[Coco] Conversion utility for Program Pak Images

[Ron Klein]

Hi John,

Fortunately, I can't think of any 32K ROMS I need at the moment, but the
information you provided will be very helpful if I do.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

-Ron


On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 10:08 AM, John W. Linville <linville at tuxdriver.com>
wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 09:59:58AM -0600, Ron Klein wrote:
> > Hi John,
> >
> > I may have misunderstood an older email comment from Robert Gault.  You
> can
> > see his comments toward the bottom of the post.  I was looking for
> > information prior to my posting and came across this...
>
> Are you dealing with a 32K CCC file? If so, then Robert's information
> suggests that you would have to split the file in half and then
> swap them...
>
>         dd if=input.ccc of=tophalf.rom bs=1024 count=16
>
>         dd if=input.ccc of=bottomhalf.rom bs=1024 skip=16
>
>         cat bottomhalf.rom tophalf.rom > output.rom
>
> Assuming that Robert's info is correct and assuming that I understand
> it correctly, then the above sequence should get you a 32K burnable
> EPROM image on a Linux (or other Unix-ish) environment. YMMV...
>
> If your CCC file is 16K or smaller then just burn it to an EPROM.
>
> John
>
> > Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net>
> > 1/26/16
> > to CoCoList
> > OK, after writing an ml routine to print data to the screen I can report
> > what a Coco3 sees in the external ROM with 16k / 16k internal external
> and
> > 32k external.
> >
> > The most reasonable way to present this is that the 32k ROM always exists
> > from $8000-$FF00 and when the Coco3 is in standard 16k internal 16k
> > external mode, it sees the second half of the external ROM.
> > So my program when using 16k/16k saw the Extended Basic ROM at $8000 and
> > the second half of the cart ROM at $C000. When the program set 32k
> > external, then it saw the first half of the external ROM at $8000 and the
> > same data (second half ROM) at $C000.
> > Can I prove that a ROM reader would see the same thing? No I can't, but I
> > expect it would. It makes sense because it is the only way a 32k ROM
> would
> > not get lost when switching from 16k/16k to 32k external.
> >
> > And then how does this relate to .ccc files? These files do NOT present
> the
> > ROM as seen by a Coco3. The halves are reversed with the second half
> > preceding the first!
> > This makes no sense to me but someone must have decided that one of the
> > emulators JVC, MESS, or VCC could handle a 32k ROM cart more easily in
> this
> > fashion. That format then became the standard for .ccc files regardless
> if
> > it was reasonable.
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 9:36 AM, John W. Linville <
> linville at tuxdriver.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 07:01:48AM -0600, Ron Klein wrote:
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > Does anyone know of a way to convert Program Pak images (*.ccc) to a
> > > > standard ROM file?  I heard the *.ccc format is mainly designed for
> > > > emulator use and not something that can be burned (or flashed).
> > > >
> > > > Thanks!
> > > >
> > > > -Ron
> > >
> > > AFAIK, the *.ccc format is just a flat binary -- the same as what
> > > you would burn into an EPROM.
> > >
> > > If you have other documentation, I would love to see it!
> > >
> > > John
> > > --
> > > John W. Linville                Someday the world will need a hero,
> and you
> > > linville at tuxdriver.com                  might be all we have.  Be
> ready.
> > >
> > > --
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> > >
> >
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> --
> John W. Linville                Someday the world will need a hero, and you
> linville at tuxdriver.com                  might be all we have.  Be ready.
>
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