Re: DOS3.3 questions

[rubywand@aol.com]

In article <59f4pb$2uc@news.ysu.edu>, be404@yfn.ysu.edu (Adalbert Goertz)
writes:

>
>I have always worked with Prodos and begin to set up games for our
youngsters
>which are either DOS or something else(Pascal?).
>Anyway I am puzzled about the DOS games:
>Some are selfbooting, others are not.
>I have not figured out why some are selfbooting and why others are not
and
>give a message
>THIS DISK HAS NO DOS TO BOOT.
>INSERT ANOTHER DISK AND PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT.
>....

     This sounds like pretty old stuff. If the game is not protected, you
can make it more user-friendly by copying its files to an INITed
diskette-- i.e. one which has DOS. (If the diskette is protected, uses
direct-to-sector R/W, and/or takes up the entier diskette, then, you will
not, easily, be able to move the game.)

     To create an INITed diskette, boot a diskette with DOS (one which
lets you get to the BASIC prompt),  stick in the new diskette, enter NEW,
enter

 10 PRINT CHR$(4)"CATALOG"

(this is your "HELLO program" for now) and enter INIT HELLO. (You can
DELETE the HELLO program after INITing, substitute a HELLO program which
lets you select games to run, or change the name of the diskette's HELLO
program to some other program you want to run upon booting.)

     Older versions of Copy ][ Plus are good for doing the file moving.
Copy ][ will, also, let you change the name of the HELLO program to, say,
the name of a game's startup program.

     A good DOS choice is Beagle's ProntoDOS. It is very DOS
3.3-compatible, much faster, and it frees-up some sectors DOS 3.3 wastes.
Another DOS, ES-DOS][, is ProtoDOS with a few frills.  

Rubywand