Jump to content
IGNORED

Colem SGM


chart45

Recommended Posts

Aha, looks good, thanks. My own research shows that the actual Boxxle and Black Onyx carts appear to use 0xFF80 / 0xFF90 / 0xFFA0 / 0xFFB0 hotspots for EEPROM access though. Will check for ones at 0x6xxx as well.

 

Interestingly, that above appears to perhaps leverage what was mentioned in this post: "...a 74LS133 would be much more useful, since it has 13 inputs, which is great for decoding FFFx addresses..."

 

Respecting the final product, Pixelboy makes mention: "..we now have a ColecoVision PCB that supports 64K bankswitching (3 banks of 16K in the upper half of the cart ROM address space) and EEPROM support for data-saving..."

 

One other area that may be worth looking at is the $7800-$7FFF range. That was noted as being utilized for possible additional hotspots; however, nothing definitive stated as to whether or not that came to fruition.

 

Further along those llnes, the suggestion to make use of the entire $6000-$7FFF range was brought up in the discussion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ColEm Deluxe for Android is currently on $1.99 sale:

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.colem.deluxe

 

The deluxe version lets you make multiple game saves, adds debugger and the advance settings menu, among other things. If you liked the free version but thought that the full version price was too much, now is your chance.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would just like to chime in and give my thanks to Marat for continuing to produce and support ColEm. I've been using it and admiring it since the original ColEm MS-DOS 1.0 version back in '96 or '97.

 

Further, I openly lament the discontinuation of the DOS version of ColEm. I'm extremely dismayed by this; I still use DOS daily, and it is still a completely viable OS. I actually managed to compile a ColEm MS-DOS version 3.3 which is two or three revision past when Marat officially stopped releasing DOS binaries. The reason for the compile was to enable cheats in MS-DOS. I used Watcom C++ DJGPP compiler along with the old ColEm source code, and somehow managed to get it to work, and be fully functional as a DJGPP binary in native DOS.

 

Now, I wish to attempt to compile version 4.3 to enable SGM support in DOS. No other Colecovision emulators are available in DOS. I am wondering if anyone can provide some help, pointers, and / or, the holy-grail request, an actual DOS binary of ColEm 4.3 for MS-DOS.

 

Wouldn't that be neat, much as ADAMEm binaries are still available for the MS-DOS target?

I

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still use DOS daily, and it is still a completely viable OS.

I am afraid you may belong to a really small handful of people, since I can't even properly run DOS apps since Win7. That (and the lack of time) is the main reason I no longer support DOS ports of my emulators. The ColEm source code is publicly available though, so it shouldn't be very difficult to compile it for DOS.

 

PS: Added 24c08 EEPROM emulation to ColEm, Black Onyx saves now. Will release once I tidy it up and add bigger EEPROM option for Boxxle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I am afraid you may belong to a really small handful of people, since I can't even properly run DOS apps since Win7. That (and the lack of time) is the main reason I no longer support DOS ports of my emulators. The ColEm source code is publicly available though, so it shouldn't be very difficult to compile it for DOS.

 

PS: Added 24c08 EEPROM emulation to ColEm, Black Onyx saves now. Will release once I tidy it up and add bigger EEPROM option for Boxxle.

 

 

Ha, I know I belong to a small group. But, smaller isn't always so bad! Anyway, I'll try again to compile for DOS. As I had successfully compiled v. 3.3 three or so years ago, I can try my luck at getting a v. 4.3 binary, or 4.4 when you release the new version with the 24c08 EEPROM emulation. I assume the source will still be in straight C. If so, my Watcom DOS compiler should still work!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, the main reason I still use DOS for many things is that I can be up and running, for example, with ColEM in 5 seconds upon hitting the "power" button vs 2-3 minutues when having to deal with the bloated mess of Windows. This is even more true on older, but still completely usable laptops. I have a bootable "emulation" games memory stick with all my favorite DOS emulators (Colecovision, NES, Atari 2600, Apple II, C64, etc) and, I'm up and running in 5 seconds as opposed to several minutes when dealing with Windows and its loading of gigabytes of code just to be able to run a ~100 kb emulator. With DOS, I'm only loading about 200 kb of OS code before being able to control the system and get on with my business.

