Amiga F1 - Troubleshooting

The fact is that F1GP was released in early 1992 when the most common Amiga systems were bog standard 68000 A500s. So, it is not surprising that there are some problems getting F1GP to work on todays' Amiga setups - although, with a little bit of effort F1GP will work perfectly well on all current Amiga systems. Ironically, F1GP is more system friendly than most games written at that time. Nethertheless, some assumptions were made which cause problems on some of todays' Amiga setups. It should be noted that it is shouldn't be necessary to disable the AGA chipset or any cpu caches in order to get F1GP to work.

Below, you will find some of the more common problems and ways to solve them. If you have experienced any other problems in getting F1GP to work on your system, perhaps you could let me know so I can add them to this page (your solutions will also be welcomed, if you have any).

Problem	The F1GP menu system works just fine, but when I go to enter the cockpit the screen goes blank and everything freezes
Affected Systems	Amigas with some fast memory plus 68040/060 processors, and in some cases 68020/030
Why	SetPatch or some other program is enabling the VBR (Vector Base Register). F1GP ignores this.
Solution	Use F1GP-Ed or higher - this comes supplied with f1gp.library v35.4, which provides a VBR patch for F1GP. This will make F1GP use the VBR so that it does not crash any more. For the patch to take effect, you must start F1GP first, and run F1GP-Ed afterwards (while F1GP is running). If, for some reason, you don't want to use the above, the only other way to get around the problem is to disable the VBR. There are a number of ways to do this. Here are a few ways, in order of preference: Use Embedder to run F1GP. Make sure you use the option to disable the VBR. As an example, the following command line could be typed into a Shell window or you could put it in a script: `run >NIL: embedder view=on vbr=off f1gp_disk_#2:f1gp` Use one of the various programs on Aminet which allow you to move and reset the VBR before you try to load F1GP. One such program is simply called vbr. Boot with no startup-sequence and run F1GP from there.

Problem The F1GP menu system works just fine, but when I go to enter the cockpit the display is corrupt

Affected Systems AGA Amigas (A1200/A4000) with Mode Promotion enabled and DBLPAL / DBLNTSC monitor drivers installed

Why F1GP is written is such a way that it assumes it is getting a particular screenmode (standard PAL or NTSC)

Solution Perhaps, the easiest way to solve this problem is to load up Workbench's IControl preferences and disable Mode Promotion.
However, if you prefer to leave this enabled, I would suggest you install some screen mode promotion software. I recommend ModePro. With ModePro you just need to configure it so that F1GP always opens on a standard PAL or NTSC screen - whichever you prefer.

Problem When starting a race, sometimes the computer cars on the grid are positioned at a funny angle and they can't drive. Also, when driving around the track, the track seems to break up and it is impossible to stay on the track after a particular point.

Affected Systems Certain 68030 cards (the Blizzard 1230-IV is one example)

Why The problem occurs if DATABURST is switched on (using the CPU command for example). I'm not sure exactly why it happens - but, it happened to me :-)

Solution The simple answer is to make sure the DATABURST is switched off. One way to do this is to use the CPU command - for example: CPU NODATABURST. Usually, the DATABURST is switched off anyway and doesn't offer any performance advantage (on the Blizzard 1230-IV, at least). Note that Embedder will switch the DATABURST on if data cache is enabled - so, if you are using to disable the VBR you will have to turn the DATABURST off afterwards.

Problem When playing the game using the keyboard I find it impossible to brake and steer at the same time

Affected Systems Most A1200s

Why Commodore changed the keyboard hardware in the A1200. As a result, it is not possible to press 2 keys (which are on the same row) at the same time. By default, in F1GP Z is the brake key which is positioned on the same row as the steering keys (< and >).

Solution Use F1GP-Ed to redefine the keys, making sure that the brake, accelerate and steering keys are on different rows. This can be done using the relevant option in the Car Control window. For example, the following key combination should work: W - accelerate, S - brake, < - steer left, > - steer right.

Problem When using MicroProse's hard disk installer, I can only install F1GP to a certain partition on my hard drive, and not where I want it to go. Or, simply, MicroProse's installer won't work at all and it crashes.

Affected Systems Most Amigas - especially A1200s & A4000s

Why The installer supplied with the game is crap ;-) It isn't very system friendly and was really designed for bog standard A500s.

Solution I have written my own install script which uses the, now familiar, standard Amiga installer program. This is supplied with F1GP-Ed and can be found in the Extras drawer - filename Install_F1GP. Simply double-click the icon and follow the instructions.