Repaired Basic V4!! YES!!

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:09 pm

Hi everyone,
Good news! I think I have repaired Basic V4 for the VIC!!!

Back in the 1990's when I gave it to Ward Shrake for his Digital Archeology site he told me that the upper 4k was in fact an image of the lower part.

I compared both halves and sure enough there was ONE different byte.

I fixed this different byte and now all commands appear to work!

I need some beta testers! Please PM me.

Thank you all!

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:05 am

Can you give us some more background? Who wrote it? Where did it come from? Was it originally commercially available?

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:01 pm

Commodore Basic version 4.0 [Vic-____] (4k ROM)

There is one at Vic-Rare list.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:15 pm

Schema wrote:Can you give us some more background? Who wrote it? Where did it come from? Was it originally commercially available?

It was made by Commodore in 1981 but it was never available commercially. Only a few universities had it.

It was specifically designed to be a companion to the VIC-1112 interface as this interface uses only the upper half of BLK5.

My copy was recovered from the Université de Montréal in 1982. However, as it was exchanged from hand to hand, a piece of data was corrupted. I gave it to Ward Shrake in 1998.

Using the information from the mirrored image contained in the original file, I was able to restore the data. The file on Zimmer's did not contain the mirrored image.

Bacon · Post by **Bacon** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:39 am

The file on Zimmer's did not contain the mirrored image.

So why not send the corrected version to Bo so he can replace it? zimmers.net is after all the central repository for Commodore files.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:47 pm

But is it really a companion to VIC-1112? Although I don't have that particular interface, I tested the broken Basic V4 image with the other type of IEEE interface. As you remember, the Basic extention seemed to address the IEC drive directly rather than via Kernel pointers, so I was able to get a directory from IEC device #8 although the general device #8 was assigned to an IEEE drive at that moment.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:51 pm

Bacon wrote:So why not send the corrected version to Bo so he can replace it? zimmers.net is after all the central repository for Commodore files.

I just did that.

Bacon · Post by **Bacon** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:01 am

eslapion wrote:
Bacon wrote:So why not send the corrected version to Bo so he can replace it? zimmers.net is after all the central repository for Commodore files.
I just did that.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:02 am

There is a possibility that BASIC V4 for the VIC comes from this cartridge.

However, Jogi is the only person I know to own something like that.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 7:09 am

Cool. That is the "common" IEEE connector, unlike most other interfaces I've seen that use the same card-edge connector as the PET computers.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 3:00 am

Just reviving this old thread to inform you I sent a .txt file to Zimmer's that contains an explanation of all supplemental commands and registers added by Basic 4.0.

One which may not be explained so well is DS$ which is in fact a read only variable a bit like TI$ but contains the disk drive status. Like @ in JiffyDOS or DOS wedge.

Usage:
PRINT DS$(return)

Here it is...

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:55 pm

DS$ exists in Basic 4 on the PET and CBM-II series of computers too, so for the existing users of this Basic dialect it is not so foreign.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:54 pm

carlsson wrote:DS$ exists in Basic 4 on the PET and CBM-II series of computers too, so for the existing users of this Basic dialect it is not so foreign.

Basic 4 for the VIC is supposed to be identical to that of PET and CBM-II.