[Coco] Playing games from floppies

Wed Dec 20 12:40:04 EST 2017

Kandur, that's actually ADOS-3 in your screenshot, configured so that the
title screen says MYDOS.  (There's no such command as LCASE, it just
understands lowercase commands.)

Art

On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 12:47 AM, Kandur <k at qdv.pw> wrote:

> Thanks Art,
>
> I purchased your Mydos as soon as it was available, and still using it.
> http://p.uio.pw/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mydos_3432.jpg
> I have a 512k Coco-3, 3.5" floppy drive and a MYDOS/HDBDOS controller.
> I don't mind to use DW to copy games to floppies,
> but don't want to turn on a PC to RUN the games from DW.
>
> Also thanks to everyone, who tried to help me.
>
> Kandur
>
> Tuesday, December 19, 2017, 8:20:15 PM, you wrote:
>
> > can instead save the game to cassette first, after disabling the
> autostart
> > with tape, then offset load it from cassette to $2000 or somewhere and
> > append a loader that copies ROM to RAM and moves the game back to $C000.
>
> > Art
>
> > On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 10:57 PM, Andrew <keeper63 at cox.net> wrote:
>
> >> Kandur,
>
> >> Back in the day (well, I still have it actually) with my CoCo 2 and 3
> as a
> >> kid, I had more than a few floppies with cartridge games on them. If you
> >> look thru back issues of the Rainbow, Hot CoCo and the like, you should
> be
> >> able to find the technique on how to transfer them. IIRC, you need to
> have
> >> an MPI or a Y-adapter for the cartridge slot so you can have both the
> >> floppy controller and the cartridge plugged in at the same time.
>
> >> There was a pin on the end of the cartridge that you had to cover with a
> >> piece of tape (IIRC, it was some kind of interrupt pin). This would
> allow
> >> the CoCo to boot up with the floppy controller, and not boot the
> cartridge,
> >> but by virtue of being on the bus, it was still mapped into memory, I
> >> think. You could then easily save the binary image from memory to the
> >> floppy.
>
> >> This was only valid though for the simpler cartridges that didn't use
> any
> >> fancy address/mapping hardware for more memory space (I think games like
> >> Thexder, Pitfall, RoboCop, etc - used this scheme; I recall an article
> >> about it in the Rainbow as well, from probably 1987-90 or so); basically
> >> almost all of the old-school 4 and 8k cartridges could be transferred
> like
> >> this - and they floated all over the BBS network back then, too.
>
> >> As such, there really isn't a need to worry about going at it alone,
> >> yourself, unless you have something that isn't in the archives already
> (and
> >> if you do, we would love to hear about it - likely more than a few of us
> >> would help with preservation if needed).
>
> >> But if you browse the archives, you can generally find cartridge dumps -
> >> most end in .BIN or such; I don't recall the exact process for loading
> them
> >> from a floppy (LOADM "GAMENAME.BIN" - probably needs an offset, maybe a
> >> CLEAR or EXEC at some address?) - but again, scour the Rainbow and such
> for
> >> info - it's out there.
>
> >> So - how to get them to your CoCo floppy drive? That's - a bit more
> >> complicated. As others have said, DriveWire is probably the easiest and
> >> best way today, but if you didn't want to go that route...
>
> >> ...build a PC. Basically, you want to make a "retro" DOS PC with a 5.25
> >> floppy drive; you'll want (ideally) a DSDD drive, and you'll need a
> >> motherboard or floppy controller to plug it into; an old Pentium box
> would
> >> be perfect. Install DOS (a copy of 6.22 would be best - FreeDOS might
> also
> >> work, or Caldera OpenDOS if you're feeling adventurous), then set up
> one of
> >> the DOS emulators (I am partial to Jeff Vavasour's work, personally),
> plus
> >> all of the DOS tools.
>
> >> Format a floppy on the CoCo, then pop it in on the PC and start up the
> >> emulator; make sure you can mount and read/write to the physical floppy
> >> drive on the PC, and that you can read what you wrote on the CoCo. Get
> that
> >> working - it isn't difficult.
>
> >> Also on the PC - install a DOS supported ethernet card (an old Intel or
> >> 3COM EISA card is perfect if you can find one), then search around for
> the
> >> various ethernet DOS tools out there; there's one out there that's an
> FTP
> >> server that you can setup, then use an FTP client on your main PC (or
> Mac
> >> or whatnot) to transfer files to the DOS machine. From there, you can
> then
> >> stop the server (you can only do one thing at a time under DOS), then
> use
> >> the CoCo/DOS floppy tools to transfer the file to your RSDOS formatted
> >> floppy, and test it out on the emulator. If it works there, then try it
> on
> >> the actual machine.
>
> >> Otherwise, you might also set up a 3.5" floppy drive on the same
> machine,
> >> and transfer from the internet PC to the DOS PC via 3.5" floppies (you
> may
> >> need to find a USB 3.5" floppy drive for your modern box, if it doesn't
> >> have a floppy drive controller on the mobo).
>
> >> Another possibility - which I've never tried, btw - is to set up DOS to
> be
> >> able to read/write to USB memory sticks (thumb drives); such drivers do
> >> exist for DOS, though they are a tad experimental still. But - with
> that,
> >> you could dump the file to the USB stick and then read it back on the
> DOS
> >> machine.
>
> >> Another possibility (though DriveWire would be a better way) would be to
> >> set up a null-modem cable from the PC to the CoCo, then run term
> software
> >> on both ends and transfer from the PC to the CoCo using ZMODEM or
> similar...
>
> >> coco-request at maltedmedia.com
>
> >>> Message: 8
> >>> Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2017 13:35:49 -0800
> >>> From: Kandur<k at qdv.pw>
> >>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts<coco at maltedmedia.com>
> >>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Playing games from floppies
> >>> Message-ID:<1519025078.20171219133549 at qdv.pw>
> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
>
> >>> poor kids like me bought floppies. That's why I have
> >>> over 100 floppies with coco stuff on them, but no games at all.
>
> >>> Thanks anyway.
>
> >>> Kandur
>
>
> >> --
> >> Andrew L. Ayers
> >> Glendale, Arizona
> >> https://github.com/andrew-ayers
> >> http://www.phoenixgarage.org/
>
> >> --
> >> Coco mailing list
> >> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
> --
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