Comments on: The Beautiful Boot http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1054 Jason Scott's Weblog Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:54:36 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Deckard http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1054/comment-page-1#comment-7461 Deckard Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:54:36 +0000 http://ascii.textfiles.com/?p=1054#comment-7461 The full source code of the Beautiful Boot is available here: http://boutillon.free.fr/Underground/Outils/Beautiful_Boot/Beautiful_Boot.html Skip the french text and go to the SOURCES section. JM The full source code of the Beautiful Boot is available here:

http://boutillon.free.fr/Underground/Outils/Beautiful_Boot/Beautiful_Boot.html

Skip the french text and go to the SOURCES section.

JM

]]> By: Jason Scott http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1054/comment-page-1#comment-4116 Jason Scott Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:49:22 +0000 http://ascii.textfiles.com/?p=1054#comment-4116 Not unrelated at all, Flack. I thought the Fast Load cartridge was a perfect example of that very situation. However, the way that the Fast Load cartridge worked was basically by jamming the 1541 so that it no longer did three verifications on each read and write, instead doing one, and doing a few other similar tricks. It functioned kind of like the print buffers of the old days on PCs, where the hardware was basically giving a slightly different interrupt to the OS and "fooling" it to do things to the user's benefit. I'm sure to the engineers who'd made the 1541, this was crazy insane because they knew the potential for lost data. Same thing with going from single-sided to double-sided disks for floppies; in many cases they didn't put much of any quality into the second side, but people were fine with that! In other words, you could TAKE these advantages but no company in their right might would SELL them, because they were unreliable. There was a copy program for the Apple II that used memory buffering tricks to be able to copy a floppy in no time; it would go through the sectors like a shimmering curtain of pixels and then be on the other side going "I'm Done!" I'm sure it totally didn't verify-check, but damn was it fast. Not unrelated at all, Flack. I thought the Fast Load cartridge was a perfect example of that very situation. However, the way that the Fast Load cartridge worked was basically by jamming the 1541 so that it no longer did three verifications on each read and write, instead doing one, and doing a few other similar tricks. It functioned kind of like the print buffers of the old days on PCs, where the hardware was basically giving a slightly different interrupt to the OS and “fooling” it to do things to the user’s benefit.

I’m sure to the engineers who’d made the 1541, this was crazy insane because they knew the potential for lost data. Same thing with going from single-sided to double-sided disks for floppies; in many cases they didn’t put much of any quality into the second side, but people were fine with that! In other words, you could TAKE these advantages but no company in their right might would SELL them, because they were unreliable.

There was a copy program for the Apple II that used memory buffering tricks to be able to copy a floppy in no time; it would go through the sectors like a shimmering curtain of pixels and then be on the other side going “I’m Done!” I’m sure it totally didn’t verify-check, but damn was it fast.

]]> By: Rob "Flack" O'Hara http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1054/comment-page-1#comment-4115 Rob "Flack" O'Hara Wed, 21 Feb 2007 23:05:02 +0000 http://ascii.textfiles.com/?p=1054#comment-4115 Somewhat unrelated, but I remember a similar revelation moments after using a Fast Load cartridge on the C64 for the first time. The C64 had obviously superior graphics and sound compared to our Apple II, but the load times were almost unbearable. I remember owning games that took between five and ten minutes to load -- from a floppy! The Fast Load cart sped things up ten fold. I remember thinking at the time, "why didn't they just build whatever's in this cart into the drive, and skip a step?" Somewhat unrelated, but I remember a similar revelation moments after using a Fast Load cartridge on the C64 for the first time. The C64 had obviously superior graphics and sound compared to our Apple II, but the load times were almost unbearable. I remember owning games that took between five and ten minutes to load — from a floppy! The Fast Load cart sped things up ten fold. I remember thinking at the time, “why didn’t they just build whatever’s in this cart into the drive, and skip a step?”

]]> By: leahpeah http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1054/comment-page-1#comment-4114 leahpeah Wed, 21 Feb 2007 23:03:39 +0000 http://ascii.textfiles.com/?p=1054#comment-4114 I remember the first time we had the Apple computers put in our classroom. Our teacher was so excited. He put in the missile game where you used math and put in the trajectory and wind speed/direction or something like that. I remember feeling proud when I killed someone else because my math was not always the best and I was routinely behind a little, but it was just a game to me. A giant game with a giant screen. My mind couldn't see the potential. I've always blamed that teacher for not explaining it to me better. I think I lost quite a few years because I didn't understand the potential. But I’m wondering now if it was just the limitation of my imagination and nothing the teacher did. I remember the first time we had the Apple computers put in our classroom. Our teacher was so excited. He put in the missile game where you used math and put in the trajectory and wind speed/direction or something like that. I remember feeling proud when I killed someone else because my math was not always the best and I was routinely behind a little, but it was just a game to me. A giant game with a giant screen. My mind couldn’t see the potential. I’ve always blamed that teacher for not explaining it to me better. I think I lost quite a few years because I didn’t understand the potential. But I’m wondering now if it was just the limitation of my imagination and nothing the teacher did.

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