Taking a game out of a menu disk?

[Jamesbeat]

I have most of the games I play a lot downloaded as standalone games without menus.
I have one game that I can't find a standalone version of, so I have to go through the menu stuff to load it.
The menus are cool, but sometimes they get in the way...All of my standalone games are hacked cracked and packed, so I assumr they were part of a menu once.

How is this done?

[spiny]

which game ?

[Jamesbeat]

Hunter (Activision).
There are already two standalone versions, but one doesn't work and the other has no trainer.
I have a version which has a full trainer with loads of cheats to choose from, and that's the version I like to play.

I can live with it if it's a nontrivial thing to do, but I'd prefer to have a copy without the menu if it's reasonably easy to do.

It's weird in that there isn't a separate hunter.prg or hunter.tos on the disk.
The other games on the menu have obvious program files, but Hunter does not.

The disk is Pompey Pirates CD95

[bandit]

maybe I can help?

http://www.climatics.com/showthread.php ... ght=hunter

i looks as there is some elite, cynix, replicants versions.. but maybe they're not the right one.. sorry had no time to check.
cheers bandit

[Mug UK]

The Cynix one has a trainer option but each time I tried that file via STEem it would bomb out with 3 bombs. Tried it also from the full disk image (Cynix #1) and it does the same. Could be my STEem configuration though I did drop it down from 4Mb to 1Mb.

[Jamesbeat]

Nope, I got exactly the same problem with Hatari on my Linux box set to ST with 1Mb.
Never mind, it's not a huge problem...

[Dal]

OK so I took a very quick look at the disk through GEM. It has a file called HUNTER.PP on it. I copied it to a blank disk, renamed it to HUNTER.PRG and put it in an AUTO folder. On reboot it starts to run and I get the trainer options. However it crashes just after loading the main game.

I think PP must have set something in RAM from their menu which the game is expecting to find (probably some copy protection workaround).

[AtariZoll]

PP=Pompey Pirates, I guess. Usually, cracks are protected by adding some irregular trap at start or like, so will not work if starter prg (with cracker signo, messages) is removed, changed. If game starts at all, it is most likely not that something missing from RAM - but from crack, or needs specific config. And of course, not always is that crack is bad - it may be damaged during transfers, storages. We will see such threads certainly again.

[EstTeeEfEm]

Ok, even though is thread is WAAy old...

You need to copy PP_95 as a full disk...

REMOVE ALL FILES APART FROM:

HUNTER.PP

RENAME HUNTER.PP -----> HUNTER.PRG

Move said file to AUTO and RUN THE SUCKER.

Should be fine, I managed on Tos1.4 1mg to run it within STEEM
There are unfiled sectors required which is why a simple file copy didnt work afaik

[Dal]

I was close then. Didn't think of doing it that way round (removing all the redundant stuff rather than attempting to copy what I needed to a fresh disk.

Nice work!

[EstTeeEfEm]

I was close then. Didn't think of doing it that way round

I know... it took awhile for me to think of it too

stumbled across the idea myself after messing around trying to do the same thing with disk menus as the previous user i.e rip single games...

There are issues on a couple though, the PP menu with X-Out can screw with the sectors used on the disk if you recopy the prg into an Auto, best to run from desktop imho.

Well, like I said, even though its an old thread, i stumbled across it so maybe someone else will find use for it as well?

[Dal]

There are issues on a couple though, the PP menu with X-Out can screw with the sectors used on the disk if you recopy the prg into an Auto, best to run from desktop imho.

For this one, you could try setting the program to Auto start (highlight it and go into "Install Application" from the Options menu) then save the desktop.

*Requires TOS >=1.4 though...

[simonsunnyboy]

And risk the DESKTOP.INF overwriting those precious hidden sectors

[Dal]

Not exactly a huge risk is it? If it doesn't work, you recreate the disk from the MSA...

[simonsunnyboy]

I don'T see a problem with the menues anyway...the main problem is that most menued games/old cracks have troubles with 4MB and TOS 2.06

[EstTeeEfEm]

Sometimes its nice NOT to use menus and just to stick the disk in the drive and wait for it to load.

I use my ST under my TV sometimes and I have to tell you, perhaps Im lazy but getting up and pressing "1"
can be quite annoying