[Coco] "Ultimate" CoCoSDC Image

Sun Feb 14 17:22:57 EST 2016

Travis, please don't get the idea I was trying to discourage you, as I was not... just warning of some of the pitfalls. I've tried putting such images together myself and I only have DW4, so most RSDOS things would not run from a 256 disk VHD due to being hard coded to run from d0. CocoSDC would work much better for these applications. Needless to say, I eventually gave up.
NitrOS9 would be a different matter. Most OS9 software will run directly from the CMDS dir and up to a 4 gig image could be made to contain almost anything you wanted. Even most old OS9 games and software that was hard coded for /d0 & /d1 can be found already patch for /dd on L2.
The problem with OS9 games (and some software) is some of the games require a VDG boot and term_vdg, some require CoWin and Term_win, some require VRN and eithet VI or FTDD (and VDG), this goes for some of the software as well. To make a boot that has everything takes up too much system memory and then most of the programs can't run. It would take two to three individual boots and in some cases, L1 boots just run a majority of the OS9 stuff. Again... I gave up.

 Barry Nelson has put together one "Ultimate Image" that contains quite a bit of stuff, but it's set up to run from a VHD under RGBDOS. The RSDOS stuff would run fine under HDBDOS on about anything you run it on (emulator or real Coco), but in NitrOS9, the boots would have to be changed to reflect the type system it is run on.

Bill Pierce
"Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull

My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
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-----Original Message-----
From: Travis Poppe <travispoppe at gmail.com>
To: Bill Pierce via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Cc: Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
Sent: Sun, Feb 14, 2016 1:41 pm
Subject: Re: [Coco] "Ultimate" CoCoSDC Image

Bill,

Thanks for the feedback. This mostly stems from me having a fairly large
collection of RS-DOS stuff on my SD card, apps, games, utilities and the
like, and for fun I like to try them out to see what they do. I
occasionally bump into something that doesn't seem to work, as you said.
What I'd like to create is an on-SD collection of working, organized DSK
images that are guaranteed to run on the SDC, so people can go through
them and play around with a good chunk of CoCo software without much
effort initially, and then perhaps build their own, trimmed down
collection of stuff from that.

Basically a zip file that can be extracted directly to an SD card. This
removes the need of hunting down software, unzipping it, naming it in an
SDC-friendly format, and organizing it into categories on the SD card.

The SDC hardware actually does allow more than two disk images -- they
simply must be contained within a directory and named in a sequence --
e.g. disk1.dsk, disk2.dsk, disk3.dsk, etc. The hardware button will flip
through all of them.

It might not contain everything, but it would make it easier to play
around with what actually does work, without disk images hanging around
that do not (until someone can figure out how to get them working, and
then they could be added to the collection.) 

Getting an "ultimate" NitrOS9 image working is also something I'd like
to do, but it takes a bit more effort than organizing some DSK files,
and a lot more education on my part. If I'm not mistaken, such a VHD
exists already, but I don't know how to make it work on the SDC just
yet.

I use SDC and a combination of DirveWire myself, and have more luck with
DirveWire than SDC for NitroOS9 thus far.

Thanks,

Travis

On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 01:55:59AM -0500, Bill Pierce via Coco wrote:
> Travis, the problem I have is that everyone's idea of an "Ultimate
> Image" is different. To some, all the cool games on one image is the
> ultimate, to me... I would never use it. My ultimtate image is the
> very image I've created that I use every day to write software for
> NitrOS9. In fact, I have about 10 or 12 "Ultimate Images"... None of
> which contain games. Don't get me wrong, I have almost every game put
> out for the Coco, but I very seldom play games. To some, the ultimate
> image would be disk utilities, word processors and databases.  Now to
> put it all on one image... impossible. The max HD you can create in
> OS9 is 128 meg (yes I know with large clusters it can be bigger, my
> Glenside IDE HD runs 2x4gig partitions) and only so much will fit on
> 128 meg (I've tried). In RSDOS, the best you can do (without some
> custom programming, and I've done that too) is 256 35trk drives under
> HDBDOS/RGBDOS... and that's not 100% compatible, infact it's not even
> 75% compatible, as some things will not run unles in drive 0 and with
> a controller that's 100% RSDOS compatible. CocoSDC runs into the same
> problem, but with only 2 disks available at a time (though easily
> swappable). I applaud Darren's work on the CocoSDC, it's an awesome
> piece of hardware, but it's turned out to be about as much trouble as
> Drivewire or any other solution.. some things still have to patched to
> run properly.  Then you have the proble of some people use CocoSDC,
> some use DW4 VHDs, some us real floppies, some use floppy images, some
> use IDE HDs, some use SCSI HDs and I think we still have one or two
> using old MFM HDs.... Some may use any mix of the above.  What we
> really need, is an "Ultimate Solution"... the images are readily
> available to any who want them to configure into what they want.  So
> I've found the "Ultimate Image" is to setup what you like, in your
> preferred media, and use it.
> 
> 
>  Just my 2 cents :-)
> 
>  
> 
> 
> Bill Pierce "Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop
> going, no way to slow down!" - Ian Anderson - Jethro Tull
> 
>  
> 
> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/ Co-Contributor, Co-Editor
> for CocoPedia http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Global
> Moderator for TRS-80/Tandy Color Computer Forums
> http://www.tandycoco.com/forum/
> 
> E-Mail: ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Travis Poppe <travispoppe at gmail.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Sun, Feb 14, 2016 12:24 am Subject: Re: [Coco] "Ultimate"
> CoCoSDC Image
> 
> I was thinking primarily RS-DOS stuff at first. Is there an example
> for aNitroOS9 image doing both?On Sat, Feb 13, 2016 at 9:11 PM, Ed
> Orbea <ed.orbea at gmail.com> wrote:> If you are going to create the
> ultimate SDC image, I'd suggest you follow> the information from Tim
> Linder to create a 128mg Level2 Nirtos9 image for> those why are using
> their SDC on a CoCo3.> I've followed his directions and totally enjoy
> the result on my CoCo3's>> +----------------+> *Ed Orbea*> Poulsbo,
> WA>> --> Coco mailing list> Coco at maltedmedia.com>
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco>-- Travis PoppeIRC:
> tlp on irc.freenode.net-- Coco mailing
> listCoco at maltedmedia.comhttps://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> -- Coco mailing list Coco at maltedmedia.com
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-- 
Travis Poppe
IRC: tlp on irc.freenode.net