Intercept v1.4 documentation by The Voice Over A Mod Squad/Box's Brigade/SLO release Okay...This is the latest version of Intercept. I wrote it because I learned that Intercept 1.3 wouldn't work properly with the Laser 128, and also, I found a more efficient (and shorter) picture packer to use. Anyhow, it's done, so have fun... Section 1: How it works: ----------------------- 1.0: The process of booting: --------------------------- When a disk that has been modified with Intercept is booted, the following is what takes place: 1) The disk controller ROM reads Intercept's BOOT1 routine from track 0, sector 0 into page 8 of RAM. 2) Intercept clears the screen to either spaces or inverted @'s and prints 'Intercept 1.4' in the upper left corner, and the user defined message in the center of the screen. (NOTE: Please don't remove the 'Intercept 1.4' message from the boot routine. The whole reason I put in the user-defined message was to avoid having people change MY message. Satisifed, *-fytrs$%#$?) 3) Intercept reads in the track/sector list from the sector stored at track in $8FE, sector in $8FF. 4) Intercept reads in the Intercept driver, the old BOOT1 routine, and the code to be run as an interception from the sectors listed in the track sector list. 5) Intercept jumps to the driver routine at $A00. 6) The driver routine calls the intercepted code, and when the intercepted code returns to the driver, it moves the old BOOT1 routine to page 8 from page B, sets up memory as if a disk had just been booted, and jumps into the controller ROM's routine that sets up the registers and jumps to $801. 7) The boot continues as if nothing had ever happened. 1.1: Intercept's structure: -------------------------- (an excerpt from the Intercept 1.3 docs) Note: In the docs for Intercept 1.2, I kindly included a breakdown of the technical workings of Intercept, T/S list format, etc. Unfortunately, certain people (The Sector Smasher, Mad Rat, The Nudge, 6-Golds, and Knight Writer of The Star League) decided to be ASSHOLES and remove the small bit of credit I try to reap by putting Intercept 1.2 in the corner of the screen by changing the message to all spaces on their crack of Planetary Construction Set. These guys are so lame, they couldn't even figure out how to NOP out the print routine...they went and changed all of the data that made up 'Intercept 1.2' into data that would produce spaces. Well, guys, the whole reason I put in the user-defined message was so that people wouldn't take out the title and replace it with something of their own. Thanks to these morons who were not only too damn stupid to write their OWN boot routine, but also stupid enough to get caught stealing someone else's, there is no longer any technical information concerning Intercept available. I'd suggest you call them up and thank them if you wanted the data. The boards that they frequent are on the title page for Planetary Construction Set. Now I know how you felt about Bun E. Boot, Tyrone. (the new part) Well, as before, I'm not sending out any technical information on Intercept (for the same reasons as before). I AM, however, sending a file called, "MAD RAT'S REPLY" out along with Intercept 1.4. It's his way of trying to try and rag back at me for putting the above segment in the Intercept 1.3 docs. I'm sure you'll all enjoy it as much as I have. Also, now that I know who was directly responsible for removing the message from PCS, I can direct all comments to him, directly. Sector Smasher, you're a dickhead. My apologies to 6-Golds, The Nudge, and The Mad Rat for having to include them in the rag in Intercept 1.3, but since I didn't know which of you actually did the removal, I had to blame you all. Oh, yeah...Mad Rat, you're a moron. That's for writing the "MAD RAT'S REPLY" file, and for not having the sense to correct Sector Smasher's error of removing the 'Intercept 1.3' message. Section 2: How to use Intercept: ------------------------------- 1) Crack a ware 2) Make a title page program for it. 3) Boot the Intercept 1.3 disk. 4) SCANNING FOR BLANK SECTORS: Place the disk you plan to intercept in drive one or two and press the appropriate key. Intercept will begin to scan your disk for blank sectors that contain all $00s. If you already know where enough free sectors are to hold your title page program, plus 3 sectors for overhead, press the key. Once you think Intercept has located enough free sectors to hold your title page, hit . Note: You can let Intercept scan the whole disk for free sectors, as it will continue merrily along until it locates 255 blank sectors, but why spend the extra time? (Note: I have implemented a fast disk read routine (the same one as in Swap 1.0) into Intercept to make the blank sector scanner go faster. It is now approximately 12 times faster than before.) 