Developer needed for KERNAL ROM enhancement work

brain · Post by **brain** » Sat May 23, 2009 8:52 pm

I am in need in an experienced VIC-20 developer for a KERNAL ROM enhancement project. The project would involved porting a well known KERNAL ROM enhancement from the C64 to the VIC-20.

please PM if interested.

Jim

brain · Post by **brain** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 12:36 am

Bump.

I have not received any replies to this, so does that mean no one is interested in some paid work?

Jim

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 12:50 am

Earlier this year I intended to port the SJLOAD program from C64 to VIC. I got as far as re-assembling the C64 source. The new executable almost worked. About then I got side tracked with other things, as usual.

If I had made progress in porting this program, I might have given your ROM project a try.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:04 am

what do you need exactly ?

brain · Post by **brain** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 7:06 am

The VIC-20 JiffyDOS port has an uncertain copyright, and I may not be able to distribute it.

Thus, it may be necessary to re-port JiffyDOS to the VIC-20, as I suspect many VIC owners would like to purchase the product.

Jim

ruud · Post by **ruud** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:06 am

brain wrote:I have not received any replies to this...

No kidding, I visit Denial regurlary but today I saw your request for the first time. Must have missed it in one or another way. Please PM me, maybe we can work things out. Don't need to be paid for it :)

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 6:36 am

Pardon my ignorance but what will jiffyDOS bring to the Vic? I know roughly what it does for the C64 et al but I'm not sure I see a use on the Mighty Vic. Thanks for your (potential!) indulgence.

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:31 am

EasyLoad actually does a very nice job increasing load time from floppy for "huge"

files.

With it, there is no need to modify kernel rom.
EasyLoad is extermely fexible and can be loaded in multiple places in memory.

Plus, it comes on Mega-Cart.

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:50 am

Pedro Lambrini wrote:Pardon my ignorance but what will jiffyDOS bring to the Vic? I know roughly what it does for the C64 et al but I'm not sure I see a use on the Mighty Vic. Thanks for your (potential!) indulgence.

The DOS wedge is really handy, especially with multiple drives. It works beautifully with the uIEC, both for convenience and speed. The speed increase is good enough that I miss it when I don't have it.

Plus, presumably you get all the other JiffyDOS features that the C64 version has - Built-in file copier, screen printing and so on. I've never used them on either C64 or VIC though.

English Invader · Post by **English Invader** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:01 am

Would this be of any use for copying tape games to floppy disk?

brain · Post by **brain** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:09 am

Why?

As earlier noted, there is some uncertainty around distribution of the current port
Easy-Load is great, but it's a VIC-20 specific item, and JiffyDOS has much more market share
I know the existing port is available on the net, and someone will want to legitimately put JiffyDOS in their VIC-20. I want to ensure they have an opportunity to legally license JiffyDOS for this platform

[/list]

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:47 am

Thanks folks for clarifying that for me. I've never really used wedges or any of the 'turbo loading' stuff (until I got my Mega-Cart!) so I've managed to remain ignorant. The screen printing aspect and the file copying sounds good as well.

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 12:21 pm

English Invader wrote:Would this be of any use for copying tape games to floppy disk?

Nope. JiffyDOS removes (or more specifically, replaces) all tape routines.

nbla000 · Post by **nbla000** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:38 am

Schema wrote:
English Invader wrote:Would this be of any use for copying tape games to floppy disk?
Nope. JiffyDOS removes (or more specifically, replaces) all tape routines.

Yes, by replacing the original vic-20 chip with the JiffyDOS chip you are not able to load/save programs from/to datassette

Like JiffyDos, by using Easyload+ you have some DOS wedge commands too, very useful for example with Jim's uIEC and you may use your tapes if you want, in addition by using EasyLoad+ you may use FKeys also for quick operations (Dir, Load, etc etc)

Yes EasyLoad+ is a Vic20 specific program like Action Replay VI is a C64 specific program but for both programs you don't need to open/change/add nothing to the drive and the Vic-20/C64, just a cartridge or for EasyLoad+ you may load it just once from the disk too.

For some peoples is not a big deal open their hardware but not for all, many peoples prefer to use the original hardware just with nice additions like the Jim's uIEC and/or the MegaCart for example.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:03 am

One can install a daughter board with a DIP switch to select between original or custom ROMs.

Anyway, this isn't a thread about whether JiffyDOS is useful on the VIC-20 or not. Jim is looking for someone to help him make a new port of the utility. So far Ruud seems interested in giving it a try.

EasyLoad featuring Marko's and Pasi's fast loading routines is great, but just as incompatible with sd2iec based designs as most C64 software fastloaders. Since every such fastloader needs to be custom emulated on CPU level in the Atmel, I won't hold my breath anyone will get this implemented any time soon. Actually porting SJLOAD and/or JiffyDOS (which already exists in a mostly non-distributable version) to the VIC would make more sense if you want the combination of e.g. uIEC and fast loading.