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Unicorns season: Prince of Persia for the A8!


rensoup

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18 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

If I remove Turbo Freezer, it hangs in the same way with the same symptoms. I only connected TF in the first place in order to offer some debugging information.

 

I get the same exact crash on my NTSC systems after the game loads and a demo runs for 15 - 20 minutes straight. No Turbo Freezer involved at all either. 

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FYI, just completed long-test of PoP (bugs-fixes) on Indus/GT... but this time with TRACK BUFFERING (bF) code pre-loaded (!)

 

IT WORKS (!!)

 

Beautiful to see the drive loading entire sections from RAM, or interleaving magnetic-surface and ram-charger data.

 

Speeds up,significantly!

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17 hours ago, Mazzspeed said:

With respect, CAR issues weren't blamed on xbios.

 

On 6/21/2021 at 6:20 AM, Mazzspeed said:

Well that's weird.

 

I thought my cart loading issues my have been due to the fact my FAT partition was FAT32 as opposed to FAT16. So I copied all data onto my PC, formatted the FAT32 partition as FAT16, transferred all files back to the FAT16 partition and now no cart images work.

 

This is all a little too hard now. Can't we just specify 256k minimum and use an actual DOS?  As far as compatibility is concerned, I'd say xbios is a bit of a fail and just too slow.

Hmm...You blamed it for car versions not running even though the carts versions don't contain any XB code  ? 

 

Anyway, let's see if we can figure this out...

 

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10 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Since #$36 EOR #$06 will never equal zero, I'm not sure how this loop is supposed to exit, but in any case, this is where it hung up. What's peculiar is that the issue is intermittent, and yet 'flaky IO' is not really an explanation which can be entertained. I also saw things progress beyond this point but black screen after the first title graphic, for reasons I have not established yet.

 

Don't know if this helps at all; hopefully it does. I can't replicate this problem in emulation.

 

EDIT: Also saw strange-looking gold-coloured crap streaming up the screen behind the mouse graphic on occasion.

Like I mentioned before, it's the blue screen of death, because of a file not found error returned by XB.

 

 

10 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

This is just after attempting to read sector 363 three times. Got the Turbo Freezer on it, and it appears to be stuck in a loop (which appears to be part of an ISR) at $33C6:

yes it's supposed to stay stuck. what's interesting is that in your case it's actually trying to read the directory sector...

 

The fact that it's reading 3 time is really odd. that means an actual read error is reported or the polling loop in XB was still delayed for too long because of some unknown NMI.

 

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10 hours ago, Nickolasgaspar said:

1. PoP_DD_20210619_bugfix.atr / the 610   (the older versions load just fine).

2. Abyssus (an unfinished shoot'em up).

Thanks for testing!

 

By older versions, you mean the 2020 ones ? not the previous not-fixed 2021 version ?

 

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9 hours ago, xxl said:

I have one more crazy idea - check if IRQ is enabled, if there is what appears in NMIST? I am 87% 88,5% convinced that this is a trap.

 

 

---

Sure rensoup debug DLI?

 

---

do such phenomena occur on computers that have standard RAM under ROM? not added, e.g. 600XL

 

 

---

and I think we come to unpopular conclusions ... what memory expansion does this A600 XL have?

I think I see where you're going... misfiring DLIs again, but the debug DLI is now PURPLE RED ( but uses the same code as the FILE NOT FOUND DLI which is BLUE)

 

XXL mentioned that I have a DL at $d800 but said some PBI devices use that area for IO access ? is that true ? seems really odd that they'd just scrap the data that's there.

 

Not sure if relevant but @Nickolasgaspar mentioned that he uses this type of extended mem:

Quote

I have this one. I  guess I will check with Jurgen (tfhh) if I need to  set  the memory  in a smaller value and somehow  invoke a cold reset.

 

 

 

Edited by rensoup
RED
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On 6/22/2021 at 10:24 PM, tjlazer said:

Hey STE!  Could you do us up a nice title screen for this game?  ;)

As I am on record in this thread as saying that PoP isnt PoP in its entirety without a version of the Avril Harrison title image and Rensoup absolutely hates the image and won't include it then that would be a "i'm out" from me :)

 

in other matters, not sure you realise that we NEVER released an actual physical release of c64 PoP, people were able to download the crt file and buy an easyflash to stick it on but to avoid all the associated shite we released sw only for free. to do anything else is really pushing your luck.

oh and I have seen that the claim "PoP is a dead licence" it isnt its very much live and the only reason Ubi dont use it is because they have to kick so much money back up to Jordan for the rights each time they use it. which is why AC looks so much like PoP and they dont have to kick back for that.