5) DEFINING THE BOOT PARAMETERS: There are four parameters you will have to set for Intercept to continue. They are: CLEAR SCREEN TO: This option allows you to clear the screen either to spaces or to inverse @ signs. Choose whichever you like best. BOOT MESSAGE: This option allows you to enter a 20 character long message that will be displayed in the center of the screen as Intercept loads your title program. If you do not wish to have a boot message displayed, just hit at the prompt. TITLE FILENAME: This is where you enter the name of the file you wish to use for your title program. Hit ESC to catalog the drive you booted Intercept from. FILE TYPE: This option allows you to select the type of file you wish to use for your title program. Use P if you simply have a standard hi-res picture, or F if your title program is a BRUNable file. If you choose the P option, Intercept will load the picture and ask you if it's the correct one. If so, the picture will be packed and an unpacker will be included as part of the title page. 6) DEFINING THE TRACK/SECTOR LIST: This section is where you work with the list of tracks and sectors on which you want your title page to be written. If you want to use the blank sectors found with the scan function, use option 1 at this menu. OPTION 1: USE BLANK SECTORS FOUND WITH SCAN: This option will allow you to use any blank sectors you found with the scan function as the track/sector list. You will be notified if not enough sectors were found to accomodate Intercept's requirements. OPTION 2: DEFINE TRACK/SECTOR LIST MANUALLY: This option will allow you to manually enter a track/sector list. Intercept will automatically stop asking for track/sector pairs once you have entered enough to hold your title program plus 3 sectors for overhead. OPTION 3: VIEW CURRENT TRACK/SECTOR LIST: This option will allow you to view your current track/sector list to verify that it's correct. OPTION 4: EDIT LIST: This option will allow you to edit the current track/ sector list. Use the arrow keys to select the pair that you wish to edit, and hit the spacebar to edit it, or D to delete it from the list. Note that if you delete a track/sector pair from the list, you may have to add a pair using option 5 in order for there to be enough room for Intercept to function properly. OPTION 5: ADD TO LIST: This option is similar to option 2, except it does not initialize the track/sector list to 0 entries when you select it. Once you are finished editing/defining the track/sector list, hit to intercept the disk. 7) INTERCEPTING THE DISK: Once you have completed the necessary preliminary steps, you will be prompted to place the disk to be intercepted in drive one, and to press . Make sure the disk to be intercepted is in drive one and not write protected. Intercept will attempt to place your title program on the disk. If an error occurs, you will be informed, otherwise, the message, "Intercept 1.4 has been successfully written to the disk" along with the ']' prompt will be displayed. I suggest that after you intercept a disk, you boot it and verify that it functions as it did before the Intercept process. Some wares, especially ProDOS-based ones, don't like having extra data written to the disk on sectors that appear to Intercept to be 'blank'. 8) NOTES: If you make a BRUNable title page program, it MUST NOT BEGIN at an address lower than $2400. If it does, it will interfere with Intercept. If it DOES begin at a location lower than $2400, but greater than $BFF, you may still use it, but you'll have to move it to a location higher than $2400 and write a memory move routine to move it to where it should go. Under NO circumstances may a title program begin at a location lower than $C00, as the area from $0000-$07FF is used by the Apple internally, and the area from $800-$BFF is used by the Intercept 1.3 loader program. NOTE: If you're a GnU WaReZ KiD, you can use Intercept to add a title page to cracks that are already out, but let's face it...how much lower can you get than to steal credit for someone else's crack? Well, that's about it. If you've got any questions about Intercept, feel free to leave me mail on any of the following boards: Club Zero.............(213) 395-0221 Transfers ][............(514) 738-1247 RAPS ][...............(907) 753-RAPS Halifax.................(301) 445-5897 SpecElite.............(213) YOU-FOOL SpecWares...............(409) GET-REAL -The Voice Over Documentation completed 25, January, 1987, 3:42 PM, MDT. P.S. For you *-fytrs^#$%^%, I got the picture packer from the May, 1983 issue of Softalk. See? I give credit. Not like you.