Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games,comp.answers,news.answers Distribution: world From: ken@msor.ex.ac.uk (Ken J. Powell) Reply-To: ken@msor.ex.ac.uk Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games Subject: comp.sys.amiga.games Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about Amiga games. It should be read by anyone who wishes to post to the comp.sys.amiga.games newsgroup. Keywords: commodore,cbm,c=,amiga,games Expires: Fri, 24 March 1995 00:00:00 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Supersedes: References: Archive-name: amiga/games-FAQ Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 1995/01/05 Version: $VER: csag_faq 1.3 (9.3.95) comp.sys.amiga.games FAQ $VER: csag_faq 1.3 (9.3.95) New this version: added Dungeon Master II/Chaos Strikes Back section updated Doom section with new newsgrougs, TextDemo and AB3d info added HD installable games pointer If you're new to this group, READ THIS. All of it. Please. This FAQ provides the answers to the most Frequently Asked Questions on this newsgroup; readers new to this group should read it before posting. It is posted every month to comp.sys.amiga.games, comp.answers and news.answers. New users of Usenet news should be sure to read all of the articles in news.announce.newusers to familiarize themselves with the general etiquette of communicating on the net. How to get this FAQ: The latest version is available at the Usenet FAQ archive at rtfm.mit.edu. It can be ftp'd as /pub/usenet/comp.sys.amiga.games/games_FAQ. If you don't have ftp access, send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the line "send usenet/news.answers/amiga/games-faq" in the body of the message. You can also send email to ken@msor.ex.ac.uk; please include "Games FAQ" in the subject line - this is not a bot answering so you could also say hi :-) WWW users can find it at the Games Domain site http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain or by ftp from wcl-l.bham.ac.uk as /pub/djh/faqs/C.S.Amiga.Games.faq Corrections, suggestions, comments and cash bribes :-) are welcome, please send them to Ken Powell at ken@msor.ex.ac.uk. Contents: 0) A word about flaming. 1) Where can I find Amiga games available for anonymous ftp? 2) What does .dms mean? What about .lha and .lzh? 3) Where else can I get Amiga games? 4) What mags talk about games? 5) Where can I find game walkthru's? 6) "DOOM" for the Amiga. 7) Programming games on the Amiga. 8) How do I get my game out to the major ftp sites? 9) Are there any freeware chess games for the Amiga? 10) I always loved playing [Pacman, Star Wars, Frogger, etc.] at the arcade/on my 8-bit computer. Is there a Amiga version? 11) What games will fail to run on my [accelerated Amiga, AGA Amiga, bizarrely configured Amiga]? How do I fix them? 12) Is there a FAQ for [The Settlers, Sim City 2000, Civilization, Frontier, ...] 13) Civilization AGA is very slow, is there a fix? 14) Is M.U.L.E. avaliable? 15) What about Lost Treasures of Infocom II? 16) What about the CD32? 17) Dungeon Master I and II 18) What games are HD installable? Credits 0) A word about flaming. Every now and then some moron posts something along the lines of "Amiga games suck!!!!! Get a real machine!!!!!" And immediately 30 or 40 people take the bait and post long, vitriolic replies and exhort everyone to mail-bomb the perpetrator. Please, please, please don't waste your time and our bandwidth replying to this kind of idiocy. More often than not it was posted as a practical joke from the account of some hapless user who left themselves logged in in a public computer cluster. The owner of the account then logs back in a day or two later to find several megs of hate mail and uuencoded core dumps in their mail spool. If you feel that you absolutely have to share your witty, concise flame on the complete superiority of the Amiga above all other gaming platforms, take it to comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, where it will be appreciated. 