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Altirra 2.20 released


phaeron

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Finally got around to releasing version 2.20 of my emulator, Altirra. Link to download and full changelist:

 

http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html

 

Some highlights:

  • Hardware support: MyIDE II and Ultimate1MB emulation added; fixes for SIDE, SIC!, and flash memory emulation.
  • Debugger: Many changes and improvements, including better support for accessing extended/hidden memory and additional aids for debugging PBI, IDE, and CIO code.
  • UI: Display code rewritten to support higher quality status overlays, some UI-less menu commands are now available in full screen mode, keyboard shortcuts are now configurable, shift-hover gives help for BASIC and DOS error codes, and copy text now works when emulation is stopped.
  • Disk: You can now pre-format new disk images for DOS 2 and mount a host directory as a virtual disk image. Also fixed several DOS filesystem handling bugs in the disk explorer.
  • IDE: VHD images are now supported.
  • Fixes for a couple of emulation issues in POKEY and ANTIC.
  • Major rewrite of the built-in OS kernels for better compatibility.

As usual, thanks to everyone that's been trying it out and providing feedback.

 

post-16457-0-06177700-1357520033_thumb.png

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Very Nice, Does Altirra have the List "p" handler ? To list a Basic program to windows notepad, like A800win+ its Very useful for basic programming.

 

I hope to see this feature in Altirra if its not there already.

 

Altirra is very good , the scanlines looks very nice , specially with Preseve aspect ratio (fixed multiples only).

 

I noticed a thing about the scanlines, with fast movement up and down with a player or playfield it seem the scanlines almost dissapears only in

the area that has this up or down fast movement, Now i seen the same with emulators for other systems to that has scanlines and i think its

my lcd screen delay (5ms) that makes this happen,i havent try the emulators on a CRT screen yet but i wonder if that would make the scanlines

stay on screen better since a CRT screen dont have any input delay.

Edited by Grevle
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To asking a question about the bios that comes with the emu.

 

Which OS revision is it largely or loosely based on, pre XL, XL or XE

 

And how close (from an emulation PoV) is the bios to the OS revision it is based on (percentage wise)

 

 

 

Lastly is there a section within the manual that refers to making MaxFlash images with Altirra, as well as images that can be used with these other i/o devices that are emulated (i.e Myide etc) and what kind of data can be put on these images (i.e atr/xfd/xex/atx etc etc)

Edited by carmel_andrews
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32-bit version seems to keep crashing (i.e. a Windows app crash) when I have Ultimate 1MB enabled. If I start the emulator, open the debugger, then press F8, the whole thing crashes. I can't get the machine to boot with U1MB enabled either, even if the debugger is closed (although in that case, Altirra simply locks up).

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Hello,

 

Copying "*.*" in the folder ":GAME:CALAM_EN" of ATR to "H2:" yields error 165.

Copying "1.DAT,H2:" return without error but does nothing.

The image is OK, extracting with AspecQT to the PC works fine.

Maybe something with the old MS DOS redirect issue with ">1" etc.

Edited by JAC!
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Surely in the first case (since this is MyDOS?), the error is caused by no filename in the destination path. Perhaps MyDOS won't build target filenames from wildcards if the destination device isn't "D:"?

 

As for the second example: are empty filenames even allowed (since - IIRC - under MyDOS, "1" at the start of a filename will be parsed as the drive number, and the filename in the example would decode as "D1:.DAT")? Perhaps DOS therefore assumes the spec matched no files.

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Hello,

 

Copying "*.*" in the folder ":GAME:CALAM_EN" of ATR to "H2:" yields error 165.

Copying "1.DAT,H2:" return without error but does nothing.

The image is OK, extracting with AspecQT to the PC works fine.

Maybe something with the old MS DOS redirect issue with ">1" etc.

file name can not start with a numeral.... only alphanumeric ..SV2K12_STUFF.atr

SV 2Y12 STUFF.TXT

Edited by rdea6
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FX CORE (1.20) no longer working with SDX 446 the new SVBXE101 drivers..

 

Yeah, the new drivers explicitly check for FX core 1.21 or higher. The only new feature I can see in the 1.21-1.24 cores is the shared/nonshared memory bit, the rest of the changes being bug fixes. Here's a version that emulates FX core 1.24 and will work with the new driver.

 

http://www.virtualdu...-2.30-test1.zip

http://www.virtualdu...0-test1-src.zip

 

I am loving the faux Amiga Workbench disk prompt! :)

 

After seeing JAC's 1.3 prompt, I couldn't resist doing the 2.0 version. I was waiting to see who would recognize it. :)

 

It's real, btw... if you stick in a disk, it'll boot. Haven't got around to testing it on real hardware, but it just uses regular SIO calls.

