[Coco] Sierra games and DW

Wed Oct 9 23:04:21 EDT 2013

I'd like to get these running not just for myself but some others I know who 
plan to use a coco3 but will have no other hardware besides a 512K coco a 
rompak with HDB-DOS and a DW cable / server.

I'll try other Nitros9 disks in a bit. I know I tried Kings Quest 2 from the 
/latest site and it does exactly he same for me.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Bill Pierce" <ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 9:52 PM
To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Subject: Re: [Coco] Sierra games and DW

>
> Charlie, I can't think of any thing that would cause this. Any version or 
> format of hdbdos should work.
> If you have the latest game disk, you're running the same one I am as I 
> just downloaded it again to make sure.
> Once nitros9 starts booting (and you said it starts) then the rom is no 
> longer in play (nos9 wipes that memory) and doesn't matter any more. You 
> said you are using the dw version of kq1 so that's right. just to verify 
> that, my disk is titled
> kingsquest1_dw.dsk.
> I can also boot all the sierra games as well.
>
> Question, if it runs with the disk controller in, why do you need to run 
> without it? Just asking.
> hdbdos is a "complete" rom in that it actually contains the RSDOS rom as 
> well. So loading it without a controller would be like having a controller 
> without having... a controller. I used to load RSDOS from cassette on my 
> Coco 2 before I got a disk drive (in the 80s) so I could get some of the 
> extra BASIC commands that came with RSDOS that weren't  "disk oriented" 
> and it ran fine as long as I didn't issue a disk command. So the actual 
> controller has nothing to do with the rom "just running". And with 
> hdbdos's DRIVEON command, you ca't get to the physical drives any way, 
> which is how you should be running to access the KQ1_dw disk.
> As I said, I tried it both ways and it worked.
>
> Hmmmm.... Just for comparison, try booting the 
> "nos96809L2v030209coco3_dw.dsk" and see if that boots without the 
> controller. If not, then you may have some sort of circuit or memory 
> problem in the coco that by plugging in the controller, it's correcting 
> (or connecting) something (not a hardware tech myself). Also, I don't know 
> about KQ1, but I think KQ3 requires 512k of mem.... note sure though.
>
> Just checked in Vcc.. All the KQ disks require 512k. With Vcc set at 128k, 
> they get to the nos9 start screen and never switch to graphics mode to 
> start the game. They just freeze.
>
> That's all I know to tell ya. You definately have some sort of problem.
>
> Bill Pierce
> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Charlie Pelosi <chazbeenhad at hotmail.com>
> To: coco list <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Wed, Oct 9, 2013 8:59 pm
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Sierra games and DW
>
>
> Thanks Bill.
>
>
> That is strange then.. Nitros9.org/latest is where I downloaded it. In 
> fact the
> in the newest DW4 you can choose to load the images right from the site. 
> You
> don’t need to even have them local.
>
> I tried that too. I don’t have HDBDOS on tape to try it loaded from 
> cassette. My
> coco tape player is stored away somewhere.
>
>
> So then what could it be about having the HDBDOS rom in a rompak that 
> would
> cause the Nitros9 to stop booting? It seems to work fine when loading ML 
> games
> and all that... and its not the rom itself cause that works when its 
> plugged in
> a disk controller. Does something else need to be done to the rom?pcb in 
> the
> rompak besides just removing the game chip and soldering in a rom? I 
> installed a
> socket to easily swap roms...
>
>
> It would be nice to have it work. Replacing the chip in a coco3 rompak is 
> super
> easy and would allow players to load and play the games with nothing but 
> the DW
> cable running to server.
>
>
>
>
> Sent from Windows Mail
>
>
>
> From: Bill Pierce
> Sent: ‎Wednesday‎, ‎October‎ ‎9‎, ‎2013 ‎8‎:‎46‎ ‎PM
> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
>
>
>
> Charlie, my disk drive is down for the count right now, so I load hdbdos 
> from
> cassette via PC headphone out using dosbox and casout.exe form Jeff 
> Vavsour's
> dos Coco emulator package.
> Since you said it wouldn't work without the controller and mine was 
> plugged in
> though my drive is down, I shut it all down and removed the controller. I
> started everything again and King's Quest 1 booted and run fine.
>
> Did you get the latest version?
> Everyone seems to think if it comes from the archives they're current but
> they're not. Any Nitros9 oriented downloads should be done from the 
> repository
> downloads. There hasn't been too many dependable builds of Nitros9 in the 
> past 5
> years until recently. The only place to get the latest build is here.
>
> http://www.nitros9.org/latest/
>
> Bill Pierce
> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Charlie Pelosi <chaspelosi at outlook.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Wed, Oct 9, 2013 8:25 pm
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Sierra games and DW
>
>
> Hi Bill. How did you load hdbdos? If you loaded it from disk it worked
> because you have a physical disk controller plugged into the coco.
> It works for me also when loaded from rom in disk controller or from disk.
>
> I hope someone makes a DW version of these games that do not require the
> physical controller.
> Kind of odd to have DW versions of a game require exactly the hardware we
> are trying not to use. :)
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Bill Pierce" <ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 8:07 PM
> To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Sierra games and DW
>
>>
>> Charlie,
>> I just inserted the latest King's Quest 1 disk into DW4 slot 0, loaded
>> hdbdos (no rom),
>> and typed DOS <enter> (all from a cold start)
>> It booted, loaded, run, and I am playing it :-)
>>
>> I'm running a Coco 3, 1 meg mem, hdbdos v1.4, dw4 v4.3.3o
>>
>>
>> Did you get the latest version of KQ 1? There were some problems with
>> older builds as the bootfiles were not right.
>> Get the latest version here:
>>
>> http://www.nitros9.org/latest/
>>
>> If you got the disk from one of the archives, it's probably got a bad
>> boot.
>> I'm going to update the files on The Color Computer Archives as I know
>> they're not up to date.
>>
>> Hope this helps
>>
>> Bill Pierce
>> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>> Co-Webmaster of The TRS-80 Color Computer Archive
>> http://www.colorcomputerarchive.com/
>> Co-Contributor, Co-Editor for CocoPedia
>> http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Charlie Pelosi <chaspelosi at outlook.com>
>> To: coco list <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Wed, Oct 9, 2013 7:28 pm
>> Subject: [Coco] Sierra games and DW
>>
>>
>> I'm having trouble emailing the list I think because my reply address for
>> my
>> Microsoft account is a different alias than the primary I have subscribed
>> to the
>> list...
>> Hello.
>>
>> I am trying to play The King's Quest games with a coco3 and drivewire4.
>>
>> I downloaded KingsQuest1_dw.dsk from http://www.nitros9.org/latest/
>> I have a rompak in a COCO3 that has HDB-DOS 1.4 DW3 COCO 3 (Ive tried 1.2
>> also)
>> I am using the very latest DW4 in Windows.
>>
>> When I mount the KingsQuest1_dw.dsk in drive 0 and type DOS to start
>> Nitros9
>> starts to boot.
>> When it gets to i2xoC and then the coco just hangs sitting there forever
>> doing
>> nothing.
>>
>> Any ideas on what is wrong or how to get this to work?
>>
>> I tried to send the above earlier and it didn't work. But that worked out
>> because in the meantime I discovered something.
>>
>> If I move the rom chip to an actual FD502 controller the boot gets past
>> i2xoC
>> and the game starts.
>> So I would guess because Nitros9 is loading a driver or looking for the
>> disk
>> hardware.
>> So is there a version that doesn't do that so that people loading from a
>> simple
>> rompak or even tape can boot these games with DW and enjoy them?
>>
>> --
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>>
>>
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