ECS Lite? (RAM+PSG)

[First Spear]

A fun piece of hardware would be a pass through cartridge that had the ECS emulation and second AY chip and RAM and nothing else. 

[Zendocon]

5 minutes ago, First Spear said:

A fun piece of hardware would be a pass through cartridge that had the ECS emulation and second AY chip and RAM and nothing else. 

What, no controller ports?  Also, an SD card could be used for simulating the Aquarius peripherals.

[First Spear]

6 hours ago, Zendocon said:

What, no controller ports?  Also, an SD card could be used for simulating the Aquarius peripherals.

Controller ports could be on an additional pass-thru. ?

[KEslinger]

Pretty new to IntyBASIC programming here, but when I compile a .bas with 4+ channels I get an error for
ECS Compatibility Requires
ECS ROM: No such file or directory
ERROR: Could not read ECS ROM image

 

What do i need to do to get this to compile? I've searched the forums, and have gathered that

'IntyBASIC needs to detect the ECS by reading/writing a couple bytes of ECS RAM'

 

Is there a way to trick the compiler to see an ECS connected? Does the ECS expand the available memory, and this allows additional commands like more music channels, etc?

 

Thanks!

Kevin

Edited August 12, 2020 by KEslinger
added info

[carlsson]

Are you using the compiler on its own, or using the SDK? It almost sounds like you are running a script to compile, assemble and test the program and the above error messages come from the jzintv emulator rather than the compiler or assembler. The ECS ROM is still copyrighted but floats around on various sites. I don't know if there is a "mini-ECS" replacement just like there is a mini-EXEC and mini-GROM. There also is the chance that you've got the right ROMs but not in the folder where jzintv is looking.

[intvnut]

2 hours ago, carlsson said:

I don't know if there is a "mini-ECS" replacement just like there is a mini-EXEC and mini-GROM.

Once upon a time, I created a file with 24KB of 0xFF bytes as a dummy ecs.bin.  This is sufficient to get homebrews running that just want the extra PSG and/or RAM.

 

I think there's still copies of it floating around, as every so often I see a bug report that involves trying to use it with one of the original ECS games.

 

I suppose if it makes sense, I can add a "ECS lite" mode to jzIntv that skips loading the ECS ROM image.  With a small tweak to IntyBASIC, it could even tell jzIntv to fall back to that mode if ecs.bin is unavailable.

[carlsson]

If it is enough with a block of empty space, I'm sure a recipe could be cooked up in IntyBASIC to build your own ECS placeholder ROM.

[intvnut]

Just now, carlsson said:

If it is enough with a block of empty space, I'm sure a recipe could be cooked up in IntyBASIC to build your own ECS placeholder ROM.

IntyBASIC brings too much baggage—the prologue/epilogue code.

 

Just assemble this as ecs.bin:

  ORG $1000 ; this value is unimportant.
  REPEAT 12*1024
  DECLE -1
  ENDR

That's it.  You can discard the ecs.cfg that AS1600 will generate. It's garbage and it's not needed. Feed the ecs.bin file to jzIntv, though, and homebrews should start working.

[+bhall408]

12 hours ago, KEslinger said:

Pretty new to IntyBASIC programming here, but when I compile a .bas with 4+ channels I get an error for
ECS Compatibility Requires
ECS ROM: No such file or directory
ERROR: Could not read ECS ROM image

As other point out, this sounds like errors from the emulator your are using.

 

12 hours ago, KEslinger said:

What do i need to do to get this to compile? I've searched the forums, and have gathered that

'IntyBASIC needs to detect the ECS by reading/writing a couple bytes of ECS RAM'

When we added support for ECS RAM to Argon (lin addition to ECS PSG support) that was enough to make IntyBASIC apps happy and detect/allow the additional sound channels.

 

 

[KEslinger]

i am using the newest SDK and executing the intytest.bat from the c:\intybasic\bin
BAS files in the ..\Projects\test folder

jzintv emulator from the SDK

 

@intvnut where do put the ecs.bin file in the folder structure?

 

Thanks for the assistance everyone.

Cheers

[intvnut]

27 minutes ago, KEslinger said:

@intvnut where do put the ecs.bin file in the folder structure?

Next to wherever you have exec.bin and grom.bin.

 

I haven't looked at the IntyBASIC SDK, so I don't know where it puts those.

[+DZ-Jay]

1 hour ago, KEslinger said:

i am using the newest SDK and executing the intytest.bat from the c:\intybasic\bin
BAS files in the ..\Projects\test folder

jzintv emulator from the SDK

 

@intvnut where do put the ecs.bin file in the folder structure?

 

Thanks for the assistance everyone.

Cheers

In the "bin/rom" folder, along with the other ROMs.

[KEslinger]

1 hour ago, DZ-Jay said:

In the "bin/rom" folder, along with the other ROMs.

Ahh that did it, long time inty gamer, first time programmer in intybasic.

 

So if I develop games that require ECS.bin, what limitations will have on distribution of the ROM?

I assume the ECS.bin would also be required for anyone wanting to play it via jzintv or flashcarts?

What if I was to get a physical board printed, will the Intellivsion series have any issues?

Thanks DZ-Jay!

[intvnut]

1 hour ago, KEslinger said:

So if I develop games that require ECS.bin, what limitations will have on distribution of the ROM?

If you're developing a game that relies on the ECS from IntyBASIC, then end users can use either the phony ecs.bin I created above, or the real ecs.bin.  IntyBASIC does not depend on its contents.  The phony ecs.bin I created above is completely unencumbered.

1 hour ago, KEslinger said:

I assume the ECS.bin would also be required for anyone wanting to play it via jzintv or flashcarts?

It's only needed for the emulator.  And, in fact, I could easily tweak the emulator to not require the binary at all for IntyBASIC games that just want to use the ECS's additional sound capabilities, and possibly its extra RAM, controller, or keyboard support.

 

For someone playing on real hardware via a flashcart, they'll need an actual ECS unit to get the additional functionality.  The additional functionality isn't part of the ECS ROM.  It's in the extra sound chip and RAM chip that the ECS provides.

 

1 hour ago, KEslinger said:

What if I was to get a physical board printed, will the Intellivsion series have any issues?

Same deal:  If you're playing on real hardware, and you want ECS functionality, you need an actual ECS.

 

So far, I believe the most popular use of the ECS is to add richer sound effects/music to games.  If you design things appropriately, your game can fall back to simpler sound effects and music when the ECS is not attached. 

 

That way, folks with an ECS get enhanced capability, and folks w/out an ECS still get to play.  That's what I did with Space Patrol, for example.

[+DZ-Jay]

@KEslinger, I've updated the IntyBASIC SDK with the latest version of jzIntv and IntyBASIC, and it now includes the "miniecs.bin" @intvnut suggested.  You can include the command line "-s1" when invoking "INTYRUN" to enable the ECS.

 

You can find this version on the first post of the IntyBASIC SDK thread.

 

    -dZ.

[KEslinger]

You guys are the best! Cheers everyone

 

[First Spear]

On 7/17/2020 at 10:25 AM, Zendocon said:

What, no controller ports?  Also, an SD card could be used for simulating the Aquarius peripherals.

Something interesting I discovered, for anyone considering making an ECS replacement in hardware: