How to install games to hard drive and make them run.
You will need X68000 with 2MB of ram and a keyboard. It is possible to run some small games with 1MB as well, but the majority of them require 2MB. Download the latest English version of DiskExplorer here:
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA013937/editdisk/index_e.html
And download the hard disk image from here:
http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:sxsi_disk_image_with_games_and_lots_of_mdx_files
This will save you the trouble of setting up a working environment. Open the downloaded image with DiskExplorer, have a look around.
Lucky for us the HumanOS is very much like ye good old MS-DOS. Now let me explain what happens when X68000 tries to boot from hard drive:
Every game disk which has these files boots in the same manner. There are some very rare exotic games which use trackloaders, kind of like on Amiga. Motos and Flying Shark, to name a few. You can recognize them very easy because if you try to list contents of such disk, they will look like empty or have one or more dummy files. Please note that in most cases you will have to convert *.dim floppy image files to *.xdf before opening them in DiskExplorer.
You can do it with Virtual Floppy Image Converter. Grab it from here:
Upon booting, the X68000 executes files from config.sys and usually they have X or SYS extensions.
Combining lines from Config.sys and Autoexec.bat
Crystal Tower is used to illustrate this example:
Original Config.sys
FILES = 15 BUFFERS = 20 1024 LASTDRIVE = Z BREAK = KILL VERIFY = ON TITLE = \CONFIG\TITLE.SYS KEY = \KEY.SYS USKCG = \USKCG.SYS BELL = \CONFIG\BEEP.SYS DEVICE = \SYS\OPMDRV3.X DEVICE = \SYS\FLOAT2.X DEVICE = \SYS\IOCS.X
Here we can see drivers being loaded and environmental variables being set up.
In this example OPMDRV3.X and IOCS.X are the ones which interest us. First we must check if they can be executed after the system has fully booted. If yes, then there is a good chance that the game can be installed to HDD.
Original Autoexec.bat
echo off PATH A:\;A:\SHELL;A:\SYS;A:\BIN;A:\ETC tone3.x chdir ct ctmain
Here we can see another environmental variable called PATH being set up. In this case we can go with the lazy method and SUBST to the directory (Example #2) where we have copied the game or we can change the paths so that we don't have to do SUBST. Please note that there are games which still need SUBST even after modifying the PATH variable.
The resulting !Start.bat should look like this:
echo off PATH SHELL;SYS;BIN;ETC OPMDRV3.X IOCS.X tone3.x chdir ct ctmain
This method should work with the majority of one floppy games. If for some reason it refuses to load, try the SUBST A: A:\GAMES2\NameOfYourGame method described in the next example. If that fails, try to exit all file commanders and run it from pure DOS. If that doesn't help, it could be some sort of protection. Try a different game.
SUBST B: A:\GAMES2\STARCRUISER SUBST A: A:\GAMES2\STARCRUISER
The resulting !Start.bat should look like this:
SUBST B: A:\GAMES2\STARCRUISER SUBST A: A:\GAMES2\STARCRUISER CRUISER
Please note that there is no CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. Now search for files with *.R or *.X file extension. Those files are executable. Most of the times the names of those files give hints on which one of them is the main. If in doubt, try to execute them one by one until you find the right one. Then create a new !Start.bat file and write the name of the file which launches game. In this case !Start.bat should look like this:
BOOT.X
Download ADDDRV.X from here: http://nfggames.com/X68000/Mirrors/x68pub/x68tools/HUMAN/ADDDRV/ADRV302A.LZH
ADDDRV.X is very useful for games which load drivers from config.sys. The syntax for ADDDRV.X is exactly the same as in config.sys, just replace the “DEVICE =” with “ADDDRV.X”. The resulting !Start.bat should look like this:
SUBST B: A:\Games2\Nama68 SUBST A: A:\Games2\Nama68 ADDDRV.X OPMXDRV.X NAMA68.X
This method uses 2HDSIM.X to mount XDF floppy image files and DRIVE.X to assign drive letters A and B for them. It was discovered by Caius and is the next preferred method after SUBST.
Download 2HDSIM.X and DRIVE.X
drive a: c: drive a: b: 2hdsim 0: Disk1 2hdsim 1: Disk2 a: autoexec
The first four lines arrange the following drive mappings:
The same principle applies to one disk games as well, just omit the fourth line. After the drives have been mapped and image files mounted, !Start.bat changes to drive A: and executes autoexec.bat. Please note that every game is individual and sometimes requires combining lines from config.sys and autoexec.bat files.
The following rules must be met for image files to mount:
| All image files must be defragmented (one continuous block). |
| Use Liner to defragment the images when required. |
Syntax example:
liner disk1
| Image files must be 1261568 bytes long. Sometimes while copying them with DiskExplorer their original size changes to 1263616. |
| Use JSplit to cut off the excess and restore their original size. If that does not help, reimport the original image files. |
This method is similar to Example #5, was also discovered by Caius and can be very efficient with three or more floppy games which are immune to SUBST. In this example the first floppy disk is mounted as floppy drive 0:, the second and third as floppy drive 1:. The game rotates disk two and three automatically when needed.
drive a: c: drive a: b: 2hdsim 0: Disk1 2hdsim 1: Disk2 2hdsim 1: Disk3 a: mxdrv.x loader.x
That's it. Try it ! It really isn't that hard. The most annoying part is understanding when a game has not enough free memory or if there is a protection.
Keep the scene alive !
Eidis