[Coco] Putting cartridge images in CoCo SDC Flash, without a programmer.

[Ronivon Costa]

Cool info, thanks for sharing.

On 7 July 2015 at 06:03, Richard Goedeken <Richard at fascinationsoftware.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for sending the information on flashing ROM images to the SDC.
> Figuring this out has been on my to-do list for a long time.
>
> Richard
>
> On 07/06/2015 07:37 PM, Zippster wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > One of the guys on the list was asking about getting Program Pak code
> into
> > the unused flash banks on the SDC, to be run from there.
> >
> > I’ve always used an EPROM/FLASH programmer for this sort of thing, but
> gave
> > it a try as if I didn’t have one, since Darren’s great SDC supports
> writing
> > the flash directly.  It is definitely doable.
> >
> > Here is the procedure I used in case anyone else is interested.
> >
> > 1) Download the .ccc file you want to put in a bank. (I used the recently
> > added Super Logo from the archive).
> >
> > 2) Use a hex editor to add the preamble (header), and postamble to the
> file
> > as specified by DECB Preamble (5 bytes) 00, 40 00 (2 byte size of code,
> 16k
> > in this case), 40 00 (load address) Postamble (5 bytes) FF, 00, 00, 40 00
> > (last to bytes are exec address, may not be needed)
> >
> > 3) Rename file to .bin and copy into a .dsk image using CoCoDskUtil
> >
> > 4) Put the .dsk image on the SD card and boot up the SDC in the CoCo
> >
> > 5) Use the following commands to load the image and write to the flash
> bank
> > (bank 7 in this case)
> >
> > DRIVE 0, “IMAGE.DSK” CLEAR 200, &H4000 LOADM”CCCFILE.BIN” KILL MEM @7
> WRITE
> > MEM @7,&H4000,&HC000,16384-256
> >
> > Your bin will be in the flash bank at this point.
> >
> > To run it from the SDC-DOS prompt, type…
> >
> > RUN @bank_number, R
> >
> > Depending on the image it may not want to run at first (Super Logo
> didn’t),
> > but since we used RUN with the R option, simply press reset (our flash
> bank
> > will still be selected), and type EXEC &HC000.
> >
> > Super Logo flashed this way boots perfectly when autostart is jumpered
> and
> > the flash bank is selected on the DIP. Using the RUN @bank from the
> SDC-DOS
> > prompt required the above reset and EXEC, but it works.
> >
> > Anyway, I thought this was pretty neat, and although there may be a
> > smoother way, I thought I’d share this so people without EPROM
> programmers
> > can use the flash banks for cart firmware.  :)
> >
> > - Ed
> >
>
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