Altirra 2.50 Final out

[ricortes]

@Phaeron

 

Busted up file I think. Resurrected an old laptop<LCD screen power supply burned out, eBay replacement> and was fooling with some old files. The character set doesn't seem to display right on Altirra or Atari 800 4.0 *BUT* the file I/O works right in Atari 800. What is supposed to happen is the as soon as the 'F key is pressed, the file dialog is presented in the text window at the bottom of the screen. With Altirra the the program tries to print to the top left corner of the screen.

 

Like I said, program seems to be munched since the default character set seems to have garbage in the character set where numbers are supposed to be but for some reason the mirror of the set with bit set >128 seems to come out right.

 

There is also a problem with exit to DOS but that is probably a result of the busted file. Produces a consistent error of illegal instruction in both emulators. I can't remember what I did originally, pushed DOSVEC to stack and RTS or something. Only way to safely exit now is with RESET key.

 

I lost the source code to this so it makes it a little tough to give a good explanation of what is going on. I'd like to use it with Altirra but the file I/O problem is a real deal breaker.

[Alfred]

There's an issue with the ALTXEP80.SYS driver in Test33. Using Sparta, once you load the driver, you can no longer run commands or switch drives. D1:D6: produces a file not found, rather than changing to D6: as does D1:commandname . Typing out a command like D1:copy D6:T816BUS.DOC E: works fine.

[ricortes]

scrnedit.xex

@Phaeron

 

Busted up file I think. Resurrected an old laptop<LCD screen power supply burned out, eBay replacement> and was fooling with some old files. The character set doesn't seem to display right on Altirra or Atari 800 4.0 *BUT* the file I/O works right in Atari 800. What is supposed to happen is the as soon as the 'F key is pressed, the file dialog is presented in the text window at the bottom of the screen. With Altirra the the program tries to print to the top left corner of the screen.

 

Like I said, program seems to be munched since the default character set seems to have garbage in the character set where numbers are supposed to be but for some reason the mirror of the set with bit set >128 seems to come out right.

 

There is also a problem with exit to DOS but that is probably a result of the busted file. Produces a consistent error of illegal instruction in both emulators. I can't remember what I did originally, pushed DOSVEC to stack and RTS or something. Only way to safely exit now is with RESET key.

 

I lost the source code to this so it makes it a little tough to give a good explanation of what is going on. I'd like to use it with Altirra but the file I/O problem is a real deal breaker.

 

Should'a attached it to first post! Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in myself.

[flashjazzcat]

IO works here under SDX. Which OS are you using? Regarding exit to DOS: the screen editor does not appear to be re-opened prior to exit, so the display list and frame buffer remain at $7C20 and $7C40 respectively, causing unpleasant screen glitches until reset is pressed.

[AtariGeezer]

 

very interesting topic and there are new dumps.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/233760-1450xld-testing-help-needed-perhaps-somebody-knows/

 

Avery, you can try to do emulation Atari 1450XLD?

Of course if you're interested.

 

That would be nice, but a few requests for 1450XL/XLD support has been asked before.

Only thing hindering that, is that the V: device can not be emulated at this time...

[Keatah]

I have no idea -- what is the V: device and why can't it be emulated? Does it use some sort of magic circuit no one knows anything about?

[AtariGeezer]

I have no idea -- what is the V: device and why can't it be emulated? Does it use some sort of magic circuit no one knows anything about?

The V: device is the synthesized voice / speech chip SC-01A...

[ricortes]

Thanks Flash. It was something I tossed together under SDX back in the 80s so that explains a lot. It was not finished but close enough when I lost the source, I just used it as is. There's still a huge number of problems with, file errors not trapped, runtime routines not used still in the binary, et al. I think I could fix that gr. 0 call, just add it to the end and change the dos preamble.

[Shawn Jefferson]

Isn't there 1450/1400 emulation in Atari800? I haven't tried it, but I guess no V: emulation there then?

 

Quick google finds me this:

 

 

(7/2/02) Tom McClintock notes the following: "One item of interest regarding the SC-01a. The 'PinMAME' developers have incorporated SC-01a emulation into their pinball simulations. The source code includes digital representations of all the phonemes. Pretty cool stuff, but complete and accurate emulation is not quite there. Check out the source: http://pinmame.retrogames.com/release/pinmame_112_1_src.zip"

Edited January 17, 2015 by Shawn Jefferson

[mr-atari]

I tried my luck with the latest atari800 (3.1.0?)

