System 6.0.8 + AppleShare + Games = Issue

[jmacz]

I had System 6.0.8 running on a Macintosh SE which was installed without AppleTalk/AppleShare support. Games worked great on it. I recently re-installed 6.0.8 with AppleTalk/AppleShare support in order to share files between the SE and another Mac running 7.5.5. That worked great. But tonight I tried loading up some games and found that a couple of them were erroring out with a graceful in game error message stating there was an issue with the memory layout (high memory) and that I should boot the game from floppy instead. First time I’m seeing these errors. The games in question were Dark Castle and Arkanoid. Other games seem fine.

After removing the AppleShare extension from the System Folder, I can get both of these games to work. But if AppleShare is loaded, then both of these games error out with the complaint about memory layout. Is this a known issue? I’ve tried newer versions of the games (for example Dark Castle 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2) and all have the same issue.

 

[volvo242gt]

With respect to Arkanoid, is this an unmodified version installed from the original floppy, or is it one of the copies from the garden? Reason I ask, I ran into the same memory error on one of my previous SE machines that was also running 6.0.8, but I don't think I had Appleshare active on it. Figured it was because the copy I was using had been modified to work on 32-bit clean machines.

 

[LaPorta]

I had System 6.0.8 running on a Macintosh SE which was installed without AppleTalk/AppleShare support. Games worked great on it. I recently re-installed 6.0.8 with AppleTalk/AppleShare support in order to share files between the SE and another Mac running 7.5.5. That worked great. But tonight I tried loading up some games and found that a couple of them were erroring out with a graceful in game error message stating there was an issue with the memory layout (high memory) and that I should boot the game from floppy instead. First time I’m seeing these errors. The games in question were Dark Castle and Arkanoid. Other games seem fine.

After removing the AppleShare extension from the System Folder, I can get both of these games to work. But if AppleShare is loaded, then both of these games error out with the complaint about memory layout. Is this a known issue? I’ve tried newer versions of the games (for example Dark Castle 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2) and all have the same issue.

Dark Castle (any version) is notoriously finicky regarding memory. It really is meant to run off its original packaged system from a floppy. Getting it to work well from a hard drive or equivalent is always a tricky proposition.

 

[ArmorAlley]

Dark Castle (any version) is notoriously finicky regarding memory. It really is meant to run off its original packaged system from a floppy. Getting it to work well from a hard drive or equivalent is always a tricky proposition.

So, will it work if an image is made of it and the game is run from the image then?

 

[LaPorta]

It will work 100% if you get the original 800k floppy images complete with the Silicon Beach-modified system on it. You know it’s the original system if instead of “Welcome to Macintosh”, you instead see “Silicon Beach Software Presents…” at startup. They should be on the garden.

 

[jmacz]

Yeah, it was weird because Dark Castle was running fine off the HD before I enabled AppleShare. If I just remove the extension, it works fine. Didn’t remember Dark Castle being so finicky. Arkanoid too. Anyhow, guess I will go with the floppy. Thanks.

 

[Crutch]

These games (at least in their original incarnations) used the alternate screen buffer in high memory (above BufPtr). If anything else is sitting at that location in high memory, for example a debugger, they can’t allocate the alternate screen buffer and won’t work. Very probably AppleShare installs some bits of itself in high memory somewhere that Dark Castle notices and dislikes.