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Tech Musings, (circumlunar), 09/12/2018
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Grex.org is down again. I wouldn't say that they are down
frequently, but this is the second time this week. They were
up for a bit and I made a backup of my content. There's
nothing earth-shattering in there, but it's stuff that I
put together, and I don't want to lose it. Backups are
important.
In any case, mostly I write about z80 stuff over there or on
SDF... but grex is down and I don't feel like writing on
SDF; plus, I'm using CP/M more on my z80 build now, so
circumlunar is a good place for this post, I declare.
***
I've been playing around with my z80 computer a lot more
recently, now that I have an iteration with a disk-based
operating system. Certain, it feels a lot more like a modern
system now, versus the rom-based BASIC setup. I really enjoy
these old ring-0 operating systems, they just make me happy.
Most recently, I've been getting games to work for my kids.
Here's what I have working (my terminal supports VT100 and
VT52):
Ladder - the old Kaypro game, barrel-rolling like Donkey
Kong. It was pretty easy to get this one working, as it has
a config program. Fast-paced, the kids love it.
Catchum - another old Kaypro game, a PacMan clone. Getting
this to work was a matter of opening the .DAT file in a hex
editor and changing the escape code control character to
work with a VT52. Some of the screen drawing is messed up a
bit, but it's quite functional, and fast.
Worm - a German game of the expected type, worm that gets
longer must eat all the numbers. Opened it in a hex editor
to change the controls and to localize it into English.
Already worked in VT100 mode, though my terminal has issues
with their 80 column field (somehow there is 1 extra column,
which makes extra line breaks when drawing the field
boundaries).
Quantris - a tetris clone. This one comes with a config
program, so it works out of the box as well. Fun to play and
fast paced.
Zork 1,2, and 3 - work out of the box.
Basic Games - I gathered up a long list of BASIC-80 (mbasic)
games. Most work without modification, some had small
issues, others I have yet to try.
Aliens - the Kaypro game... I have it, and it partially
works. I *really* want to get this one working, or find a
version that works. I'll keep trying.
Apart from games, I've got working installs of WordStar 3
and 4, CalcStar, the TE editor (under active development!),
MBasic (with compiler, etc.) and a variety of utilities
(calendar program, calculators, etc.) I would like a good
hex editor, so I don't have to do that on my PC, but I
haven't looked yet.
One last thing... some of these programs were difficult to
find on today's web. I am planning on putting the files on
gopher, perhaps over at SDF or Grex where I already
have similar files. The .COM (and associated) files would
be good to put online, but I'd also like to put the
.TXT hex-converted versions that work with Grant Searle's
DOWNLOAD.COM utility, for those who use it, so that they
don't have to worry about converting them to load. Of
course, the total count of people using that utility AND on
gopher might be just one including myself, so it may be
moot, but that's OK.
One last, last thing... my z80 on prototype board, with
cassette storage, is still in a box. Even though the CP/M
machine is easy and fun, I still want to break out the other
and continue my adventures with it. I even have a nice 80s
cassette player and a few new tapes that I really want to
try out. I think I've talked about this on gopher already,
but it keeps popping up in my mind, and I can't do anything
about it in the real world right now, so...