+Lee Stewart Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 ... Let's take a 16K ROM. I guess I have to supply it as one file and not two files. And that answers my question about how the logic works in the FlashROM99, - one file equals one game equals one entry in the FlashROM99 menu !? Well—it doesn't have to be a game; but, yes, one file (32KiB or less of non-inverted banks) equals one program equals one entry in the FlashROM99 menu. ... And entries/carts that have their own TI menu is no problem. After selecting the entry via the FlashROM99 menu, the system simply boots with that cart in place !? Yup. ...lee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 Excellent. Thanks for stepping in. Now I know all I need to know to support the hardware. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted August 24, 2016 Author Share Posted August 24, 2016 Well—it doesn't have to be a game; but, yes, one file (32KiB or less of non-inverted banks) equals one program equals one entry in the FlashROM99 menu. That's not entirely correct, as one file equals one program may have several entries, just like Disk Manager 2 (that's not a FlashROM title, but I can't think of any right away). If you select any of those entries you will not get the Disk Manager 2 cart menu, but the selected entry will start right away. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 (edited) That's not entirely correct, as one file equals one program may have several entries, just like Disk Manager 2 (that's not a FlashROM title, but I can't think of any right away). If you select any of those entries you will not get the Disk Manager 2 cart menu, but the selected entry will start right away. Oh, so if I make a cart that has two TI menu entries (GAME A and GAME B), these two will show up in the FlashROM99 menu. And if I press Fctn = (Quit), after selecting and running GAME A, what will show in the TI menu ? Edited August 24, 2016 by sometimes99er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 (edited) That's not entirely correct, as one file equals one program may have several entries, just like Disk Manager 2 (that's not a FlashROM title, but I can't think of any right away). If you select any of those entries you will not get the Disk Manager 2 cart menu, but the selected entry will start right away. Does that mean that my fbForth 2.0 or @Willsy's TurboForth will not show its startup menu, but go, instead, only ever to the first option? Never mind. I re-read your docs, which makes it embarrassingly clear!: Images may have more than one program entry to select. The FlashROM 99 lists all entries of all images. ...lee Edited August 24, 2016 by Lee Stewart 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted August 24, 2016 Author Share Posted August 24, 2016 Oh, so if I make a cart that has two TI menu entries (GAME A and GAME B), these two will show up in the FlashROM99 menu. And if I press Fctn = (Quit), after selecting and running GAME A, what will show in the TI menu ? It'll show GAME A and GAME B. If you also push the FlashROM reset button, you'll see FLASHROM 99 again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 It'll show GAME A and GAME B. If you also push the FlashROM reset button, you'll see FLASHROM 99 again. Excellent. Thanks for taking the time to answer what is probably already in your docs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chouimat Posted September 21, 2016 Share Posted September 21, 2016 are the assembled cart and case still available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted September 21, 2016 Author Share Posted September 21, 2016 are the assembled cart and case still available? Yes, I still offer carts and parts. For cases, though, you'll have to contact c0d3m4st4 or modify a Romox shell (perfect fit) or standard shell (lesser fit). Note that you can also build your own cart from scratch, as everything but the case is in the repository. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MacRorie Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 are the assembled cart and case still available? If you are in the United States, I also have cases and fully assembled cartridges. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted September 23, 2016 Share Posted September 23, 2016 One can also go to ebay.com and use thebsearch term "flashrom99" once there pick your color, click buy and you.are good to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chouimat Posted September 23, 2016 Share Posted September 23, 2016 damn wrong contry ... I'm Canada Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfreige Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 I'm currently at the schematics stage ... Layout will be challenging because we have two busses criss-crossing all over the board. Well, somewhat difficult. One of my early designs used a 512K SRAM chip and loaded everything up front, then the menu would simply select the corresponding bank. That wasn't very straightforward at all, and loading times are short, so I went for "load on demand" instead. You can still increase capacity beyond 32K with the current design, but the ATmega 8515 has only one pin left for addressing the RAM. This by itself would not be so much of a problem, though. In fact, I have an alternative design that uses a more regular ATmega 328 instead of the bulky but wimpy 8515. To compensate for the lack of pins I'd add two 590 8-bit counters that address the RAM sequentially -- the software is written not to use random access. But as the size requirements for 328 + 2x 590 vs. 8515 are about the same, I went for the 8515 because that would mean less wires. So you could use that approach to address the ATmega pin shortage. But the bus switch also has no free pins left. You need to switch the bank selector as well, as the 377 has no output enable. So to answer your question: A higher capacity would require two additional chips on the board, making it even larger. At this point I'd rather leave it as it is. Yes, that idea is pure genius -- kudos! That free pin mentioned above should be just right for this task ... I'll have to try this out on the weekend. This would also eliminate the need for the reset button, unless you like to have a hardware reset button anyway. Any plan to make a 256K or 512K flashrom99+ with the alternate larger design? Some games can´t fit in 32K. Removing the 171 files limitation would be nice too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted November 29, 2016 Author Share Posted November 29, 2016 Any plan to make a 256K or 512K flashrom99+ with the alternate larger design? Some games can´t fit in 32K. Removing the 171 files limitation would be nice too I'm currently working on a GROM-capable successor cart, and yes, it will have more RAM. The prototype PCB should arrive within some days, but it'll take some more months before the cart is ready to ship. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfreige Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 I'm currently working on a GROM-capable successor cart, and yes, it will have more RAM. The prototype PCB should arrive within some days, but it'll take some more months before the cart is ready to ship. Good news everyone!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 I'm currently working on a GROM-capable successor cart, and yes, it will have more RAM. The prototype PCB should arrive within some days, but it'll take some more months before the cart is ready to ship. Good news everyone!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davvel Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 This is great news, it opens up a new door to TI, beyond the obvious. It will be an exponential gain to all. Thanks RalphB. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 Yep, the sky could be the limit with this one! My head is about to explode with all the possibilities going through it at the moment. I wonder if this thing will finally bring us to the era of a true DOS or GUI environment for us 'average 4A users'? All we would have to do is easily download the .BIN modules we want, slap then on the SD card and could then theoretically have all required or wanted programs in the cartridge... and only use disks for data storage. Wow, what a speed advantage that would give us. The possibility of NEVER having to swap cartridges EVER again is also pretty appealing. Being that it's GROM capable and all SD based and it turns out that the MENU PROGRAM can also be swapped in an out with a DOS or GUI this thing could have multiple personalities and applications not even considered yet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+acadiel Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 I'm currently working on a GROM-capable successor cart, and yes, it will have more RAM. The prototype PCB should arrive within some days, but it'll take some more months before the cart is ready to ship. Nice! Ping me with how you're approaching it. Dying of curiosity. Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfreige Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 All we need now is a cheap/easily available SAMS card 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 ... or GUI environment ... ralphb, maybe bank-switching to some high address and you'll be able to read a mouse connected to the board ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 ralphb, maybe bank-switching to some high address and you'll be able to read a mouse connected to the board ? Hehe, that might even work, but certainly not in a compatible way. I don't even if know if there is a common standard for mice that all/most legacy programs use. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Hehe, that might even work, but certainly not in a compatible way. I don't even if know if there is a common standard for mice that all/most legacy programs use. I don't think any of them went thru the cartridge port, so yeah, a new way. If you could just read 2 bytes, the current x and y positions of the mouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkdrummer Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphaltimus Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 That is sexy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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