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PostPosted: October 10th, 2012, 6:07 am 
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Okay guyz, it has been asked here and there a couple of times, "is there any SDK available for x?", "is there any documentation?" etc. Yes, there probably is, but we may never come across it.
This is of particular interest to me so I investigated a little.

Turns out that there are a lot of ways to program some stuff for retro computers aside from official SDKs and docs, like cross-compilers and alternative platforms (such as CP/M).



For example, "z88dk is a z80 C cross compiler supplied with an assembler/linker and a set of libraries implementing the C standard library for a number of different z80 based machines. The name z88dk originates from the time when the project was founded and targetted only the Cambridge z88 portable." (taken from http://www.z88dk.org/wiki/doku.php)

Between the list of supported target systems there are relevant names such as MSX, CP/M based systems, Sharp MZ series and Sharp Wizard (OZ/ZQ, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_Wizard). Although the NEC PC-8801 / 8001 and Sharp X1 are not listed they are also Z80 based machines, so they could be added in the future in the form of extra libraries (I guess..).


However, C and Basic are not the only languages that can be used.
The elder might prefer some other language such as Fortran, Cobol, Pascal, or straight assembler.


Here's a book in PDF format, "Programming the Z80" (2nd Ed.), by Rodnay Zaks.


I was working into getting up some sort of SDK (rather, compilation of every useful thing out there) for the PC-880x/PC-800x, more work needs to be done before it's actually useful, but soon I'll post what I have, anyway.

As a short introduction to the next chapter (?), as you might or might not know the PC-88 supports CP/M 2.2 operating system, which has it's own type of executables. CP/M is (or was) widespread across old computers, and for CP/M we have Fortran, Cobol and Pascal compilers. Nice!

Extra last minute bonus: Microsoft FORTRAN-80 v3.4 Manual


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PostPosted: October 10th, 2012, 6:35 am 
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This is the SDK wannabe I was talking about

Code:
---------------------------
 Neo Kobe PC8x01 SDK [WIP]
---------------------------

=========
 PC-8001
=========


[OS]

CP/M v2.2 for PC-8001
N-80 BASIC Disk Version (9-Feb-1983)
PC-8001 Micro Disk Basic 2W v1.2 (Shigeru Toyama)
PC-8034-2W [PC-8001 BASIC Two Surface Disk Version (20-Sep-1981)]
PC-8037SR [PC-8001mkIISR N80SR-BASIC Disk Version (16-Jan-1985)]
S-DOS v1.03 RAM Version (Susumu Saruta)


[Coding]

JRT Pascal v3.0 (JRT Systems)
Nevada COBOL rev2.1 (Ellis Computing)
N-80 DISK-BASIC Program Library ---> BASIC programs to look at the source ;)


[Misc]

Game Collection [S-DOS v1.1 Disk Version] ---> Exit menu with option "EXTEND FILES(TO BASIC)"
Vogue (Pascal program) ---> Nice code examples



=========
 PC-8801
=========


[OS]

IDOS v2.0 for PC-8801 (Softbank)
PC-8801 N-88 BASIC SoundBoard 2 (YM2608)
PC-8801FE N-88 Nihongo BASIC v2.1
PC-8801FH N-88 Nihongo BASIC v2.0
PC-8801FR N-88 Nihongo BASIC v1.0
PC-8801FE N-88 BASIC Disk Version (8-Oct-1988)
PC-8801FH N-88 BASIC Disk Version (20-Oct-1986)
PC-8801FR N-88 BASIC Disk Version (24-May-1985)
PC-8801mkII N-88 BASIC Disk Version (19-Aug-1983)
PC-8801mkIISR N-88 BASIC Disk Version (15-Sep-1984)
Sn88-DOS v1.0
SWEET-V2 for N-88 V2-Mode, double drive system (Technopolis Soft)


[Coding]

FORTRAN-80 (Microsoft)
N-88 DISK-BASIC Program Library ---> BASIC programs to look at the source ;)
Nevada FORTRAN v3.0 (MOD 0)
PASS-88 (Yutaka Yamamoto) ---> PASS-88 ASSEMBLER and other tools
PC-Techknow 8800mk2 on a DISK (System Soft) ---> Various routines


[Misc]

(?) USE IPL SYSTEM v1.1 (T. Uchida) ---> Manual included


[Graphic]

Cracker!
InkPot v1.0 (H.Komatsu)
LALF v1.52 (Tokumasyoten Intermedia)
Pattern Editor 88 v1.01 (Ponyca)

[Sound]

Formula C.M.S. (Enix)


That's it.


I forgot to mention the Cross-Human68k toolchain, "A way to develop for X68000 using your Linux or Windows box."


If you have some other stuff you can contribute, it'll be welcome! (source code examples, official or unofficial documentation, programs, or disks; a.k.a: anything)


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PostPosted: October 10th, 2012, 7:31 am 
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Location: Italy
Here is a Cross-Human68k toolchain courtesy of Lydux from NFG forums:

http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4850.0


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PostPosted: October 10th, 2012, 3:05 pm 
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Location: South Africa
For those of us old enough to remember CP/M, a lot of CP/M software is compatible across machines, if you can just get the files onto the right format disk ( or image ). For programs that operate in full-screen terminal mode one needs to be able to configure the terminal type - VT-52, VT-100, ADM 3A etc. So much CP/M software might be usable, if one wants to make the effort.

Who knows - one might even get the immortal Catchum and Ladder games going - "text-arcade" games LOL.


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PostPosted: October 10th, 2012, 4:39 pm 
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peter_j wrote:
For those of us old enough to remember CP/M, a lot of CP/M software is compatible across machines, if you can just get the files onto the right format disk ( or image ). For programs that operate in full-screen terminal mode one needs to be able to configure the terminal type - VT-52, VT-100, ADM 3A etc. So much CP/M software might be usable, if one wants to make the effort.

Who knows - one might even get the immortal Catchum and Ladder games going - "text-arcade" games LOL.


A lot of those D88 images were originally uploaded by you, so thank you!
I was coding a utility to manipulate files in N88BASIC and CP/M images (which I later forgot about/didn't had time), I still have some coding to do before I can release something more or less useable.. Originally I was going to inject CP/M Kermit files into an image, enabling terminal transference of files.. but to get those files inside manually was a hard task so I started coding the program.. which defeated the first purpose entirely (no need to Kermit your way in if you can manipulate files directly from images). Although the Kermit approach can still be interesting to actual PC-88 owners..


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PostPosted: October 10th, 2012, 11:29 pm 
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http://www.geocities.jp/submarine600/html/p8/pc88.html

More programming goodness for the people.


EDIT: Here's the PC8001A Catalog by NEC (all in English!!), the last page is about N-BASIC language (commands, statements and functions).


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