Softloading wAx with a VIC-1111, how? (split from: Wanted: VicMon cart or similar)

[Brad]

wAx was largely a response to my Kafkaesque experiences with VICmon. The newer wAx video manual playlist is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObDbgTE ... pz7Y0RTM89. There have been many changes between the first demo and the final version of July 2020. The up-to-date documentation is here https://github.com/Chysn/VIC20-wAx/wiki.

For full VIC-20 development, you'll eventually want to use a cross-assembler like XA or Acme on your modern computer, while using a native assembler for testing and debugging. I'm confident that wAx is the best native assembler package ever released for the VIC-20, offering a wide variety of data entry tools (text, hex, decimal, binary) and shortcuts (labels and forward branch resolution), and it can be used as a complete development environment.

It's got me thinking though, about how difficult it is to make your own cartridges... to the search engine!

You've found the right place to get information on that!

Hi @chysn

I've assembled wzx4k, and added the Vic header as per the instructions. Transferred to a micro sd that I use in a Pi1541 drive I have. Done a load "wax4k",8,1 and an sys 6*4096.

This gives a ready prompt but none of the monitor commands work e.g.

.

gives "Syntax Error"

Where am I likely to have gone wrong? BTW I tried this unexpanded and with a 16 expansion plugged in, same result.

[Vic20-Ian]

Brad,

your memory expansion needs to be in Block 3 $6000-$7FFF.

If you have a commodore 8K ram pack it may be possible to reassign the ram pack to block 3 with a jumper inside.

I tested the Wax 4K on Vice and it runs with just block 3 or with 24k in blocks 1,2 & 3.

If you do not see the "Beigemaze.com/wax" message it is not running

Best regards,
Ian

[Brad]

Thanks Ian.

I have a commodore 16K expansion and too new to the tech details to know which of these so called "blocks" it's assigned to

I'll investigate. With a bit of reading up I expect I could build a version that sat in a different spot iun memory and get it going that way.

[chysn]

Where am I likely to have gone wrong? BTW I tried this unexpanded and with a 16 expansion plugged in, same result.

What Ian said. But to expand (heh heh) on it a bit: The 16K expander, by default, occupies $2000-$5FFF. If you open the thing up, and flip switch 2 to ON on one of the DIP switches, you'll move one of the 8K blocks to $6000-$7FFF. wAx will take $6000-$6FFF, and you'll have an extra 8K for BASIC (or ML).

http://cini.classiccmp.org/pdf/Commodor ... Memory.pdf

Or, if you don't want to muck about with opening a cartridge, I'll do a build of wAx at $5000 and post it here.

[Brad]

No dip switches in my cartridge! It's the Vic-1111 and just had it apart. Just some soldered chips and that's it. Checked both sides of the board.

[chysn]

No worries, here's the build at $5000, attached.

Do this

Code: Select all

LOAD "WAX4K-5000.PRG",8,1
SYS 20480
↑ 12 50 NEW

The last line is semi-optional, but will protect wAx from BASIC by setting the start- and end-of-BASIC pointers. (Post is corrected from an earlier version that placed BASIC over the screen; thanks, Mike)

[Vic20-Ian]

There are traces on the board with little circles. You can fit a dip switch or you can bridge with solder / cut as appropriate.

I think the 8K ones had a switch iirc

Or just use Vice for now.

[Brad]

No worries, here's the build at $5000, attached.

Do this

Code: Select all

LOAD "WAX4K-5000.PRG",8,1
SYS 20480
↑ 10 50 NEW

The last line is semi-optional, but will protect wAx from BASIC by setting the start- and end-of-BASIC pointers.

Muchas gracias Amigo! All working great.

[Brad]

There are traces on the board with little circles. You can fit a dip switch or you can bridge with solder / cut as appropriate.

I think the 8K ones had a switch iirc

Or just use Vice for now.

Yes, linked PDF states the 8k boards had dip switches

[Mike]

Code: Select all

↑ 10 50 NEW

As the screen RAM is located at $1000 with a >=+8K RAM expansion, with BASIC starting at $1201, shouldn't that be

Code: Select all

↑ 12 50 NEW

?

[chysn]

Code: Select all

↑ 10 50 NEW

As the screen RAM is located at $1000 with a >=+8K RAM expansion, with BASIC starting at $1201, shouldn't that be

Code: Select all

↑ 12 50 NEW

?

Goodness, yes!

You can tell that I only work on unexpanded VIC!

Side note: Everybody should play with BASIC in screen memory at least once. It's highly entertaining for a few minutes.

[chysn]

(Another side note: the NEW is also not necessary here, since $1200 is already set up by BASIC

Code: Select all

↑ 12 50

)