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rdemming

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Posts posted by rdemming

  1. Posted

    The KickStarter of Uncle Art failed with only a few dollars short. So they now try it again.

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/124468523/uncle-art-a-temporal-shift

     

    I don't know if aiming at the same goal is a smart move (most of the retried KickStarter I've seen got less money the second time and Uncle Art does not have the same cult status as Chris Huelsbeck and Matt Gray that had very succesfull KickStarters). I would start with a cheaper orchestra and make the expensive Chamber Orchestra of London a stretch goal. Anyway I will pledge again and hopefully they will make it this time.

     

    Robert

  2. Posted

     

    Need some help from anyone who may know where I can source very large quantities of these at a very reasonable price...

    My original source for Atari 13 pin SIO connectors can no longer provide me more than a few dozen, and I'm going to need several hundred for the 7800 XM units. Anyone with info on where I can buy several hundred dirt cheap, please let me know, thank you.

     

     

    Steven Tucker from AtariMax had made white SIO connectors for his SIO2PC interfaces. Maybe Curt can ask him if these are available. Anyway I would be happy with an XM without the SIO connector as I can desolder them from a broken 800XE board and put it on the XM myself.

     

    Robert

  3. Posted · Edited by rdemming

    Sorry for spamming but this kickstater is now in its final hours. It is now a 5 CD + 1 DVD set and is only 700 GBP away from a 6 CD + 1 DVD set. It also contans a CD in Vangelis style and will also feature tracks by guests like Matt Gray (Last Ninja fame), Alister Brimble (Amiga Alien Breed fame), Will Morton (Grand Theft Auto fame). So even if you are not into SID music but are a fan of Jarre and Vangelis, this KickStarter might be something for you too.

     

    Robert

     

     

    [edit]

    The Sidology KickStarter is over but since it was funded, the CD box can now be pre-ordered from www.sidologie.com.
    Items bought there still count for the stretch goals so the Sanxion (The Extirpator music on the Atari XL) stretch goal track can still be funded. The music from Panther (David Whittaker) is already part of the box.

    [/edit]

    • Like 2

  5. Posted

    Even as hardcore and lifetime Atari user, I’m also a fan of SID music like the tunes from Rob Hubbard, Maniacs of Noise, Matt Gray etc. even though I rarely played games on the C64.

    The popularity of SID music have sprawled many remixes with modern instruments (see remix.kwed.org). And even a couple of studio albums like the “Back in Time” series, “Press Play on Tape” and “Sidologie” (see www.c64audio.com). And I have them all :-p

     

    Currently Marcel Donné is working on a sequel to his “Sidologie” CD and has started a KickStarter project to fund it. It will contain 3 to 6 CDs (depending on the amount raised) with SID remixes coated with a Jean-Michel Jarre (and Vangelis) sauce. As both a SID remix and Jarre fan I of course backed the KickStarter in an instant.

     

    One of the Sidologie CDs will contain remixes from Rob Hubbard. As you probably know Rob Hubbard did only do the music for 4 games on the Atari 8-bit. Three of them are conversions of the C64 version (International Karate, War Hawk and Extirpator). But one of them was an Atari 8-bit exclusive namely “Jet Set Willy” which I consider one of the best Pokey tunes of that era. There was never a C64 version of Rob’s JSW tune on the C64.

     

    Because there never was a C64 version I pitched the idea to include an Atari Jet Set Willy remix on the Sidologie CD. And to my surprise and amazement Marcel Donné liked the idea of doing a JSW remix. So Rob Hubbard's Atari "Jet Set Willy" tune is now officially on the track list of the Sidologie CD dedicated to Rob Hubbard.

     

    post-119-0-37646900-1429899061_thumb.jpg

     

     

    Since a unique Atari Pokey remix is part of the Sidologie CD, I’m sure there might be more Atari fans that are interested in the Sidology KickStarter project. Thus if you want to support Marcel Donné for his daring choice to do an Atari Pokey remix for a largely C64 fan base, go to the Sidologie KickStarter page and pledge some money :)

     

    Robert

     

     

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    Even when the Uncle Art tunes did not make an impression on me back in the days, I backed the project. It seems that they are struggling to reach the goal after they restarted their kickstarter with a higher goal to include the orchestral Elite track. The only thing I can remember of Uncle Art is the "Staaaaaar Gliiiiiider" music and the IK+ music (Rob Hubbard conversion). I played other games with Uncle Art music but these tunes did not stay in my head.

     

     

    I'm more exited about the Sidologie kickstarter of Marcel Donné that promises 3 to 6 CD's with various SID tunes remixes in Jean Michel Jarre (and Vangelis) style. I'm sure more ST users have nostalgic feelings for these tunes as the ST conversions by Mad Max in the BIG and Union demos were very popular.

