Tandy Deskmate Download
DOSBox is a miracle. It is the best emulator I have found to handle the Tandy 3-voice sound and the 'TGA'/ PCJr. Graphics modes simultanuously. However, there is still a remaining issue.
When attempting to launch the 'Personal DeskMate 2' software that came with the 1000 HX, the text within the graphics is either garbled or non-existant. To explain futher, the program brings up a graphical shell which is displayed fine, but the standard text with the 'list boxes' and other areas of the environment cannot be displayed. Does anyone have an idea for a resolution? Newbie Posts: 43 Joined: 2007-5-31 @ 22:08 Location: Illinois. Thanks very much for your interest and help. Please look at the image and see that the shell is intact, and that the ASCII text within is the problem (which I thought would have been the easy part!) Since I know how to navigate this program, I was even able to bring up a graphical image from within the included Paint app with no problem. Navigating the Music app, I was able to play all supplied 3-voice tunes.
The only issue is being able to see where you are because of the text problem. The Personal DeskMate program, by the way, can be downloaded at the following page (pdm2.zip): Attachments PDM2.png (7.56 KiB) Viewed 4011 times Newbie Posts: 43 Joined: 2007-5-31 @ 22:08 Location: Illinois. On the other hand, this is the only emulator that actually brings up the shell itself, which is a huge step forward. Please note that the few characters that you see in the shell image are not actually generated characters (F2, F3, etc), they are merely graphical elements incorporated into the shell to represent these functions. So the problem is still with ASCII charactes applied to the shell, which, incidentally, display fine at the prompt. For these reasons, it may not be the Tandy BIOS, and we may be close to a solution. I will try the BETA versions and report back.
Newbie Posts: 43 Joined: 2007-5-31 @ 22:08 Location: Illinois. WD,Thanks for your insight, as this makes a lot of sense. Tandy had a way of making various 'premium' versions of DeskMate proprietary, and they kept doing this until the decline of the program around 1991 in favor of Windows 3.0/3.1. If you are correct, the question then becomes whether or not there is a way to redirect the program to look at the correct character table?
Please bear in mind that I am not a programmer beyond the writing of a ton of DOS batch files over the years. Thanks for any further insight you might offer. Newbie Posts: 43 Joined: 2007-5-31 @ 22:08 Location: Illinois. I looked up the other DeskMate thread only to find that it dealt with exactly the same subject over a year ago.
One message mentioned that there may have been fonts in the Tandy ROM. The shell images look like they are looking for a font table at a certain memory location which is not there, hence the displyed garbage.
Tandy Deskmate Download
If this is correct and if we knew the memory location, it would be theoretically possible to map a table into memory using a debug script, and then launch 'Desk' from a batch file. Any thoughts about this? Newbie Posts: 43 Joined: 2007-5-31 @ 22:08 Location: Illinois. Thanks for your insight, but what you describe is probably beyond my current level of experience.
I will check back here from time to time to see if one of the developers has enough interest to include Tandy ROM in a future release. At least I have a direction, and a partial solution thanks to DOSBox. BTW, this forum is a refreshing change from other emulator forums, where people actually take an interest rather than dismiss you just for making a suggestion. I won't mention names, but there is one forum that I wouldn't 'MESS' with (pun intended). Thanks again, WD, and eveyone else who tried to help. Newbie Posts: 43 Joined: 2007-5-31 @ 22:08 Location: Illinois.
MESS can be configured for the Tandy 1000 HX and it sucessfully goes through the entire 'boot' routine. Depending on what you have compiled in the program's required disk image, it can even successfully run CGA-based software, including old games.
But as soon as you put 'Personal DeskMate 2' into a disk image and try to run it, you get all garbage on the screen. That's why I was excited about DOSBox, because the actual shell does come up, and if you know how to navigate the program without being able to see the fonts, as I do, you can even verify that everything else is indeed working.
So, as you can see, I continue to think that DoSBox has the best promise.As I alluded to earlier, it's also refreshing to be able to ask about a subject on a forum such as this and not be blown out of the water, as with MESS. If the developers choose not to pursue it, that's fine, as I understand there are a lot of requests. But the interest and courtesy are still very much appreciated. Newbie Posts: 43 Joined: 2007-5-31 @ 22:08 Location: Illinois.