I have a problem with the CD32 version, if I have Fast RAM (8 MB) active, the game hangs on the start screen, no yellow letters appear, this is in the WinUAE emulator and on the real CD32. I tested different Fast RAM sizes in WinUAE, with 2 MB it works fine, but with 8 MB it freezes for a long time.
Viewing post in Star Dust Wars - Director's Cut comments
Dear player!
The game freezes in the menu for a longer time (not permanently) because the CD32 reading speed is 300KB/Sec. If you have a sufficiently large Fast Ram, it will preload the actual music into the Ram in advance so that it does not have to be read in parallel with the animation. Since the menu music size is 6.3MB, this all takes time.
So, answering your other suggestion, the game uses Fast Ram if it is available, but I cannot speed up the CD reading speed. If I want the game to be faster and not load while playing, I have to wait for the music to load at the beginning. These qualities go hand in hand. If there is no Fast Ram, there is no loading time at the beginning but the game is visibly slower because it loads everything on the fly from CD (both anim+audio)!
As we have already written in several places (including below), the CD32 disk image was created mainly to make things easier for emulator users.
That makes sense. Initially, it seemed like it would take a long time, but in reality, it's not that long.
I understand the disc image was created to make life easier for emulator users, but it would be great if there was a version that worked on a real Amiga CD32. In a subsequent comment, I included a link to a video comparing the game's performance when the CD-ROM drive is set to 2x speed. This game isn't far to running well on a real CD32. Perhaps, like in the game "Microcosm," two stripes with a graphic of the ship's cockpit could be placed at the top and bottom of the screen, reducing the animation resolution. A switch could also be added to the game menu to enable 2x speed in the CD-ROM drive (your game works at 1x speed).
Best regards,
Maciek