dimfil Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 I ordered an Ultimate Cartridge and it's already on the way to me. I plan to use it mostly on my 600xl fitted with Antonia board. I am not familiar with the use of cartridges in combination with various alternative DOS versions out there! I know that some claim to be more compatible with some old titles. My question is, is there any point using such a DOS when loading titles from Ultimate Cartridge? In particular, OS A/B or MyBios which I already use from time to time for atr files and real floppies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 It depends on what you are loading. If you're playing a game that doesn't save high score or anything, then no DOS is fine. If you are loading a language cart, then you need a DOS in order to save your work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimfil Posted April 9, 2019 Author Share Posted April 9, 2019 It depends on what you are loading. If you're playing a game that doesn't save high score or anything, then no DOS is fine. If you are loading a language cart, then you need a DOS in order to save your work. What about xex files? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 The XEX loaders on these multi-carts typically don't make any provision for the loading of an FMS (DOS); the boot loaders usually just load the binary, turn themselves off, and jump through the run address. An exception is the SIDE loader, which optionally installs a small read-only FAT DOS prior to loading an XEX file, allowing the XEX normal DOS-style access the FAT partition from which it was launched. In most other situations, if you want access to DOS from an XEX, boot your DOS of choice and load the XEX from DOS's menu or command line. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimfil Posted April 9, 2019 Author Share Posted April 9, 2019 (edited) Oh God! I just realised that just one letter can make a great difference!I completely misspelled! I wanted to learn about alternative OS (that can be installed in rom slots of Antonia or U1Mb) and not alternative DOS...So the question (maybe) can change to this: is there any point to install an alternative OS rom (in particular MyBios and OS A/B) in Antonia or U1mb rom slots to be used with Ultimate Cartridge or Side2? Will this affect compatibility for old titles, either in rom/bin/car of xex format?Sorry my friends for the misunderstanding... Edited April 9, 2019 by dimfil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 (edited) Well, if you installed OS A it would essentially turn your machine into an Atari 400/800 and would allow you to run older titles that had trouble running on XL/XE machines without using a translator disk, so there's that. Same with any titles that would only run with XL/XE machines, but since you have an XL, it isn't all that big a deal. Honestly, I'm not aware of that many compatibility issues with cartridge titles, though I'm sure many other users on here could pipe in on the subject. I would think it would be much more helpful to be able to switch OSes to improve compatibility when using XEXes and ATR/ATXs. Edited April 9, 2019 by bfollowell 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimfil Posted April 9, 2019 Author Share Posted April 9, 2019 It depends on what you are loading. If you're playing a game that doesn't save high score or anything, then no DOS is fine. If you are loading a language cart, then you need a DOS in order to save your work. The XEX loaders on these multi-carts typically don't make any provision for the loading of an FMS (DOS); the boot loaders usually just load the binary, turn themselves off, and jump through the run address. An exception is the SIDE loader, which optionally installs a small read-only FAT DOS prior to loading an XEX file, allowing the XEX normal DOS-style access the FAT partition from which it was launched. In most other situations, if you want access to DOS from an XEX, boot your DOS of choice and load the XEX from DOS's menu or command line. Sorry my friends... I made a terrible mistake. I was talking about alternative OS roms... I rephrased my question above... Well, if you installed OS A it would essentially turn your machine into an Atari 400/800 and would allow you to run older titles that had trouble running on XL/XE machines without using a translator disk, so there's that. Same with any titles that would only run with XL/XE machines, but since you have an XL, it isn't all that big a deal. Honestly, I'm not aware of that many compatibility issues with cartridge titles, though I'm sure many other users on here could pipe in on the subject. I would think it would be much more helpful to be able to switch OSes to improve compatibility when using XEXes and ATR/ATXs. Thank you for your answer. So it would be safe to say that alternative OS rom does not have much to offer when talking about bi/rom/car files... OK, me too have not faced any problems at the moment, it's just a matter of experimenting and having fun learning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Oh, and I have just recently become the proud owner of an Ultimate Cartridge too, and I love it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 I ordered an Ultimate Cartridge and it's already on the way to me. I plan to use it mostly on my 600xl fitted with Antonia board. I am interested to hear what your experiences are with this combo. My Ultimate Cartridge does not seem to be compatible with my 600XL/ANTONIA setup. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimfil Posted April 10, 2019 Author Share Posted April 10, 2019 I am interested to hear what your experiences are with this combo. My Ultimate Cartridge does not seem to be compatible with my 600XL/ANTONIA setup. I was a little bit worried about this. I couldn't find any relative info but my Side2 works just OK, so I took my chances. Ofcourse I will report back when I receive it. If there are compatibility issues with this combo, then probably I will have to make some small rearrangements between my 600xl and 800xl... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimfil Posted April 17, 2019 Author Share Posted April 17, 2019 I am interested to hear what your experiences are with this combo. My Ultimate Cartridge does not seem to be compatible with my 600XL/ANTONIA setup. Well. I received yesterday my Ultimate cartridge. Seller stated that it has the latest firmware loaded. I know that nevertheless this firmware is out there available for a long time so I believe you may have updated too. My Antonia board has also the latest firmware available by Jacek, as he informed me. All tests good. I loaded many bin, rom, car files as well as xex files. No problems. All loaded fine. @SS what kind of incompatibility issues do you have? With certain files or in total with the Ultimate menu? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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