Phantasie series

[Rincewind]

Thanks again Rincewind . I'll grab these exact collections when I'm at my PC and on the server. Appreciate u being patient with me. I also heard Amiga emulation can be difficult or something? What emulator is recommended there?

I use WinUAE, and that is quite hard to configure for people who never owned an Amiga as you need to have some knowledge about the hardware and the OS. To use WHDLoad, you need to set up a hardfile and the OS itself for a virtual Amiga 1200. If you only want to use Amiga 500 emulation with floppies, that's a lot easier, but then you cannot use the WHDLoad games, just the floppy versions... that's not the way to go.

I heard that FS-UAE is a lot user friendlier, but I never used it myself. Maybe give that a go first. There must be lots of youtube guides on FS-UAE with WHDLoad games. Then if you're really stuck, I might just zip up my whole properly configured WinUAE setup and upload it somewhere and give you some instructions on how to add new games.

 

[Fluent]

Nice!! I'll give FS-UAE a shot tomorrow and let u guys know.

 

[Morblot]

Anyone have experience with the Atari ST version? Good bad?

Only a little, since I don't have much time for games ATM. But yeah, it works and looks decent, but the UI is so mouse-dependent it's getting on my nerves. I wish it supported the keyboard as well, that'd be much faster and easier on my arms.

 

[Fluent]

For the record, Apple II's version is keyboard-only. Makes things fast and efficient imo. G)uild B)ank U)se an item, etc., at all times.

 

[unseeingeye]

FS-UAE is a fork of WinUAE, I believe. I have both install but I mainly use WinUAE with no troubles as it is fairly straight forward, it just takes a bit of preparation.
Setting the emulator to A500 configured for 1.3 / OCS (or Angus) / 512KB or 1MB Chip Set works for most games I've tried and saving custom configurations for exceptions is very simple.

 

[Rincewind]

Had a quick look at FS-UAE, I think the automatic WHDLoad support is what you'll need as a novice. On a second thought, my setup wouldn't really help you because it's quite barebones, it's for more experienced Amiga users, really...

Relevant part of the FS-UAE doco is here. Clearly, the first method is the one you want!

https://fs-uae.net/whdload-support

FS-UAE Launcher has special support for running individually zipped (or compressed with LHA) WHDLoad Games. It will even store save-games in the state directory.

Alternative Ways to use WHDLoad
This page contains details about how the WHDLoad feature is manually enabled, there are two other ways to use WHDLoad games in FS-UAE:

• Use the online game database (recommended), this will give you automatic support for running WHDLoad games, no configuration needed.
• Create an Amiga Workbench environment on an emulated hard drive and install the WHDLoad package and games manually.

Also, grab this Amiga Kickstart ROM collection, you'll need it (the core part of the Amiga OS lives in a ROM chip, the emulator needs them):

https://archive.org/details/amiga-k...-500-a-600-a-1000-a-3000-a-4000-a-1200-a-2000

This might help you too:

 

[Rincewind]

FS-UAE is a fork of WinUAE, I believe. I have both install but I mainly use WinUAE with no troubles as it is fairly straight forward, it just takes a bit of preparation.
Setting the emulator to A500 configured for 1.3 / OCS (or Angus) / 512KB or 1MB Chip Set works for most games I've tried and saving custom configurations for exceptions is very simple.

That's all true, it's easy enough to set it up for A500 + mem expansion if you only use floppy images. The trouble starts when you want to set up an A1200 system with HDD images and WHDLoad, which is the way to go for multi-disk RPGs to avoid disk swapping and to cut down loading times to practically almost zero.

 

[unseeingeye]

Also, grab this Amiga Kickstart ROM collection, you'll need it (the core part of the Amiga OS lives in a ROM chip, the emulator needs them):

https://archive.org/details/amiga-k...-500-a-600-a-1000-a-3000-a-4000-a-1200-a-2000

I only just recently noticed that the Kickstart collection was uploaded to the Internet Archive, that is really convenient. Finding the Workbench collection safely was a bit more difficult but I managed to encounter a reliable site; I PM'd the link to Fluent.

 

[unseeingeye]

That's all true, it's easy enough to set it up for A500 + mem expansion if you only use floppy images. The trouble starts when you want to set up an A1200 system with HDD images and WHDLoad, which is the way to go for multi-disk RPGs to avoid disk swapping and to cut down loading times to practically almost zero.

The loading times and disk swapping are kind of a nuisance.. I do have most of my games as both WHDLoad and floppy images, maybe I ought to take this alternative approach.

Edit - Oh wow, that video tutorial you shared contains instructions for Launch Box integration for FS-UAE? I know what I'm doing the rest of this morning, thank you very much! I don't know how it didn't occur to me that was even possible, having only used Launch Box because of eXoDOS and integrating my GOG collection.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I need a faster internet. If only fiberoptics were in my future.

 

[octavius]

Hey Tweed . Nice to see u here. This probably won't help but I imagine the ST version is fine, and looks very good to boot! Maybe someone can chime in with more details though...

