ProDOS port discussion

[qkumba]

New thread for the general conversations.
I'm trying to keep the announce thread clean. :-)

[Jeff Ramsey]

On Friday, March 13, 2020 at 2:55:28 PM UTC-7, qkumba wrote:
> New thread for the general conversations.
> I'm trying to keep the announce thread clean. :-)

Thanks for getting Maniac Mansion! This one is one that I asked you to add to your list! (and maybe some others had already asked.)

One of these days I will play it all the way through...

[qkumba]

Yes, I added it to my list after you asked, but it has been requested more since then.

[Jeff Ramsey]

On Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 9:34:57 AM UTC-7, qkumba wrote:
> Yes, I added it to my list after you asked, but it has been requested more since then.

Was it a challenge in any way? IIRC, it was not a DOS3.3 environment but rather some sort of alternative DOS.

[qkumba]

No problem. I have my ProRWTS2 code which just needs a few switches set to do most of the right thing automatically. Then just a bit of support code to handle the disk-switching.

[B T]

On Friday, March 13, 2020 at 5:55:28 PM UTC-4, qkumba wrote:
> New thread for the general conversations.
> I'm trying to keep the announce thread clean. :-)

Into the Eagle's nest. Is this IIGS only?
Thanks.
BT

[B T]

I just answered my own question, it is Apple IIe compatible.
The reason for my questions was that the 800k image would not mount under Apple-win like other 800k images. I tried again and it worked, so just something I was doing incorrectly!

[qkumba]

Great. All of my ProDOS port so far run on the IIe.
I have only one IIGS-specific port-request so far (Alien Mind).
Everything else on my list is for the IIe.

[Todd Holcomb]

I had no idea that we could request IIgs ports too. Alien Mind would be awesome! I'd also like to see Superstar Ice Hockey and Mean18 be able to run from a HD. I imagine that Alex Lee will have some requests as well...

[fadden]

On Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 9:35:02 AM UTC-7, qkumba wrote:
> I have only one IIGS-specific port-request so far (Alien Mind).

ISTR most IIgs stuff being more or less ProDOS format already, requiring some fiddling to either remove a disk check or run on a hard drive. Some of the big ones (like Dungeon Master) already have HD-install patches.

Alien Mind was one of the few that did something different. I poked around for a bit but couldn't find another example.

[Antoine Vignau]

On the IIgs, titles that played with the disk format:
- Tomahawk (game)
- Alien Mind (game)
- The hunt for Red October (game)
- (more or less) Dungeon Master (game, a std format using the extra 12 nibbles among other fun things)
- Splash (early 87 demo)
- ANSI something (a early AU utility)

Other titles are either using off-disk protections (password protection), or on-disk protections (bad block for some, HLS track length for A LOT of titles)

Antoine

[Antoine Vignau]

There are also a few titles that were differently protected (Task force, Rastan) but I think I have mentioned all of them :-)

Antoine

[Steve Nickolas]

Well, consider who did the Rastan port and it makes sense... xD

-uso.

[Marco Verpelli]

On Friday, March 13, 2020 at 10:55:28 PM UTC+1, qkumba wrote:
> New thread for the general conversations.
> I'm trying to keep the announce thread clean. :-)

One of the characteristics of Little Computer People is that they have a different (or almost different) character for each copy of the program.

Having said that I come to the point.

In the LITTLE.COMP.PPL file at offset $8F1 I find the fixed "key" NVTCA which should be preceded by the 8 digits of the serial number, in the case of the 4am crack they are 81300000.

In your ProDOS port instead I find the following bytes 42, 38, 31, 38, 33, 01, 30, 50 and any attempt to modify leads to a bad death of the program.

Do you believe that one can personalize his own copy If yes, how?

Thanks

Marco

[qkumba]

> One of the characteristics of Little Computer People is that they have a different (or almost different) character for each copy of the program.

Yes, I am aware of that.

> In the LITTLE.COMP.PPL file at offset $8F1 I find the fixed "key" NVTCA which should be preceded by the 8 digits of the serial number, in the case of the 4am crack they are 81300000.

It's replaced by the contents of T$11 S$0F as the game loads.

