ADFFS 2.15 RC

[JonAbbott]

I've put a release candidate of ADFFS 2.15 onto the dev site, which includes:

AutoVIDC 2.09
LCDGameModes 0.21b
FPEmulator 4.32 (although it's commented out in !Run as ZLib seems to work without it)

[steve3000]

Downloaded, and running on the A4000 - looking good so far.

Ready for some proper testing this weekend

[PaulV]

I'll be putting it on the A410/1 and the A5000 for testing this evening. It's on the A410/1 now and seems to be working well. I like that I don't need to run my custom Obey file to get all the support modules needed for gaming now

Paul

[JonAbbott]

I forgot to mention that I added a line in the !Boot, which you can uncomment to force LCDGameMode on. In the !Run I set it to load LCDGameModes along with AutoVIDC up to, but not including Risc OS 3.5

On Sunday, I'll put it on all my machines and start testing. I'll concentrate on the ones not listed above, ie. Pi, Risc PC (ARM710), Risc PC SA, Kinetic 300, A440/1, A7000+

[PaulV]

I've been testing ADFFS this evening on the A410/1 and the A5000 and everything seems to be A-OK.

One thing I've noticed is that the A410/1 plays Xenon II faster than the A5000 probably because the A410/1 is on a SVGA monitor and the A5000 is on a multi-sync and uses a 15kHz mode.

I tried ADFForceVSync with various values from 1 upwards but it just makes the game flicker badly and it gets worse with higher values

Another thing of note is Chuck Rock. It works fine on the A5000 and does not have that weird lock up thing that I see on the A410/1 if I don't press and hold the space bar... It plays well on both machines though and ADFFS disc changes are OK as long as there's enough RAM free as always.

On the free RAM front, I tried Chuck Rock with too little RAM first of all and the disc change caused ADFFS to release the ADFS mapping and return it to the actual floppy drive but there was no error or other indication that ADFFS couldn't allocated enough RAM for the disc image.

My Zarch ADF from my original disc which uses SquishFS is working just fine too.

I figured I'd mix it up a bit and try some games I had on my Amiga that I've not played before.

Hostages on PIAS 1 was fine but is a shockingly bad game so I didn't play it for too long.

GODS doesn't seem to let me switch discs. If I install it on the HDD and use ADFFS to managed Disc 2 everything is fine and it works. I may need to launch this one from the supervisor, it could just be memory but I've not got that far with it yet... I got distracted playing it!

Paul

[JonAbbott]

One thing I've noticed is that the A410/1 plays Xenon II faster than the A5000 probably because the A410/1 is on a SVGA monitor and the A5000 is on a multi-sync and uses a 15kHz mode.

I tried ADFForceVSync with various values from 1 upwards but it just makes the game flicker badly and it gets worse with higher values

Ah...I'd forgotten about that issue. I noticed it a while back on another game and was going to try stripping out the Pi specific code to see if it resolved it, I think I forgot because I didn't notice it on any others. I'll check this.

EDIT: I've checked Xenon II on 2.09 (prior to adding ADFIgnoreVSync), it looks like the additional code for this is causing the issue so I'll get this fixed. For the time being, you can use the following commands to will stop the flickering and set the correct FPS:

Code: Select all

*ADFIgnoreVSync Y
*ADFForceVSync 2

If you need to slow it further, use CTRL-SHIFT-Page Up/Down in-game. Each press will add/remove a centisecond delay.

On the free RAM front, I tried Chuck Rock with too little RAM first of all and the disc change caused ADFFS to release the ADFS mapping and return it to the actual floppy drive but there was no error or other indication that ADFFS couldn't allocated enough RAM for the disc image.

Any idea what we could do to indicate the problem? I figured the fact the floppy is flashing was probably good enough as there's nothing we can do to recover the situation. The bulk of the games have a boot script to get around this (although some need changing since the switch to DA's), so in general using "Boot floppy" will fix it. On my list of things is some form of indicator to show that "Boot floppy" needs to be used, for the time being check the master spreadsheet.

GODS doesn't seem to let me switch discs. If I install it on the HDD and use ADFFS to managed Disc 2 everything is fine and it works. I may need to launch this one from the supervisor, it could just be memory but I've not got that far with it yet... I got distracted playing it!

Grab the JFD's from the dev site and use "Boot floppy", you may have to hit CTRL-SHIFT-F2 a few times as I think it's hammering FileCore looking for a disc change. I've just tested it on the A440/1 and it seems to switch okay.

I do need to change disc 2 though, as it's currently read only and needs to be RW...it shouldn't affect testing though.

[steve3000]

I have ADFFS up and running on the A4000, but when transferring some jfd's which I'd downloaded on the PC I hit a problem...

I needed to format a disc.

I'm in ADFS and accessing drive 0. I can read and write to floppies normally, but *format has disappeared?

Has ADFFS disabled it?

Steve

[steve3000]

Ok, I'm completely lost with these 'APD' files.

As far as I can tell ADFFS doesn't support them (well I get 'internal error' if I try to open one). There is a file 'APDtoJFD' but the Obey file results in 'Drive Empty' error and the Basic file says 'No room for this DIM'. And I can't find any documentation on any of these converters.

A ReadMe or something would be helpful. Or at least some explanation as to what you're meant to do if you have an ADP file.

So no ADP testing...

[steve3000]

Some testing results below. Overall ADFFS is working well. My thoughts below might be useful to consider for future versions...

1) ADFFS **really** doesn't like 2Mb machines. Magic Pockets (good conversion from the Amiga btw) needs 650Kb to load, but this is only just possible. I need to do a clean reset, no Boot, hold 'ctrl' while opening the HDD, load ADFFS alone, then change to mode 0, and run Magic Pockets... I guess the problem is that the whole JFD has to be decompressed in memory... Thoughts: Can we get uncompressed JFDs that don't need to be loaded into memory? Can there be an option for ADFFS to decompress to disc (scrap file) rather than memory?

