Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!rex!rouge!pc!bkd From: bkd@pc.usl.edu (Dore Brian K) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Subject: Re: 6502 error conditions Message-ID: <15061@rouge.usl.edu> Date: 21 Sep 90 13:32:38 GMT References: <1990Sep19.171649.20159@ingres.Ingres.COM> <5501@harrier.ukc.ac.uk> Sender: anon@rouge.usl.edu Distribution: comp Organization: Univ. of Southwestern La., Lafayette Lines: 43 Originator: bkd@pc.usl.edu dac@ukc.ac.uk (David Clear) writes: >>On the topic of illegal 6502 opcodes, I once heard that there was a >>'Crash and Burn' instruction on the Apple II's 6502 chip (which supposedly >>melts down the chip). Have any of you 8-bit enthusiasts heard of anything >>like this for the 6502 in an Atari computer? I have an expendable Atari 800 >>at my disposal. :-) Dave Clear responds... >I too heard about this. Whether I really believe it or not is another >matter. What I heard is that it was a memory address (maybe for an i/o >device) which, when written to the right way, would send some current to >part of the computer which blew something. Technically, I suppose this >sort of thing is possible, but what a design bug!!! [...] >Dave. There was an APRIL FOOLS JOKE about this in an Atari magazine. It even had a program to type in that did some silly stuff before trashing the Display List and moving the screen memory pointers over some active memory area (Page 0 or something) so that the display went wack. They did get a lot of letters from people who didn't get the joke. There was (is) absolutely NO WAY to harm the computer through software. I am absolutely positive about the Atari, & Apple. I have heard rumors about the Commodore PET possibly having this problem, but I don't believe it for a second. Sure you could rig up someting to trigger a bomb when you run it, but don't waste our time posting silly stuff like that. -- Brian K. Dore' Internet : bkd@pc.usl.edu Programmer /Analyst U.S. Mail : PO Box 42770 Computing Center Lafayette, LA 70504 University of Southwestern LA Telephone : (318) 231-6868