List of Games Not Working with Incognito SIDE Loader

[Wrathchild]

I doubt it, the copy protection is so involved its a minefield to try and resolve a lot of it. In the work I did in the cartridge porting, the replacement I/O routines are even re-embedded into the game's modules (e.g. Tavern code is loaded in when you enter one). So it needs to be patched in many places and then re-encoded back onto the disk in order not to break the sector-by-sector checksum'ing that goes on. The memory layout also means it cannot use the O/S's I/O routines.

[Roydea6]

Hi,

 

Regarding the Infocom titles, many years back I did work to put the interpreter onto (flash) cartridge.

In doing so I looked at the many images out there and did find a few to be corrupt. (You can verify within the game by typing "$VER")

But Cutthroats was OK so I don't know what the problem is there.

 

However, I've rebuilt the interpreter into a 1040 * 128 byte sector disk image (Medium density?) and within this can place the whole .z3 file of any game. The interpreter was the one taken from the Hitch-Hikers game but should be OK to run all the others.

 

Attached therefore is a test image, can people try this out on different media to see how it fares and report back?

 

Thanks,

Mark

I tried this with my Atari800 Incognito tonight, and it works very good. Basic has to be disabled in both COLLEN mode and XL/XE. I have not open the top of the Atari800 yet to get the CF card out and put it into the Fat32 partition. But with AspeQT as the SIO peripheral it loads ok and runs.

[Wrathchild]

Thanks, indeed I've located the interpreter in the memory $A000->$BFFF where a cartridge would normally reside and so this means Basic needs to be disabled and also that the machine should have 48K. IIRC many of the titles can run in 40K (but I don't think 32K) as the 'resident' memory requirements of a game usually fits within this.

With some extra work I could probably get around all this but I don't think its really stopping a lot of people, but if it is then let me know.

 

The next test would be to try a custom size ATR and allow multiple titles in the menu. The system uses a 'base sector' offset for the loading of z3 data and so this should work fine after being set from the menu choice.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Wrathchild

[Tempest]

Hi,

 

Regarding the Infocom titles, many years back I did work to put the interpreter onto (flash) cartridge.

In doing so I looked at the many images out there and did find a few to be corrupt. (You can verify within the game by typing "$VER")

But Cutthroats was OK so I don't know what the problem is there.

 

However, I've rebuilt the interpreter into a 1040 * 128 byte sector disk image (Medium density?) and within this can place the whole .z3 file of any game. The interpreter was the one taken from the Hitch-Hikers game but should be OK to run all the others.

 

Attached therefore is a test image, can people try this out on different media to see how it fares and report back?

 

Thanks,

Mark

Cool! I'll give this a shot tonight.

[Wrathchild]

Cool! I'll give this a shot tonight.

 

Here's a more advanced one to try

 

As you might see, its a little messily presented as it could do with a short bootstrapping loader to turn the screen off but that may go into the 'final' images.

 

Looking at the code again, the game disk is assumed to be Drive 1, so I don't think booting from another drive will work. Save games look like they can be on drives 1-8. Again feedback on success with save/load states would be good.

zork123_test.zip

[flashjazzcat]

Attached therefore is a test image, can people try this out on different media to see how it fares and report back?

 

Tested on U1MB/SIDE2 - works fine here, with BASIC disabled as already pointed out.

 

 

Here's a more advanced one to try

 

As you might see, its a little messily presented as it could do with a short bootstrapping loader to turn the screen off but that may go into the 'final' images.

 

Looking at the code again, the game disk is assumed to be Drive 1, so I don't think booting from another drive will work. Save games look like they can be on drives 1-8. Again feedback on success with save/load states would be good.

 

Works on U1MB/SIDE2, and save/load states works as far as I can tell: I simply placed an emtpy ATR on D2:, and booted the game from D1:.

[Tempest]

Works on U1MB/SIDE2, and save/load states works as far as I can tell: I simply placed an emtpy ATR on D2:, and booted the game from D1:.

Dumb question, but how do you make an empty ATR image? Can you post yours here so I can just have it on my Incognito?

[Wrathchild]

In Altirra, use the menu "File" / "Disk Drives..." and then any 'New' button. Once setup you then use the 'Save' button to create a file on your hard-disk which can then be copied/mounted elsewhere.

[flashjazzcat]

 

Dumb question, but how do you make an empty ATR image? Can you post yours here so I can just have it on my Incognito?

