Savetz Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 I recently acquired a batch of APX disks, and one of the disks appears to be unreleased prototype software. I have no idea what it is supposed to do. A utility of some sort? Let's figure it out. It is labeled: AMOEBA © 1982 atari inc REV # Prototype SERIAL # 21 Amoeba.atr Amoeba_kyroflux.zip 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Any back story on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 ok, so first of all, it needs OS B, will not work in XL or XE. When placed in memory, it displays something very much like an in-memory debugger. -Thom 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Ah, mini assembler too. very nice... mini disassembler as well. looks like a nice little programmers workbench. Where the F@#()532 did this come from? -Thom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 ok, so.. definitely a combo of an in-memory disassembler and re-assembler for doing quick patches to code that's been assembled into memory. -Thom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 (edited) Some screenshots: Edited April 3, 2017 by MrFish 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 Oh! I should have though of using OS B given the copyright date. Duh. Backstory: not interesting. I bought this on ebay as part of a batch that had some unpreserved APX disks. I have asked the seller if s/he can give me more info, but haven't heard back yet. -Kevin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 I'm throwing together a quick video on how this works. Stay tuned. -Thom 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 When I run it from DOS 2.0S under Atari800MacX, after I enter a two-digit number I get THANK YOU PLEASE WAIT, then it hangs or crashes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 after I enter a two-digit number I get THANK YOU PLEASE WAIT, then it hangs or crashes. What memory location are you putting it at? I used 38 and it crashed, but it worked at 40. Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 What memory location are you putting it at? I used 38 and it crashed, but it worked at 40. Bill 40 works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Well, I just loaded it with DOS 2.5. I used 60 (based on long-ago fooling-around-with-tiny-ML-routines memories as a teenager) and it worked. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 ok, so first of all, it needs OS B, will not work in XL or XE. Interestingly, it will work in Altirra with 600XL/800XL or 65XE/130XE hardware selected and Altirra OS for XL/XE/XEGS. It doesn't like 1200XL or XEGS hardware with this OS, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckybuck Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 (edited) Starts good in version 3.0 :-) As Thom said, an debugger like DDT and BUG/65... With Select one can switch... Edited April 4, 2017 by luckybuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 I've made a video showing it's usage and workflow: Enjoy. p.s. took longer than expected, because OBS and Altirra DO NOT like playing with one another! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 Man - that would have been great to have something like that in ROM rather than the self test. I'm sure there's way more than 2K of code. Could this by chance be used in place of built in BASIC? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 too big in its present state. -Thom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TangentAudio Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 Wow, this actually looks like it could be a useful tool for current development - I'm kind of inspired to try it out for developing my PBI handler. Not knowing how complete or bug-free it may be is a concern, of course... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckybuck Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 (edited) Please further compare to these: https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Bug65 https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=DDT https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Extended_DDT http://atariage.com/forums/topic/252579-omnimon-cartridge/ Edited April 4, 2017 by luckybuck 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 Looks like the mini-assembler, and patching functionality already set this debugger above most of the others. -Thom 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 Would be great if we could discover the author. Given the early date, I'd assume it would have had to be an internal Atari project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 (edited) keep digging this was not the last rendition of Amoeba if memory serves.. I don't remember it as a protoype but it should have a serial number in this case the custom vtoc says prototype 21 but 21 is actually the serial number of the program disk, not the revision of the prototype... The name said it all, it could be be moved about in memory and could muck about with whatever was in memory... and you could even move it after your program ran into it's space and continue on. Leave and pick up where you left off... Thom you are doing an excellent explanation of the Amoeba toolkit, I really do enjoy watching this. Please play with Amoeba just a bit more . How high have you moved it in memory and what memory expansions have you tried axlon/mosaic? Wonderful work. Edited April 5, 2017 by _The Doctor__ 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 keep digging this was not the last rendition of Amoeba if memory serves.. I don't remember it as a protoype but it should have a serial number in this case the custom vtoc says prototype 21 but 21 is actually the serial number of the program disk, not the revision of the prototype... The name said it all, it could be be moved about in memory and could muck about with whatever was in memory... and you could even move it after your program ran into it's space and continue on. Leave and pick up where you left off... Thom you are doing an excellent explanation of the Amoeba toolkit, I really do enjoy watching this. Please play with Amoeba just a bit more . How high have you moved it in memory and what memory expansions have you tried axlon/mosaic? Wonderful work. Ok, you need to spill. What do _you_ know about it? Particularly the Patch functionality? -Thom 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savetz Posted April 5, 2017 Author Share Posted April 5, 2017 tschak909's questions, plus : how did you know about it? Did it get out of Atari internal use, or were you inside Atari? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tschak909 Posted April 5, 2017 Share Posted April 5, 2017 it's almost like somebody wanted something as close to a full ICE (in-circuit-emulator) system as they could get, and was willing to pull off some crazy gymnastics to make it work (For those of you who haven't dabbled in 6502 machine language coding, making code to _EXPLICITLY_ set processor flag states in EACH possible state is not trivial, it takes a lot of crazy gymnastics to do so for some flags in some states.) -Thom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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