LTO Flash! - Intellivision Flash Cartridge Information

Rev · November 19, 2014

i hate you. Im sick with a cold and this made me laugh so hard i ended up having a coughing fit.

Hate the game....not the player..

Jeffrey Bouchard · November 19, 2014

Thanks for the update and take all the time that you need.

Vipp · November 19, 2014

Listen, i understand it must be hard work inventing the LTO Flash but let me assure you it isn't nearly as painful as needing to play The Dreadnaght Factor on a PAL tv! If i go much longer i might end up in the loony bin drawing little green ships all over the walls!

Edited November 19, 2014 by Vipp

Intymike · November 19, 2014

You mean, playing Dreadnaught Factor on a PAL TV...like this.

pimpmaul69 · November 19, 2014

Speaking of dreadnaught factor pal, joe do you know why i cant make a rom with a bin and the modified pal .cfg file?

intvnut · November 19, 2014

Speaking of dreadnaught factor pal, joe do you know why i cant make a rom with a bin and the modified pal .cfg file?

I don't know why you can't. :-)

Ok, reposting the patch:

.

[mapping]
$0000 - $1FFF = $5000               ; map first 8k to $5000 - $6FFF

[memattr]
$D000 - $D0FF = ROM 16

[macro]
@p 5cb5 734a
@p d000 02b8
@p d001 d009
@p d002 0240
@p d003 0100
@p d004 0040
@p d005 0240
@p d006 0101
@p d007 0220
@p d008 72c6
@p d009 02b8
@p d00a 5ca9
@p d00b 0240
@p d00c 0100
@p d00d 0040
@p d00e 0240
@p d00f 0101
@p d010 0220
@p d011 bffd

.

Get the Dreadnaught Factor .BIN file, and put this .CFG file next to it. The two need to be spelled the same, except for the suffix. For example, "dreadnaught.bin" and "dreadnaught.cfg".

Now you have multiple options. The easiest is to use rom_merge from jzIntv/SDK-1600. At the command line, run this command (assuming your game image is named dreadnaught.bin):

.

rom_merge dreadnaught.bin dreadnaught_pal.bin

.

(Note that I'm glossing over the steps required to either make "rom_merge" visible in your path or similar. How to do that varies by OS.)

Alternately you could do:

.

rom_merge dreadnaught.bin dreadnaught_pal.rom

.

The rom_merge program these days knows how to read and write .bin and .rom. To apply the patch, the source file needs to be a .bin file, though.

In any case, the output file should have the patch applied from the .cfg file.

pimpmaul69 · November 19, 2014

I don't know why you can't. :-)

Ok, reposting the patch:

.
[mapping]
$0000 - $1FFF = $5000               ; map first 8k to $5000 - $6FFF

[memattr]
$D000 - $D0FF = ROM 16

[macro]
@p 5cb5 734a
@p d000 02b8
@p d001 d009
@p d002 0240
@p d003 0100
@p d004 0040
@p d005 0240
@p d006 0101
@p d007 0220
@p d008 72c6
@p d009 02b8
@p d00a 5ca9
@p d00b 0240
@p d00c 0100
@p d00d 0040
@p d00e 0240
@p d00f 0101
@p d010 0220
@p d011 bffd
.
Get the Dreadnaught Factor .BIN file, and put this .CFG file next to it. The two need to be spelled the same, except for the suffix. For example, "dreadnaught.bin" and "dreadnaught.cfg".

Now you have multiple options. The easiest is to use rom_merge from jzIntv/SDK-1600. At the command line, run this command (assuming your game image is named dreadnaught.bin):

.
rom_merge dreadnaught.bin dreadnaught_pal.bin
.
.

(Note that I'm glossing over the steps required to either make "rom_merge" visible in your path or similar. How to do that varies by OS.)

Alternately you could do:

.
rom_merge dreadnaught.bin dreadnaught_pal.rom
.
The rom_merge program these days knows how to read and write .bin and .rom. To apply the patch, the source file needs to be a .bin file, though.

In any case, the output file should have the patch applied from the .cfg file.

so in windows i dragged the bin and cfg into rom merge. It created another bin and cfg. However that cfg now shows the original cfg info. Did this work?

intvnut · November 19, 2014

so in windows i dragged the bin and cfg into rom merge. It created another bin and cfg. However that cfg now shows the original cfg info. Did this work?

I've never actually tried using rom_merge with drag and drop, so I have no idea what that'll do. It probably won't work. I always do these things at the command line.

When you're done, you should have a CFG file that looks like this:

.

[mapping]
$0000 - $1FFF = $5000
$2000 - $20FF = $D000

.

That tells you that the patch was (likely) successful. (The patch is the extra bit of code at $D000, represented by that last line.)

pimpmaul69 · November 20, 2014

Yep it worked. I honestly dont know how to run all the programs in the sdk-1600 other than drag and drop. But that has always worked for me. So it patched it then i dragged it into bin2rom and it converted it fine. Thank you.

pimpmaul69 · November 20, 2014

Just had the modified rom tested on a pal system and tv. Works.

Intymike · November 20, 2014

Just had the modified rom tested on a pal system and tv. Works.

Works fine!

