gozar Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 I purchased a boxed 130XE off of eBay back in June. That, in and of itself isn't much of a surprise since I have eBay purchasing disorder (EPD). But every once in awhile my EPD pays off with a neat little find. In this case, it is the INFO/soft 7000 interactive video cartridge. It was wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in the box with the power supply and other cords (the switch box looks brand new). Also in the box was a little 5" monitor cable that just goes out to composite (no audio). The 130XE appears to pretty much be stock, the Atari warranty sticker is still covering one of the screw holes in the bottom. Information on this cartridge is basically non-existent. Atarimania has a dump of 5000, along with the manual, but I can't find anything else. What I'd really like to find is the System Disk that is mentioned in the 5000 manual and of which I assume one would be available for the 7000. As evidenced by the 5000 manual, the capabilities are really impressive. Does anyone have more information on INFO/soft? The rumors are that this is the product John Harris worked on, is he still around? I'm going to attempt to dump the ROM as soon as I can. BTW, coincidentally enough there are two of the 7000 carts on eBay right now. One is $350, but it also comes with an 130XE. The other is just the cartridge for $375. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Atari8warez (Ray) was kind enough to try a dump of his NFO/soft 7000 cart earlier this year and sent it to me, but it didn't load on first try. Ran it through Dis6502 and found an odd byte, so I changed it and was able to get a display, but it didn't recognize any keystrokes. There is one bit of code that stores #$00 into $D500, so it might be bank switched???. The ROM he sent me was 16k... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 I don't know about this one, but the SpectraView 1 and 2 use OSS bank switched boards. 2 2764 8K EPROMs in them. The cart in the above picture appears to use an OSS style case, so it is possibly a banked cart. It would be worth a try to use the original dump mentioned in the above post (split it into 8K segments) and burn it onto 2 2764s and plug them into an orange BASIC-XL cart to test. On the other hand, it seems strange that he sent a 16K dump instead of two 8K ones. I suspect his dumping method may be flawed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Check it out here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/161828-hooked-on-8-bit-carts/page-14?do=findComment&comment=3344101 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted October 15, 2015 Author Share Posted October 15, 2015 After playing around with the cart tonight, I've come to the conclusion that it's pretty cool. Unfortunately, without the System Disk nothing can be saved. The System Disk also had alternate fonts and some other features to extend the cartridge. So now that we have a dump of the cart, the System Disk needs to be found. :-) The Atarimania page has a comment from Art Kraus on 9-Apr-15 where he mentions that it is still in use on a cable network in Illinois. If anyone knows what cable network that is, then we may be able to find a copy of the System Disk. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 So now that we have a dump of the cart, the System Disk needs to be found. :-) A dump of your cart would still be nice to compare 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Yes, please open your cart (gently), it should pop apart. Four plastic pins in sockets hold it together. There should be two socketed 2764 EPROMs inside (If my educated guess is correct). Dump them seperatly as a pair of 8K files. After you get the cart open, a photo would be a great help to positively identify the type of cart. If it looks like the attached photo, then it *IS* an OSS type cart, and no photo is required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 It feels like it's glued together, I'm afraid to apply too much more pressure without breaking it... Also, it's not an OSS case. It actually matches the original Atarimax flash carts exactly. Curious. I wonder if Steven knows more? Does he ever come to AA? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 (edited) Both OSS and AtariMax use the same cart cases. OSS is orange, AtariMax and DSI (formerly D.E.L. CompuCable) use the black plastic. They were produced by Solakian Plastics in Fresno, CA. http://www.yellowise.com/business/fresno-ca/industrial-molds/solakian-plastics/141829757-st6 You will see their name on the inside of the case. The four notches, two on each side of the board in the above picture are designed to fit inside the four plastic pins that hold the case together. They are normally not glued, just a tight press fit. Edit: I should add that DSI/DEL is who made Spec 1 and 2. Also, put an orange BASIC-XL cart right beside the two in your picture and compare them. Edited October 16, 2015 by Kyle22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 Oh! I didn't think of checking my orange carts. The INFO/soft cart has some resistance in the middle of the cart that doesn't give. I really want to open it though, since the cart itself is heavier than any of my other carts. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 (edited) You could try this program: InfoSoft7000-Cartdump.atr With the A8 turned OFF, plug in the cart, then boot this ATR. Use the LEFT/RIGHT keys to get to FREE MODE, then press the TAB key so you can change the Address location. Use the LEFT/RIGHT keys to change the Address location from D500 to D507 to see if the data changes in the $8000 - $9FFF memory area. If it doesn't change, then press the TAB key and change to 16k Cart and then Press Return to write the ROM to this ATR image and post here... If the $8000 - $9FFF memory area does change while changing the Address location from D500 to D507, then you'll need to make 3 Blank 90k ATR images and save (3) 8k Cart images using the Address locations: (usually) D500, D503 and D504, then post here... (1) 8k Cart image per Address Location... Edited October 16, 2015 by AtariGeezer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender II Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Oh! I didn't think of checking my orange carts. The INFO/soft cart has some resistance in the middle of the cart that doesn't give. I really want to open it though, since the cart itself is heavier than any of my other carts. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Don't open it. It's full of epoxy and will most likely break if you force it apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Don't open it. It's full of epoxy and will most likely break if you force it apart. If its a little heavier it could be because EPROMs are heavier than mask ROMs, but if its a lot heavier, then try to dump it as an OSS cart and don't try to open it, as it may be potted with epoxy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender II Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 If its a little heavier it could be because EPROMs are heavier than mask ROMs, but if its a lot heavier, then try to dump it as an OSS cart and don't try to open it, as it may be potted with epoxy. All of the Info/Soft I have seen are full of a blue epoxy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 All of the Info/Soft I have seen are full of a blue epoxy. That's good to know, now we can be certain instead of speculating about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8bitCarts Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 If it helps, the 3000 and 5000 are built the same, and heavy (like Proburner heavy ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 If it helps, the 3000 and 5000 are built the same, and heavy (like Proburner heavy ) Every piece of information helps. Now, we need to figure out the banking scheme and how to get a proper dump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Hope this isn't considered spam, but I have the InfoSoft 7000 cart. I was about to post it on Ebay and was looking for more info on it when I found this forum. More about me at https://eddon.systems I'd probably buy it if you did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 Here's the dump in that image. What format is the atr, SDX couldn't recognize it? InfoSoft7000-Cartdump.atr 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) Here's the dump in that image. What format is the atr, SDX couldn't recognize it? It's a boot disk and thank you for the dump This is your ROM InfoSoft7000-Gozar.rom which loads okay and there are 15 differences from my modified version. Some differences are in the character sets and the rest in code, it will be interesting to see what they are... Edited December 18, 2015 by AtariGeezer 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 Awesome. One change is that the help screen doesn't show. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Awesome. One change is that the help screen doesn't show. That's because it's on the system disk along with other text prompts... The docs of Info/Soft-5000 states the cart can't be copied, The protection of the cart is bogus code that makes you think it's bank switched and uses 8k blocks (ie. Init vector $BFF8 at location $9FFE and $BFFE). It writes #$00 to $D500 and also does a read (LDA $D500), but this doesn't do anything on this cart.. It also modifies RAM under the Cart code space... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 @Gozar- Never heard of this before. What does it do (briefly)? -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted December 19, 2015 Author Share Posted December 19, 2015 It was used for digital signage in the 80s. I currently use it for a digital sign in my basement office. :-) It has different fonts so you can do large text or small text. Without the system disk I can't save anything though, which is a pain. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 Does anyone have a system disk they can upload? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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