Madison Area Atari Users' Group Newsletters/Disks (Rambo vs Terminator XL)

[electronizer]

I finally found some time to start digitizing the Madison Area Atari Users' Group newsletters and game disks my dad brought on his last visit (discussed in my previous post). The first two newsletters contain information on the Rambo XL 256K memory upgrade. The Oct. 1985 Special Issue newsletter describes the upgrade and contains a listing to patch DOS 2.5 so that it will work with the upgrade to provide two 720-sector ramdisks. The November 1985 issue describes the Terminator XL (gotta love those 80s movies), which is a 512K memory upgrade. It also provides the artwork for a circuit board that can be used with either the Rambo XL or Terminator XL upgrade. I suspect that's the circuit board in my family's original upgraded 800XL.

 

I have no idea whether any of the programs on the game disks are rare, but I’m guessing they aren’t. So far I’ve scanned disks 1, 2, 4, 7, and 24 (skipped ahead because I remembered Sanctified Quest for Power and Beneath the Pyramid fondly). The sound the menu makes when disk 1 boots up brought back a lot of memories

 

One thing I'm curious about: the October newsletter says, "Don't count on the duplicate disk function always working between ramdisks." Sure enough, when I tried to duplicate a physical floppy to the ramdisk, it failed. Any ideas why this would be?

Edited November 18, 2016 by electronizer

[Stormtrooper of Death]

an error in the software/program that copies the disk contents to the ramdisk ? 128 bytes/sectors to 256 bytes/sectors or so ?

[+Larry]

Did the article post the source code?

 

The only ramdisk that I can remember that was structured to represent an actual disk is the CSS Ultra Speed Plus OS module which set up D4: to be a 720 sector ramdisk. It could be moved to be D9: with MyDos, but maybe only if using a Black Box. (?)

 

I remember several programs that set up two ramdisks under Dos 2.5, but none that set up 720 sector disk equivalent ramdisks. And the ones I remember were just little "patcher" programs. But it's an interesting question, and I'll check through my archives.

 

-Larry

Edited November 19, 2016 by Larry

[Mathy]

Hello Larry

 

The only ramdisk that I can remember that was structured to represent an actual disk is the CSS Ultra Speed Plus OS module which set up D4: to be a 720 sector ramdisk. It could be moved to be D9: with MyDos, but maybe only if using a Black Box. (?)

 

AFAIK you don't need the Blackbox. But the routine was written because with the BB, the RAMdisk at "D4:" would "cover up" any other "D4:". It's easier to move the RAMdisk up a couple of numbers than it is to change the drive number on a physical disk.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[electronizer]

@Larry, I think this is a patch too. The only source code in the article consists of a series of lines to be entered in debug mode with the Assembler Editor cartridge:

 

The article says to enter the lines, go to DOS, and then write out the DOS files to disk. Voila! You now have a DOS with two 720 sector ramdisks.

 

Another interesting tidbit from the article:

 

"Two DOS error messages were shortened and/or disfigured in order to make room for these patches. They are: 'Type Y to still run DOS' and 'ERROR-saving user memory on disk.' The latter now reads: 'MEM.SAV ERR' and the former now is illegible. (Así es la vida)."

 

It looks like the patch was created by Kurt Grittner, who was Chair of the users' group at the time.

Edited November 22, 2016 by electronizer

[ClausB]

Well this is interesting. It looks like MAAUG and I independently modified my BYTE upgrade to be XE compatible at about the same time. Mine is linked below. It also seems that the MAAUG design was not the basis of the commercial RAMBO XL by ICD, rather mine was. Also, my RAMdisk driver modified the OS, not DOS, and it supported 2 720-sector RAMdisks.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/122470-ram-upgrade-applications/page-2?do=findComment&comment=1481893