Altirra 3.20 released

[AtariGeezer]

3 minutes ago, scotty said:

Where can I find the Amdek firmware/rom? 

 

 

[scotty]

Just for laughs......

Edited September 19, 2019 by scotty

[Faicuai]

22 hours ago, phaeron said:

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-3.90-test11.zip

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-3.90-test11-src.zip

• Amdek AMDC-I/II emulation (disk only, no printer).
• Fixed 6809 emulation bugs with 5-bit indexing, ADCB #imm, and JMP ext instructions.
• Fixed 6809 disassembly of LDX #imm instructions and some indirect modes.
• Disassembly window now supports function separation and peeking for 6809, 65C02, and 65C816.
• Fixed FDC Read Address command returning incorrect track/side on side 2.
• ATR8000 side select is now hooked up.
• Fixed logical-to-physical sector mapping on side 2 when using full disk emulators. There are now three separate modes depending on the drive: XF551 (side 2 reversed), ATR8000/Amdek (side 2 forward), and PERCOM (side 2 reversed by off by one).
• Indus GT write protect latch is now hooked up so disk change based density detection works, and added button combo for forcing density detection.
• Indus GT SIO ready sensing is now supported.
• Fixed multiple incompatible disk warnings in a row.

 

FYI, ran a binary-compare with the 3.9-t11 OS-rom sets with 3.90-t10 and they seem identical (specifically, XL-type).

 

This means that they still fail to load  / boot with real IndusGT drives, on real Atari host. I also tried on my 800XLs and exactly same problem (this is with single-density disks, std. Atari-DOS format).

 

Probably not an area of focus on the current .point release, though, but thought of confirming the issue, anyway.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Faicuai

[scotty]

8 minutes ago, AtariGeezer said:

 

Thank you much.

 

[phaeron]

5 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

FYI, ran a binary-compare with the 3.9-t11 OS-rom sets with 3.90-t10 and they seem identical (specifically, XL-type).

 

This means that they still fail to load  / boot with real IndusGT drives, on real Atari host. I also tried on my 800XLs and exactly same problem (this is with single-density disks, std. Atari-DOS format).

 

Probably not an area of focus on the current .point release, though, but thought of confirming the issue, anyway.

 

Haven't gotten around to it yet. No need to do a binary compare, the version number and changelog in romset.html will be updated if there is an update.

[ldelsarte]

If you allow suggestions for a forthcoming Altirra version:

 

#1 Audio: Mono to both Left & Right channels (option).
Add an option to route mono audio setups to both L&R if desired, and not just L when the audio output is strictly mono.

 

#2 Display: Monochrome monitors emulation.
Add an option to render the video "as if" it was displayed by a good old green or amber monochrome monitor. There is no reason to be restricted to 2 different colours. Pure black & white, red, blue and more should be possible. PS: Thank you for the new PERITEL video option!

 

#3 General: Hardware configuration validation.
Add an option to benchmark the current hardware configuration to confirm that it's able to render even the most demanding setups. This could be useful when installing Altirra on older computers or mini-PCs to determine whether or not they are good for service.

[Roydea6]

Anyone working with an MIO configured in the latest test#11  I can't seem to get drives to set N option sent the prompt to the drive selection but the T option doesn't do anything.  With real MIO the T option allow to set Floppy or hard drive or ramdisk.  If anyone has a configuration that you would share.  And maybe a hard drive image..

 

[_The Doctor__]

T-'Type' selection should rotate through N/A (untouched), Floppy [number], Ram , Hard Drive [setup parameters]

does it do drive 9 parking etc?

does the cache driver work with it....

 

These questions and more will be answered as Altira turns... :)

Edited September 25, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[phaeron]

5 hours ago, rdea6 said:

Anyone working with an MIO configured in the latest test#11  I can't seem to get drives to set N option sent the prompt to the drive selection but the T option doesn't do anything.  With real MIO the T option allow to set Floppy or hard drive or ramdisk.  If anyone has a configuration that you would share.  And maybe a hard drive image..

 

Not seeing a problem here with the v1.4.2 MIO Shift+Reset configurator -- T activates Drive Type and Space cycles through Flop/RAM/SCSI modes.

[Keatah]

I too would like to see some sort of monochrome mode option.

