Custom OS, what's available and why to use? (130xe, Antonia 4MB, and SDrive-Max)

[dabone]

I've got a 130xe with a Antonia and SDrive Max, so I have the ability to have up to 8 os/basic slots.

Besides having the highspeed SIO patch so I can have Shift-Reset, what would be some other useful custom OSs to play with?

 

 

[reifsnyderb]

Here's the one I put together.   🙂

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/347696-compiling-a-new-atari-os/page/16/

 

[dabone]

So, what are the pros and cons of this OS versus others?

 

I'm a old Commodore guy, so the idea of the OS rom is a little strange compared to the inflexibility of the kernal located in the c64.

 

 

[xrbrevin]

people used to put OS A on a switcher to negate the need to load XL Translator/XL Fix for old game compatibility

[reifsnyderb]

45 minutes ago, dabone said:

So, what are the pros and cons of this OS versus others?

 

I'm a old Commodore guy, so the idea of the OS rom is a little strange compared to the inflexibility of the kernal located in the c64.

 

 

The most obvious changes are bug fixes, high speed disk access (with high speed hardware), built-in numeric keyboard handler, smaller self-test with more features, and faster (2x speed) floating point routines.

[+scorpio_ny]

1 hour ago, dabone said:

I'm a old Commodore guy, so the idea of the OS rom is a little strange compared to the inflexibility of the kernal located in the c64.

On the Commodore side, the equivalent would be to use JiffyDos instead of the standard C64 kernel. For faster disk access and other OS enhancements.

[xrbrevin]

44 minutes ago, scorpio_ny said:

On the Commodore side, the equivalent would be to use JiffyDos instead of the standard C64 kernel. For faster disk access and other OS enhancements.

yes, i have a jiffydos ROM in mine but i have to hold 'restore' key to boot it instead of the standard OS - it should be the other way around! ..the inconvenient distant cousin of a thing that it is..!

[Houdini]

Here is a large thread about this with many downloads to choose from:

 

 

[+Larry]

I've found a few compatibility issues with almost all replacement OS.  Reverse Basic is highly compatible, but some software still chokes on it.  The 800 replacement OS's (for XL/XE models) work quite well, and Omniview XL/XE is the most 800 compatible and useful I've found.  A fast math package can be helpful.  It rarely causes issues of "too fast" execution.  Fast SIO is usually extremely helpful, and @HiassofT is the best I've used.  Omnimon is very nice if you want to jump into programs and look around and change things.  But always leave one OS slot for the plain vanilla stock XL/XE OS.  In my Antonia I have the following:

 

Stock XL/XE

Fast Math

High speed SIO (HSIO)/Reverse Basic

Omnimon XL/XE

Omniview XE

@drac030's 65816 OS (for his 65816 Basic)

MyBios (for @mr-atari's MyIDE-II)

RDos (with an 800 OS + an older version of MyDos in rom that provides an additional 4K free memory)

 

 

[dabone]

Thanks for all the answers, it makes much more sense now.

[+David_P]

11 hours ago, Larry said:

I've found a few compatibility issues with almost all replacement OS.  Reverse Basic is highly compatible, but some software still chokes on it.  The 800 replacement OS's (for XL/XE models) work quite well, and Omniview XL/XE is the most 800 compatible and useful I've found.  A fast math package can be helpful.  It rarely causes issues of "too fast" execution.  Fast SIO is usually extremely helpful, and @HiassofT is the best I've used.  Omnimon is very nice if you want to jump into programs and look around and change things.  But always leave one OS slot for the plain vanilla stock XL/XE OS.  In my Antonia I have the following:

 

Stock XL/XE

Fast Math

High speed SIO (HSIO)/Reverse Basic

Omnimon XL/XE

Omniview XE

@drac030's 65816 OS (for his 65816 Basic)

MyBios (for @mr-atari's MyIDE-II)

RDos (with an 800 OS + an older version of MyDos in rom that provides an additional 4K free memory)

 

 

Have you been able to try the DataQue '816 OS with Antonia?

[+Larry]

1 hour ago, David_P said:

Have you been able to try the DataQue '816 OS with Antonia?

No, never thought of it.  I've probably got it, but do you have a link in case I don't?  Many years ago, we had a demo at our user's group meeting of the wip Turbo 8/16, and I remember that the SIO sound was faster.  Not like a Happy track buffer, but a little faster.  It would be neat to test the OS and see if I really detect that.  Of course, the interleave could play into that.

[+David_P]

52 minutes ago, Larry said:

No, never thought of it.  I've probably got it, but do you have a link in case I don't?  Many years ago, we had a demo at our user's group meeting of the wip Turbo 8/16, and I remember that the SIO sound was faster.  Not like a Happy track buffer, but a little faster.  It would be neat to test the OS and see if I really detect that.  Of course, the interleave could play into that.

I think I found this here on AtariAge and saved it... there's two versions of the OS,  few 90K ATRs and various other bits of info.

 

 

Turbo_816.zip