[Coco] Converting a PAK to a .CCC

[Robert Gault]

Michael Brant wrote:
> What is the best way to back up a program pak to a .CCC?
>

That will depend on the model Coco and whether the pak is self starting.

The first requirement will be to prevent the pak from auto starting. That means 
you will need to put tape over the CART line (8) on the edge connector of the 
pak. You should then be able to turn on the Coco and not have the pack start 
running.

To make a copy of the ROM in the pak, you must ensure that you have access to 
the ROM. That is the case for a Coco1 or Coco2 but not a Coco3. The Coco3 will 
be in RAM mode so you will need to POKE &HFFDE,0 to get into RAM/ROM mode.

Now you can CSAVE "PAK",&HC000,&DFFF,&HC000 (assuming that is the size of the 
ROM) to tape. With a copy of the ROM, you can now, based on your hardware, 
convert the tape file into a .CCC file for use on a PC.
The simplest way would be to offset CLOADM the tape to $4000.
CLOADM"PAK",&H8000
Once in memory, you can move the data to a PC via Drivewire. With a disk (.dsk) 
in Drivewire, SAVEM"PAK",&H4000,&H5FFF,0. Use a PC utility to extract the 
PAK.BIN from the .dsk and another PC utility to clip off the 5 byte header and 5 
byte terminator from the file. The result will can be used as a .CCC file.

If you have an MPI, you may be able to avoid the intermediate tape copy. There 
are other alternative methods but you will need to specify exactly what you have 
in hardware and software.

Robert