FarmerPotato
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Posts posted by FarmerPotato
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Wondering if anyone got an adaptor with their programmer that fits SOIC20.
I'm looking for a SOIC20-DIP20 adaptor for the XGecu TL866II but none of the XGecu bundles on eBay seem to include bigger than SOIC16. Also annoying is how many bundles lack PLCC20.
This is an authorized XGecu seller, their store has bundles of TL866II plus adaptor assortments:
I want to gear up to program PAL replacements, so I'm focusing on the ATF16V8B $0.89 chip (Digikey) which comes in DIP20, PLCC20, SOIC20 (forget TSSOP because 0.65 mm pin spacing.)
SOIC 1.27mm is not the same thing as SOP 0.65mm but some Amazon listings of adaptors confuse them together.
Datasheet shows the 4 packages with measurements:
I like SOIC everything for my work though PLCC20 socketed is probably smarter. Maybe I should forget about programming the SOIC20 package and just use PLCC20?
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Well, I have got my TIPI up and running, but no way to create a login.
Using the latest version of Stuart's web browser, this is what "create account" shows:
www.myti99.com/account.pl?a=li Hi.
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My Pi3 won't power up. Grrr
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Fest 99/4ATX will be Friday-Sunday Aug 9-11, 2019 in Austin, TX.UPDATE: please use this Google Form to register yourself. We need to know how many folks want food!All are welcome. The main activity will be sharing what we know about the TI-99/4A computer, demonstrating projects and new products, and so on. Fixing broken 4As, soldering kits, and programming are all likely to happen. It really depends on what you want to do!The venue will be an air-conditioned classroom, with tables, whiteboard, and two large screens, at ATX Hackerspace on 9700 Dessau Rd. There is a lounge/kitchen/eating area. (There will be guided tours of members-only areas like electronics lab, laser cutter and 3D printing.)If anyone wants to do a presentation/stream, you would write that on the Google sheets schedule. Outside of the agenda, we will share about things TI, much like Chi-Friday. Set up your gear, gather in small groups, share, learn, fix things.The only charge will be $10 for official registration, which includes a raffle ticket, badge, snacks and drinks.
Otherwise it is open for casual observers (I would expect others from the hackerspace and the local C-64 group.)For Saturday food, we are putting together a group order for Cheko's breakfast tacos (a few dollars) and County Line BBQ ($15 each person).Details:
- Venue: ATX Hackerspace on 9700 Dessau Rd. Has air conditioned classroom, a lounge/kitchen, and wi-fi. Guided tours of electronics/laser/shop/3D printing.
- Format: BarCamp style. Attendees can announce a presentation in the classroom, otherwise free form.
- Security: we can put gear in a locked room overnight. The building is keyed entry. The classroom has doors but does not lock.
- Hardware: I can provide stock P-Boxes, 4A consoles, monitors so you can travel lighter. Electronics lab available.
- Lodging: Super 8 near ATXHS is as low as $58. Marriot $118. There are a lot of options.
- Food: Saturday: Breakfast Tacos. Lunch: barbecue delivery. Dinner: trip to Chuy's (Tex-Mex.)
- Live Streaming: Use Zoom to join for video/audio chat. https://zoom.us/j/7707370625
See and Edit the Agenda so far here:Zoom Channel for the event (install Zoom on your phone or computer)
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"TI licensed the design to AMI and SMC to increase its availability as well released a 4MHz capable part to help relieve the speed bottleneck"
May's email from Unicorn Electronics (Aliquippa, PA, not the other one) lists the AMI S9900-40P for $35. Is this the 4 MHz part?
They have had the AMI S9900-40P before for $20.
http://unicornelectronics.com/monthly.html
Stock # Package Pins Description SALE!! TMS9900 DIP 64 AMI S9900-40P Processor 34.88 TMS9901 DIP 40 Programmable System Interface 27.97 TMS1100NLP DIP 28 Microcontroller 17.47 SO16 DIP 16 16 Pin L.P. IC Socket 0.07 PAL14L4NC DIP 20 16 Input AND/OR Invert Gate Array 0.99 TIM9904NL DIP 20 Peripheral Interface 22.47 -
At last year's VCF the Super Sketch proved to be quite popular. Enough that I will have it up again this year. I have been making signs for the table and I wanted to make one up for the Super Sketch, only to run into a lack of good historical information. It was announced at the 1984 CES for $50, which also puts it about a year after the Koalapad, but that seems to be it.