> In your ProDOS port instead I find the following bytes 42, 38, 31, 38, 33, 01, 30, 50

I hard-coded the T$11 S$0F serial number from 4am's copy.

> and any attempt to modify leads to a bad death of the program.
>
> Do you believe that one can personalize his own copy If yes, how?

I was considering the same thing afterwards. Right now, it would be difficult.
Perhaps I will change it to read a SERIAL file instead.

[Marco Verpelli]

Read from a file: sounds perfect.
I agree that it is not easy but it is certainly the best solution.

From my notes it appears that there are two "cycles" related to the serial. The first: serial module 256 gives the name of the LCP
The second: serial module 8 gives the characteristics of the character hat, cap, glasses, bald, ....

Marco

[Antoine Vignau]

I never played with LCP so forgive my questions but:
- why are characteristics different?
- what does +/- baldiness or other "skill" bring to the game?
- how do people realize a s/n was used to define chars?

Antoine

[qkumba]

It's a simulation, so having different people on different copies would yield a slightly different experience.
I suspect that most people didn't realise that the disks were unique, unless they happened to know someone else with an original copy, and could see that it looked different.

[Marco Verpelli]

I knew it via C64 there is at least one site where you can download customized disks, that is, you can choose the name of the LCP.

In fact I think the differences are mostly cosmetic even if the marketing of the time insisted a lot on the fact that each LCP had its own character.

Marco

[Alex Lee]

Also commercial games GATE and Space Shark and freeware games Sensei
and Space Clusters.

Not to mention most demoscene titles – anything by the FTA/ACS/SSS
(except the ROM3 compatible version of Nucleus), the FUCK, GSA, Digital
Exodus, etc, etc.

Alex

[Alex Lee]

Superstar Ice Hockey DOES work from a hard drive – you just can't use
System 6 with it. Mean 18 also has had a hard path change by me and a
hack by Antoine. These are on the specially hacked games to play from a
hard drive:

https://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/some-classic-iigs-games-now-hard-drive-installable-plus-more-icons/


Towards the bottom of this post it also includes the list of commercial
games that don't currently work from a hard drive and/or System 6. This
requires more playing around with paths than the hard core work that
qkumba does.

Would love these titles to be hard drive installable.

Alex

[Steve Nickolas]

On Sun, 5 Apr 2020, B T wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Did Standing Stones ever make it on the list?
> If not, I would like to request.
> The only one on Asimov works on an emulator, and as an image on CFFA3000.
> But the dos is kinda funky, so cant use dos launcher or any other workaround thus far to get on a ProDos volume..
>
> Thanks, -BT

Huh. It's got a normal DOS 3.3 catalog. I wonder if it's possible to
coax it to use the MECC loader?

-uso.

[qkumba]

ProRWTS2 can do that using RWTS mode. The only question is how the game knows when side 2 is inserted.

[B T]

On Sunday, April 5, 2020 at 4:06:45 PM UTC-4, qkumba wrote:
> ProRWTS2 can do that using RWTS mode. The only question is how the game knows when side 2 is inserted.

I can tell SPLASH.OBJ0 is the boot program. And although the disk seems perfectly accessible form dos 3.3, I cant get past the load screen if I copy all the files onto a normal formatted dos 3.3. So the tools I am using expect normal 3.3, which maybe this isn't?
I have not used ProRWTS2

[qkumba]

I'll take a look tomorrow. It might be relying on the fact that the catalog does not start on the regular sector that DOS uses.

[qkumba]

I checked. It's relying on one sector having a particular format which DOS by default doesn't have.
Beyond that, it's relying on a file-loading style in DOS that is missing from ProDOS. I can put it on an 800kb ProDOS image easily enough, but making it run from a 5.25" floppy would be difficult.

[B T]

Thanks for checking that out!
an 800k would be great. Looking to have it on my HD(CFFA3000)
-BT

[B T]

Hello again, I was curious is something happened to castle Smurfenstein, and Dino Smurf.

