Depricated.

[Aspie]

I've been playing Syndicate on the Amiga and I thought I would give the PC version a go. I have been running it from the 1993 vhd. Everything runs fine, nice graphics and music, but there are no sound effects. Anyone know how to turn them on?

Thanks.

[SmokyBarnable]

Hi all, having trouble getting this to even start.

I've got the files from archive.org, unzipped and copied them to /media/fat/games/AO486. I ran the update script, which reported successful update to 0.7.8. I start the core, mount the BOOT-DOS98 vhd to IDE 0-0, and the Top 300 DOS vhd to IDE 0-1. I set boot priority to HARD DRIVE, and then select Reset and Apply HDD. I then get a blank screen. After about 30 seconds I can get the Core menu to reappear.

Feels like I'm just missing something really obvious.

[flynnsbit]

Hi all, having trouble getting this to even start.

I've got the files from archive.org, unzipped and copied them to /media/fat/games/AO486. I ran the update script, which reported successful update to 0.7.8. I start the core, mount the BOOT-DOS98 vhd to IDE 0-0, and the Top 300 DOS vhd to IDE 0-1. I set boot priority to HARD DRIVE, and then select Reset and Apply HDD. I then get a blank screen. After about 30 seconds I can get the Core menu to reappear.

Feels like I'm just missing something really obvious.

You need the very latest bios files from the AO486 github. Boot0 and boot1 here in your games/AO486 directory. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... r/releases

[Malor]

The easiest way to get those files is usually to delete any you already have (including the "drv" directory) and then run update_all.sh. (which doesn't come with the Mister, you have to download that separately.) That should drop in the latest versions of boot0.rom, boot1_opensource.rom, and boot1.rom, along with a new copy of the drv directory and the driver files inside.

Update_all handles the PC BIOS files in a weird way; they're not part of the BIOS section, they're considered part of the main Mister distribution. It doesn't download them to any alternate directories you're using (like /media/fat/usb0 or /media/fat/cifs). It insists on putting them in /media/fat/games/AO486, period.

All the other BIOS files are in a separate section and download with the correct directory priorities. It's just AO486 that's different. If your install isn't in /media/fat/games/AO486, you'll have to copy the files to wherever you're running things from.

[SmokyBarnable]

The update_all script did replace the boot roms and drv folder, but still nothing happens. Does selecting "Reset and apply HDD" actually start the boot process? Or is there something else?

[flynnsbit]

The update_all script did replace the boot roms and drv folder, but still nothing happens. Does selecting "Reset and apply HDD" actually start the boot process? Or is there something else?

you could have the bios files or an /ao486 folder somewhere else.
like /media/fat/AO486

It needs to be /media/fat/games/AO486/ unless you are using a usb drive. then you shouldn't have anything on your SD card.

It's your bios or you have a really old version of the ao486 rbf in /media/fat/_Computers

[SmokyBarnable]

Yes, you were right. I set up my CIFS share using "ao486" instead of "AO486" and that was the problem. Thank you!

[Malor]

For some reason, update_all always puts the AO486 BIOS files in /media/fat/games/AO486, whether you're using other storage or not. It doesn't treat them like the other BIOS files. If you're on a CIFS share or a USB drive, you either need to symlink /media/fat/games to point to the actual games dir, or manually copy the AO486 files after an update.

[suww37]

I wonder if the Lion king will run fine on the ao486 without dropping frames. As I recall, lion king was difficult to play because of frame drops. Did a new bios update solve this?

[salsasnack]

Hi guys, I'm having an issue I've yet seen reported. I've followed the steps to update my Exodos Top 300 vhd.

ssh or F9 to get to the console of your MiSTer
cd /media/fat/Scripts
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flynn ... 00_Pack.sh or wget https://tinyurl.com/updatetop300
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flynn ... 0_Pack.ini
change the .ini file to the base path (BASE_PATH=/media/fat) where your vhds are located, /media/fat, /media/usb0, /media/fat/games/cifs, etc

After doing all of this, the script seems to run successfully until I get to the following line from my screenshot:
"rsync: write failed on "/tmp/dos_vhds/E/games/DOOM1993/DOOM/FDOOM.EXE": No space left on device (28)
rsync error: error in file IO (code 11) at receiver.c(374) [reciever=3.1.3]"

I should note, I've tried this on both a shared copy of the VHD on my NAS where I mount all of my games, but also made a copy of the VHD and moved it onto the MiSTer SD card under /media/fat/games/AO486 to try and rule out the possibility of I/O errors caused by a mounted SMB share. Any thoughts?