I too can report that the Super Sketch is very popular. At MGC we had adults and kids trying it out. Several drew the whole bird picture. One kid did several of the practice sheets.
I have only my own memories from 1984-5. I knew some folks that purchased it at Unisource Electronics (Lubbock TX computer store with a catalog operation). I first played with it at a community craft/computer fair where they had the C-64 version.
The one in use at MGC came from a nice TI collection in Wisconsin that I bought in 2010; the owner had a lot of Tenex catalogs.
Chris Bobbitt reviewed Super Sketch in Micropendium, Jan 1985.
http://ftp.whtech.com/magazines/micropendium/mp8501.pdf
The review shows a price of $59.95 and adddress Personal Peripherals, 1505 S Green St, Longview TX 75602.
There is a Unisource ad on page 20 selling it for $44.95.
The review is all As, acknowledging Super Sketch shortcomings, while not calling it a dead end because it can't write to disk, or print.
(Who solved printing, by the way?)
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I got my TI up and found the disk file, but when i loaded it into E/A it said something about 'control character missing'. I will need to look at it some more.
Is it CONTROL CHARACTER REMOVED?
I have seen this somewhere, maybe a messed up file.
This error might be returned by EDIT1 (the editor) or possible ASSM1 (assembler), but the LOADER does not use it.
I think it refers to the last line of the file, which has the editor's tab settings, being an unexpected format.
These are some of the E/A error numbers. 0-7 I/O ERROR 8 MEMORY FULL 9 CONTROL CHARACTER REMOVED not used by loader. A ILLEGAL TAG (one of D,E,G,H) B CHECKSUM ERROR C DUPLICATE DEFINITION D UNRESOLVED REFERENCE E PROGRAM NOT FOUND not used by loader
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I'm pretty sure it was an internal TI deal. I was so young that I don't remember which demos that TI bought/published/distributed, but it seemed like they were all music demos he programmed in either Basic, Extended Basic, or Assembly.
I've got an unfinished version of a game called 'Caveman' he was working on in Assembly that was based on the Ringo Starr movie, as well.
His name was Sam Moore, Jr.
Sam Moore Jr was a big influence on me as a kid.I received a few of his music "videos" through friends. They were generally excellent in quality, so I loaded them many times.All of the pop songs were new to me as a kid, so I credit Sam Moore Jr with "educating" me in these pop standards, such as Time in a Bottle, Killing Me Softly, You're So Vain, Yesterday, plus a few classical works like Moonlight Sonata and the jazzy 5th of Beethoven and Bumble Boogie. The graphics were always fun.Here are listings of what's available in the Tigercub collections of Sam Moore Jr:Sam Moore Jr disks600, 601, 602, 603 in PC99 format (use ti99dir to extract files or convert to V9T9 dsk)600 : 343 used 17 free 90 KB 1S/1D 40T 9 S/T ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMAZEFILE 11 INT/VAR 80 2454 B 122 recs AMAZEGRACE 10 PROGRAM 2254 B BERCEUSE/X 35 PROGRAM 8655 B BUGLEBOOGX 31 PROGRAM 7557 B BUMBLBOOGB 45 PROGRAM 11116 B DOGBOOGIEX 38 PROGRAM 9340 B FORESTROSX 31 PROGRAM 7653 B LOAD 7 PROGRAM 1410 B MAINSCRX 17 PROGRAM 3925 B ODEPUPPYX 34 PROGRAM 8326 B VARTHEMEX 30 PROGRAM 7181 B VENUSRHAPX 26 PROGRAM 6297 B WESTBOOGX 26 PROGRAM 6257 B MOORE#2 : 345 used 15 free 90 KB 1S/1D 40T 9 S/T ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5THBEETHVX 47 PROGRAM 11574 B ALBUMLEAFX 46 PROGRAM 11444 B IN/MILL/X 38 PROGRAM 9371 B JUSTWAY/X 38 PROGRAM 9390 B KILMESOFTX 28 PROGRAM 6819 B LIGHTFILE 10 INT/VAR 80 2244 B 121 recs LIGHTLIFX2 16 PROGRAM 3802 B LOAD 7 PROGRAM 1334 B OP/23/X 30 PROGRAM 7307 B TIME-DATA 12 INT/VAR 80 2620 B 134 recs TIME/BOTX2 28 PROGRAM 6720 B YESTERDAYX 43 PROGRAM 10607 B MOORE#3 : 350 used 10 free 90 KB 1S/1D 40T 9 S/T ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOGOOGIEX 34 PROGRAM 8204 B GUITAR/X 20 PROGRAM 4773 B LOAD 7 PROGRAM 1345 B