Re: SSI games from the Asimov site-- Doing game saves

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Jmoser164 writes ...
> 
> I am interested in trying to play an old SSI game entitled "USAAF" from SSI. I
> played this game years ago on my old IIe (long since given away with all its
> software.) I recently downloaded two emulators: Bernie [] and Catakig. They
> seem to work fine, except for the SSI games I have downloaded from the ASIMOV
> site. (These are 5.25" disk images)
> 
> These games will boot, let you set the game preferences, and then ask for the
> game disk (disk 2) to be inserted into drive one. The first furn sceen appears
> but will not accept any input. (It "appears" that the game freezes at this
> point.)
> 
> I am not a computer guru, I just want to play a couple of these games with
> which I wiled away many hours back in the early '80's. The games I am
> particularly interested in are USAAF and RAILS WEST from SSI. If anyone can
> help, please email me at jmoser164@aol.com. THANKS!!!

     You can play USAAF and save games using the 'blank' save game disk
(SSIsave.dsk) available in RDOSstuff.zip from the GSWV archive.

     The archive page is at http://www.apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/Sel/index.html .
Click on "SSI Wargamer Supplies" for info plus a download link.


     Rails West seems to not be completely deprotected. Evidently, it tries to
use special formatting for its Save disks which emulators can not simulate.
(Probably, game saves work great on a real Apple II with real disk drives.)

     The SSIsave.dsk mentioned earlier was not accepted. On both AppleWin and
Apple Oasis, allowing the game to format a new (.nib) Save disk did not work,
either. And, the version available from other sites seems to be the same as that
on Asimov. To use Save Game, it looks like someone will need to diddle the
program to use a more normal format for saves.

     A way around this problem may be to use an emulator which allows saving and
restoring a snapshot of memory plus regs status.

     Bernie and/or Catakig may offer this capability as a standard option. If
Bernie doesn't, you could run a IIgs program switcher (e.g. Switch-It) and start
up Rails West. Then, unless Rails West disables interrupts, you would be able to
save your position whenever you like.



Rubywand