Atari 8-bit InstaDOS Cartridge

[Albert]

http://www.sunmark.com/Mark DiLuciano informs us that he has completed a DOS cartridge for Atari 8-bit computers. This cartridge allows you to load DOS in about one second, and Mark has christened it with the name InstaDOS. The version of DOS on the cartridge is Atari DOS 2.0S. You can learn more about InstaDOS as well as purchase it and other interesting Atari products at Sunmark.com.

[Atari-Jess]

i was supposed to be getting one of those as a beta tester

 

sadly it never came.... (i hope it does though...)

[smf_4ever]

This is cool!!.. I may just have to pick one up...!!

[Atar1G1rl]

OOOoooh! Very handy! Gots to get me one of those, too!!

[krisjohn]

So, what's Atari DOS 2.0S when it's at home?

 

Can anyone point me at a disk image of it for APE/SIO2PC so I can see what it offers? Is it better than, say, SpartaDOS 3.whateverC, since there are a few places that have copies of that?

 

(BTW: Was there supposed to be a link to this thread in the article on the homepage, because there isn't...)

[Super-Genius!]

Can anyone point me at a disk image of it for APE/SIO2PC so I can see what it offers?

 

http://xlent.nostalgia.pl/software/dos/0006.html

[krisjohn]

Okay,

 

I found a couple of useful URLs for anyone trying to do a comparison as I have;

 

For DOS 2.0S

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/atari-8-bit/faq/s...section-39.html

 

For SpartaDOS, et al

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/atari-8-bit/faq/s...section-40.html

 

The DOS 2.0S info contained something that caught my eye;

 

MEM.SAV can be employed to preserve the contents of memory to disk when DUP.SYS is loaded, so that the data can be restored to memory when exiting from the DOS menu.

How is this handled with the cart version?

[Super-Genius!]

The DOS 2.0S info contained something that caught my eye;

 

MEM.SAV can be employed to preserve the contents of memory to disk when DUP.SYS is loaded, so that the data can be restored to memory when exiting from the DOS menu.

How is this handled with the cart version?

 

mem.sav works exactly the same way. Of course you have to have a

disk drive or a sio2pc hooked up!

[ndary]

i got a file version of the 32k XE crystal castle, and a 16k file version of crystal castle.. msg me and i will send it to you

 

nir

[ndary]

ops.. posted on the wrong thread

 

what i wanted to ask here is:

 

1) does the cartridge support basic?

2) how does the cart work with games that occupy $8000-$bfff?

 

 

nir

[Goochman]

I have a question about whether another DOS can be loaded in the cart or are you stuck with 2.0S? 2.5 seems like a better candidate vs 2.0S? Also, for the DOS loaded it would be nice if Verify was set OFF for disk operations and support for 4 drives was turned on by default.

 

With DOS 2.5 and the above options it would be a handy cart for me to purchase

[Super-Genius!]

ops.. posted on the wrong thread

 

what i wanted to ask here is:

 

1) does the cartridge support basic?

2) how does the cart work with games that occupy $8000-$bfff?

 

 

nir

 

1) No, since the cart occupies the cartridge slot, you can not insert

a basic cart. It you use the DOS option "B", on the XL series, it will

just reboot the InstaDOS. You can load a "disk" versions of Basic.

 

2) The InstaDOS does take up 16K of RAM. So this should be taken

into consideration.

[Super-Genius!]

I have a question about whether another DOS can be loaded in the cart or are you stuck with 2.0S?  2.5 seems like a better candidate vs 2.0S?  Also, for the DOS loaded it would be nice if Verify was set OFF for disk operations and support for 4 drives was turned on by default.

 

With DOS 2.5 and the above options it would be a handy cart for me to purchase

 

Yes, I can load any version of DOS, as long as it is no longer than 16K!

Verify is easy to set in any default mode needed. I just picked 2.0S

because it seemed everyone is familiar with it!

[Goochman]

Hmmm, I dont know what size DOS 2.5 is??? Anyone?

 

DOS 2.5 is basically the same at 2.0 with support for Enhanced Density drives - anyone that knows 2.0 should know 2.5 right off the bat

 

So,

With this DOS cart and the info Mark provided wouldnt anyone think that it would interfere with any disk based games? Carts that were converted to Disk?