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28 minutes ago, rensoup said:

XXL mentioned that I have a DL at $d800 but said some PBI devices use that area for IO access ? is that true ? seems really odd that they'd just scrap the data that's there.

pbi device is only of concern if you use standard SIO system handler

if you're going through x-bios, or any other propertialy loader that disables OS ROM, then you don't have to worry too much about $d800, unless you write something to $D1FF which in turn may activate one or another PBI device that will map its ROM to $d800-$dfff area

 

Quote

Again, my target is stock HW and developing with Altirra is fine for that. There's no bug it hasn't caught so far. The only crashing bug I had to fix with this release is unitialized memory which was used as a display list. This would still have worked on just about every stock XL-XE machine, except some 1200XL configs.

there is no stock XL machine that has 128k of RAM

 

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1 hour ago, rensoup said:

Hmm...You blamed it for car versions not running even though the carts versions don't contain any XB code  ?

Not at all, I questioned his motives over a certain unnecessary comment he made. Anyway, it seems relatively stock machines are suffering timing issues.

Edited by Mazzspeed
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the case looks smelly - a very interesting case and should actually enter the programming canon if it turns out to be rightly suspected - unfortunately there are three possibilities, two of them can be ruled out if we get an answer to the question from post # 1778. it can be a problem with reliable information because it is in the interest of some people to hide some hardware flaws ... admittedly I do not believe that the result of 1778 will be positive because it would mean an earthquake in the world of expansion. but it's worth checking out.


You should also compare the tests of two computers - one is to have standard RAM memory under ROM and the other is to have RAM memory replaced by some extension - this 600XL would be perfect. It seems to me that there may be something to do with launching the DLI when the DL is in the D8-DF, it is possible that the ANTIC is reading the wrong thing in certain situations ... this equipment is suspicious.

 

of course, I did not check the code and there may also be an error: D

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As I am on record in this thread as saying that PoP isnt PoP in its entirety without a version of the Avril Harrison title image and Rensoup absolutely hates the image and won't include it then that would be a "i'm out" from me [emoji4]


I thought he mentioned he was willing to but just couldn’t get the palette right?


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23 hours ago, Stephen said:

Which is why, knowing that all emulators are reproductions and therefore not original, it was said to test on the target (real) hardware.  We don't have to argue bullshit semantics do we?

Cool down, it was meant as a joke...

 

 

Edited by Level42
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On 6/24/2021 at 10:55 PM, xxl said:

In addition to being one of the best games, PoP also has an educational value - the player will learn how to use the computer and its peripherals. will find out that equipment that does not meet the standard is considered to be non-qualitative and that a self-respecting consumer of Atari content uses premium quality equipment only. you have an Atari, you belong to the elite.

 

 

 

 

 

:D

Now that’s being a good chap, very sporty of you to declare SIDE3 combined with U1MB as qualitative equipment. I am also happy that I now can feel ashured that I am a self-respecting Atari consumer who uses quality equipment only.

 

 

 

 

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23 hours ago, xxl said:

Well, whether to indulge in mediocrity, equipment whose parameters do not meet the standard should be taken into account? it's like you have broken brakes in your car and you want a technical inspection certificate. Another thing is that there are extensions on the market that have flaws and nobody wants to fix it anyway: D

EDIT:

Note to self, don’t post here after a good number of beers.

Edited by Level42
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2 hours ago, rensoup said:

XXL mentioned that I have a DL at $d800 but said some PBI devices use that area for IO access ? is that true ? seems really odd that they'd just scrap the data that's there.

Seems a really odd place to accidentally put your DL. What design decisions led to this?

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1 hour ago, tjlazer said:

 


I thought he mentioned he was willing to but just couldn’t get the palette right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

nooo. that was the one that Rune did. the Avril Harrison one is the one Rensoup always disparagingly refers to as "bathroom tiles". I however find it Iconic to PoP and wouldnt change it. Hence why this reinventing the wheel project is not for me.

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2 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Ah... Sorry. Didn't realise this behaviour was by design. You're welcome, anyway.

Yeah I did mention several times in the last few pages that I added a blue screen for file not found errors, with a screenshot too... You could have saved yourself the trouble if you'd read my posts ...

 

Well, thanks for telling me that my infinite loop would not be able to carry on. 

 

1 hour ago, flashjazzcat said:

Seems a really odd place to accidentally put your DL. What design decisions led to this?

I thought about creative ways that would piss off hobbyist HW makers ?

 

Doesn't look like I've got a DL there anyway...

 

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