I think you announced they were complete, but they never showed up on Asimov?
Thanks, BT

[qkumba]

Yes, I didn't upload them. It seemed like such a waste.
In any case, you can download them from here:

https://github.com/a2-4am/4cade/blob/master/res/dsk/castle%20smurfenstein%20PRODOS%20(san%20inc%20pack).po
https://github.com/a2-4am/4cade/blob/master/res/dsk/dino%20smurf%20PRODOS%20(san%20incn%20pack).po

[B T]

Thank you, much appreciated. I know they are just hacks, but they are nostalgia from my past - BT

[qkumba]

> an 800k would be great. Looking to have it on my HD(CFFA3000)

http://pferrie.epizy.com/misc/tmp/standing%20stones%20PRODOS%20(san%20inc%20pack).zip

[B T]

On Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 2:12:12 PM UTC-4, qkumba wrote:
> > an 800k would be great. Looking to have it on my HD(CFFA3000)
>
> http://pferrie.epizy.com/misc/tmp/standing%20stones%20PRODOS%20(san%20inc%20pack).zip

Very Nice, thanks! -BT

[Antoine Vignau]

Ah! Battle Chess.
Member of the "great game, poor protection" list of software for the Apple II.

I remember when I cracked it a very long time ago, the protection check was called by a JSR only.

The game is very well made, the animation is great. I cannot tell for the ELO level but it is a great Apple II title.

I wonder how many great titles had a poor protection,
Antoine

[qkumba]

> Ah! Battle Chess.
> Member of the "great game, poor protection" list of software for the Apple II.

Yes, they weren't trying very hard by that point.

> I wonder how many great titles had a poor protection,

So many. :-)

[B T]

On Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 2:12:12 PM UTC-4, qkumba wrote:

> > an 800k would be great. Looking to have it on my HD(CFFA3000)
>
> http://pferrie.epizy.com/misc/tmp/standing%20stones%20PRODOS%20(san%20inc%20pack).zip

Hello Again,
I gave the Stones a try, but it seems to be malfunctioning.
It does boot, and a character can be created. But as soon as you try and "enter the dungeon", it crashes to the monitor.
Tried it via CFFA3000 on a real apple, as well as, Applewin. Same result.
I tried the disk images on Asimov as a control, and they work correctly.
Thanks, BT

[qkumba]

Thanks. That's a copy-protection failure. The image is not cracked completely, and it's detecting my changes. I'll fix it.

[qkumba]

Please download again and try it.

[B T]

That appears to have fixed it. Can enter the dungeon now without issues.
Thanks again for all your work.
Keeping me occupied in Quarantine :)

-BT

[Todd Holcomb]

On Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 7:04:28 PM UTC-5, qkumba wrote:
> Law of the West

Yes - thank you! Great game...

[Todd Holcomb]

I'm not seeing Skeet Shoot on the 4Cade GitHub site.

[qkumba]

No plans to include that one. It came as a private request, not a wishlist entry.

[Todd Holcomb]

On Saturday, May 23, 2020 at 5:51:49 PM UTC-5, qkumba wrote:
> No plans to include that one. It came as a private request, not a wishlist entry.

Gotcha. What is Slicks? I can't find any info on it. Is it a port of the old Commodore game by Digital Designs or the new 8bit-Slicks?

[qkumba]

It's the modern version, just compressed to fit better.

[Anthony Ortiz]

On Sunday, May 24, 2020 at 1:37:20 PM UTC-4, qkumba wrote:
> It's the modern version, just compressed to fit better.

Hey qkumba! A while ago you made a ProDos port of Ultima V and I'm now looking to start playing it. I have FloppyEmu (from BMOW) and getting the daisy chain option so I can boot from it and copy some games over to floppies. Is the version you made solely for playing on a hard drive, or are there 8 images that can be copied individually to floppies via, say, Copy II Plus? I ask because I would like my 7 yr old son (and eventually my 3 yr old) to have the floppy disk experience.

Thx!

[qkumba]

Hi Anthony,

The port is solely for a hard drive, the purpose being to avoid the disk-swapping entirely.
Asimov has floppy-disk images ("Ultima V (4am crack).zip" is a clean version) which Copy II Plus can transfer to real floppies.

[Anthony Ortiz]

Ohhh that's perfect!! Would you happen to know if there is an Ultima IV version that is already patched for Mockingboard support on a GS, or do we still have to run that patch disk first?

Thanks!

