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Bootable Disk Menu Programs


bbking67

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Here is my English fixed hack for Think & Work. Would be cool to get WizType working! Anyone wanna take a stab at it? (tried to copy another working file of WizType to the disk and it would not boot. File name is called WIZ)

Exactly the same files on AURA Menu 2 so you could try copying the file from there.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm not too sure how that could work as control passes back to the main boot routine as soon as a game is loaded. There could certainly be multi part games if each was standalone ... for example, side A and side B of a disk or cassette.

 

It would be interesting to hear if anybody did find ways around the default loading.

 

I think the largest amount of code you could load was 32 K, e.g. 256 * 128 byte sectors, but if you had a larger program, you could load the rest of the program by putting the second part directly after the first on the menu disk. When the first part of the program had been loaded, the SIO Device Control Block would still be intact for the final sector of the first part, and all you had to do was increment the sector to read (DAUX1, DAUX2) and also the memory location to read to. The sector size would also be in the DCB, so writing code that loaded the 2nd part would be fairly simple, and could work on 128 byte or 256 byte sector size menu systems.

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So I'm thinking of creating a little site with collected screenshots and downloadable versions of bootable disk menu programs (e.g. the 3-sector ones we all used for pirated games.)

 

 

if you want to help, send me the ATR files, along with the name or any info you have about it

 

Thanks

Kevin

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So I'm thinking of creating a little site with collected screenshots and downloadable versions of bootable disk menu programs (e.g. the 3-sector ones we all used for pirated games.)

 

 

if you want to help, send me the ATR files, along with the name or any info you have about it

 

Thanks

Kevin

Hi Kevin

 

I've done most of the groundwork already here:

http://atari.boards.net/thread/53/classic-menus-utility-disks?page=1

 

but you will need a login to access it all

 

i think i picked up about 15 or so here on AAge - that I didn't have - which really helped.

i don't think my collection even comes close to complete, but i'd say near exhaustive - as far as scouring the net goes.

 

only way i think we can add to it is by people searching their own collections

Edited by Guest
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I re-read all 5 pages of this thread, so sorry if it has been answered. What boot menu is this? It shows a header in Basic graphics mode 2, then a listing of titles in mode 1. When you make a selection, it switches into mode 2 before loading.

post-650-0-80951400-1549771083.png

post-650-0-16839100-1549771083.png

 

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I re-read all 5 pages of this thread, so sorry if it has been answered. What boot menu is this? It shows a header in Basic graphics mode 2, then a listing of titles in mode 1. When you make a selection, it switches into mode 2 before loading.

attachicon.gifMenu1.png

attachicon.gifMenu2.png

 

 

Looks like Fender's 3 -sector boot menu to me...

Of course there were several other menu's similar to Fender's one.

 

The image Gamedos.ATR contains a DOS and several gamedos versions (including Fender's bootmenu), while the image Fender.ATR only contains the menu, so you can see how it looks like on an intialized diskette (the menu initializer must be loaded from DOS, it does not load from a non-DOS menu it seems)...

 

Fender's bootmenu uses some memory for loading a ML-file, not sure if it uses page 1, page 5, page 6 or some other memory location, however, several games that worked fine with other gamedos versions (e.g. NanoDOS or MyPicoDOS), did not work with Fender's bootmenu.

Gamedos_Fender.zip

Edited by CharlieChaplin
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Looks like Fender's 3 -sector boot menu to me...

Of course there were several other menu's similar to Fender's one.

 

The image Gamedos.ATR contains a DOS and several gamedos versions (including Fender's bootmenu), while the image Fender.ATR only contains the menu, so you can see how it looks like on an intialized diskette (the menu initializer must be loaded from DOS, it does not load from a non-DOS menu it seems)...

 

Fender's bootmenu uses some memory for loading a ML-file, not sure if it uses page 1, page 5, page 6 or some other memory location, however, several games that worked fine with other gamedos versions (e.g. NanoDOS or MyPicoDOS), did not work with Fender's bootmenu.

Thanks - the image I posted was from my personal collection. The disk was from 1987 or 1988.

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I was asked some time ago if I could upload my source files for Multiboot and I can't remember ever getting around to it.

 

About a year ago I extracted all (well, most) of the source files from my old 1980's Atari floppies. I then wrote a program to convert the tokenised Synassembler files to new fangled, modern format so they could be assembled using MADS and WUDSN.

 

Multiboot was one of the programs I managed to resurrect and it even assembles correctly!

 

I have to say that I winced when looking back on some of the code! In my defence, it was very early in my programming career and only intended for personal use - Multiboot spread around after I gave out a few copies.

 

I've added some comments to the source files and you'll spot many more caveats and disclaimers ;-)

 

Thanks,

 

Jon

Multiboot_XL_Atari.asm

Multiboot_Saver.asm

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  • 1 month later...

Hi. I really want to find the 3 sector boot loader.

 

I'm trying to recreate my disk library and it was a very simple loader that just displayed basic graphics mode 2 menu with a header at the top. I think I remember using a disk editor to change the title at the top to be "HACKER'S HAVEN". Can anyone share an ATR that has this?

