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Ultimate Cart (SD multicart) - Technical thread


electrotrains

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24 minutes ago, glurk said:

I gave two example XEX files, one which does not work on 800, but does on XE/XL.  And my fixed one, in which I explained the fix, that DOES work.

Yeah: it just looks like some better management of the OS variables is needed. I tested the 'broken' version on the Incognito in 'Colleen' (800) mode, and it works fine. I'll have a look at the Ultimate loader at some point if I get time; it's years since I worked on it and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge in the intervening years in terms of the compatibility and robustness of XEX loaders.

There should not be a lot of XEX titles which exploit this method of calling a warmstart to initialise themselves, though (I guess a particular software house used this method a lot).

 

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15 minutes ago, foft said:

I doubt it works well from a cartridge, hence the avg solution of a wire to the sio port.

Unless the XEX somehow tries to exploit the properties of being loaded over the serial bus, there should be nothing which can't be accomplished using an XEX loader at $700 or thereabouts (the problem XEX runs fine from the Incognito loader). It's ATRs which really benefit from AVG's SIO solution.

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17 hours ago, glurk said:

Sure, of course.  The color-changing and keypress changes can be donr right in the _BOOT.ROM part, of course.  Don't use my code I posted above, though, it has some issues.   I haven't got it quite how I want it yet.

I was referring only to the color, not to use completely your menu version, since I like the default one.?

 

About the incompatibility of the 800 it exists and was reported before, but it is not in the github. unfortunately I don't have this hardware to test since it is necessary to modify the FPGA. ?

 

Continuing with my tests (beta version) I have already added support for a 64k Turbosoft cartridge that was popular in my country.

fpga.thumb.PNG.770daacf9c0f31da26071bf7729fded4.PNG

 

Now I am trying to understand how to make a memory ban to add another type.

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On 6/6/2021 at 1:38 PM, Faicuai said:

There are additional (and larger) problems with Ultimate cart (reason for which I was forced to build my own control-extensions in ASM and embed then on the BOOT.rom):

 

  1. The EXE loader, while being pretty fast and effective, pre-loads on cart. boot in >$0700 region, which means an instant kill of SDX, if you are entering the menu from CAR command. So without the necessary changes, 100% incompatible with SDX and that is a big no-no.
  2. When booting from cold / off start, it blissfully ignores the user environment (eg. first booting a disk-package, if present or provided in user's environment). Which also disrupts the normal boot workflow if you intent to use the cart for actual applications (not mere games).

If the cart is being used for kiddie stuff (like launching SuperBreakout, Star Raiders, etc.) then the above is pretty much irrelevant. But if you wish to remain at the helms of your session, through-and-through, the cart's original Boot.rom will not help, unfortunately.

 

This can ALL be corrected, of course (just as I had to do) and with added benefits.... but... it was a lot of work, for simple, common-sense stuff...   

 

 

If you have done the corrections for yourself, what are the chances they be uploaded here and to the github repository?

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On 6/10/2021 at 1:00 PM, _The Doctor__ said:

If you have done the corrections for yourself, what are the chances they be uploaded here and to the github repository?

Good point (sorry for missing this one).

 

Don't know about the GitHub, but they are here, already (for anyone who needs full control of Ultimate/SD's session:

 

 

Cheers!

 

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  • 1 month later...

It would be good to have all three different fixes, correction, and toolkit applications of the ultimate cross-posted and unified all of which should be in the repository. Then it would all be unified... I am not sure what is or isn't in each of the boot roms, I dug out my toolchain to reprogram my ultimatecarts with and no longer know what pof to use or even if there is a unified pof with the latest boot/loader/menu already incorporated. It's great to have bootrom on sd and all, and it definately has it's purposes, but what is held in the cart itself matters the most to me.

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On my side I have my changes clear and ordered in the github branch, don't worry my goal was always to make a new firmware version with some improvements shared by this thread and the other thread to improve the .XEX support.

