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rdemming

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Posts posted by rdemming

  3. Posted · Edited by rdemming

    Heh, Robert I ordered it as well. So, at least if it sucks, you won't be alone.

     

     

    as a gift, NO PAY!

     

    Nice!

     

    Let us know how they work out, I might grab one as well.

     

     

    It is comforting to know that I won't be alone if the device sucks :D But I will let you if I can get it to work if it arrives :roll::D

     

     

    Hias, as a user of the original Turbo Freezer XL, I'm very happy with your improved Turbo Freezer XE. In the old days I was missing memory search functions but thanks to the additional rom space, it now has much more functions including searching :). So I don't have to browse through kilobytes of memory anymore to find the memory location with the current number of lives :P

    The cartridge emulation is great as well. I only miss the emulation of 128KB XE cards :roll:

    So many thanks for the new Turbo Freezer.

     

    Robert

  4. Posted · Edited by rdemming

    And anyways, it's best to copy everything you can into RAM anyways since ROM is much slower in all cases

     

    Symmetry of TNG made an interesting test program a few years back, in which he blitted a bitmap several dozen times from cartspace into ram, and then blitted the same image the same number of times from ram to ram. He was using an alpine, and found that actually, the cartspace ram on the alpine was slightly faster than the main systems ram, most likely due to avoiding page misses in main ram. I'm not sure how this compares to cartspace roms, but I would assume its similar.

     

    Strange. Since the blitter can blit 64 bits at the time from 64-bits wide ram and only 32 bits at the time from 32-bits wide rom you would expect blits from ram are around twice as fast (if different access times are not taken into account)

     

     

    Remember, Jaguar ram is divided into pages of 2 kilobytes, if you make successive accesses within that same page, the memory controller can respond much quicker than accesses at more distant locations. However, cartridge space is evidently not paged in the same way, and can be accessed without changing the current page of main ram that is active.

     

    edit: Also, going back to the v8 vs scanned manual issue: the scanned pdf's state that the page size is 2kbytes, whereas v8 (iirc) simply mention page misses once or twice but never elaborate on the issue or the page size in the jaguar console.

     

     

    I believe the docs are wrong on the 2KB page size. The page size is dependent on the RAM chips used.

     

    You can imagine the RAM memory as a grid of memory cells. To select a memory cell in a normal DRAM chip is a two step process. First you select the row and then the column. In fast page DRAM, you only have to select the row once when you access multiple columns in the same row. Thats why access in the same page (row) is faster.

     

    Now, the Jaguar has 2MByte of ram in four 16-bits wide chips. So each chip has 512KByte (16-bits wide) thus 512*1024/2=262144 16-bit cells. The square root of 262144 = 512 thus there are 512 rows with 512 columns each selecting a 16 bit cell. Thus each page is 512 * 2 byte (16 bits) = 1024 bytes or 1KB per chip. Since there are 4 chips in parallel to give 64-bit wide access, the page size is 4*1KB = 4 KByte

     

    Robert

  5. Posted · Edited by rdemming

    Thanks to all.

     

    The GAL-blast looks interesting. But it only works on the printer port. My current old eprom programmer also only works on the printer port. It works great on DOS/Windows98, but under Windows XP it needs UserPort but that still works unreliable. So I prefer a USB version so I don't need DOS anymore. Besides, lots of new computers don't have a printer port anymore.

     

    The Chinese programmer David mentioned is very cheap but what about support and quality? I saw that the "English" written in their manual and software is terrible "Chinglish" but understandable.

    However, the cheapest programmer that supported GAL/PAL that I could find in The Netherlands was more than 300 euro. So for only about 45 euro including shipping I've decided to take the risk and I ordered the Chinese one. It even includes simple DIP to PLCC adapters. Now I only hope it gets delivered and works :D

     

    Robert

  6. Posted

    I'm using PALASM: http://www.engr.uky....81/software.htm

     

    It's a nice little DOS program that works fine and does everything I need. Despite it's name it's also able to assemble logic for GAL devices (just use a "CHIP xxx PALCE22V10" to assemble for a GAL 22V10, for example).

     

    Several years ago I had a look at WinCupl, but it was a desaster (crashing like hell and producing wrong code). Maybe it works better now, but I never bothered to try it again once I found PALASM.

     

    Thanks. I also found WinCUPL on the Atmel site. So I will try both. Unfortunately there is no date in WinCUPL so I can't say how old it is, but is is a Windows app so it might be a little more userfriendly than the DOS based PALASM. Now I only have to find a cheap programmer but unfortunately they seem to be very expensive :-(

     

    Robert

  7. Posted

     

    Unfortunately I don't have a GAL programmer.

