If you cannot make a set of system disk images, you can find a set from Dave Dunfield's Disk/Software Image Archive.
If you cannot dump your own ROMs, you can find a set here. (If you can dump your own ROMs, can you please send me [visual1050 AT metabarn DOT com] a copy so that we can be sure the MESS project has all available 1050 ROM versions? A dump of the ROM for the keyboard controller would be especially helpful).
If you use the system disks from Dave Dunfield, you will find that they are in ImageDisk format. In order to use these images with MESS, you will need to convert them back into 'raw' format using the ImageDisk imdu utility, e.g.:
imdu /b v1050a.imd v1050a.dsk
ImageDisk and its associated utilities are available from Dave's site as well.
If you are using Linux, you can use DOSBox to run the imdu utility instead of needing to gain access to a DOS or Windows system as imdu.com will run just fine under DOS emulation (the same cannot be said for actually attempting to read/write images to/from the floppy).
Once you have disk images, you can use cpmtools to import and export files between your emulated Visual 1050 and your host system. If the distribution on cpmtools does not have the disk definition for the 1050 already included, you can use the following:
diskdef v1050 seclen 512 tracks 80 sectrk 10 blocksize 2048 maxdir 128 skew 0 boottrk 2 os 3 end
Now you can browse disk images
cpmls -f v1050 V1050A.DSK
Copy files from a disk image to your host system
cpmcp -f v1050 V1050A.DSK 0:PROG.ASM PROG.ASM
or copy files from your host system to a disk image
cpmcp -f v1050 V1050A.DSK PROG.ASM 0:PROG.ASM
You can also do some other useful things with cpmutils, so check it out.
Fire up MESS and away you go:
mess v1050 -window -flop1 V1050A.DSK -flop2 V1050B.DSK
If you can help in any of these areas, feel free to contact me [visual1050 AT metabarn DOT com] or download MESS directly and help improve the code.
The following are some screenshots of the emulated 1050 running in MESS. Most of the shots are from the 1050 demonstration program that was included on the CBASIC disk. This looks like it was probably originally a sales tool but it shows some of the system capabilities pretty well.
Clicking on an image should bring up a larger view.
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| Initial CP/M boot | ROM diagnostics main menu | ROM diags visual attributes test |
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| Galpat memory diags | Disk format | Demo load |
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| Demo hardware | Demo system unit | Demo system unit back |
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| Demo display | Demo keyboard | Demo software |
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| Demo WordStar | Demo Utility Manager | Demo DR Graph |
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| Demo Data Transfers | Zork I |