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| ROMS/BIOS's |
|---|
| COCO III |
| Press CTRL-ALT-RESET and a 256x192 hi res picture comes up the screen. This is actually the power-on cold start sequence for the CoCo 3. The picture is of 3 Microware guys that did work for Tandy on enhancing the Extended Color Basic ROM into CoCo 3 capabilities. Tandy knew of this pix just before release into the market and decided to ship the units as is instead of reworking the ROM code. (Rogelio) |
| The picture consumed about 6K of the 8K of additional ROM that Microware was given in those systems to make some enhancements for BASIC. Generally known as "The Three Stooges" image, you frequently found it up on the store computers .... The three people were employees at Microware. The Tandy buyer knew or became aware of the picture before the machines shipped, but no one in R&D knew. If it was known, the VP of the hardware groups would have replaced the 8K with a 2K part to save a nickel. (Frank Durda IV). |
| Model III |
| Model III and early Model 4 ROMs had "RON" for Ron Light hidden down in the "A" ROM. As far as Frank knows there wasn't anything that caused it to be displayed, but that is what that is. (Frank Durda IV). |
| Model IV Boot ROM |
| Frank Durda IV's footprints are in a few places in the the Model 4P boot ROM. When you turn on a Model 4P, after the initial "di" instruction at location 0, the next four instructions executed are actually the ASCII characters "FDIV"! The instructions don't do anything useful in this context. In addition, lowercase "fdiv" appears a bit further down, and the words "Frank" and "Durda" can be found mixed in with the French and German error messages. (Tim Mann). |
| ModelIII/A |
| "fdiv" also occurs in various places in all versions of the MODELA/III file. (MODELA/III is the ROM image that was loaded into RAM for Model III compatibility mode on the Model 4P.) In some it's in the actual ROM image; in others it's in extra bytes at the end of the file that are not loaded into RAM. (Tim Mann). |
| Tandy VIS Systems |
|
On the Tandy VIS systems, Microsoft tried to sneak a new product line logo for Modular Windows in at the last minute (it looked like a rip-off of the "Wool" logo you see on garments), but as it was displayed on each boot, replaced the VIS logo, which Tandy didn't like, and MS was over their ROM budget in the first place even before adding this bloat, Tandy complained loudly. The Next release MS sent Tandy doesn't display the logo and we are told it has been removed, BUT the modules are even bigger. We get suspicious. A disassembly shows the image is still there and MS added new code to make the image appear only in certain situations. Only after John Roach called Bill Gates on this, did the logo really get removed. Of course, we didn't know that in retaliation, MS decided to torpedo the VIS project anyway by changing Modular Windows in a very minor but incompatible way with the version in VIS, and told us just two days after the VIS ROMs were sent to be fabbed. Modular Windows was disowned by Microsoft after a few more months (they denied it was even a product in public statements), but it was eventually remarketed with bigger system CPU and memory requirements, more bloat and a brand new name: Windows CE. Of course, if you examine the VIS ROMS, you will find hundreds of messages telling you that the network printer is out of paper and other messages that don't make sense for a machine with no network or printer capabilities. That's Windows CE (I mean Modular Windows) dragging around great steaming chunks of regular Windows that could not be cut-out, or at least that's what Microsoft claimed. After the stunt with the logo, relations were real bad. (Frank Durda IV). |
| OPERATING SYSTEMS |
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| TRSDOS |
| In TRSDOS v2.3, run BOOT/SYS.WHO while holding down the "2" and "6" keys and you will get a notice from Tandy ... (Pete Cervasio) |
| ... you can hold down the "R" and "V" keys (Randy Cook's first two initials) instead of "2" and "6" ... (Tim Mann) |
| ... Any key combination that results in 68 (0x44) will decode the message properly. (Pete Cervasio). |
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * N O T I C E ! * * * * THIS OPERATING SYSTEM WAS * * DESIGNED BY AND IS THE SOLE * * PROPERTY OF TANDY CORP. * * * * ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED * * HEREIN IS PROPRIETARY AND * * MUST NOT BE REPRODUCED OR * * DISTRIBUTED IN WHOLE OR IN * * PART WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN * * CONSENT FROM TANDY CORP. * * ONE TANDY CENTER * * FORT WORTH TX. 76102 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * |
| The "00 FE" bytes at the beginning of the sector are cleverly disguised load module codes (equivalent to a comment record). (Pete Cervasio) |
| In TRSDOS 2.1 and 2.2, the message said "RANDY COOK", not "TANDY CORP". (Tim Mann). |
| That message is one of the key items that made Randy Cook and Tandy part ways so violently, and probably why Tandys various revisionist histories of that period frequently fail to mention him or Steve Ls role in putting Tandy in the computer business. As Frank recalls, the original message also had a non-Tandy telephone number Randy set up to do his own support from, which ticked-off Tandy even more. Either George Robertson or Ron Light (both now deceased) created the patch that changed the message after Randy went away. (Frank Durda IV). |
| LDOS v5.1.0 |
| Type the command A! or B! at the LDOS Ready prompt. It will print "Hi there! This command is reserved for the future by your LDOS Support group. Roy, Bill, Tim, Chuck, Dick." (The "Tim" was Tim Mann.) Later LDOS versions printed a more boring message, and eventually A! and B! were deleted. (Tim Mann). |
| Tandy made LSI change the message in the versions Radio Shack shipped to something different, probably due to vivid memories of Randy Cooks activities. (Mike Yetsko) |
| You'll also find "Roy" or "Tim" here and there in the middle of a few /CMD or /DVR or /SYS files. When the development team needed a 3-byte data area that didn't have to be initialized to anything in particular, they'd sometimes have the assembler put their names there. (Tim Mann). |
| Roy thought that the "T" in RS232T/DVR (the Model III RS232 driver) was meant to stand for "Tim". (Tim really didn't, Tim just thought RS2323/DVR would look silly, he picked T to stand for "three".) So Roy changed the name of the Model I RS232 driver to RS232R/DVR, claiming that "R" stood for "Radio Shack", not "Roy." :-) (Tim Mann). |
| XENIX 3.0 |
| On XENIX 3.0, in a really obscure hardware failure condition (the Z80 got back to the main operation dispatch loop with the stack at a different depth than it was on the previous pass), z80ctl would spit out: |
Bugchk: Sckmud "Shut her down Scotty, she's sucking mud again!" |
| "Shut her down Scotty..." was somebodys' sig line on USENET back around 1984 and the vision of Captain Kirk yelling this down to Scotty always struck Frank as very funny, so when Frank needed a message for this insanely implausable condition Frank had seen a few times in test, Frank felt you needed a special reward if you managed to get here, so Frank picked that message. The technical support documentation describing this message suggested that rebooting soon would be a good career move. (Frank Durda IV) |
| MISC. SOFTWARE |
| Scott Adam's Adventures |
| In the specially formatted copy protection sector on track 0 of an Scott Adams (Adventure International) disk, there is a message from Kim Watt, who designed the copy protection scheme, saying roughly "If you can read this, phone Kim Watt at xxx-yyy-zzzz to find out what reward you get." (Tim Mann). |
This section is a compilation of patches for the listed programs. They have been modified to be a compilation, so editing will most likely be required if you wish to apply the patches.
| RESCUE AT RIGEL is from the same stable as TEMPLE OF APSHAI. Many copies of the cassette version were sold in Australia & although not as cumbersome to load as TEMPLE,it does have some incompatibilities with Disk BASIC. The following modifications are not enhancements they simply allow the game to be saved to disk and to be played under a 48K Disk BASIC environment. | |
| There are two separate modules on the tape: The RESCUE module (i.e., the actual game in BASIC) and the DATA module (for the graphics). | |
| Step 1 | Under Disk BASIC, CLOAD the RESCUE module. For the TRS-80 Model III, make sure you have the cassette baud rate set to L. (or POKE&H4211,0 from BASIC). Make the following changes: |
| Add line 6, 'POKE &H40B1,&HC0 : POKE&H40B2,&HFA' | |
| From line 10, delete the expression ':ON ERROR GOTO 11' | |
| Delete line 11 entirely | |
| In line 16 change 'KA=31485' to 'KA=&HFAFD' | |
| Delete line 1100 entirely | |
| Change line 1610 to | |
1610 OPEN"I",1,"RESCUE/DAT":K=0:FORI=1TO5:A$="" :INPUT#1,A$ :GOSUB1950 | |
| Delete line 1660 entirely | |
| Change line 1960 to '1960 MC!=USR0(KA+K)' | |
| Step 2 | Save the modified RESCUE module as "RESCUE/BAS:dn1". |
| Step 3 | Type in, save then run the following program. In response to 'Filespec...?', reply 'RESCUE/DAT:dn1' |