 

I'm not at home right now, but all I did was take a random 90KB AtariDOS fomatted ATR, drag it onto the card with the game disk, and then mount the game on D1 and the empty image on D2 using the XEX loader. Not sure if the save disk even needs to be formatted. I typed 'SAVE' in the game, and pressed '2' when it asked which drive the save disk was in.

[Wrathchild]

The saving is also neat in that it saves the serial number of the game into the save block, so if you then attempt to load this into a different game then it is checked and denied. As you have a number of 'slots' per disk then save states from different games can be mixed on one disk

[Roydea6]

Thanks, indeed I've located the interpreter in the memory $A000->$BFFF where a cartridge would normally reside and so this means Basic needs to be disabled and also that the machine should have 48K. IIRC many of the titles can run in 40K (but I don't think 32K) as the 'resident' memory requirements of a game usually fits within this.

With some extra work I could probably get around all this but I don't think its really stopping a lot of people, but if it is then let me know.

 

The next test would be to try a custom size ATR and allow multiple titles in the menu. The system uses a 'base sector' offset for the loading of z3 data and so this should work fine after being set from the menu choice.

Just how large or size an ATR could be made. One for all z3 files by Infocom would be nice. Save has worked very good for the zork123test atr you posted. I have only played Zork 1 so far, because this type of game is very time consuming. Thanks..

 

[Wrathchild]

In theory all of them can go into one image, I'd just need a better (scrolling) menu for them. As a compromise I've split them up into 3 categories, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Adventure and so have 8 games on each disk. Images can be found here.

 

Enjoy,

Mark

[Tempest]

Neat!

[adam242]

I can't get either the original release or the update version of MazezaM to work.

 

Screen goes black for a bit, then some kind of XBIOS loader comes up with the original version atr. Updated goes to Self Test.

[candle]

mazezam is tied to SIO only devices so you're limited to either sio2pc sio2sd or some disk drives

[greblus]

There is a xex version of Mazezam (IIRC made by Grzybson) which was working on SDX without xbios.

 

http://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=157444#p157444

 

Have you tried it?

[Tempest]

This reminds me, any luck on getting cartridge images to work with the Incognito? Or is that not going to work?

[adam242]

mazezam is tied to SIO only devices so you're limited to either sio2pc sio2sd or some disk drives

 

I see. Not a big deal, the game is just as enjoyable when loaded from floppy.

 

There is a xex version of Mazezam (IIRC made by Grzybson) which was working on SDX without xbios.

 

http://www.atari.org...=157444#p157444

 

Have you tried it?

 

I do not have permission to download the attachment of that post. Is it available somewhere else?

[+CharlieChaplin]

I can't get either the original release or the update version of MazezaM to work.

 

Screen goes black for a bit, then some kind of XBIOS loader comes up with the original version atr. Updated goes to Self Test.

 

Well,

 

if you do not need the highscore save-option, then give the single-file version by Homesoft a try:

 

http://www.mushca.com/f/atari/index.php?dl=393

 

(I do not need a highscore in this game; just trying to solve as many levels as possible and maybe reach the end.)

 

-Andreas Koch.

[adam242]

Well,

 

if you do not need the highscore save-option, then give the single-file version by Homesoft a try:

 

http://www.mushca.co...ndex.php?dl=393

 

(I do not need a highscore in this game; just trying to solve as many levels as possible and maybe reach the end.)

 

-Andreas Koch.

 

Perfect! Thank you.

 

(I have no need for highscore either)

[w1k]

BOMB JACK[PAL,320KB] doesnt work

[flashjazzcat]

Thanks for the detailed report. Symptoms, before I spend time testing it?

[w1k]

hmm, you can try it on real hw..

loadinf screen, ok, key..

loading 10-15s.. then screen blink and black screen

q-meg off

u1mb not present

 

DEMO NUMEN (xex) doesnt work..

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/189101-best-demos/page__st__25#entry2396894

Edited May 25, 2013 by w1k

[flashjazzcat]

Confirmed both: can't get NUMEN.XEX or Bomb Jack (XEX or ATR) to work here. No clue why and no time to investigate right now.

[Magic Knight]

Any tips on how to get a game to save to a 'blank' Atr?

 

Im playing Knight orc and have a blank Atr as D2. However it comes up with 'cant mix dos files and save positions' (after ive switched using the diskswitch button of course).

 

it then offers to format the disk and when i say yes 'cant initialize' comes up...

 

Is it possible to virtually saver to a blank ATR this way? or what should i do?

Edited June 8, 2013 by Magic Knight