SOFPJF@UOGUELPH.BITNET (Peter Jaspers-Fayer) (01/29/88)
I bought this thing called OMNI-RES. It allows you to use
LOW and MEDIUM -res programs on a monochrome monitor, and HIGH-res
programs on a colour monitor.
The good new is: It works on anything that doesn't boot cold off
the disk without peeking in the AUTO folder. It really does! (I can
attest to the fake-colour-on-mono mode anyway).
The bad news is: 1) It is kinda slow in some modes, and VERY slow
in others. Definitely not for your fast-action arcade games. The
mouse does NOT move around as smoothly as it should.
2) No matter how many gray scales you use (16 on the largest and slowest
emulation), some colours are going to be very close to others in
intensity, so it takes a bit of fiddling with bit plane selection and
CONTROL.ACC palette twiddling to make some programs usable.
(By the way, I have no real conception what BIT PLANES are and would
love a layman's description - please post to the net, as I'm sure I'm not
the only one).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (As an aside...)
So now I found out something that I guess I kinda already knew, and
you colour monitor folks do without even thinking about it:
** ON a MONO system, you have to RESET to install a new set of desk
accessories. This means going through all your AUTO stuff (Ramdisk,
clock-set, you-name-its), BUT On a colour screen you use "SET PREFERENCES"
and change the res, and HEY PRESTO - New ACCs.
Q: Can any of you wonderful and thoughtful hackers out there with full
documentation think of a nice way to FAKE A RESOLUTION CHANGE, so that
GEM/TOS loads in another set of ACCs? Maybe even something that stays
resident (if it's only a couple of bytes long) and does it's thing
upon some unlikely keystrokes (alt-ESC or some such), or click on the
Atari symbol in the DESK menu...
Gee that would make desk accessories almost USEFUL!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (... as I was saying:)
The program comes with 8 flavours, patches for the Mega (and other ROMs
on demand), and a not-too useful "switcher" that selects the type of
emulation to boot with this time. (I would have preferred a CONFIG file,
and just re-name the files (.PR <=> .PRG) 'by hand').
The small print says that the programs HAVE to run from the AUTO folder
(yep, I found out the hard way), or strange effects (and bombs) occur.
This is because it has to get it's paws on things before GEM does.
Copy protection is unique: It allows you to make copies, then you
can "Key" the disk using a program they supply and the original (or
other "Keyed" disk?). One of the key disks must be in drive A at BOOT
time, even if it contains no visible programs. This may make it un-
popular with hard-disk users.
Although this won't stop a dedicated hacker, this "reproducible key"
method does do what they want, which is to allow backup, but slow down
illegal distribution (at least until some SOB 'cracks' it - which I hope
never happens - The authors have put a fair amount of work into this
thing).
Anyway, as for the program, I DO like the idea (but wish it was faster),
and it's a nice $50 (Cdn) addition to my set of tools.
Omni-RES is made by "Hypertek/Silicon Springs Dev. Corp."
#120-1140 Austin Ave; Coquitlam B.C. Canada; V3K 3P5
(604) 939-8235
As always, the standard disclaimer is that I don't have any interest in
the company above, and my opinions (such are they are) are my own.
/PJ
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Qui, moi?wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) (02/02/88)
In article <8801290427.AA04520@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, SOFPJF@UOGUELPH.BITNET (Peter Jaspers-Fayer) writes: > One of the key disks must be in drive A at BOOT > time, even if it contains no visible programs. This may make it un- > popular with hard-disk users. Damned right it will, at least with this hard disk user. > Although this won't stop a dedicated hacker, this "reproducible key" > method does do what they want, which is to allow backup, but slow down > illegal distribution (at least until some SOB 'cracks' it - which I hope > never happens - The authors have put a fair amount of work into this > thing). Nah, it just makes the copying more interesting! The SOBs are not the ones who 'crack' programs, they are the ones who copy-protect them in the first place. The U.S. copyright laws GAURANTEE the right of the owner(s) of computer software to backup their programs for archival purposes; copy protection intrudes on that right and should be illegal! The reproducible key method is no better than any other method of copy protection, you can't back up the key, and you can't run the program without the key disk. It's also quite a bit easier to get around than most kinds of copy protection, but that's another topic. -- {ihnp4,seismo}!utah-cs!utah-gr!uplherc!sp7040!obie!wes hpda!sp7040!obie!wes "Against Stupidity (short mail messages The Gods Themselves only, high-cost link) Contend in Vain." -- Asimov