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Operating CP/M on the C128

Operating CP/M on the C128

2024-03-04 04:08:32

The CP/M, brief for Management Program/Monitor, was one of many first working techniques of the private laptop revolution. It was launched in 1974, and it celebrates 50 years this yr. It was ported and made accessible for a lot of 8-bit machines with totally different CPUs and was associated to operating productiveness software program. Should you ever used CP/M, then, properly, I hate to say it, however you’re outdated.

I had a short encounter with CP/M once I was 14 or 15 years outdated; I can’t keep in mind precisely. On the time, I used to be in highschool in Aveiro, and the native laptop store, which I visited each day on my approach to the prepare station, simply to stare on the window, the identical approach a pilgrim would go to and ponder at a shrine, had two stunning machines on show: the brand-new Amiga 1000 and a C128D.

I owned a C64 and was conversant in the C128, however this one was odd. It wasn’t operating any video games, coloration graphics or taking part in music. As an alternative, it was linked to a monochrome monitor which all the time displayed both a bizarre command line immediate or what appeared to be some boring skilled writing software program.

I quickly got here to search out that it was operating CP/M and WordStar, one of many first phrase processors for microcomputers. My each day obsessive visits to the pc store led to some friendship with the proprietor, to the purpose that he’d let me in and play with the machines. So, I performed with CP/M and realized methods to use WordStar.

Properly, in case you didn’t discover, I own a C128DCR now. This weblog is about how I received CP/M, WordStar, and different enjoyable historical software program apps operating on it.

CP/M for the C128

The C128 got here bundled with CP/M 3.0 Plus, which could possibly be run in both 40-column (utilizing the VIC-IIe) or 80-column mode (utilizing the VDC video chip and the RGBi output). Resulting from quite a few unhealthy design selections and portability points, CP/M ran notoriously sluggish on the C128 in comparison with different Z80 techniques operating at related clock speeds. Linards Ticmanis, the creator of CPMFAST, a “speed-improved and generally-fixed CP/M distribution for the C128.” launched in 1999, explains the issues intimately.

One other later variant of CP/M for the C128 was this ZPM3 BootDisk launched just some years in the past. The unique BDOS (brief for Primary Disk Working System, which is a sort of CP/M kernel) distributed by Digital Analysis was coded for the Intel 8080. Whereas the Z80 is backward suitable with the 8080, ZPM3 is a BDOS substitute optimized for Z80 opcodes. Moreover, this bootdisk distribution has different instruments and patches that enhance the 80-column quick mode efficiency and may use a REU growth.

Let’s attempt to boot ZPM3.

It boots and it really works. I run Microsoft Primary-80, the “most extensive implementation of BASIC accessible for the 8080 and Z80 microprocessors.” I kind a quite simple program and run it.

I find yourself preferring CPMFAST to ZPM3 although, because it appears extra suitable with a number of the software program I examined.

Now, one thing extra superior. Should you learn my last blog, I’ve an Ultimate-II+ cartridge, a cycle-accurate implementation of the Commodore 1541/71 Floppy Disk Drive with many extras, plugged into my C128DCR. Let’s attempt to make the most of that.

Once I was sharing about my C128 adventures within the Everything C64 discord server, I chatted with Xander Mol, a retro fanatic, blogger, and expert developer who additionally owns a C128 and an Final II+. It turned out that he’s the creator of CPMUTools, a set of instruments to assist utilizing the Final II+ cartridge from inside CP/M, one in every of which is known as CPM UMount, an software that permits to mount disk pictures on the UII+ filesystem immediately from CP/M, which I will likely be utilizing.

Now I would like CP/M software program to play with and I have to construct CP/M disk pictures with it. Retroarchive has an in depth assortment of downloadable CP/M software program to get us began, however how do I get the information into C128 CP/M MFM disk pictures? Enter ctools, a set of command line utilities for accessing C64 and C128 CP/M disk pictures. I clone the Github repo and compile the supply code, no points.

Operating WordStar

WordStar was one of many first phrase processors I used on any laptop, so I needed to begin with it. The illustration above is from the WordStar Reference Manual.

I obtain a duplicate of WordStart 3.0 from Retroarchive and unzip the information, then I take advantage of cformat and ctools to create a CP/M disk picture and I copy the information to it.

$ ./cformat -2 wordstar.d71
$ ./ctools wordstar.d71 p ~/Downloads/WS30/*
./ctools: put /Customers/celso/Downloads/WS30/INSTALL.COM
./ctools: put /Customers/celso/Downloads/WS30/MAILMRGE.OVR
./ctools: put /Customers/celso/Downloads/WS30/MERGPRIN.OVR
./ctools: put /Customers/celso/Downloads/WS30/WIMSGS.OVR
./ctools: put /Customers/celso/Downloads/WS30/WS.COM
./ctools: put /Customers/celso/Downloads/WS30/WSMSGS.OVR
./ctools: put /Customers/celso/Downloads/WS30/WSOVLY1.OVR
./ctools: put /Customers/celso/Downloads/WS30/WSU.COM

I then take the wordstar.d71 picture file, put it my UltimateII+ USB stick, boot CP/M and the use CPMUTools’ UMount utility to mount the picture on the CP/M drive B:

I then change to drive B: and run the INSTALL command. Through the set up, I used to be requested a couple of questions on stuff I hadn’t heard in a long time. I reply then the very best I can.

When the set up is over, WordStar runs, and I get flashbacks. I keep in mind the identical display screen and menus from that laptop store within the 80s. It simply works.

See Also

I additionally ran dBase II, Turbo Pascal, SuperCalc, every thing labored.

CP/M Video games

Despite the fact that CP/M was principally identified for productiveness and enterprise software program, a number of recreation titles had been additionally printed.

Right here’s MyChess drawing a chess board in ASCII utilizing terminal sequences.

In fact you possibly can run Infocom text adventures. Right here’s Zork1.

Blue Bastards from Outer Space is extra “latest,” from 1999. It was coded in Turbo Pascal and reveals off the C128’s VDC chip and sound capabilities from CP/M.

Easter Egg

The C128 had a few easter eggs. In CP/M you’ll be able to set off one the place the authors are proven from some hidden knowledge within the Z80 ROM by typing the next sequence and urgent return:

That’s it, of us. CP/M does certainly run on the C128.

Subsequent up, GEOS.

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