Synther for Coco?

Looking for a Dragon or CoCo game not already in the archive - Then request it here and hopefully it will either be uploaded to the archive or another member can upload it to this forum.
admin
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Synther for Coco?

Post by admin »

Sorry to be a bit off topic but seeing as how this is about the only place I've found cas downloads for this generation of pc's I thought I'd take a chance and see if anyone can point me to a Coco compatible version of Synther 7? I've tried a Dragon version but no dice.

Any help or direction is appreciated!!
Simon Hardy
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Re: Synther for Coco?

Post by sixxie »

Doesn't look promising - a google for "synther-7 coco" just turns up others with your problem, and even checking the supposedly CoCo-biased rtsi archive (ftp://os9archive.rtsi.com/), you can find a CAS file, but it too only loads on the Dragon. Was it definitely out on CoCo?

Edit: of course, it probably wouldn't be too hard to get it working...
admin
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Re: Synther for Coco?

Post by admin »

Here's a link to a magazine article that claims is was (article "Graphics and Music for the Color Computer"):

http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/ ... for_th.php

...and I had a link with screenshots but I seem to have lost it :(
Simon Hardy
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Re: Synther for Coco?

Post by admin »

...where could I learn about the not too hard method to get it working? :?:
Simon Hardy
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Re: Synther for Coco?

Post by sixxie »

I wrote this for someone else a while back: http://www.6809.org.uk/tmp/da/tapehack.txt - how easy it is kinda depends on how much you like poking around in hex dumps and disassemblies...

Most of why Synther-7 doesn't load will be due to the autorun method I suspect, though it might make lots of ROM calls that would need patching. And if it polls the keyboard, the different matrix would need accounting for.
admin
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Re: Synther for Coco?

Post by admin »

Woah. OK, time to get learnin'. Thanks for sharing! That's actually very interesting for me since I would love to be able to edit the wave tables that must be lurking in there somewhere.
Simon Hardy
admin
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Re: Synther for Coco?

Post by admin »

Well, this is way over my head at the moment. :oops:

If you (or anyone) wouldn't mind spoonfeeding me some additional info or helping out let me know at holder"dot"arnie"at"gmail"dot"com

Thanks (whether you feel like pursuing this or not)!!
Simon Hardy
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Re: Synther for Coco?

Post by sixxie »

A quick bash to get it loading here:

http://www.6809.org.uk/tmp/da/synther7_coco_step1.cas

It's heavily keyboard-based though, so getting the scanning right will be a pig unless it turns out to be using some sort of lookup table. I'll see if anything falls out of a trace of execution if I get a moment over the weekend.
sixxie
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Re: Synther for Coco?

Post by sixxie »

Ok I had some time before leaving for work this morning so...

It looks very like the Dragon version was just patched from an original CoCo one: after detecting a keypress, it calculates a "scan code" then JSRs to a routine that just adjusts this scan code back to what it would have been on a CoCo. NOP out that JSR in the CAS file, update block checksums and badaboom badabing:

http://www.6809.org.uk/tmp/da/synther7_coco.cas

Also I saw someone find the original CoCo one for you on coco3.com, and as I'd already started...
admin
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Re: Synther for Coco?

Post by admin »

I really appreciate your help! And yeah, I've been trying to get the one from coco3.com to work but I may have a sound level issue or something. I'm determined to get one of these versions working by Sunday evening!! Thanks again!!

PS: I'm assuming I should still be using CLOADM and expecting the program to self-start? So far the "S" pops up in the upper left (not inverted) and the machine stays locked up till I reset it (with the version from coco3.com, I won't be able to try yours until Sunday)...
Simon Hardy
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