Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

A place to discuss everything Dragon related that doesn't fall into the other categories.
jmk
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:12 am

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by jmk »

prime wrote:BTW I *may* be able to get Glove to load completely from the MultiCart if the machine that it is running on has 64K of memory. Doesn't need to be a Dragon 64, an upgraded 32 would be ok too.
Look at the Tandy DSK file version to see how it preloads the levels before the game has started. There's a poke in the basic loader that tells the game that the levels have already been loaded.
prime
Posts: 266
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:40 am

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by prime »

jmk wrote:
prime wrote:BTW I *may* be able to get Glove to load completely from the MultiCart if the machine that it is running on has 64K of memory. Doesn't need to be a Dragon 64, an upgraded 32 would be ok too.
Look at the Tandy DSK file version to see how it preloads the levels before the game has started. There's a poke in the basic loader that tells the game that the levels have already been loaded.
I have it working now, what I did was loaded it into a Dragon 64 on Mess which of course loaded all the levels into the RAM above $8000, waited until all the levels where loaded and then took a memory dump, and used that in the cart. The cart then just copies that from rom back into RAM and calls the start address, which seems to run fine.

BTW: are you the person that wrote Glove ?

Cheers.

Phill.
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 409
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:22 pm

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by admin »

prime wrote:
BTW: are you the person that wrote Glove ?

Cheers.

Phill.
Yes, he is...
Simon Hardy
jmk
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:12 am

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by jmk »

prime wrote:BTW: are you the person that wrote Glove ?
Yes, would someone give me a stack of cash so I can give up trying to earn money and just make games in green, blue, red and yellow for the rest of my life? :D
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 409
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:22 pm

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by admin »

Okay - nearly completed testing of all the kit (updated):

1 x D32 + PSU Working (plus spare D32) for hands-on
1 x D64 + PSU Working (plus spare D64) for hands-on
1 x D200 + PSU Working for hands-on/display
2 x Spare PSU (Just incase)
1 x DProf (Production Model) Working (apart from disk drives which need attention) for display
1 x DProf (Prototype Model) Not-Working for Phill
3 x Scart/Comp cables (tested)
2 x RF cables (tested)
4 x Tape leads (untested)
4 x Joysticks (tested)
2 x 14" TV with SCART (tested)
1 x CM8833 MKII with comp video (tested)
2 x 6-way power boards (12 x 13A sockets)
1 x 8-way surge protected board (for the sensitive stuff)
1 x 30m power extension (just incase)
1 x NDS Lite with XROAR and games (just for fun)
1 x Big box of spare tapes and things to sell if possible
1 x Working DOS Controller + 3 spares (untested)
1 x Double Drive 5.25" disk unit (tested) + 2 spare drives (tested)
Selection of disks (OS-9 Level 1 V1.2, OS-9 Level 1 V2.0, Flex V1.3.2, WIMP, etc.)

ToDo:
Load software archive and XROAR/MESS on laptop + tools for CAS conversion and playback etc.

Nearly ready....
Simon Hardy
sixxie
Posts: 1346
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:36 am
Location: Hertfordshire
Contact:

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by sixxie »

So, that was jolly good fun, and good to meet a few of you!

Very good to to see a Professional in operation, now about that Beta... ;)

Anyone waking up this morning wondering if they should go today: do so! And it sounds like BH are covering it at some point in the programme that's on now. (Edit: wasn't really worth it, glossed over a lot, don't think Dragons even got a mention)
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 409
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:22 pm

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by admin »

Well, that was fun and thanks to Richard Harding for exhibiting with me meaning we had THREE Dragon Alpha/Professionals on display - as one vistor put it - "One of these is like Rocking Horse S**t - and you guys have a table of it". Now if we can get all three operational by the next VCF-GB event that would be magic.

There was a lot of keyboard and joystick bashing going on playing games like Chuckie Egg, Manic Miner, Cosmic Invaders, Glove, Moon Cresta and Astro Blast - The Dragon 64 was also frequently booting into FLEX, OS-9 and WIMP. There was lots of interest in both the Dragon 200 and the Dragon Alphas - Most people had never seen or heard of them.

One visitor informed us he had actually seen the Dragon Alpha/Professional at a PCW trade show in 1984/85 where he thinks standing next to it on the GEC stand was Pam D'Arcy.

In all a good show and should it run next year, come along, make the effort and say hello.
Simon Hardy
prime
Posts: 266
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:40 am

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by prime »

Indeed that was good/fun

Good meeting you all nice being able to chat to like minded people and play with some history :)

Came back with more machines than I went with and spent loads of money on toys that I think are going to keep me occupied for a few weeks to come :)

Cheers.

Phill.
User avatar
robcfg
Posts: 1529
Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:16 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by robcfg »

I couldn't go to the VCF (and something tells me I'll regret my entire life :P) this year. I really hope I can attend the next one.

Do you have pictures of the event? It would be nice... :D
sixxie
Posts: 1346
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:36 am
Location: Hertfordshire
Contact:

Re: Vintage Computer Festival @ Bletchley Park - 19th & 20th Jun

Post by sixxie »

Post Reply