Topic by slamo

Posted: 6/3/2022 8:16 PM
(Edited: 6/4/2022 4:52 PM)

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slamo

Experienced Forum User, Expert player, Judge (2254)

Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414

Dimon12321 wrote:

Doesn't it correlate with what you and feos responded to me earlier about non-deterministic Windows installation? So, if we use only one specific distribution, then we get it working fine, right?

Yup, we'll tell you the Windows version and the SHA1 of the CD to make sure everyone has the same setup.

How will it all work? 1. From what moment should the actual movie begin? Can put an installed game (folder + .exe) on a PCem hard drive and start a libTAS movie recording where we simply surf the explorer up to the game .exe, launch it and go on with the game as usual? Or should we begin with mounting a game image with, let's say, Daemon Tools and install it live, then launch it? - Can it be a separate movie? 2. What about game distributions? If we record us installing the game, will it be ok to show a CD key for a game? Specific distributions, that free you from using it or keeping a game disk in the reader to make it work, are actually more stable and convenient.

1. All modifications to the hard drive MUST be done within a libTAS recording, otherwise you introduce more variables that could cause desyncs. You can use installation discs, or we have a reliable method of putting files onto an ISO and you can copy it onto the hard drive within libTAS. And yeah, installation can be a separate verification movie, kind of like with SRAM for other emulators. 2. We definitely wouldn't want CD keys being distributed through movie files. Maybe we could have a discussion about allowing modified versions in this case.

I guess OpenAL installation should be added to the config. Or should it be included into the game installation part? Visual C++? Even though I can think of 2005+ distributions only, maybe elder versions existed that had to be installed back in the day.

What requires these? And would they not be included with the game?

Posted: 6/3/2022 8:28 PM
(Edited: 6/4/2022 4:52 PM)

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Dimon12321

He/Him

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Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 999
Location: Pool of misery and suffering (Ukraine)

slamo wrote:

What requires these? And would they not be included with the game?

I'll be frank here. Knowing my dummy skills, I'd wish to have an installation movie doing something excessive rather than not doing something that's required =P

TASing is like making a film: only best takes are shown in the final movie.

Posted: 1/13/2023 9:14 PM

Post subject: Early 80s config?

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slamo

Experienced Forum User, Expert player, Judge (2254)

Joined: 5/21/2013
Posts: 414

Thanks to Sand's recent Mixed Up Mother Goose submission, it brought to our attention the Tandy 1000 SL/2. We are missing an early 80s config and I think this would be perfect for it. It has MS-DOS 3.30 built directly into the ROM, so it doesn't require any bootable drive to work. It should be able to run any game that can run directly off the floppy, and I've confirmed it also works with the self-booting IBM PC game disks. This would be a much simpler setup than the other configs, essentially only needing the config file and the game disk(s). Here's what I'm thinking, based on Sand's config and the SL/2's specs: Machine: [8086] Tandy 1000 SL/2 CPU: 8086/8 MHz Memory: 512 KB Display device: Built-in video Sound device: None (would just be PC speaker) HDD: None (unnecessary with ROM) FDD1: 3.5" 720k FDD2: 5.25" 360k (did not come with this, but can be added) The only thing we would need to supply is the .cfg file. There is some NVR (/nvr/tandy.tandy1000sl2.bin) but it isn't really necessary for what we're trying to do, and can be deleted.