[Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread

muldjord

@maxbeanz I can confirm that Skyscraper already works quite well with the NoSpaces filenames. I implemented this specifically for the new lha files. And as @HoraceAndSpider says, we're working on an even better solution. But for now, it's already pretty good.

maxbeanz

@horaceandspider

I am surprised you saya couple of months out of date as I verified against the latest RetroPlay packs only a few weeks ago.

Yeah, slight exaggeration. I searched for 'Leander' in the .xml file and it said v2.3 but v2.4 came out over a month before you submitted the .xml. Is there any chance you could put a timestamp on the next .xml commit showing when the most recent game in your set was updated ? For instance, the WHDLoad site says the last game updated was 'UFO' on the 22nd March, this way will we know which games won't be detected after that date. Retroplay normally updates his datfile on the same day as the latest update.

HoraceAndSpider

With the move of RetroPie to Stretch, MidWan and i have ironed out the couple of bugs on the WHDLoad booter that were affecting it there.

It's in the Dev branch, and i just want to get it tested for backwards (Jessie) compatibilty before we move the fixes into the Master branch.

@maxbeanz I am sure the online Database that is being worked on, which will generate the new XML files will cover your needs here.

shaf78

@horaceandspider Zool seems to have a graphics glitch? However the same game seems to work just fine in WinUAE.

polpettedorso

After updating to 4.4 amyberry + whdload doesn't work ammore. When i try to launch a game, keep on showing ablinking red screen. Previously it was all' ok... :-(

AnalogHero

@polpettedorso I think blinking red has something to do with missing kickstart files. Check your path again.

AnalogHero

@horaceandspider Just want to point out that although the flag line_double is working in hostprefs.conf, it isnt added by default. So when doing a fresh install you have to add the line.

dudleydes

Many thanks for this excellent project.

The only game I have not been able to get running is North and South. I'm just getting a black screen. I accidently left North and South running overnight and still a black screen.

Checking the debug script, I get the message DOS-Error #205 (object not found) on reading "Disk.1". After searching this error, I found that North and South requires the file kick34005.A500.RTB.

I placed this file in the BIOS folder and no luck. I created a amiga-data/_BootWHD/Devs/Kickstarts/ folder in the roms folder and placed the file there together with the Kickstart v1.3 and v3.1 renamed kick34005.A500 and kick40068.A1200 respectively. I have also placed them in /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/save-data/Kickstarts. Neither have been successful.

Here are the files I have tried:

NorthAndSouth.lha
NorthAndSouth_v1.7_Files_0194.lha
NorthAndSouth_v1.7_Files_NTSC_1780.lha
NorthAndSouth_v1.7_Image_0194.lha

Does North and South work in Amiberry? If so, what configuration do I need to get it running?

ballboff

@dudleydes said in [Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread:

Many thanks for this excellent project.

The only game I have not been able to get running is North and South. I'm just getting a black screen. I accidently left North and South running overnight and still a black screen.

Checking the debug script, I get the message DOS-Error #205 (object not found) on reading "Disk.1". After searching this error, I found that North and South requires the file kick34005.A500.RTB.

I placed this file in the BIOS folder and no luck. I created a amiga-data/_BootWHD/Devs/Kickstarts/ folder in the roms folder and placed the file there together with the Kickstart v1.3 and v3.1 renamed kick34005.A500 and kick40068.A1200 respectively. I have also placed them in /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/save-data/Kickstarts. Neither have been successful.

Here are the files I have tried:

NorthAndSouth.lha

NorthAndSouth_v1.7_Files_0194.lha

NorthAndSouth_v1.7_Files_NTSC_1780.lha

NorthAndSouth_v1.7_Image_0194.lha

Does North and South work in Amiberry? If so, what configuration do I need to get it running?

as well as the kickstart, you will also need to change the chipset setting from AGA or whatever you have it set to. Don't know if that helps...

gordonfreemanjr

OK, so I'm giving Amiberry a shot, instead of uae4arm. So far I'm a bit confused: I'm loading a game - this time it's Sensible World of Soccer - choosing Amiberry1200 from the presets, and the game is terribly slow, with the keyboard and the gamepad not responding. I quit and try the amiberry500 - the result is exactly the same. I find the F12 menu very not intuitive and can't really figure out what to switch and how (I had never owned an Amiga, so).

