Savetz Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 (edited) I am borrowing a K-Byte K-DOS cart. This DOS wasn't released on cart AFAIK. (I borrowed it from a guy who worked at K-Byte.) It doesn't boot on my 800XL, and the dumped version doesn't boot in my emulator. Who wants to be a hero and figure out if this cart works? I'm out of my element here. I'm assuming standard 8K left cart. But could be wrong. kdos.bin —Kevin Edited May 6, 2016 by Savetz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 I dumped it twice more. Once as a left cart and once as in case it's a right cart. Neither works. Both are different from the first dump I did. I don't understand why. kdosleft.bin kdosright.bin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 The data is so different between the dumps that it looks like there's some bank-switching going on. The 2nd set of dumps actually looks like a DOS, but the first one is just repeating byte patterns. If you dump it a few more times we might end up with all the pieces. Can the cart be opened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 I am unable to dump it again, at least not today (the battery in Paul's windows laptop died.) I doubt it's bank-switched. I think it's a very early cart, before bank-switching was a thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 Well, here's what's strange: kdos.bin contains nothing that looks useful, but it ends with $B524 over and over like it's some kind of vector. kdosleft.bin looks like code and has ASCII text related to DOS. Ends with the vector $B1E3. kdosright.bin look as though it contains data for making some disk images. It looks like there might be more than 16K worth of stuff here, or the first file is just garbage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 B1C0 A2 00 LDX #$00 B1C2 BD 00 80 LDA $8000,X B1C5 9D 00 00 STA $0000,X B1C8 E8 INX B1C9 D0 F7 BNE $B1C2 B1CB EE 04 40 INC $4004 B1CE EE 07 40 INC $4007 B1D1 AD 07 40 LDA $4007 B1D4 C9 32 CMP #$32 B1D6 D0 EA BNE $B1C2 B1D8 A9 00 LDA #$00 B1DA 8D 00 D5 STA $D500 B1DD 4C 74 E4 JMP $E474 B1E0 A2 7F LDX #$7F B1E2 BD C3 B1 LDA $B1C3,X B1E5 9D 00 40 STA $4000,X B1E8 CA DEX B1E9 10 F7 BPL $B1E2 B1EB 60 RTS Here's the routine for copying itself into RAM. (kdosleft) Looks like it jumps to the warmstart routine, so it probably requires the 800 OS to work. Also, it writes to $D500 (CCTL), so the cartridge has some special function. It either bank switches, or disables itself to free up RAM. I don't see any other references to $D500 except this one. If I had to guess, I'd say this cart provided a quick and dirty way of instantly getting into a DOS environment, possibly with a utility disk image already in memory. I stitched the two halves of the image together and it ran this code and then reset in an endless loop in Altirra in 800 mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 The banking scheme would need to be worked out. If you can open the cart possibly photos of each side could be used to deduce it if it's using a standard logic IC. If it's just using a pair of standard Eproms maybe it could be copied by just swapping them into a nonbanked 16K cart board. Strange how that code starts writing from location 0 though - if that's the case, bad programming practice and limits it to a specific OS. Though it could probably be altered fairly easily to work on other machines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 Yeah, it looks like it's just a brute force way to put the computer in a 'saved state.' It might be possible to make a bootable DOS from it, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 My suspicion is that it's probably just something that's already out there. Comparing mightn't be straightforward, likely there's embedded work areas and buffers that would change during use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 Looking at the left and right dumps you will see that at offset $0700 of kdosright.bin is the first sector (Boot) of K-DOS.atr... kdosleft.biin is the continuation. What you end up with is 81 sectors of DOS.SYS, but the rest is unknown... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 I'm in... I halted the system during boot, loaded the image into RAM at $8000 like a cartridge, then allowed it to relocate into RAM (at $4000 for copy loop, and $0000 for the image), then jumped to WARMST. kdos_state.zip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 Here's the K-DOS Cart ROM for those who haven't combined the two images yet. K-DOS Cart.rom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 So is that it Here's the K-DOS Cart ROM for those who haven't combined the two images yet. K-DOS Cart.rom So — is that it? We got it all? Also: is there a modern guide to options for cart dumping? I am willing to buy a thing, but I am not willing to use Windows. I have Macs and Ataris. Paul Westphal told me that he Lotherek SIO2PC can be used to dump carts (but I can't find info on that.) and I have that new SpartaDOS X remake, with that tempting slot for a stacked cart on it. . . I wonder if that can be used for dumping carts. thanks -Kevin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 Yep, it appears to be a quick way to get to K-DOS without needing to boot it from floppy. Probably a pretty handy thing when you're coding, testing, and crashing the machine hundreds of times a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 (edited) Yep, it appears to be a quick way to get to K-DOS without needing to boot it from floppy. Probably a pretty handy thing when you're coding, testing, and crashing the machine hundreds of times a day. Hm, how do I get it to work? I haven't found the combination of settings to make it work under Atari800MacX. Also: thank you! Kevin Edited May 7, 2016 by Savetz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sup8pdct Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 (edited) This rom cart image won't work in emulator as it get stuck in an endless copy/warm start loop due to cart not being able to be turned off. ie no such cart profile in emulators. I have made an .XEX file that does work in emulator (atari800win). OS rev A or B required. Is same as disk based version. kdos whole.xex James Edited May 7, 2016 by sup8pdct 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 Great. OK, if we're convinced we got it all, I will send the cart back to its owner. yayyy nerds. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 The problem is that there's additional hardware in the cartridge- probably to disable it and free up RAM from $8000-BFFF. So, the system crashes if you just load it as a standard cart. It may be possible to format it as an OSS cart or something else that can disable itself. EDIT: Looks like James has got it covered. Has anyone checked whether it matches known versions of K-DOS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 I just loaded it in Altirra using the Blizzard 16k mode along with your kdos.state and it booted okay. But it would be nice to see the innards if possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sup8pdct Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 The problem is that there's additional hardware in the cartridge- probably to disable it and free up RAM from $8000-BFFF. So, the system crashes if you just load it as a standard cart. It may be possible to format it as an OSS cart or something else that can disable itself. EDIT: Looks like James has got it covered. Has anyone checked whether it matches known versions of K-DOS? It is the same as disk version. The cart needs to be tested to see if can be turned back on again. Else power cycle is required. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 There's another chip tucked away on the back. I'm guessing any access to D5xx will disable it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted May 7, 2016 Author Share Posted May 7, 2016 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fletch Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 The cart dump works in Atari800MacX if you choose the Blizzard 16K setting 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotty Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) Here is the disk version of K-Dos from 1981. Also includes all the files mentioned on page 2 of the K-Dos user manual. Archive contains both ATA and ATX version of the disks. K-DOS (1981)(K-Byte)(US).zip Edited August 10, 2016 by scotty 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.