[_The Doctor__]

I just loaded in one of the MIO roms, there is a delay with hard drive NOT attached, it doesn't happen under 1.1m on a real MIO.    I'll have to burn a new prom to try 1.4.2 in a real MIO and see if the delay is there... I wouldn't think it should be....

 

The emu MIO did come up, holding select and releasing shift f5 or select and releasing f5

it cycled through the drive types like it should

and it was able to park them on D9:

D9: parking still messes up the serial and parallel ports in 1.4.2 it would seem

We'll move on to MIO caching and see if that works...

Edited September 25, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[+Nezgar]

8 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

I just loaded in one of the MIO roms, there is a delay with hard drive NOT attached, it doesn't happen under 1.1m on a real MIO.

I recall this behavior on my 1MB MIO with 1.1m when no hard drive is attached. The delay is from the MIO trying to read the saved configuration from sector 0 of ID 0, LUN 0. After it times out, the MIO would respond normally until it is power cycled again.

[_The Doctor__]

Not one of the four MIO's I'm running do that... Without a drive connected it's nearly immediately up, If I connect a drive and the drive is at initial power and spooling up it will wait for it to initialize and finish spooling up but otherwise - BAMM your good to go...

If the drive is ready, it's right up... no waiting around at all, if there is no drive it's the same, if it's a slow to start up drive there is a slight delay till it's ready. Once it's on line it's fast as well. Same goes for the Black Box...

 

If it's the firmware, I'll have to order some proms and burn the latest and install to see if this is the behavior of the newer firmware.

 

Edited September 25, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[phaeron]

This is a bug in Altirra's SCSI bus implementation, it is asserting +BSY in the SCSI selection phase even for targets that don't exist. This causes the firmware to then time out waiting for +REQ to start command transfer.

 

That having been said, there is still a difference between v1.1m and v1.41. v1.1m only tries to access the drive once and immediately gives up, while v1.41 tries about thirty times and still has some delay even with the BSY fix.

 

[baktra]

I have one small UI bug to report in -test11.

 

When the "Record Video" dialog is entered and the Zipped Motion Block Vector (AVI) is pre-selected, the bitrate controls are sensitive even though they shouldn't be.

Re-creation:

1. Select Record > Record Video... from the main menu

2. Select "Zipped Motion Block Vector (AVI)"

3. Click Cancel

4. Select Record > Record Video... from the main menu again

[+Philsan]

Thanks for previous explanations @phaeron.

 

Regarding "impossible configurations"; now I understand emulator's behaviour and you convinced me.

 

Regarding the fact Basic is off with default XL/XE first time setup, I am not very persuaded.

As written, XL/XE computers start with Basic.

I undestand the fact you want to make easier to load games but not all of them don't work with Basic.

Moreover, if Basic should be disabled, a window appears that asks to disable it.

Anyway, I understand your point of view; option key was/is really annoying.

Luckily nowadays programmers disable Basic.

 

I think Input/Port 1/Arrows keys -> Joystick (port 1) should be a default setting.

Atari VCS Stella emulator has that default setting.

 

Thank you!

 

 

[+DrVenkman]

5 minutes ago, Philsan said:

I think Input/Port 1/Arrows keys -> Joystick (port 1) should be a default setting.

Atari VCS Stella emulator has that default setting.

Please, no. Some of us emulate our 8-bit setups for more than just playing games; the arrow keys are mapped to the Atari CTRL+(arrow) keys for screen editing in the emulator. If you set them to emulate joystick emulation by default, it makes screen editing more complicated. 

[+Philsan]

21 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Please, no. Some of us emulate our 8-bit setups for more than just playing games; the arrow keys are mapped to the Atari CTRL+(arrow) keys for screen editing in the emulator. If you set them to emulate joystick emulation by default, it makes screen editing more complicated. 

I use Altirra not only for games and when I need screen editing I use ALT + arrows.

 

IMHO, if the emulator "First time setup" configuration is aimed to easily play games, Basic should be disabled and "Input/Port 1/Arrows keys -> Joystick (port 1)" enabled.

 

If it is aimed to more skilled people, Basic should be enabled and "Input/Port 1/Arrows keys -> Joystick (port 1)" disabled.

 

A solution could be two "First time setup" configurations:

1. real hardware: Basic on and "Input/Port 1/Arrows keys -> Joystick (port 1)" disabled

2. games: Basic off and "Input/Port 1/Arrows keys -> Joystick (port 1)" enabled

 

 

[Mclaneinc]

Personally I think the way it is works fine, a few clicks and its how you want it..People could always have multiple ini's set as their individual stylised set ups.

