Ultimate Cart XEX Loader Technical Issues

[pazuzu72]

Interest in the UltimateCart has practically rekindled right now that it is not possible to build them due to the chip shortage. I can't find the necessary Altera chip even on the moon :-)

Do any of you have any sources?

[ijor]

On 7/1/2021 at 3:57 PM, pazuzu72 said:

Interest in the UltimateCart has practically rekindled right now that it is not possible to build them due to the chip shortage. I can't find the necessary Altera chip even on the moon ?

Do any of you have any sources?

 

You can use replacement parts that are compatible and, apparently, they seem to be available. They have the same pinout but more resources, what Altera/Intel calls vertical migration. They would be more expensive and you would need to recompile the core to the new part, though.

Edited July 2, 2021 by ijor

[venom4728a]

There are a few good BASIC games like JD Casten's Risky Rescue that I wanted to make playable on the Ultimate and/or other flash carts.  I have a .car file I made of entire JD Castens game disk. Another thread recently popped up with the Bas2COM programs, so I wondered if it was possible to take a basic program turn it into a an executable, then turn it into a rom/car file.  It works in Altirra, I have no tried it yet on a real flash cart, but plan to over the weekend.

 

Note: It does still take about 7 or 8 seconds to load the data lines, so there is a paused black screen at the initial start.

 

Risky Rescue (1984)(JD Casten).car

risky.rom

Edited July 16, 2021 by venom4728a
correction.

[ascrnet]

15 hours ago, venom4728a said:

There are a few good BASIC games like JD Casten's Risky Rescue that I wanted to make playable on the Ultimate and/or other flash carts.  I have a .car file I made of entire JD Castens game disk. Another thread recently popped up with the Bas2COM programs, so I wondered if it was possible to take a basic program turn it into a an executable, then turn it into a rom/car file.  It works in Altirra, I have no tried it yet on a real flash cart, but plan to over the weekend.

 

Note: It does still take about 7 or 8 seconds to load the data lines, so there is a paused black screen at the initial start.

If it works in ultimate cart, it would be good to pass the character set to machine language and not to read it from DATA ?

 

Question how did you convert from executable to .car? any software??

 

Now I share a version that does work with the games previously reported by myself and @Faicuai

_Boot.rom

 

This version has the original loader and I only added two changes from @flashjazzcat ... I am still testing executables.?

[Faicuai]

14 minutes ago, ascrnet said:

This version has the original loader and I only added two changes from @flashjazzcat ... I am still testing executables.?

Very interesting.

 

I will be checking this out, for sure. ??

[venom4728a]

2 hours ago, ascrnet said:

If it works in ultimate cart, it would be good to pass the character set to machine language and not to read it from DATA ?

 

Question how did you convert from executable to .car? any software??

 

Now I share a version that does work with the games previously reported by myself and @Faicuai

_Boot.rom 8 kB · 1 download

 

This version has the original loader and I only added two changes from @flashjazzcat ... I am still testing executables.?

http://raster.atariportal.cz/forpc/creaxin1en.htm  Here is the program for converting executables to roms

[_The Doctor__]

bump

[Faicuai]

On 7/16/2021 at 8:43 PM, ascrnet said:

Now I share a version that does work with the games previously reported by myself and @Faicuai

Here's the super-set version, including all your changes in cart's Loader, plus Control-Extensions (CX) for providing much better control of the cart when running host computer in "console/session" mode (e.g. SDX or any DOS):

 

_boot.rom

 

For anyone interested in a detailed description of the functionality and benefits of Ultimate/SD with such control-extensions, please refer to this post (and supporting .ATR files, examples, etc.):

 

 

[ACML]

On 8/12/2021 at 9:14 PM, Faicuai said:

Here's the super-set version, including all your changes in cart's Loader, plus Control-Extensions (CX) for providing much better control of the cart when running host computer in "console/session" mode (e.g. SDX or any DOS):

 

_boot.rom 8 kB · 45 downloads

 

For anyone interested in a detailed description of the functionality and benefits of Ultimate/SD with such control-extensions, please refer to this post (and supporting .ATR files, examples, etc.):

 

 

Found an issue with this version of the _boot.rom file.  This one no longer gives priority to the Ultimate Cart on power up boot.  If you have an SIO2SD plugged into the SIO, on power up, the SIO2SD boots and bypasses the Ultimate card menu.  It's not supposed to work like that. You can't pick say Atari BASIC and then boot an ATR off the SIO2SD.

