Thanks, Tom. Given that I don't have any blank tapes, probably any I pick up at the thrift store will probably come pre-installed with "80's Rock" that I can listen to before I record computer bleeps and bloops over! Trouble is, I'm not sure if I have a cassette cord. Is it the same as the one for the Color Computer?
On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 3:26 PM Tom Cronin <[email protected]> wrote: > You might consider loading it over the cassette port if you have at least > the audio cables. > > 1) Load the .CO file into a machine with larger memory > 2) save the CO to the cassette (or computer audio pretending to be a > cassette - play 80s rock in the background for verisimilitude) > 3) Load the audio onto the 8kb machine via the cassette mechanism (CLOADM). > 4) LOADM to get into the correct memory location > > You'd still have two copies of the CO file but wound't need any BASIC > program or Teensy memory resident at least. > > On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 10:44 AM B 9 <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I created a single machine language .CO file >> <https://github.com/hackerb9/crc16-modelt/blob/idtest/CRC16.CO> which >> should run on any of the Model T variants (at least it does in emulation), >> but now I’m trying to figure out how it would be loaded onto them. As a >> binary it is not easy to transmit. >> >> Ideally, I’d have a BASIC loader that would POKE the program into memory, >> but the problem with that is that my .CO file is already 1.5 kilobytes >> long, so it barely fits into memory on an 8K machine. (Which, in itself >> wonders me. Please see my calculation below and correct me if I’m >> mistaken.) I believe a BASIC loader would expand the file size and simply >> not fit. >> >> So my first question is: Is there something like TEENY for all Model >> T’s,even for the less common variants like the Olivetti M10, that can >> receive binary files over the serial port? >> >> My second question is: Am I confused about the 1.5K limit on >> cross-platform .CO files? I’m fairly new to assembly language on these >> devices and have made some guesses based on what I’ve been observing in the >> Virtual-T memory viewer. Let me state my presumptions explicitly, so you >> all can help me figure out where, or if, I’m going wrong. >> >> 1. >> >> A single .CO program can run on the Kyocera Kyotronic 85 and its >> sister computers: TRS-80 Model 100, Tandy 200, Tandy 102, Olivetti M10, >> NEC >> PC-8201A, and NEC PC-8300. >> 2. >> >> All the Kyotronic kin must store a .CO file *twice* in memory: Once >> in the filesystem and a second copy in high memory when it is loaded >> through LOADM, RUNM, or by selecting it from the MENU. [Side question: >> Does >> distribution on cassette get around this limitation? Do all machines have >> the same audio encoding format?] >> 3. >> >> The area in high memory which the .CO file is copied to before it >> runs must be reserved using the command CLEAR 256, *x*, where 256 is >> the space reserved for strings, *x* is the lowest memory address the >> .CO file can occupy, and the builtin variable *MAXRAM*-1 is the >> highest. >> 4. >> >> I’m defining *MINRAM* as the lowest address which can be reserved >> using CLEAR. The value of MINRAM is higher on machines with less memory. >> 5. >> >> To run cross-platform, we’d need to know the largest MINRAM and >> smallest MAXRAM across all the Kyocera kin. The Tandy 200 has a MAXRAM of >> 61104. The 8K Model 100 has a MINRAM of 58044 (with no files and setting >> string space to 0). >> 6. >> >> Thus, the largest cross-platform machine language file would be: >> >> [image: \frac{(61104-58044)}{2} = 1530 \text{bytes}] >> >> and the space from 59574 to 61103 should be reserved for the .CO file >> using the command >> >> CLEAR 0, 59574 >> >> >> What is the right way to load a larger file? Or is it not possible and I >> need to solve my problem in a different way? (I’ve already had to compress >> the data strings to get it to fit at all. I could do more, but the code >> would be uglier and harder to extend in the future.) >> >> Thanks all for any help or suggestions, >> >> —b9 >> >
