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File version of Crossbow? Yes!


_Fandal_

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What's the best way to load this on real hardware? I tried a couple different dos'es with an APE mirror and no luck so far.

 

It should work with APE. :( At least it works fine for me.

Could you tell me where is the problem? Does it start loading or freezes immediately?

 

F.

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Could you tell me where is the problem? Does it start loading or freezes immediately?

Using APE, booting a disk in D1 and having the APE mirror as D2 with regular XE BIOS:

 

Using mypicodos it crashes and corrupts the onscreen characters after a short load.

 

Using Spartados 3.2G it does a long load, corrupts the onscreen characters and crashes.

 

-

 

And using the PC mirror by itself with no boot (just the APELOADER) crashes immediately.

 

Then I got tired and ran out of ideas. :)

 

What config are you using that works fine?

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Could you tell me where is the problem? Does it start loading or freezes immediately?

Using APE, booting a disk in D1 and having the APE mirror as D2 with regular XE BIOS:

 

Using mypicodos it crashes and corrupts the onscreen characters after a short load.

 

Using Spartados 3.2G it does a long load, corrupts the onscreen characters and crashes.

 

-

 

And using the PC mirror by itself with no boot (just the APELOADER) crashes immediately.

 

Then I got tired and ran out of ideas. :)

 

What config are you using that works fine?

 

I usually use direct loading via APE mirror. But may be there's a problem with expanded banks.

What type of expanded memory do you use? I have several types of expanded memory systems of my real Ataris and all my conversions don't work on certain one. BTW: are you able to load my file version of Crime Buster?

 

F.

Edited by _Fandal_
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I usually use direct loading via APE mirror. But may be there's a problem with expanded banks.

What type of expanded memory do you use? I have several types of expanded memory systems of my real Ataris and all my conversions don't work on certain one. BTW: are you able to load my file version of Crime Buster?

It's '130XE compatible' which I assume means XE compatible with everything but that funky ANTIC mode. SI identifies it as 'extended 130XE'

 

I tried the file version of Crime Buster with the APE mirror load (and the same methods above) and it didn't work either. I loaded Hexxagon just fine though with the APE mirror. :)

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I usually use direct loading via APE mirror. But may be there's a problem with expanded banks.

What type of expanded memory do you use? I have several types of expanded memory systems of my real Ataris and all my conversions don't work on certain one. BTW: are you able to load my file version of Crime Buster?

It's '130XE compatible' which I assume means XE compatible with everything but that funky ANTIC mode. SI identifies it as 'extended 130XE'

 

I tried the file version of Crime Buster with the APE mirror load (and the same methods above) and it didn't work either. I loaded Hexxagon just fine though with the APE mirror. :)

 

That's not good. OK. Try some file version of 64kB XEGS cart, like Deflektor or Tower Toppler. I hope it should work.

It's really weird why Crime Buster or Crossbow don't work on your system. Load procedure should work even with independent ANTIC access as display list and screen data are not located in $4000-$7FFF switchable memory area... :(

 

F.

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Please, run attached detection program on your Atari and let me know which banks were found...

 

83 8B 8F A3 A7 AB AF C3 C7 CB CF

 

E3 E7 EB EF FF

 

I guess the answer to this is probably that a 256K Rambo style upgrade doesn't have enough extended RAM banks . :(

Edited by remowilliams
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Please, run attached detection program on your Atari and let me know which banks were found...

 

83 8B 8F A3 A7 AB AF C3 C7 CB CF

 

E3 E7 EB EF FF

 

I guess the answer to this is probably that a 256K Rambo style upgrade doesn't have enough extended RAM banks . :(

The Rambo XL is not 100% XE compatible, I've run in to this from time to time. ;)

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The Rambo XL is not 100% XE compatible, I've run in to this from time to time. ;)

Everything I've run has worked properly, so I don't think thats the case here. What I do think the problem is - is that I've got a 256K machine, which means 64K base and 192K extended RAM, not 256K. 64K base + 256K extended = 320K and maybe that's what's needed. Or maybe I'm wrong. :)

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Please, run attached detection program on your Atari and let me know which banks were found...

 

83 8B 8F A3 A7 AB AF C3 C7 CB CF

 

E3 E7 EB EF FF

 

I guess the answer to this is probably that a 256K Rambo style upgrade doesn't have enough extended RAM banks . :(

 

I guess bank $87 is missing on your list but all my conversions should work with your expanded system. I have the same one installed in my Ataris and there's no problem. My conversions of 128kB carts need typically 15 additional banks, i.e. 256 kB of expanded memory.