     

    Would you happen to have a schematic using just TTL?

     

    A subset of your upgrade, preferably 256K CompyShop compatible, would be even better.

     

    Regards,

     

    Steve Sheppard

     

     

    I suppose you can try to take the jedec file to your local electronics shop to ask if they can burn a GAL for you.

     

    Hias, what software do you use to create the jedec file? I'm looking into a way to turn a simple schematic with 7400 logic into a GAL listing but I can't find a place to start. You know any reference on the web to get started. Thanks.

     

    Robert

  8. Posted

    Its amazing to see the original SMB NES code being used for an Atari version. I'm hoping that this will indeed turn out to be a "playable" SMB but I understand that the graphics capabilities of the Atari make it quite a challenge.

     

    An interesting idea would be to make a VBXE version of SMB. The VBXE graphics capabilities would make a near prefect conversion possible and possibly easier to convert. But of course, only few people will get a VBXE but you can always hope :D

     

    Robert

  10. Posted

    first screen shot of VBXE2 output - till this date i've only watched fc.com communication protocol with VBXE2 controller - today i was able to run crownland on "stock" 65XE without the ECI port (stock if you disregard VBXE2 that is)

     

     

     

    picture may have morie on it, but this is only due to scalling of web browser - save it and view in 1:1 ratio

     

     

    The output looks very good :thumbsup:

    That the VBXE outputs regular graphics as a crisp RGB signal was one of the main reasons for me to order the VBXE board. That additional graphics abilities and blitter are a bonus :D

     

    Robert

  11. Posted · Edited by rdemming

    I've a question about the VBXE horizontal display resolution. It is said that it 320 pixels wide.

     

    The original Atari graphics (gr. 0 or gr. 8 ) is also 320 pixels wide. But there you have a border at the left and right of the screen.

    On the screenshots I've seen, the VBXE graphics doesn't have a border. Does this mean that VBXE pixels are wider than gr. 8 pixels? I would have expected that the pixel size would be the same.

     

    Is the VBXE limited to 320 display pixels per line? The Atari native graphics have a wide playfield mode of 384 pixels that displays graphics in the borders and narrow playfield mode of 256 pixels where the borders are bigger. I would have expected that the VBXE screenshots without a border are 384 pixels wide.

     

    Regards,

     

    Robert

     

     

    Edit: This video shows that the VBXE logo is displayed in the borders of a normal gr. 0 screen

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blpeNPgY668

  13. Posted

    They market equivalent devices for several consoles, but since there were no tools to make software for the Jaguar until recently the platform was ignored. When software tools were found, the rest was almost a no-brainer. The hardware was adapted to the Jaguar and I ported the console BIOS in short order.

     

    A device made for other consoles, adapted for the Jaguar? Is it a GameGenie device to poke unlimited lives? Then can I finally finish some Jaguar games :P

     

    Robert

  14. Posted

    A while back I was asked to write some firmware for a Jaguar device and when I finished my work I was paid and I moved on and didn't hear anything for months. I was contacted again to make a few changes to the software and hopefully this time it will be done.

     

    A new device for the Jaguar? That makes me curious.

    Can you tell more about it?

     

    Robert

  15. Posted

    For the DIP adapter is something like this is what is meant, or is it something more complicated? Forgive me, but this is far outside my knowledge. I'm willing to make the effort, somehow I will put this together..... ; )

     

    I believe it is more like the connector/adapter on the left of the picture below. In the adapter you will put a band cable and press the two halfs together to fix the cable. The band cable will go to the VBXE board. Then you remove the ANTIC and plug this thing in the ANTIC socket. Finally you put the ANTIC on top of the connector/adapter.

     

    Robert

     

    a0005284.jpg

  16. Posted

    It sounds like a very interesting upgrade. From what I understand ANTIC/GTIA graphics is combined with the VBXE graphics but it is not clear to me how the graphics is combined.

    Is the video output of the GTIA chip combined with the VBXE video output?

    Or is the GTIA chip shadowed/emulated in the VBXE boards and is the ANTIC output processed by the VBXE board and combined with the VBXE video output?

     

    - ANTIC chip is located on board in DIP2IDC connector adapter, so vbxe can be removed in any point of time - no soldering required

     

     

    What is a DIP2IDC connector? Does it mean you have to de-solder the ANTIC chip first or is it put on top of the ANTIC?

     

    Robert

  17. Posted · Edited by rdemming

    As I see it, the new UltraSatan Disk pretty much eliminates the need for a floppy drive emulator. Just buy one and a copy of HDDRIVER and you can transfer 512 megs of software to the ST at an instant, using a cheap SD card.