1) Where can I find Amiga games available for anonymous ftp? The major site for ftp'ing Amiga software is the Aminet chain. There is the mother site at ftp.wustl.edu and mirror sites around the world. (A mirror site is a site that contains an exact copy of the contents of another site, in the hopes of diverting some traffic away from the more popular site. The mirror sites are usually several hours behind the "mother" site.) It is usually faster to get files from the nearest mirror. A full list of sites (correct at 1/11/94) is below - mirrors are being added all the time so this is subject to change. USA (MO) ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 pub/aminet/ USA (CA) ftp.cdrom.com 192.216.222.5 pub/aminet/ USA (TX) ftp.etsu.edu 192.43.199.20 pub/aminet/ USA (WI) ftp.netnet.net 198.70.64.3 pub/aminet/ Scandinavia ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2 pub/aminet/ Switzerland ftp.eunet.ch 146.228.10.16 pub/aminet/ Switzerland ftp.math.ethz.ch 129.132.104.6 pub/aminet/ Switzerland litamiga.epfl.ch 128.178.151.32 pub/aminet/ (*) Germany ftp.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.2.32 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-erlangen.de 131.188.3.2 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-bielefeld.de 129.70.4.55 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-oldenburg.de 134.106.40.9 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-stuttgart.de 129.96.8.13 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-siegen.de 141.99.128.1 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de 130.149.17.7 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.stud.fh-heilbronn.de 141.7.1.41 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.tu-chemnitz.de 192.108.33.193 pub/aminet/ UK ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.2.1 pub/aminet/ UK micros.hensa.ac.uk 148.88.8.84 pub/aminet/ Australia ftp.archie.au pub/aminet/ (*) closed 6:30am to 4pm weekdays People with only e-mail access can use ftpmail from ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.luth.se. Send e-mail to ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk or ftpmail@ftp.luth.se with HELP in the body. 2) What does .dms mean? What about .lha and .lzh? DMS files are packed with the DiskMasher. This packs whole disks and is the main way to distribute Non-DOS disks over the internet. A copy of DMS can be found on Aminet as /util/arc/dms111.run. To undms to a disk in df0: type "dms WRITE file.dms TO df0:" without the quotes. LHA and LZH files are packed with an LHA compatible packer. The main one is LHA which is shareware. A freeware alternative is LZ. Both of these are on Aminet as /util/arc/LhA_e138.run and /util/arc/lz_1.92.lzh (this needs LHA to unpack it however so you'll have to get LHA...). To unlha to a formatted disk in df0: type "lha -a x file.lha df0:" without the quotes. The dms and lha archives are self-extracting files so executing them will leave you with the appropriate files. Some .dms archives are packed with DMS II which does not seem to be on Aminet anymore. [I think it's a commercial project - any further details welcome] 3) Where else can I get Amiga games? If you want commercial games then several companies will sell them to you cheap. National chains in the UK, including Future Zone and HMV, have special offers on at various times (including new releases). Mail order companies also offer good discounts on new and old games National firms that may ship orders abroad are: UK Premier Mail Order : +44 1268 271172 Special Reserve (joining fee) : +44 1279 600204 AUSTRALIA Sigmacom : (02) 524 9846 Solutions Rendered : (02) 838 0733 4) What mags talk about games? UK Mags Amiga Action 3.95UKP (2 disks) Amiga Computing 3.95UKP (2 disks) Amiga Format 3.95UKP (2 disks) Amiga Power 3.95UKP (2 disks) CU Amiga 3.95UKP (2 disks) The One 3.95UKP (2 disks) CVG 2.75UKP (multi-format) GamesMaster ?.??UKP (multi-format) Australian Mags The Australian Commodore and Amiga Review A$4.95 5) Where can I find game walkthru's? Solutions and hints for many popular games are available via anonymous ftp at risc.ua.edu in /pub/games/solutions and at ftp.uu.net in /pub/games/solutions. There's also a large solution site at nic.funet.fi in /pub/doc/games/solutions, but you will need unzip or gzip to uncompress these files. (Avaliable on Aminet as /util/arc/unzip51x.lha and /util/pack/gzip124x2.lha) Aminet has hints in the /game/hint directory. There is also the Games Domain site which has walkthroughs for several popular games at http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain Most Amiga magazines publish walkthru's for new games. Try any of those listed in section (4) If you can't find an answer there, post your question--chances are *somebody* on comp.sys.amiga.games has gotten farther than you! If someone posts a question for which you also want the answer, instead of posting "Send me the answer too!" send email to the original poster and ask him or her to relay the answer to you. 6) "DOOM" on