 

Maybe on the first setup a more open set of options could be offered for a more detailed setup but its pretty flexible..

Edited September 28, 2019 by Mclaneinc

[+Philsan]

Maybe on the first setup a more open set of options could be offered for a more detailed setup but its pretty flexible..

That's a good idea.
On First Time Setup, after having selected XL/XE, Altirra could ask to enable/disable Basic and joystick mapping on arrows + Ctrl.

[256 colors]

Just a lot of laziness configure the emulator too your specific needs then save as a profile

[+Philsan]

15 minutes ago, 256 colors said:

Just a lot of laziness configure the emulator too your specific needs then save as a profile

I know, thanks, many of us use Altirra since 2008...

 

We are just talking about userfriendliness for newbies.

Some weeks ago a friend of mine who doesn't know A8 had problems so I tested First Time Setup.

That's it.

[_The Doctor__]

2 hours ago, Philsan said:

Thanks for previous explanations @phaeron.

 

Regarding "impossible configurations"; now I understand emulator's behaviour and you convinced me.

 

Regarding the fact Basic is off with default XL/XE first time setup, I am not very persuaded.

As written, XL/XE computers start with Basic.

I undestand the fact you want to make easier to load games but not all of them don't work with Basic.

Moreover, if Basic should be disabled, a window appears that asks to disable it.

Anyway, I understand your point of view; option key was/is really annoying.

Luckily nowadays programmers disable Basic.

 

I think Input/Port 1/Arrows keys -> Joystick (port 1) should be a default setting.

Atari VCS Stella emulator has that default setting.

 

Thank you!

 

 

BASIC is not in an 800 as it is cartridge, that being said, in the interest of accuracy on the XL/XE emulation you only have a slight point if someone loads the REAL XL/XE OS, Altira OS can act any way it likes just as any other OS could.

Indeed there are a whole slew of ROMs that either have basic off or can be modified to have basic off...

So long as the loaded ROM is faithfully followed and any modifiers are options one can choose to override the normal ROM behavior or function there shouldn't be an issue as such.

I think you are right in that the emu should not alter the behavior without the user implicitly setting it, but only in the case of using official ROM(s). Anything else is fair game. In that way the emu is faithful to real hardware. Everyone should be happy :)

[phaeron]

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-3.90-test12.zip

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-3.90-test12-src.zip

 

• Major rework of full drive emulation internals to reduce duplication. Only (intended) major change is that a fix for debugger step timing was pushed out to all drive types -- there was a case where if you hit a breakpoint on the drive coprocessor it could mess up the drive timing and thus the active transmission.
• Fixed a case where the disk rotate commands could be improperly disabled when using full drive emulation.
• Added support for green and amber monitor types. The PERITEL mode has been folded into a common monitor type option.
• Added autodetection for the v1.1m and v1.1k MIO firmware images, and automatically trim off the leading 8K of padding on 16K images.
• Fix for non-existent SCSI drives responding during selection phase, which caused MIO startup delays with no drive.
• Fix bitrate options not being disabled properly when first opening the video recording dialog.

Regarding some suggestions above:

• Stereo/mono switching: Not opposed to the idea, but not all stereo mods support auto-switching and for those that do there isn't standardization on how the switching works.
• Monochrome monitor types: Just sticking to amber/green for now as this gives more flexibility in how those colors are actually implemented wrt. to matching actual monitors.
• Defaults: Going to leave these alone for now as I don't see a strong argument for switching, there are pluses and minuses. Note that the emulator does not change behavior depending on the OS ROM you use -- it only adapts a couple of patch hooks that are enabled when certain acceleration options are used. AltirraOS is not special in this regard, it gets run the same way as the XL/XE OS. Internal BASIC switching is done the old fashioned way, by the emulator "holding down" the Option button for you. This is why if you use an OS ROM that inverts this behavior you need to set the flag on the firmware image to let the emulator know so it also flips when it holds Option.

 

[+Philsan]

5 hours ago, phaeron said:

• Defaults: Going to leave these alone for now as I don't see a strong argument for switching, there are pluses and minuses.

I agree with the exception of default overscan mode.

It is "extended" but I think it should be "normal", no standard TV shows extended overscan.

Moreover, some games shows garbage on the sides.