Conference hydra::amiga_v1

re          <<< Note 4683.0 by SIEVAX::JAMIE "Batteries not included!" >>>
>                           -< I wanna slow it down! >-

>    Is there any software on the Amiga that will slow the machine down ?
>    Similar to the functionality on the REPLAY cartridge where you have the 
>    ability to slow the machine down to specific percentages of the
>    original speed ?


	There are some products that slow the 680x0 down.....




	I think they're made by  "Apple"  or some such company.

	Check the orange pages.

	Reg

    Yeah, right!!!
    
    But is there really some PD software out there to do this kind of thing ?

	Well, I could write a program that set its own priority very high
	and did some incrementing, then hibernated.  The ratio of time
	running/hiberating could be set with a proportional gadget.
	Tom

I don't know if it exists, but it would seem to be a pretty easy one to write.
The first thing that comes to mind is to have a simple program that gets
run at a "higher than normal" priority (1-5 would probably be fine).

All it would have to do is loop doing: "busy" wait, then "non-busy" wait.
The ratio of the 2 waits would dictate the % slowdown.  Use the timer
device to schedule the "busy" wait (a tight loop), and the Delay() function
to do the "non-busy" wait.  

Naturally, this would only be useful when the machine is properly multi-tasking.
If you can't find such a utility, I'll write a quick one and see how it works.
It probably exists already, so check the Fish Disks...

Steve   

BTW: is this to slow down games, or some other use? 

>          <<< Note 4683.0 by SIEVAX::JAMIE "Batteries not included!" >>>
>                            -< I wanna slow it down! >-
> 
>     Is there any software on the Amiga that will slow the machine down ?
>     Similar to the functionality on the REPLAY cartridge where you have the 
>     ability to slow the machine down to specific percentages of the
>     original speed ?
>     
>     Cheers,
>     
>     
>     				Jamie.
> 

You could just have the program run at the priority that you wish by specifying
it with 'run -p' or whatever the syntax is.  Or, you could use the program
ChangeTaskPri to change the priority of the running task.  OR, you could run a
background task at a high priority while running your task at a very low
priority.  
 
I recommend TASKX by Steve Tibbit highly, no since in reinventing the wheel,
you could just play a bit with the priorities until you get some satisfaction. 
 
Cheers,
 
JK


--------
I think, therefore it is!

    Well, I did reinvent the wheel anyway.  It's more accurate than 
    playing with the priorities, and easier for a novice to use.
    
    Funny, how my MegaBall scores have risen dramatically when playing
    25-50% slower...
    
    Steve
    
    From the .README
    
/*
    slowdown.c

    Description:

	Simple program to waste CPU cycles in order to slow down the
	system, but not to be completely intensive.

	Click on the close gadget to stop the program.

	A nice feature would be a proportional gadget to modify
	the slowdown while running.  More than I want to do :^).

    Note:

	This only throttles the CPU.  Floating point (via MC6888x)
	and graphics operations won't be slowed down directly.

	The percentage you specify may also be rounded depending
	on the granularity used.  Should normally be quite close.

	Also note that the program is not very forgiving about the
	CLI params.  Specify integers, and use common sense.

    Author:

	Steve Spodaryk	17-Apr-1991

    Usage:

	> slowdown percent [priority] [granularity]

	Where:  

	percent     - is the percentange of time you wish to be busy
	priority    - is the process priority (default = 1)
	granularity - is the amount of time slice to devote to each
	              busy/wait period. This is specified as a fraction
	              of a second.  Use values from 1-50.
		      (default = 10, so 1/10 of a second for each slice.
*/

    Thanks for the CPU eater routine... I wonder also if it's possible to
    do a similar thing by slowing down the clock in some way ?
    
    The thing with a CPU eater is that it slows the machine down overall
    but not consistently; it works in short bursts rather than constanly
    slower...
    
    Any ideas ?
    
    
    Cheers,
    
    				Jamie.

I can't really remember off the top of my head and I don't have any magazines 
in at work with me, but doesn't the Amiga version of the Action Replay cartridge
(or the other one that's name I can't remember) have a built in slowdown pot ?

				Alan T.

    Yeah it does; that's what I asked after in .0 - something that'll do
    that without costing me 60 quid (about $140 ?)...
    
    Now if the replay cartridge cost 30 quid then I'd get it but it's way
    too expensive at the moment...