Developer Forum

ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH......................

Help!!

Okay after over two years in storage I just fired up the Telestrat and I
cant find any disks for it as I recall I need it to boot up Sedoric ?

I have two options and the first is switching the rom cart to Stratoric and
that does nothing!!! all it says is Stratoricv3 ? Help me I cant remember
what the hell I need here ? A disk ? It doesn do anything on the keyboard
when I type but if I press the reset button it lets me type a simple program
but it fails and says overflow error ?

And when I switch to the other position on the cart I get french Telestrat
screen and telling me its TELEMON v2.3 and Inserez une disquette but I don
have any disks ?

As soon as I insert a disk (old rhetoric disk) it tells me I have hyper
basic v 2.0 and then the screen goes funny ? With flashing lines to the
right ?

If I unplug the drive it lets me at least go to basic so I can type a few
lines of code but only if the ribbon cable is out of the back of the
telestrat.

So I guess the real thing I need is Sedoric ? For it to boot up as if its
anything but that in the drive it just crashes the screen ?

Or maybe my disk drive is dead and I need to replace it ?

Help is very very welcome :)


Bob
Somewhere in Scotland
--
Replies to Newsgroup only!

"bob" < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote

<panic snipped>


Where are they then ? Surely they are somewhere hidden away ?

and
keyboard
program

You need a disk, I think.
don

You need a disk !

With which cartridges plugged in ?
Isn't there a Stratoric disk that you should be using ?


Send it to me and I'll have a look !

I don't think it will read a Rhetoric disk without Stratoric working first
(???)


I'm sure those nice French chaps will be willing to help out with some
disks - you are a CEO member of course ?

See if you can find some spare 3" disks which someone can copy thing for
you - Maybe Jim Groom could help out.

IIRC the disk drive should work on the Atmos so give that a try to test the
drive.

Steve M

in article 412e70f2$0$59023$ XXXX@XXXXX.COM , Steve
Marshall at XXXX@XXXXX.COM wrote on 27/8/04 0:24:



As I said in the other post about finding the Arc disks, I have JUST this
weekend cleared the boxes and found my telestrat alas no sight of the disks
that had Sedoric on.


Yes Im pretty sure I need a disk !


Well that where I'm confused I think the cart I have is a dual cart as its
got telemon and Hyperbasic on it as well as a switch which gives me
Stratoric but that I guess needs the disk.



:) I know I'm *** for sending stuff but as things are now found (arc disks)
then they will be sent. As for my Telestrat.... Well You know the answer to
that one my friend :)


agreed


I'll need to become a member!! but its times like these that I need the help
so ill be joining this weekend.



The Telestrat disk drive is a 3 1/2 drive not 3 inch (having said that I
have a million 3 inch drives from my amstrad collection!!)


It wont work the atmos needs a disks interface and the telestrat actually
has this built in.






Bob
Somewhere in Scotland
--
Replies to Newsgroup only!

Hiya Bob,





help

Great - then I will no longer be the new boy! ;)
The only trouble with joining right now, is that you will have to rejoin in
January, but the cost is not that much.
You will also have access to all the magazines (PDF format) for the year and
virtual disks (yep - I know!!!).

Peter 'TheSpider' Paterson
A Scotsman in Kentucky
Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ
Homepage : http://www.yqcomputer.com/
NP: "The Orchestra - No Rewind"

"bob" < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote

Aren't you using a Microdisc ? I know I plugged a Telestrat Microdisc into
my Atmos and ran it. I may have put it through the interface, but I seem to
remember it working on it's own.

Steve M

in article 412fb3b4$0$62213$ XXXX@XXXXX.COM , Steve
Marshall at XXXX@XXXXX.COM wrote on 27/8/04 23:21:



Hi Steve,

I'm using a plain 3 1/2 disk drive, its connected via a ribbon cable to the
disk interface built into the Telestrat. The good news is I spent 3 hours
going through boxes in the attic and found the the disks!!! now the Sedoric
and Hyperbasic work now and its booting into that but when I switch over to
the Stratoric disk and the stratoric Rom .... NOTHING not a peep!I cant
remember if I need to hold anything down or not while its booting but I
don think I needed to ?

