====== Thomson TO8 (French, Sep 1986?) ======
===== Features =====
* CPU: 1 MHz Motorola 6809E
* RAM: 256 KB base + 256 KB extended = 512 KB
* ROM: 96 KB BIOS, BASIC 1.0, BASIC 512, graphical DOS
* Video: 8 video modes (same as TO9)
* legacy 320x200, 16 colors with proximity constraints
* 320x200, 4 colors, unconstrained
* 160x200, 16 colors
* 640x200, 2 colors
* 320x200, two 2-color pages
* 320x200, two overlaid pages, 3 colors
* 160x200, four 2-color pages
* 160x200, four overlaid pages, 5 colors
* Palette: 16 colors to be chosen among 4096.
* Sound: 6-bit DAC extension + speech synthesis extension
* Keyboard: AZERTY 81-keys, French with accents, identical to TO9
* Game-pad: two 8-way 2-button paddles
* Mouse (exclusive with game-pad)
* Lightpen
* Cartridge: optional, TO7 compatible
* Cassette: 900 bauds, TO7 compatible
* Floppy: integrated versatile controller, up to four external 2"8, 3"1/2 or 5"1/4 drives, TO7-compatible floppies
* Printer port (CENTRONICS)
===== Usage =====
== Menu ==
From the startup menu, press SHIFT+1 for the BASIC 512, SHIFT+2 for the legacy BASIC 1.0, SHIFT+3 to set preferences (color palette and switch between lightpen and mouse), SHIFT+5 to get the graphical DOS. SHIFT+4 is a loader for special kinds of floppy software (CHG applications).
== Cartridges ==
An optional cartridge can be inserted with the -cart option. It can be started from the startup menu by pressing SHIFT+0.
The TO8 can run TO7 and TO7/70 cartridges, but not MO5 ones.
== Cassettes ==
They have the same format as the TO7 and TO7/70 ones, and MESS recognizes the same image types (.wav and .k7).
We recall that cassettes are loaded with one of the two following BASIC commands:
RUN"" (for BASIC files),
LOADM"",,R (for binary files).
Please see the to7 driver for more informations.
Thanks to the backward compatibility, you should be able to run most TO7 and TO7/70 software, provided that you load them from the old BASIC 1.0 and not the BASIC 512.
Note that to use cassettes with the BASIC 512, you must use the commands
RUN"CASS:"
and
LOADM"CASS:",,R
respectively because the cassette device is no longer the default one.
== Floppies ==
The TO8 has a versatile internal floppy controller that allows plugging up to four 2"8, 3"1/2 or 5"1/4 drives. MESS emulates all of this in devices -flop0 to -flop3. They accept .sap and .fd images (both can correspond to 160 KB 5"1/4 or 320 KB 3"1/2 floppies) as well as
.qd images (50 KB 2"8 floppies).
They are fully compatible with the TO7, TO7/70, MO5 and TO9 floppy images. The software they contain may, however, be incompatible. The TO8 can generally run all TO7, TO7/70 and TO9 software, but not software from the MO family (e.g., MO5).
You can exploit floppies from the BASIC 512 using the commands DIR, LOAD, RUN, SAVE and DSKINI0 (DIR"1:", LOAD"1:", ..., DSKINI1 for -flop1, and so on). Most game floppies are bootable; they are run using the B option in the startup menu.
Some games are not bootable. You must start the regular BASIC 512 (SHIFT+3), then use DIR to see which programs are likely to be loaders, and launch them manually with a RUN"XYZ.BAS" or LOADM"XYZ.BIN",,R command.
A few rare games are actually BASIC 1.0 boot disks, incompatible with the BASIC 512; they are run using the C command in the startup menu.
Finally, the SHIFT+4 option in the startup menu provides a special launcher for applications with the .CHG suffix (e.g., Multiplan, Paragraphe).
As for all Thomson, double-sided drives are considered as two one-sided drives (either -flop0 and -flop1, or -flop2 and -flop3). So, two-sided floppies must be split into two images and put into two MESS floppy devices.
