Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!indri!nic.MR.NET!shamash!com50!pwcs!stag!dynasoft!daymar!john From: dynasoft!john@stag.UUCP (John Stanley) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: More ELITE(tm) strangeness Message-ID: <0218891426200604@dynasoft.UUCP> Date: 18 Mar 89 19:26:20 GMT Reply-To: dynasoft!john@stag.UUCP (John Stanley) Organization: DynaSoft Systems, Minneapolis, MN. Lines: 45 X-Member-Of: STdNET (ST Developer's Network) [dag@per2.UUCP (Daniel A. Glasser) writes...] > I'm the person who posted a few days ago about the trouble that I'm having > running ELITE(tm) from Rainbird Software on my ST. (Joystick problems) > I've encountered another problem which is more serious. Hi Dan. The problem you 1st described is symptomatic of too much time spent inside a hi priority interrupt. The keyboard processor doesn't do any handshaking with the 68000. When the keyboard is ready to tell the ST about a keypress or a mouse action, your machine has to be ready to grab the data fairly quick, or it's lost. If this happens, the 2nd byte of the keyboard message packet is interpreted as if it were the 1st with odd consequences. (Most often, this causes a series of repeating ESC keypresses that stop when you hit some other key on the keyboard.) This is often caused by "background" programs, multitaskers, or TSRs like corner clocks. If you have anything loaded, try running the game from a completely unloaded machine. > If I play the game using the keyboard to control the ship, the program > runs for a while and then bombs with either 11 or 22 bombs (I think it's > 11 bombs, since that's the Line-F emulator trap, and exception 22 is > listed as "reserved" in my M68000 reference -- the resolution changes > to medium after the bombs appear, however, and I end up with 22 bombs > and some strange artifacts on the screen) shortly after I leave hyperspace > or when I've been practice docking for a while. This is another bug I've seen before. It's "normaly" caused by programs that can't keep up with a fast typing rate and is actualy a bug in the OS that bombs-out when the keyboard buffer overflows. Both problems point to "something" that is causing your machine to spend lots of time doing something other than running ELITE (probably something in a high priority interrupt). If you do have lots of accessories and TSR programs, I'd try running Elite with them unloaded. If you don't, then I'd suggest you have your machine checked out by a good service center. > Any help is appreciated. I hope this does help... --- John Stanley Software Consultant / Dynasoft Systems