[Wiz] Uae4All Wiz Issues

[jmetal88]

Just commenting on some issues I'm having with the UAE4ALL Wiz release.

Pretty much the only reason I want to use UAE4ALL is to play Pinball Dreams, but there are some issues with the Wiz release that make this an unsatisfactory experience.

The main problem is that once the emulator is running and I have a table loaded and playing, the background graphics on the tables are missing a lot of colors. Is this something that's common to other releases of UAE4ALL, or is it something that just got broken in the Wiz port?

The other problem is that the display is too large for the Wiz's screen, leaving the top and bottom cut off. Probably not a problem for most things, but I can't see how far I'm pulling back the plunger in Pinball Dreams. I assume the 'hardware scaling' option was supposed to be a correction for situations like this, but when I enable it, the emulator just crashes when I start it. If it can't be fixed, it should probably be removed from the emulator's menu.

Anyway, I just felt like I needed to complain, I guess. If any developers read this and feel like taking a crack at fixing at least the missing colors problem (the other problem might not be fixable with the Wiz's hardware, I realize), I'd appreciate it. It's not anything spectacularly urgent, since I still have the excellent GP32 conversion of Pinball Dreams I can play, but it'd be nice to have a decent-looking Pinball Dreams game on my Wiz (and the SNES and GBA versions don't count, with their side-to-side panning).

 

[foleyjo]

The colour issue is due to the lack of HAM mode on UAE4ALL.
It's the same with the GP2X and Caanoo versions.
Other games suffer from the same problem. For example if you try the fruit machine section on superfrog everythings black.

The H/W scalling works fine on the Caanoo version so I think it might just be broke on the Wiz.

I would love to see a new release of UAE as it's another of them emulators that is almost perfect.

 

[Akabei]

The colour issue is due to the lack of HAM mode on UAE4ALL.

But you don't want to tell me Pinball Dreams was using the HAM6 mode? The only thing HAM is good for, is a slideshow. In games and in this example a fast scrolling one, it's way too slow.
[quote name=jmetal88']The other problem is that the display is too large for the Wiz's screen, leaving the top and bottom cut off.[/quote]
I guess, it's because you use a pal version of the game. The screen resolution was 320*256 pixels(with overscan even a little more) and wiz's screen resolution is only 320*240. Can you switch to ntsc in the options? That might help, or try to get your hands on a ntsc version of Pinball Dreams.

 

[foleyjo]

If it's not HAM then there must be another graphics mode not supported by the emulator too.

 

[jmetal88]

The colour issue is due to the lack of HAM mode on UAE4ALL.

But you don't want to tell me Pinball Dreams was using the HAM6 mode? The only thing HAM is good for, is a slideshow. In games and in this example a fast scrolling one, it's way too slow.
[quote name=jmetal88']The other problem is that the display is too large for the Wiz's screen, leaving the top and bottom cut off.

I guess, it's because you use a pal version of the game. The screen resolution was 320*256 pixels(with overscan even a little more) and wiz's screen resolution is only 320*240. Can you switch to ntsc in the options? That might help, or try to get your hands on a ntsc version of Pinball Dreams.
[/quote]

I can switch to NTSC in the options, but it doesn't work with the PAL version of the software. I've been looking for an NTSC version of Pinball Dreams, but I can't find it.
EDIT: Sorry, I mean I actually don't know whether it works with NTSC mode. I didn't like the thick black bar on the bottom of the screen in NTSC mode.
EDIT 2: It works in NTSC mode, but more of the display is missing than in PAL mode.

Also, look at Pinball Fantasies on UAE4ALL on Pandora (around 1:20 in the video): http://www.youtube.c...h?v=omxWRBJJMo0

It looks fine. Shouldn't Pinball Dreams also look like that on UAE4ALL Wiz? I suppose I'll try Pinball Fantasies and see if it has the same problems as Pinball Dreams on the Wiz.

 

[jmetal88]

Alright, I just tested out Pinball Fantasies. As you could see, the table looked as it was supposed to on UAE4ALL for Pandora in video I linked to above.

