Old Game Keeps Crashing on Basilisk II Emulator

About BasiliskII, a 68k Mac emulator for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux that can run System 7.x through MacOS 8.1.

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jonnyboy88
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Old Game Keeps Crashing on Basilisk II Emulator

Post by jonnyboy88 »

Hello, I am trying to get working an old educational game called Frankenstein's Helper that I played in grade school but never beat:

http://www.applefritter.com/node/13652

I got a System 7.5.3 Basilisk II system up and running using a Quadra 605 ROM. I was able to unpack the hqx file and run the game, however it always crashes during a certain portion, right before you reach the lion on the Roman Numeral level. The game tests 6th grade level math so it shouldn't take too long to get to that level :lol:, but you can skip to the level by selecting "Jump", "Level 2", and entering the password "LIVY".

I tried messing with the memory size, cpu, different roms, etc, and nothing seemed to help. Can anyone please help to get this working? I'd really like to finally beat it!

If it helps, the readme for the game is posted below (on a side note, it looks like the creator passed away November of last year: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/kansas ... =182680527).
Frankenstein's Helper is a mathematical adventure game. You must solve various mathematical problems to advance. Sometimes you must move a character on a screen. You do this with the arrow keys, not the mouse. (This is important--remember it, because the instructions within the program are not very good.)

When you reach certain stages, you are given a password. Write it down because it will allow you to jump over the previous levels. It is unlikely that you will be able to finish the game in one sitting. By doing it level by level, you can get through it in a week or two. But to do it that way, you need to write down the passwords.

Frankenstein's Helper is intended for students in the 6-9th grade levels.

I wrote the first version of Frankenstein's Helper over ten years ago, and in the time since I have occasionally updated it. It needs another updating, but I do not know if or when I will find the time. (If you have any suggestions for changes, I would like to hear them. I do have some ideas already on how I would like to reorganize the program.) Until then, here is this version to play with. If you really like it, you can pay me by buying one of my Font CDs. They are Font Pro 2, Font Pro 3, and Font Pro 5, all published by Wayzata Technology of 21 Northeast Fourth Street, Grand Rapids Minnesota 55744. Call them at 218-326-0597, fax them at 218-326-0598, or e-mail them at info@Wayzata-Tech.com. You can visit them on the world-wide web at http://Wayzata-Tech.com.

Have fun.

Robert Schenk
Jan 1996

(bobs@saintjoe.edu)
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24bit
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Re: Old Game Keeps Crashing on Basilisk II Emulator

Post by 24bit »

Such monochrome games may work best with MiniVMac and System 6.
From a short look everything is fine that way, only that I´m too slow for the lion. :)

Feel free to try the second DL here: http://macintoshgarden.org/games/franke ... -helper-30
jonnyboy88
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Re: Old Game Keeps Crashing on Basilisk II Emulator

Post by jonnyboy88 »

Thanks for helping me relive my childhood! I've been trying to beat it over the past week, unfortunately it looks like the last level is may be one of those that goes on forever with increasing difficulty, so no satisfying endgame graphic :sad: I did get a good refresher on my roman numerals and base 2 (and 3!) numbers though! Here are the rest of the passwords:

Level 2 - LIVY
Level 3 - RATS
Level 4 - YDOB
Level 5 - DOOR
Vampire Hunt - SPIKE
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24bit
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Re: Old Game Keeps Crashing on Basilisk II Emulator

Post by 24bit »

Thanks! I added the passwords to the site over at MG.
I´m no gamer really, but someone will make use of your input for sure.
Please add screenshots of the higher levels, if you feel like it.
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rickyzhang
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Re: Old Game Keeps Crashing on Basilisk II Emulator

Post by rickyzhang »

jonnyboy88 wrote: I got a System 7.5.3 Basilisk II system up and running using a Quadra 605 ROM. I was able to unpack the hqx file and run the game, however it always crashes during a certain portion, right before you reach the lion on the Roman Numeral level. The game tests 6th grade level math so it shouldn't take too long to get to that level :lol:, but you can skip to the level by selecting "Jump", "Level 2", and entering the password "LIVY".

I tried messing with the memory size, cpu, different roms, etc, and nothing seemed to help. Can anyone please help to get this working? I'd really like to finally beat it!
I can replicate the issue in 7.5.5. The screen freeze but I don't see any segfault. I checked process in my Mac OS X host. BasiliskII is consuming 100% cpu cycles. Unless enable assembly monitor, there is no other good way to poke around this issue.

PS: the game has color. I remember in 1996 I got my first PC with CDROM running Windows 95 in Pentium 100MHz. IMHO, the PC education software seems better than Mac.
There is an App for that!
https://github.com/rickyzhang82
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adespoton
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Re: Old Game Keeps Crashing on Basilisk II Emulator

Post by adespoton »

Do you both have the game and emulator set to 256 colors? Color depth and screen resolution may affect things.
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rickyzhang
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Re: Old Game Keeps Crashing on Basilisk II Emulator

Post by rickyzhang »

BII runs in 8 color bit depth. But the problem still exists.
There is an App for that!
https://github.com/rickyzhang82
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