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Acorn Arcade forums: Games: Multiple program loading and saving of files in !Beebit
 
  Multiple program loading and saving of files in !Beebit
  andreww (18:11 13/11/2003)
  Phlamethrower (15:29 14/11/2003)
    andreww (17:16 14/11/2003)
      Phlamethrower (13:33 17/11/2003)
        andreww (19:29 17/11/2003)
          Phlamethrower (13:45 18/11/2003)
            andreww (14:12 19/11/2003)
              Phlamethrower (15:24 19/11/2003)
                andreww (21:19 19/11/2003)
                  Michael Foot (20:37 21/11/2003)
                    andreww (14:01 22/11/2003)
                      andreww (14:04 22/11/2003)
                        Phlamethrower (20:57 23/11/2003)
                          Michael Foot (21:46 23/11/2003)
                            andreww (12:57 24/11/2003)
                              Michael Foot (19:33 24/11/2003)
                                andreww (21:32 24/11/2003)
 
Andrew Message #86665, posted by andreww at 18:11, 13/11/2003
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I don't know if this is useful to anybody but I think it'd be worth making note of it:

Recently I tried using a disc image of a game cheat in !Beebit by loading in the image into the emulator, booting the 'machine' and then before running the cheat, leaving to the RISC OS desktop and replacing the cheat image with the game image.
This seems to work with some cheats but definitely is not always successful. I'm not sure if this is the emulator or the cheat looking for files that aren't there.

One thing I'm interested in though is being able to type in programs and save as image.
On !6502em you can save as &F0E (what filetype is this?) and then it loads in. I assume it's a special kind of BASIC filetype.
What would be best though is the ability to create images which you could use on !Beebit though. I seem to remember seeing file-transfer software and hardware links on the Beebit website but the facility to save programs is a surely needed.

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Jeffrey Lee Message #86666, posted by Phlamethrower at 15:29, 14/11/2003, in reply to message #86665
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I don't know if this is useful to anybody but I think it'd be worth making note of it:
Recently I tried using a disc image of a game cheat in !Beebit by loading in the image into the emulator, booting the 'machine' and then before running the cheat, leaving to the RISC OS desktop and replacing the cheat image with the game image.
This seems to work with some cheats but definitely is not always successful. I'm not sure if this is the emulator or the cheat looking for files that aren't there.

You could try editing the disc image to contain both the cheat and the game; have a go using ArcDFS (on the BeebIt website, http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfoot/bbc.htm)

One thing I'm interested in though is being able to type in programs and save as image.
On !6502em you can save as &F0E (what filetype is this?) and then it loads in. I assume it's a special kind of BASIC filetype.
What would be best though is the ability to create images which you could use on !Beebit though. I seem to remember seeing file-transfer software and hardware links on the Beebit website but the facility to save programs is a surely needed.

Are you talking about disc images here? Because I'm pretty certain BeebIt is able to write to them. Create an empty image using ArcDFS and use that to save stuff to.

[Edited by Phlamethrower at 15:34, 14/11/2003]

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Andrew Message #86667, posted by andreww at 17:16, 14/11/2003, in reply to message #86666
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Thanks that's useful and I should be able to try to save the cheat onto the same image as the game.
However, this still doesn't let Beebit create files does it?

I wonder if you can still get 5.25 inch drives for RISC OS machines. In the past I've used !Multilink for transferring files from my brother's BBC. Michael Foot reckoned that a lot of people get them second hand these days.

[Edited by andreww at 17:20, 14/11/2003]

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Jeffrey Lee Message #86668, posted by Phlamethrower at 13:33, 17/11/2003, in reply to message #86667
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However, this still doesn't let Beebit create files does it?

Create files where?

BeebIt will let you read/write to DFS images, which can then be read/write using ArcDFS on RISC OS.

If you want to access RISC OS files directly then you might want to try BeebItFS, also from the BeebIt website.

If you're talking about something else though (writing directly to 5.25" discs?) then I've got no idea about it though.

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Andrew Message #86669, posted by andreww at 19:29, 17/11/2003, in reply to message #86668
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As far as I can see you can't save programs from Beebit onto a 'virtual' disc using ArcDFS or anywhere else. There has to be an image already created from somewhere.
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Jeffrey Lee Message #86670, posted by Phlamethrower at 13:45, 18/11/2003, in reply to message #86669
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IIRC there's a program inside ArcDFS to let you create a blank image:

Creating a DFS partition

A blank partition disc file may be created by running the !Partition application also present on the ArcDFS disc. Make sure that the disc upon which you wish to create the partition is not write-protected. Read the section below for advice on the naming of the partition if you wish to use the partition with the DFS filer. A file-name of 'drive5' should be given if the partition is to be accessed as drive 5.

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Andrew Message #86671, posted by andreww at 14:12, 19/11/2003, in reply to message #86670
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No I've done that, it refers to creating a virtual disc but AFAICT you still need to put an image in there that was created /somewhere else/ so this still seems to be an area where !beebit is lacking true emulation.
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Jeffrey Lee Message #86672, posted by Phlamethrower at 15:24, 19/11/2003, in reply to message #86671
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Is it really that much trouble for someone to use another program to create/edit their DFS images? Adding a full DFS creator/editor would take quite a bit of time I suspect, and there is little point if alternatives already exist (Although looking at the site it appears that none of them are 32bit).

