Auto-run PRG in A:\ from ST file...

[DarkCTO]

Hello,

I'm having the following 2 files from a test folder:

9 Lives (1990)(Frames).m3u
9 Lives (1990)(Frames).st

Upon boot, HatariB detects 2 files in A:\

9LIVES.PRG
FILE_ID.DIZ

I tried this in my m3u but crashed upon loading PRG file and auto-run does not work

#EXTM3U
#AUTO:A:\9LIVES.PRG
9 Lives (1990)(Frames).st

The goal is to load this PRG file automatically, when I open m3u file with HatariB

[DarkCTO]

When I have #AUTO:A:\9LIVES.PRG in m3u. it creates a C:\ drive called CARTRIDGE with HATARI.TOS in it.

My A:\ content

Loading 9LIVES.PRG manually with #AUTO line

Open 9LIVES.PRG manually without #AUTO line

[DarkCTO]

9lives.zip
Game file, if it helps. It's abandonware (https://www.myabandonware.com/game/9-lives-6ok#Atari%20ST).

[bbbradsmith]

I tried this in my m3u but crashed upon loading PRG file and auto-run does not work

So, if TOS is not 1.04 it won't try to auto-run. If I use 1.04 or EMUTOS, it does crash. However, I see the same problem if I use --auto A:\9LIVES.PRG with Hatari stand-alone too. So, unfortunately this crash seems to be either a bug in Hatari itself, or an incompatibility between this program and TOS autoload. Sorry, I don't think this can be fixed here. You could try reporting the bug with --auto to Hatari's maintainers.

[bbbradsmith]

Closing because this is an upstream problem with Hatari 2.5.0 that I will not be able to fix.

[bbbradsmith]

By the way @DarkCTO if you just create an AUTO folder and move 9LIVES.PRG into it, it will auto-boot. No need to use TOS 1.04 or the M3U workaround.

9lives_auto.zip

[DarkCTO]

I'm not very familiar with how ST system works. Can I do this on any st file with HatariB and it modifies the .st files for me?
I will wait, since I have many ST games and can't automate this, for the hatari to fix their AUTO feature.

[bbbradsmith]

Yes, you can use hatariB to modify the files from the desktop. The modified files end up in your RetroArch saves folder, though. If they are STX or IPF, though, there will be no way to modify them, because these formats are not designed to be writable.

Today I made a document with some guidelines this here: extras: Auto-Run

I'm not sure if Hatari would consider the failure of --auto a bug in this case, so it's probably not something that would ever be fixed. I think the game itself is probably incompatible with the way TOS 1.04's INF autorun works, so it would be considered a problem with the game, not with Hatari. (I'm not entirely sure, but this is what I suspect.)