acadiel

Pppppth. We all know Windows 98 running on a modern piece of hardware will run rings around everything else, even this new fangled XP of which you speak. :-)

Never named Level 1. Level 2 was the "Space Ships". I always called level 3 the "Pound Sign". I always loved level 4, called those the "mailboxes". Super duper speed, felt pretty darn awesome on that level. Always called level 5 the "Pirates" and level 6 the "Rain Showers". 7, don't remember naming, and 8 were the "Bats". Level 9 were the "spinning lines" and they almost always killed me on that level. Level 10 were the hurricanes (what do you expect; I lived in Texas and Louisiana). Level 11 were the "X's", Level 12 were the "walking playing cards". Never really named anything level 13 and above. I did finish level 20 once (the invisible level). By the time I got to that level, my hands were so sore from those TI joysticks that I was glad to put them down.

How's Tutankham or that navy-themed game going?

Someone could probably figure out how to use a cassette player and Mini memory to load the DSR.

... and if you guys haven't seen Matthew's BankSwitch Mini, it is one awesome piece of circuit board! Damn nice job, Matthew. http://codehackcreate.com/archives/208

On a side note, I agree. It makes life hard. 2.54mm vs .1 inch, for example. I think it needs to start with our education system, but they're not doing it. And, then, when you have someone like me who has it ingrained in them for the past 40 years...

Yep, mdude on eBay. He is how we got shells for the 64K boards back then.

I will upload the stl file for that 3 hole revision here soon. Do you want .05in added to the front facing side, Ksarul?

Bart PE booted up very quickly... So did Puppy Linux :-)

I'm using an old 844USB from BK Electronics. It's a rebadged Elnec programmer, and they seem to update the software for it quite frequently for new devices :-) Definitely not a budget programmer, but after some of the cheap ones I bought on eBay, it definitely works well out of the box, which is what I wanted. I find my patience level for inexpensive stuff which you have to fiddle with has gone down as I approach 40.

Yep, aren't we dealing with 8 and 16V regulated down to 5 and 12V? Find a regular connector, and you could almost put a small PC PSU on it. Would something like this work plugged right into the motherboard? http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-PINS-HDD-Hard-Drive-Disk-HDD-2A-12V-5V-PSU-Power-Supply-Adapter-for-DOCKING-/170764014823 Edit: Yeah, the above doesn't have a -5V, so apparently the console needs a 10V differential too? Edit 2: Would this one work? http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=196138&

We always knew you Europeans were unique. :)

We need to find this guy to see if he still has the source code.

Gazoo, stock 99/4A system except for F18A, and Corcomp Mini Peripheral Expansion system. That is it :-)

Some thoughts now that I had a couple hours (on and off, mostly off) to mess with the UberGROM cart (PLCC). It's getting really hard to find hobby time lately. 1) The 49F040's are rock solid. They program and verify A-OK. The sockets on the boards are what's causing my grief with them. The sure fire way to fix it (and I've been having to do it frequently) are to take a little needle (one of those like that comes with a collared shirt, really tiny), and stick it in the hole behind the metal contact on the socket; each one of them; do it STRAIGHT DOWN, don't bend it at an angle. That bends them out enough to where they work again. If we go to prod with these boards, we might want to find a different manufacturer of the sockets. 2) I've successfully gotten Gazoo's util cart, Gazoo's games cart, Tursi's Bank Test, and Tursi's Multicart working with the 49F040 boards. 3) Some of my 74LS378's power up in the first bank, some in the last. Don't ask me why. They're all TI brand. They don't have a defined power up state, but now with 512K, we can probably afford putting a safety feature in the last bank just in case as well as the normal first bank. (In fact, let's just make that a standard.) 4) Gazoo's games cart, the latest version, (I haven't reviewed the utility one yet for functionality) only has a few things I noticed offhand on a real console with a Corcomp Mini PEB attached: Blasto just resets my system Blackjack and Poker does the same Hopper has something strange (not sure if it's the cart or the F18A) where I can move the kangaroo throughout the WHOLE screen; that's right, she goes through just about anything. Everything else appears to work (selecting game and trying to start it). I need to buy some more materials to finish making four that Ksarul sent me (mostly sockets and caps). I the meantime, I tried to make 2048 into a cart (thinking it was a 16K ROM image), and couldn't do so, but I'll look at it a little closer and make sure it's meant to be a 16K banked ROM.

