Dual format

Dual format is a technique used to allow two completely different systems to boot from the very same disk. The term was used on the Amiga and [Atari ST]] platform to indicate that the disk could be inserted in either machine and it would still run. The secret behind dual format lies in a very special layout of the 1st track of the disk which contained an Amiga and an Atari ST bootsector at the same time. The rest of the disk was usually formatted with plain Atari style sectors apart from the copy protection. Only very few games used that technique. Two of them were produced by Eclipse Software Design (Monster Business and Lethal Xcess).