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I love the Z80 too, and Turbo Pascal! In 1980 I was writing custom comm software for TRS-80 then Kaypro and Vector Graphic model 3. I wrote in assembly a CP/M
by HocusLocus 7y ago
I love the Z80 too, and Turbo Pascal! In 1980 I was writing custom comm software for TRS-80 then Kaypro and Vector Graphic model 3. I wrote in assembly a CP/M TSR that loaded, hooked BDOS and allowed any existing program to transparently "encrypt" to and from disk by opening files matching a selectable mask (like !???????.???) so you could save "encrypted" docs from any app like WordStar. I use "encrypt" in scare quotes because it was only a snake oil XOR proof of concept... I had DES flowcharted out but saw right away that proper implementation would murder the TSR's size and throughput with 4MHz Z80 would be dismal.
Too bad, lost interest. Only a few years later with 16bit and MSDOS and faster CPU it became practical and I could have been the first such product to market but I was stupid.
I also had written a Turbo Pascal TSR program (using a 3rd party TSR toolkit) that was like strace on linux, writing system calls to disk in the background. I used it to troubleshoot many application program mysteries.
- ngcc_hk 7y agoTurbo pascal and bridge got good memory. Hunt down a version that can run.
- fit2rule 7y agoGet an Amstrad CPC6128, rig it out with an SD card, and experience the joy of 2019's releases for what is, arguably, one of the greater Z80 systems of the era.
- Starwatcher2001 7y agoBack in the 80s I had a TRS80 with 5 inch floppy drive, and an Amstrad CPC464 with built in cassette tape. Having no patience to wait for games to load, I linked the two together via the parallel printer interfaces and wrote some Z80 code on either end to allow the TRS80 to store CPC464 programs. I seem to remember only being able to use 6 of the bits for data, and using a couple of the others to signal as "clear to send" between them. The transfer was very quick, much faster than tape, but wasn't very reliable due to the dodgy connectors on the TRS80. Using an SD card with the old micros would be miles better.