pixelmischief Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 I have a Falcon, 14MB. Lucky me. It has a CF adapter for storage. Ooooh. Nice. It has a NEC MultiSpin external SCSI-II CDROM drive. Wow. Fab-u-liscious. So, I promptly downloaded every hard disk adapted game from PP, burned them to a CD, and copied them over to my Falcon into "C:\GAMES". Oh my God! This is going to be soooooo cooooooool! No. It's not going to be so cool. It's going to be the ultimate in unfulfilled promises. Why? Because every game I run does not work. Great splash screen! Drive access light burning bright! And...and...and nothing. Bombs or eternally no response. I've tried everything I can think of. I set the options on startup for "CPU clock", "Blitter clock", "STE bus", Instr. cache", and "Data cache". I've tried it on RGB to an SC1224 and to VGA using official Atari adapters. I've used an NVRAM tool to set region and startup options. I've ripped ExtenDOS out of startup to get more mem. Nothing. Nil. Nada. Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelmischief Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 Hmmm. Additional information. Sometimes when the games crash, I get an "error" from HDDRIVER that it has been set to minimum memory; 99KB. Is it that my HDDRIVER is incompatible with this stuff? Most of it is marked on PP's site that it was tested on CF and HDDRIVER. Maybe I try a different HD driver? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Quick question - are you trying to run the games that are Falcon compatible and/or been made Falcon compatible? Just because they are labeled as hard drive compatible does not make them Falcon compatible. Most of them are still for ST/STe... i wasn't sure from your post, no slight intended.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CyranoJ Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Or maybe try the D-Bug stuff, here..... I'm sure perra will be along shortly to insult you 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nurmix Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 When I had my Falcon, I recall using a little AUTO folder program called 'Divert', that would redirect calls to the floppy to the hard drive letter of your choice. It worked pretty well - pretty sure it worked on the ST too. I believe it was on a UK magazine cover disk. I'm sure I still have it somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 (edited) Or maybe try the D-Bug stuff, here..... I'm sure perra will be along shortly to insult you The Dbug suggestion is always a good one. As for the other comment... big /sigh... Can't we all just say we're Atari fans here and actually try avoiding EVERY SINGLE opportunity to start another flame war? Please? Pretty please? Thanks. Edited March 30, 2014 by DarkLord Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelmischief Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Quick question - are you trying to run the games that are Falcon compatible and/or been made Falcon compatible? Just because they are labeled as hard drive compatible does not make them Falcon compatible. Most of them are still for ST/STe... i wasn't sure from your post, no slight intended.... I downloaded the lot from here. It has a convenient compatibility grid that clearly indicates that the vast majority should be compatible with the Falcon. But what other factors may be required to realize said compatibility, I am at a loss. http://atari.8bitchip.info/fromhd.php?s=n#DL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian1 Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Are you loading any other AUTO programs or accessories? Try disabling them. Try booting up the system with nothing else but the the hard disk driver. To do this: 1. Turn off your system and leave it off for 1 minute or so 2. Turn on your system 3. Let the system do its RAM/hard disk check (if you want to cancel it, press the space bar) 4. Immediately after that, hold down the Control key and keep it down until the desktop appears The hard disk driver should boot up and its program information displayed during the bootup process with no other programs. Now try loading the games and see if it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelmischief Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 No dice. I repartitioned the cf to one 20mb partition. Nope. I tried every other HD driver (except PP). None worked. I'm at a loss. I am loath to say it, but I might have to drag out the 1040STe and UltraSatan. Miserable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Lets get specific then - give us 5 titles that you tried that didn't work. We'll start with those and see if anyone has them working on their Falcons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IainGrimm Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Another suggestion to try is some of the games do have Falcon startup files. Look in the list of files and see if there are 2 startup and try the other, you will likely have something like START.TOS and START40.TOS. You could also try running the game via GameX which ppera does with most of his games, there will be a shortcut in the game folder for that also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 There is no word on my site about that it may work from CD. Hard disk and CD have pretty different drivers. And count of people using CD drives on Ataris is very low. Still, newer adaptations (HAGA, green backgroound on game's DL page) may work from CD - but I never took time to check it. Maybe I will do it one day. Really don't see the point of burning stuff on CD/DVD today when we have cheap Flash cards. But, as