It has 1450 emulation included.

But I got nowhere, yet.

 

Its very difficult to switch from one emulator you use everyday to a second....

 

I did ask Avery too (p.m.) to include 1400/1450 emulation.

That won't happen at the moment unfortunately.

 

I'm currently running a 1400XL and 1450XLD and the Voice is awesome!

Modem is of no use, the PDD is relative fast.

 

Later!

MOV07613.MPG

[+Larry]

Here is an Altirra XEP80 question coupled with an AtariWriter 80 question. I've got Atariwriter 80 to load and I can type text to it, but (see pic) the cursor remains in the message window. It's been a long time, but I seem to remember that as soon as you started typing (or created a new file) the cursor jumped to the proper place at the end of the text being typed.

 

But try as I may, I can't get the cursor out of the message window. Not sure that it is Altirra related or not, but can anyone get the cursor to its correct position? (Incidently, this is a regular Dos 2.5 ATR image -- not using SDX.) Could not find anything in the XEP80 or AW80 manuals about this.

 

Thanks,

Larry

 

P.S. Just noticed that on this pic. I was using test 28, but same with test 33 (different win computer).

[phaeron]

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.60-test34.zip

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.60-test34-src.zip

 

• Added support for 512K 5200 cartridge. (Bryan, do you have a name for this?)
• Debug display now uses CHACTL
• Fixed XEP80 "Move to logical line start command" -- DOS CP now works
• Fixed diagnostic cartridge support in ATOS
• Fixed ANTIC reads from GTIA registers
• Fixes for cassette boot bugs exposed by XEX2CAS (ATOS wasn't reading EOF record, and C: acceleration was shutting motor off without updating PIA).
• ATBasic updated to 1.35 -- added PTABW support and fixed crash when DOS command fails. Did you know that JMP (DOSVEC) can return on a MEM.SAV error?
• Added support for more realistic DRAM power-on patterns. This affects software that fails to properly initialize high RAM under the OS or extended RAM. This supercedes the old randomize memory debugging option and is now under System > Memory Config > Power-on Pattern. The three patterns implemented are from my 800XL, 130XE, and 800XL + U1MB.
• Lots of changes to the DOS on the Additions disk, but I don't recommend using this just yet.

 

Busted up file I think. Resurrected an old laptop<LCD screen power supply burned out, eBay replacement> and was fooling with some old files. The character set doesn't seem to display right on Altirra or Atari 800 4.0 *BUT* the file I/O works right in Atari 800. What is supposed to happen is the as soon as the 'F key is pressed, the file dialog is presented in the text window at the bottom of the screen. With Altirra the the program tries to print to the top left corner of the screen.

 

Like I said, program seems to be munched since the default character set seems to have garbage in the character set where numbers are supposed to be but for some reason the mirror of the set with bit set >128 seems to come out right.

 

There is also a problem with exit to DOS but that is probably a result of the busted file. Produces a consistent error of illegal instruction in both emulators. I can't remember what I did originally, pushed DOSVEC to stack and RTS or something. Only way to safely exit now is with RESET key.

 

I lost the source code to this so it makes it a little tough to give a good explanation of what is going on. I'd like to use it with Altirra but the file I/O problem is a real deal breaker.

 

Your program relies on a somewhat obscure feature of the screen handler, split screen in GR.0. This isn't officially supported in the original OS specification but it does happen to work on both OS-B and XLOS. Altirra's built-in OS doesn't support this yet, but it should work if you hook up the XL/XE OS. Since this is an OS-level issue, Atari800 should work fine as well as long as you're using that OS.

 

As for returning to DOS, loading an EXE directory in an emulator usually involves a bare boot directly into the program without loading DOS, so what happens is a total crapshoot. Probably could make it behave a little better than a crash, though.

 

There's an issue with the ALTXEP80.SYS driver in Test33. Using Sparta, once you load the driver, you can no longer run commands or switch drives. D1:D6: produces a file not found, rather than changing to D6: as does D1:commandname . Typing out a command like D1:copy D6:T816BUS.DOC E: works fine.

