[Coco] Re: emulator for Big Basic?

[Robert Gault]

Robert Gault wrote:
> PaulH96636 at aol.com wrote:
> 
>> Would any of the emulators allow use of Danosoft's Big Basic
>> series of programs for coco-3s using 512k or more?
>>
>> I haven't seen any usage of Big Basic's capabilities in actual
>> programs for sale since it came out in 1988.  Same thing with
>> KeyColor Software's Key-264K for the coco 1&2.  
>> Don't know if the authors could still be contacted. At least the
>> manuals should be archived, imo.     -ph
>>
> 
> In attempting to answer this question, I've found that my copy of Big 
> Basic v2.3 does not even work on my 512k Coco3 much less an emulator.
> 
> I've decided to disassemble the Big Basic patch to see what is wrong. If 
> and when I find anything useful, I'll post the findings.
> 
> 
> 

The answer to the original question is YES. Big Basic will run on MESS 
configured for 512k running RGBDOS from a virtual hard drive. Why did 
the program not work on a real Coco3? Well the disk I have has a code 
mistake or was corrupted.

After disassembling the code for BB.512 (which is the program patch for 
512k) and changing the code to what I guessed it should be, the program 
runs. At this time I don't have a correction for BB.128 nor do I know 
whether versions other than v2.3 will work without correction.