st megafile

[Thelen]

today i've got an megafile 30 harddisk for the st. now i wanted to put games on it...but why can i get only games on it that don't start automatic, i put the disk on it but it will never work...is there not a program for that allows to run disk games ?

 

Thelen

[+rdemming]

quote:

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Originally posted by thelen:

today i've got an megafile 30 harddisk for the st. now i wanted to put games on it...but why can i get only games on it that don't start automatic, i put the disk on it but it will never work...is there not a program for that allows to run disk games ?

 

Thelen

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There are several problems with putting games on a harddisk since most games where written without a harddisk in mind.

 

First, many commercial games use their own disk format (boot disks) and don't use a file system. If you try to read the directory of these disk you get an empty directory or garbage. These disks cannot be put onto a harddisk unless the games are cracked and are converted to files. E.g. groups like automation and medway boys did this.

 

The second problem is that some games are hardcoded to read from drive A. So you if start these games from harddisk, they continue to read other files from drive A.

Or games read their data files always from the root directory so you can't put the game inside a folder.

 

The third problem is that you need a harddisk driver to read from harddisks. The driver occupies memory space so some games may not read because there is too little free memory. Also the driver can have conflicts with the game. Some games (especially boot disk games) use fixed memory addresses to run and don't ask the OS for memory. This will destroy the harddisk driver in memory so further data cannot be loaded.

 

So games can only run from harddisk if they use the standard file system and standard OS calls to load data and allocate memory.

 

Robert

[Albert]

How about Atari ST games that have been cracked? Do those still need to be booted on a floppy if that's how they were originally run? I haven't really followed the Atari ST game scene in years, but I presume that the copy protection has been broken on most of them, allowing them to more easily be copied (and say, put on the net at excellent sites like Little Green Desktop).

 

..Al

[+rdemming]

quote:

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Originally posted by Albert:

How about Atari ST games that have been cracked? Do those still need to be booted on a floppy if that's how they were originally run? I haven't really followed the Atari ST game scene in years, but I presume that the copy protection has been broken on most of them, allowing them to more easily be copied (and say, put on the net at excellent sites like

Little Green Desktop

).

 

..Al

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That depends. When the game is cracked, the odds increase that it will run from harddisk since it doesn't check the floppy anymore for the copy protection. But it will only work if the game is stored in files and if they work correctly together with harddisk drivers.

 

There were some games that originally could be installed on harddisk like the Sierra adventures.

 

Robert