MESS .156 and auto start carts

[+acadiel]

I haven't started up an auto start cart in a while, but I'm having a bit of a problem with the Scott Foresman Multiplication 1 and Division 1 carts with MESSUI .156.

 

The cart doesn't auto start, I get a strange screen (attached) for Multiplation 1. Same thing happens with Division 1. I've attached the RPK files as well.

 

Can someone see if they can replicate?

 

Thanks!

sf_multiplication_1.rpk

sf_division_1.rpk

[+Ksarul]

I haven't seen that specific failure before, Acadiel. I don't have MESS set up though, so I can't test on my hardware here.

[RXB]

Can you sector edit the GPL header and zero out the AutoStart byte?

 

 

This video explains the Auto Start header and using the same principle you can fix that cart.

 

Just advance the video till you see the part about sector editing the AUTOSTART GPL HEADER.

[+Lee Stewart]

Same thing happens to me. Do you know whether the layout.xml is formatted properly?

 

...lee

[Asmusr]

Same for me. The carts work fine in js99er.net.

[sometimes99er]

MESS 0.155 64 bit has the same problem.

MESS 0.139 32 bit runs fine.

Classic99 QI373 runs fine.

[+mizapf]

With those SF cartridges that fail to start, unpack the RPK and change "standard" to "gromemu". It seems as if these cartridges make use of 8 K "GROMs" (possibly a GROM emulation, hence the type name).

 

The reason why MESS 0.139 works fine is because in 0.146 I fixed a bug which then prevented those cartridges to run. (Fixing may sometimes mean that something stops working ... )

 

See http://www.ninerpedia.org/index.php/MESS_version_history

 

(rows for versions 0.146 and 0.149)

[sometimes99er]

Here's another dump, also with pcb type="standard", and it works fine with my MESS 0.155 64 bit. And it auto-skips the selection menu.

 

The 6K chuncks are the same except a few bytes to begin with. None of the 2K chunks seems to be exact copies for use if and when original address decoding would perhaps wander off in another direction (compared with MESS or other hardware GROM emulation).

 

The previous uploaded file and this one has these first bytes:

 

AA 01 01 00 00 00 78 01

AA FF 01 00 00 00 00 00

 

 

[+mizapf]

Here's another dump, also with pcb type="standard", and it works fine with my MESS 0.155 64 bit. And it auto-skips the selection menu.

 

Is this an authentic dump? Does this mean we have different versions around?

 

Anyway, I'm a bit surprised that the Scott/Foresman cartridges make use of GROM emulations, considering that they seem to be licensed by Texas Instruments. I would have thought that they have real GROMs in the module.

 

Or do they, and we had evidence of real 8K GROMs? Or are these dumps invalid?

[sometimes99er]

Is this an authentic dump? Does this mean we have different versions around?

 

Anyway, I'm a bit surprised that the Scott/Foresman cartridges make use of GROM emulations, considering that they seem to be licensed by Texas Instruments. I would have thought that they have real GROMs in the module.

 

Or do they, and we had evidence of real 8K GROMs? Or are these dumps invalid?

I don't know if it an authentic dump. It has the date 1996-07-16.

 

Who said they were using GROM emulation ?

[+mizapf]

Who said they were using GROM emulation ?

 

All GROMs that I saw have a 6K capacity. I never saw a real 8K GROM, only EPROMs with a counter circuit that makes it look like a GROM.

[+acadiel]

This RPK was taken off of WHTech.

 

The ones I have that aren't in RPK'd form (from PC99) for PHM3049 (Division 1) include three 6K GROMs and an 8K ROM. PHM3029 (Multiplication 1) has two 6K ROMs and an 8K ROM.

 

I'm guessing someone padded the extra 2K on them.

[sometimes99er]

Does this mean we have different versions around?

Apparently. Both versions are in this folder

 

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/mess/old/Complete%20MESS%20Geneve%20emulation/mess/software/ti99_4a/

[+mizapf]

Hehe ... if you got the RPK from WHTech, it was most certainly uploaded by me.

 

I think I got the contents originally from WHTech as well, when MESS still loaded separate bin files. The GROM contents were made available as continuous dumps over the complete address space, so they contain the intermediate contents (1800-1FFF) as well. The "standard" type in RPK only takes the part from 0000-17FF, and the upper 2K is calculated as specified. The "gromemu" type takes all values from the files.

 

So if the cartridge works with "gromemu" and not with "standard", the 1800-1FFF part seems to be required.

 

@sometimes99er: If there are different versions we should find out which one is the authentic one. I'll have a look.

[+mizapf]

So far I found the following RPKs to be broken:

sf_division_1
sf_mighty_multiplication_2
sf_multiplication_1
sf_reading_flight
sf_reading_rally
sf_reading_roundup

 

As said, I'm going to check that. As for Division 1 I found this in the contents:

 

 

0006000: aa01 0100 0000 7801 0000 0000 0000 0000  ......x.........
0006010: 0000 0040 2b40 374d f153 6e4e 2b4d 3b4d  ...@+@7M.SnN+M;M
0006020: e34f 4553 a84d 9e4f 454f a207 2006 a000  .OES.M.OEO.. ...
0006030: 06a0 0807 0680 1e07 2006 a006 06a0 1806  ........ .......
0006040: a020 beae 00ff 3100 08af 0f80 7474 3100  . ....1.....tt1.
0006050: 10af 0fc0 61a3 bea3 9f17 863d 8651 06a0  ....a......=.Q..
0006060: 0807 3501 bfae 01ae 0031 0008 a8f8 742c  ..5......1....t,
0006070: 3100 06a3 9861 b304 0708 a082 12e8 e0d8  1....a..........
0006080: f0d0 c8c0 2041 4354 4956 4954 4945 5320  .... ACTIVITIES
0006090: 06c0 c8d0 f0d8 e0e8 a185 0850 5245 5353  ...........PRESS
00060a0: 2046 4f52 a098 1531 2020 4d45 414e 494e   FOR...1  MEANIN
...
0007800: 0000 0060 130a 4449 5649 5349 4f4e 2031  ...`..DIVISION 1
0007810: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................

