wa2sff@hounx.UUCP (J.WILKES) (02/24/86)
I recently purchased amfv and as far as i can tell it is a true ms-dos game. The external documentation said PC-DOS but the internal documention appeared to be for a generic ms-dos game. The game is not copy protected and can be loaded on a hard disk. It should work on any ms-dos computer but I would get agreement from the dealer that you can return it if it doesn't work. They do have a crude form of copy protection in that there is a decoder that is necessary to enter the simulation mode. I had no trouble with amfv on the AT&T PC6300. Joe Wilkes
andrews@calgary.UUCP (Keith Andrews) (02/25/86)
> I recently purchased amfv and as far as i can tell it is a true > ms-dos game. ... > Joe Wilkes I was going to hold off posting to the original query for a few more days (to see if anyone else had a better response), but Joe's posting about AMFV made me change my mind. Here's why: First, the INFOCOM games labeled "IBM and MS-DOS compatibles 64K required" *will* run on any MS-DOS machine. I guess INFOCOM finally came to their senses and realized that not all MS-DOS machines are IBM clones. There is a setup program included with each game to configure the game to the appropriate machine (# of lines, ANSI support, etc). There are installation scripts for both floppies and hard disks as well. Second, AMFV is labeled for "IBM and PC-DOS 128K required". The reason that PC-DOS is stipulated is that unlike the MS-DOS varieties, AMFV make calls to the IBM BIOS. Actually the only BIOS call is an INT 10H (video) for scrolling the screen. Some not-too-compatibles support the IBM BIOS calls if nothing else and will work, others (such as my Zenith Z-100) just get a wild interrupt when the call is issued. In order to get AMFV to work on my machine, I had to write a program to sit in the background and intercept the INT 10H call. I guess the main point of the message is that non-clone users should be cautious when purchasing "PC-DOS" software. Keith Andrews alberta!calgary!andrews