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Data General Nova and Eclipse Software Hobbyist License

P

pbirkel@gmail.com

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Messages
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Location
Silver Spring, MD, USA
Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc., is pleased to announce that a "Hobbyist License" is now available for legacy Data General Nova and Eclipse software. This license allows educational, hobbyist, non-commercial use of the vast amount of DG software - software that changed the world in many ways. Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc., now has full IP rights and title to Data General software pursuant to a transfer agreement by DG/EMC[/Dell] and Wild Hare.

The initial archives are currently available at:

www.NovasAreForever.org/dgsw

and includes documentation for the corresponding software.

This October announcement also honors the 54th anniversary of the original Data General Nova. An international celebration of the Nova's 50th anniversary was hosted by Wild Computer Systems in Colorado, USA. Some of the festivities can be seen at:

www.Nova-At-50.org

and

www.Nova-At-50.org/album/index.html

To complement this Hobbyist License, a Nova and Eclipse emulator that can run all of the software will be introduced later this week.

Wild Hare Computer Systems is dedicated to preserving Data General's
significant contributions to computer history. We seek DG hardware, software, documentation,
sales literature - basically "anything DG" - that can be added to the archives for posterity.

Bruce Ray
Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc.
Denver, Colorado USA
bkr@WildHareComputers.com

...preserving the Data General legacy: www.NovasAreForever.org

www.WildHareComputers.com
www.NovasAreForever.org
 
Ok, so this is the problem. I now have a copy of Basic for the Nova, the new issue is that I have it in the form of a 47K .9TRK file, I can open the file and read it in Hex Edit, can read it in Octal and that would be a direct entry method if I wanted to do a couple thousand key strokes. The next question is how do I get this into my system? On my system I have a paper tape reader, a serial port and of course the switches and lights on the front panel. So how can I get a 9TRK file to a serial port to feed a paper tape punch? I have a good paper tape reader and punch that’s feed by serial data, also have lots of systems from DOS only to windows base system but how do I get one of them to read that file and push it out the serial port for the tape punch?

I know back in the old days of plain text files you can do a DOS command like type XXX.bat to com1 but don’t know what will happen if I tell the system to type the contents of a XXX.9trk file to com 1?

I do want to do a paper tape of this file.

Going to stick this in a couple places being its both a PC/DOS and Nova question and I would accept an answer from anyone at this point.
 
I took a quick look at one of the .9trk files and it appears to be a SIMH virtual magnetic tape image file, suitable for use with the SIMH Nova simulator.
 
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Glad to see Bruce's post. I'm curious what will be added next, as this batch of files is only the beginning (since it says Update 01).

I don't know about y'all, but I'm excited to see FORTRAN V in particular. I guess I had better get my 1200 fixed up so I can have something to run it on eventually.
 
pbirkel@gmail.com said:
Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc., is pleased to announce that a "Hobbyist License" is now available for legacy Data General Nova and Eclipse software. This license allows educational, hobbyist, non-commercial use of the vast amount of DG software - software that changed the world in many ways. Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc., now has full IP rights and title to Data General software pursuant to a transfer agreement by DG/EMC[/Dell] and Wild Hare.

The initial archives are currently available at:

www.NovasAreForever.org/dgsw

and includes documentation for the corresponding software.

This October announcement also honors the 54th anniversary of the original Data General Nova. An international celebration of the Nova's 50th anniversary was hosted by Wild Computer Systems in Colorado, USA. Some of the festivities can be seen at:

www.Nova-At-50.org

and

www.Nova-At-50.org/album/index.html

To complement this Hobbyist License, a Nova and Eclipse emulator that can run all of the software will be introduced later this week.

Wild Hare Computer Systems is dedicated to preserving Data General's
significant contributions to computer history. We seek DG hardware, software, documentation,
sales literature - basically "anything DG" - that can be added to the archives for posterity.

Bruce Ray
Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc.
Denver, Colorado USA
bkr@WildHareComputers.com

...preserving the Data General legacy: www.NovasAreForever.org

www.WildHareComputers.com
www.NovasAreForever.org
Click to expand...
I also wish to send my sincere thank you and high gratitude to Bruce Ray and EVERYONE here (I know there are MANY) who worked hard over the last 10 years or so to bring this treasure to us...thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!!
 
Data General public archive Update 2 has been uploaded to the web site, and includes the following additions:

Software added:

- MRDOS and TRDO
- AOS IDEA
- AOS INFOS II
- RTOS Datagen
- RTOS
- AOS CEO
- AOS RPG II
- diagnostic software, paper tape

Documentation/manuals added for:

- computer reference manuals
- RTOS Datagen
- RTOS
- DOS
- SOS
- DOS [Diskette]
- DG/RDOS
- MP/OS
- MP/AOS
- AOS IDEA
- AOS INFOS II
- AOS CEO
- AOS RPG II
 
Thank you for making these files available! Hopefully having the software and documentation available will promote more DG hobbyist projects.
 
Sharing from Bruce:

Wild Hare Computer Systems is pleased to announce the public beta release of its Data General Nova and Eclipse emulator.

This emulator allows the full range of DG 16-bit Nova and Eclipse computer software to run on Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms, and will become a major part of Wild Hare's increased efforts to preserve Data General's significant contributions to computer history.

