Aquarius stuff from Boriel's ZX-Basic Compiler - first attempt

[nitrofurano]

Is nitrofurano still working on this? It seemed like he started porting ZX Basic to even more platforms and then stopped updating this.

i’m still alive! - the fact is i were trying to extend for more z80-based hardware, and during the winter my mood for coding is almost null - Mattel Aquarius was in stand-by, probably because some lack of ideas of what to code, i think

[nitrofurano]

 

The first two sound like unix commands

I'm guessing the last one is zx basic but I can't find where I download the Aquarius version

 

There is no Aquarius version! That is the funniest and joyful part! - what i used was patching the compiled results from Boriel’s ZX-Basic Compiler, avoid the specific ZX-Spectrum commands, and create as library those that are needed for the specific hardware (such as Aquarius in this case, or ColecoVision, Master System, MSX, etc., on other cases)

 

about rm, cat and dd, i really don’t know how to replace them with dos commands - i guess rm with del, and cat (in the way i used) with "copy /b"? dd i used for creating dummy files, or copying/cropping specific parts of a binary file, and i guess that there are some kind of dd equivalents for dos, but i really have no idea of how fine it works, even that it seems that someone successfully ported dd for dos: http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

[nitrofurano]

i started indexing Mattel Aquarius stuff in a ZX-Basic wikipage: http://www.boriel.com/wiki/en/index.php/ZX_BASIC:Released_Programs_-_MattelAquarius - hopefully, soon will be more stuff there

[Aquaman]

Welcome back and nice to see that this project is still alive

[nitrofurano]

thanks! i hope being able to contribute with some more stuff there soon!

[barnieg]

I've been trying to get the example roms's to compile with no luck, might be my sleep deprived Brain!! When I run the shell scripts on Ubuntu linux rom's get created but when loaded in Virtual Aquarius nothing happens. Anyone any ideas?

 

 

 

 

Amazing what getting up and taking a break will do.

 

Here's the skinny CAT free version using Windows COPY.

I'd call it clean, but it leaves your drive with like six files every build.

We'll have to figure out a good clean up method next time on Aquarius Guide To Home Computing.

 

Update attached.

 

Your console output only shows the little header information.

ECHO is off, after that. change it to ON to see what really happens.

The Boriel install instructions have some mention of getting the path to the app right.

I'd start there (but I didn't lol, woops).

Else

add a semi-colon and any path to your PATH, in this case its starting fresh with z88dk

I ended up having to add \bin to that path, watch those folders.

Shift+right click a folder that contains exe's and "Copy as path"

then paste into your PATH variable input, clean up the quotes and

make sure your PATH looks something like

 

C:\DEV\ZXBasicCompiler;C:\Users\Pset\AQUARIUS2014;C:\AnotherFolder\etc

 

 

 

 

 

 

REM Windows Batch Compiler Script
REM For Boriel's ZX BASIC to Aquarius Computer Catridge ROM
REM No RM version 1.0 January 13 2014 
 
REM Write Null file, very important
ECHO NULL > Null
 
REM ZXB is the main SDK executable. It can act both as a compiler or as a translator:
REM http://www.boriel.com/en/software/the-zx-basic-compiler/
 
REM this command creates a binary machine code compilation of the 8k catridge header
REM see library/aquarisromheader16kb.bas for bigger cart.
zxb library/aquariusromheader.bas --org=0x0000
 
REM copy 16 BYTES header   into temp files
dd ibs=1 count=16 skip=16 if=aquariusromheader.bin of=example01.tmr
 
REM compiling the basic program to cartridge memory
zxb example01.bas --asm --org=0xE010
zxb example01.bas --org=0xE010
 
REM append rom header binary to assembly code binary
copy example01.tmr /b + example01.bin /b example01.tmr 
 
REM create an 8K empty file my settings may be wrong.
dd if=Null of=_dummybytes.bin bs=8192 count=1 seek=1
 
REM append the temp binary data with space to fill the 8k rom
copy example01.tmr /b + /b _dummybytes.bin example01.tmr /b
 
REM cleaning  up old build files  
REM rm _dummybytes.bin example01.bin
 
ECHO Writing only 8k of TMR binary to ROM file
dd ibs=1 count=8192 skip=0 if=example01.tmr of=example01.rom

 

 

[barnieg]

Update! : I've been able to get the demos complied and running, time for some sleep I think

[barnieg]

Something that would increase productivity with rexpaint would be a Bloxel/ Pset paint tool - Been able to paint using the 80x72(75?) mode with rexpaint working out the appropriate character combinations. This could also work for other character sets possibly including 1/4 character square bloxel and would probably be useful with other retro computer character sets