dumping mbx carts

[+arcadeshopper]

so we've noticed that the mbx cart dumps are not 100% functional..  especially with the mbx only games.. 

 

So I threw in the gram kracker and the baseball cart..and the cart takes over the console.. 

 

How did we do the dumps the first time?  cart switcher and csave?  

[+videofx]

Looking forward to the answer as well as are here working MBX dumps that I can load into my GK?

 

Thanks

 

Bill

[+Ksarul]

One note, the MBX cartridges were a bit different. IIRC, all of them also had a bit of RAM in them (I think it was 1K). . .and the only GRAM device I know of that could run them without any changes was the GRAMulator.

[jrhodes]

You all are looking forward to the answer, i'm looking forward to new dumps to add to my TI file collection.

Edited September 1, 2019 by jrhodes

[+acadiel]

Assembly dumps that SNUG (M. Becker) made a while back somehow. There’s a disc floating around on here with the proper dumps that work in the HSGPL that I imaged.

 

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/184672-mb-cartridge-with-1k-of-ram/

 

Someone should really sticky the MBX disk images in the software thread, as I seem to search for it every year or so.

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

 

[+arcadeshopper]

"The MBX method is a semaphore method to switch the ROM bank. You write the bank number directly to location >6FFE. In any MBX module, you will find a RAM of 256 bytes. (Why is there 1K in this one?) This is decoded to ROM location >6C00 through >6FFF. So you can read back the bank number from this RAM, because it will be written in parallel to the switching register. Nice feature, but incompatible with all other banking methods. This is the reason, other programs will not correctly read out the ROM banks of MBX modules. You have to write 00, 01, 02, or 03 to the banking register."

 

this is why they wont work on a fg99.. i seriously doubt this bank switching method is emulated @ralphb can confirm?

 

 

[+mizapf]

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/devices/bus/ti99/gromport/cartridges.cpp

 

lines 865 ff., this is my implementation of MBX modules in MAME. I determined the mapping mechanism by analyzing the cartridge circuitry.

 

See also

 

[Airshack]

Which MBX titles are copy limited in this way? Wont work on FG99?

[+arcadeshopper]

On 12/27/2019 at 3:17 PM, Airshack said:

Which MBX titles are copy limited in this way? Wont work on FG99?

all of them are likely limited in that way, what we have are 32k disk based dumps that are limited to 32k and don't support the hardware.. just pretend to be ROM and are loaded into 32k ram

 

 

[Airshack]

Well...Alpiner is playable on FinalGROM. Baseball isn’t. Which are limited in the way Baseball is limited — unplayable ROMs. Which do you need the actual cartridge to play?

[jrhodes]

Back when i first got my FG99, i tried running super fly, soundtrack trolley, and terry turtle.

Neither super fly or terry turtle worked, but soundtrack trolley works great.

Super fly & terry turtle hung at a blue screen. I suppose they are looking for a MBX and not finding it.

No idea why soundtrack trolley loads, but i'm glad it does. Pretty nifty little game.

[+arcadeshopper]

3 hours ago, Airshack said:

Well...Alpiner is playable on FinalGROM. Baseball isn’t. Which are limited in the way Baseball is limited — unplayable ROMs. Which do you need the actual cartridge to play?

Alpiner is a TI game  you probably mean Bigfoot.. I haven't personally tried all the carts. I assume the ones ported to the 32k trick are the one's that don't require the MBX..

 

Greg

[JB]

2 hours ago, jrhodes said:

Back when i first got my FG99, i tried running super fly, soundtrack trolley, and terry turtle.

Neither super fly or terry turtle worked, but soundtrack trolley works great.

Super fly & terry turtle hung at a blue screen. I suppose they are looking for a MBX and not finding it.

No idea why soundtrack trolley loads, but i'm glad it does. Pretty nifty little game.

Superfly will work with a bare 4a. I have the cart, but no MBX, and it works fine.

[tmop69]

The Superfly dumps that are available (in G.bin and 8.bin formats) are working fine only if the Speech is connected. Without the Speech they hang when the fly is catched. The original cart, instead, is working fine without the Speech. Does anyone have a dump that is working fine without the Speech? Many thanks.