The emulator combines portions of Wild Hare's commercial products with the SimH project structure to create a single emulator for the 16-bit Nova and Eclipse computers. The program supports a wide range of features, including:

Processors:

unmapped Nova, SuperNova, Nova 1200, Nova 800, Nova 2, Nova 3, Nova 4
mapped Nova 840
mapped Nova 3/D
mapped Nova 4/X
Eclipse S/130
Eclipse S/140
Eclipse S/150
Eclipse S/120
Eclipse Desktop Generation Model 20 and Model 30

Peripherals:

TTI/TTO primary console (TeleType) input/output
RTC real-time clock
TTI1/TTO1 secondary console (TeleType) input/output
PTR paper tape reader
PTP paper tape punch
PLT plotter
LPT line printer
MTA mag tape unit
DSK fixed-head disks
DKP moving head disks
DEP Desktop Generation disks
DZP popular "Zebra" moving head disks
QTY 4060 "Quad" asynchronous multiplexers
ALM 4255 Asynchronous Line Multiplexers

Software:

Operating Systems

DOS Novas (first DOS written for Nova)
URDOS RDOS for Novas and Eclipses (in unmapped mode)
MRDOS RDOS for Mapped Nova 840
NRDOS RDOS for Mapped Nova 3/D and Nova 4/X
ZRDOS RDOS for Mapped Eclipses
MP/OS Nova 4
DG/RDOS Eclipses
AOS Eclipses
MP/AOS Eclipses

Languages

ASM (Assembler)
MAC (Macro Assembler)
ALGOL
DG/L
FORTRAN 4
FORTRAN 5
FORTRAN 77
Extended BASIC
Business BASIC
MP Pascal
SP Pascal
COBOL
Interactive COBOL (ICOBOL)
PL/1
RPG II
IDEA
INFOS II
CEO

Prior Data General knowledge is beneficial to using the emulator and corresponding DG software. For convenience, Wild Hare has created container files of pre-configured operating system environments and their corresponding languages to minimize the time needed to enjoy the full DG "experience".

This "beta-level" software release is intended to gather user feedback to help guide future product development. Bug reports, comments, suggestions, ridicule and giggles can be sent to beta@WildHareComputers.com.

Further information is contained in the emulator beta release web page:

www.NovasAreForever.org/dgbeta

Bruce Ray
Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc.
Denver, Colorado USA
bkr@WildHareComputers.com
 
Hi There,

I really appreciate your work in this area.

Couple questions:
Is the nova.exe binary source code available somewhere? I understand it's based on the open source OpenSIMH but not sure what else you have coupled together with it to make this.

I have attempted to run nova.exe to load DG RDOS and have made it pretty far but when running the "UP" command macro after the "R" prompt is visible I get the following errors(?)

Illegal command for device: $TTO1
Illegal command for device: $LPT
DZ0
DZ0 Max: 97792 Used: 16260 Left: 81532 Max contig: 81462

I have a 5.25 floppy with a scientific/industrial program on it written for a Data General Desktop Generation computer running RDOS that I am going to attempt to extract from the physical floppy disk and if it could be run on a modern PC that would be amazing. I am a programmer so I would be happy to contribute in any way I can - that's why I originally asked about the source code.

Thanks very much for your assistance.
 
brcolow said:
Hi There,

I really appreciate your work in this area.

Couple questions:
Is the nova.exe binary source code available somewhere? I understand it's based on the open source OpenSIMH but not sure what else you have coupled together with it to make this.

I have attempted to run nova.exe to load DG RDOS and have made it pretty far but when running the "UP" command macro after the "R" prompt is visible I get the following errors(?)

Illegal command for device: $TTO1
Illegal command for device: $LPT
DZ0
DZ0 Max: 97792 Used: 16260 Left: 81532 Max contig: 81462

I have a 5.25 floppy with a scientific/industrial program on it written for a Data General Desktop Generation computer running RDOS that I am going to attempt to extract from the physical floppy disk and if it could be run on a modern PC that would be amazing. I am a programmer so I would be happy to contribute in any way I can - that's why I originally asked about the source code.

Thanks very much for your assistance.
Click to expand...
I don't know; wish that I did. You'll need to contact Wild Hare Computers directly (see my first post) as Bruce Ray doesn't come here :-<. Please share your findings!
 
brcolow said:
Hi There,

I really appreciate your work in this area.

Couple questions:
Is the nova.exe binary source code available somewhere? I understand it's based on the open source OpenSIMH but not sure what else you have coupled together with it to make this.

I have attempted to run nova.exe to load DG RDOS and have made it pretty far but when running the "UP" command macro after the "R" prompt is visible I get the following errors(?)

Illegal command for device: $TTO1
Illegal command for device: $LPT
DZ0
DZ0 Max: 97792 Used: 16260 Left: 81532 Max contig: 81462

I have a 5.25 floppy with a scientific/industrial program on it written for a Data General Desktop Generation computer running RDOS that I am going to attempt to extract from the physical floppy disk and if it could be run on a modern PC that would be amazing. I am a programmer so I would be happy to contribute in any way I can - that's why I originally asked about the source code.

Thanks very much for your assistance.
Click to expand...
are you on Discord? We run a Discord server with a dedicated channel for Nova users. PM/DM me if you are, and I'll send you an invite there. Thanks!
 
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