I can read the stratoric disk and its saying file mismatch when I try and
view stuff on it ?

Gonna try and do some cass to disk loads tomorrow (Xenon being the first!)
now my only problem is getting the stuff from the net onto the Real life
Telestrat ? Without a PC !! I can emulate a PC but not sure about getting
the floppy disks working.

My other big question is can I add a normal 1.44 disk drive to the telestrat
? And what do I do if I want two drives (I sat for far too long making a
back up disk of the only sedoric disk I have!!

Now on to other stuff... I found 3 disks with Arc stuff on them (a few games
archanoid and some over stuff) I also have a CD rom with Arc stuff on it do
you have a CD Rom for your Arc ?

Also had a look at my Atari tonight and I have to 520 ST (no built in floppy
or FM modulators) so if you have 520stfm then im up for one but a 1024 would
be better.

I'll take a few photos of my telestrat working at last back in the uk and
post it to my website.

Take it easy (long weekend what are ya doing ? Relaxing!!)

regards


Bob
Somewhere in Scotland
--
Replies to Newsgroup only!

Yes, you can add a 1.44 disk to your telestrat. It depends if your floppy
drive can switch to 'A' or not.
Anyway, if it's not OK, CEO can make this cable.

You can easily have 2 drive 3" and 3"1/2 drive. Just plug these two drives
on the cable, and connect it to a PSU. 3" will be A, 3"1/2 drive will be
'B'

in article 91d16b7d626d01c611091f86ef3cea66$ XXXX@XXXXX.COM , Jede at
XXXX@XXXXX.COM wrote on 28/8/04 10:25:


What happens if I just get a normal PC floppy disk drive and use that ? How
do I know if its A or B ? My current drive (3 1/2) is B drive 720k I assume.


I have some amstrad 3 inch drives could I use those ? And can I have a setup
that is just two 3 1/2 1.44mb drives ?

I am still confused about the Stratoric mode on my Telestrat as it appears
to do nothing other than show a screen with Stratoric ? Should I be holding
down a key or something where can I find a full document for Sedoric in
english ? So many questions .....

Thanks for the help




Bob
Somewhere in Scotland
--
Replies to Newsgroup only!

PC floppy drives are usually hard-wired as drive B. Those who
are not have a two- or four-position jumper to set the ID.

If the drive can't be switched to A, the trick is to use a
twisted cable as is done in PCs. If you connect the drive to the
connector before the twist, it's seen as drive B, if you connect
it to the connector after the twist, it's seen as drive A.


Probably, but I haven't tried.


Sure, why not.

--
AndrMajorel<http://www.yqcomputer.com/ ~amajorel>>
"See daddy ? All the keys are in alphabetical order now."

Hi,




You can plug a PC floppy drive, but i think that even with a twisted PC
cable it won't work with some 3" 1/2 drive. (3" drive is 'A' and 3"1/2 is
'B' always)



Yes you can, no matters. I ran long time ago a telestrat with 3", 3"1/2
and a 5 "1/4 drive together


You can insert any sedoric disk in it. You can for example, insert Pulsoid
disk in your telestrat (Plug a joystick for this game). Any sedoric disk
will work but some program won't start (As some our demoes, because
stratoric does not read bootsector on floppy disk ...). But, try pulsoid
on telestrat with a joystick, it's really fun to play to this game on a
real telestrat and a real joystick !

LCP 2004 demo should not work (Because, ram overlay does not work like on
Atmos). But Dbug should do a new version to correct that (It just needs a
'jsr' in the code).

Stratoric cardridge allows to start sedoric software on disk, because
telestrat does not have microdisc eprom like microdisc for atmos.

in article df1c48768e17895463d16abe18fda2ea$ XXXX@XXXXX.COM , jede at
XXXX@XXXXX.COM wrote on 28/8/04 13:45:




But the problem I have when I switch the cart over to Stratoric mode is that
nothing happens !! even if I stick a disk in the drive or have a disk in the
drive when I switch on, it doenst start reading it (I placed the sedoric
disk in but nothing, however this disk works fine when its in sedoric mode
(eg the cart is switched over to that mode)



Is there a newer version of Sedoric ? For the telestrat ? I need to have a
look for which version I have.

