Transforming .com games into autobooting .atr

[+Philsan]

I have some games in .com format that I would like to transform in autobooting .atr files (one game per disk).

How can I do it?

[Rybags]

It's a wasteful way to do it if you're using real floppies.

 

There's a recent thread about disk menus which lots of us uploaded images - why not try some of them.

 

COM (binary load) files can have segments which load all over the place, so you can't just simply create a boot disk with one.

 

If you're really desperate for a true autoloader, I suppose I could modify the menu I did to forcibly load the first file.

[spookt]

I've used Ken Siders' AtrUtil95 available on this page to drop com files onto an image an then via ape to real floppies Ken Siders Page

 

It will create a kboot disk image as an atr, which is basically a minimal boot disk with a small boot sector and whatever exe you've dropped on it.

 

The process is :

 

Click "Create" and choose density. I'd go for SSSD to be safe. Select the AutoBoot button in the bottom right and click "Create".

A file selector should appear. Select your exe file and it will be added to the disk.

Hit "Save" to save the atr file.

Test in an emulator.

 

Hope this helps. AtrUtil is a great tool. I've also used one called arc64.exe (arc65.exe???) in the past.

 

It's pretty wastefull though if you want to go to real floppies, you'd be better off with a menu system.

 

Cheers

Paul

Edited August 29, 2007 by spookt

[spookt]

Ah beaten to the post again !!!

[+Philsan]

Thank you to all.

I know it would be a waste of real floppies but I use emulator or real Atari with APE with SIO2PC USB and in the next months I will use SIO2SD.

[Bunsen]

Write Dos files on the disk and rename your *.COM file to AUTORUN.SYS

[Rybags]

I didn't bother mentioning that before because DOS tends to have trouble with lots of games since many of them like to load in the low memory area.

 

Prettywell anything that wants to occupy $700-$1F00 will trash DOS and crash the machine part way through the load process.

[tjlazah]

ATRUtil rocks! I setup mine so when I right click on an .ATR file I can edit it with ATRUtil! Works great.

[carmel_andrews]

There is a built in limitation with atrutil and the similar util called makeatr, you are limited to working with standard ataridos naming file conventions (i.e 8x3) so if you've any files that are tosec'd, your out of luck (tosec files are longer then 8x3)

[Pigula]

I have some games in .com format that I would like to transform in autobooting .atr files (one game per disk).

How can I do it?

Why?!!!!

Rename file *.com as *.XEX and copy to SD CARD!!!! SIO2SD support XEX files!

[+Philsan]

Why?!!!!

Rename file *.com as *.XEX and copy to SD CARD!!!! SIO2SD support XEX files!

.com and .xex files are the same thing?

I didn't know that! Thanks

[Pigula]

Why?!!!!

Rename file *.com as *.XEX and copy to SD CARD!!!! SIO2SD support XEX files!

.com and .xex files are the same thing?

I didn't know that! Thanks

 

For ATR files I recommend fantastic plugin for Total Commander written by Pajero!

(TOTAL COMMANDER ATR PLUGIN v1.5) You Can find it -> http://madteam.atari8.info/index.php?prod=uzytki

[djpubba]

Soooooooooooo..... anyone compiled an archive of .atr or .xex game images that are Sio2SD friendly? I'm finding that a LOT of the ones floating around aren't compatilble.

[djpubba]

Ah, never mind. I found that it's much nicer to create a large .atr image, initialize it with mypicodos and copy a big pile of .com files to it. Then they work very well, load very fast and you can select them with an on-screen menu instead of the buttons on the Sio2SD.

[sup8pdct]

Why?!!!!

Rename file *.com as *.XEX and copy to SD CARD!!!! SIO2SD support XEX files!

.com and .xex files are the same thing?

I didn't know that! Thanks

 

For ATR files I recommend fantastic plugin for Total Commander written by Pajero!

(TOTAL COMMANDER ATR PLUGIN v1.5) You Can find it -> http://madteam.atari8.info/index.php?prod=uzytki

 

It looks nice but I cannot read polish and the 2 translators had trouble.

so how does one use it?

 

James

[classics]

Here is a more recently built makeatr that should support long filenames properly.

 

Just do: makeatr.exe target.atr source.xex

 

Steve

makeatr_lfn.zip

[Ray Gillman]

On 9/1/2007 at 7:14 AM, sup8pdct said:

 

It looks nice but I cannot read polish and the 2 translators had trouble.

so how does one use it?

 

James

http://madteam.atari8.info/index.php?prod=uzytki
I just load the web link in Chrome browser and tell it to always translate Polish and it looks fine.  Now figuring out the programs written in Polish is of course another challenge but not impossible to work through  
see?

Edited November 23, 2019 by Ray Gillman

[Ray Gillman]

On 9/1/2007 at 7:14 AM, sup8pdct said:

 

It looks nice but I cannot read polish and the 2 translators had trouble.

so how does one use it?

 

James

While I was thinking about it I just converted the ASM of the Atari Commander from Polish to English here.  Not sure it may need dratex or something to atascii it before it works in the emulator but will mess with it more later.  I just used libre office to save it as an HTML file then loaded that into Chrome browser so it would auto-translate then had to search replace double stacked CR LF in notepad++ then saved it back again.  Was just making sure it would work.  Seems like it does.
 

ac1.81.asm