F18A Version Display - How To?

[Ikrananka]

Okay, I feel I'm being stupid but how does one go about getting an F18A in a ColecoVision to show the version display, i.e. the screen that shows the firmware F18A version number and the F18A credits. I've searched and searched online for the answer but can only find a reference to it being displayed upon a reset. But on my system resetting doesn't bring the screen up at all.

[digress]

I believe it only shows when you intially power the system. Not resetting. So make sure you vga display is on m maybe power cycle it so it doesn't sleep the screen, then power on the f18a device and look in the top left corner. mine has a small box that says v1.8

[Ikrananka]

I believe it only shows when you intially power the system. Not resetting. So make sure you vga display is on m maybe power cycle it so it doesn't sleep the screen, then power on the f18a device and look in the top left corner. mine has a small box that says v1.8

 

Thanks but unfortunately that doesn't work for me. I don't get a version displayed, the screen goes straight to the normal CV display.

[Bmack36]

Hold down reset when you power the system on. It will take you to the F18a splash screen.

 

Old versions didn't have the version display on powerup in the corner

Edited July 27, 2018 by Bmack36

[Ikrananka]

Hold down reset when you power the system on. It will take you to the F18a splash screen.

 

Old versions didn't have the version display on powerup in the corner

 

Fantastic - thank you. Previously I'd tried holding down reset but not while powering on the system.

 

So, my F18A is still on the old 1.3 firmware. I'm wondering if I should actually NOT update the firmware due to the problems that 1.6+ has with Mecha 8 and 9. I tested Mecha 8 and Mecha 9 yesterday with my v1.3 F18A and my SGM and they worked perfectly.

Edited July 27, 2018 by Ikrananka

[Bmack36]

I'm not sure about Mecha 9, but Mecha 8 was working on my F18a system with SGM. Maybe it is a board revision thing. At the same time a couple other people had the issue so i guess it just depends on if you feel lucky. Although that does remind me of an issue with sydney hunter giving a black screen and not working with the SGM plugged in.

[Ikrananka]

Interesting that Mecha 8 + SGM works with you F18A (1.8 firmware) and yet others have had issues. I'm still very wary about updating the firmware having also just tested Sydney Hunter +SGM with mine and it's working fine. I'd hate to update and find that Mecha 8, Mecha 9 and Sydney Hunter stop working with the SGM.

So far the only reason I can see for updating is that digress mentioned once that some testers had issues with the Planes section of his game (I assume he was referring to TANK MISSION) as he makes use of advanced features of the F18A only available with the v1.8 firmware. Do you know if any other games need later F18A firmware versions?

 

I'm now wondering if there should in fact be a thread specifically dedicated to logging this stuff. I know Matthew is working the F18A Mk2 and that there will likely never be another firmware update for the current F18A. With this in mind it would be good to document the known issues with the various firmware revisions with links to relevant threads. What do you think?

 

BTW - my F18A board revision is v1.3. What is yours?

[Tursi]

Just be aware there are some pretty important fixes in the later revisions, all the way up to 1.8 - these include sprite collision fixes. It's probably more system breaking on the TI (where sprite collisions are a central feature in Extended BASIC), otherwise we'd already know, but games that use F18A functionality may be affected. Old bitstreams are unlikely to be supported.

 

Matt's pretty dedicated to support - if he gets another fix the old bitstream will probably see an update.

 

There's a changelog here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/207586-f18a-programming-info-and-resources/page-1

 

In scanning it, the most important changes seem to be:

 

1.3 - original release

1.4 - fix sprite collisions, fix GPU divide

1.5 - improve status register reliability (improvement over original VDP)

1.6 - major changes to enhanced functionality - including new graphics modes and DMA. Enhanced software unlikely to work on versions earlier than this. 5th sprite index bugfix.

1.7 - fixes to enhanced bitmap layer and GPU PIX. First version with firmware display graphic on power-up

1.8 - fix sprite collisions (again?). Fix masking of VDP register writes (compatibility)

[Tursi]

FWIW, Mecha 8 also works on my ColecoVision F18A (1. , no SGM. I think one thing that's become pretty clear in reading through all the various game threads is that there's a fairly wide range of "works/doesn't work" with people's Colecos...

Edited July 27, 2018 by Tursi

[digress]

There is some advanced feature available in 1.8 that indeed might not work in tank mission before 1.8 version. But tursi provided a colecovision rom cart image to upgrade anyone's colecovision f18a via flash to the latest 1.8. I believe I read matthew is working on another update now too so.

Edited July 28, 2018 by digress

[Ikrananka]

FWIW, Mecha 8 also works on my ColecoVision F18A (1. , no SGM. I think one thing that's become pretty clear in reading through all the various game threads is that there's a fairly wide range of "works/doesn't work" with people's Colecos...

 

Yes, from what I've read elsewhere I do believe that Mecha 8 and Mecha 9 work without the SGM (and F18A at v1. - but this is obviously without the enhanced sound and music which is a great shame to lose.

 

I hadn't realised that there were some fundamental bug fixes in the later firmware, such as sprite collisions, and so it looks like updating to v1.8 is more or less a necessity. I'll use your CV ROM utility to do that - many thanks for this as it will make the update so simple to do. I did buy a cheap JTAG programmer but it didn't come with the right cables and I never got round to sourcing the ones I would need.

[Ikrananka]

There is some advanced feature available in 1.8 that indeed might not work in tank mission before 1.8 version. But tursi provided a colecovision rom cart image to upgrade anyone's colecovision f18a via flash to the latest 1.8. I believe I read matthew is working on another update now too so.

 

Updating to v1.8 means I gain features on Tank Mission but lose them on Mecha 8 and 9 - agh. But, as Tursi has pointed out there are some fundamental bug fixes in the later firmware that may affect other games so I guess my best bet is to update and hope that Matthew finds a fix that gets Mecha 8 and 9 enhanced SGM music working again.

 

BTW - do you recall where you read that Matthew is working on another update just now? I thought he was currently focused on the F18A Mk II (although I guess that doesn't mean he couldn't be doing both).

[digress]

I must have imagined it. I can't find it right now anyways.

 

"BTW - do you recall where you read that Matthew is working on another update just now? I thought he was currently focused on the F18A Mk II ("

 

 

Updating to v1.8 means I gain features on Tank Mission but lose them on Mecha 8 and 9 - agh. But, as Tursi has pointed out there are some fundamental bug fixes in the later firmware that may affect other games so I guess my best bet is to update and hope that Matthew finds a fix that gets Mecha 8 and 9 enhanced SGM music working again.

 

BTW - do you recall where you read that Matthew is working on another update just now? I thought he was currently focused on the F18A Mk II (although I guess that doesn't mean he couldn't be doing both).

[Tursi]

Updating to v1.8 means I gain features on Tank Mission but lose them on Mecha 8 and 9 - agh. But, as Tursi has pointed out there are some fundamental bug fixes in the later firmware that may affect other games so I guess my best bet is to update and hope that Matthew finds a fix that gets Mecha 8 and 9 enhanced SGM music working again.

The compatibility issues are something Matt would fix -- and I know this because I've tried to help. That was why I bought Mecha8 (before I knew that the SGM was a condition in the error.) But without help from the developers we're pretty much stuck guessing - and neither of us have an SGM either. On the surface, it doesn't make any sense that the SGM itself would cause any conflict as the VDP and the SGM do not overlap functionality. Even on the software side it doesn't make much sense -- if the software takes a different code path you still wouldn't expect the VDP code path to change. If we could narrow it down to a particular code sequence, a fix could be developed.