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rdemming

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Posts posted by rdemming

  1. Posted

    Ok, so someone just told me this guy goes by the name of Sergio, who I also know by the name of Danilo, and from his posts here, he seems to even have a 3rd name, Fernando. I have this guy address, he lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But just to make sure I am not accusing the wrong person here, it would be great if someone who has made business with him before provide me with an address so we can double check. I actually had a small problem with this person early this year, but I better don't give the details until we can confirm.

     

    He was also making problems on the Dingoonity forums under the name "danilop2k2" and after he was banned under the name "GCWB". He preordered a GCW-Zero (Opensource Linux gaming handheld) and got impatient that delivery takes longer than expected. Then he rudely demanding a refund after he tried to re-sell his pre-order to people on the waiting list at a profit.

     

    Robert

  3. Posted

    Yes, the CD dev BIOS is an unencrypted ROM and can only be run by a BIOS that skips the encryption check. Thus you must use the Atari dev BIOS (stubulator) in the Jaguar to be able to use a CD dev unit.

    If you are handy, you can install a flash chip in the Jaguar with the dev BIOS.

     

    Would be interesting to test if the CD dev bios can be encrypted and be used on a retail Jaguar.

     

    Robert

  5. Posted

    Internal MyIDE uses the PBI IO ($D100) range. Thus when using a PBI device that also uses the PBI IO range, you need to disable the internal MyIDE. You can do this by adding a switch in the wire that runs between pin 14 of the 74LS138 chip and MyIDE. You probably also need to pull the now "floating" wire of MyIDE to +5V (I believe it is active low) via a pull-up resistor.

     

    Robert

  6. Posted

    if i want to restore my saved game the lenslok copy protection shows up and i have to enter the right code. so this might not be a cracked version. any other version around?

     

    Maybe you can use the LensLok emulator to decode the code. I think it lists only the spectrum games but maybe one of those use the same LensLok as an Atari game.

     

    Robert

  8. Posted

    But ehm... to feed the confusion a bit more... why do you want to do that this way? The firmware itself can be flashed from atari without the need of any cable.

     

    Hi Marius,

     

    It is not the U1MB flash chip with the firmware (software) for the Atari I'm talking about. There are two types of firmware in the U1MB:

    • The flash memory chips contain the firmware (software) used by the Atari computer. This one can be programmed in system and is the one you are talking about.
    • The Xilinx chip contains the programmable logic firmware which ties the components (flash, Atari, ram, etc) together at a hardware level. This is the firmware I'm talking about. This can only be updated by a JTAG cable and not in system.

    The same is true for the Incognito board which also contains these two kinds of firmware.

     

    In case of the U1MB, the latests U1MB batch has updated programmable logic in the Xilinx chip to make it possible to use the SIDE card as a PBI device. The old version of U1MB can also be updated with the new logic but this requires an update of both the Xilinx chip firmware and the Atari firmware.

     

    Robert

  9. Posted

    After I replaced the first 64K bank of memory, with no ram chips in the extended bank, I did a test run.

    Atari DOS booted and set-up a ramdisk in the non-existant extended bank!!.... so much for the integrity of the original ramdisk handler!. It does not even check if the ram is actually there!.

     

    Yes that would probably be one of the best way of checking extended ram, however I did not have any ram chips in the extended memory bank, so where would it have actually stored the second number for comparison? I would have thought that non-existent extended ram location would have returned zero for comparison (or some other garbage value).

     

    AFAIK on a 800XL and 800XE, DOS 2.5 does not setup a ram disk. That it is setting up a ramdisk on on 130XE without extended ram chips is because the 130XE is wired differently. Check the 800XE board (which is the same PCB as the 130XE) and you will see that besides the missing ramchips, the EMMU chip is removed and replaced by some zero ohm resistors.

     

    On a 800XE/800XE/65XE, setting the port B bits always access the same memory (main bank). But when you do same on a 130XE without the ram chips, normal settings for port B will access the main bank of ram chips and setting port B will access the extended bank of ram chips. Since there are no ram chips in the extended bank, you will get random data.

