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

[jefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney)]

nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker) wrote:

>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.

This is where emulating a piece of hardware, like the Mockingboard,
could also be used.  Emulate the hardware of the Disk ][ controller
and any RWTS routine that accesses the hardware can be handled without
a problem.

Well, there is still the problem of writing the code the emulate the
hardware but I believe this has already been done and source is
publicly available.  This is what the emulators on other platforms use
so why not us?