peteym5 Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 There is still an unsupported cartridge types. There is a 5200 bank switching cartridge board that was designed by Brian that can hold up to 512K. Think there are several configurations about which memory can be bank switch. The other feature missing is Trackball and Driving controller. People had been demanding some games to support the driving controller, but I am not sure if what I put together is working correctly. I am using the Mouse controller to test track ball and driving controller. These are controllers that are becoming rare also. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Wasn't the driving controller something that came with the "Indy 500" VCS cartridge? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serj Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 thanks, Avery.everything perfectly works, the emulator is magnificent. I checked record for images of cassettes in three modes. CSAVE SAVE "C:" LIST "C:" recording work. small wish: if on an image of the cassettes - many games (programs) that difficult are search to define the beginning of each of programs. for example such cassettes: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-cassette-50_1203.html on the majority of cassettes - search is carried out on the counter. Avery, please add to the menu "Tape Control" - counter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgr_inz_rafal Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 I recently upgraded from 2.50-test23 to 2.70 (and 2.80-test6) and I can no longer press HELP. I double checked the input settings and F6 seems to be correctly mapped. Did I miss some change in the controller handling code made recently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Drivng Controller came with Atari 2600 Indy 500 and not many other games supported it. Since almost 100% of the Atari 8-bit gaming community use joystick, anything game written should use that by default. I am not sure the percentage of people using these devices will be, probably less than 5%, I am working on a few games that support driving and trackball controllers by pressing option when the title splash game is up. As far as any documentation found online, these use "Grey Code" like the mouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atx4us Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 thanks, Avery. everything perfectly works, the emulator is magnificent. I checked record for images of cassettes in three modes. CSAVE SAVE "C:" LIST "C:" recording work. small wish: if on an image of the cassettes - many games (programs) that difficult are search to define the beginning of each of programs. for example such cassettes: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-cassette-50_1203.html on the majority of cassettes - search is carried out on the counter. Avery, please add to the menu "Tape Control" - counter. Ahh yes, the tape counter! It's funny how time can change things. Back in the days when I was young and was working a minimum wage job, I couldn't wait to get a 1050 disk drive to replace the cassette recorder that I had. Now, we're requesting for a cassette recorder. Go figure But, that's what retro-computing is all about. I agree that as long as we're dealing with cassette files, please add a tape counter. And hopefully while you're at it, please add the ability to go directly to a tape counter value. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 ...I couldn't wait to get a 1050 disk drive to replace the cassette recorder that I had. Now, we're requesting for a cassette recorder. Go figure Ah, not all of us. I mean, I don't mind that it's in there at all, but disk is where it's at! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 Tape counters on cassette tape decks are typically driven by the turns of the takeup wheel. There is no standard for how fast they count and the rate depends both on the take deck you are using and the type of tape used. The emulator already reports absolute time and I don't see a purpose in adding a tape counter. Can't reproduce the issue with Help myself. Try running a clean, isolated instance of Altirra (make a copy somewhere else, run with /portable) and see if it still occurs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Hi phaeron, could you add support for the Pocket Modem M: device? Driver is here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/29689-pocket-modem-docs-needed/?do=findComment&comment=3248808 Thanks if/when you can, Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenames99 Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 multiplexer support thru network / multiple instances would be cool too I think. that uses the M: device also is why I brought this up. either way would be cool tho. Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atx4us Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 (edited) Tape counters on cassette tape decks are typically driven by the turns of the takeup wheel. There is no standard for how fast they count and the rate depends both on the take deck you are using and the type of tape used. The emulator already reports absolute time and I don't see a purpose in adding a tape counter. Can't reproduce the issue with Help myself. Try running a clean, isolated instance of Altirra (make a copy somewhere else, run with /portable) and see if it still occurs. Avery, I love the way you consistently explain things! The suggestion for a tape counter would have made sense from purely an aesthetic perspective. You know, it's all about going for that retro look & feel man! But, your pragmatic perspective makes so much sense! Thank you so much for your great work. Edited December 29, 2015 by atx4us 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serj Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 the counter is not for beauty or nostalgic memories. well, you need an example for an explanation, here it: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-cassette-50_1203.html there is a lot of such cassettes, for an example also this will descend. for example I want to load game - "tunnel escape". in the instruction it is specified that game is on an interval 942 - 965.how I shall find this interval ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 in the instruction it is specified that game is on an interval 942 - 965. how I shall find this interval ? You can't. This literally depends on the tape drive in use, the thickness of the tape, and the length of the entire tape. Assuming a 1010 drive might work for the first case but the tape geometry isn't stored in a .cas file. Here are the gory details: http://janburke.de/index.php/music/134-tape-counter-calibration This is why Altirra displays the waveform graphs and the absolute time. Those aren't dependent on the tape or tape drive. If those were official instructions included with a shipped game, it was not a good idea to include counter numbers. The 410 manual even states: "Tape counters will vary (sometimes a great deal!) from recorder to recorder. It may therefore be very difficult to find a program in the middle of a tape on another machine." 