     

    Robert

  8. Posted

    I've checked the Atari CDs. Session one usually contains a message that it is an Jaguar CD or a little piece of music. For three games it contains the CD audio used in the game.

     

    Session 2 contains the game data but some tracks appear to have audio data as well. For example some tracks of Baldies if you slow them down 10 times contains music interleaved with data (seems the movies). Some Battlesphere tracks seem to have also audio interleaved with data sounding like there is some subliminal message in there. There was no game that had CD audio is session 2 except for World Tour racing of which track 9 had only right channel audio for 28 minutes.

     

    So usually if a game uses CD-audio it is in session one but there are only not that much CD games that use CD-audio tracks.

     

    Robert

     

    • Baldies: One audio track, the music from the introduction animation. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • BattleMorph: One audio track, music. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • Blue Lightning: One audio track, music. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • Brain Dead 13: One audio track, audio of the introduction video. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • Dragon's Lair: One audio track, audio of the introduction video. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • Highlander. One audio track, CD for use with Jaguar. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • HoverStrike: 5 audio tracks from the game. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • Iron Soldier II: 11 audio tracks from the game. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • Myst: One audio track, music. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • Primal Rage: 29 audio tracks from the game. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • SoulStar: One audio track, CD for use with Jaguar. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • Space Ace: One audio track, audio of the introduction video. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • VidGrid: One audio track, CD for use with Jaguar. Game does not use CD audio in session 2.
    • World Tour Racing: 2 Audio tracks but only noise. In session 2, track 9 contain 28 minute of right channel audio only, several songs.
    • Like 5

  9. Posted

    Are all the games like that? I only have a few CD games, but I kind of remembered something having the audio not in session 0 but in sessions 1+ as data tracks. It's possible it was Soul Star or... bah, I just really don't remember.

     

    dannyglover.webm

    Hmmm, now you say that, that is possible too. I should check it out. There is at least one audio track saying it is a jaguar cd.

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    Is the Iron soldier soundtrack on the Jag CD version, and also playable as a music CD in a hi-fi?

    All Jaguar CD games that use CD audio can be played with a regular CD audio player. CD audio tracks are in session one (like regular CDs) while the game data is in session 2.

     

    Robert

  11. Posted

     

    Unless you patch at 8k offset with $4ef9 xxxx yyyy

     

     

    And with that overwriting posibly vital bytes at that address that need to be "compensated" elsewhere :P Not a big deal but it is something to keep in mind.

    But I thought you would not give tips on hacking ROMs to run a a Skunk :grin:

  13. Posted

    isnt that the rom header of a 4 MB rom?

    so by replacing this it with another header works?

     

    Because of technical reasons, the SkunkBoard does not use the header of a ROM file. Thus replacing/modifying the header has no effect if flashed in the Skunk.

     

     

    BSG and/or BS are the only roms that dont work on skunkboards?

     

    They are not the only ones. The NTSC only version (v1) of Raiden does not work either because of differences in the graphics setup of the Jaguar BIOS and the Skunk BIOS while NTSC Raiden is assuming a certain initial state. The PAL/NTSC version (v2) of Raiden does setup the graphics chip correctly and works on the Skunk.

     

     

     

    if modifying a part of the rom (e.g. a graphicdata .. some pixels or so) then recreate the header with jagcrypt and it could work?

     

    Recreating the header is not needed. Because the SkunkBoard does not use the header of a ROM file, there is no encryption check thus the ROM does not need to have a valid encryption header. So you can modify part of the ROM before flashing and still have it boot.

     

     

     

    Interesting, while no deliberate blacklist, the way the bios was coded effectively locks it out.

     

    If I understand some old AA posts correctly, skunkboard bios uses the rom verification space (first $1FFF). When a rom is loaded, the fist $1FFF is ignored and onnly from $802000 is loaded. The skunkboard always uses a rom run address as $802000. Thus any game with a different run address fails to start.

     

    This must have been a design decision as the bios does does not use the full 2KB. Design that was not adopted could have been to create a variable run address, read the run address from the rom header, set that variable with that run address , and then use that variable value as the start for the loaded rom. (I am not a coder so I apologize if the terminology is incorrect)

     

    Yes, because of technical reasons the SkunkBoard does not use the ROM header and thus can't use the start-address in the ROM header. Therefore it assumes the start address is always $802000 (like nearly all ROMs). Thus any ROM with a different start address won't work on the Skunk.

