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  2. Cooool!! Post crt images of them to share the RC love. I really need to sort my svideo cable out, so my crt's can be up and running.
  3. The only "real" 80's computer I have left is a ZX Spectrum. Sadly, everything else was sold each time to trade up to my next computer, as I couldn't afford to keep everything as a kid. My strategy now is to buy full size modern replicas (i.e. hardware with emulation) where possible of the devices I have a nostalgic connection to, so I have a 2600+ and a C64 Maxi so far. Everything else is covered with the new mini versions where available, e.g. the Amiga 500 and the Atari 400. I'll probably buy any future mini versions that Retro Games/Plaion release. I'm hoping for at least an Amstrad and an Atari ST in future. I'm also likely to buy a Spectrum clone such as the N-Go at some point unless Retro Games release something Sinclair related. I've tried software emulation on a computer and on a Raspberry Pi, but it just doesn't hit the spot for me! It's a fun hobby.
  4. Now I've read about how SAMS work, so I know what I'm talking about. There are a couple of options, some unique to what you can do with the p-system. One way is to do like I did with my own RAM-disk. Since it uses RAM everywhere, across the whole address space 0000-FFFFH, I stored the DSR in RAM on my IO-card. What kind of card it is doesn't matter (it's my own design - only one exists). The important thing is that it has the DSR in RAM. Since part of my RAM-disk is in the DSR space, I have to turn off the DSR and run the code to reach that elsewhere. I solved that by saving a part of some other memory in the RAM for the DSR, copy code from the DSR out to the saved area, jump there, turn off the DSR from the outside and map in the RAM-disk memory over the DSR space, access the desired sector, turn the DSR back on again, jump back into it, restore the saved memory and return. A lot of maneuvers but much faster than a standard floppy. These tricks are needed only for that particular memory segment, so they aren't used for all other memory. With the p-system there is also another way. Normally all DSR programs must be in the 4000-5FFFH range. But the p-system does a prescan of needed DSRs at boot time and stores a table with information about the CRU and entry address. Thus it's possible to add the RAM-disk DSR after boot (you need to do that anyway, since it will only search for one disk controller at start) by storing the CRU address of the SAMS (typically 1E00H, I've noticed) and then a fake entry address to the DSR elsewhere than in DSR space. If you have a cartridge with RAM you can store it there. Even the original Mini Memory would do, but there are other options too today. Then you manage the SAMS from that program in Mini Memory and just return to where called from when you are ready. During the access, you can control the map registers as you like and have for example 2000-3FFFH as your window into the SAMS world. You don't even have to save anything, since that will be in the default SAMS page for that part of the memory. What you implement is a sector read/write program, which acts the same as it would do if it was in a disk controller. You'll just store or read the sector you're asked to do, and that's it. A third version of this is that you use the high end of 2000-3FFFH, which seems unused by the p-system. That's easier to verify today, when we can check with an emulator if it's touched. But then you can of course not use the 2000-3FFFH as a window into the SAMS repository, since then you'll switch out yourself. Software suicide. You have to use a window somewhere in the A000-FFFFH range instead. For the p-system the whole thing is simplified significantly by the fact that you need to implement sector read/write and nothing more. That's the only thing the p-system uses. I've done that a couple of times now, both for my own RAM-disk and for a Horizon card, where certain versions of the DSR aren't compatible with the p-system.
  5. The final version already!?! Looking forward to watching it on YouTube later as I'm not on Twitch.
  6. I see a UART port on the PCB and some other interesting pins (UBOOT, RECOVER) Whose gunna dump the NAND?
  7. @Yautja, Thanks a lot for your proposal! I've sent you PM with English texts.
  8. Thanks for the info. So definitely many modern homebrews won’t run on the CC3.
  9. Xenocrisis. It would've been cool if they used more features of the N64 but its still a good game.
  10. Sure scale it back enough and it's Soulstar or the bonus levels in T2k. I don't really think it would look or feel like the same game at that point though.
  11. I will make a direct sound capture tomorrow and post it here, so you can judge it yourself 😀
  12. So it left the site and then 11hrs later it left again. Yep, it's gonna be another week for me lol
  13. PC version manual is here, I'm not sure if the dip switches would be any different for Atari https://archive.org/details/amdisk-iii-3-inch-disk-drive-users-manual/page/14/mode/2up Or here: https://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue46/040_1_REVIEWS_AMDC_3-Inch_Disk_Drives_For_Atari.php " Switches 1 through 4 are density selection switches that allow you to configure the drives for either single or double density on boot-up. The density of the boot drive is determined by the disk installed at boot-up. These switches have no effect if the controller is set for DOS 3.0. Switches 5 and 6 determine which drive will be the boot drive. The factory setting is for drive 1, but any drive up to and including 4 may be selected for this function. Switch 7 is used when more than three drives are connected to the controller, and is particularly useful when there is a 5¼-inch drive attached. When this switch is on, the external drive will be recognized as drive 1. When it is off, the 3-inch drives are 1 and 2, and the external drive is drive 3. Switch 8 sets drives that have been selected as dual density to 256 bytes per sector when off. When switch 8 is on, it sets all drives to be Atari 1050 compatible for use with DOS 3.0. When switch 1 is on, disks with 256 bytes per sector will not be recognized."
