Re: CiderPress Bug

[Eric Smith <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com>]

Andy McFadden <fadden@fadden.com> writes:
> I should probably explain one thing about DOS 'B' files.  They have an
> embedded length that determines how much of the file is loaded on a BLOAD
> or BSAVE.  Some cracked games use this feature to put a small "loader"
> program at the front of the file.

I didn't know that that technique was used by cracked games.  I used it
in the second generation software for the Apparat EPROM Programmer back
in 1981, because during development I was irritated with how long the
program took to load.  I could have used ProntoDOS or something instead,
but I wanted to do all my testing with ordinary Apple DOS.

The first generation software was written by the hardware designer,
Larry Fish, in XPL0 and ran only under the Apex operating system, though
it had a means to read files from Apple DOS diskettes.  I wrote the second
generation software in assembly using direct calls to the DOS file manager.

Does anyone have a copies of the Apparat EPROM Programmer software?  Or
an actual board they'd like to sell?

Eric

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