     

    Not using the start address is IMHO not on purpose but follows from the design decisions of the Skunk. As you say the Skunk uses the space $800000-$801FFFF (8K) for its BIOS and therefore can't store the ROM header of the ROM file it flashes. If you also wanted to store the ROM header on the Skunk so it could use the start address stored in the header, then the Skunk would have needed an extra ROM chip for the BIOS which would have made the design more complex and expensive.

     

    You say the Skunk BIOS does not use all the available space in the header thus it could have stored the start address of the flashed ROM at a free spot (variable) in the Skunk BIOS area. This sounds easy but due to how flash memory is written this is not so easy.

    Flash memory is not random write access like RAM. To write some value in a flash memory area you need to erase it first. But you can't erase single bytes but only whole pages. The flash chip used in the Skunk has 8 pages of 4KB and the rest of the memory are pages of 32 KB. Thus the Skunk BIOS occupies the first two pages and both pages are used. Thus if you want to store the ROM start address you need to copy the contents of a flash page (in this case the page where the Skunk BIOS resides) to RAM, erase the flash page and then reprogram the flash page with the ROM start address "variable" filled in. This is doable but this increases the risk that due to errors/power failures the Skunk BIOS gets corrupted and won't start anymore (thus bricking the Skunk). The pages containing the Skunk BIOS are also write protected to prevent accidental erasure of the Skunk BIOS. Also by changing data in the Skunk BIOS area, the encryption header possibly becomes invalid and the Skunk BIOS won't boot anymore.

    And if you are able to store the ROM start address this way, this does not solve the problem of ROMs that depend on the ROM header in other ways besides the different start address.

     

    Robert

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

    I think, that 64kB system RAM plus 32kB banked RAM is enough to create in real time more data than Atari can handle in real time, in this configuration.

    If somebody have a concept how to use more RAM, I am ready to try to increase available resources. On the next boards. :)

     

    I can think of one. If you use the Veronica cart to render the screen for a game with many different animated software sprites and backgrounds, you naturally want all the graphics data on the Veronica board. The more memory you have the more different graphics and animation frames you can use,

     

    Robert

    • Like 2

  15. Posted

    I'd like to thank those JaguaSupaPowas for blocking BSG on the skunkboard. If that restriction wasn't there I wouldn't have been motivated to learn how to burn eproms and share that knowledge. Now anyone who wants to can make their own copy. That won't stop anyone who still wants to own the original release from going out and getting it.

     

    The black list is not the reason why BSG is not working on the Skunk :P

  16. Posted

    Theoretical, there is no limit (from a hardware perspective). But depending on the "solution" there are.

     

    The page $D2xx is reserved for the Pokey. But the Pokey only uses 16 bytes in this area (out of 256 bytes). So the simplest solution, that is extending on the current stereo Pokey implementations, would map the extra Pokeys in the $D2xx area. This means that 16 Pokeys can be addressed in this area and be compatible with existing stereo upgrades.

     

    But additional Pokeys could be mapped in other "unused" IO pages like the $D0xx, $D6xx, $D7xx (reserved for PBI devices) and $D5xx (reserved for cartridges e.g. bank switching) pages. Each of these 4 pages could map 16 extra Pokeys but would cause incompatibilities with PBI devices or bank switch cartridges.

     

    Finally, multiplexing could be used to maps in theory almost infinite number of Pokeys in the $D2xx page.

     

    So the most practical and compatible solution would support 16 Pokeys but that is certainly not the limit.

     

    But that is not the complete story. All those Pokeys need software to drive them and the more Pokeys, the more processing time is used to make the Pokeys sound good. Of course this depends on the complexity of the sound you want to create. Something sounding like the Rob Hubbard/David Whittaker/RMT tunes would take much more processor time than simple "beeping" sounds. Thus too many Pokeys and the 6502 won't be able to drive them all. I would estimate that a RTM like music player driving 20-25 Pokeys would take all processor time.

     

    Robert

  17. Posted

    What about of using the KryoFlux floppy interface and using the A8RAWCONF program to convert the output of KryoFlux to .ATX disk images?

    I did not try it myself but that seems the only way to create ATX images as the original VAPI/.ATX creation tools are AFAIK not available to the general public.

    Besides the KryoFlux hardware you also need a 5.25" floppydrive with a standard PC floppy connector. A standard 1050 drive won't work.

     

    Robert

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    The GPU on this board is version 1.0 while other Jaguars have version 1.1 as seen on the picture below. I don't know if it is common that there are version 1.0 GPUs in the wild but at least it is an earlier model than my Jaguars which all have a v1.1 GPU.

     

    cpus.jpg

     

     

     

    I put some back of board shots up (where it looks like it was hand-soldered). If those do not show it, where in particular would you like me to shoot?

