2023-11-16 18:19:54 -05:00

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To: Customer Support
From: Duncan Blanchard
Re: Infocom Games and Macintosh Compatibility
Date: 12/16/85
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Apple is bringing out new operating system software for Macintosh
which includes a Hierarchical File System (HFS). A special version of
HFS has already been released for owners of the new Mac hard disk, and
Macs with HFS built in are currently in prerelease.
Unfortunately, our game interpreter doesn't work right under HFS.
The games will load and run normally, but Save and Restore fail.
Three alternative solutions for users --
[] Replace the disk - interpreter 'G', HFS compatible, available January,
$5 charge?
[] Patch the old disk - for technically knowledgeable users, quickest,
detailed instructions below.
[] Use non-HFS disks - simple, probably the best solution for most users
except ones with hard disks. The idea is to (1) boot the machine,
(2) run the game, and (3) make saves using old-style disks, without
the HFS format. Our games are all supplied on non-HFS disks and are
self-booting.
The easiest way to tell the difference between HFS and non-HFS disks
is that the new ones hold 800K of data and the old ones 400K.
When initializing a new save disk, the user will have a choice between
the two formats and should choose 400K.
PATCHING INSTRUCTIONS FOR MACINTOSH HFS COMPATIBILITY
These instructions should work for all old versions of the interpreter
and all games.
The user must have, and know how to use, a disk editing program
such as FEdit. One problem I encountered is that version 3.0 of FEdit
itself doesn't run under HFS. In this case FEdit must be loaded from
a non-HFS disk.
Use the disk editor to open the RESOURCE fork of the game program.
Search for two hexidecimal strings, $A200 and $A209. Each should
occur one time only. Replace them with $A000 and $A009, respectively,
and write the changes out to disk.
The game program is now HFS compatible.