538 replies to this topic

[OLD CS1]

Tursi, on Thu Feb 3, 2011 9:46 PM, said:

Got a few wishes (not too many) into this originally-meant-to-be-minor update to v345:

Great work, and much appreciated. Quick question: will it be easy to address that high-pitched squeal created by "Midnight Mason" using the high pitch tone as silence?

errr and to that end, I have been trying to create a classic99.ini module entry for "Midnight Mason" and I cannot get it to work. Might I trouble you for some insight?

I am using

rom0=C|6000|2000|MODS\Midnight_MasonC.bin

and it just will not show up in the title list.

[Tursi]

OLD CS1, on Thu Feb 3, 2011 10:32 PM, said:

Great work, and much appreciated. Quick question: will it be easy to address that high-pitched squeal created by "Midnight Mason" using the high pitch tone as silence?

errr and to that end, I have been trying to create a classic99.ini module entry for "Midnight Mason" and I cannot get it to work. Might I trouble you for some insight?

I am using

rom0=C|6000|2000|MODS\Midnight_MasonC.bin

and it just will not show up in the title list.

Midnight Mason shouldn't be assuming people can't hear high pitched tones. What about all the poor dolphins with TI-99/4As?

Yeah, I didn't realize that was still a high problem. I guess it'll go to the top of the list for the next change, but no promises when that will be.

If your custom cartridge entry is not showing up, make sure you actually created a section for it? A rom entry only makes sense inside of a UserCart section. Also make sure that the UserCart entries are numbered sequentially, Classic99 stops scanning at the first missing index.

(edit: sorry, also needs a name! That's how Classic99 detects that the section exists!)

I don't have Midnight Mason, but if it's a standard cart, then:

[usercart0]
name=Midnight Mason
rom0=C|6000|2000|MODS\Midnight_MasonC.bin

Should be all it takes.

Of course, if you already have a 0, then you just keep incrementing to the first blank one.

Edited by Tursi, Thu Feb 3, 2011 11:47 PM.

[retroclouds]

Thanks for the update Tursi! Really appreciate it

Quick question:
Would it be possible to show a small example on how to trigger cycle counting (Txxxx-Tyyyy) in the classic99 debugger and how to interpret it.

[sometimes99er]

Tursi, on Thu Feb 3, 2011 9:46 PM, said:

-Automatically set CPU Overdrive mode when pasting text

Cool.

Tursi, on Thu Feb 3, 2011 9:46 PM, said:

-Write VDP registers at the end of the VDPDUMP.BIN file

Excellent. My Screenshot (.bmp) implementation in Limelight was just temporary anyway, and a bit woolly when it came to handling colors.

[OLD CS1]

Tursi, on Thu Feb 3, 2011 11:37 PM, said:

Midnight Mason shouldn't be assuming people can't hear high pitched tones. What about all the poor dolphins with TI-99/4As?

Yeah, I didn't realize that was still a high problem. I guess it'll go to the top of the list for the next change, but no promises when that will be.

Agreed, and no hurry. I appreciate this is a spare-time project.

Quote

If your custom cartridge entry is not showing up, make sure you actually created a section for it? A rom entry only makes sense inside of a UserCart section. Also make sure that the UserCart entries are numbered sequentially, Classic99 stops scanning at the first missing index.

(edit: sorry, also needs a name! That's how Classic99 detects that the section exists!)

I only included the rom0 line for brevity. I have a full entry along with several others. I can load it by selecting it from the directory, but the custom entry won't work at all.

[usercart5] 
; *** Midnight Mason - works
name="Midnight Mason" 
rom0=C|6000|2000|MODS\Midnight_MasonC.bin

Meh. Not a big deal since I can open it by selecting the ROM from the directory.

[Tursi]

OLD CS1, on Fri Feb 4, 2011 7:42 AM, said:

I only included the rom0 line for brevity. I have a full entry along with several others. I can load it by selecting it from the directory, but the custom entry won't work at all.

[usercart5] 
; *** Midnight Mason - works
name="Midnight Mason" 
rom0=C|6000|2000|MODS\Midnight_MasonC.bin

Meh. Not a big deal since I can open it by selecting the ROM from the directory.

