How to free memory

[commodoresales]

I have around 2000 games on my CF flash drive - many of the decent ask for shadow mem and not having enough memory etc but I should have 2mb as standard being a stock a1200? I have noticed that if I change colors to 4, change picture-pattern, close all windows before loading a game - some do work. Is there anything else I could turn off or not boot to save even more memory? I would love to play ruff n tumble, lion heart and, some others. Very annoying! So annoying that I have them on my 1200 + memory that should be running them! I am low on funds to fork out for memory expansions etc so hoping there could be a quick solution?

[thomas]

Remove everything from devs/dosdrivers, devs/datatypes, devs/monitors, prefs/env-archive, wbstartup. Delete s/user-startup. Copy original s/startup-sequence from the WB floppy (i.e. remove all patches).

Note that this will leave you with a very basic system which might or might not do what you want.

Better would be to make an alternative stripped-down startup-sequence which can be run by holding down a key or something.

[commodoresales]

Originally Posted by thomas

Remove everything from devs/dosdrivers, devs/datatypes, devs/monitors, prefs/env-archive, wbstartup. Delete s/user-startup. Copy original s/startup-sequence from the WB floppy (i.e. remove all patches).

Note that this will leave you with a very basic system which might or might not do what you want.

Better would be to make an alternative stripped-down startup-sequence which can be run by holding down a key or something.

By removing everything such as devs/monitors etc would this really damage the 1200? I have literally got it just to play games anyways.

Which alternative start up sequence would you suggest?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by commodoresales

would this really damage the 1200?

No its only software.

[commodoresales]

and doing this would really get those games working?

[commodoresales]

I get error (202) saying that objects are in use. This is for printers and monitors?

[thomas]

I find it a bit naive to think that you can run all games with just 2 MB of memory. Many games for the 1200 need all 2 MB for their own use. Such games usually also access the hardware directly leaving no room for the operating system to access a harddrive. For these games the floppy disk images need to be loaded into memory (that's what shadow mem means). A floppy disk image eats up to 880 kb, leaving ca. 1100 kb for the game. Should be obvious that a game which needs 2 mb does not work with only 1 mb free RAM.

Avoiding to load operating system components which are not needed saves you some memory, but it does not guarantee that "those games" will run. Especially as you didn't give any hint about which games are "those".

[thomas]

Originally Posted by commodoresales

I get error (202) saying that objects are in use. This is for printers and monitors?

I told you to delete the contents of the directories, not the directories themselves.

[commodoresales]

Several games, like I Said
Lion Heart
Ruff N Tumble
Marvins Marvellous Adventure
Kid Chaos

I have deleted some of the folders that you suggested. After deleting some I can no longer go to change colours from 264-4 etc..

[commodoresales]

Shit! My resolution isn't working properly now.

[commodoresales]

Well by deleting some of those, deleting some games, some emulators and disabling a couple of things on boot menu - I can now get the best to work
Thanks guys for your help - I am a happy boy now.

[FOL]

As thomas said some need all 2MB.
If you run say "RoadKill" on a stock A1200 with only 2MB Chip and a HDD, the it will refuse to load.
Simply cause the HDD uses buffers with take memory, you end having to disable HDD in early startup.

Then it runs fine.