cmm1@CUNIXA.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Christopher M Mauritz) (05/18/89)
So far, all of the replies I've gotten and read on the net have basically been in agreement with me. I'll keep you guys posted about my success/failure in "improving" my TOS situation. Am I mistaken or do I remember Neil Harris and others from Atari stating a while back that TOS upgrades would be made available to 520/1040ST owners? Well, I guess it doesn't matter now since Jack Tramiel stated publicly that they were NOT going to be available (he said that he could not reveal why). sigh... A bit annoyed (but preparing to do something about it), Chris Mauritz cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu No points for 2nd BEST!
cmm1@CUNIXA.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Christopher M Mauritz) (05/18/89)
>So far, all of the replies I've gotten and read on the net have basically >been in agreement with me. I'll keep you guys posted about my success/failure >in "improving" my TOS situation. Am I mistaken or do I remember Neil Harris >and others from Atari stating a while back that TOS upgrades would be made >available to 520/1040ST owners? Well, I guess it doesn't matter now since >Jack Tramiel stated publicly that they were NOT going to be available (he >said that he could not reveal why). sigh... I've been told on GEnie, that this was not the policy of Atari (not upgrading the ROMS in 520/1040 sts). Is this so? I seem to remember reading an article in which Jack Tramiel said that there would be no upgrade. Could I be confusing this with the Blitter upgrade? I think this was in a speech at the WOA in Disneyland. I don't want to spread inaccurate information. Can someone out there clear the air? I'm confused... Chris Mauritz cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu No points for 2nd BEST!
cmm1@CUNIXA.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Christopher M Mauritz) (05/18/89)
Here is a sample of the feedback from Genie. All this response (and more)
took less than 24 hours! Apparently, I made a mistake about the TOS
upgrade. Hmmmm, I know I saw that article. Tramiel must have been talking
about the Blitter upgrade instead. Sorry about the apparent error on my
part. I guess my brain is turning to mush due to all the high octane I've
been taking in this week. (I graduated today so I think I owe myself a
few (read MANY) cold ones.) Anyway, here's a bit of the GEnie-speak for
you:
------------
Category 4, Topic 62
Message 14 Wed May 17, 1989
SANDY.W [SysOp] at 10:49 EDT
Er...where did Atari say TOS 1.4 would not be available for the 520/1040?? As
the chips will be in both the 6 and 2 chip set I don't see where they could be
considered machine specific at all.
As for copyright, some copyrights do contain a clause against alteration, but
whether it would be worth it to enforce it in a single case is another
decision. Actually, if you don't intend to sell it, and it will be for your
use only, why bother to publicize it??
(If this topic is going to be another copyright discussion, it is going to be
moved to Cat 18 <grin>)
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Category 4, Topic 62
Message 15 Wed May 17, 1989
D.MCNAMEE [Dan2@Atari] at 14:51 EDT
Chris,
Where did you hear that Atari is not going to make TOS 1.4 available to
520/1040 owners?? We have announced that TOS 1.4 will be available as an
upgrade in BOTH 2 AND 6 CHIP SETS, and WILL BE AVAILABLE AS AN UPGRADE TO ALL
ST OWNERS (520/1040 included) AS AN UPGRADE.
Dan 2 @ Atari
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Category 4, Topic 62
Message 16 Wed May 17, 1989
TOWNS at 16:18 EDT
Yeah, what Dan said! <grin>
As for the legalities.. We own ALL rights to the code that is in
those ROMs. From what I am told, it is illegal to do what you
would like to do.
But, if you are going to do it, I can't stop you. I will remind
you of a couple of things: AES is line-f'ed. This will make it
VERY hard to modify. As for the rest of the code in the ROMs. It
is designed to be in a certain place at boot up. If you start to
fool around with it too much you will break it.
But, if you feel like wasting your time.. go for it.
------------
Chris Mauritz
cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu
No points for 2nd BEST!ericco@stew.ssl.berkeley.edu (Eric C. Olson) (05/19/89)
I remember reading about TSR program for the IBM which modified the binary of dbase. This was quite legal since the user still had to buy the original binaries from ashton-tate. I wonder if modifications to the ROMs can be distributed? Of course, you would have copy the ROMs into RAM first ... perhaps this part is not legal? Eric ericco@ssl.berkeley.edu
cmm1@CUNIXA.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Christopher M Mauritz) (05/20/89)
I sent a message about two days ago which stated that I had confused Atari's BLiTTER upgrade policy with the TOS upgrade. I guess it got eaten at ucbvax.berkeley. Anyway, the comment at the WOA show was about the BLiTTER chip so all of you who sent me the flames can stop. If I'd been a bit more on the ball I'd have realized that the 6 chip version of TOS 1.4 was for us 520/1040 owners. Sorry for the mixup. re: bitching I reserve the right to bitch whenever I want. hmmmph... :-) Thanks for all the responses. I think this is going to be a very fun project! Chris Mauritz cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu No points for 2nd BEST!