[salsasnack]

Almost 100 views now but no ideas? I'm really stumped here. I'm sure the error is misleading as the VHD should NOT need to be expanded to add additional space simply to run the update... Any help would be much appreciated!

[KnightNZ]

Hi guys, I'm having an issue I've yet seen reported. I've followed the steps to update my Exodos Top 300 vhd.

ssh or F9 to get to the console of your MiSTer
cd /media/fat/Scripts
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flynn ... 00_Pack.sh or wget https://tinyurl.com/updatetop300
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flynn ... 0_Pack.ini
change the .ini file to the base path (BASE_PATH=/media/fat) where your vhds are located, /media/fat, /media/usb0, /media/fat/games/cifs, etc

After doing all of this, the script seems to run successfully until I get to the following line from my screenshot:
"rsync: write failed on "/tmp/dos_vhds/E/games/DOOM1993/DOOM/FDOOM.EXE": No space left on device (28)
rsync error: error in file IO (code 11) at receiver.c(374) [reciever=3.1.3]"

I should note, I've tried this on both a shared copy of the VHD on my NAS where I mount all of my games, but also made a copy of the VHD and moved it onto the MiSTer SD card under /media/fat/games/AO486 to try and rule out the possibility of I/O errors caused by a mounted SMB share. Any thoughts?

Not very helpful, but I get the same error, so it's not just your setup at least. I get the same issue running the VHD from local mSD or from my SMB share.

[chocomochino]

check this thread you might want to add the --inplace flag to rsync?
https://serverfault.com/questions/68868 ... -device-28

Hi guys, I'm having an issue I've yet seen reported. I've followed the steps to update my Exodos Top 300 vhd.

ssh or F9 to get to the console of your MiSTer
cd /media/fat/Scripts
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flynn ... 00_Pack.sh or wget https://tinyurl.com/updatetop300
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flynn ... 0_Pack.ini
change the .ini file to the base path (BASE_PATH=/media/fat) where your vhds are located, /media/fat, /media/usb0, /media/fat/games/cifs, etc

After doing all of this, the script seems to run successfully until I get to the following line from my screenshot:
"rsync: write failed on "/tmp/dos_vhds/E/games/DOOM1993/DOOM/FDOOM.EXE": No space left on device (28)
rsync error: error in file IO (code 11) at receiver.c(374) [reciever=3.1.3]"

I should note, I've tried this on both a shared copy of the VHD on my NAS where I mount all of my games, but also made a copy of the VHD and moved it onto the MiSTer SD card under /media/fat/games/AO486 to try and rule out the possibility of I/O errors caused by a mounted SMB share. Any thoughts?

[salsasnack]

check this thread you might want to add the --inplace flag to rsync?
https://serverfault.com/questions/68868 ... -device-28

I think this is an excellent idea, however after looking at the script "AO486_Update_Top300_updater.sh", it doesn't appear that we have the ability to modify the rsync commands as they're not present within the script file. Perhaps this script calls another from the URL that we can't access?

[Malor]

It's pretty common for Mister scripts to be just a stub, and then to download the real script from the Internet... this is not the best approach from a security standpoint, but it's easy. If you read the stub, you should see where it's downloading the script. This one is incredibly verbose, with options all over, which are all glued together at the end. This will download the actual script:

Code: Select all

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/flynnsbit/Top300_updates/blob/main/_mister/update/AO486_Update_Top300_updater.sh?raw=true -O AO486_Update_Top300_updater.sh

I was trying to duplicate the curl command built by the script, but it's a PITA, so this is using wget instead. Wget wants to put the argument "?raw=true" in the filename, which is annoying. The -O option renames the output to be the same as the original.

This puts the real update script in /tmp, which will disappear as soon as the machine reboots. If you put it somewhere in the filesystem, it will persist. If the Internet script changes, your local copy will not be updated; you will need to wget it again, and then re-edit in any changes you made. This will probably be pretty annoying.