 

As a preview I already bought a cartridge connector to make it easier for me to do the full firmware burn in.?

cart.thumb.jpg.6eae9370637917520fa583f625717a9d.jpg

 

I am still reviewing the .XEX support discussed in the other thread. I also want to see if it is possible to add a file search I think this is needed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

?

 

Current changelog:

  • Fix Atari 800 /S4 and /S5 are always active (Vigo)
  • BOOT? in one for executable files and DLI flicker fixed (Flashjazzcat)
  •  New support for 4 types of cartridges .CAR (AsCrNet)
    • Turbosoft 64kb y 128kb (N°50 and N°51)
    • ATRAX 128kb (N°17)
    • Standard cartridge 4kb (N°58)

 

????????  Previous changes made by Facuai are not mentioned...  ...not required for XL-XE?:

 

$8000-$9FFF bus-contention problem when running on the 800:

 

 

A800 / Incognito: Control Extensions (CX):

 

Plus Control-Extensions (CX):

 

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8 hours ago, tane said:

Previous changes made by Facuai are not mentioned...  ...not required for XL-XE?

They are indeed not included and are for 800 with Incognito. Also, two important things because I didn't add them I don't have the necessary hardware to test them and the changes were made outside the project. If you need those changes you only need to put _Boot.rom in the SD card and that's it. ?

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8 hours ago, ascrnet said:

you only need to put _Boot.rom in the SD card and that's it.

Ok, thanks.

 

Can you point how to convert/compile a new "Max10_SD.pof" from the "boot.rom"?

 

Is it with this?:

avr-objcopy.exe -I binary -O ihex boot.rom boot_rom.hex

 

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29 minutes ago, Mathy said:

Can somebody recommend one?

Select by price a clone:

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&SearchText=usb+blaster+altera

 

On 8/29/2021 at 6:46 PM, tane said:

Can you point how to convert/compile a new "Max10_SD.pof" from the "boot.rom"?

Definitely just a command line exe conversion is too simple for an Intel hardware...

 

 

@ascrnet Can you make an "advanced" guide of how to create a new project (.pof) including the boot.rom with Quartus? A step by step screenshots is ok.

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/241888-ultimate-cart-sd-multicart-technical-thread/?do=findComment&comment=4836069

 

 

 

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On 8/29/2021 at 6:46 PM, tane said:

Ok, thanks.

 

Can you point how to convert/compile a new "Max10_SD.pof" from the "boot.rom"?

 

Is it with this?:


avr-objcopy.exe -I binary -O ihex boot.rom boot_rom.hex

 

No, you need several things I explained here in Spanish but here it is in English.

3 hours ago, Mathy said:

Hello guys

 

Could somebody please remind me how to update the Ultimate Cartridge (after downloading "Max10_SD.pof")?

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

here is the guide.

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42 minutes ago, ascrnet said:

No, you need several things I explained here in Spanish but here it is in English.

Thanks, but the question is different:

Image1.thumb.png.79e3e734b5cf2c9c3f62b8f146d71ffd.png

 

STEP 1: compile the asm to .rom, with MADS.

STEP 2: somehow build a new firmware (.POF) based in boot.rom, with Quartus.

STEP 3: upload the .pof to the cart, with a USB Blaster and Quartus.

 

I'm asking for STEP 2 (not Step 3), how to build the .pof properly?  Could be just screenshots step by step. Likely it should require to specify the model of the FPGA and a ton of parameters, etc.

 

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On 8/29/2021 at 10:38 AM, ascrnet said:

and are for 800 with Incognito.

Correct, since there you can boot its internal HD fully independently of any cart plugged, including Ultimate. The CX-extensions are designed for those users that want as much control as possible of Ultimate/SD cart, right from SDX-prompt and without needing to enter its main-menu for every-day cart mounting, like apps, programming languages, and top / fav. games.

 

On 8/29/2021 at 10:38 AM, ascrnet said:

If you need those changes you only need to put _Boot.rom in the SD card

Yes, installing CX extensions is that simple and harmless (just rename existing _boot.rom to _boot.bak, first). ANY user can do it, and can be reverted immediately, if ever needed.

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