Immediate help please with 810 with prototype on disk!

[JrPac]

I have acquired an old disk from the '80s for the Atari 810 disk drive.

 

First of all, my setup is a single 810 connected to a 130XE. I turn on the drive, wait for the chatter to stop, insert the diskette, and turn on the machine. It boots to BASIC, and I type in DOS. I get that list of commands,

A. DISK DIRECTORY

B. RUN CARTRIDGE

C. COPY FILE

D. DELETE FILE (S)

E. RENAME FILE

F. LOCK FILE

G. UNLOCK FILE

H. WRITE DOS FILES

I. FORMAT DISK

J. DUPLICATE DISK

K. BINARY SAVE

L. BINARY LOAD

H. RUN AT ADDRESS

N. CREATE NEW MEM.SAV

O. DUPLICATE FILE

P. FORMAT SINGLE

 

I am unsure how to load a file on the disk, none of these seem very helpful. I am able to go to A, then type in D: and get the list of files on the disk but I can't figure how to load one.

One of these files is the unreleased Super Pac-Man amid other Pac-Man games so I am really hoping to get this working. Any help is great!

[+Roydea6]

type "A" to view directory A-ENTER ENTER. to view directory.

IF the files are binary files. type 'L' then ENTER filename.xxx and press ENTER key.

 

but, OPTION key should be held down to disable basic and disk will boot straight to DOS.... if files are binary

 

If files are basic files then don't press OPTION key

If any of the files are autorun.sys files then that file will run at boot.

[Xuel]

The Super Pac-Man ROM is available on Atarimania and a file version is available on Fandal's site. Do you have a different version? Also, check out this 2006 blog post from the author, Landon Dyer.

[JrPac]

Thanks, just what I needed. I will test it tomorrow, I am hoping it is some king of new other revision, that would be so cool.

[JrPac]

I was filled with joy and excitement, only to find my copy is dead. Only garbled characters and rainbow stripes.

[russg]

I was filled with joy and excitement, only to find my copy is dead. Only garbled characters and rainbow stripes.

You realize you have to hold OPTION before and during the boot process, not just as you are loading the file. If you boot to READY, you haven't booted properly, the DOS

menu should come up automatically.

Edited June 2, 2013 by russg

[JrPac]

I have been able to simply type in DOS under READY and it switches to DOS.

I haven't used Option at all, as the button for Option is broken on my computer, oops. I have been able to load other games from the disk that worked.

[+Roydea6]

Do you have any SIO2PC interfaces. Its time to make that floppy into an ATR or DCM file.

[russg]

I have been able to simply type in DOS under READY and it switches to DOS.

I haven't used Option at all, as the button for Option is broken on my computer, oops. I have been able to load other games from the disk that worked.

Some, a few maybe, binary load programs will work with BASIC on. Almost all binary load programs must have BASIC turned off. With BASIC on, the garbled screen and crashing load will happen.

Since you don't have OPTION button, you can boot to READY, goto DOS menu and load a program that will turn BASIC off. Then you can load your binary load game successfully.

BASICOFF.zip

[russg]

Some, a few maybe, binary load programs will work with BASIC on. Almost all binary load programs must have BASIC turned off. With BASIC on, the garbled screen and crashing load will happen.

Since you don't have OPTION button, you can boot to READY, goto DOS menu and load a program that will turn BASIC off. Then you can load your binary load game successfully.

Or, you can type this in in BASIC and run it. It will make a binary load BASIC OFF. In SpartaDos, it will leave a garbled screen. In MyDOS/DOS 2.x it will leave a good screen. Either way, it will turn off BASIC.

In SpartaDOS, just hit RESET to get a good screen. Since you're typing DOS to get the menu, you're using MyDOS/DOS 2.x.

Uhm. Also. A lot of binary load games will not load from DOS, will give the garbled screen and crash. You have to load them from mypicodos or other menu loader DOS.

 

10 CLOSE #1:OPEN #1,8,0,"D:BASOFF.OBJ"

12 TRAP 1000

20 READ X:PUT #1,X

30 GOTO 20

100 DATA 255,255,0,4,44,4,173,1,211,9,2,141,1,211,169,1,141,248,3,169,12,32

200 DATA 24,4,169,192,133,106,169,3,141,66,3,169,42,141,68,3,169,4,141,69,3,162

300 DATA 0,76,86,228,69,58,0,226,2,227,2,0,4

1000 CLOSE #1:? "DONE"

Edited June 3, 2013 by russg

[JrPac]

Thank you very much. I managed to repair the button bu cleaning off the pad and reseating the connector.

Following the instructions given here; I held OPTION while booting the system and disk, selected option L, typed in the filename, and the program began to boot.

 

This time, it works!

In comparison to the ROM on the net, mine has a few differences (likely indicating an earlier revision), including alternate character design, lack of scrolling text in the attract mode (only a copyright), as well as others. It was found local to Atari's previous location, clearly done many years ago. I would like to be able to dump the ROM as well as make copies. Any help would be appreciated.

Edited June 3, 2013 by JrPac

[russg]

Thank you very much. I managed to repair the button bu cleaning off the pad and reseating the connector.

Following the instructions given here; I held OPTION while booting the system and disk, selected option L, typed in the filename, and the program began to boot.

 

This time, it works!

In comparison to the ROM on the net, mine has a few differences (likely indicating an earlier revision), including alternate character design, lack of scrolling text in the attract mode (only a copyright), as well as others. It was found local to Atari's previous location, clearly done many years ago. I would like to be able to dump the ROM as well as make copies. Any help would be appreciated.

I don't understand what you want to do. Your game is a binary load game, not a ROM cartridge. Dumping a cartridge to a file can be done, but is a bit advanced.

If you want to make a copy of your floppy disk, you have that option in the DOS menu. You'd first have to format a blank floppy, then 'duplicate disk'.

[tjlazer]

You realize you have to hold OPTION before and during the boot process, not just as you are loading the file. If you boot to READY, you haven't booted properly, the DOS

menu should come up automatically.

 

Even if you get to the READY prompt and type in DOS, that will also NOT work with loading binaries. You have to boot the atari without BASIC. If you get to a READY prompt, you booted with BASIC. Restart and hold down OPTION.