     

    SatanDisk and UltraSatan are great devices but they are harddisk replacements and not floppy replacements. Many games/demo run only from floppy and can't be put and run from a harddisk device (like UltraSatan) unless they are hacked/modified to run from harddisk.

    The guys from D-Bug, Klapauzius and P.Putnik are working hard to make lots of games runnable from harddisk but lots of games/demos are still not converted. So for those you still need a floppy drive emulator.

     

    Luckilly there is floppy emulator that works for various computers like Amiga and Atari ST:

    HxC Floppy Emulator

    HxC Floppy Emulator forum

     

    Look in the forum for Peter Sieg. He made a few more boards in february. Maybe he still have some left.

    Easiest is to replace the internal floppy with this board but it can be attached to external floppy port as well if you make the right cable. But to make the external drive act as drive A so you can boot from it, you will need to add a drive A<>B exchange switch to the ST as well.

     

    Robert

  18. Posted

    From a post long ago:

    When you consider Silver & Gold, Amy, Rainbow and several other chips were already laid out and in simulations and also some had initial fab samples produced, architectures and designs were already spec'd out and some even breadboarded...

     

    I know Amy was the ill-fated soundchip but I never heard about the "Silver & Gold" and "Rainbow" chips.

    Is there some more info on that?

     

    Thanks.

     

    Robert

  19. Posted

    I don't think full 130XE mode could be done on the XL without internal mods.

     

    The PBI doesn't seem to output anything from PORTB although I imagine it could be shadowed and the decoding done offboard.

    That could cover the bank selecting, but there also seems no way of distinguishing between Antic or CPU reads.

     

    The XE ECI has the /HALT signal though, so it should be possible there.

     

    Yes, the original Turbo Freezer XL was a PBI device that optionally came with extra memory. It shadowed writes to PORTB to implement 130XE style bank-switching. But to make it compatible with the Antic/CPU mode, you needed to solder an extra wire (I believe the HALT line) to the PBI bus.

     

    Robert

  20. Posted · Edited by rdemming

    6MB just works with no bank switching. It was originally meant for developers who want to work on a debug build that is bigger than their eventual 4MB target. But maybe someone will release some bigger carts.

     

    Tursi is still hammering out the final features and sample code for the new Skunkboards, so I'm not sure if we'll have an 8MB bankswitch mode or not. If there is a developer who thinks this is very useful now is a good time to make your case.

     

    From what I understand from the documentation and other discussions is that the cart space normally used for the encrypted cart header, is now used for the SkunkBoard firmware. This area ($800000-$801FFFF) is only 8KB and I understand it is already quite full. So the 2MB flash space that is normally not available to carts could be used for extended SkunkBoard firmware, like a BIOS for communicating with USB memory sticks, hard disks, mice, keyboards, etc.

    Just an idea though :roll:

     

    Robert

  22. Posted · Edited by rdemming

    Well, I've got an Adspeed that I bought some time ago. I've got the original floppy disks that came with it. For the life of me though, I can't find the docs and installation instructions. Anyone have these, or know where I can obtain them? I'd be glad to reimburse somebody for making copies and mailing them to me.

     

    Sorry for the late reply. It took a while to scan the AdSpeed manual but I've put it finally online.

    The 13 scanned pages can be found here

     

    Robert

  23. Posted · Edited by rdemming

    Seem to remember though that the ST Multiface had a thingy which plugged into the monitor port??

    900159[/snapback]

     

    Quite right, so that you could take snapshots of game screens etc .. on the fly (like photographs)

    900162[/snapback]

     

    Yes, the wire causes a monitor change interupt so the Multiface cart could stop the running program and break in. Unfortunately it is a no brainer to disable that interupt and most games disabled it so that was quite useless in practice. But I liked the file manager/copier of cart.

     

    Another cartridge product is the ROM-drive from a german company called Dela. This was a 512KB bankswitched rom cartridge. Using the accompanied software your favourite programs could be put on EPROMS and the ST saw the ROM-drive as a read-only harddisk.

     

    Robert

  24. Posted

    BTW, does anybody have the rare Dutch release of Bounty Bob Strikes Back! by Aackosoft?

     

    Yes, I bought it on tape here in The Netherlands when I was a child. Later I converted the tape version to disk (not an .exe but a bootdisk with the original tape loader screen. I just replaced the tape loading code with disk sector loading code.)

    I've attached it to this message. Oh, yes, it runs on a standard 64K machine.

     

    Robert

     

     

    P.S. When I tried to attach the .atr file I got an error saying: "Upload failed. You are not permitted to upload a file with that file extension.". Since when is that? Tried it as a .zip file now.

    bbsb.zip

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