[salsasnack]

Thanks so much for that! Unfortunately, I continued to run into the issue even with an --inplace flag on the rsync commands. I have 150GB remaining on my SD card and I verified my partitions, everything looks appropriate...

With the help of the script you provided, I was able to retrieve "Update.zip", so I downloaded it and extracted the contents of C and E and tried following the instructions, mounted the VHDs in Windows and copied the contents manually. Then I ran into an error when copying the contents from E. "There is not enough space on TOP 300. You need an additional 55.7 MB to copy these files." So there's the likely culprit when trying to run it from the script directly on the MiSTer.

I can't even expand the volume, it's greyed out and not an option. I supposed I could delete a game or two or rebuild the VHD from scratch while adding more room... but man what the heck. Was this an oversight or what? Yeesh. When it rains it pours!

[mamagin]

Hi all.

Absolutely loving this package.
However, since I am a bad person, I want to play Phantasmagoria. But for some reason, I cannot seem to change cd’s!

I’ve tried: ctrl+f4 as instructed at launch - nothing happens.
I’ve manually mounted disc 2 to IDE 1-0 and pressed “enter”. It works for a few seconds then crashes out to game select menu.

I updated to the latest release (both the top300 package and update-all).

I am running games off of an external usb hdd.

Please help - I need this game in my life!

All the best

[salsasnack]

Hi all,

I just wanted to give an update for anyone else in a similar situation. So I ended up having to extend the "IDE 0-1 Top 300 DOS Games" VHD by building it from scratch, adding about 5GB to it (a bit much, but to be safe), and then copying all contents over to it.

Next, I had to manually download the "update.zip" file and copy and paste the files to C: & E: respectively (C: & E: will be labeled differently depending on your machine).

The automatic update script would always fail, regardless of whether or not I was targeting my NAS share or a share from the SD Card. This was unfortunately the only way I could get the updates working.

Thanks.

[Malor]

I was fooling with the image from Linux, and it complains about not having enough FAT entries. The kernel refuses to even unmount the thing as a loop device once it sees that; the filesystem is dirty, so it won't unmount, but you can't fix the filesystem.

I presume deleting some files would work, but the fundamental image appears to be in bad shape after having the official patch script run a few times.

[thisisamigaspeaking]

King's Quest VII working for anyone? Tried it with both MT32-Pi and SoundBlaster and it has music for the Sierra screen then gets to the title screen and hangs. Mouse pointer keeps moving. Tried with extended and EMM386.

[netbeui]

King's Quest VII working for anyone? Tried it with both MT32-Pi and SoundBlaster and it has music for the Sierra screen then gets to the title screen and hangs. Mouse pointer keeps moving. Tried with extended and EMM386.

I just tested it and I'm seeing the same result as you. I'm sure this worked at some point before because I remember playing it so something must've changed

[bbond007]

King's Quest VII working for anyone? Tried it with both MT32-Pi and SoundBlaster and it has music for the Sierra screen then gets to the title screen and hangs. Mouse pointer keeps moving. Tried with extended and EMM386.

I just tested it and I'm seeing the same result as you. I'm sure this worked at some point before because I remember playing it so something must've changed

I believe the problem has been sorted, did you try the build of ao486 from unstable nightlies? -->

https://github.com/MiSTer-unstable-nigh ... 133f22.rbf

[netbeui]

King's Quest VII working for anyone? Tried it with both MT32-Pi and SoundBlaster and it has music for the Sierra screen then gets to the title screen and hangs. Mouse pointer keeps moving. Tried with extended and EMM386.

I just tested it and I'm seeing the same result as you. I'm sure this worked at some point before because I remember playing it so something must've changed

I believe the problem has been sorted, did you try the build of ao486 from unstable nightlies? -->

https://github.com/MiSTer-unstable-nigh ... 133f22.rbf

Thanks for the heads up! I haven’t tried the unstable nightly, but I’ll give it a try in a few weeks when I’m back from vacation

[Juri]

Hello i have a problem with the updater script, when i launch it it start downloading script version 0.8.15
Then it immediately download version 0.7.8
After this the update process begin and at the end it says:
Successfully updated to v.0.7.8
Why it do not update to v 0.8.15? What i'm doing wrong?

