CompuServe Thread

Imagine not for A2000?

17 messages in this thread
#20214From: Wayne ColeDec 3, 1990 2:15 AM
Do you folks have a money back guarantee? The reason I ask is that Imagine will not run on my system (or am I supposed to Imagine it does – hence its name ;^} ). I have a stock 2000 with ADOS 1.3.2, 3 meg memory, 512k Agnus, 80 meg HD with Imagine in a drawer on DH1:, one of two 40 meg partitions on the drive. I can't tell what version of the software I have as it crashes the system with an "op code 1111" GURU (0000000B) message every time I invoke it whether from CLI or WB. I was kinda waiting for the upgrade you mention I would get when I bought the software from you in Anehiem, but have heard nothign from you. (I thought the upgrade would fix it). But after seeing all the happy users in the forum here, I assume that the reason the software won't run is that there is some minimum configuration required beyond what I have that was not explained on the box or by the sales people at AmieExpo. There is no instruction on installation, but I assume that copying all the files to the HD and into the same directory will be sufficient to make it run, but alas, it only switches to an interlace screen then puts up the task held requestor. No menus are available or anything. Since I am not planning an upgrade to more than my present configuration until the ECS set and 2.0 is released for the 2000, I would like to return the package for a refund. I'll just ave to stick with SA4-D, I guess. Anyway, if you could tell me how to get an RMA, I would appreciate it. Sorry this situation has come up. Hopefully there will be more successful attempts (perhaps a "minimum configuration" warning on the box) that will prevent others from assuming like I did that the progam will run on a basically stock 2000 HD type setup. wmc
#20222From: Pete GouldDec 3, 1990 11:25 AM
Wayne, Any chance you've inadvertantly installed the coprocessor version of Imagine on a non-equipped machine? I know when they first shipped version 0.9 they had a bunch go out that had the coprocessor version on BOTH disks, so everyone was crashing unless they had the chip installed. Don't know about version 1.0 as I don't have it yet (and I have the FP hardware installed anyway) but maybe that's your problem… Pete
#20224From: Pete GouldDec 3, 1990 5:28 PM
Wayne, Since I originally wrote to you, I got my 1.0 package via UPS. Did you get the notice with your package that says you have to use their install program or the package won't work? Did you use that program, and did it appear to terminate successfully? Pete
#20252From: Wayne ColeDec 5, 1990 2:20 AM
Pete, That is possible as I received the 1.0 version the day after giving upa nd uploading that message. Version 1.0 works fine. I even had it animating while I was 'Whapping!" I guess I could check both disks to see if the files on both compare. That would be a good indicator if the versions were 68020/6881/2 versions. BTW, I got the 0.9 at AmiExpo. wmc
#20257From: Pete GouldDec 5, 1990 10:45 AM
Wayne, If you were talking about 0.9, that's almost certainly what the problem was. The initial runs of 0.9 consisted of two disks, labeled as FP and non-FP versions, that were in fact both FP versions. Now I have problems of my own; version 1.0 (which arrived right around the time I was writing my original message to you) won't run properly on MY machine… Pete
#20334From: Wayne ColeDec 8, 1990 1:29 AM
Pete, Version 1.0 runs pretty much flawlessly on my machine. I checked the 0.9 disks and the Imagine files are titled differently and hav different file sizes, so I suspect that one was the floating point version and one was the integer version. I guess there was something in the 0.9 version that was changed that in the 1.0 version that allowed it to run on my machine. Did you follow the installation instuctions to the letter in the coversheet to the Version 1.0 errata? Thats what I did and it seems to work fine. wmc
#20340From: Pete GouldDec 8, 1990 11:22 AM
Wayne, Yup, I sure did. In fact, I re-installed it several times and it's the same each time. The symptoms are: (1) garbage characters show up as defaults in various requesters; (2) certain menus don't drop down like they're supposed to, on a random basis; (3) if the first two problems are worked around, the machine hangs up forever when any attempt is made to generate an animation. I come up with only two possibilities: either the source disk is bad somehow (which seems unlikely), or the program is running into trouble trying to run on my machine. If it's the latter, I don't know where it would be going wrong unless it doesn't like the fact that I have 2MB of chip memory. That's the only thing that's unusual about my machine. But I don't see what difference that would make… Pete
#20341From: Stan Kalisher (Impulse)Dec 8, 1990 2:27 PM
Pete, I don't believe Impulse has played with any 2Mb chip RAM-equipped A2000's. Is there any way to test your software on a standard A2000 setup? Then we could narrow it down a little bit. I have seen some of the erratic behavior you're describing in some of the earlier versions of the software. All the problems I saw were directly related to memory. –Rick
#20351From: Pete GouldDec 8, 1990 8:18 PM
Rick, Unfortunately, my machine is the only one around; I have no access to any others. Pete
#20343From: Andrew HobbsDec 8, 1990 4:24 PM
Just my two cents…. But I have a 3000 with 2 MB of chip and Imagine loves it. Flies right along. You may have something else different though… Ever run a RAM test on your system? Sometimes a single bad chip can cause a lot of trouble. Later, Andrew
#20449From: Wayne ColeDec 13, 1990 12:47 AM
Pete, I am using the integer version. I would guess that you have the floating point version installed. You may want to delet the current version and try reinstalling from the oiginal disks with the integer vesion to see if that might be the problem. wmc
#20453From: Pete GouldDec 13, 1990 10:39 AM
Good idea, Wayne. I'll give that a shot. Pete
#20270From: Darron C. KnutsonDec 5, 1990 9:36 PM
Wayne, The "opcode 1111" guru message indicates that you were trying to run a program that was expecting to find a coprocessor and didn't. Opcodes that begin with a binary 1111 (hex F) cause so-called "F line" exceptions on 680×0 processors. Motorola has reserved the "F line" exceptions to implement coprocessor instructions. Darron
#20335From: Wayne ColeDec 8, 1990 1:29 AM
Darron, So do you think that if I tried the version that is marked as the FP version it might work? Do you think the files and disks were labeled wrong? There is a different file on each disk (at least the name and size differ). wmc
#20349From: Darron C. KnutsonDec 8, 1990 6:21 PM
Wayne, Who knows? It's possible that the disks were mislabelled. I know that Impulse had a goof-up in their disk duplication process when Imagine 0.9 shipped. Darron
#20317From: Stan Kalisher (Impulse)Dec 7, 1990 7:28 PM
wmc, make sure you're not running the .FP version of the software, that's only intended for folks with 68020s or '30s. If this isn't the case, we will make sure to get you a version that works. –Rick
#20337From: Wayne ColeDec 8, 1990 1:30 AM
Rick, No need to worry. The 1.0 came and it works fine. I did check the disks, however, and the 0.9 version has a .FP version with filesize 413522 and the version on the Impulse.int disk is 413236. Anyway, it doesn't matter now as I have a working 1.0 version. BTW, I like the tutorial alot – very instructive. wmc