     

    If DOS 2.5 checks for extended memory by only setting some value in the main memory, then switching to the extended bank to read the value, then it will see that those are different because the missing bank will return some undefined value. On a 800XL/800XE it will return the value of the regular bank which is of course the same as the value written. Remember that at the time of DOS 2.5, such a simple check is sufficient to check for extended memory since there are only two configurations.

     

    Robert

  10. Posted

    Which programmer do you have, USB or Parallel Port?

    A pic would help ;)

     

    From what I understood the JTAG cable FJC is talking about is just a cable connecting to the parallel port. So no programmer needed, just a PC with parallel port. But when searching on the internet I see many variants of a JTAG cable and I don't know which one is needed for the U1MB. So a pointer to the required cable and programmnig software would be appreciated :).

     

    I have a cheap USB Genius G540 eprom/flash/avr/pic/pal programmer but that does not support JTAG devices.

     

    Robert

  12. Posted

    It's used to update the Xilinx chip firmware on the board, and is (hopefully) something that only beta-testers and software developers like me will ever have to do. :)

     

    I'm still waiting for instructions (or link to) to build a JTag cable so I can upgrade my old U1MB firmware to the new U1MB firmware :P

     

    Robert

  14. Posted

    We’re celebrating First Star Software Inc.’s 30th anniversary, and we’re doing it in style. Featuring an exclusive interview with First Star Software founder Richard M. Spitalny, we also bring you never seen before material and a bonus FREE First Star Anniversary PDF (download link within the magazine).

     

    Great info about First Star Software! The interview with Richard was interesting.

    But I don't see a download link for the First Star Anniversary PDF anywhere in the magazine. I only found the statement "Download more classified documents from this issue’s bonus page!" on page 34 but since you switched to payloadz.com for distribution, I haven't seen any link to the webpage containing the usual downloads belonging to the issue.

    So please where can I find the link to the First Start bonus PDF?

     

    Robert

  16. Posted

    Thanks for the link. Looks to be an interesting integer based implementation (ideal for DSPs without a floating point unit like the jags). What is the sound quality like in your opinion?

     

    The STSound code is also used in the SainT emulator (one of the best for running games/demos). It also supports advanced YM tricks like SID sound. In my ears it sounds like very like a real ST but my ears also think a 128Kbs MP3 is good quality so that does not say much :P

     

    An alternative is to look at the YM source of the excellent Hatari emulator. It has some influences from STsound but also others.

     

    Robert

    • Like 3

  17. Posted

    Similarly if anybody wants to write a YM sound chip emulator on the jag's DSP they can. That is a very interesting project for anybody wanting to get to grips with GPU/DSP code in a real world application.

     

    The ST-Sound source code is available which could be a starting point to convert to DSP code if anyone would be interested.

    But as far as I remember the sound of ST Star Raiders is not so good so better replace it with samples. But an YM DSP player would be great for all those great Mad-Max/Count Zero/Scavenger/Tao/etc. tunes.

     

    Robert

    • Like 3

  18. Posted

    I know Psygnosis only from the Amiga/ST games. I wonder if there were any people from the Amiga/ST era still at Psygnosis after 2000?

     

    I do think the PC Engine CD version of the game is the best version I've tried. :)

     

    I like the Lynx version of SotB. In parts it is quite different that the Amiga/ST version but I think it gave the game more depth.

     

    Robert

  19. Posted

    Atari Kaarts? ;-)

     

    Lol, you do know Kaarts is German for Karts :P

    I meant of course in "Kaarst". My German geography is not so good :(

     

    The twitter message is from 5 October so the decision was indeed made quite recently. But now 10 days later I would have expected an announcement here.

     

    Robert

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    Yes, there are several different flavours of PAL and the UK used a different version than most of the other EU countries. (I believe you didn't hear sound because that is on a different frequency). But you would expect that modern TVs can use every PAL version nowadays.

     

    But why don't you use a SCART (RGB) cable. Every EU TV has a SCART connection and SCART give a far better picture than using the modulator.

     

    Robert

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