Does the XL OS still have the 1200XL ATARI rainbow hidden?

[ACML]

I thought I read a post on this forum that said the old 1200XL ATARI rainbow splash is still in the XL OS, but it does not point to it when there is no cartridge. Instead, it goes to the HELP menu. Is this true? If so, can the XL OS be slightly modified to jump to the ATARI rainbow like the 1200XL? The Checksum would have to be updated to reflect the change. Sounds like a job for Xuel or Rybags. Can it be done. The ATARI splash is awesome and Atari screwed up so many things;

 

a) Not connecting the chroma line on the monitor jack

b) adding a current limiting resistor on the SIO port

 

they probably left the code there from the 1200XL and never reconnected it before they had a half million ROMs manufactured.

 

Anyone up for the challenge?

Edited August 31, 2014 by ACML

[BillC]

It's likely the rainbow logo screen was replaced with other features, like the PBI code and the diagnostics(RAM/ROM/audio/keyboard).

[Rybags]

Pretty sure it's gone completely - there's a system jump table point at $E480 in the XL OS called PUPDIS (PowerUp Display). On 1200XL it displays the rainbow, on other XL OSes it just goes to the Self-Test.

The code that draws the rainbow doesn't seem to be in the ROM on later XL - it appears to use some optimizations to draw it in high RAM, so the amount of ROM used was probably somewhat less than the raw graphics data otherwise would use (it's in Antic D aka Gr. 7 )

 

You can call up the display within Basic - Z=USR(58496)

[ACML]

I can't recall the thread, but I swear Bob1200XL said the rainbow spash code is still in the XL OS, but never points to it anymore.

[Rybags]

Entirely possible there might be remnants of it. The F-key handler remained in the XL OS for a long time, I don't think it was removed until the late XE revision that was able to Self-Test 128K.

[Kr0tki]

When I did the OS sources, I checked that there are no remnants of the powerup screen in the 600/800XL OS and later revisions.

 

The F-key handling was never removed - it's still there even in the Arabic 65XE OS.

[ACML]

When I did the OS sources, I checked that there are no remnants of the powerup screen in the 600/800XL OS and later revisions.

 

The F-key handling was never removed - it's still there even in the Arabic 65XE OS.

Thanks for clearing that up. I guess they needed the space for the PBI handler???

[Rybags]

Probably... strangely enough though, the 1200XL OS uses practically up to $CBFF where the later one has about 150 bytes unused on that page.

Could be that despite added functionality they optimised the code some more.

[Kr0tki]

Thanks for clearing that up. I guess they needed the space for the PBI handler???

Yes, definitely, PBI and some minor changes such as handling of on-board BASIC.

 

strangely enough though, the 1200XL OS uses practically up to $CBFF where the later one has about 150 bytes unused on that page.

Could be that despite added functionality they optimised the code some more.

No, no optimisations involved. They removed ca. 550 bytes worth of routines for the Power Up Display and the handling of on-board jumpers, and replaced it with switchable BASIC and PBI code, which actually takes less space; in fact, removal of the rainbow display allowed them to free another 30 bytes at $E49E-$E4C0 by moving one routine from there to page $CA.

 

Note that most of the code typically associated with PBI (relocating loader, loading of device handlers from peripheral devices) is already included in the 1200XL rev. 10 OS - these routines were first designed for use by SIO devices. The actual PBI additions in the 600/800XL rev. 1 OS are quite small in size.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Kr0tki

[Rybags]

Sounds fair enough... after all the philosophy of PBI is to have it transparent to application/user and as integral as SIO, and the actual firmware goodies reside on the device and get paged into the FP area.

[ldelsarte]

Can I ask if anyone has ever extracted this "Atari rainbow, splash screen" from the 1200XL into a .COM file to run on any machine? Looking back over the years, this was not a crazy idea. Now all console or computer manufacturers display their logo at startup. It wasn't common at the time, but this logo was really neat.
On the same subject, has anyone ever extracted the "Self-Test" into a .COM file to run on a 400/800?
Is this feasible? Can the code be relocated elsewhere in memory? Are there any dependencies with the OS that make it impossible to make it an independent .COM?
Thanks in advance.

[ACML]

1 hour ago, ldelsarte said:

Can I ask if anyone has ever extracted this "Atari rainbow, splash screen" from the 1200XL into a .COM file to run on any machine?

Here you go.

