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Re: Saturday Garage Sale Update #3? DE 

By: Zimbler0 in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (1)
Sun, 14 Aug 22 10:37 PM | 20 view(s)
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Msg. 34565 of 58658
(This msg. is a reply to 34553 by Decomposed)

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Decomposed > Thanks, but I have floppies. I need a very specific floppy. I need a double-sided, double-density, 40-track, soft-sectored diskette with its system tracks formatted to boot CP/M. Ideally, it should be a CP/M system disk for the Epson QX-10.


This site might have what you need . .

http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/howto_cpm.html

I remember running CPM . . .
It had come with a 'library' - a bunch of 8-inch floppies containing a LOT of software for the beast. Some ran good, some didn't. There was C-Basic which allowed me to program my inventory system. That was fun.

There were also a LOT of games and graphics. ASCII text. Everything was ASCII.

Zim.




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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: Saturday Garage Sale Update #3? DE
By: Decomposed
in 6TH POPE
Sun, 14 Aug 22 3:07 PM
Msg. 34553 of 58658

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Re: “I have floppies that are unused and some used but work.. I would be willing to bet Zim has some floppies around someplace ......”
Thanks, but I have floppies. I need a very specific floppy. I need a double-sided, double-density, 40-track, soft-sectored diskette with its system tracks formatted to boot CP/M. Ideally, it should be a CP/M system disk for the Epson QX-10. Somebody who has THAT needs to send me one! Without such a floppy, the machine won't even start.

And it all depends on the computer not being broken - which it probably is.

It even gets tricky after that because, back in the days of CP/M, you didn't get software by downloading it off the internet. There was no internet. In order to get software, you bought it from a computer store that carried CP/M software or you went to a friend's house, a friend who owned the same computer, and you copied his software. I'm not going to be able to find either of those these days. My best hope of getting any software for the machine will be Ebay... or maybe a CP/M club if one exists, a club that has libraries of the old stuff for sale.

Back in those days, every computer was different. Every computer's software was different too. Even if I managed to copy Wordstar for my Osborne computer onto a floppy the Epson could read, it would not run correctly. The Osborne had characteristics (52-column wide memory mapped graphics, for instance) that wouldn't work the same way on the Epson. Every software company made versions for every type of computer. What a hassle that was.

When IBM came out with its first personal computer, everything became standardized and it was a huge boon for the world. If you remember, it wasn't until then that personal computers really caught on. Except for the pricier Apple computers, everything was an IBM clone running MS-DOS or PC-DOS. CP/M was a better OS than DOS, but IBM's use of DOS spelled the end of CP/M.






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