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ivop

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Posts posted by ivop

  2. Posted · Edited by ivop

    27 minutes ago, Mark Simonson said:

    @ivop Except then you couldn't use input from devices (joysticks, trackballs, tablets) connected to the joystick ports on the Atari with the emulator. I guess if you also have something like 2600-daptor II this would not be an issue (except for tablets, which apparently aren't supported by the 2600-daptor II).

    Trackball, mouse, and tablet data cannot be send through an (emulated) USB keyboard. That would need a driver at the PC side. Joystick could be done though, as most emulators have a keyboard emulation of the joystick on, for example, the numeric keypad. A movement or trigger press can then be sent as those keycodes by the AVR.

  3. Posted

    41 minutes ago, Mark Simonson said:

    OR, maybe use a real Atari as input to an emulator somehow.

    That would be the way to go IMHO.

    41 minutes ago, Mark Simonson said:

    Has anything like this ever been done?

    Not that I know of, but it's a good idea. Boot from a cartridge, send keystrokes over the joystick port(s) to an Arduino, which emulates an USB keyboard (tons of libraries for that), and connect to the PC as a keyboard. With a proper cart, you don't need a display for the Atari, or anything else for that matter. Just a power supply.

    • Like 2

  5. Posted · Edited by ivop

    Here's both a top and bottom statusbar.

     

    atari001.png.447100b568008fc52d80a2ac021ee33a.png atari002.png.cc12086cbc424e05e7e9b75059ca6e78.png

     

    That's 94 bytes at the bottom of page six.

     

    We could turn this into an AUTORUN.SYS, and save a bunch of BASIC token space :)

     

    Edit: the ; at the end of status strings is important, or it'll try to print a cursor on the next line, which is non-existent.

     

    Edit2: have a working AUTORUN.SYS now. Will release source etc... shortly. Working on a demo program. Must have been years since I've done so much BASIC programming ;)

     

    test.atr

    • Like 3

  6. Posted

    BTW I added line 10 so I didn't need to do that manually every time I checked if it was already working. If you leave it out, and only run line 20-80 once, you get the statusbar without a full reset of E:.

     

    It's a pity there are no width and height E: variables 😕 Otherwise, it would be ease to subtract 1 of the height, and only temporarily adding 1 while printing to the lowest line. That would be a low cost bottom bar. But alas.

     

    BTW2 note that the previous post does not overwrite anything of the original DL, even though the jump is wrong at the end. The first VBI will overwrite the ANTIC registers anyway with the contents of its shadow register. Looking into extending this to a top and bottom bar, but that would need to overwrite the $41 instruction at the end of the DL, and point back to somewhere on page 6, for the extra DL line and 40 bytes of screen memory.

     

  8. Posted

    7 hours ago, emkay said:

    This gives me an idea. 

    Isn't it possible to change the LZSS Player to play as a VBI without the graphical interface?

    Sure, that's how the player eventuallywill be used, without the VU meters, etc...

     

    7 hours ago, emkay said:

    So it could run any tune in Basic , while you enter a listing , or run a basic program at all. 

    (A touch of multitasking) . 

    Funny though, nothing is interfering POKEY there, even the key click ;)

    On the emulator side a drag and drop to the emulator, and after initializing, it jumps to the Basic start screen.

    Just for the giggles , if you understand ;)

    Two downsides. One, you need RAM for the LZSS compressed data. Two, loading and saving through SIO will mess with the music.

  9. Posted

    36 minutes ago, rensoup said:

    Isn't time to start a thread where we can throw in ideas and disagree about what a new tracker should be ? 😀

    Aren't you sending a lot of data per frame though ? 

    Yes, it was just an example of what could be done (I sound like emkay now ;)). This can never be in-game music, but possibly during a title screen.

     

    Less CPU hungry, but still 5 channels, could be RMT2LZSS plus a low frequency 1-bit beeper GTIA channel at say 4 or 8 DLIs per frame. At 400Hz, you can play bass up to 200Hz square wave, and/or do kick drums.

    • Like 1

  10. Posted · Edited by ivop

    2 hours ago, emkay said:

    Btw. I wonder if somewhere in the future a 5 channel Tracker for the Atari will appear ;)

    Similar to how GoatTracker/atarisid/RMT2LZSS could work together, you can also play a beeper tune on GTIA alongside. It's just a matter of assigning just enough CPU time to each.

