, also, since its from the same
Italian group? ie: PAL only, undocumented disk label and all (just 1.5MB
instead of 2.5MB)?

I guess, our comp.{source,binaries}.amiga moderator needs to check out
animations somewhat more thoroughly than other  binaries... :-). Or at least
post a warning in clear about the poosible requirement of a PAL Amiga for
these animations.

	Scott Henry <scotth@sgi.com>

PS: did you note the incredibly useful error-messages you get from the player?
--
              Scott Henry

wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) (01/03/89)

In article <24163@sgi.SGI.COM> scotth@harlie.SGI.COM (Scott Henry) writes:
>
>Rats! and I spent all that effort bringing it down and setting it up!
>BTW, do the same "Gotchas" go for MoebiuS, also, since its from the same
>Italian group? ie: PAL only, undocumented disk label and all (just 1.5MB
>instead of 2.5MB)?

Apparently.  The MoebiuS disk must be labeled "Artematica #2". I couldn't
get anything from CLI, so I loaded workbench and double-clicked the
MoebiuS icon; about 45 secs of disk activity, then a clean exit.

This after nearly two hours of downloading.  Oh, well, I got in several good
games of Tetrix and Tiles 8-)

>I guess, our comp.{source,binaries}.amiga moderator needs to check out
>animations somewhat more thoroughly than other  binaries... :-). Or at least
>post a warning in clear about the poosible requirement of a PAL Amiga for
>these animations.

Rather.  Compliments to Bob for getting out an incredible number of 
binaries (heck, I thought our newsfiles were corrupt when I saw over
60 postings in c.b.amiga 8-), but perhaps he's shaved a few too many
corners ?




------------------------------ valuable coupon -------------------------------
Bill Thacker						att!cbnews!wbt
	"C" combines the power of assembly language with the
	 flexibility of assembly language.
Disclaimer: Farg 'em if they can't take a joke !
------------------------------- clip and save --------------------------------

vinsci@abo.fi (Leonard Norrgard) (01/04/89)

In article <33990@bbn.COM>, denbeste@bbn.com (Steven Den Beste) writes:
> I just got through downloading "RGB" from the binaries group, and there are
[...]
> Rats. What I could see of it looked mighty fine, too. Our Italian friends seem
> to have been justly proud of what they've done.

*** Flame on ***

  So now you all know how anyone outside the states feels when some ignorant
[US] programmer has hardcoded a keymap (there are lots of those, both keymaps &
ignorant programmers, it seems), or tried to do their own semi-intelligent
keymapping.

*** Flame off ***

  Bryce Nesbitt, BTW, has written an example (nov 1987) on how to correctly
decode the keyboard, using DeadKeyConvert() from the Amiga 1.2 Enhancer manual,
pp 65,66. Have a look at the code, if you haven't already. It makes sense.

-- 
Leonard Norrgard, vinsci@abo.fi, vinsci@finabo.bitnet, +358-21-654474, EET.

donw@zehntel.zehntel.com (Don White) (01/11/89)

In article <1286@abo.fi> vinsci@abo.fi (Leonard Norrgard) writes:
>  So now you all know how anyone outside the states feels when some ignorant
>[US] programmer has hardcoded a keymap (there are lots of those, both keymaps &
>
>*** Flame off ***
>Leonard Norrgard, vinsci@abo.fi, vinsci@finabo.bitnet, +358-21-654474, EET.

     Leonard! Both countries have this problem. EVERY game I have used which
  came from Europe has had compatability problems. (4 or 5 games) The main
  problem I see is that European Programmers don't account for the smaller
  screen allowed on US Amigas. European programs crash frequently on my 1000.
  Sprites usually turn to garbage after a short time of playing.

     I am frustrated because many European games would be very good, if they
  worked.

     So, all flames aside, how do we educate the amiga community? (world)

     Maybe we can compile a concise list of programming requirements between
  US and European machines.

     Two Items which clearly must be addressed -

         Allow for all keymaps
         Detect system type and adjust for screen size
        
     Also, get someone to try your program out on the kind of system you DON'T
  have.

     
     It would be nice to cut down on flames and increase the usefulness of this
  net.

     Don White
     zehntel!donw
     PO BOX 271177 Concord, CA. 94527-1177
  (* Hope this helps! *)