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Info for prav8d


Pravetz 8D

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The emulation is the same as the Oric Atmos. (I don't know if there are any hardware
differences compared to an original Oric Atmos, if there are please tell me and I will
implement them).

Disk:
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The disk drive interface has a boot-rom which loads the DOS from the disc
in the drive.

The driver supports 2 versions of the disc interface:
- "low dos 8d" has a 256 byte boot rom and supports DOS v1.0 to v1.30 ("Apple 2" on dipswitch)
- "high dos 8d" has a 512 byte boot rom and supports DOS v2.10 and higher. ("Apple 2 v2" on dipswitch)

If you are using the standard prav8d driver you will need to type:
CALL #320
to start the boot procedure.
If you are using prav8dd (with the "BOBY" rom), then the disc is booted
automatically.
The Pravetz 8D uses Apple 2 compatible disk drives only and these
are supported by the driver.

Here is a brief listing of DOS commands provided by George:

options:
f - FileName (1-30 signs)
d - drive (one or two)
v - volume
a - beginning address
e - end adress
l - record length
r - record number
b - number of byte in the record

filetypes:
B - Basic program
C - Bynary file
T - Text file
M - Text file, created with Make command ( batch file:) )

commands:
DIR [1] [2] - not comment
INIT [,Vv] [,Dd] - formatting Disk (in first or second Disk Drive)
DOS [f] [,Dd], [,Vv] - writing Dos on the disk without formatting It. File f authomatically starts after booting
MAP [1] [2] - show chart of the disk.
SAVE f [,A,a] [,Ee] [,Vv] [,Dd] - Saves file on the disk. If missing parameter of the addresses A,E - saving Basic file in Memory
LOAD f [,Aa] [,Dd] [,Vv] - loads file in memory
MERGE - adding program in Basic to already exists in Memory
- -only for files B or C types. Loads file in Memory and start It. (RUN and BRUN together in Apple ][)
DELETE f [,Dd] [,Vv] - deleting file f
RENAME f1, f2 [,Vv] [,Dd] - ranaming last name of the file f1 with f2
* f [,Dd] [,Vv] - lock/unlock file
MAXFILES m - alowing up to m open files
VERIFY f [,Dd] [,Vv] - checks surface integrity of file
EXIT - leaving Dos
OPEN f [,Vv] [,Dd] - open file for read/write
CLOSE [f] - closing f. If there's no f pointed - closes all open files
READ f [,Bb] - points that will be reading of the file with command INPUT
WRITE f [,Bb] - writes in Text file
APPEND f [,Vv] [,Dd] - adding information in Text file. Always there's WRITE after It
POSITION f [,Rr] - allow writing or reading in Text file from r position

in Program mode using of the commands is:
10LPRINT CHR$(2); "MAXFILES 5"
e.g.

To load a program called "MONITOR" type:
LOAD MONITOR
often you will see a load address (it is the first number with # prefix).
Now type CALL #<number> to execute the program.

History and Trivia:
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The Pravetz 8D is a Bulgarian clone of the Oric Atmos.
It was produced between 1986 and 1989.

Thankyou to:
------------
George Dramcheff for the Pravetz information,
Fabrice Frances for the Oric information,


created on Thu Aug 16 22:55:01 2001