Re: Hopefully last dumb newbie question.

[Slick <Slick_RCBD@hotmail.com>]

Willie Yeo wrote:
> 
> Dan Watkins wrote:
> 
> > 1. If I boot up the system with the GS OS (5.04), the computer cannot
> >      read the game disk, even though it can read other 5 1/4 disks.
> >      Instead, it just asks me if I want to format the disk.
> 
>     It is probably either a custom-OS that GS/OS does not recognise (i.e. not
> standard DOS 3.3, ProDOS 8 or  Pascal). Games produced by SSI then had RDOS,
> which is their own version of an OS for Apple II. If it is a DOS 3.3 but with
> different address and data headers (non-generic DOS 3.3) then GS/OS will still
> not recongise it.
> 
>     If someone had a 'hacked' copy, then you probably be able to use GS/OS to see
> it or even backing it up using standard diskcopy programs.
> 
> > 2. The game disk itself is bootable. If I boot up with the game disk, however,
> >         the Apple II GS "greet screen" (the initial screen that tells you it's
> >         a GS,  what ROM it is, etc.) remains on the screen in garbled form
> >         even after I start the game, interfering with my ability to read the
> >         game text (I hope I made that clear).
> 
>     LJSilicon highlighted "Apple's Alternate Display", which I believe is what
> happened in your situation. If you see that screen, hit <CTRL><APPLE><ESC> to
> enter into the Control Panels, and switch the Alternate Display on/off. But you
> will need to do it often if you suddenly think the game stops for no-reason, it
> might be text is written in the 'other' screen. The GS does not really support
> Alternate Display like the earlier IIs.
One thing to point out, and a question.

GS/OS 5.0.4 didn't have FSTs for DOS 3.3, or PASCAL. Those were
introduced in System 6.

Now the question. What exactly does the Alternate Display Mode DA do? I
think it has something to do with the secondary text screen (Address
$800-C00 on earlier models), but am not sure. None of the books at my
library have anything about it. I do know about the shadowing to banks
$e0 and $e1, and have looked at assembly language programming on the
IIGS. I just never had the money to buy ORCA or APW. I've used the Hyper
C (ProDOS 8, and free) assembler to write programs.
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