I do a regular contest on RetroBattlestations called BASIC Week which is a sort of tribute to the days when it was common for programs to be published in books and magazines and people would type them into their computers. One of the neat things about distributing software through type-in listings is that there?s no need for working disk drives or tape drives, or to do complicated things like get a serial connection working and find a way to transfer files. If a computer has built-in BASIC just turn it on and start typing!
Past programs have displayed vector graphics, silly text screen animations, and a couple of games. This time around the program is called Winchester Drive and the concept is to explore a mansion to see what you can find. I decided this time around to try out true sprites and made a version for both the Apple II and Commodore 128.
I wanted to do a Commodore 64 version but couldn't find any line drawing routines written in assembly anywhere! I thought for sure in the last 33 years some book or magazine somewhere would have written a couple of simple routines to clear the graphics screen and draw some lines that you could POKE in and then call with SYS. Oh well, I will leave the C64 version to someone else. :-)
The challenge is more about honor and glory and getting an excuse to show off old computers and/or skills with porting, but I do give out vinyl decals & stickers for prizes (http://imgur.com/a/iAS5T).
I know that the TI-99/4A, Atari 400/800, Coleco Adam, MSX, and maybe some others also had sprites. Sprites aren?t really needed for porting to other systems, they?re just an easy way to move the player around the screen. The program could definitely be ported to systems that use simple character graphics or even plain text screens.
The complete source code has been posted to github, and you can see the full rules and check out other submissions here:
https://redd.it/3ko0nd
--
Follow me on twitter: @FozzTexx
Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com
Many of us maintain large collections of bits that we'd like to preserve over a long time, and distribute, replicate, and migrate via unreliable storage media and networks. As disk sizes (and archive sizes) have increased, the probability of corruption undetected or uncorrected by the mechanisms normally built into disk drives, network protocols, and filesystems has increased to a level that warrants great concern.
I would be interested to know if there exists an archive format that has the following desirable properties:
1) It is well-documented, and relatively simple, to facilitate its implementation on many platforms present and future.
2) It supports some degree of incremental updating, but need not be particularly efficient about it. An explicit compaction operation is preferable to an overly complex format. It is adequate to use append-only strategies appropriate for write-once media.
3) Insertion and extraction of files, copying of the archives, and other archive-manipulation utilities support end-to-end verification that identical bits have been stably recorded to the media, bypassing or defeating platform-level or hardware-level caching mechanisms. Where this is not possible, the limits must be carefully delineated, with some basis for determining the properties of the platform and certifying reliability
properties where possible.
4) The format should provide for superior error detection capability, designed to avoid common failure modes with mechanisms typically used in hardware. For example, use a document-level cryptographic checksum rather than a block-level CRC.
5) The format should include a high degree of internal redundancy and recoverability, say, along the lines of a virtual RAID-array.
Just as biological organisms constantly correct DNA transcription errors,
the idea is to have a format that is robust across long-term exposure to
imperfect copying and transmission channels.
Does anything like this exist?
--Bill
Hi everyone,
I'm looking for the images of ROMs installed on the IOC (I/O controller)
board of Intel MDS-2 development systems. In particular I'm looking for
the content of the character generator ROM (A19-2708) and of firmware
ROMs (A50 to A53-4x2716). So far I had no success in googling them.
My goal would be to contribute a good emulation of MDS systems to MESS,
especially for what regards the look of the video terminal. Well, this
is the plan, when "real-life" is not inteferring too much...
Thanks a lot.
-- F.Ulivi
Hi all,
I?ve been struggling getting a 64k Dynamic RAM card back up and working in my IMSAI 8080. In fact I?m giving up on the DRAM card in this system and have decided to start looking for a SRAM card that can get the IMSAI up to 56k.
In terms if SRAM cards, I presently have:
2 x Problem solver RAM16 cards - both seem to be working.
2 x 8K RAM cards - both seem to be working.
