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Herr Otto Partz says you're all nothing but pipsqueaks!

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Messages - Duplode

#3886
I can do nothing but agree :D (for me, however, there is no easy way: all my HD's are NTFS, so they are out of range of normal MS-DOS)
#3887
 ;D
#3888
You'll be glad, Danopelayos, to find out we South Americans have a rich tradition in this community, perhaps more strikingly by our Argentinian fellows over the border... be sure to pay a visit to WSC (page and forum). And of course, welcome!

Duplode, @ S?o Paulo, Brazil  ;)
#3889
After some more serious driving under this scheme, the results are truly unconclusive. Maybe I do need to burn a booter and test the real thing... Anyway, if someone wants to give it a try, here goes the walkthrough:

----

First get hold of:

* Bochs 2.3.5, a general-purprose PC emulator
* DiskExplorer 1.65E2, a nifty disk image manager.
* Stunts Competition Archive 1.0 Boot CD, self-explanatory.
* Something that can open/unpack the Zak's CD (.tar and .iso) if you don't have it already. 7-zip, for instance, works.

The procedure is composed mainly of four steps:

1. Create an HD image container for your Stunts folder (using Bochs 2.3.5 Disk Creation tool)
2. Use a bootable DOS flopppy image to format the HD under DOSBox
3. Package the Stunts folder and the boot files into the HD (using DiskExplorer)
4. Automatize the loading of the game, boot, and enjoy!

Notice that one does not need the floppy after setting the HD up - it can boot itself fine.

So, let's begin...

1. Create an HD image container for your Stunts folder (using Bochs 2.3.5 Disk Creation tool)

Download Bochs and install it. Then you'll find, into its Start Menu program group, the DIsc Creation tool. Creating the HD straighforward; choose "hd", "flat", a reasonable size (I'm using 20MB in this example) and a file name. At this point, the program will return the "geometry" data of the HD, note down those somewhere for you'll need them to make the HD work in DOSBox. As an example, my disk data looked like this:

cyl=40
heads=16
sectors per track=63
total sectors=40320
total size=19.69 megabytes


The image will be created on Bochs main folder at Program Files. In this example, the filename will be sthd.img

2. Use a bootable DOS flopppy image to format the HD under DOSBox

Here things start to get interesting... First step ist to get hold of the floppy image. Although you could create the image yourself from a physical bootdisk (procedures are mostly analogous to what we're doing to the HD), a very obvious place to get a suitable image is Zak's bootable CD - the .img file on [BOOT] subfolder works perfectly for our purproses. Let's rename the floppy image to flboot.img . Then, create a folder somewhere - I will call it C:\stboot - and move both images there. Now, open DOSBox and run the following commands:

mount d c:\stboot
imgmount 2 d:\sthd.img -size 512,63,16,40 -fs none
boot d:\flboot.img

The first line simply mounts the work folder on DOSBox. The second line mounts the brand new HD image. The four numbers are the disk gemoetry data presented before: bytes per sector (size in MB as reported by the program*1024*1024/n? of sectors),  sectors per track, heads and cylinders in that order. Finally, the third line boots the floppy image. After booting, the image will be available as usual as drive C:.

After reaching DOS, run fdisk and create the primary partition in C (in case of doubt just mash "1"/Enter everywhere). Then, quit and re-enter DOSBox, repeat the mount/imgmount/boot sequence and run format c:. Then exit DOSBox again. Your HD is fully set up now...

3. Package the Stunts folder and the boot files into the HD (using DiskExplorer)

Time to fill the disk with stuff. Download DiskExplorer and extract it to a folder somewhere. Run the program and open the disk image. The program will ask how the disk was formatted - answer "vmware plain disk". You will then get to the contents of the HD. To add or extract files from it, just drag-and-drop from Windows Explorer (you'll be doing it a lot to send replays...). So, drag your Stunts folder - let's call it C:\st -  to the disk (avoid placing the game files in root, for the sake of organization).

Next step will be to add the bootdisk contents to the HD, so that it can be used independently of the floppy (a change from the original plan, BTW). Obvious suggestions are to use the files at the root of Zak's ISO or to extract with DiskExplorer the contents of the floppy image you used. BTW, to open a floppy image just choose "manual FD" and take advantage of the "Auto Select" button on the program. Before uploading them, however, modify AUTOEXEC.BAT so Stunts can auto-load after booting. In this example, the file might (simply) look like this:

cd st
stunts_k

Then, just drop the boot files on the root of HD. There, it's done!

