z-machine on pdp8 (or paging Woodelf)

[David Betz]

> 1)  Can you specify which pages to swap?  For the Z-machine, one would
> want to swap the game data first, then the interpreter (if at all).

I'm afraid I don't remember much about its architecture. I don't  
think there was a way to "lock" pages into memory.

> 2)  Perhaps this emulator could be stripped down to to run one  
> particular
> program: Frotz compiled for pdp11.

Probably.

> 3)  Can the emulator be wrapped up with the only binary it will  
> run?  The
> idea is to have a single Frotz binary for pdp8 to simplify  
> distribution.

The biggest problem is that it only exists as a paper listing at the  
moment. I'm planning on typing it in once I get my SBC6120 working  
(still have some parts on order). In any case, it was written using  
PAL8 so it isn't a library that can be linked with other modules. I  
guess that could be changed too. Are there PDP-8 cross development  
tools available for modern machines?