TI-99/4a MiSTer Core

[Flandango]

Sorry for the late response....

Under the newest core, the menu has changed so if you are loading separate C and G files, Load the C file with Load Rom Cart *.BIN, select Paged378 for Cart Type and if you want the Autostart feature, load the G file with Load Grom Cart *.bin

If you want to create an M99 file that will autoboot and set the cart type for you, then use the Python Script, createImage.py in the Tools folder to create it.  It does require Python 3.10 or above through.

Here is the command line I used to create the M99 file:

python3 createImage.py --Crom FCDMC.BIN --Grom FCDMG.bin -P 8 ForceCommand-1.32.m99

If you don't want the autostart ability, remove the --Grom FCDMG.bin part.

 

[mnielsenau]

@arcadeshopper and @Flandango thanks for the responses. Using Paged378 I got Force Command to work under the core. 

Thanks so much for the help and the great work on the core. It really is a thing of beauty ?

[tmop69]

New update of the TI99 MiSTer Core by @Flandango 

 

 

What's new:

- Fixed an issue with 16K inverted banked roms (Paged 379)

- Added Mechatronics mouse support. For the few apps/games that use it (Breakout, TI Artist...)

- Added the ability to use a mouse in place of a joystick (experimental). Tested Centipede with trackball and seems to work ok.

- Added Myarc Floppy Drive Controller support. You can now use Double Density images using the DSR from Mame (ddcc1) just unzip it, change extension to .bin and use it in place of the  -Normal TI-FDC DSR. If you manage to get a hold of the Myarc 80 Track DSR/Firmware, it will allow you to choose between 5-1/4" (40 Track) and 3-1/2" (80 Track) drives (in a sub menu)  - that brings up the image sizes to 720k (1440 sectors).

- Added a "Turbo" button to floppy operations to speed up reading/writing some.

 

 

So now you can play Realms of Antiquity on the core using the Myarc controller without using TIPI. The last Breakout game from @Eric Lafortune works great with the mouse. ? 

 

 

Download from the official MiSter TI99 thread: MiSTer TI99 core update.

 

 

 

[+remowilliams]

14 hours ago, tmop69 said:

So now you can play Realms of Antiquity on the core using the Myarc controller without using TIPI.

 

Ohh yeah!  : D

 

[tmop69]

A new update of the MiSTer TI99 core by @Flandango. Added the support for Adaptive Scanlines.

 

The core is available for download on the MiSTer TI99 thread (TI99 Core). To enable the Adaptive Scanlines you need to update the MiSTer main firmware. For additional information on Adaptive Scanlines, have a look at this video (Adaptive Scanlines).

[tmop69]

The TI99 core is now officially available on the official MiSTer repository.

 

The updated MegaPack 4.1 (including the latest core and the F18A version) is now available for download on TI99IUC page (MiSTer TI99 MegaPack 4.1.0).

[durkada]

On 2/11/2022 at 6:08 AM, remowilliams said:

 

Ohh yeah!  : D

 

 

Can you provide some pointers on how to get this running?  I'm not at all familiar with the TI99/4A.  I have many things up and running, but, outside of getting the "LOADING.................." (powered byclassic99) screen to hang forever, I'm at a bit of a loss.  I've tried both the 40 and 80 track MyArc roms.

 

Thanks much

[tmop69]

4 minutes ago, durkada said:

 

Can you provide some pointers on how to get this running?  I'm not at all familiar with the TI99/4A.  I have many things up and running, but, outside of getting the "LOADING.................." (powered byclassic99) screen to hang forever, I'm at a bit of a loss.  I've tried both the 40 and 80 track MyArc roms.

 

Thanks much

You need to enable the SAMS memory card, use the LOAD ROM CART menu to load the .bin cart, select PAGED378 for Cart Type. The disk controller must be the Myarc (it's ok to use the standard BIOS since disks are 360K format). You can enable the Turbo for disk controller to speed up the loading.

 

[durkada]

3 minutes ago, tmop69 said:

You need to enable the SAMS memory card, use the LOAD ROM CART menu to load the .bin cart, select PAGED378 for Cart Type. The disk controller must be the Myarc (it's ok to use the standard BIOS since disks are 360K format). You can enable the Turbo for disk controller to speed up the loading.

 

Beautiful!  Working perfectly.   Thanks much!  This is a glorious day to go adventuring! 