the Amiga. It's not avaliable. ID Software have stated that there will not be port of DOOM to the Amiga for technical reasons. There are usually one or two threads on comp.sys.amiga.games and comp.sys.amiga.programmer discussing the validity of these reasons. Several demos on Aminet show DOOM-type engines that might be built into proper games and at least one commercial release is being worked on. The Aminet demos include: demo/aga/dentects.lha (updated version of dentwolf) demo/euro/Pearl.Doomed.lha dev/misc/wolf3d.lha game/demo/walls.lha gfx/aga/poom_02.lha gfx/misc/TextDemo57.lha gfx/misc/wolf.lha gfx/misc/wolf3.lha gfx/misc/bsp1.0.lha (this shows DOOM .wad files - walls only) gfx/misc/dog3d.lha (this shows DOOM .wad files with effects) Several commercial games are in the offing: Dentects is being made into a commercial game - contact A.J.Amsel@ex.ac.uk for info TextDemo will be released as "Shades" - info from John.Hendrikx@grafix.xs4all.nl Team17 are releasing AlienBreed 3D - a demo should appear Aminet soon (after the next Amiga Format is released) Poom is also apparently being turned into a game (reported by Rowan Crawford) Discussion of the Amiga clones of DOOM, and comparisons of DOOM to similar Amiga games and demos are appropriate in csa.games. Discussion of DOOM gameplay does not belong in csa.games. Try rec.games.computer. doom.playing or comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action instead. 7) Programming games on the Amiga. The programmer FAQ posted in comp.sys.amiga.programmer is a good place to start. You'll need a compiler/assembler/programming language which can cost from a few pounds to over one hundred. You'll also need lots of time and a good idea (or two). Good luck! 8) How do I get my game out to the major ftp sites? Do *not* post binaries to comp.sys.amiga.games. The best way to release your game to the csa.gamers is to make it available at an Aminet site and then post an announcement about it to comp.sys.amiga.games and comp.sys.amiga.announce with a discription and the path. People without ftp can email it from an Aminet ftp-mail server such as src.doc.ic.ac.uk. If you are unfamiliar with FTP then see the FTP FAQ posted in csa.introduction every 2 weeks. A plea - unless your game does not use AmigaDOS directory structures then pack it with an lha type packer. Please only use dms for those files that really need it (and you don't need dms to keep the directory structure intact...) 9) Is there a freeware chess games for the Amiga? GNUChess has been ported to the Amiga (on Aminet it is stored as game/think/GNUChess4.0.58.lha). There is also UChess which seems to be updated regularly and comes in several versions for different specced machines. You really need at least a 68020 and a few megabytes of RAM though. Aminet has the latest version as game/think/UChess289.lha. 10) I always loved playing [Pacman, Star Wars, Frogger, etc.] at the arcade/on my 8-bit computer. Is there an Amiga version? Probably. Aminet is a good place to start (the games directory obviously). You can also use a Spectrum emulator (Spectrum 1.7 /misc/emu/spectrum-1.7.lha and ZXAM misc/emu/zxam-1.3.lha are the best ZXAM is AGA only) and play the originals of these programs. There is an FTP site in Norway with freely distributable Spectrum games (ftp to ftp.nvg.unit.no or use WWW to http://www.nvg.unit.no/spectrum). An A1200+FastRAM will be needed to approach Spectrum speeds though. 11) What games will fail to run on my [accelerated Amiga, AGA Amiga, bizarrely configured Amiga]? How do I fix them? Many games have not been coded to follow Commodore's guidelines, a lot of these break on Amigas with accelerators (especially 68040s), FastRAM and the AGA chipset. If a new game fails to run, people will usually mention it on csa.games. The main ways to try and get such programs to run are: Use the boot-menu (KS 3) and turn off caches, hard disks and the AGA chipset. This will work with a lot of games. Only start games from a PAL or NTSC workbench with mode promotion turned off. Some games assume a PAL/NTSC WB and get confused if there isn't one. Use Degrader (/util/misc/Degrader.lha on Aminet) or similar programs such as KillAGA (/util/misc/killaga2.lha) to turn your A4000 into an A500 - ain't progress wonderful :-) Ask the publisher if there is a patch avaliable - sadly, most software houses only make patches for the PC versions of their games. Purely FYI, most pirated versions of games work with more machines than the originals and are HD installable when the shop bought copies are not. Sad :-( 12) Is there a FAQ for [The Settlers, Sim City 2000, Civilization, Frontier, ...] There are FAQ's for some popular Amiga games, especially if they are multi-platform. A good place to look if you have WWW access is Dave Stanworth's Games Domain, at http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain and by ftp at ftp.wcl-l.bham.ac.uk in /pub/djh/faqs. Another good bet is the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.