[Edited by Phlamethrower at 15:41, 19/11/2003]
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Andrew Message #86673, posted by andreww at 21:19, 19/11/2003, in reply to message #86672
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All I want to do really is save a file onto the disc but as I say the emulator required an image to be present to do this.
6502em will let you do this it just seems strange that !Beebit can't.
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Michael Foot Message #86674, posted by Michael Foot at 20:37, 21/11/2003, in reply to message #86673
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Hi,

All I want to do really is save a file onto the disc but as I say
the emulator required an image to be present to do this.

I'm not 100% sure what you're trying to do, but if you use ArcDFS to
create a virtual drive 0, you can then drag the drive0 file to BeebIt
and use that blank disc image to write files to.

6502em will let you do this it just seems strange that !Beebit
can't.

6502Em does not use disc images, so I assume you are talking about
saving files directly to the RISC OS disc? BeebIt can do this to if you
install and use BeebItFS.

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Andrew Message #86675, posted by andreww at 14:01, 22/11/2003, in reply to message #86674
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Originally I was trying to just save a program onto the hard disc straight from the emulator but it seemed I needed an image. Dragging the 'drive' file works thanks.
I was thinking it would be useful if I wanted to type out a cheat, save it, run it then install a game image and run that.
I didn't realise that the virtual drive itself would be regarded as an 'image' by Beebit.
Also, I notice that you can also move the file created in the virtual drive anywhere else.

I'll check BeebitFS but if I wanted to create an image to pass to somebody else who used a PC emulator for example that only took disk images how would I do that?

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Andrew Message #86676, posted by andreww at 14:04, 22/11/2003, in reply to message #86675
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Posts: 555
Ah I see DSDUtil might do this, on your webpage Michael.

Update: unfortunately this is not for creating images from scratch so no luck there.

Also I've tried BeebitFS and I still can't save out a file even having followed the instructions.
When I SAVE "<filename>", the file doesn't appear anywhere even having selected BFS.

[Edited by andreww at 14:35, 22/11/2003]

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Jeffrey Lee Message #86677, posted by Phlamethrower at 20:57, 23/11/2003, in reply to message #86676
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Posts: 15100
I've got no idea about using BeebItFS, but for drive partitions/image files:

1. Create a drive image using !Partition, found inside ArcDFS
2. Copy this file wherever you want, it doesn't really matter
3. Load up BeebIt, open the options menu, and drag the drive image to one of the floppy image slots. Check the box to make sure it's writeable.
4. Run BeebIt and save your stuff to the drive

I'm not entirely sure about the relation between the image number you supply to !Partition and the drive slot you place the image in, so for now it's probably best to use 0 for both.

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Michael Foot Message #86678, posted by Michael Foot at 21:46, 23/11/2003, in reply to message #86677
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The disc image file that Partition creates is just a DFS image file so it can be used in any drive slot. Once you have copied it out of !DFS you can rename it, and use it on any emulator that supports DFS image files. Just copy the image to a PC if you want to use a PC BBC emulator. It's really no different from formatting a 5.25" disc in drive 0 of a real BBC and then using that disc in drive 1 or another BBC.

With BeebItFS, after you have typed BFS7 into one of the ROM slots on the configuration screen and made the ROM slot writable, reboot the emulator and you should be able to select the BFS filing system by typing *BFS <return>.
The default directory for files is the !BeebITFS.Resources directory. Issuing *CAT from BeebIt will catalog the files in this directory. You can also issue *DIR <directory> to change where the files are saved to or loaded from. This is exactly the same as how 6502Em or 65Host works.

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Andrew Message #86679, posted by andreww at 12:57, 24/11/2003, in reply to message #86678
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Yes I've got !Partition working ok thanks both. (Although I don't know what filetype the image would be on a PC but that doesn't matter for now.)

Michael - got it to work. I don't know why this wasn't working before as I thought I had done everything you say above.
After saving a test BASIC program I get a filetype of &F19.
In !6502em I get &F0E.
So as you say both work the same but produce different filetypes.

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Michael Foot Message #86680, posted by Michael Foot at 19:33, 24/11/2003, in reply to message #86679
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Glad you got both working. On a PC, the extension (filetype) is .ssd (for single sided disc).
On the BBC there is no such thing as a filetype. What you are seeing is RISC OS interpreting the file information as though it was a RISC OS file.
The reason one is &F19 and the other &F0E is due to the address of PAGE on the BBC when the file was saved. &F19 indicates that PAGE was &1900 when saved and &F0E indicates &0E00.
In BeebIt if you set PAGE to &E00 (PAGE=&E00) before you enter and save your program it should produce a file with the same information.
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Andrew Message #86681, posted by andreww at 21:32, 24/11/2003, in reply to message #86680
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I see thanks, I'll make a record of that.
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Acorn Arcade forums: Games: Multiple program loading and saving of files in !Beebit