[Cobe]

As we know we can start a game on CD32 in two ways. You can insert the disc before turning it on or turn it on, see the lovely color cycling animation and then insert the disc.
What is also known is that Worms don't work if the disc is inserted before you turn on the CD32. They load but crash before actual gameplay.
The other game, Wendetta 2175, if the CD is inserted before power up you'll get the message 'not enough free ram'.

So I wanted to see is it really more free ram available if the game is ran after startup animation.
And I wanted to see all the differences so I created 4 isos(attached). Two with CD32 trademark, one that has freeanim command in startup-sequence and one that doesn't. And two with CDTV trademark. One without setpatch command in startup-sequence and one with setpatch. The only other command in common is Avail so I could see how much ram is available. I wasn't after maximum free ram settings so there's no addXXk, avail flush, tweaking the iso settings, dir and data cash.

I've done testing with WinUAE 3.3.0 CD32 Quickstart

The numbers are like this:

CD32 turned on with disc inside
______________________ AVAIL__ LARGEST
CD32.TM WITH FREEANIM 1901728 1854688
CD32.TM W/O FREEANIM_ 1818984 1811632
CDTV.TM ______________ 1900936 1898104
CDTV.TM WITH SETPATCH 1900224 1886800

Disc inserted after power up
CD32.TM WITH FREEANIM 1901056 1889592
CD32.TM W/O FREEANIM_ 1817184 1200496
CDTV.TM ______________ 1900936 1898104
CDTV.TM WITH SETPATCH 1900224 1886800

So there really are differences in available free ram depending on whether the disc was inserted before or after turning on CD32. But there isnt more free if the disc is inserted after power up, there's little less but the thing is that largest free mem block is noticeably larger.

What would be interesting to know is what is actually happening when CD32 boots and what startup animation actually does.