What am I doing wrong?

Littleman

Hey there, a lot has changed recently! I've just upgraded to stretch and rebuilt my retropie / amiberry setup from scratch, but I can't find any clean / simple / recommended instructions anymore.
Could the initial post be updated?
so far, what I understand is that games in the .lha format are now the preferred way to go & that uaeconfigmaker is not needed anymore?
Anything else we're supposed to know?
Thanks.

HoraceAndSpider

@dudleydes said in [Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread:

Many thanks for this excellent project.
The only game I have not been able to get running is North and South. I'm just getting a black screen. I accidently left North and South running overnight and still a black screen.
Checking the debug script, I get the message DOS-Error #205 (object not found) on reading "Disk.1". After searching this error, I found that North and South requires the file kick34005.A500.RTB.
I placed this file in the BIOS folder and no luck. I created a amiga-data/_BootWHD/Devs/Kickstarts/ folder in the roms folder and placed the file there together with the Kickstart v1.3 and v3.1 renamed kick34005.A500 and kick40068.A1200 respectively. I have also placed them in /opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/save-data/Kickstarts. Neither have been successful.

if you are still using the boot loading in /amiga-data/ then you are using an out-of-date method for this. The function is now built into Amiberry and RetroPie. Kickstart files needed by WHDLoad will also be automatically symink'ed if avaiable in your bios/ folder.

@littleman said in [Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread:

Could the initial post be updated?

For both of the above, please note that the guide on Ultimate Amiga has already been updated, but simply lacks an FAQ update.

http://ultimateamiga.co.uk/HostedProjects/RetroPieAmiga/index.html

The first post by @nemo93 could do with being updated to match though.

HoraceAndSpider

@gordonfreemanjr said in [Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread:

OK, so I'm giving Amiberry a shot, instead of uae4arm. So far I'm a bit confused: I'm loading a game - this time it's Sensible World of Soccer - choosing Amiberry1200 from the presets, and the game is terribly slow, with the keyboard and the gamepad not responding. I quit and try the amiberry500 - the result is exactly the same. I find the F12 menu very not intuitive and can't really figure out what to switch and how (I had never owned an Amiga, so).

What am I doing wrong?

Get hold of SensibleWorldOfSoccer9697_v1.7_0842.lha , update to the latest Amiberry ('from source') and you should be good to go.

I heavily test with SWOS as it's one of my favourite games.

youxia

Okay, but what about .hdf? All my packs are in this format. Is the previous method still valid?

dudleydes

@horaceandspider Thanks for the reply. I think there may be some confusion. I have been launching .lha files directly in Amiberry, the only modification being creating .uae files for games that require a mouse (Cannon Fodder, Lemmings).

The only game that hasn't worked is North and South. The debug script gives the message DOS-Error #205 (object not found) on reading "Disk.1". I only used the amiga-data folder option in an attempt to get it working.

These are the Kickstart roms I have in the BIOS folder.

pi@retropie:~/RetroPie/BIOS $ ls | grep -i kick
kick34005.A500.RTB
Kickstart v1.2 rev 33.180 (1986)(Commodore)(A500-A1000-A2000).rom
Kickstart v1.3 rev 34.5 (1987)(Commodore)(A500-A1000-A2000-CDTV).rom
Kickstart v2.04 rev 37.175 (1991)(Commodore)(A500+).rom
Kickstart v3.0 rev 39.106 (1992)(Commodore)(A1200)[!].rom
Kickstart v3.1 rev 40.63 (1993)(Commodore)(A500-A600-A2000).rom
Kickstart v3.1 rev 40.68 (1993)(Commodore)(A1200).rom
Kickstart v3.1 rev 40.68 (1993)(Commodore)(A4000).rom

Any advice in getting North and South running would be appreciated.

rhester72

A few ignorant Amiberry questions, if I may:

WHDLoad Booter:

Does this completely eliminate the need for the amiga-data directory (and contents)?
All the 'important' Kickstarts do indeed get symlinked from the BIOS directory...except the 2.05 A600HD one, which is needed when CPU=68000/68010 (see associated notes about crash bug here: https://github.com/midwan/amiberry/issues/310). Is this normal/expected (i.e. should Amiberry try to load that specific Kickstart directly from the BIOS directory)?
The Amiberry splash screen...why does it change colors and what do they mean (it appears to be related to resolution and/or NTSC vs. PAL), and can it be disabled entirely?
Can we get LINE_DOUBLING moved from hostprefs to whd configs? I don't think it should necessarily be a global - some demos benefit from not having it present (otherwise you lose half the vertical resolution), other titles (like Arcade Pool) need it to prevent nasty image shaking.