  14. This is a valid point. There is a reconfigurable transistor coming to the market that no longer uses doped regions and can switch between PNP and NPN on the fly. This will dramatically lower the cost of FPGAs, increase the circuit density, and add on the fly reconfiguration. In general though, this thread is just a mountain out of a molehill. Most gamers don't care if it's FPGA, they just care about playing their game and having it work correctly. The issue is that those who are pro FPGA are very vocal about it.
  15. Aha....I didn't realize the connector was 10v/5v/Ground. Get one of these, the connector is right: https://www.ebay.com/itm/304565876045 Use it to hack up your own PSU that will not cost $50 Someone actually opened one and just swapped the 5v and ground around, but I am not sure if providing 12v to the 10v would harm anything...it would definitely generate more heat. But, here is the pinout comparison:
  16. Been playing mine all day, I've not noticed any problems.
  17. FPGA is emulation. It's hardware emulation (emulation of the lower-level signals and states of hardware), as opposed to software emulation (reproducing the higher-level behavior of the hardware). Thing is, FPGAs aren't necessarily representing every single hardware state or transition. There are almost certainly some optimizations, generalizations and compromises. FPGAs are typically not perfect replacements for retro hardware. They are not even necessarily more accurate than pure hardware emulation, either. Pure software emulation has gotten very good. I think for most people, the fact that it's gotten hard to tell the difference anymore is enough. Also, the line between software and hardware emulation is blurry. Microcontrollers are getting faster, and they are also more and more able to also do hardware emulation, particularly of older systems, meaning they are becoming more and more capable of working with hardware signals in real time just like real hardware and they do it for a much lower price than FPGAs. Hardware emulation from microcontrollers is important distinction from pure software emulation that the FPGA crowd doesn't seem to appreciate, or in some cases, even want to acknowledge, but it is happening and has been for some time, and it will only get better. As the lines blur more and more, I think FPGAs will become less important in retrogaming as they have always been more costly than micros, and I doubt that will ever change.
  18. Nice run! Although, you play VERY risky so I bet you could go even higher if you didn't make the risky moves. If you watch my video I explain the risky stuff, a big one is not crossing over under UFO's up close without cover of the asteroids. That said, if you keep getting the lit UFO's in order, and get lucky, you will have a high score as well. At 1:23 it looks like you bumped into the left side of the bunker area, since no UFO's were near you. Something I noticed about this game watching your video... a lot of the lag in this game could be reduced by not showing the previous high score, which is always visible at the top... even after you pass it on the bottom live score. Everyone is doing great! I need to put some more games in and try to get that 100k+ score.
  19. I’m holding off for now. I have a Recallbox setup that can emulate Atari 8-bit already. I did order one of the CX stick controllers though to use with my existing setup. 🕹️
  20. I have one working as D1 and D2, but I cant seem to sort out what the 8 dipswitches do, fully. It seems 5 changes the amdek to D2, but thats about all I can tell. Does anyone have a scan of the orig manual, or a list of what does what?!? Thanks! Rob
  21. Nice troubleshooting! How are the capacitors wired? Are they from the leg of the crystal to ground? Also, to confirm, that is 0.22pF ? Best Regards, Brian
  22. Could you send me an example? I'm sure this is fixable ...
  23. There is a balance between a price which will put most of a product in the hands of real people, and prices which will put most of the product in hands of collectors. Putting it in the hands of real people generally means there will be little to no profit, if not a loss. Putting it in the hands of collectors means money, but little to no actual use of the game. I scarcely imagine homebrew devs want their creations to languish.
  24. Ok! I have a new update on the crystal saga. I think I have found a solution. Before I begin, I want to thank @_The Doctor__ the information on adjusting the crystals. This led me down a rabbit hole of research on the subject and that some crystals may not have the tight tolerances may need adjustment. And @Chrisa850 for pointing out that there may be tight tolerances need when outputting the composite signal since they share the same channel. I put my oscilloscope on the crystal that was not working in composite mode and saw that it was working from 3.584Mhz (sometimes dipping down to 3.571 From my research (and I want to point out, that I am novice to this topic) that if add capacitance in parallel to the crystal, it lowers the frequency. So for a test, I added on each leg of the crystal a .22pf ceramic capacitor to see what would happened. When I did this, I got color on composite! So I connected my computer to SVideo and there was a color too! When I put my scope, it now starts at 3.57 MHz ocasionally going into 3.584 Mhz. My lack of knowledge leaves me unsure if this is an optimal solution. I am waiting on crystals from Console 5 to if they work right off the bat. @reifsnyderb & @Jfcatari: Can you do please do some experiments with the non Atari crystals in the same way to see if this works for you?
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