Re: Apple IIgs Gaming Questions

["Craig Bower" <to.email.me@post.a.request.message>]

"Tempest" <tempest@atariprotos.com> wrote in message 
1116891622.978540.206240@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com">news:1116891622.978540.206240@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> I've decided that I want to try and put all the disk images on my IIgs
> HD and run the games from there. However I have a few questions:

Hi,

Good good, you'll love the near instant load times on the IIgs HD.

>
> 1. Can you take normal dsk images from places like the asimov archive
> and run them from the IIgs or do you have to do something to them first
> (like make them an executable or something)?
>

1. You can take pretty much most of the file-based disk images on Asimov
and ADT the disks straight to a 5.25" floppy on your IIgs.  Then just use 
the
system utilities (or Copy II+ 9) to file copy from the 5.25" disk to the HD

Some of the full-disk images can even be file-copied to the HD - example,
Ultima - I, the 1986 re-release done under ProDOS can be installed on a HD,
and runs pretty darn good.  Although, you'll still have to use a 5.25" disk 
for
the character.  8/16 paint also transfers good to a HD, but it seems to 
somehow
lose track of everything but the default font for writing text to the 
screen.

>
> 2. Is there a way to write to a disk from Windows XP so that its readable
> from a IIgs (or vice versa)?
>

2. Yes, you can write a disk under Win XP that is readable on a IIgs.  There
are limitations though.  If you use Cider-Press and a 3.5" drive, you'll 
pretty
much need a ($$$) $uperdrive Controller and 3.5" superdrive on the IIgs.
There's also DSK2FDI, but I have never used it and can't really comment.

Your best bet, is to ADT 5.25" disk images to the IIgs onto a physical 5.25"
floppy disk and then system util copy them to the HD from the 5.25" drive.

>
> 3. Will I run into problems running games from System 6?  Will they run
> at all?
>

3. Your best bet for running old DOS 3.3 "wares" on the IIgs is to create a
ProDOS 8 partition on your HD that has PRODOS.SYSTEM and BASIC.SYSTEM
on it so you can hop out of Sys 6.0 into something a little more familiar 
for the
old games to run under.  Nothing beats a command line prompt - nothing! :)

Also write a little program to do the "poke" for you and place it in the 
games directory
Something like this will suffice:

10 PRINT
20 INVERSE
30 PRINT"  PRODOS / DOS 3.3 GAMES FIX  "
40 NORMAL
50 POKE 48984,192
60 PRINT
70 NEW

SAVE D

Then when you have a game that doesn't like the ProDOS memory protection
of Text page 1, simple type "- D" and then RUN/BRUN the game.

Also, make a specific directory for the games so you don't overcome the 51 
file
limit in the root directory of your IIgs HD.  Otherwise, the game names 
won't show up
properly, and chaos will ensue!

On System 6.0.x

For what it's worth, I had Sys 6.0.x on my IIgs CFFA 128 MB partition 1 and
I found it less than useful for my tastes.  I like to use the IIgs as a fast 
//e most of
the time, and between the load times for Sys 6.0.x and what I was using the 
IIgs
for, it made no sense.  So now my partition 1 is a ProDOS8 boot drive. 
Quick,
painless, Applesoft prompt in about 2 seconds from power-on.  Compared to 
the
"loading" bar on Sys 6.0.x for about 15-20 seconds.

Later,
Craig