I copy and pasted that into mine, and it shows up in the User list for me. Do you have a usercart0, usercart1, usercart2, usercart3 and usercart4 section? Try making it 0 in case there's a problem with one of them.

[Tursi]

I should add another note here.. whether a cartridge shows up in the user list has no bearing on whether the cart loads or works - all it needs is the [usercartX] and the Name= entry to show up. It doesn't try to load the ROM until it's selected and the emulator resets - even then if it fails there's no public error at the moment, you have to go read the log on the debug window to see what went wrong.

So if it doesn't show in the Cartridge->User-> list, that's an error in laying out the INI file. If it does show there but does not show in the TI's Program Selection list, that's probably an error with the ROM lines or the file itself.

Yeah, I know this needs to be automated.

[ti99userclub]

@Tursi, Hi !
on my site in download section i'm doing an upload of a lot of games (among a lot of other material) of my collection in all language (italian, German, English, French ecc) all the software i upload is in ".dsk" and it's compatible with classic99 that i like a lot... becouse i create a .rar package for each program with two image file incluse, i create a screenshot af all software before.
For this is the problem that i hoping you help me. in old versions of classic99 when i active the menu the software freeze the image since i escape from menu... this be able me to create a screen shot of the correct frame i want the picture... in the newest classic99 versions instead the game continue underground so i can't take the correct frame becouse the program do not freeze when the menu of classic99 is activated... i hope i explained with correct words and you understand my problem... have you some suggestion for this problem ? the workaround is to remain with two version of classic99 and use the older just for create screenshot... just i would like to use the latest version for all if is possible. ThankYou very much...

Ciro,
www.ti99iuc.it

[sometimes99er]

ti99userclub, on Tue Feb 8, 2011 3:48 AM, said:

@Tursi, Hi !
on my site in download section i'm doing an upload of a lot of games (among a lot of other material) of my collection in all language (italian, German, English, French ecc) all the software i upload is in ".dsk" and it's compatible with classic99 that i like a lot... becouse i create a .rar package for each program with two image file incluse, i create a screenshot af all software before.
For this is the problem that i hoping you help me. in old versions of classic99 when i active the menu the software freeze the image since i escape from menu... this be able me to create a screen shot of the correct frame i want the picture... in the newest classic99 versions instead the game continue underground so i can't take the correct frame becouse the program do not freeze when the menu of classic99 is activated... i hope i explained with correct words and you understand my problem... have you some suggestion for this problem ? the workaround is to remain with two version of classic99 and use the older just for create screenshot... just i would like to use the latest version for all if is possible. ThankYou very much...

Ciro,
www.ti99iuc.it

Start the Debugger (in the Edit menu). Then use F1 to start and stop the game.

[ti99userclub]

sometimes99er, on Tue Feb 8, 2011 5:14 AM, said:

Start the Debugger (in the Edit menu). Then use F1 to start and stop the game.

ok, thankyou... tonight i will try to do this

[Tursi]

Yep! That was going to be my suggestion too, F1 with the debugger is the easiest way to freeze the action. The old freezing of the emulation was actually a bug caused by the CPU running on the window loop. (F1 will also work if Scroll Lock is lit, since that enables the debugging keys).

[sometimes99er]

Oh, thanks for reminding me about the Scroll Lock. My previous keyboard didn't have Scroll Lock. I had a small exe to turn it on, until Debugger found its way to the menu.

[ti99userclub]

Tursi, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 1:30 AM, said:

Yep! That was going to be my suggestion too, F1 with the debugger is the easiest way to freeze the action. The old freezing of the emulation was actually a bug caused by the CPU running on the window loop. (F1 will also work if Scroll Lock is lit, since that enables the debugging keys).

Ok !
I tried end solved !
just now i must open every time the debugger and do some click more... with the old freezing was more fast create a screenshot , and becouse i have about 10.000 files to test and upload on my site, may be i will continue with old emulator with bug ;D

ThankYou.

Edited by ti99userclub, Wed Feb 9, 2011 2:53 AM.

