Games we never had

[sixxie]

The implication is that the address above the last tested good one is 16389: (32768 - 24871) + 8492

Try:

Code: Select all

POKE 16389,255
PRINT PEEK(16389)
POKE 16389,0
PRINT PEEK(16389)

That should hopefully isolate which bit has the fault, which could suggest a single RAM chip to replace.

[Commodore]

Thanks sixxie and zephyr.

I shall certainly try those, and report back.


At the risk of sounding a bit thick; should I put line numbers with those commands?

The Dragon is a new system to me. I noticed that ? is short for print, the same as CBM Basic V2.0 (also by Microsoft), does that also extend to things like POKE being P shift O? etc etc. I only ask as I haven't yet had a chance to try it, and I have to pack the Dragon away after each time I've used it, so it's not set up at the moment.

I might try it later or tomorrow.

[Commodore]

I tried the commands as described Sixxie.

The first PEEK returned 253, the second PEEK returned 0. So it looks like something is wrong then I think.

I worked out that the CBM basic P shift O etc doesn't work on the Dragon. Is there a way of shortening the commands? I know Acorn equipment used the first letters and then . For example O. L. was OLD LIST.

Is there a hope that this Dragon 32 could be fixed?

[sixxie]

So it's possible that the only bad RAM chip is that handling bit 1 - IC7 according to the schematics.

If you check what's on your board and can source an equivalent replacement, you might be able to fix it.

[Commodore]

OK< thanks sixxie. That's great.

[zephyr]

Still nothing will load. It gets so far through the process and then the cursor freezes, the .wav file ends, and the screen does not change.

I tried Chuckie Egg, Airball and Frogger.

I think I have found the problem though - BAD RAM.

When I type ?MEM, I get 8492, which is rather lower than I was expecting, just about 8K.

I thought I'd try this as it was reminiscent of when a 48K Spectrum I had suddenly decided it would be a 16K Spectrum. The good news is the Spectrum was fixed, I don't suppose a Dragon is quite such an easy proposition. Shame if that is the case.

It would be good if anybody could confirm my diagnosis, and maybe suggest a Dragon Doctor.

Just a quick post to let everyone know that the above topic of the broken Dragon 32 has now been continued in this thread.

[Commodore]

Thanks Zephyr, and apologies for the confusion caused by absentmindedly posting on the wrong thread!