Question About 32 In 1 OS

[SpaceDice2010]

Kinda new to the technical aspects of the A8, but this one interests me. Correct me if I am wrong, but if I buy this and find a way to actually install it in my 65 XE then I can pretty much run any program, even if it for just the 400/800? Does anyone sell actualt computers with this installed. The instructions looked scary.

[Rybags]

Install isn't that hard although on XEs you'll almost certainly have to desolder the OS ROM and put a socket in, which isn't a job you should do if not confident about your abilty. The XE motherboards are somewhat poor quality build and easy to lift traces or ruin vias.

 

Compatability running 400/800 type OSes won't be 100% but it'll be so close as not to matter. These days there's fixes around for most software anyhow.

[SpaceDice2010]

if I may ask what do you mean by "fixes" for software?

[Rybags]

Usually patches so it works on any OS.

[analmux]

Makes me wonder.

 

The 400/800 OS is 10kB instead of 14, so in theory it should leave open the area $c000-$cfff, not mask it. IIRC there is an extended RAM setup possible, and in theory there's software making specific use of it.

 

So, wouldn't this cause some (small) problem if a piece of software is specifically written for the Atari 800 with the 52kB RAM setup?

[Rybags]

Yep. The only solution there would be a RAM-based OS.

 

Then you have the 64K and above expansions for the 800 which use 4K banking @ $c000-cfff. There's no solution there, although you could emulate it with VBXE but references to the banking register would have to be changed.