+JAC! Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 (edited) Reading the Maxflash menu turned out to be more complex that expected. (Hmm, was there ever something with less effort than expected...have to think about that). I decided that I'm going to support only the most recent version of the Maxflash menu software for now since I found there are even more versions of the menu than versions of the programming ATR. Here's an example using the original Demostration Workbook which is added as single ".car" file in The!Cart Studio and shows up as single entries at runtime now. In the status bar there is now one more number which is the relative number of the entries in the Maxflash menu (0..127). I'll provide this as soon as I've managed to actually start the individual entries directly. This is just to give you an idea what will happen if you select "Multiple Entries" and how it helps to leverage the cool features from Maxflash. Edited February 2, 2014 by JAC! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Any updates to test? I am just curious… no pressure please! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I had forgottem my SIO Cable last week, so I couldn't test on real HW and I needed extensions from hias. Both are available today for the Atari evening session - keep your fingers crossed :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 (edited) Testing looks OK, but I found that Maxflash Studio seems to corrupt its own export once you add 70 or more entries. Can somebody maybe test & confirm this? With the 70th entry added, entry 126 gets corrupted. With 126 entries added, everything beyond entry 87 is garbage. This currently breaks my menu export... Sample workbook. Maybe somebody has and old version of the Maxflash Studio to test if this is a regression. AtariMax.mcw.zip Edited February 13, 2014 by JAC! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 (edited) So I decided to add a check and release the curent version to the public. Download as usual on the web site. The!Cart Studio Version 2013-02-13 released Search speed improved from 25s to 9s for a full search in 16.000 entries with short names. When the search is finished, the elapsed time in frames is displayed. Scroll speed and acceleration adapted. Cursor keys now control the scrolling also without pressing pressed "CONTROL". This also means these characters are no longer available for typing in, which should not be a problem. Clearing of result lines when restricting the result now works properly. For Atarimax 128K/1 MB modules created with the recent Atarimax Maxflash Studio, the display type "Multiple Entries" is now supported. The entries of the Atarimax menu will also appear in the extended menu search. Selecting such an entry starts the Atarimax menu it comes from. Direct start support will be added later. Due to a potential bug in the Maxflash Studio, only the first 70 entries of the Atarimax menu are accepted to be on the safe side. New flash target types "The!Cart 32 MB" and "The!Cart 64 MB" added in the workbook options, because these sizes are requested and actually shipped now. New cartridge types "65 - The!Cart 32 MB" and "66 - The!Cart 64 MB" added as they are because these sizes are requested and actually shipped now and also supported by Atari800. Definition of initial banks fixed. Now all cartridge types use initial bank 0 (again) except for CARTRIDGE_OSS_034M_16 (bank 1), CARTRIDGE_ATMAX_1024 (bank 127) and CARTRIDGE_MEGA_4096 (bank 254). New Atari software version 2014-02-09 included. This fixes the problem that SDX64, Express and Diamond cartridges were not started correctly due to a wrong initial bank register (was 7, must be 0). It also adds a new option to the flasher when starting the cartridge. You can now choose to enter the default (extended menu) or if you want to explicitly enter the simple (expert) menu directly. When entering the simple menu this way, the auto-start feature is disabled, so you don't start with the wrong bank after flashing new content. Command line option to generate sample cartridge files now generates correct files also for "Megacart 2MB" and all Atari 5200 cartridge types. Edited February 13, 2014 by JAC! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Can you also search within MegaCart 2MB compilations? I like the compatibility of the MEGACART loader more than the compatibility of the AtariMAx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Based on what I've already implemented, that should be fairly easy to add with next update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 So which should I do the flasher asks INCREMENT UPDATE Y/N I seem to always get this mixed up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 So which should I do the flasher asks INCREMENT UPDATE Y/N I seem to always get this mixed up... This means that only newer/other content is flashed, so usually you chose yes. Yesterday I picked a N for one time, and that took longer in time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 (edited) Incremental flash can be used in all regular cases. The non-incremental/full flash feature is only there for the case that everything went "terribly wrong". Maybe hias can add/highlight the defaults for the questions in the Flasher. Something like "Inverse Y", so you can simply go by pressing return 3 times (D1:, yes, yes). I think people hardly "incidentially" flash their cart :-). Edited February 14, 2014 by JAC! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 I think people hardly "incidentially" flash their cart :-). You'll be surprised! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grevle Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 (edited) How to flash the cart with this new update ? Reflash all roms with the new Cart studio ? or can this new features be added to the cart witouth reflash all the roms thats already on the cart ? Edited February 14, 2014 by Grevle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 (edited) Just export your existing workbook again from the new The!CartStudio, enter the expert/simple menu on the Atari via "ESC", select Flasher and flash as usual. In incremental mode, only the delta will be flashed (new menu code, new entries' texts, ROMs themselves remain unchanged). Edited February 14, 2014 by JAC! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Wondering: do other people have this issue too since the latest update? I have reflashed my card, since the incremental update resulted in some garbage in the statusbar on the bottom of the screen. It works better now, although sometimes my atari only starts with a black screen. Only switching off, and back on cures this. Am I the only one or is this a bug? