Unicorns season: Prince of Persia for the A8!

[+DrVenkman]

Okay, bug report:

 

On all the NTSC machines I've tested, the most recent bugfix release will crash if you leave the demo running after about 15-20 minutes. Loaded via FujiNet in all cases, my 1200XL+U1MB, Incognito 800 and 576NUC+ board all crash. The crash appears to occur during serial I/O. Sometimes with a solid black screen, most often with the mouse animating in the corner on a solid blue screen, sometimes with what looks like PMG noise on-screen as well. 

The PAL version does not do this so on my 1088XLD - it can run for hours at a stretch.

[polluks]

"Press Esc To change options"

Well, I would like to press Option ?

[tane]

16 hours ago, xxl said:

ok. example for TopDOS: you will need a blank DD ATR. Run TopDOS and connect empty DD ATR to D1.
For TopDOS this is the default format so we don't have to do anything when formatting:
I [RETURN]
D1 [RETURN]
connect to D2 ATR with your game and make a Copy:
C [RETURN]
D2: *. *, D1: [RETURN]
now make it bootable - download http://xxl.atari.pl/download/xBOOT_Initializer.xex drag & drop to emulator [RETURN] this will write "xBoot" boot sectors

 

Can you post (somewhere) a full set of disks of different size already bootable that just need to replace the AUTORUN file inside?

 

[rensoup]

4 hours ago, Eyvind Bernhardsen said:

There’s no computer nearby to connect it to. I do have an SIO2SD that’s normally hooked up to my xegs, but I’m not going to swap it over every time just to play one game.

Guess you're stuck with emulators like most of us then...

[rensoup]

33 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Okay, bug report:

So the game stops loading but the mouse still animates ? or the mouse freezes too ?

[+DrVenkman]

2 minutes ago, rensoup said:

So the game stops loading but the mouse still animates ? or the mouse freezes too ?

If the crash occurs while the mouse is visible and animating, he continues animating but the system is hung; a warm reset will start the loading process again and the game will run again for another 15 - 20 minutes before the same sort of thing occurs. Sometimes the crash is to a black screen with no mouse present at all. 

 

And just to be clear, I'm loading the game but not actually PLAYING the game - just letting it run in titlescreen/text screens/demo loop. 

[rensoup]

34 minutes ago, polluks said:

"Press Esc To change options"

Well, I would like to press Option ?

That's crazy ?

 

But more seriously, the reason I did that is because on emulators, the special atari keys are mapped to functions key and people end up pressing reset.

[rensoup]

6 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

f the crash occurs while the mouse is visible and animating, he continues animating but the system is hung;

If the mouse animates that means the VBi is stil running. Unfortunately I didn't change the mouse colour when the machine is decompressing data.

Any idea if there are any loading retries when this occurs ?

[+DrVenkman]

8 minutes ago, rensoup said:

If the mouse animates that means the VBi is stil running. Unfortunately I didn't change the mouse colour when the machine is decompressing data.

Any idea if there are any loading retries when this occurs ?

No; the FujiNet units I have all follow the baseline design with an SIO activity LED. It pulses during serial I/O. During loading and then the game shifts to the animated mouse and loads data again, you can normally see it pulsing. However, once the game freezes, there's no serial activity going on. 

 

I've reloaded it on my Incognito 800 just about 7-8 minutes ago. I'll update this post when I notice that it's crashed again, probably within another 10 minutes or so.

 

EDIT: As it happens, I was looking at the screen while the crash occurred. The screen was black with the animating mouse while SIO activity was going on and then the screen turned blue, SIO stopped and the mouse continues to animate. Total time before crash was about 15 minutes, maybe a bit less. 
 

 

[Faicuai]

4 hours ago, rensoup said:

So the game stops loading but the mouse still animates ? or the mouse freezes too ?

FYI:

 

Tested latest bug-fix release... (UPDATE: MaxFlash, SIC and MegaCart images OK, on either AVG or Ultimate/SD carts).

 

In addition, loaded (from NUXX Sdrive,) and left on auto-loop "bugs-fix" DD .ATR, running  on 800 / Incognito (Incognito BIOS 3.10/3.11rc, no PBI-HSIO for D1:), for over 45 mins. now.

 

NO PROBLEMS whatsoever! ??

