Indivision AGA Mk3 - Indivision display output seems to not work correctly with some software.

Hi all,

While I was testing out the newest firmware update for the Indivision AGA Mk3 last week, I noticed that a few games where making the Mk3's display output go blank or get corrupted, whilst Amiga's built-in RGB output was still fine. I tried resetting my config and reflashing my firmware but it didn't change the behaviour.

These are the only problems I found after checking at least 200-300 different games, and they might very well be just my Amiga, so it would be great if someone else could try and see if they get the same things. I tried both the floppy and WHDLoad versions of each as I know sometimes they can have code patches which change their behaviour...

Second Samurai (AGA version only) - The Mk3's digital video display goes black after user clicks mouse to start loading of game and "loading..." text appears. This happens on my machine with both the floppy and the WHDLoad versions.

Ugh! - Seems okay from floppy but WHDLoad version puts the Mk3 into Graffiti mode (the Mk3's onscreen info display pops up and then the 'Graffiti' text appears on it) during initial intro sequence, despite Graffiti mode being disabled in the Indivision config tool. Once the game's main title screen appears, this reverts back to normal.

Universe - Digital video display blinks out consistently during the game's initial title animation. Both the floppy and the WHDLoad versions seem to exhibit the same behaviour.

Wiz'n'Liz - Digital video display goes black during the intro when game engine is used to show story, and also during the single player demo, but works okay during boot sequence, on title screen, and in split screen two player demo mode. Again, both the floppy and the WHDLoad versions seem to exhibit the same behaviour.

Worms Director's Cut - With both the ECS and CD32 versions (these seem to be the same version to me), the Mk3's display goes black from the title screen onwards, regardless of whether launched from floppy or WHDLoad. As with Ugh, this is triggering Grafitti mode on the Indivision, despite Graffiti mode being disabled in the Indivision config tool. The AGA version has a couple of additional splash screens (the Ocean and Team 17 logos) and a different title screen when starting up, and the Mk3's output seems okay on this version. Occurs with both the floppy and WHDLoad versions.

I think there might be a couple of different causes for the above as with Worms and Ugh, the Mk3's on-screen display pops up and I can see it changing video modes from that, whereas with Second Samurai, Wiz'n'Liz and Universe, the screen just goes black and the on-screen display does not appear.

Cheers in advance for your help!

Will check that now, thanks for the reminder!

Yep that was it, I had Graffiti emulation switched on for low and hi-res PAL, good call!
Switching Graffiti emulation off, fixes the issues in Second Samurai, Ugh!, Wiz'n'Liz and Worms DC. I am now wondering if some of the other screen blinking I was seeing occasionally might have been due to me leaving the Graffiti emulation switched on. In the words of the great and forever wise Homer Simpson... doh!

The only remaining thing is the very minor screen blinking out during the intro to the game Universe, which doesn't seem to be affected by the Graffiti emulation state. It's only for a second or two during the initial title animation, and I haven't seen it anywhere else in the game so far, so I am really not too concerned about it unless I find a bunch of other places it happens. I am wondering if the game does something weird with the screen mode or copper list at the start, it's quite colourful for an ECS game but I think it's just using some well designed palettes and timely colour switching.

Cheers!