X16 SD-card image "launch title" software

[voidstar]

Presenting "final SD" for the year:
- Some new PRG editions and a special-feature in the DEMOS folder
- FM updated
- one last XINFO word wrap issue fixed (on new pages with no margins)
- added a BOOT-SELECTION feature in the SYSTEM folder.

Available in VHD IMG format, use the "-sdcard" parameter on the emulator to load this up. Compressed zip of that image here: (and on Discord)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e2hdrbm6 ... xpfap&dl=0

UPDATE: here is a regular zip (slightly updated RC3), which may be easier for some to use than the VHD/IMG
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5ftf2r80 ... 15w61&dl=0


There were many excellent contributions, thank you all ! To highlight just some...

Toboter's Vault of Vindicator was a really neat project see come together from scratch over the Fall. Not just a demo, it has become a full entertaining end to end game and brings back the 80's style dungeon crawl experience!

Stefan (in addition to his excellent X16EDIT) has evolved BASLOAD beyond what we thought possible in a 16KB ROM package, adding features like long-variable name support to BASIC and include-files! (note that the ROM and non-ROM versions of BASLOAD are different branches and will have slightly different features- but either way, BASLOAD is a real game changer on how we can quickly build up elaborate BASIC programs without the hassle of line numbers)

Tony put together an amazing set of BASIC reference programs, along with an enjoyable 256-color SLIDESHOW and HANGMAN programs, helping to test and improve the BASLOAD project. To jump into examples of how to use BASLOAD, seek out the .BASL files on this SD (some of my own reference examples are also included).

desertfish continued to improve prog8 (a full parsed language), using it to make many other excellent programs: shell, paint, bmxviewer, tehriz, rock runner, and an on-system 6502 assembler. Others are also actively using this prog8 environment to make great software!

MooingLemur's excellent Melodius midi/zsm player, and the well documented ZSM library showing a good approach to making API routines accessible to both BASIC and non-BASIC developers. He has also provided excellent explanations and support on the inner workings of the System ROM.

badmai helped put together a special feature that is only available on this SD package

AndyMt (in addition to Invaderz and Brixx) also developed a brand new (program) Launcher system with thumbnails and descriptions, along with unartic's great Norton-Commander like File Manager. These are excellent utilities to help explore SD media content in a much more enjoyable way.

JimOrlando finally got time to port some of his great PET-based PETSCII games over to the X16! He normally does these as part of weekend programming competitions, so it's really amazing what he comes up with in such short time.

And lots more - there have been over 50 unique contributors, including The 8-Bit Guys' own great offerings that are also on this SD image.

To celebrate this progress, I wanted to gift out an award: I had one last un-opened Lazer3D case for the X16 DevBoard. (I also had one which was auctioned off at VCF Midwest in September; those proceeds 100% go to VCF organizers)

After deliberations and discussions, it was finally decided to award this white Lazer3D case to:

JeffreyH for his outstanding work on the VERA FX extensions! JeffreyH is from Europe and had a long delay in receiving his DevBoard through customs, and he wasn't able to get a Lazer3D case before they closed orders. But he put over 1000 hours into developing VERA FX, testing, and finally demonstration "proof of concept" usage of VERA FX. And others are now starting to learn about how to use VERA FX, with some very amazing results.


I won't get as much time to put these SD-image packages together going forward - the objective was to put together a package suitable for the initial launch of the X16 and I think this meets that very nicely. We may still make some minor updates/corrections just depending on the timing on when the initial orders can actually start getting delivered.

Huge Thank You to all the contributors and all the very helpful discussions and answers to questions on the Discord.

Happy Holidays and Very Merry Christmas to you all

[oodler]

Thank you for this!

~o

[ElDiabloRamon]

This is exactly what i have been looking for. Thank you for creating this! I think this will make a worthy successor to the C64!

[JimmyDansbo]

I recently received my official Commander X16 and had a look at the software on the SD card.
Unfortunately I see that there are a couple of my contributions which do not give the correct credit.

First one is:
/explore/apps/sldeshow
It is attributed to the 8-bit guy, but it is actually a piece of software that I wrote.
My post is here: viewtopic.php?p=25793#p25793
I also noted that the program does not run correctly when run from the launcher. It seems I forgot to clear the carry bit before calling the screen_mode function. This is fixed in the attached file. It is a drop-in replacement for the file already on the SD card.

Second one is:
/system/ramtest.prg
Is is set as anonymous, but is also written by me.
Here is the announcement post: viewtopic.php?p=25346#p25346
As you can see from this: https://cx16.dk/fastramtest/ I am just standing on the shoulders of giants like:
Knaizuk and Hartmann
Jim F. Butterfield
However I was the one to adapt it to the Commander X16.

[voidstar]

EDIT: Actually, looks like I just relocated the original ROM update tools into the /EXPLORE/SYSTEM/ROMFLASH-OLD folder.


Looks like between Update #8A on Dec 02 and the initial SD RC1 of Dec 19, I didn't include the "old" (original) ROM update tools (i.e. the ROMFLASH-OLD folder didn't get carrier over into the RC1 packaging, and thus didn't make it to the eventual Production SD's).

The released ROM-UPDATE does work, but it is a "monolithic" approach that generally requires updating all the ROMs at once. The "old" updaters do still work and may offer a little more flexibility in updating individual ROMs (like for experimental builds), or in any case some folks may come into a situation where those old original ROM updaters are still useful.

So I'm attaching them here, since I can't respond to the pinned SD card thread. The PRGs in the attachment below were included in the original June SD card SYSTEM folder. FLASH-CX16.PRG for ROM.BIN (System ROM), FLASHVERA.PRG for VERA.BIN . Then, I'm not sure what the difference between FLASH-CX16-SMC.PRG and SMCUPDATE.PRG is. Maybe one calls the other - in any case, the SMC ROM should be in SMC.BIN file.




And JimmyDansbo pointed out a couple updates for the pin SD notice. Thx, I think I meant that 8GB did the June SD Image Viewer and it was a copy/paste error on the info for the SLDESHOW. And for the RAM Test, I recall asking in the Discord about it, but at the time don't think got an answer - and I forgot to ask again as we got closer to the RC packaging.

[voidstar]

Some follow up notes about the "Launch SD" content:

https://voidstar.blog/the-commander-x16 ... explained/