Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!gatech!bloom-beacon!apple!bionet!ig!agate!saturn!ssyx!sirkm
From: sirkm@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Greg Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: 800 memory management
Message-ID: <4594@saturn.ucsc.edu>
Date: 23 Aug 88 20:50:02 GMT
References: <2278@alliant.Alliant.COM>
Sender: usenet@saturn.ucsc.edu
Reply-To: sirkm@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Greg Anderson)
Organization: UC Santa Cruz; Division of Social Sciences
Lines: 15

In article <2278@alliant.Alliant.COM> lackey@alliant.COM (Stan Lackey) writes:
>Is there any way to get temporary access to that RAM while the cartridge
>is plugged in?  I have a 65XE, and am aware of how it is done in XL/XE;
>I am writing an application which uses this feature, and would like very
>much to make it compatible with the older machine.

If a cartridge is plugged into an 8-bit Atari, it is not normally possible
to access the RAM underneath.  The built-in BASIC ROMs can be switched out
with the PORTB register at $D301.  OSS "SuperCartridges" can also be switched
out, although I don't know the method for doing so.  If the cart has no
provisions for being disabled (e.g. the BASIC carts for the 400/800), then
they simply cannot be disabled, and the RAM beneath them is unusable.

Greg Anderson                     ||  The Temple of Zuul BBS:  (408) 462-3832
Social Sciences Computing, UCSC   ||  sirkm@ssyx.ucsc.edu