Does the 1541 Ultimate II Support C128 autoboot?

[donjn]

Ultima V is a game that requires you to just turn on the C128 and not touch a thing. It autoboots into the game. How would this work on the Ultimate? Has anyone tried or cna confirm they can use autoboot with Ultima V in C128 mode on the 1541 Ultimate?

 

I ask because you need to be on the main screen in order to access your list of games. And at that time you are long past the autoboot process.

[Hatta]

I haven't tried it, but IIRC it remembers what was last mounted when you power it off. So mount the disk you want autobooted, then hit the reset switch. I will try to find time to give this a quick test.

[donjn]

If you could test this that would be so awesome of you man...

if you hear the game music then it worked!

Edited February 7, 2013 by donjn

[Hatta]

I can report success. Unfortunately the 1541U-II does not save mounts through a cold boot, but fortunately the C128 has a reset switch. I had to disable any freezer cart image to get it to boot directly into C128 mode. Then I mounted the disk, hit the reset switch, and it booted right up. Heard the music about 5 minutes later. Cool! Too bad I'm engaged in too many RPGs already.

[donjn]

What is the Freezer Cart? I guess if I have to ask, then I have nothing to worry about in this case? lol

So go into C128 mode Basic, mount Ultima V, then hit reset?

[Mirage]

He's referring to any of the various utility cart images it comes with that normally, you'll have (one) enabled.

 

Don't underestimate the power of the Ultimate. Seriously.

[Hatta]

Yes, besides just being a floppy emulator the U-II comes with a bunch of fastload/freezer cart images. Retro Replay is enabled by default, which causes you to boot into C64 mode. Disable that in the config and you go to C128 mode like normal.

 

The freezer carts are useful still, because the U-II is the speed of a real 1541. You can use the freezer carts to dump ram after you've loaded a game, and then reload it again later so you skip the load from disk. The U-II also does jiffydos, if your C128 has the appropriate ROM.