Chilly Willy

That's what they pay programmers with right now. Damn lawyers want all our glittery unicorn farts! Funny, you spend thirty years teaching business students that "greed is good" and law students that "if it's not specifically forbidden, it's implicitly permitted, and courts are about LAW, not justice" and for some reason the country goes to hell in a handbasket. Go figure...

This. 99% of the problems today have a lawyer at the root trying to make a buck. I'm not saying 99% of lawyers are that way, just that the few that are make 99% of todays woes. You don't even need to dig to find the lawyer at the root in most cases... they're right there in the thick of it, usually. Examples please. Patent trolls and abuse of copyright (RightHaven is a prime example) are two that most computer folks follow. Those are examples where lawyers don't even hide the fact that they are just parasites on the economy. Abuse of patents is rampant in many other fields, particularly GM crops. Google Monsanto for one of the worst.

There are several flashcarts for the Genesis (and compatible systems like the Nomad and CDX), and at least two of them support the 32X as well. I have an Everdrive and it works very well with the 32X. I don't think I had to patch Darxide manually to get it to work -- IIRC I believe the Everdrive's automatic region patching handled it. I haven't played it on a PAL system so I can't evaluate any differences in speed, but otherwise as far as I could tell it played perfectly. Yes, DarXide only uses the region code for determining if it should run. It's "A" by default, which is foreign and domestic PAL. Change it to "F" for world support. You can do that in a hex editor, or with a GG/PAR code, or using the multi-region option in the Everdrive. Fortunately, that's the ONLY thing you need to do. The cart handles any region fine without any other patches. SEGA-16 or SpritesMind. http://www.sega-16.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?11-32X-Power! http://www.sega-16.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?28-Blast-Processing http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=4 http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=8 Tremor OGG-Vorbis Mono 22kHz test: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?9acgq3givvi8kvd Yeti3D Low-res with level MODs and sound effects: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?a9y2dnhm3e9dfrc 32xrick: http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/2/3/2304902/32xrick-20110430.7z Mod player with various MODs: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?u23t64xrn11ihmm That should get you started.

This. 99% of the problems today have a lawyer at the root trying to make a buck. I'm not saying 99% of lawyers are that way, just that the few that are make 99% of todays woes. You don't even need to dig to find the lawyer at the root in most cases... they're right there in the thick of it, usually.

I've got a Model 1 Sega CD. On top of that sits a Model 1 Genesis. On that, there's a 32x. In the 32x is a Neo Myth MD cart with an Neo2SD. In the Neo 2 SD is an SD adaptor containing a microSD card. It gets a bit ridiculous, but it can do just about anything. The only real problem is that it can't play SMS games with the 32X attached, so there's a bit of swapping. I just need to hook up a 2nd Genesis or get a master system flash cart. I keep the 32X on the model 2. I have another 32X I sometimes put on the CDX for testing, but I normally leave it off so I can use the CDX for SMS games. I also have the SMS mod on my Nomad so I can play SMS games on it, too. The Nomad + SMS mod + Neo Myth/Everdrive == great portable fun! If you are playing SMS games via flash cart on the Nomad, there's no difference between the Myth and ED since the Nomad doesn't have the audio line inputs on the cart port, so the Myth's YM2413 FM chip for SMS mode can't be heard on the Nomad. Oh well... A flash cart is great for those super rare 32X games, like DarXide or the protos like Virtual Hamster and X-Men. There's a little 32X homebrew (mainly by yours truly ), including shareware versions of Wolf3D and Spear of Destiny, Rick Dangerous (full version), and a few demos like Yeti3D, and MOD player, and (just recently) an ogg-vorbis player.

I think Rex Dart meant that you could power the 32X by using an aftermarket (or homemade) 9-pin cable that connects the 5V line. I haven't tried this, but there are a couple things floating around the net that say it would work, though there's some concern about putting additional load on the Genesis power supply. BTW my memory is that when the 32X was unpowered and I tried to play a Genesis games, I could hear the sounds, but couldn't see the video properly (I have a vague recollection of seeing something that resembled certain LCD screens with the backlight turned off -- shades of black on black). I could be wrong, though. That would make sense since the 32X has the RGB mixer in it as well as its own RGB to composite encoder. You would need to run the video directly out from the Genesis to see anything as the mixer wouldn't be getting (enough) power.

Not really. I mean, maybe if there's a way to hack up a single A/C, sure, maybe it will work (maybe), but if you only have the A/C plugged into the Genesis, it's either A) doubtful that games will work at all, or B) if they do, likely many (most) things won't display when playing a 32X game. Sound may play if the game utilizes the Genesis sound chip, likewise if some of the visuals or backgrounds rely on the Genesis hardware, but nothing 32X-wise will be particularly playable if they even come up at all. Supposedly, Genesis games work with only the Genesis being powered; if true (haven't verified it myself), it's because the 32X is "off" while the Genesis game is playing. It will NOT work guaranteed for 32X games. You cannot pull enough power through the cart slot to power the 32X while active.

You probably want FROTZ. http://frotz.sourceforge.net/

The boxes look familiar. From the list posted earlier, I know I have the Electronics and Physics... in a box somewhere. I thought it was chemistry, but I'm fairly sure now I was confusing it with the physics tape. I'm not sure what else I have as I boxed all that up at least a couple decades ago.