MOONLSON/X 49 INT/VAR 254 12090 B 48 recs MORNING/X 40 PROGRAM 9850 B NOCTURNE 41 PROGRAM 10218 B OZMEDLEY 42 PROGRAM 10384 B RONDO 41 PROGRAM 10068 B SEABOTTOM 23 PROGRAM 5400 B SENORITA 24 PROGRAM 5804 B VENBOAT/X 27 PROGRAM 6454 B MOORE#4 : 339 used 21 free 90 KB 1S/1D 40T 9 S/T ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIGCATBOOG 19 PROGRAM 4457 B CSONATA 43 PROGRAM 10668 B GRAYMOUSE 18 PROGRAM 4116 B KANGAROO 16 PROGRAM 3793 B LOAD 7 PROGRAM 1502 B MAPLELEAF 44 PROGRAM 10962 B MASH4077 40 PROGRAM 9934 B SILENCIA 14 PROGRAM 3240 B SNOWSCENE 11 PROGRAM 2393 B SPLENDORED 38 PROGRAM 9405 B SUNDAYDRIV 18 PROGRAM 4286 B WITCHDANCE 42 PROGRAM 10331 B WITHLOVE 27 PROGRAM 6495 B
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For the more interesting programs, the screen width was the main limiting factor. I remember way back when trying to convert a really cool naval warfare game (I think it's in Ahl's second book) but being thwarted by the fact that it required 80 columns...
I spent many after school days and summers working on programs out of the two David H. Ahl books of Creative Computing.
I remember adapting the red book's Seabattle to 28 columns with graphic characters (I especially liked the sea monster.) It's like TI Trek but with a submarine, torpedoes, island base, and sea monsters. (Apt, because the Enterprise is basically a submarine in space.) ("The real name of this program is, "Underwater Pie Lob")
From the first book my favorite was Hammurabi (I never had the TI version from Oldier but Goodies I), a strange lifelong affinity that 30 years later led me to the basement of the Oriental Institute of Chicago.
From the third book of much bigger programs, I adapted Dukedom to look nice in Extended Basic.
I purchased the eBooks of Ahl when he had an official website, and the BekerBot folio of robot illustrations from the books. I have converted some BekerBots into vector artwork and made one very large gold foil covered version.
Love those BekerBots.
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I would like to learn how to do this, and write the necessary code in FORTH.
The origin of FORTH was in controlling telescopes, a tradition which has all but vanished.
A while ago I did a search for available FORTH libraries for celestial calculations.
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Having fun with Dragon's Lair at Midwest Gaming Classic, Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee.
Mike's packaging material is on the easel. The poster art is on the joystick console
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I have a spare MiniMemory, new battery (I updated two MM recently.) Probably a few E/A as well. I'm using those same physical cartridges more than anything right now.
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I measure how fast I can blast 4k of bitmap data, for 1 frame of a 16x16 tile area of the screen. I store the pattern and color in chars 00-7F (each bank) for one frame.
checkr is a routine that blasts a 4x4 checkerboard pattern into the color table with a scrolled offset of 0-7. Registers are in PAD.
* Timing
Full blast 4k. Pat tbl all >F0 with vmsw 2k, color table with checkr 2k. All in CPU RAM. Music playing.
; 512 frames in 51 seconds with 2 vsync waits in a row. 10 fps or 6 ticks/frame
; 512 frames in 40 seconds with 1 vsync wait. 12 fps or 5 ticks/frame.
; 512 frames in 38 seconds with 0 vsync wait. Still around 5 ticks.
half blast 2k. color table only with checkr.
; 512 frames in 24 seconds. 21 fps or 3 ticks/frame.
half blast 2k. Inner loop of checkr in PAD.
; 512 frames in 21 seconds. 25 fps or 2-3 ticks/frame.
no music
; 512 frames in 17 seconds. 30 fps. 2 ticks/frame.
Cycle Analysis of checkr: T(a73e-a794)
N Cy N*Cy
1024 26 26624 movb r4,*r15 (8 movb per unrolled loop)
128 10 1280 dec r2
128 10 1280 jne
Total 29184 cycles
average cycles measured in checkr: 30352
Times two, or 60700 cycles.
Trying movb r4,@VDPWD takes 30 cycles. Slower than movb r4,*r15. Adds 4096 cycles.
