Hard disk patched games in December - PP

[ppera]

Enchanted Land - Very nice platformer with lot of colors. Perfect scrolling - HW dependant, so not for Falcon.
Starquake - Spectrum classic. With trainer.
Spy vs. Spy 2 & 3 - Technically not the best, but very amusing.
Snoopy - similar to Garfield.
Dive Bomber - help to win WWII .
Space Fighter - Fast 3D, but far from original game. Trainer.
Spindizzy Worlds - Control that damn ball ! Trainer.
Sooty - Nice game for kids.
Magic Boy - Nice graphic, many colors, perfect anim and scrolling. Runs on Falcon, but without sound. Trainer.
Extase - Something original.

Added screenshots for games.

http://ppera.07x.net/atari/fromhd.php or http://ppera.exofire.net/atari/fromhd.php

[techie_alison]

Ooooh this is good.

I hadn't seen this before.



I WILL image Oids for you. Please reply back with complete idiot instructions (so that I don't have to think). May be useful for others too.

[ppera]

...
I WILL image Oids for you. Please reply back with complete idiot instructions (so that I don't have to think). May be useful for others too.

For me, and for others As you have only 486 PCs best would be to image with MAKEDISK. Or making image file on Atari.
May do with this (ST format): http://ppera.07x.net/atari/ppastsw.html - PRG 'TRACC - New version' . Don't care if it reports CRC errors. I assume that OIDS is single sided, so can write image file even to some PC floppy.
"so that I don't have to think" - well, by some SW thinking helps not much. Trying every (seemingly crazy) settings may help

[Pugsy]

Mug transferred his original for me over 2 years ago when I was working on a trainer....here's the old thread (the link still works):-



http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... s&start=18

[ppera]

Added in meantime:

OIDS
Mickey's Runaway Zoo - for small kids
Car Vup - interesting platform
Tai-Pan
Famous Five
F1 Tornado - fast 3D, low realism
Fascination - erotic adv.
Firestar - kill that mouse buttons
Lemmings 1 & 2
Flintstones - patched for TOS 2.06 and 4.0x .

Game table sortable by titles or upload/update time.

[christos]

I just run your Lemings 2 patch since I've been playtesting another version by a crew whose name I won't divulge, and I have to ask, why does it ask me to insert the Lemmings disk? Somekind of bug maybe? Because it doesn't recognise a blank disk as valid save disk. The other version saves and loads from HD just fine.

[Marcer]

Nice to see some other actions aswell!

Merry Xmas!

// Marcer

[ppera]

I just run your Lemings 2 patch since I've been playtesting another version by a crew whose name I won't divulge, and I have to ask, why does it ask me to insert the Lemmings disk? Somekind of bug maybe? Because it doesn't recognise a blank disk as valid save disk. The other version saves and loads from HD just fine.

Save/load is not supported. And I could say that you or any other people connected to undivulged crew is not allowed to even touch my adaptations (according to CJ's notes in ULS 3 and forums)
When I will be in mood will solve pos save/load, if it has even some sense...

[ppera]

Special Xmas gift: fixed video on Falcon in OIDS. Fixed sound playback of Magic Boy on Falcon.
Use sort by date on page, so latest updates will be on the top of table.

[Jammer]

Hi Ppera
Just trying Another World on my Falcon. Works great, even with powerup turned on, really smooth and fast. Just a couple of things, its the French version, which is no problem, just thought you may want to note that on your website and also is there anyway you can fix the sound, I could really impress the kids then ! Keep up the good work, and happy new year to you.
Jammer

[ppera]

Sound is knacky on Falcon ? I really can not qualify sound as my equimpent and ears are low quality Well, it can be fixed with little more work than just setting STE bus emul... Will do it with Engl. version...

[remowilliams]

Dive bomber - doesn't seem to work at all. First I get a GEM box asking me to 'insert disk @ into drive A:', then the floppy light goes on and I'm asked to 'insert disk A and press return' At that point it just keeps checking the floppy if you hit return, and does nothing else.

Oids - the bouncing ball on top of the I isn't visible on the title screen, though you can hear it and see the reflections in the other letters. After loading a bit, the palette corrupts into some hideous colors. After the game is started, the player weapon fire (regular or bomb) seems to have no effect on the enemy and enemy weapon fire simply passes right through the player. About the only thing that seems to work is crashing into the ground.



Running on MSTE 4MB/2.06/Satandisk 1GB SD/HDDRIVER/clean boot

[Steven Seagal]

Apparently Lancelot is not cracked.

AFAIK, the following L9 games weren't cracked (doc check):
Gnome Ranger
Ingrid's Back
Knight Orc
Lancelot

[ppera]

Apparently Lancelot is not cracked.

AFAIK, the following L9 games weren't cracked (doc check):
Gnome Ranger
Ingrid's Back
Knight Orc
Lancelot

Some games are already harddisk compatible. I just added them to list as it makes things easier. What I modded in games (and I do not cracks usually - why should do what is already done ?) is in file changesmade.txt

Steven Seagal: Lancelot is taken from Gamebase ST. If there is some problem with game then post them about...