Thanks much for any help/commentary :)

HoraceAndSpider

@dudleydes I will check N&S but i see no reason it should not work, unless the installer / slave has a bug that requires the data folder specified (Jaguar XJ220 has this problem and i have reported it to the slave author)

Games that require a mouse should be specified by the XML file, but this is a WIP so apologies but a lot are probably missing for now. This will improve.

@rhester72

Does this completely eliminate the need for the amiga-data directory (and contents)?

Yes, although i retain mine for development files, HD folders, CD folders etc which i do not want RetroPie to cache on load.

All the 'important' Kickstarts do indeed get symlinked from the BIOS directory...except the 2.05 A600HD one, which is needed when CPU=68000/68010

The symlink creates files for WHDLoad 'internally' (i.e. in the Amiga environment). The CPU=68000 is setting an option for Amiberry, so wouldnt need the symlink, and i dont think 2.05 is one that WHDLoad generally needs. Amiberry will use whatever folder you have specified in it's 'paths' panel. On the RetroPie distro, the default path is symlinked back to /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/ , so ... in answer to your question (...eventually!...) .. yes, Amiberry should try to load that kickstart from the BIOS folder in this instance.

The Amiberry splash screen...why does it change colors and what do they mean

It means the randomly selected colour today is 'red'. Or maybe 'blue'. And very occassionally 'pink'. It's there for fun, no hidden meaning!

Can we get LINE_DOUBLING moved from hostprefs to whd configs?

This was a user request for this to be a hostprefs, and i think can be important with certain sizes of display, but i can certainly look into having the .whd specification for it act as an override at user preference.

I see you asked on GitHub about the best place to ask about support, but to be honest, I am much more likely to pick it up on Github, although here other used may be able help instead.

The other option is to join the very popular 'Amiga RetroPie WHDLoad Group' which has lots of users sharing their experiences with the solution.

rhester72

@horaceandspider

Understood. One other quick question re: the splash screen - is it presented while the lha is being unpacked? Is there any way to disable the splash?

HoraceAndSpider

@rhester72 said in [Amiga] Amiberry + WHDLoad = Holy Grail - Amiberry's official thread:

@horaceandspider

Understood. One other quick question re: the splash screen - is it presented while the lha is being unpacked? Is there any way to disable the splash?

No, it isnt currently available to be disabled by the end-user, unless creating their own boot program.

It is multi-tasked however, so even on the 'faster' load the splash comes up whilst the game data is being preloaded (cached).

There are two reasons in particular to have this;

The previous booter was without a splash screen, but i recieved a lot of feedback about users thinking they were 'stuck' on a black screen. In many cases, it was a simple case of impatience and the splash gives and indication that something is happening. (Some games with many disks still take a little while to cache.)

Also it is the point at which the user can interupt the process by holding 'fire' down and force the loader to re-scan for an altrnative slave file or change custom settings (e.g. games that have expansion data available) so it does act as a visual cue.

Hope this helps explain.

youxia

I've followed the Guide to the letter, then tried ~20 games and only one has loaded properly (1942). Most go into a black screen after the AutoBooter creates the initial WHD setup file. During the creation it displays "Setpatch: not found" message.
Some also blackscreen just after Amiberry logo.
I've tried to find this file: /home/pi/RetroPie/amiga/whdboot/boot-data/Devs/system-configuration to disable it and get some error messages from DOS, but this directory does not exist. The one in opt/retropie/configs/amiga/amiberry/whdboot/ contains a "boot-data", but it's a .zip archive.

I tried some games directly as hdf/adf and these are fine, so the emulator itself is working.

Also, unrelated question: is there any roadmap for Amiberry becoming cycle-accurate? (or maybe it's already the case?)