No progress there... People prefer to talk about worse programs on worse machines Well, it hasn't updated in a while (on the topic), but the OLDEST thing in that thread is newer than the NEWEST thing in this thread.

That's part of the Talk and Teach system. I just noticed I missed a batch of 16 of them on eBay. Dang it. And they were all tapes I didn't have. If anyone wants to loan or sell theirs to me, I'll see about getting started with recordings. Knowing how things go, the ones I have are ones you already have. I really need to dig out more of my Atari stuff. I've been getting by with just my 65XE and an SIO2SD. I've got the original cassette version of Necromancer as well. I made a program to make a DOS file from the cassette at one point so I could play it from floppy instead of cassette (it took a LONG time to load!).

Good lord, what a necro! Look at the Project-M 2.0 thread at the top of the first page.

I have a bunch of educational tapes somewhere in a box. One on chemistry, one on electronics, etc. They have an instructor who gives a lecture while data from the cassette is used to draw diagrams, then the tape is paused while questions are displayed and the Atari waits for the user to answer the multiple choice question. It was really cool.

$23 is not 24 lines, it's 36 lines. Hexadecimal FTW!

funny thing, but i also make full block in my fpga design, BUT (!) today i detected that each last block really have only 64byte by some reason - first 64 byte usable, other 64 bytes it just a mirror of next block, so probably it is some n64 specific thing. Weird, but about par for the course with Nintendo. Everything looks good, then they toss in something weird just to keep you on your toes.

The issue isn't FRAM versus SRAM, it's the WAY the FRAM is ACCESSED. Nintendo used a pretty silly method of accessing FRAM compared to SRAM (FRAM chips are designed to drop in to SRAM designs, so the way FRAM is accessed on the N64 is Nintendo's fault and not due to the FRAM itself). Even if he used real FRAM, he'd still have to add that crazy access interface to the firmware; if it has trouble with SRAM, it would have the SAME trouble with FRAM. The MAIN difference between FRAM and SRAM is the SRAM requires battery backed power while the FRAM doesn't. As mentioned above, FRAM generally comes in standard SRAM packages and pinouts to be a drop-in replacement without the need for batteries. do you know how flashram access works in actual games? currently my flashram implementation work just file if i use N64FlashRAM.c functions for access, but does not work in game. why need to repeat each write operation twice? also weird thing with last block in each slot, only 64byte, but what should happen if try to read/write all 128byte in last block? I don't know how games handle it - I went by what was in the latest libn64-alt used by scummvm. http://pastebin.com/4HzCFkSN It's a little different from yours... maybe you were working from an older version. EDIT: Sorry, it's the same. I wasn't looking at it close enough. What concerns me about this code is that last shortened block, giving 960 bytes instead of 1024. The N64 Myth just goes ahead and does a full 1024 bytes - there's no shortened block.

I used the keypad a lot in games that let you set the keys. The keypad was MUCH better for directional control than the cursor keys, for example. And don't get me started about WASD games...

That was my concern as well Yeah but in cases like that you can use one of the external third party numeric keypads. Does he have one? That wasn't mentioned that I saw.

1984 - the Amiga Lorraine is released and all other video consoles tank. The Lorraine was only redesigned to be a home computer because of the VG crash of 83. Without the crash, the Lorraine would have taken the VG market by storm.

That was my concern as well, but if you don't have any of those games and don't plan on getting them, the A600 would be better to keep. Granted, I kept my A500.

Almost EIGHT years ago! Your perseverance on this project is incredible. Respect! Much respect! Not only did he persevere, but the game turned out to be incredibly awesome! Quite often, after so many years devs will sometimes do anything just to get done. Kudos for not doing that.

Yes, I was going to mention that everyone has their own ideas about what is "fast". My Amiga mice come from the early 90s. Maybe they're getting slow in their old age. Yes, definitely. I'm awed at how responsive the gui is... windows snap into place when moved, menus blink in and out of being, menu items hilite sharply as you move the mouse.... I've seen worse GUI response from 2GHz PCs. I understand this GUI doesn't have as much it's doing underneath as compared to Windows or linux, but it's all perception to the user - the interface FEELS fast, so it IS fast.

Thinking about the mouse movement issue a while, it probably has to do with the counts per inch. If I remember correctly, the original Amiga ball mice were 200 cpi, while the Boing! mouse was supposed to be 300 or 400... I forget exactly. The new Boing Ball mice sold for the Amiga all advertise 1000 cpi, so it's no wonder you have to move them slowly to work right.

I'll try the demo on my Boing mouse and see how it responds... Okay, tried it on my 65XE... works like a charm! Moving the mouse "normally" is smooth and fluid. I have to move the mouse REALLY fast before it has a problem. I noticed that I can move the mouse faster to the right without trouble than to the left. Maybe a difference in how the code processes the mouse. I noticed that the zoom gadget only goes to full-screen, not back. I suppose that's coming, along with close gadget handling. But, I like what I see so far. Excellent work! EDIT #2: Attract mode isn't canceled by moving the mouse or clicking the mouse buttons, but only by pressing a key. You might want to fix that.

Wow - a LOT of that is really outdated. The NeoFlash part is really outdated, and an Everdrive section needs to be added.