Remowilliams: I tested those 2 games amoung other machines on Mega STE with 4MB and TOS 2.06. Please some more details: how many free RAM you have after boot up ? - Press M to get info . How many RAM hard disk driver occupies ? - it appears for moment while installs. As on site stays you need to decrease hard disk cache below 100KB.

I checked Another World on Falcon with VGA. There is no sound at all.... Funny - as it stays on Falcon gamelist that that game has sound on Falcon. Another, english version has no sound too.... I remember that it had sound... maybe there is some problem with my Falcon ? Or game has sound only on PAL TV ??

[ppera]

I uploaded video of running OIDS and Strike Force Harrier on Mega STE with Hddriver.
http://ppera.exofire.net/atari/fromhd.php or http://ppera.07x.net/atari/fromhd.php
- OIDS and SFH on Mega STE with Hddriver: 3 min video, 3MB. (Xvid codec). Around middle of page. Sorry, no direct file link is allowed.
Note amount of free RAM after booting.

Fixed Dive Bomber - read README.TXT in updated ZIP.

P.S. Another World has no sound on Falcon when attached to PAL TV... But DMA sound is OK, as I checked. Gremlins ?

[remowilliams]

Remowilliams: I tested those 2 games amoung other machines on Mega STE with 4MB and TOS 2.06. Please some more details: how many free RAM you have after boot up ? - Press M to get info . How many RAM hard disk driver occupies ? - it appears for moment while installs. As on site stays you need to decrease hard disk cache below 100KB.

I switched to a very small card/partition to reduce the footprint of HDDriver for testing purposes. My regular 1GB SD card - (450M part) | 3931910/Med 3956826/Low

The 16MB card used for testing | 3962616/Med 3987272/Low

That seemed to solve the problem with Dive Bomber, however the digi sound in the beginning is playing way too fast.

I uploaded video of running OIDS and Strike Force Harrier on Mega STE with Hddriver.

Oids on the other hand, exhibits the exact same behavior. Which seems to be confirmed in your video as well - there doesn't seem to be any player/enemy shot collision detection working. When you load Oids, can you actually destroy any enemy buildings, and can they shoot you? It seems in your video that the exploding enemy building shots pass right through your ship.

Additional - verified correct operation of Oids on the MSTE using the Ford Perfect crack. (thanks Marcer! )

[ppera]

....
That seemed to solve the problem with Dive Bomber, however the digi sound in the beginning is playing way too fast.
...
Oids on the other hand, exhibits the exact same behavior. Which seems to be confirmed in your video as well - there doesn't seem to be any player/enemy shot collision detection working. When you load Oids, can you actually destroy any enemy buildings, and can they shoot you? It seems in your video that the exploding enemy building shots pass right through your ship.

As I posted in previous one, there is update for Dive Bomber - and there is a launcher which will run at 8MHz, so sample will be good. But graphic is smoother when play at 16MHz - it is because of CPU speed dependant sample playback in game.

OIDS: you say exactly same, but intro is good in video (bouncing I ). I looked about it today afternoon - problem was in not well made Lemmings (crew) crack. Actually, game has pretty nasty protection in meaning that sometimes allow it to run flawless. But usually it was impossible to hit, or beeing hit. I used now Pasti image of original and removed some protections, and now works good. Hope, that there is no some more hidden protection. Posted new video, only here available: http://ppera.07x.net/atari/fromhd.php

It was not in plan that I will spend hours and hours in fixing bad cracks while doing hard disk adaptations...

Another example: Helter Skelter, version from 1990 - bad Automation crack . Much better tham earlier version. Game finishes when time-out happens instead to loose 1 life. I fixed it and added trainer options. Game is pretty fun, especially for kids.

[remowilliams]

Thanks, I will check out the updated patches.

Can you add an 8/16Mhz selector menu to your patched games (if an MSTE is detected) ? I think that would be extremely handy in many cases.

[alexh]

Is it as simple as enabling 16MHz on a MegaST before firing up a game??

P.S. I dunno why but exofire.net and 07x.net have both been banned at our work

[ppera]

Can you add an 8/16Mhz selector menu to your patched games (if an MSTE is detected) ? I think that would be extremely handy in many cases.

It's simple to do. So far, I did not encounter game where it was really necessary. I used to force 16MHz in games where it made them run smoother, and leaving on 8 if gameplay was too fast at 16MHz. Of course, best would be in case of Dive Bomber to set on 8MHz at start, and after finishing sample playbacks to speed up on 16... I will see, if it can be done without too much digging in game code. Just to mention that it will help not much by Falcon, as it has pretty different CPU cycles, so sample playback will be never at correct speed. Another game with similar sample playback is Star Trek.

[ppera]

Updates:
Another World: Added Falcon sound init, as it is needed for this game if play from clean boot.

Dive Bomber: Mega STE CPU speed temporary to 8MHz while playing samples.

Helter Skelter: Sample playback on all machines at start. Falcon PSG playback patch for cleaner sound.