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Morpheus
Registered: Feb 2004
Posts: 152 |
PDS (Programmers Development System) software
Hello guys!
Does anyone have a working copy of the ancient PDS (Programmers Development System) software to share? |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11111 |
i have the pc part somewhere .... wth are you planning to do with it? :) |
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Morpheus
Registered: Feb 2004
Posts: 152 |
Two old games guys are thinking about finishing an old game of theirs, and they still have the system. Any help is appreciated! |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11111 |
i would think its a much better idea to convert the sources to some more modern cross-assembler and use that ... the pds.exe doesnt work in modern OS anyway (win98 or older required) |
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Morpheus
Registered: Feb 2004
Posts: 152 |
Any ideas of how to do this? |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11111 |
mmmh good question, the sources look like regular (dos) textfiles, plus some extra stuff. probably some kind of konverter could be written for that *shrug* |
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hollowman
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 474 |
Looks like Sailor and Iopop has some experience with pds stuff: http://gtw64.retro-net.de/Pages/t/Review_Tygertyger.php |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11111 |
simply "extracting" the source (as they call it in that gtw article) is pretty trivial infact.... open the file in a texteditor, remove the junk at the beginning and the bottom, done :) not sure what kind of info is stored there and what you will use, might be (unneeded) symbol info etc |
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Twoflower
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 434 |
Iopop and Sailor are the guys to contact in this case. If I remember correctly, Tyger Tyger isn't the only source they have converted from PDS into something which current cross-assemblers can handle. |
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Moloch
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 2893 |
I'm aware who is currently looking and he has figured out a way to find the c64 transfer end ... it's actually in his old projects. It's about 150 bytes and will rip it out with a monitor.
Crimson Twilight Dev Updates [C64 CRPG] |
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sailor
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 90 |
Hello,
I have the PDS software for both PC and C64.. Unfortunately without its hardware its useless (custom ISA card communicating with the c64). IIRC The package includes xasm for Z80, Amstrad CPC..
The PC-software itself requires an old DOS version and an old processorfamily. (PC XT?). I think i got the software running but it went out searching for the ISA card so it was not of much help.
These are just vague memories, i might be wrong, i might have missed something.. I also have seen different variations of PDS sources(with and without the junk in the beginning), perhaps there are different hardware requirements too.
anyhow.. To get a program running, I'd recommend you to convert it (as already said). Some (personal) best practice notes on the way:
* Remove the "junk bytes" in the beginning.
* You need to merge the 6-7 files somehow (copy/include).
* You need translate the sources(syntaxes etc).
* DASM has worked best so far, some other xasms have failed to build big sources.
I also found a (more or less) PDS-compatible compiler for modern PC;s. It managed to compile some smaller sources, but it failed on the larger ones.
If someone could make a CSDB entry for "PDS software" or something alike, i'd gladly upload the software.
It might sound easier than it is though, but it all depends on what you got in your hands.
Tyger Tyger for example did not run at all, we had to guess what was missing and where, and what the output of the PDS sources was meant to be.
The Bubbler, on the other hand, was complete but hard to translate due to the complexity of the sources. Luckily Matt Young (the original programmer) was involved. He knew both PDS(syntaxes) and 6502-asm.
I think some other stuff in PDS-format has surfaced from the Onslaught factory lately, there might be some useful information as well.
Regards
Jani
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