Hi! I am currently writing a fairly complex game in AMOS that could use APEO for some speed-up.
But I can't make it work on my A500 (original hardware or emulated). The tool crashes the system immediately. It works on a faster CPU, but the resulting file will also crash on my A500. Any ideas anybody?
No problem :)
I have Kickstart/AmigaOS 3.2.2.1
1 MB Chip-RAM, 512 KB Slow RAM, 8 MB Fast RAM
File size of the compiled game: 276 KB (not squashed)
These are the stats of my real A500, where it doesn't work. My emulated A500 has 128 MB Fast RAM , rest the same (doesn't work either)
It works on an emulated A4000 (same Kickstart, also 128 MB Fast RAM).
But the problem is not only, that APEO crashes with a GURU on the A500. I could just run it on my emulated A4000 - but the APEOd exe also crashes immediately on my A500 (but runs perfectly on the A4000). :(
APEO also crashes with an empty command line (no source file, etc.), instead of telling me that it can't parse the command line, so it doesn't seem to have a connection to my source file.
I also have a real A1200, I haven't tested it on that machine, yet...
[UPDATE]: On my real A1200 it doesn't crash, neither. But it also has a 68040 (accelerator card), with 6 MB Fast RAM.
Your machine should definitely be able to run APEO and the APEOed executable without problems.
I don't have AmigaOS 3.2.x, so I can't make tests on that OS.
The fact that you get a crash when passing no arguments is suspicious - you should get this message, instead:
APEO
ERROR: could not parse command line or bad arguments.
Could you try to run APEO without arguments after booting without startup-sequence and see what happens, please?
Also, could you send me by email (contact@retream.com) your program original executable? I would process it for you and send the APEOed executable to you, so that you can see whether it works or crashes.
EDIT: also, please try the new version I have just uploaded, as it fixes a major bug that might well be the cause of your headaches (this was due to the fact that Hex$() produces always the shortest string possible, whereas at a specific point the code needed exactly 8 characters - see the history log for the details regarding what ensued).
OK, I tried starting APEO without startup-sequence -> crash
In WinUAE I tried different CPUs. It crashes with 68000 and 68010. With 68020 and upwards, it works and returns the error message when leaving the parameters empty.
As my game will be commercially released in October, I hope you understand, that I am hesitant to send you the source code. I hope, you'll understand. Perhaps I can find a different program, that produces the same problem.
Preview here:
OK, testing your new version! Wow! I doesn't crash anymore on 68000! Great work! Thank you!
Let's see, if the Apeod version also runs without crashing...
Aaaaaaaaand ....... it works!!!! That's really great!
That earned you a mentioning in the Thank You section of the game (and I will throw some money in your direction, as soon as the game makes some profit at the end of the year :) )
Really great tool!
And I even saw an effect of the speed-up immediately. To make use of better CPUs (and even an overclocked 68000, which I have in my A500), I have a little procedure that determines the CPU's speed by timing some simple calculations. The APOEd game now thinks, that I am way faster than a 68040 should be (according to my previous timings). Wow! :)
Glad that the problem is solved :)
Thanks a lot for using APEO, finding it useful, repoting the problem, mentioning me in the thanks list and the intention to make a donation!
A word of warning about the timings: measuring a machine's speed is tricky and AMOS just isn't suitable for that. But if the tests performed at startup are closely related to the actual in-game code, then they are somewhat reliable.
Finally, I had a look at the preview: Pong+Arkanoid, what's not to like? ;)
