SAM Coupe & Pro-DOS and CP/M disk images

[GeoffB17]

Anyone know anything about SAM?


I was looking on the web for any other Adventure games (as being discussed regarding Z-Machine) and I found this web page:


Sam Coupé Pro-DOS Resource Pages - Home Page


and in partic the cpm_images sub-dir (but there's more bits in other dirs).


The machine is something I've never heard of, seems a bit like a Spectrum+++++, heading towards 16 bit performance (so it says), some interesting extras over CP/M 2.2 for the Pro-DOS, easy extend path re the SD card drives etc, and other plusses??   There's some history of the project in there too, interesting reading.


Some VERY useful stuff among the disk images, mostly Pro-DOS, some simply referred to as being CP/M.   The image files are RAW images, i.e. NONE of the 'header' and 'format' blocks that are within the .DSKs.   Hence a 730k capacity disk produces a 730k .IMG file.   Images on the website include a lot of HiSoft stuff, some other utilities, and quite a pile of Adventure games, incl all (most ?) of the InfoCom games.   There's also all the disks for Pro_DOS, and other things.


The .IMG files CAN be read via Joyce.   But you need to 'tweak' the file, as there's no XDPB data in the first 16 bytes.   Without that data, Joyce will access the disk image, but it reports No Files.   Add in the XDPB data, and it reads the disk fine, reporting the files, etc.   The files can then be copied on.   NB within Joyce you need to select the 'raw image' option, maybe the 'auto-detect' option might work but just as easy to specify 'raw image'.


I wonder though, is the Pro-DOS system worth trying.   The info suggests that Pro-DOS does NOT make any access to the SAM Roms etc, and it does seem to suggest quite a few extras over even CP/M+.   Should need some tweaking, to make sure BIOS things are OK, but the support for the SD card drive (like the HXc ?) with a small extension 'driver' (?) sounds VERY useful - and I think it's for a real drive, not just disk images?


Anyone heard anything about this??


Geoff

[GeoffB17]

Just done a search of this site, and found quite a few mentions of this machine - most seem to be about the machine/hardware/etc.   My immediate interest regarding the software link, the hardware side means little to me!!


Geoff