Running games with the editor/assembler

[CamTheBridge]

Hey all,

 

I haven't been using my TI much as of late, and I wanted to get back into things with a nice game of centipede. I don't own the game, but I have a ROM of it and in the past was able to play it using the editor assembler cart along with my nanoPEB so that I could assemble and run the game from my CF card. Unfortunately, I cannot remember how to do it now. Everything is set up, I have the editor/assembler diskettes on the CF card as well and they are working just fine. I can load the assembler and everything, I just can't figure out how to get this centipede assembly file working.

 

From what I remember I need a .DSK file, and to copy that to the CF card, then I need to mount it on the TI into disk 3, then I need to call something like DSK3.CENT, but that doesn't seem to be working.

 

Any ideas?

[+Ksarul]

If it is saved as a PROGRAM file, you would just need to press LOAD AND RUN in the E/A menu and direct it to load the program from the disk it is on. . .

[CamTheBridge]

If it is saved as a PROGRAM file, you would just need to press LOAD AND RUN in the E/A menu and direct it to load the program from the disk it is on. . .

That's where I'm running into issues. Even on an emulator I can't seem to get that to work. It is a PROGRAM file, and I can save it to a .DSK file, but I can't load and run it. Both the PROGRAM and DSK are named CENT and doing any combination of DSK3 and CENT, or DSK3.CENT won't work.

[Tursi]

If it's a program file, you select "RUN PROGRAM FILE" from editor/assembler. (It's index 5, thus, "EA#5" is the shorthand for it).

 

LOAD AND RUN is used for object files, DV80 or DF80, and it's uncommon to see software distributed this way due to the slower load. (Option 3, thus, shorthand became EA#3).

 

The syntax for a filename is <DEVICE>.<FILENAME>, so if the file on DSK3 is called CENT, it's "DSK3.CENT". The disk name doesn't usually come into play (although there is such a syntax: DSK.<DISKNAME>.<FILENAME>, so DSK.CENT.CENT. But nobody does that and not all emulators support it. )

[Tursi]

What I don't remember is how to mount different images on the CF card... are you sure it's mounted in DSK3?

 

You can type in this quick catalog program to get a listing of each device, try 1-3 and make sure you're looking at the right place.

 

100 INPUT "DEVICE: DSK":D$
110 D$="DSK"&D$&"."
120 OPEN #1:D$,INPUT ,RELATIVE,INTERNAL
130 INPUT #1:N$,ZERO,S,F
140 PRINT D$&" -  DISKNAME= ";N$:"AVAILABLE= ";F;" USED= ";S-F
150 PRINT
160 INPUT #1:FN$,FT,FS,RL
170 IF LEN(FN$)=0 THEN 200
180 PRINT FN$;TAB(12);FS
190 GOTO 160
200 CLOSE #1

If you want to save off the catalog program, this one is a little nicer, explains a little more what is going on and has better output:

 

 

 

100 CALL CLEAR
105 COUNT=0
110 DIM TYPE$(5)
120 TYPE$(1)="DIS/FIX"
130 TYPE$(2)="DIS/VAR"
140 TYPE$(3)="INT/FIX"
150 TYPE$(4)="INT/VAR"
160 TYPE$(5)="PROGRAM"
161 INPUT "DEVICE:":DEV$
162 IF SEG$(DEV$,LEN(DEV$),1)="." THEN 165
163 DEV$=DEV$&"."
165 REM  THIS OPENS AS IF/0 - WHICH BECOMES IF/38 
170 OPEN #1:DEV$,INPUT ,RELATIVE,INTERNAL
175 REM  'ZERO' IS ALWAYS 0 
180 INPUT #1:DISKNAME$,ZERO,DISKSECTORS,FREESECTORS
190 DISPLAY "DSK1 -  DISKNAME= ";DISKNAME$:"AVAILABLE= ";FREESECTORS;" USED= ";DISKSECTORS-FREESECTORS
200 DISPLAY :"FILENAME   SIZE    TYPE    P":"---------- ---- ---------- -";
205 REM  A FILETYPE OF 0 ALSO MEANS END OF DIRECTORY 
207 REM  FILETYPE IS NEGATIVE FOR A PROTECTED FILE 
210 INPUT #1:FILENAME$,FILETYPE,FILESECTORS,RECORDLENGTH
220 IF LEN(FILENAME$)=0 THEN 300
225 COUNT=COUNT+1
230 DISPLAY :COUNT;FILENAME$;TAB(12);FILESECTORS;TAB(17);TYPE$(ABS(FILETYPE));
235 REM  PROGRAM FILES DON'T HAVE A RECORD LENGTH 
240 IF ABS(FILETYPE)=5 THEN 270
250 B$=" "&STR$(RECORDLENGTH)
260 DISPLAY SEG$(B$,LEN(B$)-2,3);
270 IF FILETYPE>0 THEN 210
280 DISPLAY TAB(28);"Y";
290 GOTO 210
300 CLOSE #1

 

 

Another thing, too, is to check the I/O error code. The first digit is the operation (and you already know you're trying to load or open), the second digit is the cause. These are the codes:

 

0 - bad name (means the device name doesn't exist! Check for things like typo, lowercase...)

1 - write protected (should not affect loading)

2 - bad attribute (the file is a different type than it's being accessed as - program as load and run, or vice versa)

3 - illegal operation (things like loading from a printer)

4 - buffer full (disk full, doesn't affect loads)

5 - read past EOF (shouldn't be a problem with legit E/A files)

6 - device error (actual faults like bad sectors)

7 - file error (usually means file not found)

[CamTheBridge]

If it's a program file, you select "RUN PROGRAM FILE" from editor/assembler. (It's index 5, thus, "EA#5" is the shorthand for it).

 

OMG I feel like such an idiot AHAHA.

 

Thanks SO MUCH! EA#5 was it!

[+arcadeshopper]

if they are ea5 program files you can use my loader here to load them from extended basic http://ftp.whtech.com/Users/Gregory%20McGill/LOAD

just put the load file on the disk and start extended basic..

 

thanks to tursi-et'all for the xb ea5 loader code!