home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
FishMarket 1.0
/
FishMarket v1.0.iso
/
fishies
/
551-575
/
disk_555
/
thea64package
/
gettingstarted
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-05-06
|
15KB
|
442 lines
GETTING STARTED
The A64 Package is distributed on two disks. Disk #1 is for
A64 and disk #2 is for The A64 Package's documentation and
utilities. If you obtained your copy of The A64 Package from any
source other than QuesTronix the first thing you should do is
make sure your disks are set up correctly. See THE A64 PACKAGES
FILE STRUCTURE section to make sure your disks are in order.
Once you have verified that your disks are set up correctly you
should make backups of them and store the originals in a safe
place.
CREATING AN A64 WORKBENCH
If you have a hard disk and you want to install The A64 Package
on it you can skip to the next section.
To use The A64 Package on a floppy based system you should create
a WorkBench disk that will be used just for The A64 Package.
Included with The A64 Package is a script file called MakeA64WB,
this script file will automatically set up a WorkBench disk so it
can be used with The A64 Package. You should note that MakeA64WB
deletes some files from the Workbench disk so you should only use
it with a copy of your normal WorkBench.
NOTE: To use MakeA64WB you must make sure disk #1 is named "A64"
and disk #2 is named "A64 Doc & Utils."
To create a WorkBench disk for The A64 Package:
1. Make a copy of your normal WorkBench disk.
2. Reboot your Amiga using the newly copied WorkBench. This
must be done!
3. Insert the A64 disk (disk #1) into any drive.
4. Double-click the A64 disk icon to open the disk window.
5. Double-click TheA64Package drawer icon to open the drawer
window.
6. Double-click the MakeA64WB icon.
7. A window will open and you will be prompted if it is ok to
continue. Type Y to continue. MakeA64WB will then set up
the WorkBench disk.
After creating an A64 WorkBench you are now ready to run A64.
NOTE: If you plan on using any of The A64 Packages Shell based
utilities you should either add the following line to your
Startup-Sequence or type it when you first open a Shell
window: path sys:A64Utilities add
2-1
INSTALLING THE A64 PACKAGE ON A HARD DISK
If you don't have a hard disk you can skip this section.
The optimum set up for The A64 Package is to install the entire
package onto a hard disk.
To install The A64 Package on a hard disk:
1. Insert the A64 disk (disk #1) into any drive.
2. Double-click the A64 disk icon to open the disk window.
3. Drag TheA64Package drawer from the A64 disk to the hard
disk.
4. Double-click TheA64Package drawer icon (on the hard disk)
to open the drawer window.
5. Insert the A64 Doc & Utils disk (disk #2) into any drive.
6. Drag the Doc and A64Utilities drawers into TheA64Package
drawer window on the hard disk.
4. Double-click the InstallA64Font icon in TheA64Package
drawer. A font that is needed by A64 will then be added
to your fonts: directory.
After installing The A64 Package on your hard disk you are now
ready to run A64.
NOTE: If you plan on using any of The A64 Packages Shell based
utilities you should either add the following line to your
Startup-Sequence or type it when you first open a Shell
window: path sys:TheA64Package/A64Utilities add
MINIMUM INSTALLATION
It is possible to utilize The A64 Package without creating a
separate WorkBench disk or installing The A64 Package on a hard
disk. This method of installation is not recommended, but is
listed to show the minimum set up required by The A64 Package.
If you have created an A64 Workbench or installed The A64
Package on your hard disk you can skip this section.
Before you can run A64 you must install a font onto the WorkBench
disk that you will be using with A64. This is easily done by
using the program "InstallA64Font" that is included with The A64
Package.
To Install the A64 Font:
1. Insert the A64 disk (disk #1) into any drive.
2. Double-click the A64 disk icon to open the disk window.
3. Double-click TheA64Package drawer icon to open the drawer
window.
2-2
4. Double-click the InstallA64Font icon in TheA64Package
drawer. The font that is needed by A64 will then be added
to your fonts: directory.
Unlike previous versions of A64, it is not absolutely required
to install the A64 font before running A64, but if you fail to
install the font the Colors screen in A64 will not look totally
correct. You should also know that A64 uses another font that is
normally found on your WorkBench disk. This font, named
"diamond.font" is used for A64's title screen. If for some
reason this font can not be loaded A64's title screen will not
appear exactly as intended, but A64 will still function
perfectly.
The installation of the A64 Font only needs to be done once as
long as you always use the same WorkBench disk with A64. If you
change WorkBench disks you should install the A64 Font on the new
WorkBench disk.
After installing the A64 Font you are now ready to run A64.
RUNNING A64
To run A64:
1. Insert the A64 disk (disk #1) into any drive.
2. Double-click the A64 disk icon to open the disk window.
3. Double-click TheA64Package drawer icon to open the drawer
window.
4. Double-click the A64 icon, it's the icon that looks like
an Amiga 2000.
5. You will then see A64's title screen. There will be a
brief pause while A64 loads its files. After it's done
loading you will see some text scrolling across the bottom
of the screen. You should read all of this text before
proceeding.
6. After reading the text you can press the left mouse button
to enter A64.
You will now be shown the A64 BASIC screen. The A64 BASIC screen
will differ from the C64 BASIC screen in two ways:
1. The startup message will say
"*** QUESTRONIX A64 BASIC V2 ***" instead of
"**** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2 ****." This is because the
Commodore 64 ROMs are not present in A64 (See ROMS in the
TECHNICAL section).
2. There will be no borders around the screen. (See BORDERS in
the GRAFIX MENU section).