What is the best way for me to get files from the internet to work on my
real Telestrat ? Disk conversion etc ? And the fact that I have an apple
Mac!

Thanks for all help


Bob
Somewhere in Scotland
--
Replies to Newsgroup only!

Hi,




I don't understand your 'switch to'. You have a stratoric cardridge, there
is nothing to switch. You plug stratoric cardridge in left port. You start
the telestrat with a disc. There is no sedoric mode on telestrat except
stratoric (Maybe you are talking about hyperbasic and stratsed ?)



Well, you can use any sedoric version on atmos on your telestrat, it
should work. You have also stratsed on telestrat which is a new 'sedoric'
version. You should have this kind of disk with your telestrat called
'stratsed'


I don't know for apple, if a disk conversion tool exists. Anyway, i wrote
a writedsk under Linux, it should work on Mac OS X, because there is no
bios calls or any assembly code, but you need to know if you can have
'fdtools' on mac OS X. If you can have fdtools for Mac, i'll send you
writedsk source code, it should compile on Mac OS X with gcc

in article 534931ca8c4bb959a921f0f1efa36350$ XXXX@XXXXX.COM , jede at
XXXX@XXXXX.COM wrote on 28/8/04 14:44:



Oops Sorry I just realized. I have a Cartridge which has two modes on it
with a little switch which allows me to have hyper-basic -Telemon and if I
switch over it gives me Stratoric. Having said that when I place the disk
which I think is Sedoric into the drive and have the cartridge in Stratoric
mode I does nothing ? So how do I check if a disk is Sedoric or not ? All it
comes up with is the following screen

Stratoric V3.0 CAPS
Oric International

And nothing!

Now if its in the Hyper basic mode then the same disk boots up Stratsed I
guess it needs that for me to use it right ?

So where do I get Sedoric ? And what does it give me in Stratoric mode ?

Thanks for help



I think Mac OS X has BSD as its core and it also runs X11 ? Can you send the
files via email ? Are they big ? And like I need to be walked through any
compiling stuff!!! where would I get FDTOOLS and how do I know if it works ?

I can open a terminal window on my mac to do all this from the command line.

Thanks




Bob
Somewhere in Scotland
--
Replies to Newsgroup only!

Hi,



Ok, You have this kind of cardridge (Maybe from CEO). This is an
interesting cardridge !

Anyway, for hyperbasic, you don't need to have a drive. Unplug your drive,
start your telestrat, you can now do some hypebasic code. Of course, you
cannot save your code :)


You should try to insert a Rhetoric disc, if you have one. It should start
with stratoric (In this case, try to plug a 3"1/2 disk as 'A' in your
telestrat). If you subscribed to CEO, you should have a sedoric disk (CEO
has 3" disk, or 3 "1/2 i think, it depends what you subscribed)


Yes, it does not start if there is no sedoric disk.


For Hyperbasic, you need stratsed disk, for stratoric, you need a sedoric
disk (Master of course)


You can get sedoric in http://www.yqcomputer.com/ (Image disk) but it does not
solve your problem, because you can't write any oric disk on your
computer.



For this stuff, you does not need X11. For FDTOOLS, try google. Fdtools is
free
If you can have Fdtools on your mac, try to compile it. If it's OK, i'll
send you writedsk source code.


You need a C compiler in order to compile fdtools and writedsk.

Jede
http://www.yqcomputer.com/

"bob" < XXXX@XXXXX.COM > wrote


It might be a good idea to pick up a cheap PC !!! A crappy old Pentium will
do the job nicely and not cost much at all.

To convert the files you needs the Tools which run under DOS on the PC. I
don't know if a Mac emulates DOS (?) If it does you may be able to do it.

You need to have a Oric Formatted disk. Either do this on the Oric or the PC
(if you can) using Init11.exe

The two vital programs are READDSK.exe and WRITEDISK.exe These are what you
use to convert to and from disk images.

You can convert a tape to disk on your Oric using something like BDDISK.

I think Fabrice wrote a utility to convert tape images to disk for the PC.

Get a PC ! They're good cos they're cheap !!!

Steve M