 

So the address in 6006 points to an address that should be invalid for normal GROMs. Either this is a hacked version, or the cartridge had a GROM emulation. As I said, I'll have a look at the other version on WHTech.

[sometimes99er]

So if the cartridge works with "gromemu" and not with "standard", the 1800-1FFF part seems to be required.

And it does.

[+mizapf]

As for Division 1, there are two TOSEC dumps on WHTEch:

Division 1 (1982)(Scott, Foresman)[o][PHM 3049].zip
Division 1 (1982)(Scott, Foresman)[PHM 3049].zip

 

The [o] flag means "overdumped", that is, the dump is supposedly wrong because it contains more data than necessary. However, the [o] version works with "standard" (as reported by sometimes99er for Multiplication 1). This could be the case with the other SF programs, too. I'll replace the RPKs soon.

 

I wonder how this shorter version came into existence. It seems as if someone intentionally inserted a menu entry and deactivated the autostart, maybe especially for use with emulations.

[+acadiel]

Here are the GK modules that should be pretty much bit by bit dumps (except for the GK header).

 

PHM30291.zip

[RXB]

As Mizapf pointed out this is a hacked cart. I would look at hex >7801 and see what routine was placed there.

 

If it is zeros then that is clearly a error as >6006 is the power up headed and something is screwed up.

[+Schmitzi]

Hi all,

I need the command to bind a DSK into Mess.

The -flop1 NAME.DSK brings up an DiskError 00 in the Diskmanger.

Maybe I need to configure the TI-disk-controller ?

Which DSK-format is supported (type or size) ?

thanks for an answer

Ralf

[TheMole]

Hi all,

I need the command to bind a DSK into Mess.

The -flop1 NAME.DSK brings up an DiskError 00 in the Diskmanger.

Maybe I need to configure the TI-disk-controller ?

Which DSK-format is supported (type or size) ?

thanks for an answer

Ralf

 

Yes, you need to configure a disk controller. On the command line, you can add switches to add emulated cards to your emulated system's emulated PEB. They follow the format -peb:slot<x> <cardname>, with the <x> being any number from 2 to 8 (1 is automatically fitted with the emulated firehose interface card), and <cardname> is uhm... the name of the card you want to add in that slot .

 

A list of available cards (not sure if this is complete though) is here: http://www.ninerpedia.org/index.php/MESS_TI_emulation_usage#Peripheral_Box

Note that for each card that you wish to emulate, you will need the DSR rom, if applicable. Also, there's no point in adding the 32k expansion card, since by default MESS emulates a console with 16-bit 32k mod (not sure why Michael opted for this though, to me it seems a bit random to choose a modded console as the base system for emulation. But I love MESS, it's the most accurate emulator out there, so I'm not complaining ).

 

I use something like this:

./mess64 ti99_4a -peb:slot3 tirs232 -peb:slot8 hfdc -skip_gameinfo -window -nomaximize -natural -cart carts/mycart.rpk -flop1 disks/mydisk.dsk

[+Schmitzi]

 

 

Yes, you need to configure a disk controller. On the command line, you can add switches to add emulated cards to your emulated system's emulated PEB. They follow the format -peb:slot<x> <cardname>, with the <x> being any number from 2 to 8 (1 is automatically fitted with the emulated firehose interface card), and <cardname> is uhm... the name of the card you want to add in that slot .

 

A list of available cards (not sure if this is complete though) is here: http://www.ninerpedia.org/index.php/MESS_TI_emulation_usage#Peripheral_Box

Note that for each card that you wish to emulate, you will need the DSR rom, if applicable. Also, there's no point in adding the 32k expansion card, since by default MESS emulates a console with 16-bit 32k mod (not sure why Michael opted for this though, to me it seems a bit random to choose a modded console as the base system for emulation. But I love MESS, it's the most accurate emulator out there, so I'm not complaining ).

 

I use something like this:

./mess64 ti99_4a -peb:slot3 tirs232 -peb:slot8 hfdc -skip_gameinfo -window -nomaximize -natural -cart carts/mycart.rpk -flop1 disks/mydisk.dsk

 

My big savior have spent a lot of time, didnt find that info. No I can go on. Thanks a lot.

[+mizapf]

not sure why Michael opted for this though, to me it seems a bit random to choose a modded console as the base system for emulation.

The modded console was the state of the emulation when I picked it up. I added the 32K memory expansion later when I redesigned the PEB emulation. In fact, it proved to be useful for getting TurboPasc'99 to run; it does not run with the 32K mod.

 

I could have removed the default for the console mod, but I know well that any change in MESS will trigger a lot of complaints why things surprisingly stop working with a new release.