Less cards generating heat, and putting stress on the old power supply is obviously best, so I?d be looking for either:
- 1 x 16k SRAM card (for a total of 4 RAM cards (3 x 16k + 1 x 8k) in my system). A PSS RAM16 would be preferred for sake of consistency, but obviously not crucial.
- 1 x 32k SRAM card (for a total of 3 RAM cards (1 x 32k, 1 x 16k + 1 x 8k) in my system)
- 1 x 64k SRAM card that can have the last 8k bank turned off
I would love to hear from anyone with one of the above cards who would be willing to pass it on.
Much thanks for your time.
Best regards
Philip
----- Original Message -----
> Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 22:56:32 -0500
> From: Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net>
> Subject: Re: Scraping DEC Equipment
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
> <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Message-ID: <C7A98127-DFF4-41B1-A6AF-5DFCA234D286 at lunar-tokyo.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> I need a tractor feed assembly for a LA100, are the ones on the 120
> compatible?
----- Reply:
Apparently not, but I might have one for an LA100.
mike
I would like to get a Tek 4404 computer going but lack any service
manuals. The system turns on but has no curser on the screen. Has
good power from the Power supply and heater is on in the CRT.
Has a row of LEDs on the mother board. Does anyone know how
to read these.
- Thanks, Jerry
On 7 May 2010, at 08:25, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 06 May 2010 16:06:37 -0700
> From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org>
> Subject: Re: Servant .953
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
> Message-ID: <4BE34B7D.6060902 at bitsavers.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 5/6/10 2:23 PM, Fred Cisin wrote:
>>> Al Kossow wrote:
>>>> I am interviewing Andy Hertzfeld tomorrow, and had hoped to talk about
>>>> Servant, but I can't find a copy of it around anywhere tonight.
>
> A huge thank you to Nigel Williams who forwarded a working copy of .951 five
> minutes before Bill and Andy arrived. We spent an hour talking about MacPaint
> and Quickdraw (Apple has finally given CHM approval to make the sources available)
> then another hour on Alice, Dali Clock, Servant, Hypercard, and Magic Cap.
Could you please clarify, the QuickDraw source is available for what purpose? Could developers modify it any include it in heir commercial 64 bit Intel applications for instance?
Is the source Pascal, Assembler, C or something else?
Roger Holmes,
Director of Microspot who has a Carbon application which compiles with over 10,000 warnings about deprecated QuickDraw calls.
The revival process of the 11/750 continues. The power supplies is working
good and then I started testing the actual machine. But that was not a very
smooth journey to success. I have in total at least three complete CPU
board sets and just after quite a lot of board swapping it got running (I
think).
I had error like:
* Bright red error light
* No response at all on the console
* %C microverify error
* %O microverify error
* An hexdump prompt which non like above bot still not correct.
* etc
Finally I had the
%% which meant that it passed microverify.
Then I used the (second) RDM module (the first one had RAM error) to run
the DPM and MIC test which passed.
The I ran the "Hardcore VAX instruction test" / TU58#7 which also passed
fine.
BUT the Cache / TB diag, TU58#5, give me this:
%%
00000000 16
>>>B
%%
@?ECKAL -- VAX 11/750 Cache/TB Diagnostic
00003488 06
>>>
I am running a BE-S198Q-DE tape image.
Anyone has a listing or description for the ECKAL diagnostic? Is there any
know incompatibilities with certain revisions of boards? Or known bugs?
The machine manage to boot the console tape so I get the BOOT58> prompt.
But I am not sure if that indicate that it is indeed working or not.
So, some help with the Cache/TB diagnostic would be very much appreciated.
/Mattis
I tried starting up my AlphaStation 200 today. All I get is some beeps and
an LED diagnostic code that suggests the NVRAM test failed. I swapped the
battery, as the old one was dead, but it still refused to work. I have tried
connecting to the serial port and got nothing (although I could have a
problem with using the correct cable etc). I even tried flipping the jumper
that takes you to the mini console, to no avail.
Does anyone have any suggestions for reviving this machine?
Thanks
Rob