[Alex Lee]

Find the link to the 8-bit Games image from this blog I wrote:

https://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/time-out-for-some-8-bit-fun-iigs-style/

Setup the 32meg disk image in Smartport mode for use on the FloppyEmu
and boot from it.

It includes qkumba's ProDOS friendly Ultima IV and V WITH the
Mockingboard and MIDI patches (that you have to run FIRST) and then you
can have the best possible experience with no disk swapping and playing
on the IIGS.

Alex

[Anthony Ortiz]

Oh yes, I plan on doing this for sure, I'm still in awe that he was able to accomplish this at all! For now, however, I want to introduce my son to the joys of floppies and all the switching that comes with it, albeit reduced by virtue of having two drives instead of one. After a few years of this, right before his arms fall off, I'll introduce him to the invention of the Hard Drive.

[Andrew Roughan]

WRT Oid Zone
By announcing I get the impression you are also uploading to Asimov. Did
Michael give his permission to distribute in this way?
He still has his games for sale at
https://berighteous.com
We received permission to include in Total Replay.

[qkumba]

Uploading to Asimov was a mistake.
We've asked for it to be taken down.

[inexora...@gmail.com]

Re: Archon

First off, thank you! (And for Archon II, although I haven't tested that yet.)

Two issues, from testing in Virtual ][ emulator.

(1) Movement sounds are absent. When playing, the pieces should make movement sounds when changing squares on the board or during combat: knights walk, unicorns gallop, phoenix flaps, etc. These sounds are present when using a .WOZ or cracks, but missing in your initial ProDOS port. The interface sounds and attack sounds are present, however.

(2) If started from a drive that is not in Slot 6, but there is a Disk II device in Slot 6, the drive will seek constantly during gameplay. Repro: configure Virtual ][ with a SCSI II card in Slot 7 with one Omnidisk, and a Disk II card in Slot 6 with one Disk II. Put the .po in the Slot 7 Omnidisk and start playing ; once you get to the play board, the Disk II will seek constantly. (If the .po is in a Slot 6 Omnidisk there is no such seeking.)

I seem to recall seeing #2 in a crack as well, so it may be a pre-existing issue.

[qkumba]

> (1) Movement sounds are absent. When playing, the pieces should make movement sounds when changing squares on the board or during combat: knights walk, unicorns gallop, phoenix flaps, etc. These sounds are present when using a .WOZ or cracks, but missing in your initial ProDOS port. The interface sounds and attack sounds are present, however.

Thanks, I'll check on this.

> (2) If started from a drive that is not in Slot 6, but there is a Disk II device in Slot 6, the drive will seek constantly during gameplay. Repro: configure Virtual ][ with a SCSI II card in Slot 7 with one Omnidisk, and a Disk II card in Slot 6 with one Disk II. Put the .po in the Slot 7 Omnidisk and start playing ; once you get to the play board, the Disk II will seek constantly. (If the .po is in a Slot 6 Omnidisk there is no such seeking.)
>
> I seem to recall seeing #2 in a crack as well, so it may be a pre-existing issue.

It's a bug in the game which I don't know yet how to fix.
It's hitting $C0E9 by accident.

[qkumba]

Both fixed now.

[Todd Holcomb]

qkumba wrote:
> World Games.
> Epyx is finally complete.

Been waiting, but I'm not seeing this on the 4AM / 4cade site for download.

Todd

[qkumba]

It didn't fit (yet) on the TR image, so it's not in that collection, only Asimov for now.

[Todd Holcomb]

On Tuesday, June 23, 2020 at 12:22:51 PM UTC-5, qkumba wrote:
> It didn't fit (yet) on the TR image, so it's not in that collection, only Asimov for now.

And stuck in /pub/apple_II/incoming. :(

Is Total Replay becoming so large that it will eventually require two 32MB HD images?

Todd

[qkumba]

> And stuck in /pub/apple_II/incoming. :(

Everything to those who wait. :-)

> Is Total Replay becoming so large that it will eventually require two 32MB HD images?

Kind of. After v4 releases, we'll separate the sports titles into their own volume (Total Sports or something), and hopefully free enough space for the remaining wishlist entries (maybe after some minor restructuring of the games list).

[Frank M.]

hoping for a Total Adventure, too. Law of the West and all the holodeck-compatible games on their own volume.

