XEX games that require 64K or XL OS. Why won't they work on 48K 800?

[ACML]

I know some of these are pure size (i.e. >48K RAM), but many are far less than 48K size files, but they won't work on the 48K 800 with OS-B. When it says it requires 64K, that means it won't run on a 48K 800, but will on a 64K Omniview which is basically an OS-B with an 80 column mode and 64K RAM. The ones that say XL OS won't run on a 64K Omniview or 48K 800 OS-B and truly need an XL OS.

XEX's that require a 64K OS and will not run on a 48K Atari 800. Yes, the full disk ATR's may work on an 800, but not the XEX versions.

Air Wolf

Alien 8

Amaurote

Amaurote 2013

Animal Party

Apple Invaders

Balz

Bank Bang!

Barbarian version 4

Basil the Great Mouse Detective

Black Lamp

Blinky's Scary School

Blip

Blue Thunder

BMX Simulator

Bounce Ball (multi joystick)

Crownland (demo)

Crumbles Crisis

Dart Chambers (Atari)

Diamondz

Draconos I

Draconus II

Draconus III

Draconus IV

Fantastic Soccer

Food Fight (Atari)

Head Over Heels

Hellcat Ace

Hobgoblin

Into the Eagle's Nest

Jinks

Knights Lore

Lander

Lode Runner 1

Lode Runner 2

Loops DX

Loops of Zen

Lunar Jetman

Lunar Lander

Mad Stone

Mario Brothers 2007

Mercenary

Mind Blast

Mission

Mountain Bike

Mr. Robot 2

Nation's Flags

Ninja Commando

Ocean Detox

Pad

Perplexity

Pipe line

Rear Guard

Ridiculous Reality

Robix

Silent Service

Soccor Pong

Spelunker

Spitfire 40

Spy vs Spy 1

Spy vs Spy 2 (Island Caper)

Spy vs Spy 3 (Artic Antics)

Stack Up

Strip Poker (Dominique)

Strip Poker (Linda)

Strip Poker (Marina)

Strip Poker (Melanie)

Strip Poker (Suzi)

Strip Poker (Sylvia)

Sub Hunter

Super Soccer

Superversion

Swapz

Tales of Dragons and Cavemen

Thunder Fox

Tomahawk

Warhawk

Project - M

X-8

Xerious Defect XXL

Yoomp

These require the 400/800 OS-B

Ghost Hunter (1981 Original version)

Protector 2

Run for the Money

Star Raiders Dual

These require an XL OS and won't run on a 48K Atari 800 or 64K Omniview OS

Alien Busters

Amnesia

Battleship

Bubble

Burger Chef

Castles of Confusion

Choplifter XE (color)

City Hawk

Crack Up

Dropzone (cheats)

Galaga

Gyruss

Hot Wheels

Lode Runner stages 1 to 40

Lode Runner stages 41 to 80

Lode Runner stages 81 to 120

Mule

Multi Race

Multris

Othello 2

Protector 2 (Synapse)

Serpent

Spitfire Ace

Strip Poker (Candy)

Strip Poker (Marlene)

Surf's Up

Tank vs Tank

Tetris

Volleyball

 

Does anyone have 48K Atari 800 friendly versions of these XEXs? Again, not looking for ATR versions, just XEX versions.

[Rybags]

File size isn't a good indicator, plenty use compression or might use the extra 16K as workspace.

 

There's a good number in there though that don't need 64K. Spelunker - in fact I think it might run in 40K.

 

Blue Thunder, I don't think that's very big.

 

The lesson of illegal OS calls wasn't learnt by many - some continued the bad habit of undocumented calls with the XL OS but it was probably much more the case for cracks and the like rather than commercial releases.

[peteym5]

Could be certain games disable the XL/XE OS and set up custom IRQ, NMI, and Reset. Using a custom NMI for can reduce a few cycles for DLIs.

[Marius]

Rybags is right about compression. A while ago I decided to start using my pal atari 400. And indeed especially those games with compression didn't want to decompress (and run).

 

I hope you'll find what you are looking for. I like my 400 a lot and I would like to increase the game base a bit more when possible.

 

Not sure... But I believe I got a mule file version running, but I'm not sure...

[pirx]

There is my game Bank! Bang! there - I was not using OS, basically turning it off was one of the first things on a list. Then you've got a bit more memory. I do not remember if this was the case for B!B!, but certainly it was for Operation Blood and Special Forces.

 

Additionally the game was released as fileless bootable disk, so the file version is possibly compressed and indeed, compressors do use XL memory.

 

And now the big reason - when I was making the game I did not really know about A800 at all - I have never seen one. Cheapo XL/XE were the thing.

 

Best,

 

pirx

[thorfdbg]

Could be certain games disable the XL/XE OS and set up custom IRQ, NMI, and Reset. Using a custom NMI for can reduce a few cycles for DLIs.

Rarely ever. In most cases, the original version would run on an unmodified A800. The trouble is, most such games were disk boots, and where converted manually by the "crackers" to file versions. Now, how do you fit a boot version with a loader, an intro and several levels on disk into a file? Well, you typically employ the extra RAM you have on the XL, store the additional sectors for levels or game there, and then modify the internal game loader code to take the code from the RAM behind the OS rather than load it from disk.