Info File

Back to file listing

The INFO File
The INFO file is tiny, only two bytes. Each of the original disks would have held a different 'info' file. This file is read before any other files, to ascertain whether disk A or disk B is in the drive. The original game came on two 5 1/4" floppy disks. Since each disk could hold 360kB of data, this would allow just enough space for one of the GAME files, one of the ALLHTDS files, the executable and WLF files. When entering certain maps, the user would be requested to 'change disks'. Whenever the user re-entered an area on the other disk, they would have to 'swap back. It is assumed that some areas, such as the main map, will be found in both GAMEx files, to reduce the amount of disk swapping needed.

The file itself simply holds the letters "A" and "B" or, in the case of the RPG pack, the letter "C". Within the code of the game itself, most disk-reads are based on a conditional testing of this byte. "C" is used to denote the "Install to fixed disk" setup option. {Nick} What's actually tested in the code is whether it's 41h 'A' or42h 'B'. Any other character seems to trigger the 'Hard Disk' flag to be set in the code.

The 'info' file is loaded with code at cs:10E9. The drive ID is check starts at cs:1113. If it doesn't see an 'A' or 'B', it sets the use_hard_drive flag at ds:A414 to 1.

Of course, anyone who wants to 're-create' the floppy-disk feel of the game can split it into two again, and make two new info files, one for each disk.