[fadden]

On Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 5:50:40 PM UTC-7, qkumba wrote:
> > Is Total Replay becoming so large that it will eventually require two 32MB HD images?
>
> Kind of. After v4 releases, we'll separate the sports titles into their own volume (Total Sports or something), and hopefully free enough space for the remaining wishlist entries (maybe after some minor restructuring of the games list).

The volume has ~300 uncompressed hi-res screens, mostly in TITLE.HGR, occupying about 2.4MB. You could recover about 1.5MB by compressing those with LZ4 (assuming they perform similarly to the corpus I used for LZ4FH testing), plus some more for the handful of DHGR screens.

Although, if the wish list is long enough, I suppose that just postpones the inevitable.

(BTW, is TITLE.HGR:HYPER.HEAD.ON supposed to just say "press Space to see screenshots"?)

[Denis Molony]

Apparently they have decided to compress the hi-res screens with a program called Exomizer. This results in files being stored as BIN, with no real way of knowing what they were originally. I just hope they adopt a standard header that describes the original file.

[Frank M.]

TITLE.HGR has to be uncompressed since it's being used for the search mode ("hot path" as 4am called it). Compression would slow down displaying the image as you scroll or type in a game name.

The other hires screens are uncompressed in the source code, and compressed on compile. Exomizer reduces the file size even more than LZ4 (at the expense of speed). These are used for the action shots which uncompress while another image is being displayed, so speed isn't actually necessary.

Demos could be removed by moving to a prelaunch-style system rather than using binaries. Would be a ton of work to create the hundred or so description files though.

The main problem is that the games list that lives in the language card is full. Even if there was free space on the disk image, there's no room for new entries in RAM.

Hyper Head On doesn't actually have a hires title screen (it shows the info in text mode).

f

[fadden]

On Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 7:40:49 AM UTC-7, Frank M. wrote:
> TITLE.HGR has to be uncompressed since it's being used for the search mode ("hot path" as 4am called it). Compression would slow down displaying the image as you scroll or type in a game name.

That makes sense. I was a little confused why everything else was squeezed into tiny packages and the hi-res title screens were left alone.

OTOH, on a classic system the reduced disk access balances the compression overhead; it's a performance win on a 5.25" floppy, but not so much on SSD + DMA. ( https://youtu.be/Wwg84nIkRZU?t=36 )

> The main problem is that the games list that lives in the language card is full. Even if there was free space on the disk image, there's no room for new entries in RAM.

Yowza.

> Hyper Head On doesn't actually have a hires title screen (it shows the info in text mode).

Ah. I stumbled over it and it just seemed a little odd. :-)

[qkumba]

With the image being 32Mb, we're not running anything from floppies anymore. :-)
The advantange of uncompressed titles is that you can hold down the arrow key and blast through the titles.

Total Adventure is on the list, after Total Sports and then a Total Sierra package (almost 32Mb by itself).

[qkumba]

World Games is now available, but don't let the swapfile become sparse because then it won't work.
I'm going to re-release with some code to rewrite the file to avoid that problem.

[Todd Holcomb]

Loved the recent Juiced GS article - thanks for sharing your methods!

And thanks for all your work creating these massive collections of Apple II games. I'm playing a lot of quality games that I hadn't even heard of "back in the day."

Todd

[qkumba]

World Games is fixed now to avoid the "don't let the swapfile become sparse" issue.

[ian kim]

On Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 6:22:20 AM UTC+9, qkumba wrote:
> World Games is fixed now to avoid the "don't let the swapfile become sparse" issue.

Thanks for your great work for APPLE II enthusiasts.
I also like to play games in Total Replay.
But, in my SD DISK II plus, There are some non-working games.
In CFFA works but, not all in SD DISK II (Block device).
I checked but, it looks some of Prodos patches doesn't properly support block device.
Could you help to make it work on block device(Not smart port and the R/W driver is in Boot ROM and I'm using it slot 6)

If you need more detailed information, I can explain more.

Thank you in advance.
Ian Kim

[qkumba]

Please tell me which titles don't work and I'll fix them.

[Todd Holcomb]

> Alien Mind.
> Yes, the IIGS title. ROM3 and CFFA2 (not using extended SmartPort) compatible.
> Preloaded with Alex Lee's save games.

