Re: New TRS80 User & TRS32

christianlott1@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

I select any of these models, I insert the disk, reset the machine and
nothing happens (the screen is blank). The leftmost red light is on and
the three blocks beside it are black.

Ah, the fun begins! ;)

The TRS-80 Models 3 & 4 booted DOS from diskette - there was no DOS in
ROM so you need a bootable disk. It may be that the DSK images you have
tried aren't bootable!?! Or perhaps they're Model I boot disks?

Now, to complicate matters, there were more than a few different
operating systems available, perhaps most notably TRS-80, Newdos/80 and
LDOS. The degree of interoperability between DOS formats differed from
DOS to DOS.

To further complicate matters, the TRS-80 models supported different
disk formats such as single and double density (with different adapters
no less), numbers of tracks, as well as other options. In most cases,
you needed to explicitly specify what format of disk you were using.

If that's not enough, some of the DOSes also had 'Model I' counterparts
which had slightly different formats again. You could play 99% of Model
I (non-bootable) software directly on a Model 3/4 if you set up the DOS
correctly.

Then you have 'native' Model 4 mode, which brings another set of DOSes
and hardware compatibility issues to the table. However, in this case
you shouldn't need to worry about this.

The .DSK in question is a basic game called Temple of Apshai. I've
tried other .DSK images with the same result.

I suspect TOA is in fact bootable - perhaps it's a Model I? The Model I
DOSes won't boot on a model 3/4 and vice-versa because of hardware
differences.

As for other non-bootable DSK images, you need to know what format they
are, and boot the corresponding DOS boot disk. You may also need to
specify - within that DOS - the exact format of the DSK image. As I
said, some DOSes are smarter than others and can work this out to some
degree itself. Others would know more about this than me.

Also, I has some standalone trs80 basic files I may wish to try. How do
I load these?

You'll need to boot a DOS diskette and run DOS basic. If the files you
have are on PC format you'll have to import them onto a compatible DOS
data disk to run them in the emulator. xtrs (linux) will allow you
import a file directly from the host OS. It does also run under cygwin
so in theory it would work on windoze too.

Regards,

--
Mark McDougall, Engineer
Virtual Logic Pty Ltd, <http://www.vl.com.au>
21-25 King St, Rockdale, 2216
Ph: +612-9599-3255 Fax: +612-9599-3266
.

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