Loading rom images on 2Mb Alpine

[TTman]

At long last I have a working eprom programmer and have modifed one of my Jags with the stub '94 rom and stop cable.

 

I have tested the Alpine by loading some of the demos on the Starcat Developments CD using the rdbjag and wdb programs.

 

All seems to be working OK but being new to the Jaguar Alpine system I'm not sure how to load some of the rom files.

 

On the Starcat disc most of the rom files are .jag. Can some of these be loaded onto a 2Mb Alpine ?

 

I have also tried to load the Phase Zero demo without success.

 

I would be greatful for any advice on using the Alpine system.

 

Before anyone says it, I am working my way through the developers manual. I need to know my system is working correctly before I get too deep!

[justclaws]

Hello,

 

At long last I have a working eprom programmer and have modifed one of my Jags with the stub '94 rom and stop cable.

I have tested the Alpine by loading some of the demos on the Starcat Developments CD using the rdbjag and wdb programs.

All seems to be working OK but being new to the Jaguar Alpine system I'm not sure how to load some of the rom files.

Basically the procedure to load something into the Alpine is the same as into RAM. You just change the upload address to $802000' date=' if it's a ROM which starts at the usual address. (The ROM area starts at $800000, but there's the header which is skipped when running one's own cartridge RAM range code.) Then just do a "g $802000" and the program will start as normal.

 

On the Starcat disc most of the rom files are .jag. Can some of these be loaded onto a 2Mb Alpine ?

I have also tried to load the Phase Zero demo without success.

If a file is exactly 2MB, then it's got the header included. You can strip this off using my STRIPROM (download it from Jaguar Home-Brew files are on Yahoo groups) or you can start the STUB ROM scratch RAM area in low memory to load it all.

ROM files may or may not be real ROMs.

Some so-called ROM files turn out to be copyrighted homebrew demos

and/or mini-games, but the GoodJag author doesn't care for accuracy.

 

I would be greatful for any advice on using the Alpine system.

Before anyone says it, I am working my way through the developers manual. I need to know my system is working correctly before I get too deep!

Fire away, ask questions. Also join Jaguar-Homebrew on Yahoo.

 

Cheers,

JustClaws.

[jaysmith2000]

If it is a full 2mb, per what Richard said, you'll need to hold down the A key upon running rdbjag so that you can load the file to $800000 and then run it at $802000 if you don't want to bother with STRIPROM.

 

Definitely check the PPROT, that can effect your loading greatly. You need to tweak it until you get the transfer rate just right. Once you lock it down your problems will go away, at least until you try to build using the MAKE utility, but I think that was already discussed here.....

[Stone]

If it is a full 2mb, per what Richard said, you'll need to hold down the A key upon running rdbjag so that you can load the file to $800000 and then run it at $802000 if you don't want to bother with STRIPROM.

Did this change between wdb and rdb? If I want to run a ROM with a header (or one of several that just has a block of FFs from $800000 to $802000) then I can just do:

read romfile.rom 800000

g 802000

or

read romfile.rom 800000

xpc 802000

g

[same thing ]

 

and it works fine...no need for controller intervention at all. Many official demos are kinda picky about how they're run though; some require non-standard setup, which can be a pain...Phase Zero should be fine though. My copy has a header, so I'd just load it to 800000 and then go from 802000 - should work fine.

 

Let us know if you have any more problems

 

Stone

[jaysmith2000]

If it is a full 2mb, per what Richard said, you'll need to hold down the A key upon running rdbjag so that you can load the file to $800000 and then run it at $802000 if you don't want to bother with STRIPROM.

Did this change between wdb and rdb? If I want to run a ROM with a header (or one of several that just has a block of FFs from $800000 to $802000) then I can just do:

read romfile.rom 800000

g 802000

or

read romfile.rom 800000

xpc 802000

g

[same thing ]

 

and it works fine...no need for controller intervention at all. Many official demos are kinda picky about how they're run though; some require non-standard setup, which can be a pain...Phase Zero should be fine though. My copy has a header, so I'd just load it to 800000 and then go from 802000 - should work fine.

 

Let us know if you have any more problems

 

Stone

 

Interesting, I've always just followed the dev manual instructions when loading to $800000. I've never even tried to do it without holding the "A" button down prior. It doesn't create any issues? You da man Stone, I'll give it a go!

[TTman]

Thanks for all the advice.

 

Stones instructions got Phase Zero and the AvP alpha to load so I'm happy that the Alpine is working fine!

 

I'll let you know when I start having headaches over writing my own code!

[Stone]

Interesting, I've always just followed the dev manual instructions when loading to $800000.  I've never even tried to do it without holding the "A" button down prior.  It doesn't create any issues?  You da man Stone, I'll give it a go!  

You don't even need a controller plugged in I've never even heard of doing it that way, to be honest...are you sure you're not confused with the flash cart instructions?

 

TTMan: I'm happy you're happy It's a lovely piece of kit once you figure out all the neat stuff you can do with it...

 

Stone

[Tyrant]

You havnt? odd... the stub has to exist in memory somewhere, it can either be the lower bits of the alpine's ram (where the header goes) or a low area of the Jag's ram... by default it'll run from the alpine, but holding A will get it to run in the Jag's ram... if you overwrite either one you'll cause the stub to crash, thus loosing the ability to communicate with the debugger and possably also crashing the Jag... Im quite amazed that you've managed to upload files with headers while running the stub out of the header area of the alpine, I've never managed.

[Sinigord]

I seem to remember playing with the jumpers on the Alpine a while back and I'm pretty sure one of them changes the default boot up stub memory location.