Re: Boot Dos3.3 progs/games from .dsk image on HD? (REAL IIgs)?

[a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

n9yty@bigfoot.com (Steven Palm) wrote:

>My question:  Is there *ANY* way to use disk image files without having to
>write them to a disk first?

    Yes, though currently for a few specific filing systems only.

>I'd love to boot up some older applications, games and the like, but I
>don't want to have to write them out to disk.

    John MacLean's DOS 3.3 Launcher is what you want. It allows you to
create disk-images (custom; not *.2MG or *.DSK) from 5.25 floppy disks
and store them on any ProDOS device. You can then launch and run
games and applications by double-clicking images from the IIgs Finder,
or even over an AppleTalk network.

    It only works with DOS 3.3 games and software though, not ProDOS.

Launching from the Finder works, though on some games the overhead
from GS/OS (background interrupts?) cause a slight bit of sound
distortion. However you can launch them from ProDOS-8 to avoid this.

ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple16/System/Applics/Dos33launcher.v22

>I have looked (briefly) into FocusDOS, which allows you to make a large
>file that contains many disk images, but since you can't get to those
>images from outside of FocusDOS, I don't know how to move files into
>them.  I can't see the hard drive's other partitions when inside FocusDOS.

    I've never heard of FocusDOS, I assume it comes with the Focus
Hardrive? Can programs within the images be run?

    There's been at least one example of converting and running 3.5
disk-images from a IIgs hardrive. Ninjaforce wrote up a utility to get
their "Revenge of the Bobs" and "MegaDemo" demos running off
a hardrive. I've always wondered if the same couldn't be done with
FTA demos and IIgs games in general (those not HD installable).

>(Imagine that, I want to actually play the games on the real hardware, not
>an emulator. :-)

    It's always been my opinion that an emulator can never replace the
feel of the real thing. That's why I'm actively looking to find a C64
and Amiga to tinker with (I missed out on these machines having 
gone the path of the Apple II Plus and then IIgs). :)

Mitchell Spector
a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca