Re: Cracking HomeWord

[Ivan X <ivanxqz@yahoo.com>]

On 8/13/09 3:48 PM, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:

> As has been noted here before, the directory *does* contain the volume
> number as a data field, but few (no?) emulators supply this number as
> the emulated volume number (which it could do by simulating the low-
> level formatting).  Other methods of communicating the desired volume
> number to the emulator have also been discussed.

That is certainly true, though it is not necessarily reliable, and nor does
every disk which uses volume numbers have a DOS 3.3 VTOC. (I am thinking of
the game Time Zone, also by Sierra On-Line.) That said, I'd certainly
support the idea that if an emulator identifies a standard DOS 3.3 VTOC on a
DSK image file, it applies the volume number there in its simulation of the
address header nybbles.

> Actually, it would be good to continue the crack to eliminate the
> volume check.  DSK images are much more generally useful than NIB
> images.

That might be a fun project to consider. It's true that I like DSK's much
better than NIB's for a host of reasons.

On 8/13/09 12:10 PM, "N.N. Thayer" <nnthayer@hotmail.com> wrote:

> On Aug 13, 9:07�am, Ivan X <ivan...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> Regarding the .NIB image file failing to work in II+ emulation under
>> AppleWin because of the game port error: I have to conclude this is some
>> anomaly specific to AppleWin, perhaps how it emulates the game port when
>> using the II+ rom, because it works fine in II+ emulation under Virtual II.
> 
> The weird thing is that it works fine in my ][+ which has a joystick
> attached (through a 9-pin adapter to the game port).  Perhaps the
> error message is a vestige of, say, version 1.0, or a beta version,
> and is being brought to the surface by an AppleWin bug.  Strange!

Or perhaps it's looking at something on one of the other pins, such as
button 2 for the shift key mod. That's why I'm eager to get in there and see
what it's doing!

> The only reason I'm after a DSK instead of a NIB is that, as far as
> I'm aware, there's no reliable method for transferring NIB images to
> physical 5.25" disks, so anyone wanting to run HomeWord on a real II
> without original disks would be SOL.

In this particular case, you could, in an emulator, copy the NIB to a DSK,
and then restore to a floppy from that. Then, on the real Apple II, INIT
HELLO,V4 on a second disk. Load COPYA, delete line 250, type RUN, and then
copy the first one you made to the second, and the second one should work.

It's true that having a DSK is much more convenient for many reasons, so I
may look into further cracking Homeword 2.1 to be volume independent (or, at
any rate, dependent on volume 254, which is less elegant but potentially
simpler).