Final Expansion 3 Brain Fart

[Pedro Lambrini]

So, after about a year or so of neglect I decided to play around with my FE3. The problem I have is that I've forgotten everything with regards to usage!

Starting with the basics: When I hit F3 to open the Disk Loader the thing just crashes back to the FE menu. I can't access my SD card directly... If I reset the machine into BASIC I can load files fine so there's no problem with the SD card... HELP!

Also, I see that all the relevant gubbins (firmwares et cetera) are offline due to pesky hackers. I have a really old (I presume!) FW of r019a. Does someone have a link to a newer build please?

Any pointers/memory joggers would be appreciated.

[lordbubsy]

When I hit F3 to open the Disk Loader the thing just crashes back to the FE menu.

You probably have no LOADER file in the root directory.
When you hit F3, the Final Expansion 3 tries to find a file called LOADER. It's a script file telling what to show in the menu and where and how to start programs.

Once a program successfully starts, you can flash it in the FE3's flash memory and access it by hitting F5.

You can find detailed info on it here:
http://content.wuala.com/contents/lordb ... ANUAL-I.7z

If you like, I could make a working SD-Card with loader files / games / utils / tools / file browser / cbm command etc. I'd put the newest firmware 021 on it, so you can update your FE3.

[Pedro Lambrini]

Thanks very much for the link to the guide there. That'll be really handy for any future brain farts!

If you have a Loader file and a bunch of files handy that would be great too. It would make it much easier getting my head around this stuff again... The Mega Cart spoiled me!

[orion70]

You may want to download THIS

[lordbubsy]

Here you go:

http://content.wuala.com/contents/lordb ... sd-vic.zip

I keep all filenames and directories lower case and 16 or less characters long.
In each directory is a LOADER and a LOADER.BAS file.
The LOADER.BAS files are in plain text format so you can edit them on a PC. When you’re done, you can convert them with:

Code: Select all

\VICE\petcat.exe -w2 -l 1001 -o loader -- loader.bas

You even don’t have to use line numbers because petcat will add them automatically.

The compilation includes a selection of tools, utils and the dabone cart collection.
At this opportunity I’d like to thank all the authors of those great programs and efforts!

@orion70
Thanks!

[Pedro Lambrini]

Thank you very much guys. That's been most helpful.

[dabone]

Hey lordbubsy,
Many many thanks.
I couldn't find my original copy of these that I posted!


Later,
dabone

[lordbubsy]

I couldn't find my original copy of these that I posted!

Actually it's my pleasure I use the collection very often to try new (to me) games.
I remember I altered something in the directory structure to fit my needs.
So I've uploaded the archive I downloaded back in 2011, that should be the original one.
http://content.wuala.com/contents/lordb ... ection.zip


Regards,
Marco

[Vic20-Ian]

Firmware R021 for Final Expansion 3, this is the last one I am aware of.

[Vic20-Ian]

Version 20 - possibly last stable version?

[Questarian]

So, after about a year or so of neglect I decided to play around with my FE3....

In the same boat here... had to put everything down, just getting back to it.... Did they ever get the FE3 home page up again?

-John-

[Vic20-Ian]

I have been busy and lost track but cleaning up an old laptop I used I found the latest firmware zips and posted above.

I will get in touch with Tommy and see what his plans are for the homepage.

I may have some of the reference files so maybe we can / should archive those here.