1 'Data transfer routine for RESCUE AT RIGEL 2 'by Leonard J. Yates, 25 October 1984 10 CLS : CLEAR 1000 : ON ERROR GOTO 160 100 PRINT"Data transfer routine for RESCUE AT RIGEL" 110 PRINT"Place cassette in player, cue and press 'PLAY'" 120 LINE INPUT"Filespec for disk file (incl. drive no.):";FS$ 130 OPEN"O",1,FS$: FOR I=1 TO 5: PRINT@256,"Reading data #";I 140 INPUT#-1,A$: IF LEN(A$)<>249 PRINT@256,"Data read error" 150 PRINT@256,"Printing data #";I : PRINT#1,A$ : NEXT I 160 CLOSE 1: PRINT"Data transfer complete" : PRINT : PRINT | |
| Step 4 | On the disk,you should now have two files: RESCUE/BAS and RESCUE/DAT.To run the program, type RUN"RESCUE/BAS" under Disk BASIC. Unlike the cassette version, there is no need to set memory size and the game will load and run in a matter of seconds. |
| To make multiple copies of protected VISICALC and SCRIPSIT programs on a Model III: | |
| 1. | Make 2 backup copies as recommended in owner's manual. |
| 2. | Insert one of the backup copies, without write protection, into drive 0 and press RESET. |
| 3. | Enter BASIC and press ENTER for FILES and SIZE questions. |
| 4. | Enter the following program exactly: |
10 Z=0: FOR X=28672 TO 28808: READ A: POKE X,A: Z=Z+A: NEXT
60 IF Z=12099 THEN 70 ELSE PRINT "ERROR - CHECK DATA NUMBERS": END
70 DEFUSRR0=&H7000: X=USR(0)
90 DATA 49,240,111,33,136,0,229,241,33,0,64,229,253,225
100 DATA 1,20,1,17,105,112,213,221,225,33,120,112,245,197
110 DATA 213,229,205,66,68,5,5,5,5,205,54,68,17,48,0,33
120 DATA 137,112,1,0,5,126,254,126,204,101,112,254,94,204
130 DATA 101,112,25,16,242,1,0,5,17,47,1,33,153,112,54,239
140 DATA 35,54,92,25,16,248,58,115,112,61,50,115,112,225
150 DATA 209,193,241,205,66,68,5,205,60,68,195,45,64,62
160 DATA 16,119,201,128,104,0,137,112,0,0,8,0,0,21,1,32,3
170 DATA 0,31,32,0,16,31,64,0,32,31,96,0,48,31,128,0,64,31
| |
| 5. | Type SAVE "SUPER" and press ENTER. Then RUN the program. |
| 6. | The program will take 5 seconds to run, then will return to TRSDOS. You can now copy or backup VISICALC or SCRIPSIT. |
| To make a CMD file of a copy-protected Super Utility Plus Disk: | |
| 1. | Start by booting SUPER UTILITY PLUS. |
| 2. | Remove the disk and replace it with a SYSTEM disk with at least 29 free grans. |
| 3. | Configure the utility to your system. |
| 4. | Enter the memory utility by typing a 7. |
| 5. | Enter the memory display by typing a 1. |
| 6. | At the prompt enter EB00H for the address, H for hex entry mode and a M for modify, then place the cursor over EB01. |
| 7. | Enter the following hex code.F3 21 00 60 11 00 40 01 00 8B ED B0 31 4C 41 ED 56 C3 15 40 F3 21 00 CB 11 00 EB 01 01 8B ED B8 76 C7 00 4B 34 4B 41 4A |
| 8. | Hit ENTER then BREAK. |
| 9. | Jump to memory by entering 8 and at the prompt for the address enter EB15H. |
| 10. | The system should boot to DOS. |
| 11. | Dump memory from 6000H to EB28H with an entry point of EB01H. |
| 12. | With NEWDOS/80 it would look like this.DUMP SUPLUS/CMD 6000H,EB28H,EB01H |
| The TRS-80 Model III version of Superscripsit can now be patched to operate on the Model III version of LDOS. The latest version of Superscripsit (version 1.2.01) includes a Job Control Language (JCL) file called HARDDISK/JCL which contains all the patches to allow Superscripsit to operate under the LDOS system. | |
| The procedure to transfer Superscripsit to LDOS and apply the patches is as follows: | |
| 1) | Make up a LDOS system disk which includes SYS files 0,1,2,3,4,6,7,8,10,11 and 12. Also include the FORMAT/CMD, PATCH/CMD, CONV/CMD and BACKUP/CMD utilities. Use the following syntax: "BACKUP :0 :1 (Q=Y)" |
| 2) | Place this LDOS system disk in drive:0 and a BACKUP COPY of TRSDOS 1.3 Superscripsit version 1.2.01 in drive:1. |
| 3) | Under LDOS perform a CONV :1 :0 transferring only those files pertaining to Superscripsit. Transfer SCRIPSIT/CMD, S/CTL, SYSTEM/CTL, HELP/CTL, ERRORS/CTL, all SCRxx/CTL files and the required printer driver files (ie. LP8/CTL, DW2/CTL etc). Do not transfer the TRSDOS utilities MEMTEST/CMD, HERTZ50/CMD, BASIC/CMD, CDNVERT/CMD, XFERSYS/CMD or LPC/CMD. |
| 4) | Remove the TRSDOS Superscripsit disk from drive:1. |
| 5) |
Apply the patches to the Superscripsit files by typing "DO=HARDDISK/JCL". The screen will display the file patches as they are applied. When the patches have been completed the screen should display the message:
"Patch(s) successfully installed"
"Job done."
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| After the file patches have been applied you may purge SYS 11 and the HARDDISK/JCL files from the LDOS Superscripsit disk if you require more space on the disk. | |
| Backups of the new LDOS Superscripsit disk should be made immediately the conversion has been completed. | |