Time to move code into pad:
60 + 20*(38+14+14) = 1380
So do this once.
; full bandwidth, supposedly optimized vdp blitter.
; fill all the bytes that would be written if the whole field had been calculated.
; move this routine to >8380
padck1 equ >8380
ck1 movb r3,*vd
movb r3,*vd
movb r3,*vd
movb r3,*vd
movb r4,*vd
movb r4,*vd
movb r4,*vd
movb r4,*vd
dec r2
jne ck1
b @ck2
ck1$
ckinit
; move code into pad. call this once.
li r0,padck1
li r1,ck1
li r2,(ck1$-ck1)
ck0 mov *r1+,*r0+
dec r2
jne ck0
checkr
li r2,>80 ; loops
mov r9,r0
neg r0
andi r0,7
sla r0,1
ai r0,padck1
b *r0 ; jump into partial move
ck2 mov r9,r0
neg r0
andi r0,7
jeq ck3
; partial last char causes all the trouble. we could wrap but clobbering 0 would look awful.
movb r3,*vd
dec r0
jeq ck3
movb r3,*vd
dec r0
jeq ck3
movb r3,*vd
dec r0
jeq ck3
movb r3,*vd
dec r0
jeq ck3
movb r4,*vd
dec r0
jeq ck3
movb r4,*vd
dec r0
jeq ck3
movb r4,*vd
ck3 rt
Next steps:
Moving data from a buffer in CPU RAM will be a large hit.
Since at best 2k takes 2 ticks, even 6 ticks for 4k, page flipping will be essential. I will have to break up the blitting into sections, as Rasmus suggested. Perhaps doing other processing in between (though there is only a finite amount of processing to do per frame. sprites move at most 1 pixel per frame.)
While I would like to have full bitmap scrolling, other ideas are:
1. My current scheme is 2 tiles, with 2*2 permutations (space above space, space above block, block above space, block above block). There are two frames. On each tick, I update 4 patterns in the next frame, then update the SIT. Total 32+256 bytes.
2. Idea. Making the background out of only 5 tiles, with all permutations of 5*5*8 stored in the pattern/color table. Then to update the frame, write 256 bytes of SIT (in 16 rows of 16.) This is still awfully limiting. Total 256 bytes.
3. Idea. Have 11 tiles, and update all 11*11 permutations for a frame. Write SIT. Total 2.5k.
4. Reduce the scrolling area width or height.
Links
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Im working on blasting bitmap mode again.
I decided on a 16x16 area with two frames.
So that chars 0-127 are for one frame in each bank. One char has to double as the blank char.
I found that I can push the whole color table portion in under 2 ticks, thats 2k of sequential writes, operating completely out of PAD. doing something more interesting than a scrolling checkerboard will be slower.
Id post code but we just got hit with a lightning strike. Im typing on my phone plugged into a car jumper battery.
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Full credit to Sparkdrummer! Flottman1 knows the filename on disk, but maybe I was runnning the cassette version! Anyway I cropped the first line of the screen which displays CAVERN QUEST.
I located it on 99er.net but not ftp.whtech.com
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Here it is:
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Markus of Marinus, by our maestro Opry99er.
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I think I had around 3000 hours into TIPI sideport before I released it as a Beta (it is still beta)
Oh wow.
From where I see it, you make it look easy. 3000 hours is why it looks perfect (:
I have about 300 hours into FORTI-2. I was afraid I was just slow. (it's got an awful timing bug with the 9900 running code out of its memory, though data access works.)
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best monitor for retro stuff.. samsung 910mp.. does rf, composite, vga, SCART (15khz RGB) and svideo.. AND its 4:3 ratio
Greg
Can anyone verify that the Samsung 910mp works with PAL output , or if there is more than one version of the 910mp?
We have someone bringing a Spectrum ZX81 to Midwest Gaming classic and I think that might be our only PAL monitor in the 80s row.
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Good one!
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Thank you for the good words. I'm happy that y'all were entertained. There are still some sprites nobody named.
My kids are demanding that this become a playable game, so it must be.
My sprite table is full at 247 sprites, so there will be a lot of code rewritten to page in the chardefs. Besides I want 16x16 sprites too.
For background: this is a tribute to the 2004 Katamari Damacy for Playstation 2. (Lately for Nintendo Switch.)
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Some people know that TI experimented with porting its best-known games to Intellivision.
Well, much later, Namco planned to roll up the market for retro-gaming by producing software for the TI-99/4A. A Namco intern told their boss to build on the nostalgia for "Munk-Man" and this is what happened.