2-3
You have now turned your Amiga into a C64. You can do almost
everything in A64 that you would do on a C64. You can try all
the BASIC commands or POKE and PEEK around memory. It's all
there.
NOTE: While A64 is running in C64 mode you can not access the
WorkBench. To get access to the WorkBench press the two
ALT keys simultaneously (See A64 PREFS in the A64 PREFS
section).
A64'S HARDWARE INTERFACE
To fully utilize The A64 Package you need its hardware interface.
This interface is a small hardware box that plugs into the
parallel port of your Amiga 500 or 2000. A separate adapter
cable is required for the Amiga 1000. This interface allows you
to connect your Commodore 64 disk drives and printers to the
Amiga in the same way you would connect them to your C64. It's
this interface that allows you to load and save C64 programs from
C64 disk drives and transfer them to and from Amiga disks. The
hardware interface is not absolutely required to use A64, but
without it, A64's use is very limited. To get the interface you
must become a registered owner of The A64 Package (See HOW TO
BECOME A REGISTERED OWNER in the INTRODUCTION section).
INSTALLING A64'S HARDWARE INTERFACE
The hardware interface is a small box with two connectors on it.
The large connector is the end that plugs into your Amiga and the
small connector is the end where you plug in your C64 disk drives
and printers.
To install the hardware interface use the following procedure:
1. Make sure your Amiga is turned off. You should NEVER plug
anything into your Amiga while it's turned on. You can damage
your Amiga and/or peripherals by doing so.
2. If you have the Amiga 500 or 2000 you may now plug the
interface directly into its parallel port. If you have the
Amiga 1000 you must first plug the adapter cable into the
parallel port and then connect the interface to the cable.
Please note that this adapter cable is not a simple gender
changer and only a cable specifically made to connect
A500/A2000 devices to an A1000 parallel port should be used.
3. You are now ready to connect your C64 disk drives and printers
to the interface. Make sure that each C64 device that you
wish to connect has its power turned off. Using the serial
cable that came with your disk drive or printer, plug one end
of the cable into the interface and the other into your C64
2-4
peripheral. The C64 peripherals may now be "daisy chained" in
the same way as they would be on a C64, by plugging each new
device into the back of each previous device. After all C64
devices are connected you can then turn them on. A64 will
support up to four different C64 disk drives and two separate
C64 printers, simultaneously.
4. You may now turn on your Amiga and boot it up as you normally
would.
The hardware interface can stay plugged in at all times without
interfering with any programs on your Amiga, as long as they do
not use the parallel port. If you want to use your parallel port
with some other piece of hardware, like a printer or digitizer,
you must either remove the hardware interface and install the
other device as you normally would or use an A-B switch and just
switch between devices.
THE A64 PACKAGES FILE STRUCTURE
The A64 Package is very large and requires two disks. Disk #1 is
for A64. This disk should be named "A64." Disk #2 is for The
A64 Package's documentation and utilities. This disk should be
named "A64 Doc & Utils." Listed below are Dir listings of how
your disks should be set up and some pertinent information about
the contents of each disk.
DISK #1: A64
TheA64Package (dir)
64Fonts (dir)
Century.64font CharROM.64font
Future.64font Line.64font
Script.64font
Fonts (dir)
A64 (dir)
6
A64.font
64Prgs (dir)
64Colors SaveROMs
A64 A64.config
A64.data A64.info
BASIC.data InstallA64Font
InstallA64Font.info KERNAL.data
MakeA64WB MakeA64WB.info
MP.data MP0x0.data
ReadMe ReadMe.info
ROM.data ROM0x0.data
RW.data
disk.info TheA64Package.info
2-5
TheA64Package:
All other directories and files except for disk.info and
TheA64Package.info should appear in this directory.
64Fonts:
This directory is used to store C64 fonts used by A64. These
fonts are not Amiga fonts.
Fonts:
This directory contains the A64 font that must be installed
to your WorkBench before running A64. This directory is used
by InstallA64Font and not A64. Once the font is installed
on your WorkBench this directory is no longer needed.
64Prgs:
This directory contains actual C64 programs (See C64 PROGRAMS
in the UTILITIES section).
The files MP0x0.data and ROM0x0.data are only needed if you are
using a 68010, 020 or 030 based Amiga. If you are using a
standard 68000 based Amiga these files can be removed. Likewise
if you are using a 68010, 020 or 030 based Amiga you can remove
the files MP.data and ROM.data. Removing these files will free a
substantial amount of room on your A64 disk.
DISK #2: A64 DOC & UTILS
A64Utilities (dir)
64Cmd 64Dir
64Print 64Status
64ToAmiga 64Tools
64Tools.info AmigaTo64
ASCII2Pet Convert
GrabGO64ROMs GrabGO64ROMs.info
Optimize Pet2ASCII
StripLoadAddr
Doc (dir)
A64Mon A64Mon.info
A64Prefs A64Prefs.info
CodeMenu CodeMenu.info
Colors Colors.info
Contents Contents.info
Converter Converter.info
Cover Cover.info
GettingStarted GettingStarted.info
GrafixMenu GrafixMenu.info
Intro Intro.info
MiscMenu MiscMenu.info
PrintFile PrintFile.info
Problems Problems.info
ProjectMenu ProjectMenu.info
2-6
ReadMe1st ReadMe1st.info
Registration.form Registration.form.info
SystemMenu SystemMenu.info
Technical Technical.info
ToolsMenu ToolsMenu.info
Utilities Utilities.info
A64Utilities.info disk.info
Doc.info
2-7