Spectre GCR & the TT.

[stephen_usher]

I'm yet again trying to determine why Spectre GCR doesn't run on my TT (it never has since both were new).

 

When I start the emulation Spectre GCR changes the resolution to ST-High, accesses the floppy drive, outputs the *BOOP* and then hard hangs the machine with only the reset button getting the machine operational again.

 

Does anyone know if the "chime" is being created by Spectre or is it being generated by the Mac ROM code?

 

If it's the latter then at least I know it's getting to the point of running the ROM.

 

(The Spectre GCR works fine on all my other STs and STe, even on the ST with the TerribleFire TF536 68030 accelerator, so that's not the issue.)

[Goochman]

Im 99.99% sure the chime is the Mac OS.  When you first turned an old Mac on it would chime like that.

 

Spectre is very picky on you system settings.  With my 16mhz mode switched on my Mega 2, Spectre doesnt start correctly.  I have to switch to 8mhz to boot and then I can run faster.

[atarian1]

I don't think Spectre GCR works with the internal hard driver or SCSI hard drives. You have to use a hard drive through the ACSI port on the TT030. That's why it works on your ST/STEs. I remember reading about the Spectre code was specially designed for the ACSI port that made it not work with SCSI ports.

 

What type of 16 MHz accelerator do you have? I have an ICD Adspeed in my MegaST4 and Spectre GCR works fine at 16 MHz mode. Weird.

[Goochman]

I have an ICD ADSpeed in my Mega 2 as well.  Its been awhile but from my recollection I need to start the Spectre software in 8mhz mode, I can then switch to 16mhz and get into Mac mode.  For some reason when I start the Spectre software in 16mhz mode it messes up the configuration check (ie, thinks I have more memory than I do)

[stephen_usher]

Indeed, Spectre GCR 3.0 doesn't work with the TT SCSI (even though it's the same chip as in the Mac Plus). Apparently Gadgets by Small had a working prototype version of the code just before they were taken out of business and it was never released.

 

Anyway, for people's information, Spectre GCR does work well on an ST with a TF536 (50MHz 68030) and TOS 2.06, though it's limited by the speed of ST-RAM anyway.

 

P.S. It doesn't look as if Dave Small (dsmall) will see this, he's not logged into AtariAge since 2014.

Edited January 28, 2021 by stephen_usher