[Coco] ROM -> BIN converter/loader

[Pere]

Hi,

yes, it works, for sure!
I use it in my Dragon64 without problems (and some CoCo ROMs work flawlessly 
too).
It is told that there are some Cartridges that try to write their code, so 
that they don't
work properly if moved to RAM (kind of copy-protection). It could happen, 
then this is our case.
We copy them to low RAM and then up to $C000 but still in RAM
Untill now, I have not had problems but Dragon has very few cartridges 
compared to the bunch that exist for the CoCo.

The whole process I use is:
1) Load the ROM into lower RAM ($4000 on, for instance) usually from my disk 
drives
2) Switch to MAP1 (all  RAM)
3) Copy the BASIC ROM from MAP0 to MAP1 (some cartridges use to call ROM 
rutines)
4) Copy the real cartridge code to $C000
5) Jump to $C000

If you have access to a Drivewire server, you can load the ROM cartridge 
with the loader attached at the beginning
and exec it at $4000, the loader should do the steps indicated above from 2 
to 5

cheers
pere



-----Mensaje original----- 
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2015 14:51:33 -0300
From: Gustavo Ranaur Schoenaker <ranaur at ranaur.net>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Subject: [Coco] ROM -> BIN converter/loader
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<CAPyL595gPgU8Uf6D_+H+Fa0ZUq+C2xCoZczkP9wmf_cK7ku0KA at mail.gmail.com>
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While answering Vincent´s e-mail I had one idea. Theorically it is easy to
do ... maybe it is a good project sometime ...

Is it possible to convert a ROM file to .BIN? So you could load it through
regular disks.

The BIN file would have two parts: the bootstrap file followed by the "ROM"
data. The bootstrap file would make:

1) Copy ROM to RAM and enable 64KB of memory
2) Copy the rest of the file to C000
3) JMP C000

Would it work? Did someone make this already? And survived to tell the
tale? :-)