Commodore 128 Alive!

Becoming a C128 owner a few months ago, after being an Atari guy for years, I've been eager to explore the CP/M capabilities of the C128.  There's lots of CP/M software available on the web, however, transfering the contents of a .zip to something that a Commodore can work with was a little bit of a challenge.

Tonight I got around to transferring Turbo Pascal 3.0 and dBASE-II 2,43 to a .d64 and .d71 respectively in C128 CP/M format for transfer to a real floppy.  All screen control codes used by these programs are C128 compatible as well, so they both work as they should.  I'll be working on more CP/M titles to .d64 or .d71 (depending on size of program) in the next few days...

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I now finally have a decent pascal compiler and database for my wee 8bit beast...  Tomorrow I think I'll make a .d64 of HiSoft's DevPac for CP/M..

Have you checked out the CP/M files library here? Lance has got quite a bit of stuff up there.

Quote from: airship on March 14, 2008, 02:09 AM
Have you checked out the CP/M files library here? Lance has got quite a bit of stuff up there.

Where can I find them?  It seems like most of the 'files' links are broken...

It's funny though... Back in-the-day, my parents could have bought any Commodore equipment where my ma worked with a 20% discount, yet they chose to buy Ataris for me through the only place you could buy an Atari in town, one of the local household appliance stores.

Now that I have an C128 and 1571, it just makes me wish I was a Commodore kid, rather than an Atari one.  (I'm still trying to discover the VIC-II equivalent of the ANTIC Display List).

I'm also looking forward to writing a program that uses both processors.  "Buddy" makes it seem like doing so will be easier than I thought.

Oh yeah... here's Z80 version DevPac...

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transfering the contents of a .zip to something that a Commodore can work with was a little bit of a challenge.

I'd be grateful if you'd describe your transfer method. Cheers.

Paul

Quote from: 8502 on March 16, 2008, 09:41 AM

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transfering the contents of a .zip to something that a Commodore can work with was a little bit of a challenge.

I'd be grateful if you'd describe your transfer method. Cheers.

Paul

The method is long and nasty and requires a command prompt..,  I'm thinking of writing a tutorial for the process...  All it requires is an opensource tool that's not very bug free (*cough like Microsoft)...  Little known I surmise, because it took a while of wading through multiple variations of the same search query on Google to find it,  that, and you're asking me...


I transferred the Microsoft Basic Compiler today and the interpreter is buggered.  Backspace is an issue with Microsoft CP/M Basic.  Though, if you just throw an ASCII Basic file into the compiler, and link it with L80 (Damn them guys had some fun interfaces) it works fine, but actually coding within the CP/M MSBasic interpreter on a 128 is not fun (pressing Backspace is like having what you typed in repeated back to you from a Forth stack  ie. RPN, for example  10 print "C=128 Rocks"[start pressing backspace]\"skcoR 821=C" tnirp).  But the good thing is if you make a mistake in the interpreter, continually pressing backspace you'll eventually get back to where you can enter a new line number... (Any Z80 gurus on site that want to point out where to patch the screen codes?)

I've uploaded some of the .d64 and .d71 files I've created to this site, but the downloads haven't been approved yet.  And, I'm not happy about the WordStar 4.0 I've uploaded.  There's not enough room on a double sided 1571 disk for the whole application, so I archived it with PMArc, included the extractor with a READ.ME on how to extract it to a 1581 (or compatible) CP/M disk.  I've only ever run it in an emulator (with the VIC-II turned off) on a 1581 image...  Still... It's a very easy to set up with or without an emulator (as long as you have the hardware; a 1581 will fall into my possession some time this year)...

I wish I can transport these .d71 and .d64 files back in time to the Commodore marketing department... If Commodore marketed these from our point of view back then...  Woo Hoo... I'm all beered out tonight! (* Turbo Pascal, dBASE and WordStar [not to mention Devpac like the 128's smokin' hot younger sister] on a computer that I can buy cheap at K-Mart... Booyachaka... HEY! *)  Well... I'm obviously drunk... gonna go have a session kinda like the old Atari MRB used to... brb...


[After the left-handed cigarette]

Tomorrow:  FTL Modula-2


*Note:  Just created a .d64 and transferred to 5.25 that C=128 Compute! Sid Player that's shown in a nice pic on the forums (though the Atari ANTIC handles that effect on the menu better)... Very nice program... Better than Antic Music Processor on the Atari...  ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND DECENT INFO ON PROGRAMMING THE VIC-II...  Dammit... I want Display List Interrupts every scanline... What's the closest thing to do that with the VIC-II C128/64?... Sorry for the shout, but I'm at a loss, and drunk, and CHEERS!!! Woo Hoo... Here's to Saturday night, rockin' the Commodores...




I'm here to stay now that I'm a proud C=128 owner (Is there a place where we can upload our serial #'s?).  I'll be uploading Paperclip III as soon as it arrives (cross my fingers for sometime this week)...


...and just what am I coding on my 128 in my free time... a program that specializes in bibliographies (in 128 40 column mode)... Oooh... exciting, I know.  But something I need now that my C=128 is going to be my terminal for entering text and backyard programming...  My Linux laptop (as I abhor modern Microsoft products other than the 360 [looking forward to the 'Surface' in '10 though]) will just be for the net, and music, and movies, and pictures... Damn... I need a beer... I'm hammered... Have a good night everyone!



I is gonna dream of a Z80 GEOS like environment tonight (actually maybe more like GEM *homer drool)...  Then wake up and wish my coding skills were up to that level, and wonder how many Commodore employed software engineers (and the hardware munchers too) smoked the green...  and then get back to trying to finish my first 128 program, after factoring in work, family, responsibilities, etc....



* this text was created on a c=128 *
* and transfered with xe/m1541      *
* to PC then webbrowser               *

Whoa... I'll have to remind myself to stay away from the Internet when I'm drinking from now on...

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The method is long and nasty and requires a command prompt...

command line interfaces don't scare me! :)

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I'm thinking of writing a tutorial for the process...

That would be great

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All it requires is an opensource tool that's not very bug free

Care to name it/post a link?

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like Microsoft...

Ugh!

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I've uploaded some of the .d64 and .d71 files I've created to this site, but the downloads haven't been approved yet.

Excellent

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Woo Hoo... I'm all beered out tonight!

:D

I've always just downloaded it and compiled the source, but apparently it's included as a package download with "apt-get" on any Debian based Linux distro (currently using Ubuntu 7.10).

and the name of the program -> cbmconvert

It's a little buggy when transferring to a double-sided C128 CP/M disk.  For some reason it ends up doubling up the filenames and that seems to confuse CP/M.  What I do is just transfer one file at a time until the disk is full to a 1541 CP/M image just to be on the safe side, and then from there copy those files to a double-sided C128 CP/M disk.  That method, though a little tedious, seems to work well for me...

forgot to mention:

cbmconvert handles all types of Commodore disk images.  1541, 1571, 1581, 1541CP/M, 1571CP/M, and of course 1581CP/M


Files supported (from package description):

* Native (raw) files.
* PC64 (P00) files.
* Lynx archives.
* C2N tape archives.
* C128 CP/M disk images.
* CBM DOS disk images.
* ARC/SDA compressed archives.
* Arkive archives.
* T64 files.
* ZipCode files.