On the Wiz version of UAE4ALL, it is missing a lot of colors just like Pinball Dreams was.

 

[Akabei]

The games might run on an overscan screen on the amiga and I don't know, if the wiz version supports it(pandora does). I remember having a similar problem on my Caanoo with one of the Lotus games. If that's the case, I'm afraid, there won't be an easy solution.
btw: What buttons are you using for the flippers?

 

[LTStone]

I remember using a pal/ntsc boot disk on my amiga 500 back in the day to play pal games, it worked for Gem'x etc, it required 1meg chip ram and fatter agnus as well. Would this be some sort of solution?

 

[foleyjo]

I remember using a pal/ntsc boot disk on my amiga 500 back in the day to play pal games, it worked for Gem'x etc, it required 1meg chip ram and fatter agnus as well. Would this be some sort of solution?

I think Pal and NTSC were switched with holding both mouse buttons down on boot.
This is true for the A1200 and A600, but I'm not sure about the A500. You should try with kick 2.0 or 3.0 .

Would it be possible for someone to mix some of the pandora code with the wiz/caanoo code to make uae4all a little bit better on wiz/caanoo or is that a silly idea?

 

[jmetal88]

The games might run on an overscan screen on the amiga and I don't know, if the wiz version supports it(pandora does). I remember having a similar problem on my Caanoo with one of the Lotus games. If that's the case, I'm afraid, there won't be an easy solution.
btw: What buttons are you using for the flippers?

Interestingly enough, the game seems to work with the default button setup (in the mode indicated by a picture of a joystick with an arrow pointing to a keyboard). L and R work for the flippers, just like on the GP32 conversion of the game.

 

[LTStone]

[/quote]

Interestingly enough, the game seems to work with the default button setup (in the mode indicated by a picture of a joystick with an arrow pointing to a keyboard). L and R work for the flippers, just like on the GP32 conversion of the game.
[/quote]


On the Dingoo you can hold down a button on the Virtual keyboard to map that keypress, very handy, same as the c64 emus as well.

 

[jmetal88]

Interestingly enough, the game seems to work with the default button setup (in the mode indicated by a picture of a joystick with an arrow pointing to a keyboard). L and R work for the flippers, just like on the GP32 conversion of the game.

On the Dingoo you can hold down a button on the Virtual keyboard to map that keypress, very handy, same as the c64 emus as well.

Nice to know, for future reference, I guess. I'm quite happy with the default button mappings for this game, though.

By the way, I also tried the DOS version of this game with DOSBox on the Wiz, but it just runs way too slow, and I can't have sound on.

Right now, the best alternative I've found to Pinball Dreams that runs without issues on the Wiz is Psycho Pinball for the Genesis (well, Megadrive, technically, since I don't think it had a US release). I call it the 'best alternative' because it's the only one I can find with graphics of the same kind of detail which doesn't pan from side-to-side, but does scroll up and down. The major downside to that one is the lack of high score saving, though.

 

[Akabei]

As an alternative, you could try Pinball Challenge Deluxe for the GBA. It's kind of a mixture of Pinball Dreams + Fantasies tables.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrNxoQrzYRQ&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SPEE519486218EDFB0

 

[jmetal88]

As an alternative, you could try Pinball Challenge Deluxe for the GBA. It's kind of a mixture of Pinball Dreams + Fantasies tables.
http://www.youtube.c...E519486218EDFB0

I already said I'm not interested in the GBA version. I don't like it when my pinball tables pan from side to side.

 

[jmetal88]

OK, there must be some additions to the Pandora release to support the graphics for Pinball Dreams. I just burned myself a Dreamcast disc with UAE4ALL and Pinball Dreams/Fantasies, and it has missing colors just like the Wiz version.

 

[Akabei]

Well, then I guess it's one of the very few games, that uses the 64 colour Extra Half Bright mode. You could start DPaint and try to set up EHB mode, then you'll see, if it's supported(though it won't help with your problem to know that).

 

[Akabei]

Another Pinball, well, let's say Pinball-like game you could give a try is Devil's Crush for the PC Engine/Turbografx. Not really a classic Pinball game, but nonetheless quite funny.