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Altirra 2.80 released


phaeron

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Being a tester for perhaps even longer and qualified in real IT, not script reading people sat behind telephones I find some of the worst offenders for saving / data safety are those in that field :)

 

Or it could just be I know some people as lazy as me :)

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Not a bug report...

 

Just played with the 1050 Duplicator emulation, wow, love all the other drives but that one is a pain, no wonder Avery wasn't happy with the way it was devised...

 

Got to the point that running from a totally new frsh boot up of Altirra got the drive emulation running but trying to boot by double click on associated images just left the drive making some noises and timing out as if there was no disk in it.

 

No Fast Boot on...

 

Happy 1050 all the way here :)

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No it would not. It will become annoying real fast.

 

I realize that on a real computer, there is no "Are you sure" when you power off and hit reset. And I agree that it would get annoying for those options. But, I'm really talking about things people do less often, like changing the CPU. Most normal people would understand that you cannot change the CPU or the type of machine without hard-resetting the machine, but it is easy to forget that and possibly lose data unintentionally.

 

But, I understand I am only one person...

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I realize that on a real computer, there is no "Are you sure" when you power off and hit reset. And I agree that it would get annoying for those options. But, I'm really talking about things people do less often, like changing the CPU. Most normal people would understand that you cannot change the CPU or the type of machine without hard-resetting the machine, but it is easy to forget that and possibly lose data unintentionally.

 

But, I understand I am only one person...

 

So when using Altirra, save your work before changing such things. Simple.

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I have a suggestion, if it's feasible.

 

When the machine crashes and Altirra presents the dialogue below, it would be convenient when "Disable BASIC" isn't relevant, to have "Enable BASIC" available in place of its greyed-out counterpart.

 

If this is already implemented in newer (test) versions of Altirra, then nevermind. I only use the stable releases (currently 2.81). Thanks.

 

post-6369-0-53799200-1489624173_thumb.png

 

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I realize that on a real computer, there is no "Are you sure" when you power off and hit reset. And I agree that it would get annoying for those options. But, I'm really talking about things people do less often, like changing the CPU. Most normal people would understand that you cannot change the CPU or the type of machine without hard-resetting the machine, but it is easy to forget that and possibly lose data unintentionally.

 

But, I understand I am only one person...

So when using Altirra, save your work before changing such things. Simple.

 

Some folks may want/need the reminder.The ideal solution is to implement the "are you sure?" dialog, AND have the option to enable/disable it. Once that happened in Applewin everyone was satisfied and there was no further discussion.

 

The changing of the CPU caught me off guard once, but it was just a game. So no biggie.

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Update:

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.90-test29.zip

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.90-test29-src.zip

  • ATR8000 now supports multiple drive select. Turns out the firmware selects and steps all four drives simultaneously on startup. This fixes running with D2: only.
  • Implemented ATR8000 reset button.
  • Lowered minimum baud rate for transmission from ATR8000. The reason ATRMON wasn't working was that the emulator was blocking transmission below ~16kbaud, and ATRMON uses 9600 baud.

To do an O+S+S reset, use System > Hold Keys For Reset, press F2-F4, then do a warm reset.

 

Couldn't reproduce the print buffer issue. The emulator currently holds BUSY high, which prevents the ATR8000 from writing to the printer port. I did a test and was able to fill up the 64K printer buffer, though it took a while.

 

RS232 is not currently implemented.

 

 

Thanks for these updates.

 

ATR8000's monitor does indeed respond now.

 

Seems I didn't remember the correct steps for starting Omniview XE's 80 column term program for the ATR8000. CTRL+A then RESET puts the machine into 80 column mode. OPTION+SELECT+START+<any key> starts the term program. This sequence can be typed live in Altirra so I need not have bothered you on this issue. Sorry, Phaeron.

 

-SteveS

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Some folks may want/need the reminder.The ideal solution is to implement the "are you sure?" dialog, AND have the option to enable/disable it. Once that happened in Applewin everyone was satisfied and there was no further discussion.

 

The changing of the CPU caught me off guard once, but it was just a game. So no biggie.

 

Look, I fully comprehend the issues here. I am just of the strong opinion that having to confirm EVERY time is too high of a price to simply just safeguard against the exceedingly rare instance that I would fail to save my work prior to either accidentally hitting F5, or changing configuration in such a major way that the emulated machine must reset. Now I can appreciate that for some (one so far I think), the price I mentioned above is not too high. It's a preference, so there's no right or wrong; but I think it's bat shit crazy just the same. :-D Anyway, as I initially stated, if a confirmation is to be included at all, please, please, make it an option. Then everyone can have their preference and it's win win.

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Have to agree, there's got to be a proper balance of real world issues and niceties that Avery has added which are useful. Reminders to save to disks that have data written to them is great considering the virtual read write and the genuine R / W but with the ability to remap the keys for system reset it really does not feel like it needs an intrusive new dialogue every time you press F5 or SHIFT F5.

 

Just my view as an emulator beta tester like Keatah, and like him I've been testing emulators since they started appearing way back then on the Amiga etc, my ability to make things break knows no bounds :)

 

But seriously, there's nice helpful additional features but a constant reset dialogue would drive me and others insane..Remap the keys so they are away from the option and select if it helps.

