[Coco] Nitros9 boot fails with HDB DOS in rompak

Thu Oct 10 09:01:15 EDT 2013

Thanks for the reply.
You can use your HDB-DOS rompak (no MPI) and boot The King's Quest 1 disk 
image? (Any Nitros9 image really)
Mine seems to work fine too, until I try to boot a Nitros9 image.

27C64 is what I am using. Typing tutor is an older rompak? The ones I'm 
using are coco 3 specific. All the older rompaks I open have a black blob on 
the PCB and not a 28 pin chip. I'm not sure of any other roms paks besides 
the later ones that have a 28 pin chip.

I am not using an MPI or the disk controller and rompak together. I remove 
the rom from the rompak place it in the fd502 rom socket and then use the 
fd502 controller with the coco. Then it works. When I say works, I mean does 
not fail when booting Nitros9. Like KQ1 and arcadepack. Otherwise the rompak 
does work using rsdos.

maybe something about the way these particular rompaks (later coco3 ones) 
are that keep Nitros9 from booting.
After the C on the boot screen, the screen should switch to the "Welcome to 
Nitros9...." screen but that never happens. Something about the rompak is 
preventing that from happening.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Retro Canada" <retrocanada76 at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 8:32 AM
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Cc: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Subject: Re: [Coco] Nitros9 boot fails with HDB DOS in rompak

> i do have a rompak with hdbdos and it works fine. it uses a 27C64 and was 
> the typing tutor.
>
> do you have an mpi? how do you put the fd502 and the rompak together ?
>
> you can replace the fd502 rom as well to hdbdos.
>
> using a mpi the fdc must be on the selected slot. so if you boot from 
> rompak slot you later either switch the button to the slot 4 or perform a 
> poke &hff7f,51
>
>
>
> On 2013-10-10, at 8:09 AM, Charlie Pelosi <chaspelosi at outlook.com> wrote:
>
> When I LOADM RSDOS games they are DSK images. DW4 has HDBDOS translation 
> enabled. (It turns that off automatically when the Nitros9 DSK images are 
> mounted).
>
> I found my cassette cable with my MC-10 so I'm going to try to cloadm the 
> HDBDW3CC3.WAV from my ipod after work today.
> I am guessing this will work because everything points to the physical 
> rompaks.
>
> When I installed the sockets in the game rompaks (one was Football II the 
> other was Super Pitfall) I checked continuity from the socket to the card 
> edge for every pin.
> I will recheck them again tonight, maybe I broke a solder joint or 
> something.
>
> I wonder if anyone has done the same and can confirm it working? Anyone 
> else use a game rompak PCB the same way?
> Or are they using a different board in a rompak? Didn't cloud-9 used to 
> sell a HDB-DOS rompak? Was that as simple as this PCB?
>
> The game PCB is very simple. There are no parts to it. Just a board with 
> traces and one resistor (I think) next to the game rom.
> I wonder if something on the PCB needs to be modified because the rompak 
> itself can only be whats causing it...
> I shouldn't say that until I try to tape load HDB-DOS tonight. :)
>
> Still, three 512K coco3's, Rom, Drivewire,  works with a FD502 disk 
> controller in place of the rompak. It only doesn't work when the rompak is 
> inserted.
> Maybe the way the games pcb is "wired" maybe a trace or 2 needs to be 
> cut.... hoping someone knows...
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Bill Pierce" <ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 11:58 PM
> To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Sierra games and DW
>
>>
>> Charlie,
>> When you run RSDOS games, do you load them from a dsk image indw or a vhd 
>> image in dw?
>>
>> 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 11:55 pm
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Sierra games and DW
>>
>>
>> Yes, newest version of dw4. Downloaded it today and checked update. All 
>> good.
>>
>> Also remember, the rom and DW work fine when its in a disk controller.
>>
>> Wouldn'tthat rule out DW?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from Windows Mail
>>
>>
>>
>> From: Aaron Wolfe
>> Sent: ‎Wednesday‎, ‎October‎ ‎9‎, ‎2013 ‎11‎:‎52‎ ‎PM
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 11:08 PM, Charlie Pelosi <chaspelosi at outlook.com> 
>> wrote:
>>> Hi Aaron. I have three 512K coco3's here all act the same. So it can't 
>>> be
>>> the computer. And DW works fine if the disk controller is in.
>>> So it must be something with the ROMPAK and or the ROM I am using. Can
>>> someone point me at the exactly .rom file I should burn ?
>>
>> It really should not matter what ROM you are using as long as its a
>> "standard" one..  any DW3 ROM sold by Cloud 9 or provided on their
>> website is fine.  You could also use the open source version from the
>> Toolshed project, but it has to be one of the "hdbdw3ccX" flavors,
>> *not* the ones labeled "hdbdw4ccX" (assuming the sierra disks are
>> still using the stock os9 drivers and not the "turbo" flavors, which
>> should be true).
>>
>>> I think the versions I've tried where HDB-DOS 1.4 DW3 coco 3 and the 
>>> same
>>> 1.2 that I got years ago from Boisy.
>>
>> As long as the bootup message says "DW3" I think you are fine.  All
>> the ROM does is load the boot track, after all.  It is not used at all
>> once OS9 starts booting.
>>
>>>
>>> When I soldered in the socket, it was a Football II cart, I simply
>>> unsoldered the game chip and soldered in the socket.
>>> Nothing else. I don't think any soldering is bad because I have two of 
>>> these
>>> and they both do the same.
>>
>> You're probably right, I can't imagine it being a soldering or socket 
>> issue.
>>
>> One question, are you sure you're using the latest DW4 server?  It
>> should report "4.3.3p" when you enter 'dw server status' in the
>> command box at the bottom of the gui.  If it does not, please select
>> "Check for new version" from the tools menu and update.
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>> From: "Aaron Wolfe" <aawolfe at gmail.com>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 10:01 PM
>>>
>>> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Sierra games and DW
>>>
>>>> On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 7:28 PM, Charlie Pelosi <chaspelosi at outlook.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> 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?
>>>>
>>>> The version you have is not intended to require a disk controller.
>>>> Last time I played it, it worked here with just a CoCo 3 and DW3 rom
>>>> in a rompak, no additional hardware.  That was a while back, it is
>>>> possible some bug has been introduced.  However, Bill is not seeing a
>>>> problem currently.  I don't have things set up to test at the moment
>>>> but I think it is possible the need for a disk controller on your
>>>> system is a side effect of some other problem.  It is definitely not
>>>> by design.
>>>>
>>>> --
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>>>
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