MAC/65 - Altirra and SDX

[TGB1718]

Is it possible to attach the MAC/65 cartridge to use with Altirra with SDX enabled as I want access to PBI drives.

 

If I disable SDX and attach the cart ROM it boots in fine with disk based SDX3.2, but with SDX enabled this doesn't work, I'm sure I saw something

about this in another thread, but my searches have proven fruitless.

 

I currently use a disk based version of MAC/65, but it's missing an option I want to use that was added in the CART version.

[+DrVenkman]

I use the cart-based MAC/65 with SDX and don’t have any obvious issues. Just insert the cart, boot to SDX, change to the SDX working directory (usually an APT hard disk partition), then type CAR to get to the MAC/65 editor screen.

[TGB1718]

@DrVenkman is that using Altirra, when I try it, I attach the ROM image, it re-boots, I type CAR it says "Not Present!"

[+DrVenkman]

4 hours ago, TGB1718 said:

@DrVenkman is that using Altirra, when I try it, I attach the ROM image, it re-boots, I type CAR it says "Not Present!"

No, it's using real hardware.

That said, if I set up Altirra to mimic some of my real hardware (U1MB-equipped machine with a CF-card interface), it works as expected. 

 

 

 

 

Typing DOS from the MAC/65 Edit prompt takes me right back to SDX as expected.

 

[phaeron]

In order for this configuration to work, you need to attach the SpartaDOS X cart as the primary cart and the MAC/65 cart as the secondary cart to emulate the cartridge stacking. The SDX cart also has to be one of the original SDX cart types that supports the pass-through, not one of the other formats that SDX has been ported to. You can't do proper pass-through with SDX on a MaxFlash cart, for instance; the real MaxFlash cart doesn't support pass-through and has no pass-through port, so the only way you'd get both it and the MAC/65 cart into the cartridge slot of a real computer is with a hammer.

 

[TGB1718]

8 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

That said, if I set up Altirra to mimic some of my real hardware (U1MB-equipped machine with a CF-card interface), it works as expected. 

Sorry to be a pain, how did you set that up, I have tried attaching the ROM as a primary cart and a secondary cart, still can't get it to work.

I have Altirra set same as my system:- 130XE, U1M, Side2. Below is what I get.

Any light you could throw on my problem would be much appreciated

 

[flashjazzcat]

If you're using SIDE2 as a HDD with U1MB, carts are turned off. In any case, it's physically impossible to have MAC/65 and SIDE2 connected at the same time. Remove the emulated SIDE2 and disable the PBI HDD (you can leave the PBI HSIO driver enabled if you want).

 

[TGB1718]

Thanks @flashjazzcat makes sense really, managed to do what I wanted with the disk version using some features of BUG/65.

 

Pretty sure it's what I did all those years ago, cobwebs keep getting in the way of clear thought

[flashjazzcat]

You can emulate a 1088XEL/XLD if you like, and since the HDD registers are at $D1xx there, there is no interference with cartridges and you can then attach a real OSS cart without problems while using the hard disk.

 

Edited June 25, 2021 by flashjazzcat

[+DrVenkman]

19 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

You can emulate a 1088XEL/XLD if you like, and since the HDD registers are at $D1xx there, there is no interference with cartridges and you can then attach a real OSS cart without problems while using the hard disk.

 

That’s what I do, and rather than a SIDE2 + CF card for APT disks, I have Altirra emulate the CF-3 interface I actually have inside my 1088XEL/XLD machines. The above example is from my emulated 1088XEL, which matches my real hardware.

 

And of course, with the SIDE3 now I can basically do the same with my 1200XL+U1MB, with SIDE3 hosting the APT disk partitions as well as emulating the cartridge.

[flashjazzcat]

3 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

And of course, with the SIDE3 now I can basically do the same with my 1200XL+U1MB, with SIDE3 hosting the APT disk partitions as well as emulating the cartridge.

