1200XL Translator

From: aa325
Date: 07/30/89-09:00:11 AM Z


From: aa325
Subject: 1200XL Translator
Date: Sun Jul 30 09:00:11 1989


The 1200XL is, and has always been, the odd computer out in the
Atari series because its operating system differs slightly from
other members of the XL series.

Do you know of any translator which will allow the 64K 1200XL
to emulate the 600XL, the 800XL, or the XEs so that it can run
software programs designed for these machines.

Obviously Translators A&B will not work because they are designed
to emulate a 48K operating system.

Any solution to my problem?

** Answered by DOUG WOKOUN (aa384) on Sat Aug 27 14:08:38 1988 **

I really doubt that Atari would release a translator specifically for
the 1200XL because of the limited success of the machine.  I would
suggest FixXL for emulating the 400/800.  If you know something about
machine language, you could save the OS from an 800xl after turning
of burst I/O by:
xxxx: LDA #0
xxxx: STA 2606
but you would have to write a routine to disable the OS using the
register in PORT-B and load it in.  This would require machine language
and the locations from 65530-65535 are very tricky because they have
a lot do with interrupt and the keyboard.  

You would have to load the OS into a different part of memory so you
would have the SIO routines available to load the file.  Havine
CIO around would help a lot too, not to mention DOS.  If you find a copy
of FIXXL, you might be able to get someone to modify it, but I
don't know if that would work.  Sorry that I can't be of more help.
If anybody has any suggestions/ideas/solutions send them to me.
                     Doug Wokoun
                     Atari Sysop


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