Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!thad
From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Two new travesties on the Amiga :-(
Message-ID: <19289@cup.portal.com>
Date: 9 Jun 89 10:52:23 GMT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 99


                  >>TWO<<  new travesties on the Amiga?

                        Yep.  SimCity and ELITE.

SimCity doesn't function on an '020 Amiga, and ELITE doesn't function on either
or both an '020 or a memory-expanded Amiga.

-------
SimCity
-------

Booting the disk, clicking on the SimCity icon, the "Road Sign" comes up and
all seems normal.  Per instructions: Click on "Start New City", the mouse
pointer changes, disk gronks for awhile, then return to Workbench, and nada.
Not even after waiting 10 minutes does anything happen.  Sort of like the
Spectrum Holobyte "FALCON".  Hmmm, wonder if Broderbund/Spectrum Holobyte/Maxis
are in cahoots?  Prior comments in this newsgroup alluded to the author of
SimCity being a C=64 hack ... it shows.  Turning off the instruction cache
makes no difference; this "program" claims to need expanded memory, so I didn't
try the "tricks" as with ELITE (below).  Almost as bad as "BALANCE OF POWER";
gee, what IS it with these Macintosh ports to the Amiga?  :-(

Well, this turkey goes out the window and over the fence unless someone wants
to buy it before the FAUG meeting; best offer over $30 gets it.


-----
ELITE
-----

The instructions WARN not to even try it on a memory-expanded system.   Sheesh.
Where have those cretins been the past 3+ years?  In any event, fire up the
NoFast program (which permits other junk such as Archon and Archon II to
function on a memory expanded '020), insert the ELITE disk, and the screen
goes all rainbow, with nothing being read from the disk after the bootblock.

Needless to say, this one's for sale, too.  :-(

Kinda wish I was going to DevCon so I'd have the opportunity to jam these
disks down the authors' throats instead of creating another landfill behind
my fence; the old fence collapsed last year from the mound of *C*R*A*P*
software that had accumulated since September 1985.

Don't even waste time suggesting the disk drive is out of whack; all of:

	"Starglider II",
	"The DUEL: Test Drive II",
	"Interceptor",
	"Scrabble",
	"Ports of Call",
	"Barbarian (the '020 version)",
	"S.D.I.", and
	"STAR FLEET I"

work just fine ... I just ran them again as a "control."  And, yes, this is
under 1.3 Kickstart; SimCity loads its own copy of SetPatch, etc. etc etc.

If anyone's interested, the NoFast program is included below; it does permit
most troublesome software to function on an expanded system.  Being only 3
lines of code, this shouldn't exceed network bandwidth requirements!  :-)

Original author of NoFast is "Anonymous"; no name appeared on any docs.

;
;	Introducing -- 'NoFast'!
;	============================================================
;	NoFast is a simple system reboot program with an added kick!
;	If your  system has any external  FAST  ram,  it will not be
;	included in the system memory list,  thus  giving you a 512K
;	machine at the WORKBENCH PROMPT!!!!
;
;	To use this utility just type in  'NOFAST'  at a CLI prompt.
;	The Amiga will begin going through its reboot procedure.  At
;	this time,  remove your disk and insert the disk you want to
;	run with only CHIP ram.
;
;	ps. I have not tried this with  $C00000  type memory yet.  I
;	hope it works.
;
;	NOTICE: I am placing this in the Public Domain.   The object
;	and source are freely redistributable.
;
;	------------------------------------------------------------
;	I assembled this  with  the Amiga Assembler (Metacomco)  and 
;	linked with BLINK using the amiga.lib library file.
;
;	============================================================
;	==== NoFast - SourceCode ===================================
;	============================================================
;
	XREF	_AbsExecBase		* ptr to ptr to ExecBase
	XREF	_LVOSuperState		* offset for SuperState()

	movea.l	_AbsExecBase,a6		* get ptr to ExecBase
	jsr	_LVOSuperState(a6)	* do SuperState();
	jmp	$F80000			* jump to Amiga ROM start

	END