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That commit added configurable ram size with a default of 128K while it was hard coded to 896K before. Try -ramsize 896K on the command line.

That's the ticket. I hadn't noticed it was 128k before with only 21k free. 256k seems to be the smallest that Venix can boot to the login prompt with. Now, time to try at least mame0226, if not the tip of master.

Sorry Robert but I cant' work out from the above whether you are missing the "CP/M-86-80 image" for A or B :-)

Hi exidyboy,
it's been a while since I last checked the Rainbow driver.
I have disk images for CP/M-86/80 2.0(1.1) and 2.1(1.1), this is how they identify themselves on the boot screen.
Both the emulated A and B models can boot from either disk image. There's another disk image that is called cpmv11.td0, which boots on neither model, and I can't even display its directory if I boot from another floppy image - maybe it's an image of a defective disk.
I have only ever come across B models, so I can't really say how the A should react and what it should display. The emulated "A" seems to have a different display/terminal emulation attached, as the screen is not cleared when CP/M starts to boot, and you can see a screen formatting code instead.

I've owned a Rainbow 100B since 1984. I couldn't even buy 1.1 at the time, and didn't see it until I returned to using the Rainbow after years away...


The "A" and "B" have the same VT100 embedded in them as far as I can tell from the schematics that I've studied (though I can't seem to find the "A" schematics I thought was on bitkeepers so I can't confirm). The differences are the ability to move interrupts, a few extra features in the BIOS (ring the bell, get the version, etc) and better pinouts to the memory expansion card to get an extra 128k of expansion...

I tried a couple different teledisk reading programs: both decoded the cpm21.td0 but failed on the CPMV11.TDO that I could find online.

I bought a collect of Rainbow disks years ago. I'll see if i have a copy of this in that collection...

I have one disk that has a label:
That boots like this on the 100B

and like this

on the 100A (the weird escape sequences after A> are from my taking the screen shot)
would that be useful to upload?

Confirmed that my copy works the same on the 100A as the 100B and the picture matches what I posted for the 100B. Looks like escape sequences are getting lost in the 100A one in MAME for some reason. I have screen shots of the physical rainbows, but I didn't include them because they didn't add any info and I thought it might be seen as bragging (plus my machine room is a mess).

Also, my 100A identifies itself as having version 01.01.11A firmware rather than the 04.03.11A firmware that's in the archive. I've not snagged the ROMs to see what the difference might be.


I've uploaded the CP/M 1.0 disk image in physical sector order. The label says:

CP/M-86/80 V1.0 BIN RX50
Serial No. PC100-528-38978
Part # BL-N648A-BV

I've never got the hang of converting the images I have to TD0 or ImageDisk format. . Since only the Lotus 123 disks have the copy protection stuff on it, it hasn't been much of an issue...

Hi bsdimp,
looks great, thanks! For most of my stuff I use either Teledisk or Imagedisk, if necessary I have converted those images back to pure sector images.

If you can, please dump the ROMs of your Rainbow 100 A ... looks like you have quite an early set from the boot message you posted.

The person I've been put in touch with has 100A's and 100B's - are there 'on device' options that he could use to create disk images without needing any other gear?

Otherwise I could mail him some blank disks and image the copies...

Yea, for me it's mostly a container format I've not needed. I'll convert the raw images to imagedisk and upload them.

Dumped to a MS-DOS floppy. Will upload once I can transfer it with the 100B I have setup for that stuff... I'll post when I have both these things done.

And I'll go through the metadata that I have for the drives. Some stuff that is just a little too early to be interesting for my present quest to find Univation Drivers for their Hard Disks, but there may be some other interesting bits mixed in that I've not noticed til now...

Warner