[+DrVenkman]

So now my NTSC 800 has been running since right after my last post without issue but my PAL machine has crashed. Different symptoms though. 
 

 

[Mazzspeed]

My PAL 600XL w/64k internal ram upgrade, U1MB, SIDE3 and Sophia 2 with FJC's latest round of upgrades only boots the SIC .CAR image (which is fine by me, as long as one of the .CAR images work). The other two .CAR images boot to a black screen.

 

Been running for ~45 mins, no crashes at all.

Edited June 19, 2021 by Mazzspeed

[rensoup]

2 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

EDIT: As it happens, I was looking at the screen while the crash occurred. The screen was black with the animating mouse while SIO activity was going on and then the screen turned blue, SIO stopped and the mouse continues to animate. Total time before crash was about 15 minutes, maybe a bit less. 

hmm.. I don't think I ever set the screen to blue (except during the title screen with $A0) weird... 

 

55 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

So now my NTSC 800 has been running since right after my last post without issue but my PAL machine has crashed. Different symptoms though. 

it failed loading the guard data...seems at some point the data gets corrupt while loading ?

 

You said there was no IO but is it possible to check with that respect thing if retries error occured at some point ?

 

[rensoup]

5 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

 

So far I tested the following 19/6 bugfix version on my 65EX (320K) A8:

 

ON SIDE3 - SIC and Megacart versions - both work (boots to dancer, mouse, title screen, intro animation/slides, credits, demo, options screen. Game played for 10mins with no issues)

 

Not tested any others as yet. 

 

39 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said:

My PAL 600XL w/64k internal ram upgrade, U1MB, SIDE3 and Sophia 2 with FJC's latest round of upgrades only boots the SIC .CAR image (which is fine by me, as long as one of the .CAR images work). The other two .CAR images boot to a black screen.

 

Been running for ~45 mins, no crashes at all.

when booting the game will flash green, it happens really really early, probably the 10th instruction executed... if you don't see it, the cart is probably not booting at all ?

[Mazzspeed]

4 minutes ago, rensoup said:

when booting the game will flash green, it happens really really early, probably the 10th instruction executed... if you don't see it, the cart is probably not booting at all ?

I see the green flash on the SIC .CAR that boots correctly, no green flash on the other two images - Just blackness.

[rensoup]

25 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said:

I see the green flash on the SIC .CAR that boots correctly, no green flash on the other two images - Just blackness.

 

This is the megacart version: the game code that has been executed is indicated with the red frame, the last instruction sets the screen to green.

The code above the red frame is ROM. so if it boots to a black screen, it's probably not booting at all.

[Faicuai]

1 hour ago, rensoup said:

This is the megacart version

FYI, just finished long-testing of all images, from latest bug-fix PoP load... NO problems!

 

I can see not just the green-screen flash at the very beginning, but the dancer's change-of-color before... turning into a mouse... ?

[Mazzspeed]

1 hour ago, rensoup said:

 

This is the megacart version: the game code that has been executed is indicated with the red frame, the last instruction sets the screen to green.

The code above the red frame is ROM. so if it boots to a black screen, it's probably not booting at all.

It's really bizarre.

 

Every .CRT image loads on FJC's 600XL, which is I believe almost the same spec as mine (perhaps he has VBXE?), but the only .CRT image that loads on my machine is the SIC one.

[xxl]

12 hours ago, rensoup said:

You could when using xBIOS_OPEN_FILE return the start sector (AXY, or at some fixed address) then have another xBIOS_OPEN_FILE_WITH_START_SECTOR which would take the start sector as parameter and not need to reread the directory structure again!

 

That way, the user could decide to cache some files' start sector (the most used ones) and not others ?

 

Speedup for all types of disks!

 

this information is contained in the variables: xDAUX1, xDAUX2 after executing the function: xBIOS_OPEN_FILE

so the next opening of the file can be replaced with the function: xBIOS_READ_SECTOR - this will be the same as Open, but many times faster, as you noticed. After that, all the other functions related to the file work.

 

you might as well jump to any point in the file - there's a variable xDAUX3 - but if you want to jump to the beginning of the file (Open), don't worry about it.