 

To asking a question about the bios that comes with the emu. Which OS revision is it largely or loosely based on, pre XL, XL or XE And how close (from an emulation PoV) is the bios to the OS revision it is based on (percentage wise)

 

The built-in OSes are written from scratch but are based primarily on the spec in the Atari OS Manual, with additions from the XL Addendum and a few specifics from Mapping the Atari (to aid with naughty programs that don't follow the official specs). The LLE and LLE-XL ROMs target OS-B and XL/XE/XEGS level functionality, respectively. The HLE OS targets both at the same time, since it can cheat with C/C++ code. There is also an U1MB placeholder OS that is based on the LLE-XL ROM. The OSes work well enough to boot DOS, SpartaDOS X, the various cartridge/device flashers, and a decent selection of games.

 

In terms of functionality and compatibility, they're at about 75%. Breakdown per section (LLE):

  • Boot/init: 70%. There's some pollution between OS-B and XL/XE boot behavior I need to work out.
  • SIO: 80%. Base functionality is implemented, but retry logic and cassette support is incomplete. Type 3 polling is missing.
  • CIO: 90%. Supports all major functionality as well as some undocumented calls, but lacks some permission checks.
  • S:/E: device: 70%. Fine scrolling is not implemented, some vars are in the OS-B place instead of XL/XE place, graphics reads are incomplete, and it still takes too much ROM space.
  • P: device: 0%. Not a high priority since Altirra's printer support is intercept based and it doesn't implement an SIO-based printer.
  • K: device: 90%. All the main pieces are there, just waiting for something else to break.
  • C: device: 20%. Reading is implemented but still has problems... no writing support at all.
  • Math pack: 70%. Basic functionality works enough for Atari BASIC to run, but it cuts some corners on rounding to save on code size and has some differences in error behavior.
  • Parallel Bus: 40%. SIO block devices work, but interrupts are untested (no such devices are emulated). PBI-based CIO devices and relocatable handlers are not yet supported.
  • Interrupts: 90%. Almost everything is in. VBI doesn't handle 400/800 ports 3 and 4 correctly (uses XL/XE behavior) and I'm not sure anyone cares about the GINTLK check.
  • Undocumented bogus entry points: 5%. Most software that uses non-official entry points will fail.

100% compatibility won't be possible -- there is too much naughty software out there -- but the goal is to at least hit full compatibility with well-behaved software, including BASIC and DOS.

 

The 5200 LLE BIOS has a much higher compatibility rate simply because the 5200's OS barely does anything. I'm not sure there are any official games left that don't run on it.

 

Lastly is there a section within the manual that refers to making MaxFlash images with Altirra, as well as images that can be used with these other i/o devices that are emulated (i.e Myide etc) and what kind of data can be put on these images (i.e atr/xfd/xex/atx etc etc)

 

All the help there is is in the help file.

 

For MaxFlash images, you can run the flasher disks within Altirra and "flash" a virtual ROM image out of it, but you can't actually build the flasher disks or ROM images from sources. For that you need external software like the official Atarimax software.

 

XFD images only allow for single and medium density floppy disks and no protected disks. ATR images support all densities (SD/MD/DD/512b), no protected disks. DCM supports SD/MD/DD, again no protected disks. ATX supports single density only but does support storing many types of disk protection, including missing sectors, duplicated sectors, bad CRCs, and weak sectors. PRO only supports single density and doesn't really store disk protection information properly -- it stores information about the load pattern of the program rather than what's actually on the disk -- so it shouldn't be used for any new images.

 

32-bit version seems to keep crashing (i.e. a Windows app crash) when I have Ultimate 1MB enabled. If I start the emulator, open the debugger, then press F8, the whole thing crashes. I can't get the machine to boot with U1MB enabled either, even if the debugger is closed (although in that case, Altirra simply locks up).

 

That's serious, even if it is due to a broken ROM image. 6502 code should never be able to hard crash the emulator. If you have the .mdmp file available, I'd appreciate it if you PM'ed it to me so I can fix the problem.

 

file name can not start with a numeral.... only alphanumeric ..

 

Yup, this is a MyDOS problem. The H: device allows such filenames isn't even getting called in this case. Could be that someone used a tool to create the disk with names that are invalid for MyDOS.

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>File name can not start with a numeral....

Well, it can under DOS 2.5, both for source and destibation. Here's the results for "C DUP.SYS => 1.DAT, C 1.DAT => 2.DAT" and I assumed that MyDOS can handle DOS 2.5 disks properly. Obviously it can't :-(

DOS_25.ATR

Edited by JAC!
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That's serious, even if it is due to a broken ROM image. 6502 code should never be able to hard crash the emulator. If you have the .mdmp file available, I'd appreciate it if you PM'ed it to me so I can fix the problem.

 

I can't replicate the crash on the PC using the same ROM, so I'll try and reproduce it on the laptop later and PM a memory dump across.

 

>File name can not start with a numeral....

