16BIT ROM CART THOUGHTS

[exxos]

Some time ago I was asking about possibility of preparing ROM versions of YAART and SysInfo, but with no response. I only know, that it is impossible to just put an PRG file on a ROM.

Atarian Computing has put together a tool set to do just that. GB6 is now a PRG on the cartridge.

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =80#p17175

I never thought about sysinfo.. but there isn't any room left in this particular ROM. I guess I second ROM could be done with Diagrom and some other stuff like sysinfo.

[Atarian Computing]

Some time ago I was asking about possibility of preparing ROM versions of YAART and SysInfo, but with no response. I only know, that it is impossible to just put an PRG file on a ROM.

Atarian Computing has put together a tool set to do just that. GB6 is now a PRG on the cartridge.

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =80#p17175

I never thought about sysinfo.. but there isn't any room left in this particular ROM. I guess I second ROM could be done with Diagrom and some other stuff like sysinfo.

Sysinfo cart

SYSINFO.png (63.41 KiB) Viewed 5169 times

[exxos]

It may be worth doing a second ROM just for general utils rather than diagnostics. Things like sys_info, FCOPYIII... no idea what else be useful... I dont use many apps past GB6 and FCOPY personally..

Another thought I just had about GB6.. it needs the desktop.inf files on there to boot to medium res...

These are the 2 files I used.. newdesk.inf and desktop.inf.

GB6_FLOPPY.zip

(806 Bytes) Downloaded 198 times

Of course the A:\ paths will need to be altered to c:\

Then GB6 should auto boot from medium res desktop and auto load GB6... With it being the only app there, it be better to auto boot it anyway.

[Atarian Computing]

K, here's a very alpha GUI version of my Powershell script. Make sure you have the files to be converted in the same directory as the executable.

You can select either 64KB or 128KB. I have not coded any safeguards if the file is larger than the image you are converting to. Expect crashes. Otherwise it works just fine.

2019-01-25 13_28_02-Atari ST CartMaker.png (25.87 KiB) Viewed 5156 times

[Atarian Computing]

Another thought I just had about GB6.. it needs the desktop.inf files on there to boot to medium res...

This would only work with a complex ramdisk. I'll see if there is another way to autoboot.

[rubber_jonnie]

I have a cart by Crashman on this forum https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... t=crashman, will the diagnostics be significantly different to those on that cart, if so I need one

[exxos]

will the diagnostics be significantly different to those on that cart

The cart I am doing has all the basic Atari diagnostic carts, plus will have both versions of YAART & GB6.

[exxos]

K, here's a very alpha GUI version of my Powershell script. Make sure you have the files to be converted in the same directory as the executable.

You can select either 64KB or 128KB. I have not coded any safeguards if the file is larger than the image you are converting to. Expect crashes. Otherwise it works just fine.

[rubber_jonnie]

The cart I am doing has all the basic Atari diagnostic carts, plus will have both versions of YAART & GB6.

Ok, cool, ta.

[tzok]

SysInfo and GemBench work great on my diagnostic cart, thanks! I have not analyzed details of your 16-bit ROM cart, but if you are making a proper use of ROM3/4 lines you may use both 64kB and 128kB ROMs. Yet over-complicated jumper settings tell me that you are switching between 64/128kB cart modes. If you have 8Mbit Flash EPROM, then you may sacrifice 64kB for every 64kB ROM, but instead you could use convenient rotary encoder to select ROM number (like in one from Olivier Gossuin). If you are afraid of some address decoding issues, you may just fill second half of 128kB slot holding a 64kB ROM image with a second copy of the same 64kB ROM image.

Also crashman's cart had a rotary encoder to select ROM:
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=11&t=959