4. Automatize the loading of the game, boot, and enjoy!

At this point, Stunts is ready to go. The commands to be employed would be:

mount d c:\stboot
imgmount 2 d:\sthd.img -size 512,63,16,40 -fs none
boot -l c

However, you can save the effort of typing all of this before playing and make further tuning of DOSBox settings much easier by using a frontend. Create a .bat file (in Notepad), add those three lines to it and launch the .bat via a frontend profile. Combine to the use of a frontend with the capabilities of DiskExplorer (you can Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and right-click files via Ctrl-S while inside the image) and running pure DOS Stunts becomes almost as convenient as in usual DOSBox operation. The CPU cycles setting will probably require adjustments from what you're used; else - sound, graphics, etc. - work pretty much the same.
#3890
General Chat - USC / Re: Car of the very last race...
November 29, 2007, 05:54:45 PM
Quote from: CTG on November 29, 2007, 05:27:57 PM
Car was shown to him so he changed his vote for Indy instead.

Couldn't he see/test the car by himself? ???
#3891
World Stunts Meeting 2008 / Re: SUMMER 2008
November 29, 2007, 05:53:24 PM
That's plain awesome Zak  8), congratulations!
#3892
General Chat - USC / Re: Car of the very last race...
November 27, 2007, 11:41:32 PM
Now I did vote - needed some time for reflection ;D So, FYI, in order of priority 
Speedgate: Because it was a mistake to put it on the list *ahem* actually, same reason as Krys.
Audi: Nicest slow car, and also because I missed Ajka.
Corvette: Would be interesting, hopefully in a less brutal track than Gyongyos.
#3893
Stunts Drivers Races / Re: RH - R10/2007 - "THE ARENAS"
November 27, 2007, 05:41:56 AM
Quote from: BonzaiJoe on November 27, 2007, 04:06:42 AM
Alright Duplode, who are you?

If I get what you meant, why the suspiction...  ::) c'mon, I'm not willing to retort caustically.
#3894
Stunts Drivers Races / Re: RH - R10/2007 - "THE ARENAS"
November 27, 2007, 02:40:21 AM
Quote from: CTG on November 27, 2007, 02:32:52 AM
;D

Newbie, you won't ever understand it as you did not race in the big Alain era. It was special and sometimes a bit annoying... ;)

Perhaps I'd say something else, but let's just stay for now with "fair point then"...
#3895
Chat - Misc / Re: Monthly updated Forum stats
November 27, 2007, 02:33:21 AM
And 38 (45) - 7 today  :o
#3896
Stunts Drivers Races / Re: RH - R10/2007 - "THE ARENAS"
November 27, 2007, 02:08:02 AM
Quote from: CTG on November 27, 2007, 02:03:46 AM
Alainish amount of RH was another kind of insult.

I was consciously trying to ignore that  >:(.

And BTW I was just refering to the Alain/BJ conversation there.
#3897
Stunts Drivers Races / Re: The future of SDR
November 27, 2007, 02:06:09 AM
Quote from: CTG on November 26, 2007, 11:33:12 PM
Zak is hiding ZSC 2008, Kalpen isn't very regular nowadays, WSC is "just" an IRC contest, USC will be closed, SDR seems to die too...

That makes for a bit of a scary prospect... hopefully more drivers will join Krys' noRH contest (cool heading! ;)). And BTW, now that we just have two running contests it would make sense if more pipsqueaks tried a shot at WSC...
#3898
Stunts Drivers Races / Re: RH - R10/2007 - "THE ARENAS"
November 27, 2007, 02:01:35 AM
Right, free speech aplies both to insidious soundbites and the necessarily following ugly replies... ::) Anyway,

Quote from: CTG on November 27, 2007, 12:15:33 AM
Alainish amount of RH... :D

I did think of a certain (famous?) Alain replay at some point of my lap, except that his exploit was more unbelievable... this sorta connects with this thread you retrieved...
#3899
Stunts Drivers Races / Re: NORH - R10/2007 - "EVERGLADES"
November 26, 2007, 11:53:43 PM
#3900
Stunts Drivers Races / Re: RH - R10/2007 - "THE ARENAS"
November 26, 2007, 11:51:41 PM
Quote from: CTG on November 26, 2007, 10:51:51 PM
Maybe you should rename SDR to Mark L. Rivers Self-Show. Or in a bit more polite way, remove your name from the overall rankings at the end like I do.

Oh no, you can't possibly screw up with thread, race or contest now. First, because this can't be really a valid complaint as you were not fighting for the victory or overall title. Second, those who were actually battling for something are confident this is a fairly managed tournament and can only enjoy the challenge of competing fairly against top-class opposition (and this leads one to wonder about those who can't...). Third, because mangager results were only excluded from overall standings by USC's third season, anyway as a largely pragmatic option as it seems (some slight research leads here). Fourth, because no one will rename anything as this was SDR last season. And finally because R10 was a kickass race whose in-track action stands above any bull****. Those remarks oddly sound of sour grapes or anything like that, and the ZakStunts champion should be above that. Maybe this exchange could offer some insight on what's behind the provocations...