Sweet - thanks! Where can we download this from? It's not in the usual spots...

[ian kim]

On Thursday, August 20, 2020 at 4:42:19 AM UTC+9, qkumba wrote:
> Please tell me which titles don't work and I'll fix them.

HI, qkumba,

I'm glad to contact the great programmer for the APPLE II.

Most Games are work nice with SD DISK II Plus but, only some games doesn't work properly.

APPLE //e Platinum. 
No other card on slot except SD DISK II Plus V2.5(Slot #6)

Tested with Total replay 4.0

Airheart;
it shows the starting title but, doesn't go next properly. After the title screen, it ruins some black lines on HGR and hangs.

ARKANOID;
It doesn't start just blank.

Flight Simulator II;
It doesn't start just blank.

I didn't test all of the games.
I will let you know if I could find more non-working games.

Thanks;
Ian Kim 

[Tempest]

I just tried all three of those on my Enhanced IIe (with SCSI Card Rev C and a SCSI HD) and they all worked fine.

[qkumba]

> > Alien Mind.

> Sweet - thanks! Where can we download this from? It's not in the usual spots...

It's in my directory on Asimov as of today.
Remember to thank the Asimov admin. :-)

[Todd Holcomb]

On Thursday, August 20, 2020 at 5:20:28 PM UTC-5, qkumba wrote:

> It's in my directory on Asimov as of today.
> Remember to thank the Asimov admin. :-)

Got it - thanks! Is there any way to run this from a GSOS folder on a HD or will it only run by booting directly from the Alien Mind HD image?

[qkumba]

I converted to files so that you don't need to boot directly.
You can copy those files to any HD image and run from there.
For GS/OS, just click on the "ALIEN.MIND" file.

[Todd Holcomb]

I'm assuming you mean click on the Loader.System file. I can't get it to run from my HD on my GS or in Sweet 16 - it freezes at the ProDOS screen, even if I try to run it from your HD image. I've tried it with all inits off in GSOS 6.0.3 and 6.0.4 and it still freezes. I can only get it to run if I boot directly from your HD image.

[qkumba]

Right, Loader.System, not the Alien.Mind file for GS/OS.
Anyway, don't run with Sweet 16. It's not a viable emulator anymore.
Try with MAME or GSPlus or something.

[Todd Holcomb]

It doesn't work on my real IIgs either unless I boot directly from your HD image.

[Todd Holcomb]

From Alex Lee on FaceBook:

"It won’t run from GS/OS. It’ll only run from ProDOS 8. "

[qkumba]

It will run from GS/OS if the PRODOS file is in the same directory as the other files, as it is in the image.

[Todd Holcomb]

On Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 10:29:09 AM UTC-5, qkumba wrote:
> It will run from GS/OS if the PRODOS file is in the same directory as the other files, as it is in the image.

Ok, I figured out my issue. If you try to run the game from anything higher than a SmartPort 2 assignment it crashes. That must be what you meant by it not working with extended SmartPort...

[Todd Holcomb]

And you don't need to have the ProDOS file in the folder.

[Alex Lee]

I assumed it woulnd't load from GS/OS because whatever additonal
overhead over ProDOS 8 would be stepping on memory locations that Alien
Mind would need.

On my ROM3 with 4meg RAM (Garret's Workshop), ZipGS 8Mhz/64k cache,
CFFA3000 in slot 7), I've found this:

Loading Alien Mind from System 6.0.4 (which loads ProDOS 2.4.1) freezes
at the ProDOS 8 load screen. This happens with a minimal extension set
or with a shift boot, enabling safe mode. I also copied the whole Alien
Mind folder to the same volume that's booting.

Loading Alien Mind from System 6.0.1 (which loads official ProDOS
2.0.3) it gets to the PBI Software load screen (with some graphical
glitches at the top), the animated title screen and then the main menu,
where you can view high scores, authors, change settings, but when you
start game, it freezes at a black screen. This was with the game on a
second volume mounted in my CFFA3000 and with the game copied to the
boot volume.

Reseting from the black screen causes some very funky weirdness on the
Apple IIGS / ROM info reboot screen I've never seen before. I have to
go into self test mode to get out of that, because reseting isn't
enough.


