CS1 capabilities

[+arcadeshopper]

You can load it into the gram k r a c k r r

That is very cool... I don't have a physical copy to try it.

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[ti99iuc]

CASS24K is meant to save to cassette long XB programs that are too long to be saved normally. The workflow would normally be to read a program from disk and then save the program to cassette.

 

Ciro wants to do just the opposite. He wants to read a program from cassette and save it to disk. The problem is that in the old days long programs were written and saved to cassette. This works fine, but if you add a disk system some of the VDP memory is needed for disk operations. Now those long programs will not load from cassette. If you could load them they could then be saved to disk. I wrote a little utility for him that does what he needs.

 

The program is called DSKONOFF. Download the program and get it over to the TI. Load and run the program. This will copy the assembly routines into low memory.

 

If you CALL LINK("DSKOFF") the disk system is disabled which frees up the vdp ram so you have enough room to load a long cassette program with OLD CS1

Then CALL LINK("DSKON") and the disk system is enabled so you can save the program to disk.

 

 

 

Many thanks SeniorFalcon !! it is a very useful software for me while archiving my stuff into a .dsk format ! you helped to do save me a lot of my time !

There are some programs on cassette tape that be able to load only if the PEB is disconnected so I had no chance to save it to the disk.

now it is more easy and your software work like a charm

 

 

 

I just popped in here and have not read this entire thread, but if Ciro has an HDX another method is to simply pull the FDC out of the P-Box. Turn on the system, load the tape and save to the HDX. Once the program is there, the sky is the limit.

 

<< Reference >>

 

HDX is useful but i haven't into my PEB, also because it need other cables and a available PC near the PEB to be connected. Anyway my problem was to load only the programs that had problems with a PEB connected and CALL FILES (1) trick was not working.

this nice DISKONOFF utility is be able to do all easy using the standard TI99 and PEB only it is great

[senior_falcon]

Wow!!! I'm curious how you accomplished this!!

Quite simple actually. The scratchpad at >8370 is the "highest available address in vdp ram". Without the disk system this is >3FFF. With CALL FILES(3) it is >37D7. ( Different CALL FILES put different values at >8370).

To turn off the disk system you just have to change >8370 to >3FFF and you can now do OLD CS1 to load a long cassette program.

Good so far; now we want to save to disk. You have to change >8370 back to >37D7 but that alone won't do it because OLD CS1 has overwritten the disk buffering area starting at >37D8. There were 5 bytes there: >AA,>3FFF,>11,>03

These (at least) need to be restored. When you turn off the disk system with >3FFF these should be copied to a buffer. I copied the entire vdp from >37D8 to >3FFF just in case.

When you turn the disk system on by writing >37D7 to >8370 you can now restore the disk buffering area and, voila, disk access works as it should.

 

This works in XB because, once the program is loaded into vdp memory, it is copied to expansion memory so it is out of the way.

 

My program is a tiny bit more sophisticated in that, instead of assuming it is >37D7, it saves the actual value at >8370 - this way if you had done CALL FILES(1) you would get back to that when you restore disk operation. Also, DSKON checks whether the disk is already on and if so will simply return to XB. Likewise for DSKOFF. Without this error trapping, you could do DSKOFF and load a cassette program; then if you type DSKOFF again you are storing the disk buffering area that was overwritten by the program and you won't be able to turn on the disk again.

Edited June 16, 2018 by senior_falcon

[Opry99er]

Hello there, Falcon. This weekend I will have several hours to devote to working my program down to the proper size. I think I should be able to finish the optimization, get the assembly embedded, and have it ready to try on tape by Saturday night.

 

I need to find my copies of your lower 8k embedding software. I've got them in my files somewhere.

[senior_falcon]

Post #59 has an updated version of CASS24K that fixes a bug in CASS24K2.