 

The July 16, 2021 version by "ascrnet" works properly. On power up the 7/16/21 uploaded version correctly boot the Ultimate Cart menu and then executes a pseudo-cold boot and the SIO2SD then boots.   

[Faicuai]

1 hour ago, ACML said:

Found an issue with this version of the _boot.rom file.  This one no longer gives priority to the Ultimate Cart on power up boot.  If you have an SIO2SD plugged into the SIO, on power up, the SIO2SD boots and bypasses the Ultimate card menu.  It's not supposed to work like that. You can't pick say Atari BASIC and then boot an ATR off the SIO2SD.

 

The July 16, 2021 version by "ascrnet" works properly. On power up the 7/16/21 uploaded version correctly boot the Ultimate Cart menu and then executes a pseudo-cold boot and the SIO2SD then boots.   

It is not an issue. It is working as intended. 

 

Ultimate/SD cart standard control-rom HIJACKS your machine's session, and even if called from SDX prompt, it OBLITERATES the lo-ram area used by SDX, which effectively kills its session, too!

 

This, plus other problems, are also corrected and enhanced, giving you the ability to MOUNT any cart-image without ever leaving the SDX prompt! (provided you know its "coordinates" in the tree-menu). This control-rom for Ultimate is geared to substantially enhance its compatibility with a productive environment such as SDX.

 

If you would like to enter the cart right after scanning / booting SIO, keep the OPTION key pressed during that stage, and you will land in Ultimate/SD menu. Same as you would do if you type "CAR", from SDX, so YOU always have control of your session. If NO sio-response is detected, then you will land automatically on Ultimate/SD menu.

 

Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Faicuai

[ACML]

48 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

It is not an issue. It is working as intended. 

 

Ultimate/SD cart standard control-rom HIJACKS your machine's session, and even if called from SDX prompt, it OBLITERATES the lo-ram area used by SDX, which effectively kills its session, too!

 

This, plus other problems, are also corrected and enhanced, giving you the ability to MOUNT any cart-image without ever leaving the SDX prompt! (provided you know its "coordinates" in the tree-menu). This control-rom for Ultimate is geared to substantially enhance its compatibility with a productive environment such as SDX.

 

If you would like to enter the cart right after scanning / booting SIO, keep the OPTION key pressed during that stage, and you will land in Ultimate/SD menu. Same as you would do if you type "CAR", from SDX, so YOU always have control of your session. If NO sio-response is detected, then you will land automatically on Ultimate/SD menu.

 

Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

I'm not a power user.  I mostly only use the Ultimate Cart in conjunction with SIO2SD when I need the Ultimate Cart to mimic a programming language Cart.

 

Example:

1. Insert Ultimate Cart and attached SIO2SD

2) Power on into Ultimate Cart menu and select Atari BASIC rev C

3) SIO2SD boots DOS

 

What is the method of operation with your _boot.rom version?

[Faicuai]

1 hour ago, ACML said:

I mostly only use the Ultimate Cart in conjunction with SIO2SD when I need the Ultimate Cart to mimic a programming

😁 Ironically, that's exactly what I prefer using it for, and why I worked on improving the cart's control-ROM ! 👍

 

• Your easiest, simplest approach would be to power-up or boot your host machine with no SIO-device ready to respond (whether disconnected, or SD-card not fully inserted, etc). You will normally land on Ultimate/SD menu, and there you get your SIO-device of choice ready, and launch your cart.
• Another option is to power-up Ultimate_cart and let your SIO-device boot, and press-and-keep the OPTION key before finalizing media boot, which will get you straight in Ultimate/SD menu. Then proceed like normal
• Another option (like me, and the best one) is to power-up Ultimate and land on DOS menu, and from there mount your preferred language cart-image without ever leaving DOS. The enhancements included in the ROM will work, in theory, with any DOS, but outside of SDX, you may need small executable that will "Poke" the image coordinates in RAM and call the special routines to instruct the cart's FPGA to mount the image. This is a walk in the park with SDX, as it is all done in .BAT files.

 

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

perhaps a suite of different control programs for that can be launched from the various DOS variants out there will make it much more to their liking.

That's kind of the norm even for hardware going back to MIO and BB etc

Edited May 21, 2023 by _The Doctor__