Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Textcraft will work under 1.2 if you use fixhunk on it.
    
    DPaint II does not take over the machine.  Perhaps you don't have
    enough memory to allow you to run other things at the same time.
    (you need more than 512K with DPaint II to run other programs at
    the same time.)
    
    For a little fun, you can run DPaint II twice (given enough memory).
    It acts really strange though.  The pointer effects both screens
    at the same time, depending upon what you are doing.
    

    Are you quite sure that you have a RELEASE copy of KS/WB 1.2?
    I assure you that all of the programs you mentioned, especially
    Chessmaster2000 work just fine under 1.2. (I use Chessmeaster at
    least twice a week).  The one exception is Leader Board, which
    definately requires 1.1.
    
    If you have expanded memory, some early programs (notably Textcraft)
    need to be 'FIXHUNKED.  This utility redirects the program code
    into fast memory, and the graphics/sound code hunks into chip memory.
    You see, unless the programmer 'Atomized' his code, all code hunks
    will be forced into fast memory, including graphics/sound code.
    The custom graphics and sound chips cannot access fast memory, so
    these programs act funny.  'FIXHUNK' merely identifies what type
    of code hunk, and directs it to fast or chip ram.  Once a program
    has been 'FIXHUNKED' once, you need never do it again.
    
    I would try to verify the version of KS/WB, as I haven't had the
    need to use 1.1 in several months, other than to play Leader Board.

    A couple reasons why programs are written that way:
    
    multitasking is a new concept for a lot of the game programmers,
    the amiga is a new machine, it will take time for them to learn
    how to do the simple things in a multitasking environment.
      
    512K is the normal amount of available memory the programs are
    written for...multitasking with user programs with come when
    you have more memory - the game wants most of the 512K for itself.
    
    -dave
    

Re: .3

Also, for action/arcade games, multitasking could cause unacceptable delays
causing the game to appear jerky.  On the other hand, the shareware
Missile Command game recommends that you run a few tasks in the background
to slow the game down to avoid it running too fast.

    I have been able to run (like I said in .0) everything under kick
    1.2 except leaderboard. The only thing is, I get funny screens while
    loading. For instance on Chessmaster 2000, The horse and carriage
    intro screen is all out of whack. It doesn't appear to affect the
    way the program operates however.
    
    Also, I can run TextCraft fine under 1.2 and I never used FIXHUNK.
    What is fixhunk? Where is it? Will it take away the funny screens
    that I described above?
    
    I can understand the thing about games wanting to take over the
    whole machine because they need all of the resources of the computer
    to run properly. However, it seems as if it could grab control of
    the resources without having to do a reboot. What do you think?.
    
    Chris

    re: .5
    
    FixHunk V1.2a may be found on Fish Disk 36.
    
    -rob

Re: .5

The previous notes were slightly misleading.  FixHunk is not really a
program needed to make things run under 1.2.

FixHunk fixes programs that do not work with extended memory.  As long
as you only have a half meg (or less) of memory, you do not need FixHunk.

Some people associate FixHunk with making programs work with 1.2 because
of a new feature of 1.2 called auto-config.  Under 1.2, the Amiga, as it
boots, will automatically recognize properly constructed hardware add ons
and will configure them.  Under 1.1, the user had to issue a command to
cause the Amiga to notice a hardware add on.  If the user was going to
use a program that didn't work with extended memory, the easiest way to
get it to work was to boot the Amiga and never issue the command to
add the expansion memory to the system.  If the program was a game that
required rebooting to work, everything seemed to work naturally because
people who wrote games that didn't work with extended memory didn't bother
to put startup files on their products to cause extended memory to be
recognized.

However, under 1.2, the Amiga automatically recognizes expansion memory.
The only way to avoid the Amiga recognizing expansion memory was to
disconnect it from the computer.  This makes programs that work with
extended memory more obvious.

    My ChessMaster works fine under V1.2 and I bought it long before
    V1.2 was selling at the local Amiga shops. It does work fine under
    the released version of 1.2.
    
    Paul