Unicorns season: Prince of Persia for the A8!

[rensoup]

42 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

Here's a thought: Why don't we all use our collective expertise to try and figure out:

(a) what's broken where

(b) how to ask each other the bits of info we are lacking in order to fix it?

I'm not sure what part you're talking about: PoP not running on some machines or XBIOS ?

[rensoup]

34 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Single-Density:

• Booted fine from FujiNet 3 times in a row
• Dancing girl and mouse animations are at same speed as previous release (i.e., faster than the DD version)
• Fire button is read correctly, so disk swap and game start proceed as normal

Not worried too much about the SD version as it's the only one that seems to work reasonably well but I'm thinking you tested the previous build because I forgot about pressing the button for disk flipping and I disabled it... oops!!

[Mazzspeed]

Are people trying to load the ATR with HSIO enabled? Or am I taking replies out of context?

 

As far as I can tell, under xbios HSIO is a no go - The game simply won't load reliably in any way whatsoever. It's SIO 1x or .CAR, assuming you're lucky enough to own a cart the .CAR image works on...

[tschak909]

1 minute ago, rensoup said:

I'm not sure what part you're talking about: PoP not running on some machines or XBIOS ?

In the grand scheme of things, it does not matter.

Some users are not able to load certain versions of the game.

 

Potential problems could be:

 

* The loader in PoP

* XBIOS

* The firmware in #FujiNet.

* Somewhere else.

 

If there is an incompatibility in #FujiNet, I will work with everybody to try and fix it.

 

@xxl offered a plausible explanation.

 

-Thom

[rensoup]

7 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said:

Are people trying to load the ATR with HSIO enabled? Or am I taking replies out of context?

 

As far as I can tell, under xbios HSIO is a no go - The game simply won't load reliably in any way whatsoever. It's SIO 1x or .CAR, assuming you're lucky enough to own a cart the .CAR image works on...

did you try the new cart versions with your setup ?

[Mazzspeed]

2 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

In the grand scheme of things, it does not matter.

Some users are not able to load certain versions of the game.

 

Potential problems could be:

 

* The loader in PoP

* XBIOS

* The firmware in #FujiNet.

* Somewhere else.

 

If there is an incompatibility in #FujiNet, I will work with everybody to try and fix it.

 

@xxl offered a plausible explanation.

 

-Thom

I can load the DD variant under FujiNet no problem. However like RespeQt, I have to use SIO 1x.

[Mazzspeed]

1 minute ago, rensoup said:

did you try the new cart versions with your setup ?

Not yet, gotta get the Daughter off to school and I'll take a look.

[+x=usr(1536)]

29 minutes ago, zbyti said:

it will only loop the attract mode and not go into the game

 

I changed the anim speed to refresh every 127 frames instead of every 15, hopefully that'll help

My fault; somehow I managed to miss both of those.

6 minutes ago, rensoup said:

Not worried too much about the SD version as it's the only one that seems to work reasonably well but I'm thinking you tested the previous build because I forgot about pressing the button for disk flipping and I disabled it... oops!!

 

Doing a quick comparison (shasum -a 256) of the SD disk images from this version and the previous one I was using:

 

4f4c63380ae728eeb27853e60a37e665d2745e25c3764ef37e6d7f7ac67b85d5  PoP_SD_A_20210610.atr
45346d1bafcc44b2050c985558273fbd66051801a2988330d03ab2c87c3349d0  pop_SD_A_DLiTest.atr

29088021d27904e1678b87d2b2bf51dbc4bfe2fc0535b3e30fdb696aa9163312  PoP_SD_B_20210610.atr
b0ac5949509eb31582100fb5bc7f06824d9e1470661a829ac9a1d8fb32bca2eb  pop_SD_B_DLiTest.atr

 

It's clear that the disk images aren't the same, but given the differences in behaviours between the SD and DD DLI test versions, were all of the changes incoporated into the DD version also applied to the SD version?

Edited June 14, 2021 by x=usr(1536)

[+DrVenkman]

51 minutes ago, rensoup said:

Here's a zip with all the builds and a bunch of fixes.

 

...

Let me know how it goes, even if the game already works for you!

Okay tried all three .CAR versions and no change when trying load via my SIDE3 cart on my 1200XL. The AtariMax version goes straight to Self Test after attempting to boot, the other two go to whole-screen solid BSOD. This is the same behavior as prior versions.

 

Tried the ATR versions on the following:

1200XL+U1MB

576NUC+ 

1088XLD (which also has a U1MB and VBXE installed).

 

In the case of machines with U1MB's installed, I have memory set to 1088K, SDX disabled, PBI BIOS enabled to suppress BASIC but HSIO turned OFF. In each case, the files were loaded via attached FujiNet devices from my home LAN server. 

 

DD - loaded fine on all three machines

SD - disk 1 loaded fine on all three machines but after the prompt to swap disks, the program refused to continue loading in every instance on all three machines. This is a regression from the last version, which was the only one which worked properly (but only on the 1200XL in any case). 

 

Hope this helps.

[tschak909]

2 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said:

I can load the DD variant under FujiNet no problem. However like RespeQt, I have to use SIO 1x.

I can't, and I'm testing with both my 1200XL with U1MB, and my unmodified 130XE. I will try with the DLI build.

 

-Thom

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by tschak909

[rensoup]

26 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

Some users are not able to load certain versions of the game.

So we're talking about PoP... Some people have been wanting faster loading speed with XBIOS which is a totally different issue.

