0660103030571 9[........................................................]   Centurbo 2, the Final Chapter?  This little piece has been written as a necessary follow-up to the main review in this issue of Maggie. We thought that we had caught all the bugs back then, but it turned out there were one or two of the little sods scurrying around still! Maybe this time, the hardware fix 'Roach Motel' has finally done the business? - CiH  It is the morning of Saturday, the 13th November 1999, south London. A newly-arrived Frenchman fidgets impatiently with a soldering iron, conscious that time is getting very short. Shortly, the convoy from System Solutions premises is heading to Stafford, and this job has to be finalised before then.... A fair bit later, that same morning. Stafford, a big hanger somewhere. Keyclicks ring out filling the cold still morning air. On the Maggie stand, a big box suddenly arrives. We open it, a mixture of fear and hope well up. Is this the final chapter in the extended Centurbo 2 story? Can we dare to hope that this time, it's working alright? Well, looking back at that day, and the following few days after, the signs are very good. I'm still waiting to hear exactly what Rodolphe did to get this errant upgrade to work. Still, if the original creator of the CT2, and resident genius of Centek can't sort it, then who can? I'm sure that there was more to it than just replacing the DSP static RAM, which was what I've been told was done? The good news is now, that the DSP is working, and has stayed working, even with the machine switched on for a long time. We verified that by giving 'Whip!' a very thorough going-over at the ACC Show at Stafford. Also, Aniplayer kept its end up, without showing a DSP hang-up once. Further experimentation with various DSP dependent software, from Graoumf to 'Running' all came up okay. The general patterns of behaviour described in the main review still apply, possibly with Graoumf being a little more stable than before. The even better news is that the serial port/modem bug at 50 mhz seems to have been beaten at last! I persisted with the 'old but reliable at 16 mhz' STinG installation that I started with, although it might be worthwhile to try an upgraded version at some point. CAB, always a tricky subject, started to cooperate as well. A newer OVL file might well have helped here too. (Stupid things to do of an evening, part 1... I tried web browsing at a 1024 x 768 (256 colours) screen mode. Don't know why, the text visibility for smaller characters is retina-busting on my screen, which is only really meant for 800 x 600 un-interlaced. After that, things get a bit fuzzy. The point is though, it kept on going!) CAB does brighten up with the extra speed, and is a lot more responsive and easier to get on with, especially when things like picture loading and depacking are going on. It is now possible to scroll down a web page whilst the page is still loading. Those frustrating 'sticky page' episodes are now a thing of the 16 mhz past. For smaller pages with less elaborate graphics, the load/depack time is near-instantaneous. For larger pages, still a lot quicker than on an unexpanded machine. At times, the worst delay can come from the (lack of) connection speed to the internet, especially at busy times! I did try the 'Running' test, and what was intended as a five minute session, just to see if it was okay there, turned into a half-hour plunge into level two (the office), before I realised it was gone 1am in the morning! The fact that I'd got stuck on a bit of the level where the only obvious exit was at ceiling height, and I couldn't go any further had nothing at all to do with my pulling the plug and going to bed! I've now got a working WAD file, and Patrice Mandin's 'Doom' port does work on this. In fact, a CT2 is really strongly recommended for this, as it is a non-DSP based 3D engine, and slug-slow on an unexpanded Falcon. You might like to check out the review of v0.21 for more information. Out of the ones that I tried the first time around, Rainbow Paint 2 still refused to have anything to do with 50 mhz. Strange really, that Katherine Ellis reported this as working okay on turbo? Also, there is still a b-i-i-i-g question mark over 'Steel Talons', as this works, but then goes on to experience regular hang-ups. There is some DSP code in there, judging by the presence of an *.LOD file, but it is unlikely to be anything to do with the 3-D updating? Strange then, that the one production that uses 'dirty' DSP code comes direct from an Atari Corp sponsored production! Update - this game is okay, but only on the lower 16 mhz mode after all.  Oh yes, there is the first major game failure on the system to report as well. The Arkanoid game for the Falcon, 'Impulse', crashes or freezes as soon as it gets to the main game screen. This is irrespective of whether it is turbo, or non-turbo mode. I don't know how it performs on other CT2 systems? (Impulse checked out okay on my Nemesis Falcy, so that's how I know it failed here.) The bad news? Not a lot really, I did notice that the 'B' drive in my Desktopper case had gone down, but that is a very minor inconvenience, compared with all the other gains, so I'll forgive Rodolphe that one! So, what have we learned from this long and winding tale? 1. System Solutions have stuck by this right until the end, and my deepest thanks go out to them for their efforts on my behalf. Surely, the temptation must have been there to shrug their corporate shoulders, and give it up? I don't know how other people have fared, but this makes me personally more confident of buying from them in the future. 2. Taking 1. above as typical, you can forget about self-installation! There seem to be reports of varying success for this? 3. When it works, it is brilliant! The idea of a 'Super Falcon '030' is closer than ever. Compatibility is better than I expected it to be, even in difficult areas like games and some demos. Something like the Afterburner or forthcoming (when?) Tempest accelerator may have more power, but you are considering these less as a Falcon enhancer, and more as an upgrade to a generic GEM box high-spec Atari compatible. The Afterburner is not noted for its DSP support, we don't know that much about the Tempest as yet. 4. The main review text viewpoint remains valid. It is really a catch- up exercise to compensate for Atari Corps lack of interest in the Falcon. 5. But what a catch-up exercise! That's it. CiH - Nov '99