kykerr@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (Ronald S. Kyker) (11/24/90)
I have a 1750 RAM expander - it came with a test/demo disk,
but no way of setting up a RAM disk. It works great w/GEOS, but
what I'd really like to do is stick Beyond Zork on it & avoid
some of that disk access time. Does anyone know of a PD or
other program that can set up a RAM disk (or is there some
way to get GEOS to set something up)? Thanks!
-- Roncs4344af@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Fuzzy Fox) (11/26/90)
In article <1990Nov24.080322.246@scion.CS.ORST.EDU> kykerr@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (Ronald S. Kyker) writes: > Does anyone know of a PD or other program that can set up a RAM disk > (or is there some way to get GEOS to set something up)? Thanks! You should have gotten a program called RAMDOS with your REU. It's a free program and should be easy to come by if you have some access to an FTP site or Commodore BBS. I know it is on Q-Link. HOWEVER, this program only partially emulates a disk drive, and most programs are NOT fooled for a minute. For programs that only LOAD and SAVE at the file level, you can often use a RAMdisk. (For example, AutoGraph, the graphics converter, will support a RAMdisk in this manner.) However, a program like Beyond Zork performs direct access commands to the drive, and the RAMDOS does not support these commands. On the other hand, I believe Beyond Zork DOES support the REU directly. It will use your 512K as a "cache", so each sector on the disk is read only once, when it is encountered, and then read from memory from that point on. So, you will find that as you play the game, the disk drive is accessed less and less frequently, usually only when you encounter new scenarios. Other games I have seen that support RAM cacheing are Wizardry, most of the latest Infocom games, and Test Drive (from Accolade).