 

There's nothing more annoying than a computer asking you if you meant to do that and then having to close the window to the designers insolence :) ...Grrrrr

 

Paul..

Edited by Mclaneinc
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So, you guys loved my last idea so much, I have another one I'd like to suggest. :? :) :)

 

This emulator is so powerful and so well-written, that it's hard not to think about ways to make it even better.

 

So, what if there was an option to save x number of states every y minutes?

 

Think about it, I could say, keep 20 save states and take one every 5 minutes. Maybe another check box for save state every time there is a system reset. User would be able to specify where the save states are stored. You could even select to keep 20 save states, but not do them every x minutes and instead only do them when resetting.

 

Maybe something like this:

Auto Save State o Yes o No

Save states to keep: ___

Create save state every ___ Minutes (0=do not save based on time)

Auto Save State during Reset or Reboot? o Yes o No

Path for Save States: <Browse>

 

The first Yes/No would grey out the rest of the lines if it is "No"

 

Think about this. If you are developing and something goes wrong and you can't figure out what you broke, you could go back to a save state from 5 minutes ago and get back to where it was working.

 

What do we think?

 

Thanks!

 

Todd

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I'd be worried about the emulator losing focus when the states are saved and I can imagine HD filling up pretty fast...

 

BUT...As I'm not a dev I cannot answer from their POV and as its really only focused on them their say is far more important. I use the save states very rarely but they are indeed very handy but as for them being used in bulk, pass.

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So, you guys loved my last idea so much, I have another one I'd like to suggest. :? :) :)

 

This emulator is so powerful and so well-written, that it's hard not to think about ways to make it even better.

 

So, what if there was an option to save x number of states every y minutes?

 

Think about it, I could say, keep 20 save states and take one every 5 minutes. Maybe another check box for save state every time there is a system reset. User would be able to specify where the save states are stored. You could even select to keep 20 save states, but not do them every x minutes and instead only do them when resetting.

 

Maybe something like this:

Auto Save State o Yes o No

Save states to keep: ___

Create save state every ___ Minutes (0=do not save based on time)

Auto Save State during Reset or Reboot? o Yes o No

Path for Save States: <Browse>

 

The first Yes/No would grey out the rest of the lines if it is "No"

 

Think about this. If you are developing and something goes wrong and you can't figure out what you broke, you could go back to a save state from 5 minutes ago and get back to where it was working.

 

What do we think?

 

Thanks!

 

Todd

 

I'm not particularly excited about this idea either. Now, I don't want to discourage you from bringing forth ideas; truly. Keep 'em coming. There is no harm in putting forth ideas, so long as it's understood they may, or may not, be well accepted.

 

Now then, my thoughts on this idea is that I don't object to such an option to be available. I'm reasonably sure that I wouldn't use it, but the ability to do so wouldn't bother me.

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I did a search without much success, but I thought for sure Avery had posted some documentation for Alitrra BASIC somewhere on the forum. Does such a thing exist or has my middle-aged brain lied to me?

 

 

Yes he did...

 

Latest version..

...

 

Is there a manual with all debugger commands? (.help)

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So, you guys loved my last idea so much, I have another one I'd like to suggest. :? :) :)

This emulator is so powerful and so well-written, that it's hard not to think about ways to make it even better.

So, what if there was an option to save x number of states every y minutes?

 

Love it!

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subjugator, on 10 Oct 2016 - 8:17 PM, said:snapback.png

There is only one minor gripe that prevents me from using any versions newer than 2.6 test 12 - scanline emulation. Scanlines were perfectly emulated up until Altirra 2.6 as sharp visible lines, but in later versions they became blurry and generic and look nothing like the real CRT (when compared to picture on my Sony WEGA 27")

 

Please see the attached screenshot for comparison. Just curious - would it be possible to bring back the old scanlines or have an option to switch ?

 

Funny, I actually changed it because someone complained that too dark was unrealistic....

 

I could make it configurable. Carving out a place to put the setting is the trickiest part.

 

Avery - I know it's been a while and that you've been very busy. But could I ask that you revisit the scanline darkness setting if you find the time ? If you could provide the option to adjust their darkness, or revert to the pre 2.6 setting it would be awesome. Thanks so much in advance!

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Now that I'm pretty much satisfied with the Star Raiders colors. I turned my attention to artifacting colors - and specifcally Ultima III.

 

On Applewin I get this. And it seems to match pretty well with my real hardware. Green landscape and blue water.

post-4806-0-87914900-1489817931_thumb.png

 

In Altirra, with artifacting set to high and the Authentic NTSC color selected I get these, depending on the position of the Artifacting Phase slider. I'm not able to achieve the look I get on Applewin where the landscape is green and the water is blue. Should I be able to do that? Or does Altirra need some more internal work on the artifacting routines? Does real hardware get the colors correct like the Apple does?

post-4806-0-50718800-1489817932_thumb.pngpost-4806-0-08303300-1489817933_thumb.pngpost-4806-0-15611500-1489817931_thumb.pngpost-4806-0-07642400-1489818241_thumb.png

 

 

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