Adam emulators for OSX

[LoTonah]

I have some questions about getting a working ADAM setup on my Mac.

 

First, I've tried SDLMESS, and MessMenu on the Mac. On the PC (through VMWare Fusion), I've tried MESS.

 

I can get them booted into SmartBASIC, but editing is a big hassle. No backspace! How can I set that up?

 

Also, the only good version of SmartBASIC I could find was 1.0. Version 1.2 has some sort of bootloader which crashes on me. I've heard that there are several versions of SmartBASIC...does anyone have an .DSK image of a better version?

 

Last of all, how do you save on the emulator? I tried stuff like "SAVE TEST,D1" using D1 through D4, but when I do a catalog, I see that the volume name has changed but the file doesn't appear as one of the files. Are the .DSK images locked from MESS?

 

I wish someone would write a better ADAM emulator!!!

[goldenegg]

I wish someone would write a better ADAM emulator!!!

 

You and me both!

 

Geoff Oltmans was making some changes to AdamEd and did compile a Mac version. I have a copy, but don't know if I'm allowed to distribute it. Even with the Mac port in hand, I still use AdamEm through DOSBox, as it just seems to work better.

 

Hopefully one day, someone will take the time to make a more 'complete' multi-platform emulator.

[NIAD]

I have some questions about getting a working ADAM setup on my Mac.

 

First, I've tried SDLMESS, and MessMenu on the Mac. On the PC (through VMWare Fusion), I've tried MESS.

 

I can get them booted into SmartBASIC, but editing is a big hassle. No backspace! How can I set that up?

 

Also, the only good version of SmartBASIC I could find was 1.0. Version 1.2 has some sort of bootloader which crashes on me. I've heard that there are several versions of SmartBASIC...does anyone have an .DSK image of a better version?

 

Last of all, how do you save on the emulator? I tried stuff like "SAVE TEST,D1" using D1 through D4, but when I do a catalog, I see that the volume name has changed but the file doesn't appear as one of the files. Are the .DSK images locked from MESS?

 

I wish someone would write a better ADAM emulator!!!

 

First and foremost, M.E.S.S. emulation of the ADAM Computer leaves a lot to be desired... as you are finding out! I have never used a MAC before, so I can't give you much help on that front and have no idea about the subtle differences between the MAC and Windows versions of MESS, but I'll do my best to answer some of your questions.

 

Three main items to be aware of when using MESS is (my experience with the Windows version):

 

- There is no Digital Data Drive emulation.

- You CAN NOT write back information to a disk image... it will appear to save the info, but when you exit and then reload the disk image the changes are not there.

- You HAVE to use the "OLD GUI" in order to make any changes to the keyboard settings. If you use the "NEW GUI" to make changes, you will become very frustrated!!

 

Once you learn some of the DOs and DON'Ts, ADAM emulation through MESS is not to bad and even some disk images work better with it than ADAMem (like Solomon Swift's game software).

 

As far as SmartBASIC, the version that came with the ADAM (v1.0) had a bug in it that would always revert the default drive to Digital Data Drive #01 ( D1 ) even if loaded from Digital Data Drive #02 ( D2 ), Disk Drive #01 ( D5 ) or Disk Drive #02 ( D6 ). So it's good practice to always include the drive number at the end of a SAVE, LOAD, RENAME, DELETE, etc. statement as follows:

 

SAVE filename,d1 - for Data Drive #01

SAVE filename,d2 - for Data Drive #02

SAVE filename,d5 - for Disk Drive #01

SAVE filename,d6 - for Disk Drive #02

SAVE filename,d7 - for the RamDISK, if you have one configured with the proper software program

 

Also, there are SmartBASIC patches that allow you to use up to 4 Disk Drives (D3 and D4), but let's keep things simple for the meantime. In the Coleco-ADAM Collection that I assembled (with help from numerous others), there are a wide variety of patched and enhanced versions of SmartBASIC, but for now stick with the version you have until you start having some success... the bugs in it aren't that bad.

 

As far as better ADAM Emulation, you should definetly try ADAMem with ADAMem Manager Frontend (not compatible with Windows Vista or 7 due to ADAMem being a DOS program) or my personal flavor of choice Virtual ADAM v1.03 (this is a trmendous frontend program that includes ADAMem and DOSbox in the install package) and works with all versions of Windows.

 

Like any COMPUTER emulator, there is gonna be a large learning curve unlike CONSOLE or ARCADE emulators. So read through the ADAMem documentation and Virtual ADAM docs and help screens... this is a necessity especially if you are unfamiliar with the ADAM. I know it took me a good two days to figure out how to use the TI99-4a emulators successfully and a lot of searching for websites that could help.

 

Last, but not least, check out the two websites in the footer of my message for a tremendous amount of ADAM related material.

 

Good Luck,

Jim/NIAD