PC booter
Encyclopedia
A PC booter, or booter, is a type of software for home computer
era (early 1980s to early 1990s) personal computer
s that was loaded and executed in the bootup of the computer, from a bootable floppy disk, rather than as a regular program; a booter thus bypassed any operating system that might be installed on the hard disk of the PC. Games were the type of software most commonly distributed as booters.
Reasons for preferring booters to standard programs include ease of use (the software would start automatically, without any further action required by the user), reliability (few chances to manually alter program files), copy prevention (the booter floppies can be hard to read with a regular operating system and might even have a nonstandard filesystem or formatting), and avoiding a normal operating system (to spare some space on the floppy or to use some specialized replacement).
Some booters include a customized subset or variant of a "standard" operating system for the platform (for example, DOS
for IBM PC compatible
, Apple DOS
or ProDOS
for Apple II, etc.).
Today, IBM PC compatible computers can still boot from floppies, CD-ROM
s and DVD
s, USB storage devices etc, but the computer's BIOS
is usually set to boot from hard disk.
Amiga games
were often distributed as bootable floppies using a custom boot block which would consist of a custom loader. These disks contained no filesystem; instead, the custom loader would read the tracks directly. Many Amiga games were released as such in order to thwart piracy, and to utilise the RAM otherwise occupied by the AmigaOS. In early to mid '90s of the 20th century, disks with a custom boot block became very popular for making so called trackmos by demo groups.
While booters provided a safe form of copy protection, programs such as Locksmith and Copy II PC existed that provided a method for copying of these disks; these were known as nibble
copiers.
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
era (early 1980s to early 1990s) personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s that was loaded and executed in the bootup of the computer, from a bootable floppy disk, rather than as a regular program; a booter thus bypassed any operating system that might be installed on the hard disk of the PC. Games were the type of software most commonly distributed as booters.
Reasons for preferring booters to standard programs include ease of use (the software would start automatically, without any further action required by the user), reliability (few chances to manually alter program files), copy prevention (the booter floppies can be hard to read with a regular operating system and might even have a nonstandard filesystem or formatting), and avoiding a normal operating system (to spare some space on the floppy or to use some specialized replacement).
Some booters include a customized subset or variant of a "standard" operating system for the platform (for example, DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
for IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
, Apple DOS
Apple DOS
Apple DOS refers to operating systems for the Apple II series of microcomputers from late 1978 through early 1983. Apple DOS had three major releases: DOS 3.1, DOS 3.2, and DOS 3.3; each one of these three releases was followed by a second, minor "bug-fix" release, but only in the case of Apple DOS...
or ProDOS
ProDOS
ProDOS was the name of two similar operating systems for the Apple II series of personal computers. The original ProDOS, renamed ProDOS 8 in version 1.2, was the last official operating system usable by all Apple II series computers, and was distributed from 1983 to 1993...
for Apple II, etc.).
Today, IBM PC compatible computers can still boot from floppies, CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
s and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s, USB storage devices etc, but the computer's BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
is usually set to boot from hard disk.
Amiga games
Amiga games
Amiga games are computer games compatible with the Commodore Amiga.The Amiga was an important platform for games in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Of all the 16-bit home computers, it was the one to gain the greatest success as a games machine due to its graphic and sound subsystems, which were...
were often distributed as bootable floppies using a custom boot block which would consist of a custom loader. These disks contained no filesystem; instead, the custom loader would read the tracks directly. Many Amiga games were released as such in order to thwart piracy, and to utilise the RAM otherwise occupied by the AmigaOS. In early to mid '90s of the 20th century, disks with a custom boot block became very popular for making so called trackmos by demo groups.
While booters provided a safe form of copy protection, programs such as Locksmith and Copy II PC existed that provided a method for copying of these disks; these were known as nibble
Nibble
In computing, a nibble is a four-bit aggregation, or half an octet...
copiers.