KillAGA V2.0 22/May/1993 --------------------------- Written by Jolyon Ralph, Almathera Systems Ltd. This program is *PUBLIC DOMAIN*. It may be freely distributed in any way as long as a) The executable file (KillAGA) and this text file remain unaltered. b) This file is distributed with the KillAGA program. c) It is not used as part of a commercial product without my express permission. If you want to include this on a commercial product or a magazine coverdisk, please email me at the address below to ensure you have the latest version: If you like this product and really insist on sending me something, then send me your Our Price CD receipts, or WHSmiths free CD stickers so I can get some free CDs.... What does it do? ---------------- This program allows you to run old, badly written, programs (mainly demos and some games) from your A1200/4000 hard disk without having to continually reboot and switch chip settings. On return from the program the system returns to full AGA state! While loading your program the screen goes black, so don't panic! How does it do it? ------------------ It fixes three major problems with running old demos on new AGA machines. 1. AGA Chipset registers - These are temporarily disabled while running KillAGA. *FAR* more old demos and games work now.. 2. Sprite resolution - Sprites are forced back to standard ECS resolution 3. Caches - All processor caches are disabled, and restored to the original state on exiting KillAGA How do you use it? ------------------ It's simple. Use from the CLI (or a ICONX script file): killaga Just type killaga followed by the program name from the CLI (unlike the RUN command, it does not return until after your program has finished) Creating an ICON is just as easy. So, for example, to run dh0:demos/OldNaffDemo, you would create a text file containing killaga dh0:demos/OldNaffDemo and save that. Edit the icon tooltype to use C:ICONX as the default tool, and just double-click the icon. To call a program that requires CLI parameters, just enclose the string you would normally type in speech marks: killaga "mydemo 1 2 3 4 5 6" If, for some reason, you accidentally run KillAGA with an OS friendly program the screen may stay blank. Press Amiga-M or Amiga-N (the screen shuffle keys) to get your screens back. You should not use KillAGA with these kind of programs. What it *doesn't* do: --------------------- It *doesn't* give you fake fastram. Buy real fastram, it's the only way to get *fast* ram on an A1200. Chip ram is terribly slow. KillAGA 3 may well be able to give you *REAL* $c00000 memory for your A1200 or A4000 (although this will require an MMU, not present in standard A1200 or A4000/030) It *doesn't* yet have options to keep caches enabled. I guess some vector games/demos would be better with this... It doesn't do *ANY* illegal hardware access, all code is 100% OS friendly, so this should work on AAA (!!!!!). It *doesn't* work on any machine with Kickstart 1.x or 2.x, but you shouldn't need this anyway! It *doesn't* work with programs that set up their own background task and then quit (programs that immediately return to the CLI prompt before quitting - eg Protracker 3.01). It doesn't work with compiled AMOS programs. They open up an (almost) invisible Intuition screen to handle input, etc... This annoys KillAGA. Recompile AMOS programs with Amos 1.35 Compiler and you won't need to use KillAGA. Email to: jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk. for bug reports, information on new versions, etc.... If you have found anything that still doesn't work with this, please tell me about it and I'll try and make KillAGA 3 fix the problem. Snail mail (and your receipts :) to: Jolyon Ralph, 81 Woodcote Grove Rd, Coulsdon, Surrey, CR5 2AL