Drive number 4 corresponds to a virtual RAM disk that must first be setup using the SHIFT+3 option in the startup menu.
The graphical DOS (SHIFT+5, then select a drive) allows you to DIR, format or copy disks, but not to launch programs.
== Keyboard ==
The keyboard layout is exactly the same as the TO9 one.
F1/F6 F2/F7 F3/F8 F4/F9 F5/F10
#@ *1 e2 "3 '4 (5 _6 e7 !8 c9 a0 )° -\ =+ ACC UP 7 8 9
STOP A Z E R T Y U I O P ^" $& ENTER LEFT RIGHT 4 5 6
CTRL [{ Q S D F G H J K L M u% ]} DOWN 1 2 3
CAPS SHIFT W X C V B N ,? ;. :/ >< SHIFT HOME INS DEL 0 . ENT
SPACE
== Mouse ==
A mouse is emulated. However, you cannot use both a mouse and a game-pad as they are connected to the same port. Use MESS's in-game configuration to select between the two. The startup menu automatically detects the presence of a mouse. It then disables the lightpen and uses the mouse as the pointer device instead.
You can revert to the lightpen using SHIFT+3 in the startup menu, and then SHIFT+2 (useful when you revert to game-pad in MESS's in-game configuration, or if a mouse was incorrectly detected when you actually moved a game-pad).
The white cross disappears when a mouse is emulated. Also, you can switch between a game-pad and a mouse dynamically, without
resetting.
== Video ==
As for the TO9, you should switch to high-resolution video emulation in MESS's in-game menu if you intend to use software in 640x200.
Otherwise, the low-resolution video emulation is sufficient and faster.
===== Known Issues =====
* Keyboard: the keyboard emulation is not accurate; in order to prevent the keyboard from hanging the whole computer, undocumented hacks have been introduced; it seems usable for now
* Mouse: movement is jittery
* Video: graphical glitches have been reported on games that use hardware video page switching
* Mouse and paddles: they cannot be used at the same time, but this is not a bug (!)
* Speech synthesis sounds terrible
===== History and Trivia =====
Successor of the TO7/70 as a home-computer.
Note that it is more recent than the TO9.
While the TO9 was a high-end semi-professional computer, the TO8 was meant to replace the TO7/70 as a home computer.
It has a more compact Amiga-like look, no separate keyboard, and less extension slots. Also, it has no integrated floppy drive, and less application software in ROM.
Despite this, it is considered much superior to the TO9.
It improves on the gate-array technology developed for the TO9 (the TO8 version is so mature that it will be reused unchanged on the TO9+ and MO6).
It allows a better and more flexible use of the address space (in particular, video page switching is now available in all video modes).
The TO8 has more RAM: 256 KB expandable up to 512 KB.
The integrated controller is very versatile (again, a custom Thomson gate-array that will be reused) and allows connecting any Thomson floppy drive (5"1/4, 3"1/2 and 2"8).
The BASIC 128 has been replaced with a BASIC 512 that allows accessing the whole memory (but a part can still be devoted to a virtual RAM disk).
The two missing TO9 application software could still be bought on floppies; they have been substantially debugged.
The music extension and second generation game ports (allowing 2-button paddles and a mouse) are included.
The TO8 was very popular and became the de-facto gaming computer in the Thomson family.
===== Links =====
* Thomson driver main page -- http://www.di.ens.fr/~mine/mess
* AMITO8: TO8 and Amiga emulation site -- http://membres.lycos.fr/amito8
See the information for the to7 system for generic Thomson links
===== Other Emulators =====
* DCMOTO: universal Thomson emulator, with many software and documentations -- http://dcmoto.free.fr
* TEO: TO8 emulator -- http://nostalgies.thomsonistes.org/teo_home.html
* EmuTO8: another TO8-only emulator -- http://membres.lycos.fr/jth/emuto8.html
Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009