The fact is that F1GP was released in early 1992 when the most common Amiga
systems were bog standard 68000 A500s. So, it is not surprising that there
are some problems getting F1GP to work on todays' Amiga setups - although,
with a little bit of effort F1GP will work perfectly well on all current
Amiga systems. Ironically, F1GP is more system friendly than most games
written at that time. Nethertheless, some assumptions were made which
cause problems on some of todays' Amiga setups. It should be noted that it
is shouldn't be necessary to disable the AGA chipset or any cpu caches in
order to get F1GP to work.
Below, you will find some of the more common problems and ways to solve
them:
If you have experienced any other problems with F1GP that are not listed
above, perhaps you could let me know so I can help
you get F1GP working on your system and add the problem to
this page (your solutions will also be welcomed, if you have any).
Problem |
The F1GP menu system works just fine, but when I go to enter the cockpit
the screen goes blank and everything freezes. The only way to get out of
it is to reboot. |
Affected Systems |
Amigas with some fast memory plus 68040/060 processors, and in some cases 68020/030 |
Why |
SetPatch or some other program is enabling the VBR (Vector Base Register).
F1GP assume the VBR doesn't not exist! |
Solution |
Use F1GP-Ed 3.40 or higher - this comes
supplied with f1gp.library v36 which provides a VBR patch for F1GP.
This will make F1GP use the VBR so that it does not crash any more.
There is no longer any need for you to disable the VBR to get F1GP
working. You should 'save to the binary' at least once with F1GP-Ed, and
this will add some code to F1GP so that it automatically loads f1gp.library
and patches itself everytime you run it.
|
Problem |
The F1GP menu system works just fine, but when I go to enter the cockpit
the screen goes blank or the F1GP display comes up, but then everything
freezes. The only way to get out of it is to reboot. |
Affected Systems |
Accelerated (Blizzard PPC boards, 060 boards, 040 boards and maybe fast 030s too) A1200s
with a 4-device buffered IDE interface. |
Why |
The buffered IDE interface you are using is not compatible with your
system. The technical reason is that these faulty interfaces somehow affect the hardware
interrupts of the A1200 - as a result, many games (including F1GP) will
not function correctly or will simply crash. |
Solution |
As this is a hardware fault, the only proper solution is to buy another
buffered IDE interface that does not have this problem - either that
or you will have to simply disable your accelerator board when you want
to play F1GP :-( But, first of all, ensure that you are not mistaking this
problem for the VBR problem above!
From personal experience I know that both the Eyetech EZCD-Mk3 and
EZCD-Mk4 (the latest version) are not compatible with my system when either
a 1260 or PPC board is enabled. However, the cheaper EZCD-SE does work!
Note that this is the opposite to what Eyetech's adverts say: EZCD-Mk4 for
060s, and EZCD-SE for <= 030/33 accelerated A1200 systems). I know
other people who have had the same problem with Eyetech's EZCD-Mk4 interface.
I can recommend the interface that Power Computing
sell - I now have one of these, and it has solved the problem. Note that
Power's interface is exactly the same as the EZCD-SE (the Power, EZCD-SE
and EZCD-Mk4 interfaces are all made by DCE, Germany). Whatever
you do, I do not recommend that you buy an interface from Eyetech,
unless you find that no other interface will work. Eyetech's policies
are pathetic - they will rip you off given any chance. If you ask for
a refund they will ask you to return the board, so they can test it and
then tell you there is nothing wrong with it (believe me, they don't know
what they're talking about when it comes to IDE interfaces!) and if you're
lucky they'll have the cheek to say that the £10 test fee has been waived!
|
Problem |
The F1GP menu system works just fine, but when I go to enter the cockpit
the display is corrupt |
Affected Systems |
AGA Amigas (A1200/A4000) with Mode Promotion enabled and DBLPAL / DBLNTSC monitor drivers installed,
or any Amiga which is attached to a monitor that doesn't support PAL or NTSC. |
Why |
F1GP was written is such a way that it assumes it is getting a particular
screenmode (standard PAL or NTSC) |
Solution |
Use F1GP-Ed 3.40 or higher. This automatically
installs a patch to allow the game to use screenmode other than PAL or NTSC.
Note that this is only possible on AGA Amigas, as it uses the hardware
scan-doubling features new to that chipset. However, it's not a complete
solution - you will need to do something else to make sure the F1GP
menu screen is using the correct screenmode, especially if your Workbench
is using a graphics card screenmode...
I suggest that you install some screen mode promotion software, such as
ModePro.