 

1200XL Atari Splash.xex

[+Larry]

That's cool!  I haven't tried it yet, but I presume you could run this as an autorun.sys file and really fake someone out who is familiar with the 1200XL.  BTW, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Self Test is included in the 1200XL OS.

[Mrshoujo]

Of course people know of the Easter egg in the 1200XL keyboard test when you let it run all tests. Like how is it supposed to test the keyboard when nobody's there to press keys? 😉

[Ricky Spanish]

58 minutes ago, Mrshoujo said:

Of course people know of the Easter egg in the 1200XL keyboard test when you let it run all tests. Like how is it supposed to test the keyboard when nobody's there to press keys? 😉

Yeah it types out the guys name. What happens when you type 'bye' with the 600xl/800xl? straight to the self test ?

[+MrFish]

7 hours ago, ACML said:

Here you go.

 

1200XL Atari Splash.xex 540 B · 16 downloads

 

 

[ldelsarte]

15 hours ago, ACML said:

Here you go

Thank you SO MUCH @ACML!

[Mclaneinc]

I'd love it to be patched into the 800XL OS so we could have all the eye candy from the 1200 and all the functionality of the 800XL. I just think the Rainbow is iconic as seen from the Atari flying bird demo..

 

Give it like a 1 or 2 sec delay before it kicks in the 800XL os..

 

Yeah, silly I know...

[ldelsarte]

What about the "Self-Text", 1200XL version or later?

Was anyone able to extract it to make it an independant .XEX or COM?

Thank you in advance

Edited September 2, 2022 by ldelsarte
(font was too small)

[mimo]

1 hour ago, Mclaneinc said:

I'd love it to be patched into the 800XL OS so we could have all the eye candy from the 1200 and all the functionality of the 800XL. I just think the Rainbow is iconic as seen from the Atari flying bird demo..

 

Give it like a 1 or 2 sec delay before it kicks in the 800XL os..

 

Yeah, silly I know...

No, not silly. I agree with you 

[Rybags]

Self-Test might well work if you just loaded it to $5000 and ran it.

But it might trash most of what's in memory so not be really useful.

 

XL OS has that somewhat annoying ~ 1 second delay on startup which could easily be replaced by a splash screen.

 

I reckon the 5200 one is better though - maybe a modified version of that - get rid of the text at the bottom and have a better rainbow effect that goes up/down for each colour rather than the overused type you mostly see.

 

[ldelsarte]

16 minutes ago, Rybags said:

XL OS has that somewhat annoying ~ 1 second delay on startup

Hello @Rybags !

I could be wrong, of course, but I thought that the 1 second boot delay -- something new with the XLs OS -- included a very quick test of RAM.

By the way, I believe that if this quick test fails, the computer immediately switches to self-test, for a comprehensive RAM test.

Is this correct?

[+MrFish]

21 minutes ago, Rybags said:

I reckon the 5200 one is better though - maybe a modified version of that - get rid of the text at the bottom and have a better rainbow effect that goes up/down for each colour rather than the overused type you mostly see.

The Atari GTIA demo (robot, spaceship) logo is the best. It also has hi-res text for the Atari name. Either that, or the Xanth logo from the swan demo. It's basically the same as the one from the Atari GTIA demo, but it also rotates after a few seconds.

 

[ACML]

19 minutes ago, ldelsarte said:

Hello @Rybags !

I could be wrong, of course, but I thought that the 1 second boot delay -- something new with the XLs OS -- included a very quick test of RAM.

By the way, I believe that if this quick test fails, the computer immediately switches to self-test, for a comprehensive RAM test.

Is this correct?

I think the 1 second delay was to ensure that the first press of the RESET was a warm start instead of a cold start.  If the computer resets cold, you lose your memory and you lose your BASIC program.  The warm start retains the memory and the BASIC program remains.  There was an issue with the reset circuit that if the 74C14 (1200XL) was not up to proper voltage, you would get a cold start.  The delay in the OS ensures the 74C14 is up.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by ACML

[BillC]

7 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

I'd love it to be patched into the 800XL OS so we could have all the eye candy from the 1200 and all the functionality of the 800XL. I just think the Rainbow is iconic as seen from the Atari flying bird demo..

 

Give it like a 1 or 2 sec delay before it kicks in the 800XL os..

 

Yeah, silly I know...

I believe the LOGO screen was removed to make room for the PBI code, which adds expansion possibilities, probably not possible to have both without removing something else