Machine language/Assembly in the machine itself?

[palmheads]

Hi

 

So was the Tomy Tutor able to poke/peek from basic/gbasic?

 

Any assemblers on the machine itself?

 

Googling appears the answer is no, just be interesting to confirm.

 

cheers

Daryn

[kl99]

I think so. Even the manuals are very incomplete regarding the commands.

It looks like very stripped in contrast to the original implementation of this BASIC: TI Extended Basic

 

This is from the parser ROM code:
https://github.com/kl9900/TMS9900Family/blob/master/Consoles/TomyTutor/Rom2/parses2.asm

and the same code part from TI Extended Basic:

https://github.com/kl9900/TMS9900Family/blob/master/Consoles/TI-99/ExtendedBasic/Rom/XBROM1/parses2.asm

 

But we are still on disassembling the GPL parts of the BASIC which will give us a final answer about which commands are in there.

It looks like very stripped, once we have completed the disassembly we will see if and how much the GPL part is also coming from TI Extended Basic.

Then we could try to not strip the parts we want to keep, so improving the BASIC port to our needs, but we might need to win some memory somehow, from removing Cassette Driver.

 

in one magazine there was somebody publishing an attempt to create sprites by writing to the proper addresses of the VDP Ram, nice as there is no sprite command.

See Sprites From BASIC (James Host, BASIC):
http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/tomy/sprog.html

[+jedimatt42]

Similar to the 4A, the only CPU RAM to execute machine code from is the scratchpad ram built into the TMS9995 CPU.

[+acadiel]

Be really curious to verify the Japanese vs US BIOS.  Here's why:

 

The USA BIOS is 32K + a 16K BASIC ROM.  48K altogether.  

The Japanese BIOS is 16K + an external BASIC cart (16K).  32K altogether (100% not sure)

 

The US version obviously has extra stuff in the BIOS.  Both BIOS'es have the G-BASIC graphics editor in them.

 

Attached is an archive with three files - the two US BIOS/BASIC files, and the 64K Japanese game adapter selection ROM (32K is the USA BIOS, and 32K is the 16K Japanese BIOS + 16K Japanese BASIC.)

 

Japanese 64K cart adapter memory map:

>8000-FFFF = Japanese BIOS(?) and BASIC (really only goes up to >CFD7, or is about 20,440 bytes)

 * Note:  This might just be BASIC.  I need to dump the Pyuuta BIOS to compare to see if there's any BIOS in here.

>0000-7FFF = USA 32K BIOS  (completely full)

 

Be curious to compare the two BIOS'es to see what was added to the USA one.

 

tutor_pyuuta-archives.zip

[+acadiel]

Answered my own question above about the contents of the Cartridge adapter ROM.  
 

The Pyuuta boots up fine without the internal 16K rom if you have the cartridge adapter plugged in.  Both JP and US BIOS.  
 

This means that the second half of 32K of the 27512 has both the JP BIOS and JP BASIC on it.  Otherwise, the system wouldn’t boot without the internal rom inside. 
 

And yes, if you take the internal ROM and don’t plug in the replacement, the SN74689 remains uninitialized, a sound very familiar to us.