Problem with the game "Brian the Lion"

HxC Floppy Emulator on Amiga support
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poweredjj
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Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:55 am

Problem with the game "Brian the Lion"

Post by poweredjj »

I have a problem with "Brian the Lion" game.
The game seems to run fine, but from time to time it loads data incorrectly. This causes graphics glitches on the map (or in the level) or crashes the game (black screen with weird sounds, or guru meditation). It is completely random, but sooner or later the game will crash, sometimes even after start menu.
Switching to kickstart 3.1 does not help.
Using different game versions from the internet does not help.
Converting images from adf to hfe does not help.
The same adf images work perfectly on WinUAE. This kind of problem did not happen to me in any other game, when using Gotek HxC.

I use Amiga 500 (1MB chip ram) with Gotek HxC drive (firmware version 3.0.8.2a).
If needed, I can take screenshots / video recordings of the problem.

AW99
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Re: Problem with the game "Brian the Lion"

Post by AW99 »

I have not often played this game on my HxC-Amiga500 or on my Gotek-Amiga500 until now, but the times i did it, it worked normally.

Some things you could try.

(1) try all different adf crack-versions from the Amiga TOSEC-archiv (but you already wrote, that you tried different ones)

(2) search for a ipf-image (original uncracked version) of the game, transform this into a hfe and then look if it works normally

(3) you wrote that your A500 has 1MB Chip. Maybe the game reacts a little bit strange, when there is no Fastram active. It`s a classic Amiga-game and back in the 90`s when players have their Amiga500 with an A501 memory-expansion they have 512kb Chipram + 512kb Fastram. This was the standard back then and for this, many of the classic-games were produced. My two A500 computers which have the Gotek and the HxC inside, both have "512kb Chipram + 512kb Fastram and Kick1.3". When your Amiga is a A500+ or you have modded a normal A500 and you can switch between "1MB Chip + 0 Fast" and "512kb Chip + 512kb Fast" then try the setting with Fastram. Maybe this helps?

(4) have you tried converting the "Brian the Lion" images to "hfe rev 2"? This i would also try, because this helps for some Demos, like for example "Jesus on E`s"

(5) last thing you should take care of is, that you always use the newest hfe transformation-software. because also this tool gets lot of updates, so you should try version 2.1.4.0 to convert the images into "hfe" or "hfe rev 2"

poweredjj
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:55 am

Re: Problem with the game "Brian the Lion"

Post by poweredjj »

Thank you for such detailed answer.

1. Yes, I've tried running all the versions I could find.
2. I can't find IPF version of the game. I will try to find it and check if it works.
3. I have a standard A500 with A501 512kb trapdoor expansion, modded to be seen as chip ram (mainboard jumpers soldered). Right now I cannot reverse this mod, but I plan to add switch for it in the future (I will need help with this, because I don't have any soldering skills). I've duplicated my Amiga config in WinUAE and tried to see if the game will glitch / crash the same way. The game worked normally and I'm convinced that 1MB chip ram is not the problem here.
4. I did not know about hfe rev 2. Tried to convert some of the game versions to hfe rev 2, but the game would load very slowly and always crashed before showing the map.
5. Yes, I did use the newest version of hfe conversion software from Jeff's site.

poweredjj
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:55 am

Re: Problem with the game "Brian the Lion"

Post by poweredjj »

I've managed to get a new disk drive for A500.
I wrote the adf images to floppies and played the game for over an hour. Despite my efforts (restarting first level multiple times to make loadings more frequent), there were no errors. The game played flawlessly.
Then I've swapped to Gotek and launched the same adf images of the game. 10-15 minutes were enough for the glitches to occur - errors in graphics on the map, in the level, glitched music and game crashes.
Next, I've inserted a brand new usb drive, formatted and with only Brian the Lion images. This did not help - the problems were the same as on the original usb drive.

Here are some screenshots of the errors in the game:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l8c3hixw4p0y ... q87Ua?dl=0

So, this proves that this is a Gotek HxC problem and my Amiga is fine.

Jeff
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Re: Problem with the game "Brian the Lion"

Post by Jeff »


poweredjj
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:55 am

Re: Problem with the game "Brian the Lion"

Post by poweredjj »

The game seems to run fine with new firmware. No errors occured during about an hour of testing.

There is a problem with the new loader, it complains about the lack of config file (even though the config file is present). I've used the old loader, it works ok.

Thank you Jeff! :D

Jeff
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Re: Problem with the game "Brian the Lion"

Post by Jeff »

poweredjj wrote:The game seems to run fine with new firmware. No errors occured during about an hour of testing.

There is a problem with the new loader, it complains about the lack of config file (even though the config file is present). I've used the old loader, it works ok.

Thank you Jeff! :D
About the cfg file issue, could you send me/share your config file ?

poweredjj
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:55 am

Re: Problem with the game "Brian the Lion"

Post by poweredjj »

It was a standard config from the new zip file you have provided.

The first time I was flashing the new firmware, flashing has finished with "10" blinking on Gotek drive. After power cycling Gotek did the update by itself (no buttons pressed) and it was completed correctly.

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