 

Thank you.

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Hi. I really want to find the 3 sector boot loader.

 

I'm trying to recreate my disk library and it was a very simple loader that just displayed basic graphics mode 2 menu with a header at the top. I think I remember using a disk editor to change the title at the top to be "HACKER'S HAVEN". Can anyone share an ATR that has this?

 

Thank you.

Hi ,

I guess you are referring to the menu tool from the pirates chest.

I also used to just to copy the sectors and then edit them to change the title until I got to the tool used to create those sectors:

http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/collections/holmes%20cd/Holmes%201/ATR%20Programs/Applications%20A-Z/Pirate's%20Treasure%20Chest%20A%20-basic.atr

 

 

Boot your computer with basic and then select "menu something" from the menu (I guess was number 6).

Edited by manterola
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Hi ,

I guess you are referring to the menu tool from the pirates chest.

I also used to just to copy the sectors and then edit them to change the title until I got to the tool used to create those sectors:

http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/collections/holmes%20cd/Holmes%201/ATR%20Programs/Applications%20A-Z/Pirate's%20Treasure%20Chest%20A%20-basic.atr

 

 

Boot your computer with basic and then select "menu something" from the menu (I guess was number 6).

 

This doesn't seem to work with Double-density disks.

I copied the menumaker to a double-density disk and ran it against a double-density disk. Then, I put files on the disk. I can boot into dos and see that the files are there, but when I boot from the disk, it just shows the menu header with no items.

 

Does anyone have a menu program that works with double density?

 

Thank you.

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Yep. Doesn't work with double density but it does work with dual / enhanced density.
Which dos are you using? Which drive do you have? The only menu I have used (the are many more) that work with double density is the one included with mypico dos. It is great for games compilations for the XF551.
I am attaching a game disk with menu just in case you want to extract the first sectors and have the menu, or delete my games and add your own games to the disk.

games999.atr

Edited by manterola
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Yep. Doesn't work with double density but it does work with dual / enhanced density.

Which dos are you using? Which drive do you have? The only menu I have used (the are many more) that work with double density is the one included with mypico dos. It is great for games compilations for the XF551.

I am attaching a game disk with menu just in case you want to extract the first sectors and have the menu, or delete my games and add your own games to the disk.

 

Hi. I did not see an attachment.

 

I am trying to recreate my collection the way it was 31 years ago, and that requires double-density disks. I had a menu program that was just Graphics 1 or 2 and a list of games in the normal location that worked with DD back in the day and cannot find it. :(

 

I'll keep searching and trying new things. Thank you.

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Hi. I did not see an attachment.

 

I am trying to recreate my collection the way it was 31 years ago, and that requires double-density disks. I had a menu program that was just Graphics 1 or 2 and a list of games in the normal location that worked with DD back in the day and cannot find it. :(

 

I'll keep searching and trying new things. Thank you.

I attached the atr image. Dual density, not double sorry, but this menu was the most common in my country, I hope is still useful.

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Okay. I finally found out what most of my problems were. I have been doing all of this in Altirra and for some reason, I had my drive set to 810 and that created weird results with double-density disks. I went back and tried some of the recommended programs here and the Gamedos Fender that Charlie Chaplin popsted above is EXACTLY what I was looking for!

 

Thanks everyone for this great thread!

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  • 3 months later...
On 3/31/2019 at 12:24 PM, manterola said:

Yep. Doesn't work with double density but it does work with dual / enhanced density.
Which dos are you using? Which drive do you have? The only menu I have used (the are many more) that work with double density is the one included with mypico dos. It is great for games compilations for the XF551.
I am attaching a game disk with menu just in case you want to extract the first sectors and have the menu, or delete my games and add your own games to the disk.

games999.atr 130.02 kB · 20 downloads

This is great!  Thank you.
I am still a bit confused.  I hope you can clear this up for me.

Are you indicating the "games999.atr" menu WILL work on double density disks?  I believe the first line, "Yep. Doesn't work with double density..." was referring to a previous ATR posted on "Holmes" (Pirate's%20Treasure%20Chest%20A%20-basic.atr).
How would I "extract the first sectors and have them", then write them to a new blank floppy?  The ATR is sized for 130k.

I have a stack of 3.5in floppies, formatted with MyDOS 4.53 to 720k (2,865 free sectors).  I'd like to load them up with my game files.  I have the MyPicoDOS 4.6 menu up and running on at least one 3.5in disk.  However, the UI isn't my favorite.

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The Atr I posted has the pirates chest treasure menu. It is good for dos 2.5 with enhanced and single densities. 

For double density you may need to use mypicodos. 

As far as I remember, I created the disk in mydos, then added the games to the diskette. Until the disk is almost full. 

Then I followed the instructions from mypicodos website, and that's the part I don't remember quite well. I guess there was a tool to add the menu to the already created diskette. 

I will try to do it tonight with one of my 720kb diskettes and post it here, just in case you have any problem. 

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