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 If those were official instructions included with a shipped game, it was not a good idea to include counter numbers. The 410 manual even states: "Tape counters will vary (sometimes a great deal!) from recorder to recorder. It may therefore be very difficult to find a program in the middle of a tape on another machine." I remember that the 2 red packaged tapes with 5 games on each which came with the 65XE had instructions to forward to specific points on the tape for each game (if I remember correctly). However, as it was bundled in, they knew that you had an XC12. As it can't be implemented, I'd recommend that anyone who has this problem gets hold of the individual programs off the cassettes and has them as separate files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 (edited) This pointing to tape counter positions in the instructions also happened on *some* multi game tapes on the C64, blooming nightmare it was if your counter was broken.. Edited December 30, 2015 by Mclaneinc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgr_inz_rafal Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 OK, the issue with HELP seems to be affecting the 2.80-test version only. I reverted back to 2.70 and HELP [F6] key is working as expected. First I though that it might be something with my 6502 code, since I tested it only with games written by me, but then I checked it within SELF TEST with the same result I moved the emulator around even to another PCs, started with "/portable", but could't get the HELP key to work. Therefore I will stick to the 2.70 until 2.80 final is oficially available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I wonder how hard it would be to make a USB attached dongle that had 4 joystick ports and a SIO port that would interface with the emulator? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serj Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 thanks for an explanation, Avery. at me one question arose. I tried to load an image of the cassette with the game "M.U.L.E". for some reason any of images of game didn't go further the game menu. images of diskettes and cartridge work perfectly.I can't understand in what business - the spoiled images of cassettes or a bug in the emulator? m.u.l.e.cassettes.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madi Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 OK, the issue with HELP seems to be affecting the 2.80-test version only. I reverted back to 2.70 and HELP [F6] key is working as expected. Help is working normally in Altirra 2.8 test 6 (Windows 10 x64). Tested in SELF TEST, Ultimate 1MB (to enter Ultimate setup) and ARABIAN OS (switching character set). madi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madi Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 (edited) thanks for an explanation, Avery. at me one question arose. I tried to load an image of the cassette with the game "M.U.L.E". for some reason any of images of game didn't go further the game menu. images of diskettes and cartridge work perfectly. I can't understand in what business - the spoiled images of cassettes or a bug in the emulator? M.U.L.E loads from all CAS versions and runs normally. (load image and drop-in methods). Tested under Altirra 2.8 test 6 (Windows 10 x64) madi Edited December 30, 2015 by Madi 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serj Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 (edited) Madi, you inattentively read my text. try to begin game. the field of this place game hangs up. Edited December 30, 2015 by serj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madi Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Madi, you inattentively read my text. try to begin game. the field of this place game hangs up. You are right. All MULE versions do not go beyond the mainmenu except for the HOMSOFT version, which crashes upon landing on planet. It looks that the images are bad. I tested them under several Altirra vesions (2.5, 2.6 and 2.7) with same results. I will search for a good image and upload it when I find it madi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgr_inz_rafal Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Help is working normally in Altirra 2.8 test 6 (Windows 10 x64). Tested in SELF TEST, Ultimate 1MB (to enter Ultimate setup) and ARABIAN OS (switching character set). madi Lucky you Well, that's just computers. Noone expects them to be predictable... However, simply replacing the Altirra executable with 2.7 solves the issue, so there must be some other, "mysterious" factor involved. I'll try to get more info and eventually get back with the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 Hi Avery, (not related to V2.70) I have an ATX image here and would like to see the actual sector accesses & (fail) return codes like in ".tracecio" or AspecQt but there is no ".tracesio". I remember I read something about the new log channels, but the SIO* ones only yield very little output. And there's not much explained in the online help (you definitvely need ghost writer with the current speed of development). Cheers, Peter/JAC! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 I usually use either DISK or HOOKSIO channels for that. You can get pretty close with a tracepoint: bt siov "Dev=$%02X Cmd=$%02X Sector=$%04X >> Buffer $%04X[$%04X] | Result=$%%02X" db(ddevic)+db(dunit)-1 db(dcomnd) dw(daux1) dw(dbuflo) dw(dbytlo) -- y 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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