movw $0x1f01,0xb8000; hlt;

The VMware BIOS loads fast, really fast. Sometimes, it’s just too fast that you can’t press ESC to reach the boot menu.

To slow it down, locate your Virtual Machine directory and look for the .vmx file (the Virtual Machine needs to be turned off first). Add the following line in the file:

bios.bootDelay = "3000"

This should give you enough time to access the BIOS menus.