A1200 PPC/060 and WHDLOAD question

Hi everybody. Recently, going through a mid "Amiga"-life crisis, i've been thinking a lot about the future of the A1200PPC that I've set up in the past 3 years. It's a setup I have always wanted to have at home but since I got it fully working the thrill was gone. :(

Photos of the amiga in question here:
http://www.amigaplanet.gr/forum/view...hp?f=68&t=1666

One of the main reasons for this, is the fact that time doesn't give me any chance to have two or three amiga's at home and operate them equally and hopefully every day. Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that I should "merge" in a way my A1200 (ACA 030) that I mainly use for whdload with the other little PPC beast. Two amiga's means that in the end I don't use them either. :thumbsdown: So, in an effort to combine the two systems and keep the PPC+bvision at home, i' trying to see if WHDLOAD is any good under PPC/040. I've had problems in the past either with a simple 3.1 or with 3.9 (classic workbench edition too). I know that the 040 is causing many problems with many games even in the case that I tweak the tooltypes.

What I'm asking before I finally decide to keep the PPC and send it over to Stachu for a 040--->060 replacement is if anyone having a PPC/060 setup could test/confirm WHDLOAD (almost) complete functionality. I particularly have a problem with SWOS 96 which is sluggish on my setup. I hope that with a PPC/060 could behave normally and fast enough. Could I have some opinions that would make me finalize my decision? It's a pity to let go the system I have setup with lots of personal work and money of course :)

swos sluggish on an 040??:blink:

040 screams through SWOS as does an 68000, i find it surprising you are having troubles with that game?

SWOS Sucks on 040 and 060, the slave was being re-written (news over at EAB) but I'm not sure on the status.

The cold hard truth is that for a WHDLoad machine it really is 030 for WIN!

Lots of games will work with the 040, more with an 060 but some will have gfx glitches, some will not run at all and some will be too slow/fast.

Some you can fix with tool types like:

CACHE
NO VBR MOVE

etc, but you'll probably spend more time trying to fix the games that don't work then actually playing them!

I can however 100% recommend Stan the Man, his upgrades are awesome, my 060 will happily run @72mhz with the SCSI! Although I usually run at 66mhz.

No extra Heatsinks Fans needed, MC060 is bare and gets no hotter at 72mhz than an XC060 @50mhz :)

All the best,

Steve.

AFAIR SWOS is one of the games that perform nice on a 030 and lower... if you have a 040/060 then swos at it's current state will be jerky. It needs heavy patching IIRC for 040/060 ...

A 060 is way better than a 040 and I dare say compatibility will be better too!

edit: LOL fitzsteve was faster :D

Thanks guys. :thumbsup: In fact I already know that WHDLOAD and 030 are the definite way to go but on the other hand I want to trim down my collection and keep only one Amiga at home plus my μA1 :) In the end, could somebody test SWOS with 060 or it's a complete waste of time and effort even with tweaked tooltypes? I'm aware of the reworked slave but it has reached 99% of completion and still no further progress has been made.

Steve, thanks for the suggestion about Stachu. I've already contacted him. He's absolutely the man for the job plus the fact of good comms until now.

ah, i guess you guys ain't using the jst version?

I had SWOS running fine on my old 060 with the Tool Type 'CACHE'

However this 060 (now long gone) was an EC varient, as I recall on my MC060/PPC is runs like a Dog with three Legs.

I'll try it again though on all my 060's and report back!

Okkies Steve. I'll be waiting. :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by portarinos

Okkies Steve. I'll be waiting. :thumbsup:

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OK!!! I have some results for you :coffee:

All tests were with the same version of the game/slave and with the same teams England/Latvia in Friendly Match.

I tested on the following systems: (All have 3.1 Roms)

A4000 - Apollo 4060 MC060 Latest Mask @50mhz (OS3.1)

SWOS 96/97 Ran perfect on this machine, no special tool types need. Fast and no noticeable slowdown. I added the ToolType 'Cache' but the results were the same.

A4000 - CSMkII XC060 (Full 060) @50mhz (OS3.9)

SWOS 96/97 Ran OK with no special ToolTypes, but there was some moderate slowdown at the goal ends. I added the ToolType 'Cache' and it cures 95% of the slowdown, so slight slowdown but very playable. It comepares to how it runs on an A500/A600 w/68000 :)

A1200 - Blizzard PPC 060 MC060 Latest Mask @66mhz (OS3.9)

SWOS 96/97 was absolutly unplayable with no special ToolTypes, in fact thats a bit of a lie as it ran in slow motion, so I was able to score a terrific solo Goal with Shearer :bowdown:

However you could not possiblt live with that. I tested the ToolType 'Cache' the game then ran a little faster but with sever slowdowns.

I also tested 'NOVBRMOVE' ToolType and it was the same, unplayable.

Only thing left to test is swapping out 66mhz x-tal for 50mhz x-tal but I'm pretty sure it ran the same on my old BPPC which was XC060 (Full 060) @50mhz

Last words...

Although I no longer have my old Blizzard 1260 (with the EC060) I do remember that it ran perfect once the ToolType 'Cache' was used.

So the only way you could play this game with your BPPC is to disable it and run from the 020, then of course you have no Fast Ram :Doh:

Hope those tests help.

All the best,

Steve.

Cheers Steve. :thumbsup: Exactly what i expected :( The only hope remaining for now is in the fact that SWOS played well under the MC060@50mhz. I suppose that technically the very same 060 could be used to replace the 040 of my PPC. So this could be something. Of course the test's result kindly provided by Steve, doesn't mean that if SWOS plays well with this edition of 060, this goes for the rest of the games that seem to not like heavily expanded systems. Of course this is a good sign and SWOS is only a sample but let us hear more opinions on the matter, if any.