Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mitel!sce!cognos!gords
From: gords@cognos.UUCP (Gord Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: The Inevitable 1.4 Rom Problem (was Re: Ferrari Formula One and Kickstart 1.3?)
Message-ID: <7797@cognos.UUCP>
Date: 2 Jan 90 22:56:52 GMT
References: <1017@tuminfo1.lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de>
Reply-To: gords@cognos.UUCP (Gord Smith)
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 53

I have been concerned for some time about how having KickStart in ROM is going
to be a reeeeeaaaaal problem once 1.4 comes out, in terms of still being able
to run misbehaved but nevertheless enjoyable software that works under 1.2.

The quoted article below points out that there are even problems with some
software under KickStart 1.3, whose only supposed change was autoboot.

I was planning on posing this potential and inevitable problem to the
net.wisdom sometime soon, and the quoted article shows a good example of the
problem.

In article <1017@tuminfo1.lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de>
tensi@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de (Thomas Tensi) writes:
>I have the following problem with FF1:
>
>I added an autoboot hard disk to my Amiga 2000A and had the dealer also replace
>Kickstart 1.2 by 1.3.
>
>Now the following effect occurs: When I start Ferrari Formula One by booting
>from the floppy, everything seems to go ok. But on any race track - as soon as
>the car moves - strange ghost images occur in every frame.
>
>I wouldn't like to disconnect the hard disk (or even change ROMs!) any time I
>want to play FF1...

A friend of mine has a 1000 and has confirmed that FF1 does not work with
KickStart 1.3.  Of course, for him it's just a matter of changing KickStart
disks and powering down/up.

What about us lucky folk with KickStart in ROM??

I've been looking at hard disks for my 500, but would rather live without
autoboot than have to junk FF1 and God-knows-what-else.

Inevitably, however, we'll all have to upgrade to 1.4 KS/WB.  What happens
then?

Perhaps (he said hopefully) someone is thinking ahead on this and could come up
with some kind of workable solution short of opening up your machine and
changing ROMs  on a regular basis.

How about something along the lines of the 68020/68000 boot-up on 2000's where
holding down the left mouse button causes it to boot in 68000 mode?

We could use the right mouse button for KS1.2 mode instead of KS1.4.

How about it Commodore?   Other folks?

-- 
D. Gordon Smith         Voice: (613) 738-1338 ext 6118       P.O. Box 9707
Cognos Incorporated       FAX: (613) 738-0002                3755 Riverside Dr.
uucp: gords@cognos.uucp || uunet!mitel!sce!cognos!gords      Ottawa, Ontario
"I bumped into Brewer's Retail 24 times!" - D. Prosser       CANADA  K1G 3Z4