Release AltairZ80


moxie

The voice of reason, sense and exasperation
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http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=AltairMoxie

So, this is my port (in the simplest sense of the word - Slap the sources down and type "make") of Peter Schorns Altair simulator/emulator. It simulates an Altair 8800 - The "first home computer" - with many of its options. Since it was one of the early bus-based computers, the configuration could be almost anything. AltairZ80 allows for using an (emulated) 8080, Z80 or 8086 for a main processor, memory from 4k to 64 k, with or without banking, several varieties of disk controllers (floppy or hard), paper tape punch/reader and so on and so forth. This means it is able to run several varieties of OSes, mainly in the CP/M family, as well as the paper tape BASICs and stuff like that. It may even run MP/M and have as many as 4 user connecting to the same (emulated) machine :D

This fearsome array of options also means that it might not be easy to wrap ones' head around what ought to go where and why. My ambition here is to be able to overcome this through documentation - By offering some preset configurations that can be tried for what they are (a "gaming computer", a development machine, a basic hobbyist configuration, and so on) and described as separate entities, as well as some tutorial material in how to reconfigure the machine to your liking once you've gotten your toes wet. That would also be my contribution-to-speak-of - The code is quite mature and well-written, so there really isn't much of an effort in the actual porting.

If you download and try, you'll see that we are quite far from there, yet :) So far, there is one configuration that starts up immediately, running CP/M 2.2, with a system disk in A:, some apps on B: and TurboPascal on C:. Try it out, check that the documentation that is there is readable, check that the appdata dir automatically gets a directory "disks" with the above disk images in it, and so on. Once I figure that stuff is basically working for other people than me, I'll get to the actual writing and configuring.
 
I'm a ton bit rusty on my Pascal, so I'll give it a go for the fun of it.
 
You're all welcome :)

Mind that this is TurboPascal from beyond time, so it doesn't quite behave the way you'd be used to if you've used the later incarnations with menus and stuff. There is a link to the appropriate manual in the documentation, though.
 
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