Given enough time and effort, I think my Python-based converter script could probably translate natively-encoded .CA files between the machines. That might be a fun project to tackle at some point.
On Thu, Oct 1, 2026 at 11:55 AM B 9 <[email protected]> wrote: > Wow! That was a heck of a lot of work and made for a fantastic detective > story! Where can we download your code/tools if we want to try it out > ourselves? > > It is unfortunate that the literal floating point values in the .CA and > .CT files are not interchangeable with the M100 version of SuperROM and > have to be retyped manually. I wonder if your conversion tool could find > those cells, use the M100's "FOUT" routine to convert them to ASCII, and > then NEC's "FIN" routine to convert the ASCII to the PC-8000 floating point > format. I know that'd be lossy, but I believe N82 BASIC was already lossy. > What you typed wasn't always what would get saved in the program. In fact, > I'm pretty sure I found some numbers which would change repeatedly every > time the line was processed through N82's EDIT! > > —b9 > > On Thu, Oct 1, 2026 at 6:11 AM Gary Weber <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi B9, >> >> Actually an expanded version of that write up is right on the front page >> current news on https://www.web8201.net/. Can't miss it! >> Thanks for the info about VARPTR, I'll check into it. Maybe there was a >> regression? Anyway thank you for the fixes. >> >> As for the web crawling issue, I believe I know where that configuration >> was set up and I'll poke around a bit. >> >> Gary >> >> >> >> >> On Thu, Oct 1, 2026 at 2:11 AM B 9 <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> That’s exciting news, Gary! Could you please post a link to where you >>> published your write-up? I tried googling >>> <https://www.google.com/search?q=Slabtop+Computers+discord+server+in+the+%23NEC+channel> >>> for it (in various >>> <https://www.google.com/search?q=%22SuperROM%22+nec+8201+gary+weber> >>> ways >>> <https://duckduckgo.com/?ia=web&origin=funnel_home_website_measuresearchesaa_treatment&t=h_&q=%22SuperROM%22+nec+8201+gary+weber>) >>> and it doesn’t seem to be available on the open web. I am unfamiliar with >>> discord servers, but I see comments saying they are meant for private >>> discussions, so maybe that’s the problem? >>> >>> Which reminds me, a while back on this mailing list we were talking >>> about searchability and making sure knowledge is archived in multiple >>> locations. I mentioned you and your most excellent web8201.net site, >>> but I don’t know if you saw it. I said, >>> >>>> *“When I needed to implement VARPTR on the NEC PC-8201, I distinctly >>>> recalled seeing a solution on web8201. Googling with various search >>>> engines, even specifying the site >>>> <https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aweb8201.net+varptr&udm=14&oq=site%3Aweb8201.net+varptr&sclient=gws-wiz-modeless-web-only> >>>> explicitly, turned up nothing except people saying VARPTR doesn’t exist in >>>> N82 BASIC. When I finally stumbled upon the VARPTR page >>>> <https://web8201.net/default.asp?content=XCompat.asp> again, I tried to >>>> save it in the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, the web8201.net >>>> <http://web8201.net> server is configured so that web crawlers (like Google >>>> and Internet Archive) get redirected >>>> <http://waybackmachine.org/https://web8201.net/default.asp?content=XCompat.asp> >>>> to https://default.asp/ <https://default.asp/>. I hope we can create a >>>> public mirror of web8201.net <http://web8201.net> as it contains >>>> information that I haven’t seen anywhere else.”* >>> >>> >>> If you want, I can try to help you figure it out. I don’t know Microsoft >>> IIS-10, but I believe it should be just a small configuration change to fix >>> the issue. >>> >>> —b9 >>> >>> P.S. Your NEC VARPTR >>> <https://web8201.net/default.asp?content=XCompat.asp> code has some >>> minor typos. In line 40020, address 64455 is skipped. In line 40040, the >>> variable *H* is used to mean both the address in memory and the >>> character position in the string. Here’s a patched version which has those >>> fixed and some other tweaks to reduce RAM and string space usage. >>> >>> 39999 'VARPTR >>> 40000 H=0:L=0:TY=0:A=64448! >>> 40010 POKEA,205:POKEA+1,175:POKEA+2,73:POKEA+3,235 >>> 40020 POKEA+4,58:POKEA+5,139:POKEA+6,250:POKEA+7,201 >>> 40030 L=LEN(VY$):IFL<1ORL>7THENPRINT"Invalid VY$!":STOP >>> 40040 A=64457!:FORH=1TOL:POKEA,ASC(MID$(VY$,H,1)):A=A+1:NEXT:POKEA,0 >>> 40050 POKE63912,201:POKE63913,251:EXEC64448 >>> 40060 L=PEEK(63912!):H=PEEK(63913!):TY=PEEK(63911!) >>> 40070 RETURN >>> 40080 ' VARPTR for NEC 8201/8300 by Gary Weber of web8201.net >>> 40090 ' Entry: VY$ must contain the name of variable of interest >>> 40100 ' Exit: H & L contain variable's address, TY contains type >>> 40110 ' Example: >>> 40120 ' 100 A$="This is a sample string." >>> 40130 ' 110 VY$="A$":GOSUB 40000 >>> 40140 ' 120 PRINT "VARPTR of ";VY$;" is ";L+(H*256) >>> 40141 ' >>> 40144 ' Notes from hackerb9: >>> 40150 ' Name in VY$ must be UPPERCASE. >>> 40160 ' For EXEC, NEC's HL is @63912/3, register A is @63911. >>> 40170 ' Address 64457 is an 8-byte, NULL-terminated copy of VY$. >>> 40180 ' Line 40050 sets HL=64457. (64457 = 201 + 251*256). >>> >>> >>> On Mon, Sep 28, 2026 at 11:41 AM Gary Weber <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Investigation into this type of project began in 2021. Well.... Guess >>>> what? >>>> [image: image.png] >>>> >>>> My big write-up is out on the Slabtop Computers discord server in the >>>> #NEC channel so I didn't want to duplicate it here. >>>> >>>> But, basically, I'm looking for volunteers to help with testing the >>>> mountain of features in this "pre-alpha" option ROM. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Gary Weber >>>> [email protected] >>>> >>>
