TIMEBRK


This is an amalgam of some ideas from public domain utilities
plus sidekick.

It was developed to allow certain game programs to run without
requiring the system to be rebooted afterwards.

These games often were written without the expectation of
ever having to return control to the operating system. They took
over interrupts at will without saving the previous addresses.

TIMEBRK first stores the interrupt vector table. Then
TIMEBRK takes over the keyboard and timer interrupts. On
every timer tick, the program checks to make sure it still owns
the keyboard. If not, it retakes it. This is an idea from SIDEKICK.
When the Control-Grey Plus key combination is struck, the program
reloads the stored interrupt vector table, then exits using
DOS function 4Ch.

NOTE: ONCE THE CTRL-GREY PLUS KEYS ARE STRUCK, THE VECTORS ARE
RESET AND TIMEBRK ONLY TAKES UP SPACE.
I have found this program to be most effective in a batch
file as follows:

MARK
GRAPHICS
TIMEBRK

RELEASE
MODE CO80

If using with SIDEKICK, run it after SIDEKICK.


Assembled with IBM MASM 4.00

PROBLEMS:SOME PROGRAMS FIDDLE WITH THE SYSTEM CLOCK, MAKING IT RUN
QUITE FAST. IF THIS HAPPENS, YOU MAY WANT TO REBOOT ANYWAY.
ALSO, SOME PROGRAMS CAN ONLY BE EXITED SAFELY AT CERTAIN TIMES,
E.G., WHEN BEING ASKED A QUESTION.

This program is placed in the Public Domain and NO CHARGE is to
be made for its use.

Marc Moshman (12/17/87)