A piece of NZ history - Aamber Pegasus

[nama]

http://web.mac.com/lord_philip/aamber_p ... gasus.html

[tezza]

Great articile under that link. Thanks for sharing.

One thing I'm interested in is the languages (Extended BASIC etc.). Who wrote them? Were they just versions that were available for the MC6809C chip or did one of the development team write them themselves? I'm picking the former but I am curious.

[nama]

Hi Terry,
A quote from Nigel Keam:

"My first computer job, therefore, involved being part of a very small group which in a few short months designed and built hardware, wrote an "Operating System", ported/wrote a bunch of languages, assembler, word processor, and a collection of games – all before the IBM PC was out."

...so I'm not actually sure what software was written from scratch, and what was ported. As this is also a question that I've occasionally thought about, I can fire Nigel and email and ask him. It would also be interesting to know where the ports originated from.

Phil

[tezza]

I'd certainly be interested in what you find out.

Next question. Has anyone written an emulator for the beast?

[nama]

Again, Nigel was talking about making a 'simulator', but I believe he has been very busy with work and life in general, so I'm not sure if it will ever happen. I don't know how difficult it would be to write an emulator, as I have no skill in such things but I'm sure a good starting point would be one of the many 6809 simulators available.
It would be great to have an emulator, and would mean that all the years of searching for missing Pegasus software, programs and documentation etc, and the hard work put in by the Technosys team so may years ago would have greater meaning. Having an emulator would allow the Pegasus to reach a wider audience, something that was never achieved when it was in production. Having so many languages available for the machine, Pascal, Basic, Xbasic, Forth, MAD, not to mention existing games like Invaders, Galaxy Wars and Snakes would make the emulator historical, educational and fun to use.

[tezza]

I agree,

Re: developing emulators. Unfortunately I have no skills in such things either, but I am in awe of those that do!

[nama]

On the subject of emulation, recently I have had the pleasure to work with a M.E.S.S programmer (robbbert), and together (he did 99% of the work of course) we have completed a full emulation of the Aamber Pegasus 4k. I have attached some screen captures.

If you want to try it out for yourself you can get the latest build from here:

http://bobz38.free.fr/mess_autobuild/index.php

...and you will need the ROM images from my site here:

http://public.me.com/lord_philip/

The monitor rom will need to go in a 'pegasus' folder inside a 'roms' folder. In the MESS app under 'Properties' there is a 'Miscellaneous' tab. Under there there is a pull down menu called 'BIOS'. You can select all the Monitor versions from here. Some renaming of the actual files may be needed, but they can all exist in the roms/pegasus folder at the same time. this makes it very easy to change Monitor ROMs.

other images can be loaded under the 'device' menu, and the emulator also has a virtual cassette implemented too.

There are still a couple of quirks that will hopefully be sorted out over the next few week.

Please take a look.

Phil

[nama]

Ok...attaching the screen captures didn't work!!!!
But you can see them here:

http://web.mac.com/lord_philip/aamber_p ... tures.html

...and read a little about the development here:

http://web.mac.com/lord_philip/aamber_p ... /Blog.html

Phil

[tezza]

Thanks for posting Philip.

I'll take a look in the next few days.

Terry

[gavo]

http://web.mac.com/lord_philip/aamber_pegasus/Aamber_Pegasus.html

Wow. I'd never heard of that box. Any idea how many were made / sold here in NZ? It looks like a fairly capable machine! I'm pretty reluctant to get into anything other than the old Apple kit (just because of I'd get even less done than I do now!), but I must admit, this unit and its history has me intrigued!

[nama]

Actually I have no idea of the quantity that was made or sold. I know the company didn't exist for too long (maybe a couple of years at most), so I can't imagine too many were made.

I'm actually getting regular emails from a guy who is planning on recreating the Pegasus as a clone. As far as his specs go, it'll be functionally identical to the original, but with the possibility of running the CPU at a higher speed, VGA output, 48k standard (original only had 4k standard), built in EPROM expander (to run all existing languages at the flip of a switch)...Not sure if these will be the final specs but this is what he is discussing.

If there is any interest, he may be willing to do a small run of professionally produced boards.

Phil

[gavo]

I'm actually getting regular emails from a guy who is planning on recreating the Pegasus as a clone.

If there is any interest, he may be willing to do a small run of professionally produced boards.
Phil

Sounds interesting. I dont know that I would be a taker on something like that, but having said that, I would definitely like to hear more about it closer to the time if there is an option to be in on the run - as they say, timing is everything

[cjr]

http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/vint ... 489351.htm