Now, this is what happens when booting System 6.0.1, but holding down
the '8' key to bypass GS/OS and boot into ProDOS 8 v2.0.3. Typing 'bye'
at the BASIC prompt takes you back to the old P8 launcher. Launching
Alien Mind from there, there is still a graphical glitch on the PBI
Software screen, but no other issues. The game loads fine and resuming
games also works perfectly.

This behaviour is what I experienced when booting from the qkumba's
original disk image.

So if it's working on your ROM01 from GS/OS Matt, then perhaps there's
still a lingering issue for ROM3 machines and runnning from GS/OS – but
please confirm if the game itself loads properly, beyond the main menu
(either start or resume a game from GS/OS).

Alex

[Todd Holcomb]

On Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 9:01:02 PM UTC-5, Alex Lee wrote:

> So if it's working on your ROM01 from GS/OS Matt, then perhaps there's
> still a lingering issue for ROM3 machines and runnning from GS/OS – but
> please confirm if the game itself loads properly, beyond the main menu
> (either start or resume a game from GS/OS).

I'm on a ROM1 GS running GS/OS 6.0.3. If I run Alien Mind from GS/OS I get the graphical glitch at the top of the PBI screen like you described, but the game plays fine otherwise. If I boot directly to the game I do not get the graphical glitch and all works well.

[Todd Holcomb]

> Transylvania III GS.

Thanks for another GS conversion! FYI - this game will not launch from GS/OS.

[qkumba]

Yes, the game expects to be able to control all of the machine, and writes to arbitrary memory locations without allocating them first. It won't launch from GS/OS.

[qkumba]

I've fixed the loading issue. It should really run now from any volume, and hopefully the glitching is fixed, too.

[Todd Holcomb]

> Destroyer GS.
> 4th and Inches GS.
> Hostage GS.

Great to see more GS conversions! I can run Destroyer from GS/OS without any problems. Hostage GS will play under GS/OS (with inits off) until you get to the mission and then the graphics go all wonky.

Todd

[qkumba]

4th & Inches and Hostage don't like the memory layout that GS/OS provides.
For now, they need to be launched via the PRODOS file.
I'll work out something better.

[Bob Piltz]

On Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 8:55:23 AM UTC-7, qkumba wrote:
> With the image being 32Mb, we're not running anything from floppies anymore. :-)
> The advantange of uncompressed titles is that you can hold down the arrow key and blast through the titles.
>
> Total Adventure is on the list, after Total Sports and then a Total Sierra package (almost 32Mb by itself).
Might not be the right place to ask, but will you be releasing Total Replay in two versions subsequently, since all these new GS ports will not fit on the single 32mb image now?

So, a sort ot Total Replay GS edition, and the regular edition for 128k //e and below. I'm sure even that regular edition will be filled up soon. I think a "stripped down" edition, minus the screenshots, effects, and demos would fit 100s of more games on the fixed 32mb hard drive image. So, perhaps a "lite edition" with many more games all on a single 32mb image. a "GS edition" and the full edition (spread across multiple 32mb hdvs).

I've tried to roll my own customized version of Total Replay v. 3.0, minus the screenshots, demos, and effects, but Total Replay just freezes on my stripped-down version, and I can't load any games or type anything, except to bring up the "help" menu. I was successful in creating a 'lite' version of Total Replay v2, but now in 3.0 my pruning breaks the program somehow.

[qkumba]

> Might not be the right place to ask, but will you be releasing Total Replay in two versions subsequently, since all these new GS ports will not fit on the single 32mb image now?

That could happen, I suppose, but I'm not planning anything right now. I'm just going through the list that Alex Lee gave me.

> So, a sort ot Total Replay GS edition, and the regular edition for 128k //e and below. I'm sure even that regular edition will be filled up soon. I think a "stripped down" edition, minus the screenshots, effects, and demos would fit 100s of more games on the fixed 32mb hard drive image. So, perhaps a "lite edition" with many more games all on a single 32mb image. a "GS edition" and the full edition (spread across multiple 32mb hdvs).