 

I just uploaded those new builds and I'm eager to know if they work, so at least the cart issues would be fixed and we can move on to fujinet

 

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by rensoup

[manterola]

None of the ATR versions worked for me. I load them using AVGCart, Fujinet and RespeQT , with and WITHOUT Hias HS mods. Finally I tied a 130XE (no mods, stock) and it did not work either.. My last attempt will be to create some floppies and try both stock XF-551 and  stock 1050. 

BTW, I had no problems with previous versions of PoP

 

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by manterola

[rensoup]

17 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

@xxl offered a plausible explanation.

There may still be an issue with loading speed because the anim takes too much time, but I don't know how bad it is because I slowed it down drastically

[Irgendwer]

BTW: Anybody else had this association:

 

?

;)

[rensoup]

15 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

It's clear that the disk images aren't the same, but given the differences in behaviours between the SD and DD DLI test versions, were all of the changes incoporated into the DD version also applied to the SD version?

yes but it shouldn't matter, the SD version seemed ok before.

 

16 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Okay tried all three .CAR versions and no change when trying load via my SIDE3 cart on my 1200XL. The AtariMax version goes straight to Self Test after attempting to boot, the other two go to whole-screen solid BSOD. This is the same behavior as prior versions.

well that's disappointing...

 

17 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

SD - disk 1 loaded fine on all three machines but after the prompt to swap disks, the program refused to continue loading in every instance on all three machines. This is a regression from the last version, which was the only one which worked properly (but only on the 1200XL in any case). 

Yes, input is disabled, I forgot about disk swapping.

[rensoup]

5 minutes ago, Irgendwer said:

BTW: Anybody else had this association:

 

?

YEAH !

 

Seriously, I was going to mention that to @TIX because it's been bugging me for many months ?

[+DrVenkman]

1 minute ago, rensoup said:

well that's disappointing...

 

Indeed, since Space Harrier is also a 1024K .CAR file yet loads and plays fine from SIDE3 even on my 64K 600XL (as it's doing at this very minute as a test). But that's the nature of bug-stomping.

 

Thank you for staying with it. 

[rensoup]

15 minutes ago, manterola said:

None of the ATR versions worked for me. I load them using AVGCart, Fujinet and RespeQT , with and WITHOUT Hias HS mods. Finally I tied a 130XE (no mods, stock) and it did not work either.. My last attempt will be to create some floppies and try both stock XF-551 and  stock 1050. 

BTW, I had no problems with previous versions of PoP

Well I'm going crazy... by previous versions, you're including the 202106 release ?

[+x=usr(1536)]

3 minutes ago, rensoup said:

yes but it shouldn't matter, the SD version seemed ok before.

Right, understood ?  What I'm not grasping is why the changes that are visible in the DD version (slower animations, for example) aren't visible in the SD version.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

yesterday I tested the (now) "old" .CAR versions on my PAL 800XL with 512k SRAM enhancement by tf_hh and AVG cart and all of them worked fine - I could start and play a game (even finished level 1). Yes, all three CAR versions worked fine on a real 800XL from AVG cart. (and the 512k SRAM is the only enhancement in this computer).

 

Today I tested the DD disk version with the same Atari and a 1050 drive with Speedy enhancement (but using normal mode, not ultraspeed) - the game loaded and loaded with what seemed like approx. 25%-50% speed, much slower than 1x SIO and with lots of pauses (loaded approx. 3 sectors and pause, load some more sectors and pause, etc.)  and it took approx 3 - 5 minutes until it had finished loading and I could play a game. But it worked.

 

[rensoup]

6 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Right, understood ?  What I'm not grasping is why the changes that are visible in the DD version (slower animations, for example) aren't visible in the SD version.

They should be, like I said I believe you retested the previous SD version ?

24 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

SD - disk 1 loaded fine on all three machines but after the prompt to swap disks, the program refused to continue loading in every instance on all three machines. This is a regression from the last version, which was the only one which worked properly (but only on the 1200XL in any case). 

you said you were able to play the game?

[rensoup]

6 minutes ago, CharlieChaplin said:

Today I tested the DD disk version with the same Atari and a 1050 drive with Speedy enhancement (but using normal mode, not ultraspeed) - the game loaded and loaded with what seemed like approx. 25%-50% speed, much slower than 1x SIO and with lots of pauses (loaded approx. 3 sectors and pause, load some more sectors and pause, etc.)  and it took approx 3 - 5 minutes until it had finished loading and I could play a game. But it worked.

Can you retry with the new test build to see if the DD loads faster ? (It won't let you into the game)

[+x=usr(1536)]

2 minutes ago, rensoup said:

They should be, like I said I believe you retested the previous SD version ?

Well...  I think you may be right ?  Not sure how it happened, but despite keeping the images in separate directories, it appears as though I still managed to load the wrong ones.  Double-checked with the correct ones, and, yep, can't get past the disk swap.

2 minutes ago, rensoup said:

you said you were able to play the game?

Not now ?  Apologies for the confusion.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Not tonight, its 30 minutes after midnight here in Germany and I am going to bed now. Only six hours sleep for me and then I have to go to work, so I can test it no sooner than tomorrow (late evening)...

 

[manterola]

34 minutes ago, rensoup said:

Well I'm going crazy... by previous versions, you're including the 202106 release ?

I have been trying only the ones in the first post (20210610), not the ones posted later.

When talking about previous versions, I was talking about 2020 and before versions.

 Anyway, I was able to play using the megacart version.   I will create some flopiies to try, since I like to enjoy some games the old way (from diskettes)