What is an autoboot for the Commodore 64, and what good is one, you ask? Well, you may not know them by that name, but I guarantee that you use them often. An autoboot is a short program used to load other programs. For instance, when you load a commercial program by typing LOAD "*", 8, 1 you're usually using an autoboot, which has the loading commands and SYS numbers built in.
If you're like me, your disk collection is made up of programs like these, which you have to know the trick to load and start. These complicated loading instructions are easy to forget, and nearly impossible to figure out. This leaves the beginner (and many of the rest of us) feeling stupid and angry at our dumb computer.
See where this is leading? If you had a program that could easily make autoboots for your hard-to-use programs, you could make them all just as easy to use as the slickest, store-bought programs!
While there are other autoboot programs, most are fairly difficult to use. With Autoboot Factory, you don't have to know anything about programming. The computer handles the tough stuff. All you have to tell the Factory is the problem program's loading instructions. Just answer the prompts; you'll find it's very easy to use!
Further, while other autoboot programs can be finicky, Autoboot Factory can load any program you can.
A FEW TIPS FOR BEST USE
If you use a menu program, such as Automenu or Generic Diskmenu, Autoboot becomes even more useful.
Here is typical situation: You have a disk full of programs, each of which must be loaded individually. Without knowing the scheme for loading each program, most folks can't load them successfully on the first attempt. You'd like to be able to start the disk with the universal command LOAD"*",8,1 and have your disk menu come up on the screen.
To do this, use Autoboot Factory to create an autoboot program for your menu program. Place the menu autoboot first on the disk. This program in turn loads the other programs on the disk.
It sounds like a lot of work, but it is really as easy as 1,2,3, and the results are great! This is how commercial disks are made. You can set up easy-to-use game disks for your children and convenient utility disks for yourself.
