Atari800MacX 5.4.1 Released - Bug Fix H: and D: Patches

[atarimac]

All,

I've released a quick bug fix version for Atari800MacX with the following fixes:

 

• Fixed issue where H: Patch broke Ultimate1mb emulation
• Fixed issue with D : Patch which was introduced in version 5.3.0
• Indexed built-in help such that it is searchable

 

The issue I found was that the H: Patch interfered with the new Ultimate1mb emulation.  Even though H: does not work with SpartaX, I feared that people might have had it on in their configuration, and thought the new emulation did not work.  (The patches in the atari800 core were using $D1xx memory which interfered with the PBI in Ultimate1mb)

 

So now, H: can be used with SDX and the emu-pack driver to give a minimum access.  And note, the D : patch now works as documented in the help, providing 2 hard drive paths, with and without text translation.

 

This is an interim fix in that I plan PCLINK support and/or a SIO level host file emulation in the next release.

[tsom]

Hi,

 

I just downloaded 5.4.1, but when I try to look at the help pages, all I get is:

 

Thanks!

 

ps. I added a new issue in the Github repo for this.

[atarimac]

Is anyone else seeing this?   On my 3 machines, I'm not able to duplicate this.

[Mathy]

Hello Mark

 

I downloaded the application twice from your site.  The .dmg just will not open.

 

MacOS 10.15.7 (19H15)

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

 

[tsom]

I just tried on another system, and I am able to see the help files fine. I will try re-downloading and try again.

[atarimac]

Hi Mathy,

I'm not having an issue on my system, is anyone else seeing an issue with the dmg?

[Dinadan67]

I just downloaded the latest version and had no problems with the dmg. The help files work fine.

[+Ripdubski]

Is this Big Sur Ready?

[atarimac]

  Unknown.  There is nothing that is designed to be incompatible with Big Sur, but having said that I have done no testing with Big Sur.

However, this is one of the reasons I moved to using Apple's Metal graphics as opposed to OpenGL, and eliminated deprecated OS calls to ensure future compatibility.

 

  Being a college professor who uses his Mac's on a daily basis, and cannot afford catastrophic down time, I never do Apple OS upgrades during the semester (and sometimes the school year, which may be the case this year since I don't know of a driving need for any of Big Sur's features).

 

   That being said, I would love to have a Beta tester who is running Big Sur that I could feed test versions to.

[tsom]

I've run this under Big Sir and it seems to run just fine. Haven't stress tested it, but so far, so good!

[jc13]

I have it running on Big Sur, but I'm seeing some strangeness with the os roms and directories settings occasionally changing to previous values.  Seems to be happening after I try to get the U1MB / Side2 expansions to work.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong there, but after adding the U1MB rom file and selecting an XL machine with U1MB it crashes.  I tried running the it from the terminal to see if I could get any additional output, but all I got was a seg fault.  Anyone else seeing this behavior?

[atarimac]

jc13 and I have been talking about this in PM's.  I'll do some testing this weekend, it crashed on him when the emulator was trying to open the SIDE2 CF image.  

 

If you have similar issues, what I asked him to do is set the Ultimate ROM image in preferences when you have some other machine type selected, exit prefs, and quit the program.  Then restart and try setting the machine type.  He was able to get it working doing one image at a time this way.

 

I also think it might be an Apple security issue.  I have given Atari800MacX Full Disk access on my machine, since I have all of my media images stored in the Applications folder, which is the way it has been for 18 years.   Apple really doesn't want applications to write to the Applications directory.  And one thing Atari800MacX does is create a .nvram file with the same name as the Ultimate1mb or SIDE2 rom image that stores the preferences for the device.

[jc13]

19 hours ago, atarimac said:

jc13 and I have been talking about this in PM's.  I'll do some testing this weekend, it crashed on him when the emulator was trying to open the SIDE2 CF image.  

 

If you have similar issues, what I asked him to do is set the Ultimate ROM image in preferences when you have some other machine type selected, exit prefs, and quit the program.  Then restart and try setting the machine type.  He was able to get it working doing one image at a time this way.

 

I also think it might be an Apple security issue.  I have given Atari800MacX Full Disk access on my machine, since I have all of my media images stored in the Applications folder, which is the way it has been for 18 years.   Apple really doesn't want applications to write to the Applications directory.  And one thing Atari800MacX does is create a .nvram file with the same name as the Ultimate1mb or SIDE2 rom image that stores the preferences for the device.

Thanks to atarimac for pointing me in the right direction...  Got this working well, but ran into one other issue trying to get my favorite game Bounty Bob Strikes Back working.  I've seen other threads about problems running this under emulators and eventually found a copy that worked well under Altirra, but it seems to have an issue on Atari800MacX.  Basically it just won't start the game - the birds fly, but no response to keyboard or (emulated) joystick.  Anyone else care to give this a try?

Edited November 19, 2020 by jc13

[atarimac]

I've found there have been other discussions of this.

 Make sure Stereo Pokey is turned off (Stereo Sound in the Sound menu).  I'm still having trouble getting the 800 cartridge version to work, but the 5200 cartridge works fine with Stereo sound off).

[jc13]

8 hours ago, atarimac said:

Make sure Stereo Pokey is turned off (Stereo Sound in the Sound menu).  I'm still having trouble getting the 800 cartridge version to work, but the 5200 cartridge works fine with Stereo sound off).

I saw that thread too, but I was thinking that the lock up described was that the birds didn't fly.  The XEX I have that works under Altirra and the ROM from Atarimania both run the intro screen fine, but the game won't start.  Is that what you are seeing?  BTW, stereo pokey wasn't enabled on my install.  I'll see if I can find the 5200 variant.  Thanks!

[atarimac]

Yes, that is what I was seeing on both the 800 cart and 5200 cart versions, and I had Stereo Pokey on.  Turning it off helped the 5200, but not the 800.  5200 Cart attached.

Bounty Bob Strikes Back (Merged) (Big Five Software) (U).car

[Mathy]

Hello Marc

 

On 11/14/2020 at 5:36 PM, atarimac said:

I'm not having an issue on my system, is anyone else seeing an issue with the dmg?

 

Tried it again, it worked now.  Not sure if it was fixed by the latest public beta of a security update or if the cause of the problem was located between the screen and the chair.  

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by Mathy

[atarimac]

Mathy,

  Thanks for letting me know, I've had weird problems with the security updates before as well.....or the image got corrupted twice which is weird.

 

Everyone,

   I did find several issues with entering the Ultimate1mb and SIDE2 file preferences for the first time.  I will release a 5.4.3 sometime later this weekend, but I wanted to see if I or anyone else found any other issues.

[atarimac]

I found the issue with Bounty Bob Strikes Back 800 Cartridge version.  It has to do with my need to move the D:, H:, and R: patches such that they don't conflict with Ultimate1mb.  I moved them to the GTIA area, and apparently, just like they do with POKEY and ANTIC, the authors used mirrored addresses in that area as well.  I restored the mirrored addresses if the patches are not enabled, but they will need to be turned off to run that cartridge.  Update will be in the 5.4.3 release, most likely tomorrow.

[jc13]

3 hours ago, atarimac said:

I found the issue with Bounty Bob Strikes Back 800 Cartridge version.

 

Awesome! Thanks for looking at that.  I've noticed something strange on Basketball as well.  Looks like the computer controlled player can't seem to shoot very well.  Looks like it could possibly be a timing issue of some sort since the player doesn't hold the ball long enough to take the shot.  Same xex works ok under Altirra.