 

there is also a mechanism that allows you to open a file without specifying any parameters - xBIOS_OPEN_DEFAULT_FILE (also does not refer to a directory) is usually a program file that was run by xBIOS but if you use one file very often, you can define it as default and open it with one JSR.

 

there is also a super-controversial possibility (but it would create a black hole around which trolls will start circling with such speed that their heads will glow) using xBIOS as a CAR library but in such a way that each reference to additional memory (ext RAM) should be directed to the file in a direct without opening files. Two additional ways to the first are xBIOS_RELOCATE_BUFFER which allows you to open multiple files at once and - map to any selected place in RAM (includes copying memory - memory) and a method that calculates only the address and relocates the buffer to the data address ? - completely without copying data you have access in the xBUFFERH variable address of your data in other words ... if someone wanted to write a program in such a way that use ext ram but using xBIOS on CAR does not require additional memory, it is feasible but such a project must be subject to certain rules from the beginning ...

Edited June 20, 2021 by xxl

[xxl]

12 hours ago, tane said:

Can you post (somewhere) a full set of disks of different size already bootable that just need to replace the AUTORUN file inside?

if you write about PoP, I'm not the right person for it.

[Level42]

13 hours ago, rensoup said:

That's crazy ?

 

But more seriously, the reason I did that is because on emulators, the special atari keys are mapped to functions key and people end up pressing reset.

That’s pretty logical indeed, however, it would be extremely easy to also let it work with the option key and I’d love to see it added too. I had to press every key I could think of to figure out how to get in the settings screen ?

 

I must say I like all default settings best now, especially the sound bank.

im not entitled sure about the screen flipping on the text card screens. Since the first times I saw them I’m used to the effect (which isn’t bad at 60Hz.) and it does ASD some “depth”....not sure how to call it. Anyway, the “normal” screens look a bit boring compared...

 

I tested all the most recent cartridge versions in my regular SIDE3-U1MB, Sophia1 RGB, AntiX set-up and all work fine. During boot I can briefly seen the added green screen quickly followed by the dancing lady (by the way, will she loose the anti-COVID mask in the final version ? ;);););););) ) she turns to light green very quickly.

the PM graphics option works....but I don’t get any issues. 
 

not sure how long but I let one CAR version run the demo for 20 minutes or so and expedited no crash.

 

I also managed to finally complete level 1 but now I’m stuck as I don’t know where to go after beating the first guard. But that’s part of the fun...

[Level42]

9 hours ago, Faicuai said:

FYI, just finished long-testing of all images, from latest bug-fix PoP load... NO problems!

 

I can see not just the green-screen flash at the very beginning, but the dancer's change-of-color before... turning into a mouse... ?

Are you using an LCD/LED tv ?

[Level42]

15 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Okay, bug report:

 

On all the NTSC machines I've tested, the most recent bugfix release will crash if you leave the demo running after about 15-20 minutes. Loaded via FujiNet in all cases, my 1200XL+U1MB, Incognito 800 and 576NUC+ board all crash. The crash appears to occur during serial I/O. Sometimes with a solid black screen, most often with the mouse animating in the corner on a solid blue screen, sometimes with what looks like PMG noise on-screen as well. 

The PAL version does not do this so on my 1088XLD - it can run for hours at a stretch.

Isn’t FujiNet meant to display weather reports ?

[Level42]

OK an interesting thing just happened:

after letting the demo run for at least 30 minutes (trouble free) I pressed the button of the joystick to start a game and it was during Jaffar “summoning” the hourglass.....so it might have been “exactly” during the flashing of the screen....next the load screen was white and I could barely make out the animated mouse and then the game screen looked like this.

 

will be a bit hard to replicate this I guess, maybe with emulator at slow setting ?

[Mazzspeed]

8 minutes ago, Level42 said:

Isn’t FujiNet meant to display weather reports ?

That's just one of the things FujiNet can do via software.

 

FujiNet is a virtual drive, virtual modem and a virtual printer - I'll admit, these are the main functions I use regarding the device. It also has an inbuilt networking handler and Z80 emulation. I'm not really interested in the networking handler, and because I run Fujinet-PC I can't run Z80 emulation ( Fujinet-PC is essentially FujiNet running off a Linux PC via a serial to USB adapter).

Edited June 20, 2021 by Mazzspeed