Re: Disk ][ Launcher (was: Late night musings...)

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <Pine.SGI.3.91r.960828085432.8301A-100000@freenet> "Greg J.
Buchner" <buchner@freenet.msp.mn.us> writes:
>Maybe to make things a little clearer on there being an Apple II
>emulator for the GS, what I would like to see would be something
>like DOS 3.3 Launcher, only it being Disk ][ Launcher.  I have
>several games that I paid good money for that I can't use at the
>moment as I don't have a 5.25 drive and they aren't in DOS 3.3.
>
>It would be nice to have something that would intercept and
>reroute Disk ][ RWTS calls instead of just rerouting DOS 3.3
>calls.  It'd be nice to have the speed and accessability of a
>HD, with the ability to emulate several 5.25's.

This would NOT be easy to do.

The problem is that many of those old non-DOS-3.3 games don't use the
standard RWTS--they come with their own custom RWTS, which often does lots
of really bizarre things in the name of copy protection.

For sofware that loads completely into memory and doesn't access the disk
once it's booted, this isn't a problem.  But programs that do disk access
after booting could be very difficult to convert to the "Disk ][ Launcher"
scheme--somebody would have to disassemble the program's custom RWTS and
figure out how to replace it with an emulated RWTS without the main program
realizing anything had changed.

Depending on the program, this could be anywhere from easy to nearly
impossible.

                - Neil Parker
-- 
Neil Parker, nparker@{cie-2,cie}.uoregon.edu, http://cie-2.uoregon.edu/~nparker

     "Evolution is vastly overrated."  -- Ambassador Delenn, _Babylon_5_