============================================= N F A H A R D D R I V E B O O T M E N U ============================================= (FreakBoot v2.0) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bod knows why you'd ever want to use this, but Pex/QuI says it's the coolest thing since my fridge, Deck the Ripper/NFA insists on seeing it after claiming my previous setup (FreakBoot v1.0) was "very tidy", and I AM just a LITTLE bit proud of it myself, so... What does it do? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, it wastes loads of RAM, looks very pretty, and allows you to quickly and easily boot your system into a number of configurations, oh and it plays Soundtracker Mods and samples too... What are you on about? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FreakBoot v2.0 is basically a menu that was written for my A1200 with 2Mb CHIP and 4Mb FAST Ram, there were occasions where I would want to boot with a certain configuration, like straight into a game instead of going through Workbench all the time, or maybe I'd want to boot PPaint with the maximum amount of CHIP ram and all the PC drivers mounted, get the idea? The original idea came from Video/iNDi (although he doesn't know it), I was at his house watching him on his PC, and he had this little menu come up - just a few lines of text on the screen, pick 1 to 4 and all that, nothing brilliant - and at the time I dismissed it as necessary only on the (koff koff) PC, as he ONLY (!) had 4Mb of RAM and, PCs being so bull and all, needed to use varying setups for certain things. HOWEVER!! Murphys law of computers number 4872 states that "The faster a machine gets, the more impatient the user will become when waiting for something to load", and would you bloody believe it? It's True! How do I Install it? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE!!! Before you do ANYTHING you should copy your Startup-sequence to a safe place just in case you're not as handy with the Shell as you should be! FB2 simply executes a script file depending on your menu choice, you make a copy of your original HD startup-sequence (call it Full.boot or something) and create a new one thus: Assign ENV: Ram: Run >Nil: C:FreakBoot Endcli >Nil: You also need a config file, and it's best to get this sorted before you rename your startup-sequence. Basically it consists of plain ASCII text lines comprising your menu text and the name of the script file to be executed, seperated by a "|" character. Blank likes in this file must be represented with the " | " string (space-"|"-space) otherwise you'll get a funky error and the menu will quit. A typical configuration may look something like this: Full AGA Workbench|Full.boot Mini Workbench|Mini.boot Non-AGA Shell|Shell.boot | AMOS v1.35|AMOS.boot AMOS Professional v1.00|AMOSPro.boot AMOS Professional Compiler|Compiler.boot | PPaint 2.1|PPaint.boot Kickstart 1.3|Kick13.boot | Pinball Illusions 5 Minute Demo|Pinball.boot This file must be saved in your assigned S: directory and should be called "NFA_Boot.config", when you run the program it will search for this file and strip it down into a presentable menu. You can give the filenames an optional path if you want, but remember that you will NOT be CD'd to that directory. The "Execute" command automatically searched the S: dir first so if your filenames don't have a path (like those above) then it'll hunt here for them. Obviously you need the Execute command in your C: dir, and also the Run command unless (in Kickstart 2.0 and greater) it's in ROM already as a resident command. Did you say Music? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yup, FB2 will check the S: directory for a Soundtracker module called "Boot.mod" and will load and play it if it's there. This module must not be Powerpacked, nor must it use any fancy timing tricks, because AMOS doesn't like such things, so if you ripped that funky mod from the end of the Limbo "H.T.K.H" demo, sorry but it won't work! FB2 will now play mono 8SVX samples, if you save one in your S: dir with the filename "Boot.sam" it will be played, if you save it as file "Boot.loop" then it will (surprise!) loop, make sure it sounds okay before you use it! Note that samples take precedence over modules, if you have both a sample AND a mod saved then only the sample will play. For your information, the biggest sample I've played so far was "Meet the Flintstones", and a CHIP-Stuffing 1.24Mb it was too! Any Limitations? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hmmm, well the program was actually produced for NFA and so it says NFA all over it, and it was written by Freak so it has the Freak "Smiley" in the corner. I don't mind if non-NFA people use it, and I might change a few bits in the future to make it more configurable, but then again I may not, let me know if you want anything doing! As I said before it also wastes RAM, although I'm sure the Amiga's OS is efficient enough to return the RAM to you as quickly as you can quit the program. Don't forget that I use it on a 6Mb A1200 so I have plenty of RAM in which to run it AND a hee-uge module without worrying about fragmented memory, it may not be the same for you! In this Archive: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FreakBoot Program to go in C: FB2.doc This doc file FreakBootv2.0/NFA_Boot was written in AMOS Professional although the source is completely 1.35 compatible, no machine code was used but I did crash my pooter a couple of times getting the parallax effect working, serves me right for "Loke"ing where I'm not wanted I suppose... Greets and Messys: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Deck the Ripper/NFA - Here it is, stick it on your HD for your punters to have a look at! Pex/Quantum Inc. - Thanks for your help on "C=64 Rev", even though I'm still knackered! Gentry/iNDi - "But if we paint it Yellow," argued Thomas, "It won't be the SAME". Phil!94/Neř - Flibj... Flobj... Floft... History: ~~~~~~~~ v2.0 - Original Re-Write from v1.0 v2.1 (15.11.94) - Pex decides that the logo on the slower bitplane should be made smaller to give a more 3D effect, I agreed, plus tiny Palette change done as well, slower plane is now a bit darker Cursor Key control added, you can now use c/up & c/down to move and return to select. v2.2 (15.11.94) - Added sample playing as an option to mods. v2.3 (20.11.94) - Fixed a bug in the sample-replay routine that threw a wobbler on hee-uge samples! v2.4 (29.11.94) - Joystick control added for lazy turds, use up, down and fire to select. v2.41 (02.12.94) - Toby Ted added, just wait a minute! v2.42 (23.12.94) - Now the Escape key actually DOES some- thing! It will call the Exec ColdReBoot() function so you can boot from floppy disk more easily.