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Return of the Ring
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:27 pm
by Duncan
Am using xroar and can't load up the forest moon section of the game using the .cas files, which one should be used? Also should there not be four files for this game? As i recall the start side of the tape had the set up for the character (this is file return.cas), then the game side had the planet (return2.cas) and forest moon (? return3), and the end game was back on the start side? (missing file). Also which Dragon User had the map and cheat programme?
Re: Return of the Ring
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 10:44 pm
by Alastair
No problems loading
the planet moon, though F12 seems to hang
the initial loading
of the planet part
of the game so I have to do it
the slow way.
Anyway, in answer to your question RETURN2.CAS contains both
the planet and forest moon part
of the game - just press a key when going to
the moon, "reload" RETURN2.CAS and press a key when returning to
the planet. RETURN3.CAS contains
the final part, you don't need to touch it until you reach
the end.
I cannot recall which Dragon User issue had
the cheat program (besides, you don't need it!), but
the January 1986 issue contained
the map. However, I did upload a PDF
of the map that includes a level not included in Dragon User, I suspect that was on
the old forum so here it is again (I've had to zip it as
the forum will not accept PDFs):
Re: Return of the Ring
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:57 am
by sixxie
Alastair wrote:No problems loading the planet moon, though F12 seems to hang the initial loading of the planet part of the game so I have to do it the slow way.
Erk, that shouldn't happen. F12 is supposed to simply add frameskip and bypass waiting on
the sound device (which is what's used to time
the whole system). I'll have to check this out.
Edit: hmm, is this repeatable?
The leaders in those images are very very short, and it's possible that if
the motor is already on when you insert
the tape, it won't have enough time to sync to it, F12 or no. I've rewritten
the cassette files with longer leaders here:
http://www.6809.org.uk/tmp/da/return_of ... ritten.zip
Re: Return of the Ring
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:16 pm
by Duncan
Thanks guys now retro-gaming to my hearts content!
Re: Return of the Ring
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:24 pm
by Alastair
sixxie wrote:Alastair wrote:No problems loading the planet moon, though F12 seems to hang the initial loading of the planet part of the game so I have to do it the slow way.
Erk, that shouldn't happen. F12 is supposed to simply add frameskip and bypass waiting on
the sound device (which is what's used to time
the whole system). I'll have to check this out.
Edit: hmm, is this repeatable?
The leaders in those images are very very short, and it's possible that if
the motor is already on when you insert
the tape, it won't have enough time to sync to it, F12 or no. I've rewritten
the cassette files with longer leaders here:
[removed URL]
It may be my mistake. I originally "inserted" RETURN2.CAS when
the game told me to insert
the tape on
the game side and rewind
the tape, if memory serves at this point
the game switches on
the cassette motor. By skipping that section and "inserting" RETURN2.CAS when
the game told me to press play I managed to load
the planet part with F12 pressed.
Turning to your rewritten version,
RETURN.CAS seems to reset XRoar, after using this site's
RETURN.CAS
the rewritten RETURN2.CAS can be loaded with F12.
Re: Return of the Ring
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 8:17 am
by sixxie
Coo. I must admit I didn't test those images - I'd got a bit cocky about my tape process! Now I'll have to find out why it didn't work
I've replaced
return.cas in that zip with
the original for now, seeing as that actually loads. At least
the other two should be more reliable: they contain only standard cassette files, where
the first one has some autorun stuff going on that seems to confuse things.
Edit: fixed my rewrite. Looks like I have some extra bits to add to my tape hack process
Re: Return of the Ring
Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:12 pm
by snarkhunter
I've just tried the "rewritten" version posted above, and it crashed on the screen where one is asked either to create or load a new character... Then the emulation performed a reset, so I didn't bother to try once more.
Lionel
P.S. and still running XP "Home", SP2
Re: Return of the Ring
Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:58 pm
by Alastair
snarkhunter wrote:I've just tried the "rewritten" version posted above, and it crashed on the screen where one is asked either to create or load a new character... Then the emulation performed a reset, so I didn't bother to try once more.
Is this
the first or
the fixed second version
of the rewrite? I've had no problem loading
the fixed rewritten
RETURN.CAS into XRoar.
snarkhunter wrote:Lionel
P.S. and still running XP "Home", SP2
You should be running SP3 by now
Re: Return of the Ring
Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 7:22 pm
by snarkhunter
Alastair wrote:snarkhunter wrote:I've just tried the "rewritten" version posted above, and it crashed on the screen where one is asked either to create or load a new character... Then the emulation performed a reset, so I didn't bother to try once more.
Is this
the first or
the fixed second version
of the rewrite? I've had no problem loading
the fixed rewritten
RETURN.CAS into XRoar.
snarkhunter wrote:Lionel
P.S. and still running XP "Home", SP2
You should be running SP3 by now
It's
the version Ciaran posted on June 11 (see above). I'm unable to tell whether this is
the first or
the second fixed version.
I won't bother with SP3 now, when I'm fearing my PC might be slowly going down at
the moment and might need to be replaced with another one within
the next few weeks or months (one thin vertical line displayed across
the screen, that appeared a couple
of weeks ago). This is definitely not an emergency at
the moment, I'm afraid... And if I should have to change, it's very likely I will have to switch to Vista, or purchase an XP license separately.
Re: Return of the Ring
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:49 pm
by sixxie
snarkhunter wrote:
It's the version Ciaran posted on June 11 (see above). I'm unable to tell whether this is the first or the second fixed version.
That's
the one that
the rest
of us saw failing to load after
the title screen. I then replaced it a couple
of times.
The one currently in place has longer leaders, and seems to load ok - I went through
the character creation process fine, and then loaded
the first game part proper (wait until you've acknowledged pressing play before inserting tape 2).
I'm in
the regeneration room, apparently