lcs@remus.rutgers.edu (Lyle C. Seplowitz) (12/02/90)
I own a 1581 and 1764 (expanded to 1 MB) and since I bought them have looked for ways to use them with existing software. Using the full meg is only possible with GEOS and configure 2.1. Outside of GEOS, Commodore's RAMDOS will create a RAMDISK only up to 512K (version 4.4 actually determines the amount of RAM and configures itself accordingly). Does anyone know of another RAMDOS or an updated version of Commodore's that will support 1 or 2 MB? Now, my roommate owns SSI's Pool of Radiance and just recently, Secret of The Silver Blades... both aren't copy protected (thank you SSI) and also works with files, not with track and sectors. Therefore, I have been able to transfer Pool onto 1581 disks (Pool is 4 5 1/4" and transfers to 3 3 1/2" -- it could be less, but with the number of files, it cannot all fit in a 1581 directory.) I don't plan on installing Secret onto a 1581 because he plays it too often and it is making my 1581 very noisy (not very durable), plus I don't have a 1581 fasterloader, and the drive isn't very fast in 64 mode (anyone know what address is safe for a fastloader with Pool and Secret?) Now that I have my REU to 1 MB I had with absolutely wonderful idea, Secret is 3 5 1/4" disks, or 6 sides all together...which, if you add it up, is 170x6 = 1020K which just fits in a 1024K REU! This all means that you can run Secret off of the REU and never have to wait for disk loads. However, while I was overjoyed in realizing this, my plans were smashed when I had to account for the save disk! Secret doesn't work with more than one drive, so there is no way to using a real drive with a save disk in it. If there was enough room in the REU (Secret does duplicate files) you couldn't save the save game to a real disk unless you reset the machine and reset-up the RAMDISK and then copied the saved game to a real disk. My roommate doesn't know how to use a computer, other than playing the game, so he couldn't do this. Thus another great idea destroyed. But maybe not? Any one have any other suggestions. One reason why I would like to have the game entirely in RAM is because the extensive disk access is killing my poor and weak 1571 which has gone out of alignment 3 times already and probably can't handle be repaired anymore (nor can I afford to repair it). The other reason, is my roommate is not patient and complains that it takes so long to load.