Re: Ultima IV wanted

[fishern3485@cobra.uni.edu]

> A few years ago, I attempted to get Ultima V working on a pair of 3.5"
> disks.  It _almost_ worked.  I had to rewrite the operating system
> (DINKEYDOS) from scratch, and crack the program disk's protection.
> 
> The only problem is that the game hangs a short time after you start
> playing.  I've never got around to investigating why.
> 
> In theory, the code I wrote would also allow Ultima V to run from a
> hard drive, but it would require a set of eight subdirectories at the
> root directory level.  It might be possible to rewrite it so that it
> worked from a subdirectory.
> 
> This is a moot point, since the 3.5" version doesn't work anyway.

that would be *tough*.  I can see the logical way to attack it --
slip in some code that would intercept the disk read/write routines
and route them to an index into a set of eight files on the HD...
(one for each disk side)  Only problem of course is where the heck
to put ProDOS.....  (you'd have to have it there to access the HD)
Now wait a minute -- I don't think Ultima V requires 128k does it?
If not, just "bank" in ProDOS and bank out the upper 64k for disk
I/O!  This would work good except you'd have a hard time telling when
Ultima wanted ONE block, or when it wanted LOTS of them. (it'd take
a while to bank in/out and load a sector 40 or 50 times....)

Probably end up having a custom patch that would call one of two locations
in your code, one for loading a series of blocks, and one for loading
blocks directly. (in which case the idea of eight subdirectories would
come in handy, just copy all the files in, and then set up another file
"DIRECT" that has an image of all the blocks on the disk accessed directly)
I think the only disks with direct I/O are the Britannia, Underworld,
and Dwelling, but maybe the dialogue for the people is also direct.
Disk Map would tell real quick.

If I had the time I just might do it.
but alas, I don't.... :(

-- 
Nathan Fisher
  FISHERN3485@COBRA.UNI.EDU