[Coco] .BIN to .ROM

[Steve]

Once one of the new FDC are done, I think you will find it easier to 
load a file from a SD card even easier than plugging in a new Rompak to 
change the program to run.  Besides, you run the risk of damaging the 
CoCo the plugging and unplugging all those Rompaks.

The bottom line to what you are trying to do is something that is not 
regularly done on the CoCo for the following reasons...

1) The cost and limited supply in eproms and paks.

2) Most BIN will not fit in 16K for CoCo 1/2 or 32K for a CoCo3.

3) Having to convert from BIN TO ROM or add a boot-loader to the make it 
work.

4) The possibility of damaging the CoCo by power it up/down or plugging 
a rompak in wrong.  There was an YouTube video of a CoCo that retained 
power for like a minute.  Do you wait that long before unplugging a 
rompak?  If you do, I would not call it fast loading.

For me, I don't see any real advantage to putting EVERYTHING on 
rompaks.  And this is coming from the king of rompak programming.

Steve


On 12/24/2013 2:39 PM, Chad H wrote:
> It's just the simplicity and zero-wait of turning on the CoCo and it already
> being in your program, whatever it is.  As it is, I can only really achieve
> this through EPROM cartridges.  Setting it to load up off of floppy
> automatically speeds up the process.  By the time my DriveWire server
> machine boots and is ready I could have done loaded it from other  means.
> Of course if I start the DriveWire service machine up first and come back in
> a few minutes everything's on nearly level ground.   Still, there's nothing
> quicker or easier than the original feature of the CoCo being able to load
> programs instantly off of cartridges.
>