I found the binary on an MSX forum earlier this year: (k2.dsk or download here) contains a single E/A 3 object file "K2" without Namco markings. The program name is K2.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/writJ0I5fHg
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I just discovered this, have not had a chance yet to play with it.
Implementation of PEEKV and POKEV in XB: (found here: http://ftp.whtech.com/emulators/pc99/pc99%20dsk%20collection/U_1/UP1.ZIP)
100 REM ****************** 110 REM * EXTENDED BASIC * 120 REM * POKEV AND PEEKV* 130 REM * BY BILL PROTHRO* 140 REM ****************** 150 REM This program allows you to poke values into vdp ram and peek values from the vdp ram within a running program in extended basic. 160 REM To poke successive bytes you will have to use data statements and a for next loop. 170 REM To peek successive bytes a for next loop is all that is needed. 180 REM 32K memory expansion is required to use this utility. 190 CALL INIT 200 CALL CLEAR 210 REM These load statements load a machine code program into the memory expansion that can be accessed with extended basic. 220 CALL LOAD(16368,80,79,75,69,86,32,48,52,80,69,69,75,86,32,48,32) 230 CALL LOAD(12320,2,224,48,0,192,32,255,254,6,160,48,88,216,32,136,0,255,253,16,11,2,224,48,0,192,32) 240 CALL LOAD(12346,255,254,2,32,64,0,6,160,48,88,216,32,255,253,140,0,4,192,216,0,131,124) 250 CALL LOAD(12368,2,224,131,224,4,96,0,112,6,192,216,0,140,2,6,192,216,0,140,2,4,91) 260 CALL LOAD(8196,63,240) 270 REM In a free running program equate pokeadd to the address you want to poke in VDP ram. 280 INPUT "WHICH ADDRESS? ":POKEADD 290 REM Equate pokeval to the value you want to poke. 300 INPUT "VALUE TO POKE ":POKEVAL 310 GOSUB 390 320 REM Equate peekadd to the address you want to peek. 330 INPUT "ADDRESS TO PEEK? ":PEEKADD 340 GOSUB 400 350 REM The value you peek is returned in peekval. 360 PRINT PEEKVAL 370 STOP 380 REM These subroutines divide the address into msb and lsb values and link to the machine code program. 390 ADD=POKEADD/256 :: MSB=INT(ADD) :: LSB=(ADD-MSB)*256 :: CALL LOAD(-3,POKEVAL,MSB,LSB) :: CALL LINK("POKEV") :: RETURN 400 ADD=PEEKADD/256 :: MSB=INT(ADD) :: LSB=((ADD-MSB)*256) :: CALL LOAD(-2,MSB,LSB) :: CALL LINK("PEEKV") :: CALL PEEK(-3,PEEKVAL) 410 RETURNThis might work, using the Bill Prothro routine. I did not test it yet...
SUB POKEV(A,B) :: C=A/256 :: CALL LOAD(-3,B,INT(A/256),B AND 255) :: CALL LINK("POKEV") :: SUBEND SUB PEEKV(A,B) :: C=A/256 :: CALL LOAD(-2,INT(A/256),B AND 255) :: CALL LINK("PEEKV") :: CALL PEEK(-3,B) :: SUBEND SUB COLORHI(A,B,C) :: CALL LOAD(-3,(B-1)*16+C-1,8,15+A) :: CALL LINK("POKEV") :: SUBEND SUB CHARHI(A,A$) :: HEX$ = "123456789ABCDEF" :: MSB = 3+INT(A/32) :: LSB = (A AND 31)*8 :: FOR I=1 TO LEN(A$) STEP 2 :: B = POS(HEX$,SEG$(A$,I,1))*16 + POS(HEX$,SEG$(A$,I+1,1)) :: CALL LOAD(-3,B,MSB,LSB+INT((I-1)/2)) :: CALL LINK("POKEV") :: NEXT I :: SUBENDI call it CHARHI , it is going to be slower than CHAR, so you could rename just some of the CALL CHAR statements where needed.
Similarly COLORHI though the slowdown is much less.
CHAR definitions 144-159 overlap the sprite motion table in Extended Basic.
One thing missing here: turning off sprite motion by setting the status byte at >83C2. I think it's off by default.
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Fest 99/4ATX (Austin, TX) Weekend August 9 to August 11, 2019
in TI-99/4A Computers
Posted
OK, the poll is up!