runxl

a script to start the atari800 emulator with a game from the command line

This is a bash script to start the atari800 emulator with a specific game, program or diskette. The script scans your atari program directory recursively to find the game you're looking for.

It also scans index files for

• disks which contains more then one game
• large disk images which needs a special loader program like the Yogi images
• programs which needs special emulator parameters to start (i.e. emulate an old 48k Atari 400/800)
• programs which needs a DOS disk
• Multiple disk games, each in its own drive

An index file stub for the current directors can be created with

makeindex

but needs to be edited to work.

Installation

runxl assumes that your atari 8-bit programs are stored in

/usr/share/atari

and subfolders. This can be changed in the runxl script file.

runxl supports the following file types and starts them automatically with the correct emulator options:

• Disk images: *.atr, *.xfd
• Binay executables: *.com, *.exe, *.xex
• Cassette boots: *.cas
• Rom dumps: *.rom, *.bin
• Basic files: *.bas, *.lst

Usage

./runxl <name of the game>

for a helpful discription use

./runxl -h

Index files

runxl looks for indexfiles in the directory tree of atari files. the index files must be called runxlindex*.txt, this means that valid index file names are i.e.:

runxlindex.txt
runxlindex_myfiles.txt
runxlindex12345.txt

you get the idea.

Each index file relates to the disk images (xfd, atr) or atari programs (xex, com, exe, bas, lst) of the directory where it is located.

Index file format

1st line: Name of the collection

2nd line: global options for the emulatior, i.e. -basic if the collection only contains programs written in BASIC

3rd-nth line: Program list: Disk-image-name|Program name|Emulator options

Example index file:

Atari 800XL Game Disk 01
-basic
Game_Disk_1.atr|DOS 2.5|
Game_Disk_1.atr|Gnu attack (Basic)|
Game_Disk_1.atr|Caverns of Foo (Basic)|
Game_Disk_1.atr|Chicken Race (Basic)|
Game_Disk_2.atr|Minced Meat (Basic)|
Game_Disk_2.atr|Bloodshed (Basic)|
Game_Disk_2.atr|F1 Worm race (Basic)|
Game_Disk_2.atr|Crazy Chef (Basic)|

With this index file, you can i.e. type

./runxl Minced

and runxl will find the all corresponding entries, including the one from the index file, displays a list and asks for the program to start. You can find example index files in indexes folder.

TBD

• more documentation
• translate all text and comments to english