Jeffrey Bouchard · November 20, 2014

That is good to know

Jeffrey Bouchard · December 4, 2014

Is this close to a release? any ETA? sorry to keep asking, I'm really looking forward to this.

Eric7100 · December 4, 2014

Is this close to a release? any ETA? sorry to keep asking, I'm really looking forward to this.

Calm down, and please stop drooling!

+JasonlikesINTV · December 4, 2014

Lol...pot...kettle....

+intvsteve · December 5, 2014

intvnut will need to speak on the hardware / firmware front. He has been kind enough to work up a simulator so the UI can do some more rigorous testing. That's proceeding well, but the Mac UI has fallen a little behind. Fortunately, the communication infrastructure is mostly portable.

intvnut · December 5, 2014

I've thought about changing my AA password and hiding it so I'm not tempted to spend time over here when I should be working on LTO Flash! ;-)

I'm making solid progress on the firmware, though. Progress is not as fast as I'd like, but I'm determined now to chip away at it day by day.

See, intvsteve gave away part of my approach. I've implemented almost everything as models in C / C++ code, and I've been lowering those models into the firmware implementation. The C/C++ models have been extremely thoroughly vetted for correctness. Any remaining errors are just in the translation to firmware.

LTO Flash implements a rather unique filesystem on flash. The base flash filesystem is a transaction based object store that upholds ACID guarantees. The actual Locutus File System is a bit more loose, and is designed to be easy to synchronize, even if a synchronize action gets interrupted. There's a clear separation between data and metadata, and LTO Flash's flash translation guarantees ensure everything will be robust.

As far as everything else on LTO Flash is concerned... I'm working through all those details as they arise. Right now, the baseline JLP behavior augmented by the LTO Flash upgrades is pretty stable.

Edited December 5, 2014 by intvnut

+JasonlikesINTV · December 5, 2014

Thanks for the update.

+BBWW · December 5, 2014

I've thought about changing my AA password and hiding it so I'm not tempted to spend time over here when I should be working on LTO Flash!

I'm making solid progress on the firmware, though. Progress is not as fast as I'd like, but I'm determined now to chip away at it day by day.

See, intvsteve gave away part of my approach. I've implemented almost everything as models in C / C++ code, and I've been lowering those models into the firmware implementation. The C/C++ models have been extremely thoroughly vetted for correctness. Any remaining errors are just in the translation to firmware.

LTO Flash implements a rather unique filesystem on flash. The base flash filesystem is a transaction based object store that upholds ACID guarantees. The actual Locutus File System is a bit more loose, and is designed to be easy to synchronize, even if a synchronize action gets interrupted. There's a clear separation between data and metadata, and LTO Flash's flash translation guarantees ensure everything will be robust.

As far as everything else on LTO Flash is concerned... I'm working through all those details as they arise. Right now, the baseline JLP behavior augmented by the LTO Flash upgrades is pretty stable.

To traslate for the rest of us - Work is coming along nicely!

Special Teams · December 5, 2014

To traslate for the rest of us - Work is coming along nicely!

Thank you because those sentences are certainly not in English.

intvnut · December 6, 2014

Thank you because those sentences are certainly not in English.

It was more English than this... ;) ;)

ef_4pp_e:       cs_lo
                send_cst    CMD_WREN
                cs_hi
                cs_lo
                send_cst    CMD_4PP
                send_reg32  W3, W2

                RCALL       es_read_byte
                INC         W4,         W4
                ADDC        #0,         W5
                MOV         W0,         SPIxBUF

                DEC         W1,         W1
                BRA Z,      ef_4pp_e_one
ef_4pp_e_lp:
                wait_tx
                RCALL       es_read_byte
                INC         W4,         W4
                ADDC        #0,         W5
                MOV         W0,         SPIxBUF

                wait_rx
                CP0         SPIxBUF

                DEC         W1,         W1
                BRA NZ,     ef_4pp_e_lp

ef_4pp_e_one:   wait_rx
                CP0         SPIxBUF

                cs_hi
                BRA         ef_wait_wip

Edited December 6, 2014 by intvnut

Vipp · December 10, 2014

I hate to be a broken record and i understand work is going well on the flash cart, any chance you might take a guess on release? 2 months/6 months/8 months plus? If you can't i understand, i would just love to have an idea on waiting times. :) Still can't wait for this to happen.

freewheel · December 10, 2014

Somewhere between 1 and 12 months is my guess.

And yeah, I'm in the anxiously awaiting camp myself. I'm starting to realize that I'm doing things in my games that work well with emulators, but might be horrendous on the real hardware. Specifically, how I handle controller input, but other things as well. So I'm dying to get my hands on a flash cart of any sort. I'm kinda stalled with a few ideas because I don't feel like having to re-write entire games based on faulty assumptions.

intvnut · December 10, 2014

I hate to be a broken record and i understand work is going well on the flash cart, any chance you might take a guess on release? 2 months/6 months/8 months plus? If you can't i understand, i would just love to have an idea on waiting times. :) Still can't wait for this to happen.

Every time someone asks, I push it out an extra month. ;) ;)

All kidding aside, I plan to spend my Christmas holiday working on finishing up the firmware. I'm not planning to travel, so that helps too.

Jeffrey Bouchard · December 10, 2014

Thanks for the upsate

LTO Flash! - Intellivision Flash Cartridge Information

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