Difference between revisions of "Project Alpha"
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== Dragon Alpha / Professional == | == Dragon Alpha / Professional == | ||
[[File:DragonAlpha-1.jpg|right|200px]] | [[File:DragonAlpha-1.jpg|right|200px]] | ||
| − | The Dragon Professional or Alpha is an evolution of the Dragon 64. Noticeable differences are the built-in modem, multi-channel AY sound chip and disk interface with two 3.5" drives and the new boot rom with graphical screen for booting to rom based basic ( | + | The Dragon Professional or Alpha is an evolution of the [[Dragon 64]]. Noticeable differences are the built-in modem, multi-channel AY sound chip and disk interface with two 3.5" drives and the new boot rom with graphical screen for booting to rom based basic (i.e. [[Dragon 64]] mode - but strangely without any Dragon Dos support - to get this you need to use a special boot disk which loads the [[Dragon Dos]] rom into ram before starting basic) or straight to [[OS-9]]. A number of examples (5 at last count) are known to exist in either early prototype form where the top of the case was effectively hand made and darker in colour and the pre-production form where the top of the case is only slightly darker than the [[Dragon 64]] and is of production quality. |
[[File:DragonAlphaBoot.jpg|right|200px]] | [[File:DragonAlphaBoot.jpg|right|200px]] | ||
| − | Using its own version of OS-9 (only for the new hardware drivers and a modified disk driver) the Alpha was able to immediately use the existing OS-9 software library. The Dragon Dos boot disk provided compatibility with the Dragon 64 + Dragon Dos interface and thus a large amount of dragon disk software. Booting straight to basic mirrored the original Dragon 64 and most tape software would load and execute without issue. | + | Using its own version of [[OS-9]] (only for the new hardware drivers and a modified disk driver) the Alpha was able to immediately use the existing [[OS-9]] software library. The Dragon Dos boot disk provided compatibility with the [[Dragon 64]] + [[Dragon Dos]] interface and thus a large amount of dragon disk software. Booting straight to basic mirrored the original [[Dragon 64]] and most tape software would load and execute without issue. |
Revision as of 11:38, 16 March 2009
Dragon Alpha / Professional
The Dragon Professional or Alpha is an evolution of the Dragon 64. Noticeable differences are the built-in modem, multi-channel AY sound chip and disk interface with two 3.5" drives and the new boot rom with graphical screen for booting to rom based basic (i.e. Dragon 64 mode - but strangely without any Dragon Dos support - to get this you need to use a special boot disk which loads the Dragon Dos rom into ram before starting basic) or straight to OS-9. A number of examples (5 at last count) are known to exist in either early prototype form where the top of the case was effectively hand made and darker in colour and the pre-production form where the top of the case is only slightly darker than the Dragon 64 and is of production quality.
Using its own version of OS-9 (only for the new hardware drivers and a modified disk driver) the Alpha was able to immediately use the existing OS-9 software library. The Dragon Dos boot disk provided compatibility with the Dragon 64 + Dragon Dos interface and thus a large amount of dragon disk software. Booting straight to basic mirrored the original Dragon 64 and most tape software would load and execute without issue.