[+arcadeshopper]

anyone else having trouble with TIPI and MISTER? mine just seems to have stopped working for no reason.. pi seems fine but you never know

[killersquirel]

On 2/10/2022 at 1:08 PM, remowilliams said:

 

Ohh yeah!  : D

 

Awesome news! I will be buying this game this weekend. Where is the best place (itch.io, steam, etc) to buy this game?

Edited May 25, 2022 by killersquirel
added question

[+arcadeshopper]

Awesome news! I will be buying this game this weekend. Where is the best place (itch.io, steam, etc) to buy this game?

Arcadeshopper.com

Steam

Itch.io

 

 

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

 

[Shift838]

decided to load up the TI-99/4A core and the new TI-99/4A F18A core on the mister.

 

Maybe i'm doing something wrong.  I know you have to have the DSR files and from what i read they get compiled back into a supported format that mister can read using some python utilities.

 

I have followed the steps outlined at TI99 IUC | the TI99 on Mister FPGA... Does it really work?

 

However, when I try to load the tiroms.bin file up, I see the progress bar and MiSTer read it, but nothing after that, just a black screen.

 

What am i missing?

 

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Shift838

[tmop69]

4 minutes ago, Shift838 said:

decided to load up the TI-99/4A core and the new TI-99/4A F18A core on the mister.

 

Maybe i'm doing something wrong.  I know you have to have the DSR files and from what i read they get compiled back into a supported format that mister can read using some python utilities.

 

I have followed the steps outlined at TI99 IUC | the TI99 on Mister FPGA... Does it really work?

 

However, when I try to load the tiroms.bin file up, you see the progress bar read it, but nothing after that, just a black screen.

 

What am i missing?

 

 

If you are using my pack, there are all the needed ROMs files. There is a readme file inside the .zip with more detailed infos. Check the "Installation" section:

 

"Installation:
   - copy "Ti994a_202XXXXX.rbf" and "Ti994a-F18A_202XXXXX.rbf" files in the root of your MiSTer SD card (or in the "_Computers" directory).
   - copy also the "TI-99_4A" directory in the root of SD card (or in the "Games" directory). This directory contains the TI99 SSS games, applications, etc.
   - run the core, open the menu, under HARDWARE select the GROM/ROM files for TI99 BIOS, Speech, Disk, etc. These files are under the DSR-ROMS directory.

"

In the first run of the core, you need to indicate where the GROM/ROM files are located. Probably, you just need to complete this step to have the system working.

 

 

[Shift838]

19 minutes ago, tmop69 said:

If you are using my pack, there are all the needed ROMs files. There is a readme file inside the .zip with more detailed infos. Check the "Installation" section:

 

"Installation:
   - copy "Ti994a_202XXXXX.rbf" and "Ti994a-F18A_202XXXXX.rbf" files in the root of your MiSTer SD card (or in the "_Computers" directory).
   - copy also the "TI-99_4A" directory in the root of SD card (or in the "Games" directory). This directory contains the TI99 SSS games, applications, etc.
   - run the core, open the menu, under HARDWARE select the GROM/ROM files for TI99 BIOS, Speech, Disk, etc. These files are under the DSR-ROMS directory.

"

In the first run of the core, you need to indicate where the GROM/ROM files are located. Probably, you just need to complete this step to have the system working.

 

 

I have copied the required files.  The page i referenced before shows a python script to use to take the existing required ROMs and compile them into one romfile to load.

 

but even trying to load each of the 994AROM and 994AGROM bin files only produces a black screen.

 

I have taken the required files and named them correctly and put into a directory as shown, then executed the below from a command prompt in that directory:

 

python createImage.py -v tiroms.bin

 

this command creates the tiroms.bin file and pads it correctly with the 994AROM.BIN and 994AGROM.BIN files.

 

J:\mister\ti-99>python createImage.py -v tiroms.bin
-- Checking input files --
Checking 994AGROM.BIN                   found
Checking 994AROM.BIN                    found

-- Copying input files --

|--------------
|Image Map
|--------------
|  Applying 65536k of padding.
|--------------
|  Copying 994AGROM.BIN                   done (24576k occupied)
|  Filling reserved 32768k.
|  Applying 8192k of padding.
|--------------
|  Filling reserved 8192k.
|  Filling reserved 32768k.
|  Copying 994AROM.BIN                    done (8192k occupied)
|  Applying 16384k of padding.
|--------------

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Shift838

[tmop69]

9 minutes ago, Shift838 said:

I have copied the required files.  The page i referenced before shows a python script to use to take the existing required ROMs and compile them into one romfile to load.

