sometimes99er Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 What I do like in PC99 is the side overlay file that you can create that generally takes the place of the little strips that used to go at the top of the keyboard. very useful for editor and writer. Maybe we could extend/include the strip in the RPK format. Maybe like this in the layout file: <strip> <gray> <key1 text="DEL"> <key2 text="INS"> Any emulator could implement the strip if they wanted and as they would see fit. Also, this got me thinking. How about including optional hacks ? It seems we're able to pull off a few with one or a few bytes. Maybe something like this, again in the layout file: <hacks> <socket id="rom_socket" 0x0234="0F 43 22" text="Unlimited lives" state="off"> You'd have to go and change the state to "on" - or an emulator could provide an user interface for turning things on and off. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Even for real TI users, those little strips are dang hard to come by. I'd love to see someone write a program for the PC that would accept input from the user and then print out replica strips that one could then cut out and use. THAT would be a VERY useful program! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 It is indeed possible to extend the existing RPK layout format. In MESS I only have a look at a predefined set of elements in the layout.xml, so others would be ignored. Maybe the meta-inf.xml could be even more appropriate. How is the emulator supposed to handle the information? At this time, the TI emulations in MESS do not have "artwork", i.e. graphical elements to build a user interface (as used with arcade machines, calculators etc.). Or do you think of simply producing some strip to put on the PC keyboard? As for the hacks, a simple alternative would be to patch the ROM dumps and create a new cartridge RPK. If desired to be used within the emulation, one could think about a config switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 How is the emulator supposed to handle the information? At this time, the TI emulations in MESS do not have "artwork", i.e. graphical elements to build a user interface (as used with arcade machines, calculators etc.). Or do you think of simply producing some strip to put on the PC keyboard? I was thinking the emulator would show something looking like the strip below the main screen area - based on the text in the xml. The emulator could draw or house graphics looking like a real strip. Yes, one could create new cartridges. I guess the idea of having the RPK house all and anything related to that particular cartridge is taking it too far - Manual scans for different languages, photos, trivia, high scores, cheat locations, alternative roms with prior versions, different graphics, video with long play ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 It's very doable, and would be nice. One of the reasons I wanted the Win994A cartridge format opened up was because of the nice descriptive texts and manual scans, so I'm all in favor of extending RPK that way. (We can just Base64 the pictures or something). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 We need not even use Base64; RPK is a ZIP container, so we can include any file we want. Just need to reference the file from one of the XML files inside (layout.xml or meta-inf.xml). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted October 16, 2013 Author Share Posted October 16, 2013 Maybe any larger stuff could/should be external web references/links. <more stuff> <manual> <lang="US" url="http://planet-99.net/carts/parsec/manual.pdf"> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Maybe any larger stuff could/should be external web references/links. <more stuff> <manual> <lang="US" url="http://planet-99.net/carts/parsec/manual.pdf"> Yeah, but web links go bad, embedded files only get smaller over time (relative to the available storage space). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Yeah, but web links go bad, embedded files only get smaller over time (relative to the available storage space). This is why XML schema links are Bad ThingsTM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kl99 Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 One of our Austrian Group actually created a nice replica strip to print out, here is the page to download: http://www.8bit-homecomputermuseum.at/downloads/downloads.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 (edited) I admit, I find it somewhat painful to find TI stuff on a website dedicated to 8 bit computers ... :-) Isn't that defamation? At least the author says that the TI-99/4A should rather be considered a 16 bit computer ("eigentlich schon ein 16Bit Rechner"). Edited October 17, 2013 by mizapf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.