 

Yes, I ran into this myself while debugging the DOS on the Additions disk. The E: device has interesting behavior when reading a line that starts away from the left column: the line read begins at the current logical position unless you have moved to another logical line. The XEP80 partially supports this but seems to always use the current horizontal position, and furthermore its "move to start of logical line" command is misnamed as it only moves vertically. I've fixed this in both the hardware emulation and the soft handler.

 

I have no idea -- what is the V: device and why can't it be emulated? Does it use some sort of magic circuit no one knows anything about?

 

Requires emulating a phoneme-based speech synthesis chip, which is a lot more than I want to bite off.

 

atbasic.bin

atbasicx.xex

[+JAC!]

[Deleted after properly using Google :-) ]

Edited January 19, 2015 by JAC!

[phaeron]

Per VBXE docs, those registers should be at $D640/1, not $D600/1.

[itaych]

@phaeron, odd little request here. Would it be possible to add an option to redirect the Atari's console speaker output (generated by GTIA's CONSOL register) to a different output device than the regular POKEY sound? Remember that the Atari 800 (and 400 too I believe) had an physical internal speaker for console sounds, and this could be emulated by e.g. setting CONSOL to the laptop's internal speaker while POKEY outputs to external speakers. Thanks

[+Larry]

@ Phaeron-

 

Test 34 does not change the behavior of the cursor in AtariWriter 80. It is still locked in the message window. I'm going to look at a few things just using the XEP80 (driver) disk without AW80 and see if it seems to behave the same way.

 

-Larry

[ricortes]

 

Your program relies on a somewhat obscure feature of the screen handler, split screen in GR.0. This isn't officially supported in the original OS specification but it does happen to work on both OS-B and XLOS. Altirra's built-in OS doesn't support this yet, but it should work if you hook up the XL/XE OS. Since this is an OS-level issue, Atari800 should work fine as well as long as you're using that OS.

 

As for returning to DOS, loading an EXE directory in an emulator usually involves a bare boot directly into the program without loading DOS, so what happens is a total crapshoot. Probably could make it behave a little better than a crash, though.

 

I am humbled!

 

I probably did that screen thing because an 800/400 didn't have GR. 12 in OS so I wanted a bit of compatibility. Completely forgot about it.

 

You are of course right about OS 'feature' still being in the real Atari ROMs. I switched and all the problems with text and corrupted character set went away. Thanks as this gets my emulator + tool set working fine. Maybe I should exit with a jmp to warm start or change the text to 'press reset'.

[phaeron]

@phaeron, odd little request here. Would it be possible to add an option to redirect the Atari's console speaker output (generated by GTIA's CONSOL register) to a different output device than the regular POKEY sound? Remember that the Atari 800 (and 400 too I believe) had an physical internal speaker for console sounds, and this could be emulated by e.g. setting CONSOL to the laptop's internal speaker while POKEY outputs to external speakers. Thanks

Odd indeed. Dare I ask what you are doing?

 

Test 34 does not change the behavior of the cursor in AtariWriter 80. It is still locked in the message window. I'm going to look at a few things just using the XEP80 (driver) disk without AW80 and see if it seems to behave the same way.

 

I never said that it did -- not sure why you expected it to.

 

The horizontal/vertical position commands were updating the cursor position but not the cursor address. This version should fix it.

 

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.60-test35.zip

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.60-test35-src.zip

 

I probably did that screen thing because an 800/400 didn't have GR. 12 in OS so I wanted a bit of compatibility. Completely forgot about it.

 

You are of course right about OS 'feature' still being in the real Atari ROMs. I switched and all the problems with text and corrupted character set went away. Thanks as this gets my emulator + tool set working fine. Maybe I should exit with a jmp to warm start or change the text to 'press reset'.

 

The split screen should work in AltirraOS with -test35. Was a pretty simple fix: test BOTSCR<24 instead of DINDEX>0.

 

I took a look at the exit situation, and it unfortunately didn't look simple: the crash is somewhere in application code, not on a jump through DOSVEC or return via RTS. I can't tell what's going wrong from my end.

[itaych]

[re: separating console and general audio] Odd indeed. Dare I ask what you are doing?