     

    Imagine two softsynth channels, two 64kHz Pokey channels, and one or two beeper voices or a low sampled bass or kick drum channel on GTIA :)

     

    And SID (emulation) to LZSS could be written (save cycles in comparison to running the original C64 6502 player code which I do now), and something similar could be done with beeper/sequenced samples on the 1-bit GTIA channel.

     

    SID2LZSS could be nice for the C64 folks, too :)

    • Like 1

  11. Posted · Edited by ivop

    46 minutes ago, zbyti said:

     

    How was this recorded? This sounds worse than I remember how an original SID (not emulation) sounds. Where are the higher frequencies? It sounds like AM radio. Everything above 8kHz is cut at least 6dB per octave 😕

     

    I know C64/SID aficionados have trouble hearing anything above 10kHz, but even on SID this should sound way beter. The lead flute sounds like the player has a blanket over its head ;)

     

    Edit: the ST remix you posted after this sounds way more open. It's like breath of fresh air compared to the SID version. It's how a dog feels if his leach is finally removed and he can finally run free in the park :) 

    • Haha 3

  12. Posted · Edited by ivop

    5 minutes ago, bob1200xl said:

    Where is the link location?

    Don't know which browser you use, but you probably have a location bar/field. That's the link. If you select the whole string, CTRL-C, and CTRL-V where you want to paste it. For example, this is a link to this current thread https://atariage.com/forums/topic/316719-video-garbage-on-just-obtained-1200xl/page/1 . I clicked display as link. If I don't do that, it becomes this:

     

     

  13. Posted

    25 minutes ago, bob1200xl said:

    How do I point to an old thread?

    Just go to the thread, copy the link location, and paste it here. Currently the forum software even creates some sort of sub-window, showing partially the first post, and means to go to that thread, either in the current tab or a new one.

  14. Posted · Edited by ivop

    The downside of using a SID emulator (like atarisid) is that it uses 90-95% CPU time, approaching 100% at peak times. Not much left for a display, let alone a game.

     

    You can just use GoatTracker, and after conversion to atarisid, you can replay it with whatever waveforms you can define in 256 bytes of data.

     

    Currently, atarisid 6.1 uses channel one for the 15.6kHz timer, and the other three channels to replay either samples, or noise. The latter is done by a native Pokey noise generator. If you can assure the first SID voice never uses noise, you can get away with three pokey channels. Channel one will serve both the timer interrupt and a volume only channel. CPU cost will be the same though. Now cut out SID voice 3, and it'll take only two pokey channels and perhaps 25% less CPU time. Then can you play a modified RMT2LZSS on Pokey channel 3 and 4 and have a decent title screen, for example. Not a game though.

     

    I have mentioned these ideas several times on AA, but nobody has ever picked up the glove, so to speak :) Me neither, although I did some experiments with different waveforms. I call it atarisid and/or SID emulation, but underneath it's just a generic softsynth.

    • Thanks 1

  15. Posted

    SID has only three channels. The 2A03 has five channels. Two PWM, one triangle, one noise and one (low replay rate) sample channel. The above cybernoid drums are samples. And the 2A03 sounds a lot more brighter to begin with :)

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    Do you still have an Atari computer? Do you have a diskdrive? (1050 or otherwise)

     

    I backuped all my disks with an 800XL, MyIde1, and a real 1050. But, for example, if you don't have a computer, but you do have a diskdrive, something like this could be helpful. Works with Mac and Linux, too, apparently. I have no experience with this product.

     

    If you don't have any Atari equipment anymore, a Kryoflix with matching drive might be an option, too. Not sure how the Mac support is on that one.

  18. Posted

    This probably won't work every time. Especially if more variables are added. There's no guarantee that DLIST$ and STAT$ are properly aligned (1kB and 4kB alignment).

     

    A possible solution would be to overwrite the first three $70/112/'p' of the OS generated display list with a jump to page 6. Do your status bar there, including its screen memory, and jump back to the original display list.

     

    • Like 2

  19. Posted · Edited by ivop

    43 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

    I'm expecting much more PBI ROM and RAM space for future expansion, but there are not currently any plans to implement multiple discreet PBI device handlers on the same hardware.

    I'm a VHDL/Verilog n00b, but it would be nice if the PBI ROM of say 128kB (64 banks) would be split in two or more PBI devices.

     

    But if not, the first PBI ROM bank could install several drivers that all dispatch through the first bank, and select the bank they need for further processing.

     

    Quote

    The 2KB ROM window is hardly a limitation at all. The existing U1MB PBI BIOS ROM is 8K in size, but split across 4x 2KB banks. Inter-bank JSRs are accomplished by macros which call the entry code which is located at the same location at the top of every 2KB bank (where the exit wrapper is also situated). Overheads are small, although one obviously seeks to avoid inter-bank calls in speed crtitical sections. But you can scale this up as large as you need to go without too much trouble. Likewise the SIDE3 loader does a lot of bank switching (although the banks are 8KB in size there). The OSS languages (BASIC XL, Action!, etc) are other good examples of very efficient, tightly coded bank-switched ROMs (they have one static 4K ROM bank and a 4K banked window).

     

    Very true. The same way you do inter-bank JSRs and return would be needed between the main OS bank and the "other" banks(s). Bigger window size is always welcome, but it's indeed questionable if timing critical routines need more than 2kB :)

     

     

    Edit: either way, it would be completely in the spirit of the original OS. No OS changes are necessary. And considering that most drivers probably need more than 2kB anyway, a dispatch bank would not significantly increase the execution time.

  21. Posted

    3 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

    Not to mention those without a hard drive who enjoy the U1MB's built-in OS agnostic high-speed SIO driver which is capable of divisor 0 transfers.

    👍

    3 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

    In fact, the PBI/NewDevice API is a perfect way to extend the functionality of the OS without having to write a new operating system at all. All the U1MB PBI BIOS is essentially doing is incorporating driver code into the OS without changing the underlying OS. If one is going to rely on third-party hardware anyway (U1MB or some new variant thereof) in order to have a 32K bank switched OS presumably packed with driver code, you might as well just build additional PBI device handlers into it (the stock OS supports up to eight) to accomplish what you want. PBI handlers can even register themselves as HATABS device drivers, so you could have - say - a PBI 80 column display driver which didn't require the loading of any drivers at all.

    Yes, maybe it's a better idea to increase the PBI ROM space significantly instead of leaving the OS ROM bank switch register unlocked. Although an option to have that ability could still be nice, because with a 2kB PBI ROM window, you might have to split up drivers to fit in several banks, which is not needed if you can temporarily switch in ~10kB of new ROM code. I'd say implement both options :)

     

  22. Posted · Edited by ivop

    16 minutes ago, ZuluGula said:

    No, we can't have this. If you watch @candle video, you will see that his friend asked him exactly for the same what you want, but he said no, "I will make U1MB plus SIDE3 instead".

    But that doesn't mean we can't have this. It's just that candle says he won't provide it. Anybody else is free to design their own. The last few days I'm in the mood of posting ideas that others might pick up for a new project, or that lead to other ideas and/or solutions.

     

    Quote

    There's also internal, drop in 64k memory upgrade that require one wire soldered.

    https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=291

    The "problem" is that for some people this is already way too much. Even opening up the computer is challenging for some, let alone remove the shielding when its not screwed to the board. Then, either remove the RAM chips (hopefully socketed, if not...), or remove the resistors going to the RAM chips. But which resistors? And just cut them, leaving the pins in place? Most non-technical people have already stopped here. Then you need to lift a 40-pin chip without breaking its pins, assuming it was already socketed (or desolder, place socket, etc...), And finally one or two more wires to solder.

     

    That's not really drop-in IMHO. A 1064 (clone). That's drop-in. Or plug-in, in this case :)

  24. Posted

    38 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

    As for easy to find, no.  See my signature; I've been looking for one for some time.

    I wonder how hard it would be to make a 1064 replica with SRAM. I'd say, edge connector, small PCB with 64kB SRAM and minimal logic, pass through edge. Cost at quantity of 10+ probably less than $20 a piece. Note that this is an idea, and I'm not planning on making such a device ;)

    • Like 2
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