Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!unix!hplabs!hpfcso!hpldola!jg
From: jg@hpldola.HP.COM (Joe Gilray)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: BOP questions
Message-ID: <11830064@hpldola.HP.COM>
Date: 17 Nov 89 00:28:30 GMT
Organization: HP Elec. Design Div. -ColoSpgs
Lines: 46


I recently purchased a used version of the original version of
BALANCE OF POWER (Thanks, peter!).  I'm very impressed with the
game but a have a few questions which are not dealt with in the
manual:

1) The game appears to be copy protected, at least none of the
   copys I made ran, they all bombed.  It runs fine from the
   original disk.  Has anyone made a backup or do I have to run
   from the original?

2) If I have to run from the original, then I should probably
   keep the original physically write protected, right?  If this
   is true, then I have a few questions:

	a) When the game starts, it tries to write a file to the disk,
	   since the disk is write protected, I get the "cancel  retry"
	   dialog.  At this point I can either cancel at which point
	   the game seems to proceed normally, or I can switch disks
	   at which point the game writes a "SAVEDGAM" file and continues.
	   Which method do you use?

	b) How can I replay a saved game if it is on a different disk
	   than the game itself?  I've tried choosing "load game" in the
	   BOP startup screen, but if I switch disks before pressing
	   "load game" or after, the system seems to lock up,
	   any suggestions?  So far I cannot replay a game as there is
	   not enough room on the original disk to save a game (even
	   if I did feel safe removing the write protection on the disk).

	c) There is a a:\a\savedgam file on the game disk, is this
	   somehow involved in saving games (if so, what a poor name
	   for the file!).

3) Often, when I try to get "history" on a country, the system will
   crash with three bombs (address error).  Does this happen to everyone
   or is it my configuration (1040STf, TOS 1.0, fatspeed.prg, foldr080.prg)?

As I said the game itself is great, it's just the outer shell (copy
protection, no way to replay a saved game, no documentation on how
to replay a game, etc.) that is a bother.

Thanks for any help
Joe Gilray