MM007trying to register
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Post by MM007trying to register on Dec 25, 2004 15:34:28 GMT -5
Okay, I just noticed that the Apple Macintosh is 68000 based.
The vast majority of the Mac OS programing is 68000 assembly(though a bit of pascal might exist, though unlikely, since they had to cram Mac OS into a floppy.), and the Mac uses 128K of RAM, 512K to fully utilize the OS.
It also uses about 400 or so K of ROM for a floppy.
What I am wondering is if someone can make a Mac OS cartridge for the Genesis, and maybe even a serial connector on that cartrige to use an external Commodore 1541 Disk Drive(Which is built around a Mac floppy Drive anyway, I believe).
Is this possible, and is anyone willing to do it?
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MM007
PooP MonkeeH
To create, you must first destroy....that's the fun part!
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Post by MM007 on Dec 25, 2004 15:43:57 GMT -5
Well, I finally registered, anyway...
To avoid confusion, I meant that the Macintosh uses about 400K of ROM.
Also, it is compatible with a floppy drive.
512K of cartridge ROM would be more than enough for the first Mac OS, but if you wanted to use more ROM, I guess modifications could be made, like upgrades, bug fixes, and color. ^^
Also, the mouse function would have to be replaced with a program to use the gamepad as a mouse, and keyboard, unless mouse and keyboard ports could also go on the cartridge.
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Post by Epicenter on Dec 25, 2004 15:53:42 GMT -5
MacOS is geared for one specific type of video card and to work with things such as the PDS/NuBUS system buses. It would not be intercompatible with the MegaDrive/Genesis' VDP ... nor with many other components. Massive modifications to the OS would have to be done. You'd also have to install FAR more memory, the Genesis/MD only has 64 KB, not the 128 KB early macs had. Even then, those strained to run anything properly, most users needed more RAM to be productive at all. So all in all, it can be done but in the end, it's not really worth it ... I'd venture to say a tiny version of Linux would be better. With the RAM upgrade though, still.
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Post by Epicenter on Dec 25, 2004 15:57:05 GMT -5
At any rate this will be just "because I can" rather than a real useful setup unless you were to install enough RAM to run large programs, as well as wire up drive controllers (major pain in the ass) and the like. I think it'd be a better project to write software that would add keyboard/mouse functionality and rudimentary web browsing capability through a NIC (probably Lynx-like text only browsing). That would be interesting to see. Although in the end, not terribly useful. But fun.
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Dec 25, 2004 17:22:22 GMT -5
There was a Debian Linux version for 68K Macs, but it is HARD to install....
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Post by Epicenter on Dec 26, 2004 1:28:37 GMT -5
When I installed it on my IIsi it went nicely. I didn't have any major issues at all. I booted from a 2-floppy set and then used a CD to copy the base system and packages over. Maybe I was lucky? ... it was very early at the time. Still the potato distribution even.
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oompa loompa
I AM THE GOVERNATOR
"Git 'Er Dun!"
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Post by oompa loompa on Dec 26, 2004 14:51:54 GMT -5
the 68000 mac's have very different hardware compared to the sega genesis. the mac has a frame buffer, and the sega genesis doesn't, so lots of software changes need to happen for this to work. that's only the begining of the hardware incompatibilities though
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Post by GiGaBiTe on Jan 9, 2005 19:06:11 GMT -5
lol the macs from the 1980's used 512 k operating systems. a more modern practical operating system would be mac os 7.5 and it takes up like 20 megs with all of the extensions.
if i got out my mac LC III i could probably jerry-rig an os for the sega but it would be extremely limited to what it could do. also i dont know how to write assembly so i couldnt utilize the vdp or sound chips. in other words it would boot to the 68k but not display anything on the screen.
another problem would be ram. the minimum for system 7.5 is 4 megs, and thats if you strip the os down to bones and even then it dont work right. you could add 32 megs to the genesis and tell macos to use that, but that would take a long time.
then would be the problem of actually turning it into a rom and sticking it in a cartridge or on a hard drive that the sega can read.
possible: yes difficulty: extremely hard and time consuming any practical reason for doing it: not really
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oompa loompa
I AM THE GOVERNATOR
"Git 'Er Dun!"
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Post by oompa loompa on Jan 11, 2005 19:40:17 GMT -5
i've written myself an os for the sega genesis. it's very much like dos, 10000 lines of assembly (that's until i learned how to use loops, it went to 100 =P) and take a look what they did in russia: newgame.ru/16bit/obuch.htmunfortunately, russia won't let ups ship these to the states =P
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 13, 2005 21:21:19 GMT -5
well, check out this demo. It does nothing, but it may be a start for a Windows-like GUI.
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oompa loompa
I AM THE GOVERNATOR
"Git 'Er Dun!"
Posts: 1,301
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Post by oompa loompa on Jan 13, 2005 21:27:22 GMT -5
wtfomffgg! i ran your demo, and when i saw that second page with the dialog, i crapped my pants. that looks hella real, same colors and all =P is what gave me a trip =D. expand it, and have like a cursor and more dialogs and everything, and it might just be very awesome.
you can also do something for the sega cd, casue basiegaxorz allows you to load different clusters into memory and execute that code (i think it was in the "devster's gaming party" bex demo)
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Post by haroldoop on Jan 18, 2005 4:56:53 GMT -5
There's a open source graphical operating system for low-end machines called Contiki at www.sics.se/~adam/contiki/. Maybe it could be ported to the Genesis.
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oompa loompa
I AM THE GOVERNATOR
"Git 'Er Dun!"
Posts: 1,301
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Post by oompa loompa on Jan 18, 2005 17:24:33 GMT -5
www.sics.se/~adam/contiki/ports/index.htmlroflmaowtfs holy shit it even has a tcp stack too, and the systems they ported it to were like 6502. i'll definitely do a port of this to the genesis. i'm still trying to get uClinux to compile x.x. i think i'm gonna skip that =P, contiki looks so much cooler anyways
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Post by haroldoop on Jan 19, 2005 16:56:26 GMT -5
Glad I could help! ;D
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Post by Tom Maneiro on Jan 20, 2005 17:59:35 GMT -5
nice OS... Damn, it has even a tiny web server... you could serve your page from your Genesis. You should contact the project's author for make the port more "public".
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