 

I thought I explained myself well enough in my original post. I grew up with the 800 and always disliked how the later models omitted the console speaker and mixed it into the general audio output. The 800's keyclick was quiet and pleasant and came from where it was supposed to - inside the keyboard. With the later models, coming from the TV speaker it sounded out of place, disproportionately loud and harsh to my ears. If you give the option to redirect the console audio to a separate device, the user could set things up such that the console clicks would come from a laptop's built in speaker while the rest of the audio would be played through external speakers, more closely emulating the feel of the original. (I know this is technically possible, for example the old Google Talk application is able to play ringtones through the laptop speaker even when headphones are plugged in.)

 

So yeah, it's an odd request, but I'd consider this on par with the oddness of, say, the extreme artifacting simulation (which also simulates TV ghosting and blurring) - it is also arguably a pretty odd feature but you put it in there anyway

 

If you think the GUI for such a feature would be cumbersome to implement and use, I'd be happy enough if this were a command line only option. See Squeezelite as an example of a CLI program that allows you to list available audio output devices and lets you specify the desired device by name.

 

Thanks!

[atx4us]

 

I thought I explained myself well enough in my original post. I grew up with the 800 and always disliked how the later models omitted the console speaker and mixed it into the general audio output. The 800's keyclick was quiet and pleasant and came from where it was supposed to - inside the keyboard. With the later models, coming from the TV speaker it sounded out of place, disproportionately loud and harsh to my ears. If you give the option to redirect the console audio to a separate device, the user could set things up such that the console clicks would come from a laptop's built in speaker while the rest of the audio would be played through external speakers, more closely emulating the feel of the original. (I know this is technically possible, for example the old Google Talk application is able to play ringtones through the laptop speaker even when headphones are plugged in.)

 

So yeah, it's an odd request, but I'd consider this on par with the oddness of, say, the extreme artifacting simulation (which also simulates TV ghosting and blurring) - it is also arguably a pretty odd feature but you put it in there anyway

 

If you think the GUI for such a feature would be cumbersome to implement and use, I'd be happy enough if this were a command line only option. See Squeezelite as an example of a CLI program that allows you to list available audio output devices and lets you specify the desired device by name.

 

Thanks!

I have an Atari 800. I think that using the internal laptop PC speaker suggestion is a cool idea

[+Larry]

Yes, AW80 works great! Thanks very much!

 

I (incorrectly) thought that the statement below from your list was the same problem:

 

>Fixed XEP80 "Move to logical line start command" -- DOS CP now works<

 

-Larry

[mr-atari]

I'm afraid the ATBASIC has lost it touch with both "HOTEL" (game starts, but values are zerod) and "a day at the races" (system crashes).

 

Booted with a plain Altirra with Xl/XE OS rev2

[phaeron]

If you think the GUI for such a feature would be cumbersome to implement and use, I'd be happy enough if this were a command line only option. See Squeezelite as an example of a CLI program that allows you to list available audio output devices and lets you specify the desired device by name.

 

Nah, it's not the GUI, but I'd have to set up an entire second mixing pipeline for this. Not sure about the work it'd take.

 

Well, might as well throw it on the list. If I do it, you'll see it, if I don't, you won't.

 

I'm afraid the ATBASIC has lost it touch with both "HOTEL" (game starts, but values are zerod) and "a day at the races" (system crashes).

 

Booted with a plain Altirra with Xl/XE OS rev2

 

As I noted earlier, can't support A Day at the Races -- it preloads page zero variables from Atari BASIC.

 

Can't tell what's going on with HOTEL since I don't speak German. Got a screenshot of the bug occurring? Also, what's the last version where it works? 1.34?

[Keatah]

So yeah, it's an odd request, but I'd consider this on par with the oddness of, say, the extreme artifacting simulation (which also simulates TV ghosting and blurring) - it is also arguably a pretty odd feature but you put it in there anyway

 

One step closer on the long road to good CRT emulation.

[mr-atari]

Ah, OK. miss-communication.

I did not get the remark, you never can support it.

 

After you included the CONT support, both seemed to work.

But I must have been mistakenly using the wrong emulation-settings.

 

Hotel does load and plays, but when you buy stuff to setup your hotel, the rooms stay at zero.

So no income, not playable.

Yeah, German is a language we learn here at school, neighbor country....

 

Anyhow, it does not matter, I use ATARI Basic instead.

 

Nice work BTW on ATBasic, it is also on my MyIDE-][ cartridge for usage too.

 

Keep up the good work.