Recent content by orac81

SCONNEX is a version of the famous 4-in-a-line game, written to work on almost any computer. It can compile to work as an SDL2 app (PC or Android etc), or a zx81, Spectrum, C64, C16, Vic20, Pet, app, or as a C99 terminal program. It is open source, released under GPL3 licence. The compiled code...

I remember EightyOne being a little clunky doing this - you have to use the tape manager to create a new tape, then save, then close, or something like that. Fuse was simpler, but not zx81..

Just to add to this thread, I was experimenting with the z88dk C compiler. It can target CPM, and has an 8080 lib and code gen option, "-clib=8080", see: https://github.com/z88dk/z88dk/wiki/Platform---CPM so, for example: zcc +cpm -clib=8080 -lndos -o prog.com prog.c There are a few Pascal to...

Yes, not to mention named directories. FAT also keeps a block map from track zero in ram, (Tim Patterson/qdos idea) which was really fast compared to the old CPM method. At the time going from a C128+1541 (2mhz z80) to an 8mhz 8086 512k PC was a huge increase in speed, particularly for disk...

There is the cpm3 programmers ref guide, ie: https://web.archive.org/web/20220929005119/https://rvbelzen.tripod.com/cpm3-prg/cpm3prg1.htm (I am sure its a pdf somewhere) The Commodore 128 and Amstrad PCW/CPC/etc were the big selling CPM systems back in the day. From memory the C128 had a...

This is an interest subject, since I had "unintended" colours from a hires IBM CGA plasma demo I wrote (discussed elsewhere here). But users in the UK and Europe never see these effects because there are no NTSC monitors here, which is a downside of that method. Possibly one reason why the A2...

Just adding a link to the SizeCoding wiki, which has lots of info for making very small programs across a range of platforms: http://www.sizecoding.org/wiki/Main_Page For DOS there are lots of examples, tables of 1 byte opcodes, etc. Lots of assumptions are made on things like the initial...

Fair enough! I posted this up in case someone was still trying to do this. Did anyone get very far with a conversion of Turbo Pascal? Anyway for FreePascal to start a quick hack would be to use macros for these extensions, with static vars for IX/IY etc, just to get it running, then go back and...

Sure, I was suggesting adding an 8080 mode in addition to the z80, not replacing the z80. Although its interesting on this thread that some of the uses of z80 code by TP are actually faster recoded for 8080! I think you would work by writing new code framework for the psuedo-ops freepascal...

Looking at free pascal further, I only find a z80 (for spectrum, msxdos, embedded) backend: https://wiki.freepascal.org/Z80 But I guess, since its a compiler designed for many processors, editing that to 8080 is easier than trying to convert TP (though that would also be cool).

One little addition here - a while back I did see 8080 listed as a target for freePascal (it might be an old version). Also there is a pascal to c converter around, then use a c80 compiler?

@GC: Yes the turbo is needed. I had an 8mhz V30 back in the day, which is just fast enough. So here is another little demo/gfx generator: LIFE1D https://github.com/orac81/miniapples/raw/refs/heads/main/life1d.zip This is a version of the classic 1D Cellular Automata pattern generator, for...

One neat thing about Microdemos is that you can put all the code into the http address string and run it in Online Dosbox: CGA PLASMA in Online DOSBOX Heres another little demo, the old game of life: This is the Life! (104 bytes) There is a version in there with an editor, etc. DLIFE in...

@GC: sure, you can put cgaplas on your site, its free software! Can you get a single frame screenshot with that composite effect? I could use that. Thanks for the emulator hints, I will try those out. I was writing these asm demos in 2014ish, about the time when 8088mph came out. The emulators...

ok added Vga-plasma, Sdl-plasma, and turbo-C plasma to the cgaplas.zip, same link above. @GC: No I didnt know about the composite colour effect when I wrote cgaplas, those colours are unintended, it does look better. @Trixter, wow u wrote 8088mph? brilliant work! I have seen the video, but it...