Were the final GROMs actually different than that was in the Cyc? What's this BASIC Support module?

Yeah, it really needs a reset button (maybe a DPST that remove power from the 378 as well as reset the console). But with this cart, you don't need the 32K expansion; it'll work on a stock console. Thus, it worked for someone like my father, who still has a stock console which he and his other grandkids play with. A couple cool things about the program; just as trivia; Tursi did a really cool job with the 256 bytes in VDP making this work, and Sometimes99er did an outstanding job on the font and the graphics! (I really do like the font and graphics....)

I have fixed versions (some of those ROMs actually write to ROM) of the 8K ROMs all in the multicart.bin which I uploaded earlier in the thread... the 8K Tursi Multicart I've also uploaded it below. No EA/5 versions; they were all actual 8K ROMs (I tried to be pretty inclusive about every 8k ROM that was ever released in cart format). MultiCart actually switches banks for you. This will work in the UberGROM board or the 512K ROM Board. Atrax and myself both have working copies of this. You will also notice multiple copies of Multicart in some of the sections; this was either because there were too many menu options, or we just wanted to fill stuff out. I've attached the reversed version that works with the first power up bank (>00000 and >7E000 switched). It will also work with a 379 version with the switches (2 switches - up/up, down/down, up/down, down/up) as a 128Kx4 Multicart if you switch those two back, because the 379 needs the Multicart executable at the last "bank". 1/2/2010 This is a 128Kx4 multi-cart, using the www.hexbus.com cartridge board and the www.harmlesslion.com MultiCart program. You can either program a 27C040 and perform the switching necessary to get four 128K segments, or you can break this ROM into 128K parts, burn each to a 27C010, and run with a slightly modified 64K cartridge board. Pictures and guides are on www.hexbus.com. Almost every 8K ROM program ever made for the TI is in this EPROM, except: 1) Super Sketch (can't run without real hardware) 2) Typewriter 99 3) FigForth V2.1 4) DOS Offset Title ------ ----- 00000 Chicken Coop 02000 Console Writer 04000 Database Management 06000 Disk Fixer v2.0 08000 Frog Stickers 0A000 Homework Helper 0C000 Paint N Print GP-700 0E000 Paint N Print IBM 10000 Speed Reading A 12000 Speed Reading B 14000 Super Duper 16000 Topper 18000 Multicart 1A000 Multicart 1C000 Multicart 1E000 Multicart 20000 Ambulance 22000 Ant Colony 24000 Driving Demon 26000 Henhouse 28000 Rabbit Trail 2A000 Schnoz-ola 2C000 Shanghai 2E000 St. Nick 30000 Video Vegas 32000 Ant Eater 34000 Princess and Frog 36000 ROMOX Demo 38000 Rotor Raiders 3A000 Typo 3C000 Typoman 3E000 Multicart 40000 99 Home Sentry 42000 Black Hole 44000 Boxer 46000 Break Thru 48000 Burger Builder 4A000 Escape! 4C000 Midnite Mason 4E000 Corcomp Peripheral Test 50000 Pro Typer 52000 Space Patrol 54000 Spies Demise 56000 TI Planner 58000 TI Toad 5A000 TI/IBM Copier 5C000 Multicart 5E000 Multicart 60000 Giving/Letter World/Speed Key 62000 Link v0.99 64000 Tris 2 66000 Centipede 68000 Defender 6A000 /4A Flyer 6C000 D-Station I 6E000 D-Station II 70000 Face Chase! 72000 Munchman II 74000 Star Gazer I 76000 Star Gazer II 78000 Star Gazer III 7A000 Star Trap 7C000 Star Wars 7E000 Multicart Modifications needed to carts to get them to work in this multicart (from a stock ROM). References are assuming that it's an 8K ROM (>0000 to >1FFF), and note that these are all in hex. 99 Home Sentry Change the bytes at >1602 from 7320 to 0000. /4A Flyer Change the bytes at >1C7A from 783E to 0000. TI Planner Change the bytes at >04BE from C6DB to C01B. Change the bytes at >04DA from C6DB to C45B. Change the bytes at >04A2 from C6DB to C4DB. TI Toad Change the bytes at >160E to 0000. Disk Fixer Change the bytes starting at >0956 from "A0,60,83,2A" to "02,01,20,20" Change the byte at offset >05E3 from 24 to 28. Super Duper Change the bytes starting at >087E from "A0,60,83,2A" to "02,01,20,20" Change the byte at offset >055F from 24 to 28. Thanks to Tursi for help with the modifications to get the carts to run. -acadiel (www.hexbus.com) multicart_rev.BIN.zip