The existing Total Replay image (v4) is full right now. We won't be adding more titles to it in its current form.
Stripping content would reduce the attractiveness somewhat. Once we split out the sports titles, the titles that didn't fit in the v4 image can be added to the v5 image. There aren't that many more on the wishlist.

> I've tried to roll my own customized version of Total Replay v. 3.0, minus the screenshots, demos, and effects, but Total Replay just freezes on my stripped-down version, and I can't load any games or type anything, except to bring up the "help" menu. I was successful in creating a 'lite' version of Total Replay v2, but now in 3.0 my pruning breaks the program somehow.

The minimum set of files is:
LAUNCHER.SYSTEM
TITLE
GAMES.CONF
PREFS.CONF
X/whichever games you want
TITLE.HGR/whichever games you want
TITLE.DHGR/whichever games you want
PRELAUNCH/whichever games you want

and TITLE.ANIMATED if you have Spare Change or The Spy Strikes Back.
That will allow you to browse and type, but that's it. Triggering the slideshow will hang it.

[Todd Holcomb]

On Saturday, September 5, 2020 at 6:23:13 PM UTC-5, Bob Piltz wrote:

> Might not be the right place to ask, but will you be releasing Total Replay in two versions subsequently, since all these new GS ports will not fit on the single 32mb image now?
>
> So, a sort ot Total Replay GS edition, and the regular edition for 128k //e and below. I'm sure even that regular edition will be filled up soon. I think a "stripped down" edition, minus the screenshots, effects, and demos would fit 100s of more games on the fixed 32mb hard drive image. So, perhaps a "lite edition" with many more games all on a single 32mb image. a "GS edition" and the full edition (spread across multiple 32mb hdvs).

Alex Lee is already kinda doing this with his various IIgs 32 MB ProDOS HD images on his site:

https://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/home/index.html

[fadden]

> Star Maze 16k file (the Sir-Tech one).

Were you able to find a clean original for this? I've only seen cracked copies.

The deprotect I found in a COMPUTIST was pretty simple, but it didn't quite match up with the generally-available binary. That binary has routines to save high scores to disk, hard-wired to slot 6, but they're disabled. I think there's also a copy-protection check at $7ed6 (EORs $9c00-9cff) that got disabled to add "> ZERO PAGE <" to the congratulatory text strings.

[qkumba]

> > Star Maze 16k file (the Sir-Tech one).
>
> Were you able to find a clean original for this? I've only seen cracked copies.

Yes! 4am acquired an original disk last(?) week and cracked it himself.

> The deprotect I found in a COMPUTIST was pretty simple, but it didn't quite match up with the generally-available binary. That binary has routines to save high scores to disk, hard-wired to slot 6, but they're disabled. I think there's also a copy-protection check at $7ed6 (EORs $9c00-9cff) that got disabled to add "> ZERO PAGE <" to the congratulatory text strings.

My version saves the high scores, and the $7ED6 is not copy-protection - it's validating the high-score table hasn't been tampered. 4am got fooled in the same way. :-)

[Todd Holcomb]

Did asimov.net stop sorting their files? There are files in /pub/appleii/incoming going back to 3/25/22. I'm unable to download any of your newer ProDOS conversions...

[qkumba]

I expect that the maintainer is taking a well-earned vacation.
I can share with you any title that you'd like.

[Todd Holcomb]

On Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at 9:34:12 AM UTC-5, qkumba wrote:
> I expect that the maintainer is taking a well-earned vacation.
> I can share with you any title that you'd like.

I'm looking for Space Rescue, Floppy, and Flobynoid to add to the BBS.

[qkumba]

http://pferrie.epizy.com/misc/tmp/space%20rescue%209k%20file%20PRODOS%20(san%20inc%20pack).po
http://pferrie.epizy.com/misc/tmp/floppy%20PRODOS%20(san%20inc%20pack).po
http://pferrie.epizy.com/misc/tmp/flobynoid%20PRODOS%20(san%20inc%20pack).po

[Todd Holcomb]

Thank you! These will soon be available from CQ BBS (cqbbs.ddns.net:6502) in Shrinkit compressed folder format for direct download to your ProDOS hard drive.

[Todd Holcomb]

BTW, Floppy crashes to machine language when I try to boot the disk image in Virtual ][. I haven't tried it on real hardware though.