Recent posts

#1

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Ronald J. Hall - Today at 19:45:49

I'm using HDDriver v12.72 at the moment.

I will go back, strip everything down to just the
driver running, make sure it's caches are all at a
minimum and try again.

I'll report back once I try that.

Thanks.

#2

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Petari - Today at 09:57:19

 Most likely the problem is some larger RAM usage before game start - and this is sensitive to it.
What hard disk driver you use ? What settings ?

#3

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 07-12-2025, 22:53:03

Oh well, I gave it another shot. I'm still unable to get past the screen where it says:

0% of game completed
Play Again? (Y/N)

Whether I press Y or N, it either repeats the text or bombs out. 

It's probably not worth any more time. The reviews really slammed it as a bad game.

Thanks for trying Peter.

#4

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 07-12-2025, 03:03:04

I grabbed the hard drive version and will try it
later.

I understand about it not being worth the effort.

The magazine reviews that I can find criticized it
pretty heavily.

Oh well...

Thanks for the work on it.

#5

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Petari - 06-12-2025, 11:47:00

 Game has buggy and overcomplicated code. Screen operations have some overshot - write in higher RAM locations too than screen memory. That is reason for crash with 4 MB RAM when running from floppy.
 With hard disk adapt is more complicated as it damages read ahead cache, saved TOS state ...
Made corrected version with few fixes. Now works well from floppy with 4 MB RAM.
 By hard disk run is OK too, as see, only that needs min 4 MB RAM with TOS 2.06.
There are some dots remaining when move cursor at map - actually not that bad - can see where walked.
Complete fix would need loooot of time, rewriting code. Not sure is it worth.

Hard disk  test v. 2
Fixed floppy v.

#6

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 05-12-2025, 21:28:30

Okay, I've not had much luck with this so far.

I booted with my 4 meg, TOS v2.06 Mega STe, with
all AUTO folder programs, ACC's, etc, disabled and
in low res.

I get the info screen showing about the Mega STe,
(16/8 mhz, RAM, TOS).

It then shows the nice scan (.BMP) of the box cover
and when I press any key to progress from there, it
crashes hard. Like 10-15 bombs across the screen. If
I let it set a few moments, then there's some screen
corruption (colorful artifacts, etc) as well.

I went back, made sure I was booting up in 8mhz, no
blitter and cache turned off but it gave the same
result.

Sorry...

#7

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 02-12-2025, 21:07:21

Okay, I grabbed it. I'll be testing it on my Mega STe.
It does have 4 megs of RAM and TOS v2.06.

It'll probably be a couple of days (busy at the moment)
but I'll report back as soon as I can.

Thanks again. 

#8

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Petari - 02-12-2025, 16:58:58

 I made it work from hard disk - but it is for now just test version. Game has really strange code/solutions, and it crashes when running from floppy and when there is 4 MB RAM in Atari ST . That's one of silly bugs present in number of Atari ST(E) SW - probably as result of not having so much RAM in developer's computers, and of course because being not so experienced ...  With this hard disk adapt test version situation is exactly opposite - it works good only with 4 MB RAM. With 1 and 2 MB crashes often - funny thing - but explanation is that same bug what causes crash with 4 MB RAM by floppy run does damaging of read ahead cache used by hard disk adapt when is less RAM. Other thing: do not use game's loading and saving game (pos, state) option. There is much faster and simpler HAGA state save in my adapts.
 I really have no clue how to play it, so please test it. On more thing: not exactly bug, but mouse cursor appears at left side of screen when pulling it to edge of right side and little more. Another not so good programming case.
DL here: Final Battle TW

#9

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Ronald J. Hall - 02-12-2025, 04:09:32

Thanks Peter! 

#10

Software / Re: The Final Battle?

Last post by Petari - 01-12-2025, 14:40:01

 I DL-ed it from Atarimania and looked  little at previous Dec. , then somehow forgot about and missed among thousands of games. It actually looks pretty good. As see has some unusual copy protection .
 Will deal with this days.