Re: Ninjaforce Megademo on ZipGSX

[a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

Blake Patterson <blake@blakespot.com> wrote:

>In article <3d5411db.7539465@news.videotron.ca>,
> a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) wrote:

>>     I found two solutions shortly after the demo was released in early 1995:
>> 
>> 1) Disable (turn off) 'Counter Delay' using the ZipGS's software then reboot.
>> (you can use SuperZip CDA, Zippy, the utility disk that came with the Zip)
>> 
>> or...
>> 
>> 2) Press Apple-Control-Esc *just* before the "Your GS is too slow!" error
>> message appears. Attempting to access the Control Panel seems to 
>> bypass or interrupt the check--though you have to time it _perfectly_.
>
>I gave it a try.  CPS Follow = OFF did not do it.  But I then rebooted 

    Sorry. I meant to say disable (turn off) the 'Counter Delay' setting.

>and did the CTRL-OAPPLE-ESC and indeed, timed right it let me into the 
>demo.  But after the title graphic and starfield it dropped out to BASIC 
>prompt after displaying the line:
>
>(and in this line, # = the character that looks like the GS cursor, a 
>checkerboard block)
>
>##wwww##wwwww##ww##wwww
>]

    I've seen this *specific* problem (those characters get slowly printed 
to screen, right?). Unfortunately I can't remember the cause, though
rebooting and clearing memory _may_ have eventually cleared it up.

    Try rebooting a few times. Or failing that, power-down or do a
Control-Apple-Option-Reset (followed by a warm boot) and see if
that doesn't eventually run it.

>So I only see about 20-30 seconds of the demo.  Not sure what that's all 
>about.  Any other suggestions?

    After the introduction, it should display a screen with a floppy disk,
scrolling text and moving starfield behind it. I *do* remember it crashing
before that screen on occasion, exactly how you describe above (even
when running the patched hardisk version). 

>BTW, I have 5.25MB RAM in the IIgs, it's a ROM 3 GS (I did patch the 
>demo with the ROM 3 patch, but have not installed it on HD yet), and 
>I've got a Focus drive in the system as well.  For what it's worth.  

    It only needs 2 MB of RAM and a 7 MHz or faster accelerator installed.