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          Tech Musings, (circumlunar), 09/12/2018
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Grex.org is  down again. I  wouldn't say that they  are down
frequently, but this is the second time this week. They were
up for  a bit  and I  made a backup  of my  content. There's
nothing  earth-shattering in  there, but  it's stuff  that I
put  together, and  I don't  want  to lose  it. Backups  are
important.

In any case, mostly I write about z80 stuff over there or on
SDF... but  grex is down  and I  don't feel like  writing on
SDF;  plus, I'm  using CP/M  more on  my z80  build now,  so
circumlunar is a good place for this post, I declare.

***

I've been  playing around  with my z80  computer a  lot more
recently, now  that I  have an  iteration with  a disk-based
operating system. Certain, it feels a lot more like a modern
system now, versus the rom-based BASIC setup. I really enjoy
these old ring-0 operating systems, they just make me happy.

Most recently, I've been getting  games to work for my kids.
Here's what I  have working (my terminal  supports VT100 and
VT52):

Ladder  - the  old Kaypro  game, barrel-rolling  like Donkey
Kong. It was pretty easy to  get this one working, as it has
a config program. Fast-paced, the kids love it.

Catchum - another  old Kaypro game, a  PacMan clone. Getting
this to work was a matter of  opening the .DAT file in a hex
editor  and changing  the escape  code control  character to
work with a VT52. Some of  the screen drawing is messed up a
bit, but it's quite functional, and fast.

Worm -  a German game of  the expected type, worm  that gets
longer must eat  all the numbers. Opened it in  a hex editor
to  change the  controls and  to localize  it into  English.
Already worked in VT100 mode,  though my terminal has issues
with their 80 column field (somehow there is 1 extra column,
which  makes  extra  line  breaks  when  drawing  the  field
boundaries).

Quantris  - a  tetris clone.  This one  comes with  a config
program, so it works out of the box as well. Fun to play and
fast paced.

Zork 1,2, and 3 - work out of the box.

Basic Games - I gathered up a long list of BASIC-80 (mbasic)
games.  Most  work  without  modification,  some  had  small
issues, others I have yet to try.

Aliens  - the  Kaypro game...  I have  it, and  it partially
works. I  *really* want to get  this one working, or  find a
version that works. I'll keep trying.


Apart from  games, I've got  working installs of  WordStar 3
and 4, CalcStar, the  TE editor (under active development!),
MBasic  (with compiler,  etc.)  and a  variety of  utilities
(calendar program,  calculators, etc.)  I would like  a good
hex editor,  so I  don't have  to do  that on  my PC,  but I
haven't looked yet.


One last thing...  some of these programs  were difficult to
find on today's  web. I am planning on putting  the files on
gopher,  perhaps  over  at  SDF  or  Grex  where  I  already
have similar  files. The  .COM (and associated)  files would
be  good  to put  online,  but  I'd  also  like to  put  the
.TXT hex-converted  versions that  work with  Grant Searle's
DOWNLOAD.COM utility,  for those  who use  it, so  that they
don't  have  to worry  about  converting  them to  load.  Of
course, the total count of  people using that utility AND on
gopher  might be  just one  including myself,  so it  may be
moot, but that's OK.


One  last, last  thing... my  z80 on  prototype board,  with
cassette storage,  is still in  a box. Even though  the CP/M
machine is easy and fun, I still want to break out the other
and continue my  adventures with it. I even have  a nice 80s
cassette player  and a few new  tapes that I really  want to
try out. I  think I've talked about this  on gopher already,
but it keeps popping up in  my mind, and I can't do anything
about it in the real world right now, so...