With ModePro you just need to configure it so that F1GP always opens using
a chosen screenmode. If your monitor supports it, I recommend that you
stick to standard PAL or NTSC. Of course, on a VGA monitor this is not an
option, so use ModePro to make the F1GP menu screen open on a DblPAL,
DblNTSC, Multiscan, or any other native screenmode that works on your
monitor. The same goes for graphics card users: although the F1GP
menu screen is able to run on a screenmode provided by your graphics
card, the game itself can not - you must use ModePro to force the F1GP
menu screen to open on a native Amiga screenmode.
Unfortunately, there is no way to get F1GP working if you do not have an
Amiga with an AGA chipset (ie A1200 or A4000) and a VGA monitor which does
not support standard 15kHz PAL or NTSC modes :-(
|
Problem |
Whenever I try to run F1GP I get an error requester saying "Can't allocate
timer" and the game refuses to start up. |
Affected Systems |
Mainly A600s or A1200s with a PCMCIA CD-ROM drive (the Q drive is know to be one of the drives that causes this).
| Why |
The driver software for the CD-ROM drive is allocating the same timer as
the one which F1GP requires to be able to operate. |
Solution |
I'm afraid I don't have a foolproof solution, but I can offer a few suggestions
of what you can try to resolve the problem.
It's likely to be caused by the driver software for the CD-ROM drive, or
maybe just the CD32 emulation software if you have it installed. Try
removing bits of the driver software piece by piece to see what file
is causing the problems. If all else fails, try disconnecting the drive
altogether.
Please let me know if
you had this problem and have managed to get rid of, and a brief explanation
of how you did so.
|
Problem |
When starting a race, sometimes the computer cars on the grid are positioned
at a funny angle and they can't drive. Also, when driving around the track,
the track seems to break up and it is impossible to stay on the track after
a particular point. |
Affected Systems |
Certain 68030 cards (the Blizzard 1230-IV is one example) |
Why |
The problem occurs if DATABURST is switched on (using the CPU command for
example). I'm not sure exactly why it happens - but, it happened to me :-) |
Solution |
The simple answer is to make sure the DATABURST is switched off. One way to
do this is to use the CPU command - for example: CPU NODATABURST.
Usually, the DATABURST is switched off anyway and doesn't offer any
performance advantage (on the Blizzard 1230-IV, at least). Note that
Embedder
will switch the DATABURST on if data cache is enabled - so, if you are using
to disable the VBR you will have to turn the DATABURST off afterwards.
|
Problem |
When starting a race, my car keeps spinning around in circles and has a
mind of its own. |
Affected Systems |
All Amigas |
Why |
The problem is a side effect of the frame rate setting in F1GP-Ed and
occurs if the frame rate has been set too high. |
Solution |
The only way to stop this happening is to decrease the frame rate using
F1GP-Ed. Generally speaking, 20fps NTSC (16fps PAL) is the maximum frame rate
usable in a race. Using higher frame rates can cause strange things to
happen.
|
Problem |
When playing the game using the keyboard I find it impossible to brake and
steer at the same time |
Affected Systems |
Most A1200s, and A1200T's with PC keyboard interface |
Why |
Commodore changed the keyboard hardware in the A1200. As a result, it is not
possible to press 2 keys (which are on the same row) at the same time. By
default, in F1GP Z is the brake key which is positioned on the same
row as the steering keys (< and >).
In the case of PC keyboard interfaces, this situation is much worse... most
simultaneous keypresses are simply not recognized - the
Eyetech and Micronik
keyboard interfaces (possibly others too) have this problem. |
Solution |
Use F1GP-Ed to redefine the keys, making
sure that the brake, accelerate and steering keys are on different rows.
This can be done using the relevant option in the Car Control window. For
example, the following key combination should work: W - accelerate,
S - brake, < - steer left, > - steer right.
|
Problem |
When using MicroProse's hard disk installer, I can only install F1GP to a
certain partition on my hard drive, and not where I want it to go.
Or, simply, MicroProse's installer won't work at all and it crashes. |
Affected Systems |
Most Amigas - especially A1200s & A4000s |
Why |
The installer supplied with the game is crap ;-) It isn't very system
friendly and was really designed for bog standard A500s. |
Solution |
I have written my own install script which uses the, now familiar,
standard Amiga installer
program. The script is supplied with F1GP-Ed
and can be found in the Extras drawer - filename Install_F1GP. Simply
double-click the icon and follow the instructions.
|
Problem |
On the password protection screen, when typing the word, the cursor doesn't
move and the word appears backwards. For example, 'aznom' is shown on the
screen when typing 'monza'. |
Affected Systems |
All Amigas |
Why |
F1GP's menu system reads the joystick port - the above problem happens
if you're accidentally leaning on the joystick (especially an analog one), or
if you have a mouse or dongle (for Tornado 3D, for example) plugged into the port |
Solution |
At this moment in time, the only solution is to remove the offending
device from the joystick port. I hope to add an option in F1GP-Ed soon,
which will stop the F1GP menu system reading the joystick port.
|
|
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