Risk crashes in BlueSCSI & Basilisk, same app works on real HDD/68k & Mini vMac

[mrkrsl]

I have a slight obsession with the original Risk (1986) game, which was a motivator for getting, recapping and overhauling my Classic II.

Risk was running well from the original 40Mb SCSI HDD, which I was planning to retire in favour of BlueSCSI. It also loads and runs fine in Mini vMac.

However the identical Risk application causes a system crash on the Classic II running off the BlueSCSI and also in Basilisk II. The Risk app launches, draws its name in the menu bar and then freezes, causing the CPU to hit and maintain 105%, dead. (Observed in Mac Activity Monitor when running Basilisk.)

All run System 7.0.1, though Risk also crashes the Classic II and Basilisk on System 7.5.5 and 7.6.1.

Other apps, games, whatever, seem to work fine. BlueSCSI works great for everything else. It’s just Risk. :’(

I’m tearing my hair out. Have tried booting with extensions off, reducing colour to <256, 4 and B&W on Basilisk. (There are no controls for that on the real Macintosh). I’ve tried all the versions of the 1986 version of the Risk app I can find. I’ve tried multiple boot images. (See below.) I don’t want the later Colour Risk or Risk II. It has to be Tone Engel’s original mono 68k app.

Any ideas?


Other info that might be relevant:

Memory in the Classic II is maxed at 10Mb. I found BlueSCSI to be very easy to assemble set up. I even got wifi working ok. I’ve tried disk images from the BlueSCSI Initiator mode; installed from scratch in Basilisk and also copied 1:1 from the Imaged disk to a new, empty image. All these images boot/run fine in the Classic II from BlueSCSI. But none run Risk. I can also load various floppy images with Risk on them from a BMOW Floppy Emu with the Mac booted from a BlueSCSI image. These crash too.

 

[Snial]

I have a slight obsession with the original Risk (1986) game, which was a motivator for getting, recapping and overhauling my Classic II.

Risk was running well from the original 40Mb SCSI HDD, which I was planning to retire in favour of BlueSCSI. It also loads and runs fine in Mini vMac.

However the identical Risk application causes a system crash on the Classic II running off the BlueSCSI and also in Basilisk II. The Risk app launches, draws its name in the menu bar and then freezes, causing the CPU to hit and maintain 105%, dead. (Observed in Mac Activity Monitor when running Basilisk.)

Can you use MacsBug to step through it?

 

[mrkrsl]

Can you use MacsBug to step through it?

Thanks for this tip. I did try. I got MacsBug installed and the keyboard interrupt going. Lots of system hanging and restarts. Man there's a learning curve on that. Good tip and I'm glad I know about the app.

 

[mrkrsl]

I can consider this one closed. I couldn't fix the versions of Risk I had. It's strange that their behaviour is different in the VM and BlueSCSI. I have a feeling it might be a colour depth issue. But that's just a guess.

For anyone interested, I found a different version of the app (the monochrome 1986 version) that works. I found it on the University of Michigan Macintosh software archive, a repository I hadn't explored before. Their version is tweaked. For some reason the creator name (Tone Engel) has been removed and the About screen is different. Everything else seems to be the same. And it works on my BlueSCSI volume.

Here's the archive:

Index of /~archive/mac

 

[ObeyDaleks]

Risk was one of my favorite games during that era. I still play it quite often. Mine also crashes in all my Macs, except my B/W compacts (SE, SE/30, Classic, Classic II), and only when running System 7.1 or earlier. They all use BlueSCSI drives. I’m pretty sure I have the black and white version from Macintosh Garden. I’ll try the version you found. Were you trying to play a color version of it?

 

[mrkrsl]

Risk was one of my favorite games during that era. I still play it quite often. Mine also crashes in all my Macs, except my B/W compacts (SE, SE/30, Classic, Classic II), and only when running System 7.1 or earlier. They all use BlueSCSI drives. I’m pretty sure I have the black and white version from Macintosh Garden. I’ll try the version you found. Were you trying to play a color version of it?

It was the original mono version. I'm pretty pleased the version I found runs ok.

 

[olePigeon]

I have Color Risk. I've had it running fine on my IIci before. I think it has to run in either 24-bit memory mode and/or 16 colors to work, otherwise it crashes. So I would fiddle with those two options.

I have a few games that require either a specific color depth or 24-bit memory mode, and will crash if it's not set to that. Wizardry 6 is one I can think off the top of my head. They won't auto-switch or put up a warning if it's not the correct color depth or memory mode, they just crash.

Quite a few earlier games do that.

 

[bigmessowires]

30-year-old memory unlocked... I agree Risk is an example of a game that won't run in 32-bit memory mode, because it uses the upper 8 bits of pointers for some game-specific purpose. I've only ever played the original monochrome version.

 

[joshc]

30-year-old memory unlocked...

In 30 years, I doubt I’ll remember much of what I’m doing now. I’m lucky if I remember what I did last week.

 

[bigmessowires]

Sometimes I can remember what I did 30 years ago better than what I did this morning. What's actually challenging is all my various projects and vintage computer products. Every six months or so I might return to the Floppy Emu or the USB Wombat or another project in order to work on a new bug or feature, and I can barely remember how the damn thing works at all. I have to go read my own blog posts from months and years past in order to understand my own designs.