 

but even trying to load each of the 994AROM and 994AGROM bin files only produces a black screen.

 

I have taken the required files and named them correctly and put into a directory as shown, then executed the below from a command prompt in that directory:

 

python createImage.py -v tiroms.bin

 

this command creates the tiroms.bin file and pads it correctly with the 994AROM.BIN and 994AGROM.BIN files.

 

J:\mister\ti-99>python createImage.py -v tiroms.bin
-- Checking input files --
Checking 994AGROM.BIN                   found
Checking 994AROM.BIN                    found

-- Copying input files --

|--------------
|Image Map
|--------------
|  Applying 65536k of padding.
|--------------
|  Copying 994AGROM.BIN                   done (24576k occupied)
|  Filling reserved 32768k.
|  Applying 8192k of padding.
|--------------
|  Filling reserved 8192k.
|  Filling reserved 32768k.
|  Copying 994AROM.BIN                    done (8192k occupied)
|  Applying 16384k of padding.
|--------------

 

 

Maybe there is a misunderstanding:

if you download my MegaPack (link at the end of the TI99IUC page, file "TI99_MiSTer_FPGA_Core_SSS_Mega_Pack_V4.1.0_22022022_by_TMOP.zip") you'll obtain the ROM/GROM/DSR files already prepared for MiSTer, no need to use the Python script on them.

This script have to be run only if you want to create your files taken from the original BIOS files (from MAME for example). Note that the recent versions of the TI99 core are using a new script and I do not remember if the instructions on the article are referring to prior version of the core.

Use a hex compare tool to check the files you have obtained with the script with mine, that are 100% working.

 

 

 

 

 

[Shift838]

6 minutes ago, tmop69 said:

 

Maybe there is a misunderstanding:

if you download my MegaPack (link at the end of the TI99IUC page, file "TI99_MiSTer_FPGA_Core_SSS_Mega_Pack_V4.1.0_22022022_by_TMOP.zip") you'll obtain the ROM/GROM/DSR files already prepared for MiSTer, no need to use the Python script on them.

This script have to be run only if you want to create your files taken from the original BIOS files (from MAME for example). Note that the recent versions of the TI99 core are using a new script and I do not remember if the instructions on the article are referring to prior version of the core.

Use a hex compare tool to check the files you have obtained with the script with mine, that are 100% working.

 

 

 

 

 

maybe i'm not understanding how to load the DSR-ROMS then.  I am selecting the TI-99/4A for computer then hit F12 to load the full cart.  I have selected to load the 994AGROM.bin as well as the 994AROM.bin.  but nothing.

[tmop69]

19 minutes ago, Shift838 said:

maybe i'm not understanding how to load the DSR-ROMS then.  I am selecting the TI-99/4A for computer then hit F12 to load the full cart.  I have selected to load the 994AGROM.bin as well as the 994AROM.bin.  but nothing.

Steps:

- select TI99 core in Computers

- hit F12

- BEFORE loading any cart you need to specify to the core where are the BIOS files (GROM, ROM, Speech, Disk, P-Code, etc). Use the HARDWARE menu, you'll see a list with the various entries for GROM, ROM, etc. go to each one and you'll have to select the path/file to use. Then save the configuration for future use;

- now you can run a cart using the "LOAD Full ROM" menu. Note that .M99 files have included both .C .D and .G files. Use the "Load GROM file" for games that have only one GROM file and not ROMS.

 

I've divided by subdirs, so it should be immediate which load option has to be used. All the games with more than 1 file have been converted into .M99 format to speed up the process. The .M99 files are not containing the TI99 BIOS files as in previous versions of the core, so now it's necessary to indicate to the core where these bios files are located using the Hardware menu.

[Shift838]

ahh...  makes more sense!

[tmop69]

2 minutes ago, Shift838 said:

ahh...  makes more sense!

The change was introduced by @Flandango to have a more flexible way for adding new peripherals. My initial article on TI99IUC had various updates while the new features where introduces, but added at the end, in the "updates" section, and probably should have to be rewritten now that the core is totally mature. In any case, just ask here for any doubt. Check also the Readme.txt in the zip file.