Yep - that was the ultimate goal all along: overcoming the cartridge port contention issue. Since support for new cart types can be added to SIDE3 at any time, the problem should be a thing of the past.

[TGB1718]

On "real" hardware I am using SIDE3, but not tried loading the cart on that as I tend to use Altirra, so using SIDE2 which

was my previous setup.

Is it possible for Altirra to emulate SIDE3 yet ?

[+DrVenkman]

2 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

On "real" hardware I am using SIDE3, but not tried loading the cart on that as I tend to use Altirra, so using SIDE2 which

was my previous setup.

Is it possible for Altirra to emulate SIDE3 yet ?

The latest versions of Altirra have added preliminary SIDE3 emulation but I haven’t quite figured out how to get it setup. To be fair, I haven’t spent a lot of time trying though, either. @phaeron or @flashjazzcat should know more. 

[flashjazzcat]

SIDE3 emulation is accurate and feature complete as far as I know. Set up as per SIDE2. Now the matter is brought up, I need to provide an emulator ROM for SIDE3. Here's one:

 

side3_emu_rom.zip

 

You still need this even if using SIDE3 with U1MB, since U1MB calls the loader on the cart ROM.

[+DrVenkman]

24 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

SIDE3 emulation is accurate and feature complete as far as I know. Set up as per SIDE2. Now the matter is brought up, I need to provide an emulator ROM for SIDE3. Here's one:

 

side3_emu_rom.zip 213.87 kB · 2 downloads

 

You still need this even if using SIDE3 with U1MB, since U1MB calls the loader on the cart ROM.

Thanks, Jon! Now that I think on it, that’s the step that threw me off when I was trying to set it up a couple weeks ago.  

[TGB1718]

Thanks Jon, do you know how to add a new device category to Altirra, I can add the ROM, but can't find a way to create a

SIDE3 entry in the firmware settings under the "Type"

 

[flashjazzcat]

Make sure you're running one of the recent 4.00-testxx versions from the Altirra thread. It doesn't look like your build has the SIDE3 emulation at all. I'm using test35:

 

 

[+DrVenkman]

Thanks again for the SIDE3 ROM for Altirra. Works a treat!

 

 

[TGB1718]

18 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Make sure you're running one of the recent 4.00-testxx versions from the Altirra thread. It doesn't look like your build has the SIDE3 emulation at all. I'm using test35:

 

Thanks, I downloaded the same version you are using and can now see the SIDE3 option, I set it up for SIDE3 with a hard disk,

Updated U1M to the latest version, enabled PBI, however I cannot see any of my partitions, if I go to the Loader it still says

SIDE, not SIDE3 as @DrVenkman shows in his screen shots.

I am using the ROM image you posted here, I tried updating Side3 Loader to current version , but it seems to hang, I left it

for 10 minutes and it didn't complete, just sat there frozen... I only had the s3loader.xex, the .atr wasn't in the .zip I downloaded

so had to boot a floppy image and run it from there

 

[flashjazzcat]

You need to install the SIDE3 U1MB firmware as described in the readme in the U1MB firmware ZIP.

[TGB1718]

26 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

You need to install the SIDE3 U1MB firmware as described in the readme in the U1MB firmware ZIP.

That fixed it, my bad, I just flashed the U1M complete.

 

Many thanks again for your help.

 

One interesting point I found, when it wasn't working showing SIDE in the loader, if I selected REBOOT

It entered the SIDE3 loader, if I selected boot SDX from there, it loaded normally with all PBI drives, strange!!

[flashjazzcat]

5 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

One interesting point I found, when it wasn't working showing SIDE in the loader, if I selected REBOOT

It entered the SIDE3 loader, if I selected boot SDX from there, it loaded normally with all PBI drives, strange!!

This is because the 'Boot SDX' option in the loader is context sensitive. When there's no U1MB PBI support, stand-alone operation is assumed, so CTRL+X simply booted SDX from the cartridge.