budz2355 Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Hi Everyone, My kids start home schooling next week with the lovely global health crisis going around. I already have all the school platforms setup for official teaching on my end, but I thought it would be fun to revist some old classics from the TI. My kids are 2nd grade, Kindergarten, Pre-K so 8,6,5 years old. The oldest two are beyond Early Learning Fun at this point (they loved it when they were younger), but if anyone has any recommendations for Edutainment / Education carts that I could pick up? My oldest child is already in the 'gifted' program at school (we TI users are smart right? :)), so don't worry about putting anything too challenging here - I like to push them to the educational limit and I am sure they will like the challenge, but feel free to post literally any and all titles you can think of and I can curate the list on my end if it gets too extensive. I do have a flash rom 99, but no final grom. I do have multiple disk drives, extended basic carts, ram disk, etc., so a few other means to play things if it's possible to get them, just not the final grom cart sadly. I am willing to buy stuff from ebay though and I may already own the carts mentioned (I think I have around 100 various carts). Bonus points if you can leave a link to where I can get the games Thanks for any help - advice! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 has all the flash rom converted carts.. 32k required for any original carts from ti converted as they were grom converted to rom and run in 32k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Plato! There are hundreds of lessons in all subjects available. We’ve been using it for our kids for math since the schools closed. The range in difficulty from grade 1 through high school. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Plato disk images available here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 he'll need a plato cartridge no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhataKowinkydink Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 29 minutes ago, fimbulvetr said: Plato! Yup!!! Plato is a great go-to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 if you had a TIPI you could use irata.online plato http://ti99.irata.online Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhataKowinkydink Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 1 minute ago, arcadeshopper said: he'll need a plato cartridge no? Oh yeah, there's a cart for Plato. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 Wasn't there a program called Virus Attack by Vern Jensen? ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz442 Posted March 26, 2020 Share Posted March 26, 2020 You can also use Gamebase for the Plato series, there is a lot of courses on there. Look toward the bottom of the list under 'zZz Plato Courseware' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airshack Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 On 3/26/2020 at 12:44 PM, arcadeshopper said: if you had a TIPI you could use irata.online plato http://ti99.irata.online Hey Greg, Is it also possible to use FlashGROM to load the PLATO cart image and then just map a PLATO lesson disk image to TIPI? When I try the PLATO cart boot screen keeps reading: INSERT CORRECT PLATO DISK. Assumption: PLATO works with the PLATO cart loaded and the lesson diskette goes into DSK1. Correct? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budz2355 Posted April 10, 2020 Author Share Posted April 10, 2020 On 3/26/2020 at 2:20 PM, fimbulvetr said: Plato disk images available here. Awesome - thanks. I bought the Plato cart. But I ran into a (memory) problem when trying to transfer the files to my TI disks. And by memory, I mean my own personal grey blob in my skull... I used to transfer files to my TI using TIMXT and a terminal emulator on the PC side. I found the terminal program I used to use, but I can't for the life of me remember how to detect the TI's IP address. I am connected with a UDS-10. I think Omega used to have a guide somewhere with a program you could run that would list all the ips on your network or something... Also -- There's software somewhere that I need to use to turn all the plato disks into TIFILES right? I totally forget the name of that program as well... Any help would be appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 I can’t help you there. I have a Lotherek floppy emulator, so I just copy the disk images onto a flash card and go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 4 hours ago, budz2355 said: Awesome - thanks. I bought the Plato cart. But I ran into a (memory) problem when trying to transfer the files to my TI disks. And by memory, I mean my own personal grey blob in my skull... I used to transfer files to my TI using TIMXT and a terminal emulator on the PC side. I found the terminal program I used to use, but I can't for the life of me remember how to detect the TI's IP address. I am connected with a UDS-10. I think Omega used to have a guide somewhere with a program you could run that would list all the ips on your network or something... Also -- There's software somewhere that I need to use to turn all the plato disks into TIFILES right? I totally forget the name of that program as well... Any help would be appreciated! they need to be transferred as a "disk image". They are not standard ti disks, they have a small file in the directory and the rest of the data is written directly to the disk in a nonstandard method from what i can tell.. I was successful in copying them to a nanopeb image using tidir and copying the entire disk image to the cf card also you could use use DSK2PC which requires HDX server on the pc side, a serial port on the ti and a cable between.