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 For the rest it is working really cool! One comment: I find the fast scroll speed when you hold the joystick in down position not so convenient. I think a normal scroll speed within the page you are is better, and a fast page movement with left/right will do the trick (just like the megacart menu). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 >It works better now, although sometimes my atari only starts with a black screen. Only switching off, and back on cures this. I found the same when I was working with it yesterday and I can reproduce the issue by pressing the reset button on the cart and then RESET on the Atari while the menu is displayed. I could not yet track it down. Strangely the menu actually works, you just don't see it somehow. When I simply enter & leave the freezer, appears (thought the freezer does not change anything in the Atari by nature). So I'm behind that. As for the control scheme, I'll first implement the tabs/pages for the genres and see how it feels. Currently left/right is planned for that, let's see. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 >It works better now, although sometimes my atari only starts with a black screen. Only switching off, and back on cures this. I found the same when I was working with it yesterday and I can reproduce the issue by pressing the reset button on the cart and then RESET on the Atari while the menu is displayed. I could not yet track it down. Strangely the menu actually works, you just don't see it somehow. When I simply enter & leave the freezer, appears (thought the freezer does not change anything in the Atari by nature). So I'm behind that. As for the control scheme, I'll first implement the tabs/pages for the genres and see how it feels. Currently left/right is planned for that, let's see. Thanks sounds great! It's getting better and better. Very happy with it. Found two other strange things: 1) After some games the reset button of the cart appears not to work the first or the second time. I sometimes have to do reset + resetcart three or four times before it actually resets. 2) Asteroids (attachment) does not start after the menu-selection. It starts after pressing reset though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 (edited) The!Cart Studio Version 2014-02-16 released (thanks FJC :-) Display type "Multiple Entries" is now also supported for the content types "MegaCart 512 K" and "MegaCart 2 MB" and for two older versions of the Atarimax Maxflash Studio menu. So you can see and search the entries from the contained menu directly in the extended menu. Entries are now automatically sorted by title when you save a workbook, so the are sorted by default when you open the workbook the next time. Clicking on the column header of course changes the display sorting just like before. The recurring lockup with a black screen that was introduced in the last version should be solved now. After 28 years of Atari programming I found out that display list interrupts are triggered, even if the display list DMA and the screen is switched off. This again caused the VBI to not update the shadow registers to switch the DMA on because it assumed that is the VBI interrupts an interrupt, then this is probably the serial I/O. But this time it wasn't. Fortunately I have my Turbofreezer and so I could find what is different on the real machine - because the issue never occurs in the emulator. Phew. As for Asteroids, I'll have a separate look. Edited February 16, 2014 by JAC! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 It's 2014. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Now I suddenly get an error when I try to open the project I saved with the previous version. I got this error: Can not create parser for file.... <path> Error in Line 67, column 153. I tried to recover from older versions of my workbook (I have a restore function in my dropbox) , but it keeps failing. Also with the older versions ... What can be the cause of that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 (edited) And again. I put all my files in a NEW workbook. I rename some of the titles (to make more sense) and then I save the project. I reload it, and ERROR. Can this be caused by unallowed characters in the filenames of the roms? AH FOUND IT! That is strange... I have the file Qbert.rom in my list. the file is called Qbert.rom. No problem! The title is Q*Bert ... still no problem! But... for some unknown reason in the .tcd file the file is called Qbert.rom This might have something to do with the library of known games? Or perhaps that the original imported file was named different, and that the program renames the file itself, but it does not update the tcd file. Anyway... when I edited the .TCD file it works again. Edited February 16, 2014 by ProWizard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Now with the advent of the!cart studio being able to show contents of the AtariMax carts I will have to modify some of my entrees to get rid a all the duplicates and figure out which ones are roms and which are xex's .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 @JAC Ok the listing of multiple entries works great. Only downside is (for me) that you see the entries, but when you select them you have to select them again in the ROM that title is part of. I decided to switch it off, so I see only 'single entries' on my main screen... now it would be cool if the Search function would still search in the multiple entries. Is that possible? I guess it is impossible to select a game that is part of an atarimax or megacart collection, and to start that game at once... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mega-hz Posted February 16, 2014 Author Share Posted February 16, 2014 Hi, the executing of roms inside of atarimax compilations is already planned and Peter works on it! Many thanx again for that great program, jac! wolfram 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 >I guess it is impossible to select a game that is part of an atarimax or megacart collection, and to start that game at once... In fact that's what I had planned from the very start of the project (and what is also already implemented, but not yet finished). I always wanted to keep my efforts for the some tricky things (ATR emulation, EXE loaders) low and re-use what's already there and proven. For the direct start, I have to completely analyse and understand the code the inidividual menu works. It turned out that the diffculty is the sheer number of menu/software versions. I've completed the analysis for the most recent Maxflash Software so far. So, not impossible, but "only" lots of effort (as always in software business) :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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