Manuals are generally boring reading. Apart from the installation instructions (appendix A), there's really no need to read these docs at once if you're a fairly confident 128 user. Rather, I suggest you return to the docs when you're stuck or want a thorough description of a specific feature. THE SERVANT is designed with focus on being user-friendly, so just play around and have fun!
Hardware requirements
Minimum hardware:
- Commodore 128 or 128D
- Any Commodore compatible disk drive.
- 40 or 80 column (or both) monochrome or color monitor.
Hardware supported but not required:
- Additional disk drive(s) (devices 4 through 30 supported except on main menu which supports devices 8-12). Full 1581 support.
- Hard disks will work with some features.
- Quick Brown Box - utilizing THE SERVANT's built-in file manager.
- 1700, 1764 and 1750 memory expansion units. Upgraded REU's of up to 8Mb are supported. RAMDOS is supported where appropriate.
- 64K VDC RAM is automatically detected and utilized.
Special note to owners of the 1764 RAM expansion unit: Despite what your 1764 manual tells you, the device will work perfectly with your 128 and THE SERVANT can utilize it to maximum advantage.
Installation:
Please refer to appendix A. There you will find separate instructions for each type of the 128.
This manual is written on the assumption that you has installed THE SERVANT internally in your computer. THE SERVANT will work without modification however, if mounted into a cartridge or Ram Expansion Unit. This would, bearing in mind that the servant then would use the BANK 13 configuration rather than BANK 12, not cause THE SERVANT to act differently than described in this manual. Please note however, that the Quick Brown Box features will not work if THE SERVANT is mounted externally. This is because the QBB and THE SERVANT chip then will use the same address space, cancelling each other out.
SPECIAL NOTE to 128D users: Whenever I refer to the 1571 drive, the same will always apply to your computer's internal disk drive.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
You'll probably spend your first hours using THE SERVANT in computer RAM. THE SERVANT is somewhat hampered when working in that configuration. There will be less buffer space available for the Disk Copier and File Copier. Furthermore, some programs won't launch properly when using THE SERVANT in RAM. Especially, using RAMDOS will produce severe problems in some cases. Also, you can't load programs of more than 100 blocks in size, as bigger programs will overwrite THE SERVANT and crash it. You may also discover other quirks when using THE SERVANT from computer RAM. However, all these problems will disappear when THE SERVANT is allowed to live on a chip. THE SERVANT working as a RAM-resident program is only for your review, customizing and then for making a copy that can be programmed into an EPROM. THE SERVANT is NOT intended to be run from computer RAM on a regular basis!
