hassinger@lmrc.uucp (Bob Hassinger) (01/09/91)
In article <9DocV1w164w@halcyon.uucp>, halcyon!elf@sumax.seattleu.edu (Elf Sternberg) writes: ... > Either I am incredibly unlucky, or I've got a major complaint > about PowerMonger. I am now on my third (yes, Third) copy of > PowerMonger, having returned the other two to the point of purchase. > I have a base Amiga 2000 with one external drive and NOTHING > ELSE; my diagnostic routines report full-power on all the chips, memoryis > fine, and I just had the drives cleaned. > It takes four or five re-boots to get PowerMonger to get past the > Scenario selection screen. I have had the program freeze up on me > several times. Sometimes, the program freezes up for up to thirty > seconds before recovering. ... I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one! I found that the ONLY way to use the game is to actually _unplug_ my second drive. I can understand not using a second drive perhaps, but to have its presence on the machine make the program hang is poor. My real problem though is that I too see the game just hang, or go-to-sleep from time to time. You see the water still rippling and so on, but there is no response to mouse clicks and things do not progress. Generally after a while it wakes up again and goes on. A couple of days ago though I had a case where it actually went to a Guru! I have been suspecting my hardware (A500, A501 & 1 Mb) but now with this post I am beginning to think there might really be a problem in the software. Anyone else seeing symptoms like this? BTW - I have noted what looks like other bugs. I was doing a cycle of try something then go to replay map. I found that it seemed some of the state of the game was not being reset. It seemed to be remembering alliances from the previous invocation, and I found that somehow my captain had become unable to pick up a boat. Everyone else could get one when I did equip invention on them, but he never got one. Very symptomatic of a programming bug. Now I just do retire, lose the game, and then go to select map and select the same one again. That seems to initialize things better. I really do think they short circuited the last part of the development and short changed OS compatibility work. Very frustrating considering how good the concept and basic game are. Bob Hassinger 508-435-9061 hassinger@lmrc.UUCP or ...ccavax!lmrc!hassinger
scottb@disdom.UUCP (Scott Barcik) (01/11/91)
In article <9522@lmrc.uucp> hassinger@lmrc.uucp (Bob Hassinger) writes: >I found that the ONLY way to use the game is to actually _unplug_ my second >drive. I can understand not using a second drive perhaps, but to have its >presence on the machine make the program hang is poor. > >My real problem though is that I too see the game just hang, or go-to-sleep >from time to time. You see the water still rippling and so on, but there is >no response to mouse clicks and things do not progress. Generally after a >while it wakes up again and goes on. A couple of days ago though I had a case >where it actually went to a Guru! > >I have been suspecting my hardware (A500, A501 & 1 Mb) but now with this post I >am beginning to think there might really be a problem in the software. Anyone >else seeing symptoms like this? I have the same set up as you, and have yet to find a problem with it yet. I have never had to unplug the second drive, and, though it sometimes hangs, it's only for a copuple seconds at most. My problem, however, is a little different...it seems that sometimes the mouse pointer doesn't actually click where it's supposed to (it would confirm the click about 5-10 pixels away...) No big deal really, but annoying none the less... -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Barcik - InterNet: scottb@disdom.UUCP WWIV-Net: 3@5309 USENET: ....!uunet!glacier!disdom!scottb ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "...and now back to our previously scheduled newsgroup..."