[strategic|action|misc| adventure] if there is a PC version of the game. Some are available directly from the maintainers: Civilization FAQ: Available via anonymous ftp from wcl-l.bham.ac.uk in /pub/djh/faqs/civilization.faq, by sending email to djh@wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk with the subject "Civ FAQ please", or by WWW at http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain/civfaq1.html. Sim City 2000 FAQ: Send email to Kevin Endo at thx@netcom.com with the subject "SC2K FAQ please" or anon ftp it from netcom.com in /pub/thx. Frontier (Elite II) Hints and Tips: Avaliable from Aminet as /game/hint/frontier.lzh 13) Civilization AGA is very slow, is there a fix? Yes. There are three speed ups, the first moves the game into FastRAM (so you must have FastRAM for this to work), the second stops the pointer being changed and the third removes the screen fades; these work on all Amigas. To perform these patches you need a binary file editor (like AZap, FileX - there are lots avaliable on Aminet) and a program to decrunch PowerPacker 4 files (either PP4 or DLD which is in the VirusZ distribution on Aminet /util/virus/virsz307.lha). Unpack the main program and load it into the file editor and change the following: Move to FastRAM: At offset &14 change &40 to &00 At offset &1C change &40 to &00 At offset &20 change &40 to &00 Stop the pointer changing: At offset &2D17C change 4EAEFEF2 to &4E714E71 Remove the screen fades: At offset &2CCF2 change &6728 to &66B0 At offset &2CE60 change &59466002 to &4E714E71 Resave the file (and recrunch if you want) and start as normal. 14) Is M.U.L.E. avaliable? No but Subtrade (a M.U.L.E. clone with changed graphics) is. It takes place on the ocean ground of Irata with near identical gameplay. [Is this commercial, shareware - anybody know?] 15) What about Lost Treasures of Infocom II? Not aviable I'm afraid although you can use the PC version. You have to transfer the datafiles over to the Amiga (using CrossDOS or similar) and then use a PD interpreter to run the datafiles - Dave Kinder's itf is reported to be good (on Aminet as /game/role/itf160.lha) 16) What about the CD32? CD32 games are talked about in csa.games and there are also two CD32 specific newsgroups which are ideal for talking about technical aspects of the CD32 versions. These groups are comp.sys.amiga.cd32 and rec.games.video.cd32, the latter is most appropriate for games related talk. 17) Dungeon Master I and II A sequel to the original Dungeon Master WAS released some years ago - this was called "Chaos Strikes Back" and was an expansion for DM I. DM II is scheduled for release in March '95 and has a, supposedly, much better game engine. If you want to play the originals (DM and CSB), Psygnosis released a double budget pack in 1992 which should still be avaliable. These versions have been patched to run under OS 2.04+ and can be installed on a hard-drive using game/patch/csbhd.lzh from Aminet. 18) What games are HD installable? There is a list of games on the WWW that shows what is needed to install various games on HD. Thanks to dEN for providing this. Point your browser at http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ma3dhcy/hd.txt and have a look. Credits: Thanks to Christina Schulman (schulman+@pitt.edu) for letting me use her comp.sys.mac.games FAQ as the basis for this FAQ. Nick Ridley (nick@mentaur.demon.co.uk) for the CivAGA patches. Suggestions and additions to this FAQ have been contributed by: ML Hewitt (u3f88@cc.keele.ac.uk) Rowan Crawford (dljar1@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au) Mikali (u9162828@uow.edu.au) Geoffrey Newman (grn@alcove.apana.org.au) Nicholas Fisher (kau10@central.sussex.ac.uk) Elliott Mitchell (ehem@cyro.cryogenic.com) Bill Bennett (bill.bennett@zoology.oxford.ac.uk) dEN (ma3dhcy@midge.bath.ac.uk) Thanks! This document copyright 1995 by Ken Powell. It may be placed on Aminet (including Aminet CD) and Fred Fish (any format he wants). Mail me for permission to use in any other material.