     

     

    The video frequency is determined by R140 (0 ohm resistor) on the backside of the PCB as show in this picture from Matthias Domin's site. If there is a resistor then it is PAL (50 Hz). Without resistor it is NTSC (60 Hz):

     

    Jag50hz60hz.jpg

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    CJ has a busy day being prodded and poked today, but am I right in thinking you need a build with A for the action button rather than B?

     

    I did give it a go, but I might have really ballsed something up as this isn't anything like the project files I'm used to seeing in the svn and, well, this stuff isn't my bag :lolblue: But you're welcome to try it out if that is indeed what you need (I don't have time, my head is lost elsewhere tonight).

     

     

    That was exactly what I needed :thumbsup: . Thank you for enabling the 'A' button.

     

    I've soldered a DB-9 connector to my JagPad and now I can play IK+ with my rusty (indeed rusty) old joystick I use with my Atari 8-bit & ST for already more than 30 years.

    I only need to fit the connector somewhere inside the JagPad but first play some more IK+ ;)

    post-119-0-33944000-1426348847_thumb.jpg

    • Like 5

  21. Posted

    Thank you very much for the conversion. As promised I've dug out my Jaguar that was still somewhere in a box at the attic after moving house. I've spent the evening playing it and it is great fun. All good memories but I miss my old ST joystick ;-)

     

    I was thinking about adding a DB-9 connector to my JagPad so I could connect a standard Atari joystick. But as I deduct from the JagPad schematics & programming info, adding a DB-9 joystick connector will only work if all direction/button switches are on the same button group in the JagPad. The direction switches and button 'A' are on the same group so the Joystick's firebutton will be mapped to Jaguar button 'A'.

    But button 'B' is the recommonended main button used by most games including IK+ and that is on a different button group than the direction switches. So unless the game also reacts to button 'A', adding a joystick connector to the JagPad will not let me play IK+ with my old trusty Atari ST joystick :( . Or has someone another idea on how to connect a standard Atari ST joystick (firebutton as Jaguar button 'B') without modifying the joystick is such way that it won't work on a Atari ST anymore?

     

    Robert

     

     

     

    • Like 2

  22. Posted

    JXD is making Android gaming tablets for years. This one is based on the RockChip 3188. Willgoo is a well know dealer of the JXD tablets and has a few videos on their site demonstrating emulation on the tablet.

    The JXD tablets are being discussed on the Dingoonity forum. I don't know about this model but usually the analog numbs are not analog but digital. Also don't expect firmware updates. Those Chinese brands rather create new models than updating Android for their existing models.

     

    Robert

    • Like 3

  23. Posted

    I don't have the Jag music, but a little ways back I uploaded a few tunes to YouTube of the MS-DOS PC version of Raiden. It was made by the same company that did the Atari Jaguar version, and thus the music tracks had the same general composition, albeit with different instruments and far higher quality.

     

     

    Seems the DOS version used audio tracks on CD for the music.

    And without the Audio CD it is just FM music as you can hear in the PC version playing online.

     

    Robert

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

     

    I remember Liam Howlett did a song about making his girlfriend a sandwich out of the Netherlands' finest tinned meat product.

     

    Kind of curious what the other 21% might be... sawdust?

     

    Lol, I did not know this song but Liam Howlett's Prodigy's song "Smac(k) my Bitch up" is such a poetic masterpiece that it is difficult to recognise that it is really about sandwiching his girlfriend with meat products |:)

     

    If you really want to know, the other 21% is potato starch, pork fat, water, salt, sugar, spices, E451, E452, E301, E250 and E535. So in short it is just meat offal with chemicals to make it seem tasty :-D

     

    Robert

    • Like 3

  25. Posted

    Is it not that holding the buttons boots in either 16bit mode or 32bit mode (cart bus width) with stub jags? Long shot since the games run but perhaps that could be the cause?

     

    Also in the manual it does say (my version anyway) that you should have a resistor between 2 of the pins on the ribbon cable if the unit is used without the Alpine. Another long shot, but hey, this is the Jaguar :D

     

    HTH

     

    According to the docs, a 1K resistor must be indeed be put between the ribbon cable pins 4 & 5 when not used with an Alpine. But I've never had problems with my ribbon cable Jaguar without the resistor connected. I've indeed both the 93 (blue) and 94 (green) stubulator but never had any issues with sound.

     

    With the stubulator, turning on while holding the "B" button starts a regular cart. Holding the "C" buton starts the CD-BIOS (if attached) which is a 8-bit wide "cart" (only the green stubulator, CD does not work with the blue stubulator).

     

     

    post-119-0-47872900-1425414583_thumb.png

    • Like 4
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