flutter@vtcc1.cc.vt.edu (Lloyd Eldred) (01/15/91)
In article <scottb.3530@disdom.UUCP>, scottb@disdom.UUCP (Scott Barcik) writes... >In article <9522@lmrc.uucp> hassinger@lmrc.uucp (Bob Hassinger) writes: (Scott and Bob report several problems they are having with PowerMonger) I've noticed several problems with PM that I haven't noticed being mentioned here before. (OK, I've skipped some messages, I'm sorry if these are a repeat). First, I'm running on an A1000 with 2 drives, and 2.5 meg. 1) I can't manage to convince it to save or even format a save disk. Without even spinning the drive it states that it's had a error. Is this perhaps related to Scott and Bob's external drive questions? I don't know. Something to try. 2) The various query info windows will eventually offset themselves so far down that they are unreadable. It's possible, but tricky, to drag them back up again. Annoying, but overcomable. 3) Minor gripe: The RETIRE option should have an Are You Sure? requestor if you haven't completely taken over yet. I mistakenly retired while there was a little gold in his side of the balance. Lesson learned, never to be repeated, but it was still annoying. Ok, a couple of strategy questions. A) Does anyone use their extra captains for much? It seems to me that with a finite number of available soldiers it's generally better to concentrate your forces and equipment under one guy, and substantially less annoying time wise if it's you. I end up using them to ferry food to my inventing towns. (Ok, only one question). Thanks all! Lloyd Eldred -- Va Tech Amiga Users Group (ARUS) President The Coconut Telegraph BBS (703-953-0605) SysOp
greer@mwk.uucp (01/15/91)
In article <9522@lmrc.uucp>, hassinger@lmrc.uucp (Bob Hassinger) writes: > In article <9DocV1w164w@halcyon.uucp>, halcyon!elf@sumax.seattleu.edu (Elf Sternberg) writes: > ... >> Either I am incredibly unlucky, or I've got a major complaint >> about PowerMonger. I am now on my third (yes, Third) copy of >> PowerMonger, having returned the other two to the point of purchase. >> I have a base Amiga 2000 with one external drive and NOTHING >> ELSE; my diagnostic routines report full-power on all the chips, memoryis >> fine, and I just had the drives cleaned. >> It takes four or five re-boots to get PowerMonger to get past the >> Scenario selection screen. I have had the program freeze up on me >> several times. Sometimes, the program freezes up for up to thirty >> seconds before recovering. > ... > > I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one! > > I found that the ONLY way to use the game is to actually _unplug_ my second > drive. I can understand not using a second drive perhaps, but to have its > presence on the machine make the program hang is poor. > > My real problem though is that I too see the game just hang, or go-to-sleep > from time to time. You see the water still rippling and so on, but there is > no response to mouse clicks and things do not progress. Generally after a > while it wakes up again and goes on. A couple of days ago though I had a case > where it actually went to a Guru! > > I have been suspecting my hardware (A500, A501 & 1 Mb) but now with this post I > am beginning to think there might really be a problem in the software. Anyone > else seeing symptoms like this? > . . . > > Bob Hassinger > 508-435-9061 > hassinger@lmrc.UUCP or ...ccavax!lmrc!hassinger -- Hmmm -- on my machine (A500, Adram board, 1 Meg, CA-880 add-on drive) it works fine with a second drive attached. It even formats disks in DF0: with no disk in DF1:, which the manual says may not work! I have seen the freezing fairly often; it appears to me as though it is off in some routine which does not bother with updating the graphics or acknowledging commands (what's it doing?!). It will acknowledge at least one (maybe more) mouse click entered while it is frozen (at least under some circumstances). I did have it Guru on me once when it froze up, but I seem to recall (this was late, and after playing for a long time) that I got impatient and started doing things to see if I could make it unfreeze. I rather suspect a command buffering problem or something of the sort. Does anybody know anything more about this, or should I write and ask? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Greer (greer@mwk.uucp)| This stuff springs entirely from my own mind, and M. W. Kellogg | is neither endorsed by nor known to my employer, 601 Jefferson Ave. | the U. S. government, the Vogon Poetry Appreciation P. O. Box 4557 | Society, or any other entity wise enough to avoid Houston, TX 77210-4457 | reading it.
huebner@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Robert E. Huebner) (01/16/91)
In article <979@vtserf.cc.vt.edu> flutter@vtcc1.cc.vt.edu writes: >In article <scottb.3530@disdom.UUCP>, scottb@disdom.UUCP (Scott Barcik) writes... >>In article <9522@lmrc.uucp> hassinger@lmrc.uucp (Bob Hassinger) writes: > (Scott and Bob report several problems they are having with PowerMonger) > > I've noticed several problems with PM that I haven't noticed being >mentioned here before. (OK, I've skipped some messages, I'm sorry if these >are a repeat). First, I'm running on an A1000 with 2 drives, and 2.5 meg. > >1) I can't manage to convince it to save or even format a save disk. Without >even spinning the drive it states that it's had a error. Is this perhaps >related to Scott and Bob's external drive questions? I don't know. Something >to try. The manual was pretty unclear here. What I need to do to get this to work is to (a) format the disk in Workbench (b) format using the Powermonger format command (c) save the game. This has worked great every time. The manual kidna implies that you can put a blank unformatted disk into PM and format it with their option, but this tends to hang or error. >2) The various query info windows will eventually offset themselves so far >down that they are unreadable. It's possible, but tricky, to drag them back >up again. Annoying, but overcomable. Yes. Even more annoying is if the close icon for a info box happens to land on top of a house or something. -- | Robert E. Huebner | "Death is nature's way of telling | | huebner@en.ecn.purdue.edu | you to slow down" | | huebner@aerospace.aero.org | - Unknown Author |
uzun@pnet01.cts.com (Roger Uzun) (01/17/91)
[
Having a 2nd floppy uses about 40k of memory, CHIP memory I believe.