[flynnsbit]

Hello i have a problem with the updater script, when i launch it it start downloading script version 0.8.15
Then it immediately download version 0.7.8
After this the update process begin and at the end it says:
Successfully updated to v.0.7.8
Why it do not update to v 0.8.15? What i'm doing wrong?

You are doing nothing wrong. There are multiple versions of multiple things being downloaded (both fastdoom. the update script, and all the pack changes from github.

[Malor]

If you've got an older image (more than, say, 3 months old), I've found that the update script corrupts the image; the image has few free FAT entries, and the updater script exceeds those and produces a corrupt filesystem.

Presumably, newer images were formatted with more entries, so a fresh download might give you a better base to work from.

[thisisamigaspeaking]

If you've got an older image (more than, say, 3 months old), I've found that the update script corrupts the image; the image has few free FAT entries, and the updater script exceeds those and produces a corrupt filesystem.

Presumably, newer images were formatted with more entries, so a fresh download might give you a better base to work from.

Any easy way to transfer saved games to the new VHDs?

[Malor]

Probably the easiest way is to mount both the old and the new drives, figure out which letters are which, and then manually copy savegame files from the old image to the new. However, running over a network share to a ZFS filesystem, I have found the AO486 disk access to be extremely slow.

If file copying under AO486 is also glacially slow for you, the transfer is way way faster if you copy them using Linux. I can explain that if you want, but it's a bit intricate. In effect, you create /dev/mapper entries for each partition using the kpartx utility, mount them on two subdirs as (probably) vfat, and copy the files you care about.

Copying files that way is very fast, but the setup and teardown takes a lot of typing.

The MegaAGS creator for Minimig figured out how to store savegames on a separate volume, so you can update the main disk image without touching your saves. Sadly, I don't think there's any reasonable way to do that on the PC; AmigaOS was way, way more sophisticated than DOS, and the MegaAGS author(s) is/are taking full advantage.

[Juri]

Hello i have a problem with the updater script, when i launch it it start downloading script version 0.8.15
Then it immediately download version 0.7.8
After this the update process begin and at the end it says:
Successfully updated to v.0.7.8
Why it do not update to v 0.8.15? What i'm doing wrong?

You are doing nothing wrong. There are multiple versions of multiple things being downloaded (both fastdoom. the update script, and all the pack changes from github.

So, how can i successfully update to v 0.8.15? Instead of doing no update to the very old version 0.7.8?
Thanks

[thisisamigaspeaking]

Probably the easiest way is to mount both the old and the new drives, figure out which letters are which, and then manually copy savegame files from the old image to the new. However, running over a network share to a ZFS filesystem, I have found the AO486 disk access to be extremely slow.

If file copying under AO486 is also glacially slow for you, the transfer is way way faster if you copy them using Linux. I can explain that if you want, but it's a bit intricate. In effect, you create /dev/mapper entries for each partition using the kpartx utility, mount them on two subdirs as (probably) vfat, and copy the files you care about.

Copying files that way is very fast, but the setup and teardown takes a lot of typing.

The MegaAGS creator for Minimig figured out how to store savegames on a separate volume, so you can update the main disk image without touching your saves. Sadly, I don't think there's any reasonable way to do that on the PC; AmigaOS was way, way more sophisticated than DOS, and the MegaAGS author(s) is/are taking full advantage.

My files are on an SMB share so I would probably go the Linux route (on the NAS itself). Thanks for outlining the process, I can take it from there. The only way I am going to keep playing through various point and click adventure games is if I can preserve my progress.

I noticed that about how the Amiga games are set up, very nice feature of MegaAGS.

Right now everything is on a single SSD but I got some hard drives and upgraded my Pi to 64-bit in order to play around with ZFS. I was thinking of using ZFS for a backup (and letting it accumulate very many snapshots) and keeping the live copy on the current SSD, but I will have to learn more about what options I have with ZFS. The SSD is 1TB and the two drives are 10TB. Not sure if the 1TB will be inadequate for MiSTer at some point, but I could always replace it with a 2TB.