InstaDOS question

[AtariLeaf]

I was thinking of buying this cart from the Atariage store but I just wanted to make sure of something: Plugging in this cart replaces the need to have the actual DOS disks. I have an 800xl and a couple 1050 drives and I was thinking of getting some disk based games but apparently you need to load DOS before you can load other programs? Is this correct? So if I have this InstaDOS cart, it eliminates the need for the disk based DOS and any disk can be loaded with this cart?

Thanks

 

AtariLeaf

aka I_Love_Circus_Atari

[+Allan]

If you get old commercial software on the original disks you don't need a dos since there is a dos on these disks. If you want to load another type of program, say a basic program, a game you downloaded from the Net or a program from a magazine, etc., you need a dos either on a disk or a cart. The dos can be from another disk than the disk your program is on just as long as you load the Dos first (obviously). The only advantage to a cart-based dos is that it loads fast and that if you are going through a bunch of disks searching for a program it doesn't matter wether a disk has dos on it or not because it's on the cart. Sometimes you'll load a disk with dos on it and then go to another disk for a program your looking for. You load the program and either it will crash or the program just requires you to reset the computer to use another program. If you don't have dos on the disk in the drive you have to take out the disk and put a disk that has dos on it back in and then restart the computer. Then you have to take that disk out and put the other disk back to load that program or another one. With a cart-based dos you don't have to do this. All you do is reset/turn off and on the computer and you're all set. This to me is were Insta-Dos really shines. I don't have it yet but plan to evetually get it just for this reason.

 

Allan

[Jetboot Jack]

As this cart is DOS 2.0, I assume it does not have RAM disc or extended device handling built in like DOS 2.5 (for HD etc). Is there any reason DOS 2.5 or DOS XE is not used in this cart, could they be?

 

As the cart is DOS 2.0 I wonder if it would be as useful as the MyDOS or Sparta DOS carts sold by Video 61, or do they work lke the Ultra-translator and require an unsettling "rip-out" before they boot???

 

I used a Sparta DOS X cart in the days before SIO2PC and it was a great tool, but with the advent of being able to hook my Atari to my PC I use any DOS booted from the PC...

 

sTeVE