I've got the five drawer ones that are about 2 1/2' tall, which I got at Office Max. It can fit two rows of carts in each of the five drawers, and wedge some facing the other way on the side. Works really well for me.

Yeah, we need to make that a pass through side car for NanoPEB and Corcomp sidecar users :-). Need any help? :-)

Yeah, I'll have to look at that LOADER/B and see in its header where it's loading and how much space it's taking. I'm gathering it's loading in the lower 8K at >2000. Too bad I can't have the address lines for >4000 in the cart slot and stick some temporary RAM in the DSR space :-) That would open up some possibilities.

Just a little bit more clarification on the EPROM image... rather the GROM images like A-Maze-ing that seem to run as EA/5 programs... are these using those little GROM emulator stubs like in the DiskIt archive which I posted earlier? It was simply a E/A 5 program called LOADER/B, which you copied as CART1, and you then essentially daisy chained the hex-edited GROMs with a small PROGRAM header on them (12 bytes) that told the EA/5 loader if there was another segment or not, and where to load that segment. CHIP BEING DUMPED: 1 2 3 4 NEW VALUE FOR FIRST "0000": A000 B800 D000 E800 NEW VALUE FOR SECOND "0000": E000 E000 E000 E000 NEW VALUE FOR THIRD "0000": F7FF F7FF F7FF F7FF So, essentially, it was copying it to 32K (>A000, >B800, >D000, >E800), which were 6K increments. So, in other words, the upper 24K of expansion memory, for up to four GROMs and then RUNNING the GROMs natively (with the GROMs in the upper 32K memory expansion space.) So... my questions for the group in general: 1) Were the "recompiled GROMs linked as assembly (or however everyone is phrasing it)" in this Games GROM using the same tactic as this GPL loader stub which enabled GPL to run from >A000? 2) Who originally wrote these "run GROM from non GROM memory space" programs? 3) Can we put TOD in a cart using this same method (by putting the first 6K in the upper 8K of lower memory expansion and fixing this method slightly?) TOD is 5 GROMs, or 30K. It would even be super cool if we could put the PENNIES and KING quests in a ROM bank. Pardon my questions... but I want know more.

Got one of those... a nice one too. I still manage to mangle the pins from time to time. It might also be the sockets I used; there's three different variables at play there (chip, socket, PLCC puller). At least i can rule out the PLCC EEPROM DIP adapter.. that thing rocks.

Can we make a standalone RXB cart with the Ubergrom Cart? I think that is what they are asking - if we can fit other ROM stuff in with it, cool, if not, I'd also take a RXB cart with just the RXB GROMs and ROMs in it (and maybe a couple ROM utilities), just like I'm going to make a copy of your XB cart. The more variety, the better! It only has 16K GROM left if you're trying to fit in into the one you've already done

Not only that but the chips themselves are picky and/or get bent pins easily. :-)