 

That's the main reason DOS is still completely usable and viable. Try it, you'll like it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some more feedback concerning Sewer Sam and Squish 'Em Sam. As in AdamEm, ColEm has sound effects but no voice sounds. Mess and CoolCV both have the sound effects and voice. I didn't try any other audio settings.

 

Squish 'Em Sam

 

1. Do you can hear the voice on MAME/MESS?

2. The voice is correct on CoolCV

 

The programer of vgmgr is working on a fix.

Edited by AnnaWu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Continuing with the EEPROM topic, does anyone know if Boxxle cartridge comes with prewritten EEPROM? I have got 24c256 emulated, but Boxxle appears to read uninitialized game level data from it and display that level to the user.

The EEPROM doesn't just store level data. It also stores the "best time" and "lowest number of moves" record values for each and every level of the game, and also for the levels created by the player. So when you see the software reading from the EEPROM, it's probably pulling those record values.

 

There's a code mentioned in the manual of the game, entered with the keypad at the title screen, which erases the contents of the EEPROM. You may want to use it to create a clean EEPROM file. I'm at work right now, so I cannot check what the code is.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a code mentioned in the manual of the game, entered with the keypad at the title screen, which erases the contents of the EEPROM. You may want to use it to create a clean EEPROM file. I'm at work right now, so I cannot check what the code is.

A screenshot of the manual, found in the game review, says it is "551177". Tried that, it reset EEPROM, but still no playable levels. I am clealry doing something very wrong =)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, yes. The PCB used for The Black Onyx and Boxxle (and the upcoming Arcomage and Jewel Panic) is what I affectionately call "my Activision PCB", because it's designed to be used in Activision-style cartridge shells. It has its own bankswitching and EEPROM I/O systems, originally designed by batari.

 

Interestingly, there's a variation of this PCB which was developed for AtariAge-published ColecoVision games, which is the same as my Activision PCB, but is designed for regular Coleco cartridge shells. This means that when new copies of The Black Onyx and Boxxle will appear on the AtariAge Store, they will use regular Coleco carts instead of Activision-style carts, but the architecture and features of the PCB inside the cart will be the same.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, yes. The PCB used for The Black Onyx and Boxxle (and the upcoming Arcomage and Jewel Panic) is what I affectionately call "my Activision PCB", because it's designed to be used in Activision-style cartridge shells. It has its own bankswitching and EEPROM I/O systems, originally designed by batari.

Since I am currently detecting EEPROM-equipped games by CRC, you may either want to send the final upcoming ROMs to me for addition (no, they do not go further) or come up with some way to detect these ROMs in organized manner.

 

For example, MegaCarts (0xFFCx ROM switch) can be detected by the cartridge signature (0xAA 0x55 or 0x55 0xAA) present in the last 16kB ROM page. Something similar should work for EEPROM-equipped games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I love that you added sgm, however I still can't get some sgm games to work, Dragons Lair, Super Buck Rogers and Super Subroc.....

 

These SGM games are working with ColEm 4.4

Hardware > Super Game Module enabled?

Edited by AnnaWu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
On 3/15/2018 at 3:25 PM, GarageResearch said:

Answering questions:

1) How to enable SGM?

On Linux, use -sgm. On Windows, use "Hardware | Super Game Module" menu. On Android, use "Settings | Emulation | Super Game Module" setting.

 

How do I enter in Settings on an Android TV (Sony Bravia)?

I have connected mouse, keyboard and I have its remote control.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, artrag said:

How do I enter in Settings on an Android TV (Sony Bravia)?

I have connected mouse, keyboard and I have its remote control.

 

Pressing both analog gamepad sticks "in" should open the menu with the Settings option. If this does not work, try clicking on the overflow menu (three dots) in the File Selector.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...