Alternate Reality the City - ST - load game freezes

[Jason Young]

I have a very odd issue and I'll be surprised if anyone else has come across this or has an answer, but let's give it a go.  I have Alternate Reality the City on my ST's UltraSatan.  It's the HD version from the Adapted Games website (ie. it has been modified to work with TOS 2.06 and has a Gamex program to save and load games).  I've been playing it for a while and have a bunch of saved games.  I took a break from the game for about the last 6 months, and then today just tried loading up my saved games using the Gamex program, but when it loads, it freezes in Alternate Reality at the screen where I left off in my saved game.  Mouse doesn't move, no keys work, I have to Reset or power off.  Now here's the interesting part, I have another ST and hooked it up to see if that made a difference, and it did, it works just fine.  The second ST has an older version of TOS.  Now, you'll probably say, well it must be the TOS, but I don't believe so because it used to work 6 months ago just fine on this same machine with TOS 2.06.  The ONLY thing I did with my main ST was to replace the power supply with a brand new Centurion one recently.  Could that be it thought?  Would that even make sense?  Everything else works fine on the machine.  I also am able to load a brand new game in Alternate Reality and create a new character, and save and load it using the Gamex program, and it works just fine.  It just doesn't load my other saved games from 6+ months ago.

Interested in hearing thoughts on this and if there's anything else I could do to help narrow down the issue.

Thanks

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Hardly PSU is what causing this problem.  More likely some file got corrupted.  Just install game from ZIP in new DIR and copy there that problematic state save file, and test it.

Or config is changed - maybe added some resident SW. What value GAMEX displays for User bottom ?

[Jason Young]

4 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said:

Hardly PSU is what causing this problem.  More likely some file got corrupted.  Just install game from ZIP in new DIR and copy there that problematic state save file, and test it.

Or config is changed - maybe added some resident SW. What value GAMEX displays for User bottom ?

GAMEX User Bottom is $022DF8    V 0.9    The Gamex file itself is named:  GXUT270.PRG

 

It's a clean boot.  No .ACC loading and nothing in AUTO folder.

 

I'll try placing a new copy of the game in a different folder and try loading my saved games and will let you know what happens.

 

Thanks

 

[Stguild]

On 3/3/2022 at 11:10 PM, Jason Young said:

I have a very odd issue and I'll be surprised if anyone else has come across this or has an answer, but let's give it a go.  I have Alternate Reality the City on my ST's UltraSatan.  It's the HD version from the Adapted Games website (ie. it has been modified to work with TOS 2.06 and has a Gamex program to save and load games).  I've been playing it for a while and have a bunch of saved games.  I took a break from the game for about the last 6 months, and then today just tried loading up my saved games using the Gamex program, but when it loads, it freezes in Alternate Reality at the screen where I left off in my saved game.  Mouse doesn't move, no keys work, I have to Reset or power off.  Now here's the interesting part, I have another ST and hooked it up to see if that made a difference, and it did, it works just fine.  The second ST has an older version of TOS.  Now, you'll probably say, well it must be the TOS, but I don't believe so because it used to work 6 months ago just fine on this same machine with TOS 2.06.  The ONLY thing I did with my main ST was to replace the power supply with a brand new Centurion one recently.  Could that be it thought?  Would that even make sense?  Everything else works fine on the machine.  I also am able to load a brand new game in Alternate Reality and create a new character, and save and load it using the Gamex program, and it works just fine.  It just doesn't load my other saved games from 6+ months ago.

Interested in hearing thoughts on this and if there's anything else I could do to help narrow down the issue.

Thanks

Can you try it with a emulator to see what happens?