here CD was used only for transfer, if I got it correct, problem is for sure too much low RAM usage, caused by diverse drivers and other resident stuff. Additional problem, in case of running from hard disk may be Hddriver's hunger for RAM. There is help for how to decrease it here: http://atari.8bitchip.info/GamexUsage.html So, pixelmischief (ah, while I typed this long name, could do another game ) you should try later adaptations (HAGA, see above), which are more tolerant. If they work not too, then your RAM usage is really huge. Then try "Hint of the year: hold down Control key while booting (after reset) " It will prevent loading of everything except hard disk driver. And there is alternative to Hddriver. Link on my homepage top. With it's partitioning you can write directly on CF card with PC, MAC - in Atari compatible format. Huh, I just realized that I have even longer name Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Umberto Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 run a ram checker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 No dice. I repartitioned the cf to one 20mb partition. Nope. I tried every other HD driver (except PP). None worked. I'm at a loss. I am loath to say it, but I might have to drag out the 1040STe and UltraSatan. Miserable. I think that you should read what is written there instead be such a .... You can try PP driver for free: http://atari.8bitchip.info/DiskImgPP1.html And before new complains, read what is written there and how to replace driver to IDE driver in image file. If still not works, there is some HW failure for sure. Then, all your problems may be because unreliable writing of CF card on Falcon - what is not rare case, and was talked about it in forums. Another reason to write stuff on PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Umberto Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I think that you should read what is written there instead be such a .... You can try PP driver for free: http://atari.8bitchip.info/DiskImgPP1.html And before new complains, read what is written there and how to replace driver to IDE driver in image file. If still not works, there is some HW failure for sure. Then, all your problems may be because unreliable writing of CF card on Falcon - what is not rare case, and was talked about it in forums. Another reason to write stuff on PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Payne Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Really don't see the point of burning stuff on CD/DVD today when we have cheap Flash cards. [\quote] One reason, price. I went down to the local PC recycling place and picked up an external CD-rom for $1. Now, there is always the price of convenience, which SD cards have but...reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 I have too some CD/DVD devices, usable on Ataris - with IDE or SCSI port. But it is extra work to write out stuff on CD. It was years ago actually good method for overriding disk compatibility problems - because could not write direct on TOS partitions under Windows or DOS. Whole procedure may take over hour, two - depending on CD composing, writing speed + usually slower copy from CD to hard disk on Atari. Direct write on Flash card is certainly much faster. Good side is that you will have backup copy on CD But, considering backups: for some 9 years I don't write CDs at all, because DVDs are cheaper - considering capacity. And in latest year-two it is cheaper to store data on hard disks: calculate price of larger hard disks and writable DVDs, and will see that writing DVDs is little obsolete now. Data reliability on diverse storage medias/devices is special problem, and will not go in it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Payne Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I have too some CD/DVD devices, usable on Ataris - with IDE or SCSI port. But it is extra work to write out stuff on CD. It was years ago actually good method for overriding disk compatibility problems - because could not write direct on TOS partitions under Windows or DOS. Whole procedure may take over hour, two - depending on CD composing, writing speed + usually slower copy from CD to hard disk on Atari. Direct write on Flash card is certainly much faster. Compatibility issues? To be honest, although I have gotten my CD-Rom working, with only 4 meg and installing the combination of MagiC, Jinnee, HDDriver 7, SpeedoGDOS, ExtenDOS 3.3, and a few panel apps, that pretty much maxed out my RAM. So, at this point, I've only gotten as far as popping a PC made CD-ROM into it. I was able to read it so I figured my next step was to scale back on some of the installed apps to where the driver for that would work and provide me with enough RAM to actually use some of the apps I've installed and not just OS enhancements. Another thing worth mentioning. Modding an old external CD-ROM case to make it look like it was made for the Atari ST line of computers. That's a bit of mod cred. That's worth something. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I was talking about issues by accessing hard disks with Atari partitions - so TOS partitions on some PC, Mac . Before TOS/DOS compatible partitioning was made, and before my Drive Image, with which can transfer files in WIndows and Linux. to/from attached disk, Flash card File transfer was possible with serial, parallel cable interfaces, with floppies, or with CD ROMs. Best way was with Linux with TOS support integrated in Kernel. Gimme some photo of your Fuji-shaped CD-ROM case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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