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Seems like somewhere on Atariage in the past year, I saw where someone described the copying process to be able to have 4 Plato courseware disks on a single DS/DD diskette. As I recall, the bitmap was different than expected but I thought still file accessible and not sector I/O accessible. I guess it could have been a dream, but most of those are too explicit...………. Beery 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhataKowinkydink Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 It would be great to get PLATO running on systems with FinalGROM and nanoPEB/CF7+/TIPI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 I took a super quick look at this... The disks are /almost/ normal disk images. They moved the directory from sector 1 to sector 359, and so the directory in sector 1 contains only a single file which contains some object code (it might only be copyright information, I didn't look too deeply). When it wants to load a file, it does it manually by consulting the hidden directory. Duplicating sector 359 overtop of sector 1 appears to work fine for making it a normal disk - although there are still some sectors containing data that aren't accounted. (They could simply be unused data, I don't know). Digging into the code a bit, I THINK I found the entry to the file load function. I believe it copies the desired filename to a 10 byte buffer at >B70C, then calls >6236 through a BLWP vector at >B7BC. Of course, B7BC is in RAM so I'm a bit unsure that is always used, but it is used for the first two files - TIMENU and DISKMENU. In theory, converting to normal file access would be: - repair the disk by copying sector 359 back over sector 1 - patch in a normal DSRLNK function at >6236 The patch is a bit tricky. I did not work through the entire function, so I don't know if it provides a VDP buffer for the file or not. You would need to find a safe VDP address for the PAB (Plato has set the system to CALL FILES(1), at least, but bitmap is up). And then you'd need to find some space in the memory map or the ROM for the DSRLNK itself (if you reversed the entire load function, you probably have enough room to replace it.) The brief bit I did is attached here: Plato disk -sector 1 contains only $$1 file -sector 359 contains the real index -actual file indexes are standard Plato: Uses direct sector reads Starts with CALL FILES(1) 621C - copies 'TIMENU' into buffer... 20F4 C220 mov @>caa2,R8 (38) 20F8 C1E0 mov @>2074,R7 (38) 20FC CDE0 mov @>206e,*R7+ (54) 2100 CDC8 mov R8,*R7+ (42) 2102 CDE0 mov @>2064,*R7+ (54) 2106 C5E0 mov @>2066,*R7 (46) 210A 0420 blwp @>b7bc (62) call 6236 load file at >B70C? 6236 06A0 bl @>629e (32) string compare? (maybe check already loaded) 623A B70C data >B70C buffer (TIMENU) <------------------ this load 623C B716 data >B716 buffer (FFFFFFFFFFF) (last loaded?) 623E 000A data >000a 10 bytes 6240 04C0 clr R0 (18) 6242 C082 mov R2,R2 (26) 0 if equal 6244 1608 jne >6256 (14) skip loading 6246 06A0 bl @>629e 624A B70C data >b70c buffer 624C 620A data >620a "TIMENU " 624E 000A data >000a 10 bytes .... > 6256 0420 blwp @>6308 read sector wrapper string compare? 629E C03B mov *R11+,R0 (42) save data 1 62A0 C07B mov *R11+,R1 (42) save data 2 62A2 C0BB mov *R11+,R2 (42) save data 3 62A4 9C70 cb *R0+,*R1+ (54) compare 62A6 1602 jne >62ac (14) done if different 62A8 0602 dec R2 countdown 62AA 16FC jne >62a4 loop if any left 62AC 045B b *R11 (20) Read sector wrapper 630C 0300 limi >0000 (24) interrupts off 6310 53E0 szcb @>6632,R15 (42) >D400? > 6314 06A0 bl @>62e0 Call sector read 6318 0167 data >0167 Data stored for?? Read sector? 62E0 C83B mov *R11+,@>b6fe (54) save return data?? 62E4 C820 mov @>b72a,@>834e (46) VDP buffer address 62EA A820 a @>62de,@>834e (46) plus fixed offset 62F0 C820 mov @>6372,@>834c (46) drive index (always 1) 62F6 C820 mov @>b6fe,@>8350 (46) sector number > 62FC 0420 blwp @>65ee CALL DSR (fixed to read?) Call DSR function 65F2 53E0 szcb @>6632,R15 (42) VDP access address 65F6 02E0 lwpi >83e0 (18) GPLWS 65FA C320 mov @>b7b0,R12 (34) Disk controller CRU 65FE C260 mov @>b7ae,R9 (34) DSR function address (sector read) 6602 C060 mov @>b7ac,R1 (34) (1) 6606 1D00 sbo >0000 (16) Card on 6608 9820 cb @>4000,@>662d (50) check for >AA 660E 1609 jne >6622 (12) fail if not there 6610 0699 bl *R9 (20) call function > 6614 D020 movb @>8350,R0 check error 6618 1604 jne >6622 fail if error return 661A 1E00 sbz >0000 card off 661C 02E0 lwpi >b6d4 original workspace 6620 0380 rtwp back to caller 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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