ebiguy Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 (edited) This old cartridge has been replaced by more powerfull or more modern cartridges but I wanted to give it a second life for those of you who still have one. The ROM file from this ZIP file offers these features: - SDX 4.49 full with manuals - All 4 OSS languages that you can "virtually" plug in your computer with a command: BXL, BXE, M65 and ACT. Then you can type CAR to enter the cartridge. - Dynamic configuration selection (BANKED or OSRAM) depending on the availability of extended memory. The OPTION key can be used during boot to force OSRAM - Pressing the START button during boot displays a menu full of game cartridges. The ZIP file contains also the Basic XE Extension disk with a special version of BASICXE.OSS that is working with this version of Basic XE. The file has been renamed BASICX8.OSS to match the filename expected by this version of Basic XE (renaming the file prevents Basic XE to load an incompatible BASICXE.OSS file). As you can see, SDX has been setup to boot from drive C (D3:) so that you can have a real floppy as D1: and have a 16MB ATR file as D3: for SDX. On D3: you can have 2 files to load your own drivers: - When SDX is in BANKED mode, CONFIG.SYS ends up merging with D3:>CONFGI.CFG (NOTE the swapped letters I and G - GI like GIant config) - When SDX is in OSRAM mode, CONFIG.SYS ends up merging with D3:>CONFIG.CFG (this time letters are not swapped) It means that you can easily load additionnal drivers depending on the memory configuration. Technical note 1: OSS languages need some code placed at the bottom of the stack (starting at $0100). This code is overwritten by the FORMAT command. If you use FORMAT, you must turn the machine off and on again to reinstall the code at the bottom of the stack. Technical note 2: The content of the bin file has been hand-crafted so do not try to change the content with SDXImageUser.exe. It would destroy the OSS images and some patches. Technical note 3: To use the Basic XE Extension, you need to run SDX in BANKED mode and have more than 128Kb so that SDX and Basic XE won't use the same memory banks. My8MbitFlash_SDX449c_OSS.zip Edited October 26, 2019 by ebiguy Additional information about CONFIG.SYS 10 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 26, 2019 Share Posted October 26, 2019 Fricking awesome!!! Thanks for this, I'll definitely give it a try ASAP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 On 10/26/2019 at 1:42 PM, ebiguy said: The ROM file from this ZIP file offers these features: - SDX 4.49 full with manuals I use D4:MAN and add to the MANPATH but D4-D8 are not recognized by this SpartaDos Cart until I run the DF command.. Is there a work around or other DEVICE I could add to my MERGE to log all drives. I use D4: also for storage for the toolkit files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Could this be made to work with The!Cart? And inserted with incremental write along with all other files to be chosen from The!Cart menu? I'm giving The!Cart and an SDrive-max with an 800XL to a friend, it would be great if I could add this to it! I am already set, myself, with other means of using SDX and OSS languages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebiguy Posted October 28, 2019 Author Share Posted October 28, 2019 5 hours ago, rdea6 said: I use D4:MAN and add to the MANPATH but D4-D8 are not recognized by this SpartaDos Cart until I run the DF command.. Is there a work around or other DEVICE I could add to my MERGE to log all drives. I use D4: also for storage for the toolkit files. There is no restriction whatsoever about the number of allowed drives. You can use D1: to DO: as usual. I tried under Altirra and I can access D4: through D8: But maybe the difference is that this SDX continue to boot on D3:. It's kind of hardcoded (but can be changed - ask me if you want to). So my question is: do you have a D3: drive when you boot SDX ? If yes, then you can have 3 files at the root of D3: - CONFGI.CFG where you put your additional drivers when in BANKED mode. - CONFIG.CFG where you put your additional drivers when in OSRAM mode. - AUTOEXEC.BAT where you can add set your MANPATH and your path to the toolkit directory like this: SET MANPATH=CAR:;D4:>MAN APPEND D4:>TOOLKIT I am not sure if this helps. Please give more details about your configuration and the content of your 3 above files and the commands you issue after booting showing that there is a problem. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebiguy Posted October 28, 2019 Author Share Posted October 28, 2019 3 hours ago, Gunstar said: Could this be made to work with The!Cart? And inserted with incremental write along with all other files to be chosen from The!Cart menu? I'm giving The!Cart and an SDrive-max with an 800XL to a friend, it would be great if I could add this to it! I am already set, myself, with other means of using SDX and OSS languages. I know nothing about The Cart! Does it emulate the AtariMax 8Mbit cartridge banking scheme ? Could you be more specific in your feature request (incremental write) ? What files are you talking about ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebiguy Posted October 28, 2019 Author Share Posted October 28, 2019 4 hours ago, Gunstar said: Could this be made to work with The!Cart? And inserted with incremental write along with all other files to be chosen from The!Cart menu? I'm giving The!Cart and an SDrive-max with an 800XL to a friend, it would be great if I could add this to it! I am already set, myself, with other means of using SDX and OSS languages. I checked The Cart! web page to know how it works. My first idea is to have 2 additional drives in SDX with The Cart! - a RAMdisk in the SRAM (say O:) - one big ATR file mounted in READ-ONLY mode (say N:) located in Flash which could contain all tools and applications that are not found in the CAR: drive. Writing to flash is another story. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 2 hours ago, ebiguy said: But maybe the difference is that this SDX continue to boot on D3:. It's kind of hardcoded (but can be changed - ask me if you want to). I usually put my hard drive at D5: so I can have 4 floppy drives attached if I want. Is it hard to change? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 4 hours ago, gozar said: I usually put my hard drive at D5: so I can have 4 floppy drives attached if I want. Is it hard to change? This is how I do it too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 6 hours ago, ebiguy said: I checked The Cart! web page to know how it works. My first idea is to have 2 additional drives in SDX with The Cart! - a RAMdisk in the SRAM (say O:) - one big ATR file mounted in READ-ONLY mode (say N:) located in Flash which could contain all tools and applications that are not found in the CAR: drive. Writing to flash is another story. It's been over a year since I flashed my The!Cart, but you can use Maxflash studio for preliminaries for ATR images, save them in a compatible format with The!Cart, which, IIRC, includes large ATR's as well as CAR or BIN or whatever, I'd have to look it over myself. But then you load it into The!Cart studio and using SIO2PC you can do a new or incremental flashes, depending; there are some images, like the PCM 4+4 music that requires the entire The!Cart, even though it doesn't use it all. I'm hoping this wouldn't be the case for this SDX+OSS flash image, but I don't recall and am still a noobie with The!Cart and it's studio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikerbob Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 ebigguy - this is the same for Side2? or that is a seperate device for this? I know getting the OSS stuff was talked about in another thread. Was the side2 addressed there? I am guessing since I need a modified sparta that rules out U1mb or write this modified version to the Rom, and the BasicXE (what I would want) to the one of the available car: slots. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebiguy Posted October 28, 2019 Author Share Posted October 28, 2019 9 hours ago, gozar said: I usually put my hard drive at D5: so I can have 4 floppy drives attached if I want. Is it hard to change? 4 hours ago, Gunstar said: This is how I do it too. I can provide you with another bin file with D5: instead of D3: But if you have an hexadecimal editor (I mean an editor for binary file which displays bytes as Hexadecimal), then you can patch yourself the bin file. There are 2 locations to patch: At offset $2E40C And at offset $346EA Change 3 ($33) to the drive number you want. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebiguy Posted October 28, 2019 Author Share Posted October 28, 2019 3 hours ago, Bikerbob said: ebigguy - this is the same for Side2? or that is a seperate device for this? I know getting the OSS stuff was talked about in another thread. Was the side2 addressed there? I am guessing since I need a modified sparta that rules out U1mb or write this modified version to the Rom, and the BasicXE (what I would want) to the one of the available car: slots. James This packaging is definitely not for SIDE2. I also patched OSS languages for SIDE2. These binaries may be found on @flashjazzcat's website. But the current binaries for SIDE2 are not compatible with Basic XE Extension disk. I made a new BASICXE.OSS file for SIDE2 which is currently in FJC's hands. So if you wait for the next FJC's release, you will get everything for running BasicXE and its extension in SIDE2. Both cartridges (the SIDE2 and the AtariMax 8Mbit) offer the same common features regarding OSS languages: You can use all languages under SDX and use BasicXE with its extension. But SIDE2 offers more features : - You can use SIDE2 without SDX (with the DOS of your choice). The package I offer is SDX only. - The OSS languages run without any code in the stack making the languages more robust than in this package. But I used this AtariMax package for several years (with Mac/65) without any problem. So to sum-up, if you have an SIDE2, wait for FJC's next release, if you have an AtariMax 8Mbit, use this package. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gozar Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 5 hours ago, ebiguy said: I can provide you with another bin file with D5: instead of D3: But if you have an hexadecimal editor (I mean an editor for binary file which displays bytes as Hexadecimal), then you can patch yourself the bin file. There are 2 locations to patch: At offset $2E40C And at offset $346EA Change 3 ($33) to the drive number you want. That works, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 6 hours ago, ebiguy said: This packaging is definitely not for SIDE2. I also patched OSS languages for SIDE2. These binaries may be found on @flashjazzcat's website. But the current binaries for SIDE2 are not compatible with Basic XE Extension disk. I made a new BASICXE.OSS file for SIDE2 which is currently in FJC's hands. So if you wait for the next FJC's release, you will get everything for running BasicXE and its extension in SIDE2. Both cartridges (the SIDE2 and the AtariMax 8Mbit) offer the same common features regarding OSS languages: You can use all languages under SDX and use BasicXE with its extension. But SIDE2 offers more features : - You can use SIDE2 without SDX (with the DOS of your choice). The package I offer is SDX only. - The OSS languages run without any code in the stack making the languages more robust than in this package. But I used this AtariMax package for several years (with Mac/65) without any problem. So to sum-up, if you have an SIDE2, wait for FJC's next release, if you have an AtariMax 8Mbit, use this package. If I may ask... What version of Basic/XE extensions (.OSS file) have you been working on for SIDE2-fix? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebiguy Posted October 29, 2019 Author Share Posted October 29, 2019 4 hours ago, Faicuai said: If I may ask... What version of Basic/XE extensions (.OSS file) have you been working on for SIDE2-fix? The standard one. If your underlying question is: Did you integrate the modifications to run in a 800 with Incognito ($BFFC instead of $03FA), the answer is no for both packages (SIDE2 and AtariMax 8Mb). If you next question is why, then I think I have no excuse to present. Patching BASICXE.OSS file for SIDE2 was very complex because it was a real challenge to find empty space under OS and in the BasicXE cartridge to put the bank switching code. I saw you post about your changes several weeks ago but when I managed to make it work, I was so happy that I did not want to make any more changes... But now that it seems to work (thanks to @rdea6 for testing), I guess I could integrate your modifications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebiguy Posted October 29, 2019 Author Share Posted October 29, 2019 16 hours ago, Gunstar said: It's been over a year since I flashed my The!Cart, but you can use Maxflash studio for preliminaries for ATR images, save them in a compatible format with The!Cart, which, IIRC, includes large ATR's as well as CAR or BIN or whatever, I'd have to look it over myself. But then you load it into The!Cart studio and using SIO2PC you can do a new or incremental flashes, depending; there are some images, like the PCM 4+4 music that requires the entire The!Cart, even though it doesn't use it all. I'm hoping this wouldn't be the case for this SDX+OSS flash image, but I don't recall and am still a noobie with The!Cart and it's studio. I will try to make a RAMDISK this week-end when running inside THE CART!. This won't be a big deal as I already made one for MyIDE II which has also 512Kb of SRAM. Then I will post the new package but maybe this time with D5: as the default boot drive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 The word processer by @flashjazzcat Last Word causes the AtariMax 8mb cartridge to crash when exiting the program. It goes to a multicolor static screen with no key board response until a power off/on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 I have gotten into the START menu of listed game only once by chance and have not been able to recreate the method of getting to the menu are there any tips or hints about booting to this menu.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 (edited) START menu works by holding START when you power up or reboot Correction: Works only at power up. Edited October 29, 2019 by a8isa1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 2 hours ago, rdea6 said: The word processer by @flashjazzcat Last Word causes the AtariMax 8mb cartridge to crash when exiting the program. It does nothing out of the ordinary other than using RAM under the OS. Perhaps this has something to do with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 (edited) 8 hours ago, ebiguy said: The standard one. If your underlying question is: Did you integrate the modifications to run in a 800 with Incognito ($BFFC instead of $03FA), the answer is no for both packages (SIDE2 and AtariMax 8Mb). If you next question is why, then I think I have no excuse to present. Patching BASICXE.OSS file for SIDE2 was very complex because it was a real challenge to find empty space under OS and in the BasicXE cartridge to put the bank switching code. I saw you post about your changes several weeks ago but when I managed to make it work, I was so happy that I did not want to make any more changes... But now that it seems to work (thanks to @rdea6 for testing), I guess I could integrate your modifications. No, no prob. With Incognito's changes, as (at the end of the day) the scope of your SIDE 1/2/AtariMax packaging is your prerogative. However, I wanted to warn you that BasicXE comes in several flavors (4.1, 4.1p and 4.2) and there are (at least) two variants of extensions (4.00 and 4.11) In the case of Incognito, I will be supporting Basic XE 4.1p (because it handles "D:" reference correctly for SDX) and Extensions v4.00 and v4.11 (pretty good well tested here, so far). Have not found yet extensions that properly run with 4.2, though. Cheers! Edited October 29, 2019 by Faicuai 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 2 hours ago, flashjazzcat said: using RAM under the OS Okay I ran Turbobasic and loaded a few programs and all was ok but crashed while trying to ENTER a program. And I tried @drac030 basic program called UBI also using RAM under the OS. and entering a basic listing caused the cart to crash need a power off/on. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebiguy Posted October 29, 2019 Author Share Posted October 29, 2019 (edited) 8 hours ago, rdea6 said: The word processer by @flashjazzcat Last Word causes the AtariMax 8mb cartridge to crash when exiting the program. It goes to a multicolor static screen with no key board response until a power off/on. I added a check to detect if the stack has been overwritten. In this case, the system is halted and something like a rainbow is displayed in background to know that there was a problem. The problem is that half of the stack ($100 to $178 IIRC) is taken for the switching code. So there are two possibilities : - Last Word uses deliberately the lower half of the stack to store data. - Last Word has a normal use of the stack but needs more than half of the stack for its nested calls. Maybe @flashjazzcat can help us diagnose the problem now that I explained what makes the rainbow to appear. Edited October 29, 2019 by ebiguy typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 4 minutes ago, ebiguy said: Maybe @flashjazzcat can help us diagnose the problem now that I explained what makes the rainbow to appear. Looks like it's actually overflow ZP usage (TLW uses $80-$FF... in fact $80-$0100!) since only $0100 is used. Can't see this getting fixed any time soon since TLW is fairly low on the list of priorities (next update will require a lot of work), and the bug doesn't appear to cause trouble anywhere else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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