The Atari ST version is probably the superior one.
All three games are available, but there was some problems transfering from P2 to P3 due to the character rosters being of different sizes, so only part of the P2 roster will transfer. There's more details in an older post of mine, and definetly something to be aware of if using the ST versions.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[octavius]

That Apple version looks ugly <shudder>.
Nice voice, Fluent . But no need to read all the text, like "cracked by kewlezt doodz in mom's basement" (my number one video LP pet peeve).

 

[Fluent]

So eXoDOS is *amazing*. How did I ever live without this? :D Such a brilliant thing, with the Big Picture-like interface and all. Crazy!

Later today I'll dig into the Amiga stuff. I have everything downloaded except the Commodore 64 and 128 stuff, will grab those later too.

Cheers octavius !

 

[mondblut]

Figure out aging exactly

IN)N is where characters can have their hit points
and magic restored to their maximum limit. Inns
located in towns are free. and each stay lasts
about two weeks.

says the manual.

 

[mondblut]

For the record, Apple II's version is keyboard-only. Makes things fast and efficient imo. G)uild B)ank U)se an item, etc., at all times.

Too bad it's ugly as shit. Only Amiga/AtariST versions aren't cancer on the eye.

Apple II is literally the worst. Those smeared pink and green pixels next to white, how is that even legal to damage people's eyesight with this shit?

 

[Fluent]

Hey Rincewind , is that ftp with the WHDLoad stuff down at the moment? I got everything but Commodre 64 D64 & T64 folders. Any ideas how I can get those? The ftp won't let me download anymore for some reason.

 

[Rincewind]

Hey Rincewind , is that ftp with the WHDLoad stuff down at the moment? I got everything but Commodre 64 D64 & T64 folders. Any ideas how I can get those? The ftp won't let me download anymore for some reason.

It's their anti-leech protection. You can only download certain amount of data per hour or something (forgot the exact numbers). Just wait a few hours and try again, it will work (it works for me right now).

 

[Rincewind]

Apple II is literally the worst. Those smeared pink and green pixels next to white, how is that even legal to damage people's eyesight with this shit?

While I'm not in love with the graphical capabilities of the Apple ][, just like yourself, and tend to avoid those ports, I think we should view that machine in its proper historical context:

The Apple II computer are unique in that not only was it the first home computer ever released to the mass market, it was the first computer released to support color graphics, all the way back in 1977. It worked by exploiting quirks in the NTSC color system called artifact color which TVs were attempting to suppress. The design of the Apple II was so solid that its color works rather well on almost anything that can accept a composite signal, even today.

(source)

Having said that, many Apple emulators don't emulate NTSC properly, so the image looks too sharp, hence the artifacting more obvious than on CRTs. AppleWin has a variety of output options that you can set to your taste which can mitigate that.

With proper NTSC emulation the output looks a little bit better:

 

[Rincewind]

Btw, just found this site. It's a goldmine for info on emulating less known systems (less known to me at least, because I've always been a C64/Amiga/DOS guy).

https://www.dosgamers.com/

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I was looking at the instruction on making fresh character disks. I can't say I ever did this in emulation and if it solves the map issue. I fear it might not as it is just too simple of an answer.

I read the PARTY GUIDE.

I think a good starter party is:
2 Dwarf Fighters
2 Human Priests
2 Elf Mages

I don't recall roster limits total but you can easily level out others later esp the 5 mega mage party to Grind Zeus repeatedly.

To be honest, I had to go with having a troll and minotaur in the group just because it was so rare to be able to play them. You don't have to min-max in the game, and most races are viable as long as you match them with an appropriate class. Go with what you think will be fun. It's been awhile since I played, but I do think I also had a pixie for the hell of it.

 

[unseeingeye]

I just finished setting up FS-UAE with all of my WHDLoad games (a total of 358) and then integrating them all into LaunchBox. I take back everything I said, having spoken from a place of ignorance; FS-UAE makes so profound a difference in saving time setting everything up, and the access to the database plus the access to the metadata through LaunchBox completely renders my WinUAE setup utterly useless. I don't regret what I've learned about Amiga emulation in the process, but my God if only I'd known it was this simple earlier..

 

[Fluent]

Man, both FS-UAE and Launchbox are AWESOME! U guys really hooked me up, thank u for that! I have both installed and can play pretty much anything now. There is a WEALTH of great stuff here - I originally planned to dig into the DOS and vintage computer libraries for games (I own a vintage Mac packed with games, to start.) but I don't know when that will be. So this really jumpstarted my ability to dig for older RPGs to play and have fun with! Seeing that even today I still LOVE these old gems, it's like an early Christmas for me!! haha. Thanks again fellas, u rock! <3

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Did you purchase the full version of launchbox? Someone mentioned launchbox to me before and I recall yearly price. I didn't know there was another tier.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.makeuseof.com/launchbox-premium-worth-buying/amp/

"There are two licenses available for Launchbox Premium. The "Regular User" license costs $30, which requires annual license renewal for $15 each year if you want to access any extra features that Launchbox has added in the previous twelve months. You can also get the "Forever Updates" package, which is a $75 single fee and doesn't require renewal."

 

[Fluent]

I might have to get that Premium Edition, not sure yet. But yeah, Launchbox is incredible for old game libraries and such. I didn't add FS-UAE but that app is also pretty nice itself, similar to Launchbox but for the Amiga. I still have to grab the C64 libraries but I've been lazy and gaming.