[Coco] Cave Walker & Issues with VCC was OS9 Lv 1 games

[Robert Gault]

Barry Nelson wrote:
> Sorry Robert, but I have to differ with you there. Some level 1 games (I don't remember which ones) may not run on OS9 level 2, but Cave Walker was designed to run on OS9 level 2 as well as level 1, and does run on Microware OS9 level 2, but does NOT run on NitrOS9 level 2 on real hardware. Strangely it does run on NitrOS9 level 2 on VCC. Quoted from the manual (page 1, right after the table of contents):
>
> The following equipment is optional:
> 	• Second disk drive
> 	• Tandy hard disk system
> 	• OS-9 Level Two (provides additional colors and RGB support)
>
> Running it this way utilizes the palette registers in a CoCo 3 to both display color on an RGB monitor and also uses some additional colors.
>
><snip>

Barry,

Thanks for mentioning the manual which I found at
http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Documents/Manuals/Games/Cave%20Walker%20(Tandy).pdf
My copy of the game was obtained at
http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/coco/Disks/Games/Cave%20Walker%20(Tandy).zip

It looks to me that we are both correct but not referring to exactly the same 
things. VCC will not run OS-9 Level 1, nor OS-9 Level 1 V2. Cave Walker contains 
OS-9 Level 1 V2 which you will see if you Enter DOS and watch OS-9 boot.
Cave Walker will definitely not run if you try to start it on VCC by inserting 
the disk and entering the DOS command. The game will freeze when Setime runs.

What does work on VCC is to mount an OS-9 Level 2 disk, enter DOS, and boot OS-9 
L2. Once the boot process is finished, you change to the Cave Walker disk, enter
CHD /D0
CHX /D0/CMDS
CAVE
and the game runs correctly.
Clearly VCC is not compatible with OS-9 L1 or OS-9 L1V2.

I also have not been able to run CW on a real Coco3 after booting NitrOS-9. The 
game will run if OS-9 Level2 is booted first on a real Coco3 or directly from 
the disk under OS-9 Level1 V2.

Robert