 

Unfortunatelly I have no idea why Crime Buster/Crossbow don't work on your real HW. You're the first user who reported some problems. :(

 

F.

Edited by _Fandal_
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I usually use direct loading via APE mirror.

Speaking of which, I notice that when I load Crime Buster, Crossbow, or Commando APE mirror loading stops at 'Segment 02E2 - 02E3'. On Crime Buster there is no sound, on Commando and Crossbow I get a black screen with the farty SIO timeout noise.

 

If I try loading them though a MyPicoDos 4.04B boot disk pointed an an APE mirror, they will load farther (commando seems to load all the way) even if they don't work. (?) I'm using APE 3.0.2 with USB SIO2PC (though serial behaves the same).

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I usually use direct loading via APE mirror.

Speaking of which, I notice that when I load Crime Buster, Crossbow, or Commando APE mirror loading stops at 'Segment 02E2 - 02E3'. On Crime Buster there is no sound, on Commando and Crossbow I get a black screen with the farty SIO timeout noise.

 

If I try loading them though a MyPicoDos 4.04B boot disk pointed an an APE mirror, they will load farther (commando seems to load all the way) even if they don't work. (?) I'm using APE 3.0.2 with USB SIO2PC (though serial behaves the same).

 

Unfortunately there's a lot of INIT blocks (segment 02E2-02E3)...

 

Just tell me: are you able to get through the first part? In other words: do you see blinking "> copying data <" text?

 

F.

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Unfortunately there's a lot of INIT blocks (segment 02E2-02E3)...

 

Just tell me: are you able to get through the first part? In other words: do you see blinking "> copying data <" text?

Using APE Mirror:

 

Crime Buster shows the title info, but not the copying data line before it stops. Crossbow has a black screen when it stops, and so does Commando (192K). Commando (256K) shows the title screen, but not the copying data line.

 

They all all stop loading very quickly and at the the same APE loader segment.

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The file is modifying location $00 which the ape exe loader uses for storing a variable.

 

The ape exe loader also overwrites locations $02 thru $05 during loading, which could cause a problem if program data is being stored there.

 

Steve

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The file is modifying location $00 which the ape exe loader uses for storing a variable.

 

The ape exe loader also overwrites locations $02 thru $05 during loading, which could cause a problem if program data is being stored there.

 

Steve

 

You scare me. Loader of Commando/Crossbow/Crime Buster doesn't modify anything in page zero except $14 and $80 addresses. Or something is really really wrong somewhere...

 

BTW, did you test any of my conversion on your expanded systems?

 

Unfortunately there's a lot of INIT blocks (segment 02E2-02E3)...

 

Just tell me: are you able to get through the first part? In other words: do you see blinking "> copying data <" text?

Using APE Mirror:

 

Crime Buster shows the title info, but not the copying data line before it stops. Crossbow has a black screen when it stops, and so does Commando (192K). Commando (256K) shows the title screen, but not the copying data line.

 

They all all stop loading very quickly and at the the same APE loader segment.

 

My God, I'm really confused now. I have no idea why it doesn't work as it really should. I thought there could be some problem with bank switching but it freezes on the very first block where is just bank detection routine.

 

F.

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Well,

it is like someone said before - original Rambo upgrades have 256k RAM - but they replace the 64k base ram with 256k RAM, meaning you have 64k RAM and 192k ramdisk/extra ram. All ramdisk testers I know show this hardware setup as 240k extra RAM, which is untrue (the 16k missing RAM is the RAM under the OS)... Since your extra RAM setup shows $87 missing, this is exactly the case - you have only 192k extra RAM available... -Andreas Koch.

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Well,

it is like someone said before - original Rambo upgrades have 256k RAM - but they replace the 64k base ram with 256k RAM, meaning you have 64k RAM and 192k ramdisk/extra ram. All ramdisk testers I know show this hardware setup as 240k extra RAM, which is untrue (the 16k missing RAM is the RAM under the OS)... Since your extra RAM setup shows $87 missing, this is exactly the case - you have only 192k extra RAM available... -Andreas Koch.

 

OK. May be you're right. But which additional banks are available then? A3, A7, AB, AF, C3, C7, CB, CF, E3, E7, EB, EF? I can compile Commando for 192kB XMS and without bank detection routine but I need to know bank numbers...

 

F.

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