Well, it can under DOS 2.5, both for source and destibation. Here's the results for "C DUP.SYS => 1.DAT, C 1.DAT => 2.DAT" and I assumed that MyDOS can handle DOS 2.5 disks properly. Obviously it can't :-(

 

As I said last night, a number at the start of a filename is interpreted as a drive number, even if there's no delimiter. From the MyDOS manual:

 

When entering a filename, the drive number should be entered,

followed by a ":", and then the rest of the filename. If the drive

number and ":" are not entered, the default drive (and directory)

will be used. In the [C]opy file option, entering the drive number

only will result in copying every file on the main directory of that

drive. A drive may be specified like this: "1", "1:", or "D1:". If

you wish to specify the file or set of files to be referenced, the

drive format must include a ":" or it must be omitted entirely (for

the default drive and directory). Examples: D1:Test.obj, 1:TEST.ASM,

or D2TEST (really D1:D2TEST) are valid file names, but d1:Test.obj or

1TEST.ASM are not.

 

The file name itself is either fully specified (referring to the

entire name as it is on the disk) or includes "wild card" characters

(specifying a set of files). A fully specified file name consists of

one to eight characters followed by a period (".") and zero to three

additional "extender" characters. The characters in the file name may

be upper or lower case letters, numbers, the underscore ("_") or the

character "@". The only exception is the first character - it may not

be a number.

 

This must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but as we see, it actually breaks compatibility. Coupled with MyDOS's half-hearted subdirectory support, this is yet another reason to adopt SDX as a matter of urgency. :)

 

@Phaeron: I finally got around to testing printer output with LW last night, and it works really well. What's the likelihood (if any) of having Epson emulation in a future version? It would be nice if those control codes would toggle bold, italic, etc. This was something I really liked about Atari800MacX when I was able to use it: one could choose from a handful of emulated printers. Graphics support would be incredibly useful too, especially when I start working on printer drivers for the GUI. Then maybe the output could be saved as a PDF... heh. I don't want much, do I? :D

Edited by flashjazzcat
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This must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but as we see, it actually breaks compatibility. Coupled with MyDOS's half-hearted subdirectory support, this is yet another reason to adopt SDX as a matter of urgency. :)

Couldn't have said it better myself :)

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Yeah, another great update!

Yes I agree about the great update! The newest SDX446 downloads from AtariMax don't seem to have a Cartridge definition niether the [128k] or [256k].

Also which one of the F2 or R2 Bios should be loaded with the emulator. I keep gettin a WARNING and can't get into the Setup portion of Bios. I have the MYIDE II selected for the HARD disk and the latest R2 Bios loaded under OTHER OS ..

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Yes I agree about the great update! The newest SDX446 downloads from AtariMax don't seem to have a Cartridge definition niether the [128k] or [256k].

Also which one of the F2 or R2 Bios should be loaded with the emulator. I keep gettin a WARNING and can't get into the Setup portion of Bios. I have the MYIDE II selected for the HARD disk and the latest R2 Bios loaded under OTHER OS ..

 

Strange, here it works nicely.

Did you export the workbook as 512k rom-file and put that in the firmware list for MyIDE-II in altirra?

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>adopt SDX as a matter of urgency

I personally like MyDOS a lot because it allows for large images & directories while staying "compatible" with DOS 2.5 - and because I still haven't found out how to use & spread an SDX cartridge to real Ataris without having it :-)

Edited by JAC!
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Ah I was excited to try this thinking it might let me run Crownland but it still crashes :P

 

I know I have some setting wrong or something, but not sure what. I posted in another thread about it, but here it is below too.

 

I really want to get this running haha.

 

Hmmm, I had it that way and it still crashes. Using Altirra 2.10 and atarilxl.rom firmware. Crashing with the Crownland.xex file 54,594 uncompressed bytes downloaded from http://atari.fandal....p?files_id=5650

 

Never had any problems running anything from Altirra before. Does this need some PAL settings or different firmware?

 

Here is right before it crashes/freezes:

 

crownlanda.jpg

 

Then if I walk more to the right it freezes like this:

 

crownlandb.jpg

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I personally like MyDOS a lot because it allows for large images & directories while staying "compatible" with DOS 2.5 - and because I still haven't found out how to use & spread an SDX cartridge to real Ataris without having it :-)

 

Well, consider it read-only compatibility (and flawed at that, as we've seen), since any subdirectory you add to the disk is naturally not backwards compatible with DOS 2.5. Moreover, SpartaDOS X now reads and writes DOS 2.5 disks perfectly using the ATARIDOS.SYS driver (it always did, in fact, but with a few niggles which are now fixed), so MyDOS's famed DOS 2.5 compatibility is unpersuasive to me. As for spreading an SDX cart across several different Ataris: 1) How many Ataris can you actually use at the same moment, and 2) this is similar to the argument with which cart-based software authors are so often faced: i.e. can you not make a disk based version because we can't afford cartridge media. The proliferation of ultra-inexpensive flash carts makes short work of that one, I think.

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>How many Ataris can you actually use at the same moment

You got me wrong. I was only referring to my current project where I put together a mega ATR with all SV releases and a nice menu so it can be used by as many people as possible. It is simply intended for download and directy usage and shall not require a cart.

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