Alphasys

Yep, Mode 3 is the descender mode.

It is 10 scanlines high, but still uses the 8x8 char matrix. The lower case letters are setup so that the "descender" is actually the top byte of the char.

If the lower case "g" is setup as:

..XXXX..
........
........
..XXXXX.
.XX..XX.
.XX..XX.
..XXXXX.
.....XX.
 

It will actually display in mode 3 as:

........
........
........
..XXXXX.
.XX..XX.
.XX..XX.
..XXXXX.
.....XX.
..XXXX..
........

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think only the lower case letters are affected in this way, but I could be mistaken. I'll have to investigate this in more depth, but maybe one here can already answer this.

orpheuswaking, on Thu Aug 4, 2011 6:14 PM, said:

CAS-files are indeed one option. But unless those contain BASIC files, they are most probably single-load boot files of a sort, meaning you have to hold START (+Option if basic needs to be disabled) to load those.

ATR files are usually not suitable for transfer to cassette, since these are diskimages, containing more files, and usually needing the random access functions that a diskdrive has, which a cassette can't mimic.

XEX (or EXE/COM files) use a loading method that a DOS can handle, but the Atari can't use without a DOS. There is however a program I used quite extensively back in the day when a tape-recorder was the only peripheral I had. It's called BL/C, and is a bootable program, loadable from cassette, that'll give this DOS-like binary load functionality for Tape. I used to have 2 versions of this program, one was version 0.2, the other 0.8. Nowadays, I only seem to have a selector disk-image with a BL/C 0.9 on there, but how that could be put on tape, I'm not sure.

Atari800WinPLus will output the dual tone when "saving to cassette", but doesn't make the datablock-noises. Altirra can do that though. You could then record the sound produced by Altirra, and record that on tape, so stuff will work. To test this, I've made and uploaded this zipped WAV-file of BL/C 0.9 using Altirra and some sound recording software. Maybe you can try that first. If it works, pretty much all XEX-files could be transferred to cassette and loaded with this preloader program. Record it to tape, and hold OPTION+START on boot.

If you have CAS files, use a utility like CAS2WAV or A8CAS to make a soundfile you could then record on tape. I think there's also an EXE2CAS program somewhere, or was it EXE2WAV... Not sure. It's been ages since I could use original hardware, so I'm not into these kinds of programs.

A word of warning though: Some of these files will be HUGE! I've once saved the XEX-file of Master of the Lamps to tape, which due to its structure needed to be saved with long inter-record gaps. This took over 45 minutes of tape, and even longer to load, because the tape would be stopped and restarted between each block.

flashjazzcat, on Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:10 AM, said:

Ofcourse it doesn't work with ALL binary files. Basic is active! So any binary file using $A000-BFFF won't work

By the way, does Mapping also tell what dos this works for? When I check the listing for DOS2.0S's FMS, it ends at $1501, while the call is made to $15C8, so it's not 2.0S that this works for, unless there's a resident part of the DUP that it calls...?

The oddest thing about the e-mail is the following part:

Quote

They're obviously swinging a big hammer at air here. No software can infringe on hardware that's needed to run it on. They're 2 entirely separate entities.

wood_jl, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 4:31 PM, said:

You forgot the "wo" part...

slyde, on Tue Aug 9, 2011 7:12 PM, said:

I don't own an Sdrive, but I kinda know how it's supposed to work. As far as I understand it, the Sdrive holds a number of disk images (you can fill it with a crapton of them), and the menu in it, makes it possible to assign a certain disk image to a certain drive number. So if you want to remain compatible with DOS 2.5, you should use an SD or ED image to put your files on. Bibodos can handle SD, ED and DD sizes. MyDos and SpartaDos can handle much larger disk images still. So what size of image you use, is dependent on the DOS that you use.

Give it an appropriate name like "Slyde's Basic files No.1" before putting it on the SD card, so you can keep track of your data more easily and you're all set, I think.

If you have questions about the Sdrive specifically, I can't help you, but I'm sure a lot of people around will be able to help you.