2) James Pond:Robocod loads fine, and is playable... but I just cant believe quite how bad a conversion it is on the Arc. It is appalling - it slows down and shudders if theres anything much happening, on an Arm250, but worst of all... they got their music note conversion table backwards, so the music plays 'upside down' - the high notes come out low, and low notes are high...

3) Rotor (1989 release) - if I dont use 'Boot Floppy', it says it has reconfigured 'ScreenSize' and then suggests I try Ctrl-Shift-Break, then hangs (does ADFFS actually let it reconfigure anything? This practice was common on Arthur). If alI use 'Boot Floppy' it loads fine.

Steve

[JonAbbott]

I can read and write to floppies normally, but *format has disappeared?

Has ADFFS disabled it?

No, ADFFS has it's own *ADFFormat command, is it on the Filer menu?

Ok, I'm completely lost with these 'APD' files.

As far as I can tell ADFFS doesn't support them

This would appear to be a bug I need to fix.

EDIT: Fixed ADFFS 2.15b module on the dev site

There is a file 'APDtoJFD' but the Obey file results in 'Drive Empty' error and the Basic file says 'No room for this DIM'. And I can't find any documentation on any of these converters.

A ReadMe or something would be helpful. Or at least some explanation as to what you're meant to do if you have an ADP file.

You need 4mb of memory and have to edit to top section of the file. I did document it somewhere, probably online when I released it. I need up update !Help so I'll add it in.

EDIT: The updated !Help is on the dev site

ADFFS **really** doesn't like 2Mb machines

4mb is really the minimum spec. you can reliably use due too....

I guess the problem is that the whole JFD has to be decompressed in memory... Thoughts: Can we get uncompressed JFDs that don't need to be loaded into memory? Can there be an option for ADFFS to decompress to disc (scrap file) rather than memory?

This isn't possible I'm afraid as FileCore isn't re-enterant. Whilst accessing a floppy we can't touch another filesystem.

3) Rotor (1989 release) - if I dont use 'Boot Floppy', it says it has reconfigured 'ScreenSize' and then suggests I try Ctrl-Shift-Break, then hangs (does ADFFS actually let it reconfigure anything? This practice was common on Arthur). If alI use 'Boot Floppy' it loads fine.

From the spreadsheet it needs a "Boot Floppy" to work correctly. It will also overwrite your CMOS if you run it manually. I'd advise checking against the spreadsheet before running any games, or...try "Boot floppy" first and if it that doesn't do anything, run it from the desktop. The boot scripts do various things, such as fixing poorly written loaders/obey scripts, preventing CMOS changes, avoiding SHIFT-BREAK and fixing bugs in the games and protection code. I think I made the Obey folder available on the FTP, if not I'll add it so you can see what they do.

The current games with boot scripts are :

• 10009 Aldebaran
  10010 Alerion
  10017 Apocalypse
  10493 Arc/A3000 Christmas Box, The: Brixx!
  10020 Arcendium
  10034 Axis
  10038 Battle Chess
  10049 BlowPipe
  10053 Boogie Buggy
  10057 Bubble Fair
  10060 Bug Hunter in Space
  10062 Burn 'Out
  10065 Cannon Fodder
  10067 Carnage Inc.
  10071 Cataclysm
  10482 Cataclysm [SA version]
  10072 Caverns
  10081 Chuck Rock
  10144 Chuck Rock [BUZZ version]
  10090 Conqueror
  10093 Corruption
  10104 DarkWood
  10109 Deeva
  10118 Dominate
  10125 Drifter
  10127 Drop Ship
  10601 Drop Ship [SA version]
  10140 E-Type
  10609 E-Type Compendium
  10166 F.R.E.D.
  10153 Fine Racer
  10164 Formula Two Thousand
  10170 Galactic Dan
  10592 Games Minipack Five: Fireball II
  10592 Games Minipack Five: PON!
  10172 Gods
  10203 Gods [BUZZ version]
  10178 Grievous Bodily 'ARM
  10188 Heimdall
  10192 Hero Quest
  10199 Holed Out!!
  10200 Holed Out!! Designer
  10405 Holed Out!! Extra Courses Volume 1
  10406 Holed Out!! Extra Courses Volume 2
  10202 HoverBod
  10204 Ibix the Viking
  10210 Jahangir Khan World Championship Squash
  10211 James Pond
  10214 Jinxter
  10217 K.V.
  10218 Kaptain Konflict
  10223 Last Ninja, The
  10225 Legend of the Lost Temple, The
  10236 Magic Pockets
  10241 Man at Arms
  10253 Missile Control
  10261 Nevryon
  10263 No Excuses
  10270 Orion
  10507 Pac-mania
  10478 Pandora's Box [SA version]
  10275 Paradroid 2000
  10278 Pesky Muskrats
  10574 Play It Again Sam 4: Last Ninja, The
  10286 PowerBand
  10619 PowerBand
  10600 PowerBand [SA version]
  10290 Pysanki
  10306 Repton 3
  10315 Rockfall
  10316 Rotor
  10326 Sensible Soccer
  10327 Serpents
  10456 Slappit
  10348 StarTrader
  10362 Talisman
  10364 Technodream
  10367 Thundermonk
  10621 Touch Games 1
  10371 Tower of Babel
  10381 White Magic
  10390 Word Up Word Down
  10396 Xenon 2: Megablast
  10399 YAIG
  10402 Zarch
  10403 Zelanites - The Onslaught
  10030 Zodiac - Aries: BlowPipe