If memory use is real tight, then you often must unplug a 2nd floppy.
This is most common with 512k machines, but given the 'source' and
past programming style of their products, they may assume a 512k address
space at a certain address, so the fact that you have less than the 512k
expected at this address may be enough to cause a software failure.
I love the game, and I love Populous, but the programming is unacceptable
in my opinion.
-Roger
UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd ucsd nosc}!crash!pnet01!uzun
ARPA: crash!pnet01!uzun@nosc.mil
INET: uzun@pnet01.cts.comsysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) (01/21/91)
In article <54391@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>, ztsindi@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Bill Gant) writes: .... > In article <9522@lmrc.uucp>, hassinger@lmrc.uucp (Bob Hassinger) writes... > >I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one! > > Nope, you are not alone. I have had repeating problemswith the sfx getting > stuck and the graphics repeating regardless of the instructions given to the > computer. A friend of mine has to fight with his copy to get it to save! You know, when I formatted my save disk, it seemed to just "go away" for a long time. After a couple of minutes, I got impatient and just ejected the disk. It's working fine, saving my games. :-) I've had minor glitches during the game, but as I posted before, the most annoying thing was not being able to run it on a friend's 1-meg (new agnus?) A500 without "nofast." > > Geez, what did they push on us? In my mind, the "lemme-take-over-your-machine" programmers are ultimately at fault. For one example, for the person who can't get PowerMonger to format a save disk, if PM used the OS, there would be no problem formatting a disk -- it's in there! Sure, problems should be caught with testing, but at least OS things should theoretically be stable, so why not use them? That's what it's there for. Problems aside, PowerMonger is a very fun game! Recently, I picked up Treasure Trap, partially because of it being mentioned here, and partially because it was on sale. Guess what? Wouldn't run on my machine. It's self-booting and takes over the whole machine, and so you can't use things like "nofastmem"; I had that "nofast" program which gives you 512K upon reboot. It worked. I have to ask, though, why in 1990 are games still being written for 512K-only machines? Or is there some other reason it won't run on an Amiga 1000 with 2.5 megs? (I mean, it's not like the A1000 is unusual. :-) I only have 1 floppy, too.) Otherwise, Treasure Trap is very good. I also bought NY Warriors on sale. It's a fairly basic shoot-em-up. I seem to have gotten halfway through the game in a couple of hours. Nothing noteworthy. > +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ > | Clayton J. Miner - Reality Engineer | [huge sig deleted :-] Disclaimer: hey it is all opinion! -- Gary Wolfe, SYSOP of the Temporal Vortex BBS // Amiga! ..uflorida!unf7!tlvx!sysop, unf7!tlvx!sysop@bikini.cis.ufl.edu \X/ Yeah!
darrinm@cabezon.uucp (Darrin Mossor) (01/25/91)
In a previous article sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) writes: ... > Strange thing, PM wouldn't run on a friend's new A500 with 1 meg of RAM. (He > also may have had a new Agnus; I forgot to run a check on his system to > find out.) After using "nofast" (the nice utility which reboots the machine > with 512K showing in the system), it ran fine. Note that if I didn't > happen to have "nofast", we simply wouldn't have been able to run it, since > PM has a custom boot-block and takes over the machine; Nofastmem comes with > the OS, but of course that won't work. Aggravating! (Especially since the > first time I visited I didn't have "nofast" with me. Grr!) and again ... > Recently, I picked up Treasure Trap, partially because of it being mentioned > here, and partially because it was on sale. Guess what? Wouldn't run on > my machine. It's self-booting and takes over the whole machine, and so you > can't use things like "nofastmem"; I had that "nofast" program which gives > you 512K upon reboot. It worked. I seem to be having the same problem on my A500, 3Meg Ram, SuperFatAgnus installed by my local Amiga store. I have looked on my local BBSs and on ab20.larc.nasa.gov for this "nofast" utility and I can't find it anywhere! Could some kind soul either post it (if its small) or put it up on an FTP site that allows anonymous FTP (which I have access to via MailFTP) or email it to me? I would love to see PowerMonger on my machine. Works great on my friends stock A500. It boggles the mind that these kinds of kludges are necessary to run such an otherwise impressive game. Darrin Mossor | Logic Automation - (503) 690-6900 | <Insert Standard Disclaimer Here> ..!ogicse!lauto!darrinm |