"The Writer's Tool" by OSS

[dwhyte]

Does anyone have a working dump of "The Writer's Tool"? I'm curious to check it out...

[flashjazzcat]

Does anyone have a working dump of "The Writer's Tool"? I'm curious to check it out...

I'll second that. I was asking about a copy months ago but nothing doing...

[Syfo-Dyas]

I'm looking, but can't find it in my collection or on the web. Though I did find a lot of interesting info about it on the web!

[dwhyte]

This is the only cartridge dump I have of this, and it's not working. IIRC, wasn't there was a disk based version of this as well?

TheWritersTool.zip

[Syfo-Dyas]

http://retrobits.net/atari/writers.shtml

[flashjazzcat]

http://retrobits.net...i/writers.shtml

Saw that a while ago (thanks). It's just tormenting without the software, though! Can no-one fix the faulty BIN file?

Edited February 8, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[Syfo-Dyas]

I know, from what I hear this software was really good! I'm amazed that no one has dumped a working copy yet!

[flashjazzcat]

I know, from what I hear this software was really good!

I'm dying to know if it's a "Last Word" beater!

[spookt]

I doubt it

[+Roydea6]

This rom looks to be the same that is here:

 

 

http://www.atariage.com/company_page.html?CompanyID=224&SystemID=800&SystemFilterID=800

 

If this is OSS does it do any special banking or OSb required. Maybe this rom requires a special boot disk to see the cartridge.

[Rybags]

It's only an 8K ROM so highly unlikely that any banking is in use.

 

Then again, there's always the possibility it might be switchable to allow access to the RAM underneath.

 

There's also the other possibility that it's a full 16K banked cart and wasn't properly copied.

 

If I get some time, I might have a look at it later.

Edited February 9, 2010 by Rybags

[Defender II]

Which ver is the dump?

Are there 40 and 80 col versions like LETTER PERFECT?

edited

I just checked with a Hex Editor it says...

VERSION 2.1 WTOOL 9-15-84

 

but does not say 40 or 80 col unless I missed it or it is encoded.

Edited February 9, 2010 by Defender II

[flashjazzcat]

I'm not aware of this running in 80 column mode, but I'd be ASTONISHED if the code was only 8K long. My guess is someone copied it by dumping the cart region without heed to the bank switching.

Edited February 9, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[Rybags]

Bad news - the 8K download from Post #4 just doesn't appear right.

 

There's no valid cart header at $BFFA, but appeared to be an almost valid header at $AFFA. So, I swapped the 4K sections around and still no good.

 

Look a little deeper - there's JSRs to routines around $8000 and above.

 

So, I'd say it's almost definitely a standard 16K cart that hasn't been copied properly.

[Sub(Function(:))]

According to the copy of Jindroush's cartridge info site, the cart should be one of the OSS bank switched carts (16k?).

[flashjazzcat]

[quote name=Sub(Function()' date='Tue Feb 9, 2010 12:33 PM' timestamp='1265718832' post='1937923]

According to the copy of Jindroush's cartridge info site, the cart should be one of the OSS bank switched carts (16k?).

It would make sense: I can't see all the data fitting between $2000-$8000.

[jorevall]

[quote name=Sub(Function()' date='Tue Feb 9, 2010 1:33 PM' timestamp='1265718832' post='1937923]

According to the copy of Jindroush's cartridge info site, the cart should be one of the OSS bank switched carts (16k?).

 

I found this information on the retrobits page..

 

Phase 2: What's In There?

 

If you've got an orange cart, you will see a compact board with a few small ICs, a resistor, a capacitor or two, and two 2764 eproms (8kb each). In general, the black carts are the same except they contain a single 27128 eprom (16kb), unless its a Writer's Tool in which case it contains a single 2764.

 

[Note as of 4-13-2002: why is the 8kb Writer's Tool a bank-switching Supercart? My guess is for copy protection, since it won't work without the bank switching... plus OSS probably had quite a few of these boards laying around!]

 

I can try the ROM in a socket based OSS cart that I have..

 

/Freddie

[flashjazzcat]

I can try the ROM in a socket based OSS cart that I have.

Great - can't wait to try this. I'm having difficulty getting my head around the idea of the program being 8K long, though.

[jorevall]

I can try the ROM in a socket based OSS cart that I have.

Great - can't wait to try this. I'm having difficulty getting my head around the idea of the program being 8K long, though.

 

No, go with the file from this thread...

All I get is the diagnostic window..

Maybe I need a drive hooked up to the computer...

[flashjazzcat]

If the whole program comprises only 8K of code, it just about the smallest 8-bit WP I've ever seen. I really think we should be looking for a new dump of an original cart. I may be wrong, however...

[+David_P]

From a quick bit of Googling, it appears that there's an 8k ROM (probably can be deselected to permit the user to use that 8k of space for storage) plus a boot file that needs to be loaded to run the program.

 

Check out Retrobits and old Analog/Antic/Computemags for details.

[ndary]

I have a good dump of the writers tool cartridge... the porblem is that the current emulator cannot run the image

 

WritersTool.zip

[flashjazzcat]

Curiouser and curiouser. What a strange setup.

 

 

 

[FULS]

I have a good dump of the writers tool cartridge... the porblem is that the current emulator cannot run the image

 

WritersTool.zip

 

 

ndary,

Do you have the boot disk that goes with the Cart. I think you have to have the disk for it to work.

[dwhyte]

Do you have the boot disk that goes with the Cart. I think you have to have the disk for it to work.

 

I'm guessing that the extensions disk is a boot disk. I'm going with that hunch and try to see if I can get this working in an emulator tonight...