Message-ID: <1054@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 4-Sep-84 14:22:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.1054
Posted: Tue Sep  4 14:22:03 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Sep-84 20:31:22 EDT
Organization: UCLA Computer Club
Lines: 36


  I have Data 20's Z-80 Video Pak, which not only gives you an 80-column
screen, but also provides a CP/M look-alike called SB80 (written by
Lifeboat Associates). Unfortunately, Data 20 saw fit not to include the
standard CP/M utilities (ED, ASM, DDT, etc.) except for PIP and STAT, so
I couldn't write any programs (PIPping from the keyboard or modem port
didn't work the way it does on other CP/M-based systems; it didn't work at
all, actually).
  After a long correspondence with Data 20 (I bought the thing close to 9
months ago for $270-- I know, it cost more than the C-64 itself, but I wanted
'standard' 80-column, 56K CP/M instead of Commodore's 40-column 48K CP/M,
jerk that I am), the gist of their reply is that they intended the Video
Pak for applications users (hey, they've got Wordstar for only 500 bucks...),
and didn't consider that anyone would actually want to do any *programming*
with it. They said that the standard utilities could be purchased from
Lifeboat for a small additional charge (this after already spending 270
bucks!). Unfortunately, Lifeboat doesn't read their mail, or at least, they
haven't answered the 4 letters I've sent them inquiring about the utilities.
  After much frustration and heartache, I finally broke down and bought
Commodore's CP/M cartridge (which is, as the Data 20 people say, completely
software compatible with the Video Pak). I copied the master disk (which
did indeed have the much-sought-after utilities), and sold the Commodore
cartridge to a friend at a small loss (no flames about pirating, please--
I'm lucky I'm still sane at this point, and my friend did get a deal...).
  Now, to bring a fairly long story to a fairly swift conclusion: if you
boot on an SB80 disk, you can read the directory of the Commodore CP/M
disk, and vice versa, but I haven't been able to run a program (like PIP)
on the disk format that isn't the one I booted on. A STAT DSK: reveals that
the SB80 disk holds more than the Commodore CP/M disk, and I don't know if
this is part of the problem. I'd like to be able to use my 56K, 80-column
SB80, but I have to find out how to transfer the utilities over to the SB80
format. Anyone have any ideas on format conversion, or just getting the files
from the Commodore CP/M disk onto the SB80 disk?