[sometimes99er]

ti99userclub, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 2:52 AM, said:

just now i must open every time the debugger and do some click more...

Turn on the "Scroll Lock", then "F1" will freeze and unfreeze.

[ti99userclub]

sometimes99er, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 3:10 AM, said:

ti99userclub, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 2:52 AM, said:

just now i must open every time the debugger and do some click more...

Turn on the "Scroll Lock", then "F1" will freeze and unfreeze.

Oh Yeah !!! ... i lost this information in reading the posts ... good ... now it's better... older version of classic99 can be deleted THANKYOU !!!!!

[Tursi]

Excellent! Glad it's working for you!

I didn't know there were keyboards without Scroll Lock - that's handy to know! I would have changed the key for you if I knew, though.

[ti99userclub]

Tursi, on Wed Feb 9, 2011 10:55 PM, said:

Excellent! Glad it's working for you!

I didn't know there were keyboards without Scroll Lock - that's handy to know! I would have changed the key for you if I knew, though.

Thanks for making yourself available Tursi;) .... Classic99 is really good! ...

i seen your site too and it's very very nice !! ;-D ... now i'm member of your forum too

Edited by ti99userclub, Thu Feb 10, 2011 3:32 AM.

[OLD CS1]

Tursi,

The last post I found about your Ami99 emulator was that it booted into TI BASIC and could run TI BASIC programs. Is there any place I can download your last release of Ami99? I still use my Amigas and would love to have a working, even if only partly, TI emulator running on them.

[Tursi]

Nah, I don't have any pieces left from that (and I just checked my Amiga emulator to make sure). All I have is a small video of it booting here:



I didn't keep a lot of stuff due to disk space back then. :/

[OLD CS1]

Tursi, on Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:05 AM, said:

Nah, I don't have any pieces left from that (and I just checked my Amiga emulator to make sure). All I have is a small video of it booting here:



I didn't keep a lot of stuff due to disk space back then. :/

DUDE!! Zip drives?! hehehe Anyway, so it seems you ran that on a 7MHz machine, so I am guessing a stock 500? I imagine it would run at about half-speed on a 50MHz 060, or better if your code got tighter. Shame. Would have been pretty cool to run on the Miggy. There is one called TI4Amiga, but I cannot get it to boot at all and development is dead.

While the topic came up about Classic99 ports... have you given thought to resurrecting and Amiga incarnation in MorphOS, AROS, or OS4?

Spoiler

I have MorphOS running on a 1.6GHz MacMini, and it is really nice. If not for my Classic-lust, I would probably move all of my stuff over from my 4000D and resign myself to that machine solely. But, alas, I have put a lot of time and love into my various Amigas and I am just not yet ready to pass them on. (Hidden so as not to clutter up the thread with OT slobberings about my OTHER computers )

[Tursi]

Zip Drives cost money, my friend, something I did not have very much of, as a private in the military! (In fact I never finished paying for that Amiga, I lost touch with the fellow who sold it to me before the last payment, because he was nice enough to make the payments very small and they lasted a long time!).

It was an A2000, but when I wrote that comment that it was at 7MHz, I forgot that I had an 030 accelerator board at 20MHz in there. There were a lot of optimizations to the code after that version, and especially the way the video was updated (it was just a quick hack to see what was on the screen) was very inefficient.

I don't intend to go back to the Amiga. The reason I finally gave up and bought a PC was so that I could develop for a platform with a large number of users. (And yet I keep writing TI software, hehe.) I haven't even booted my old workbench for a long time now, mostly because I lost most of my software. :/ I still have my BBS though, CNET was awesome.

[Tursi]

-Improved debugger support for multi-bank cartridges - most addresses and address ranges will also accept a :<bank> at the end to specify a specific ROM bank. Cartridge ROM only for now.
-Added DSK image support - currently read-only, still configurable only through Classic99.ini. Considered experimental at this point.
-Disabled the IDLE instruction's idling, was causing an unresolvable lockup due to the timing system.
-Improved reporting of the illegal instruction to include the bad opcode
-Added configuration option to disable reading headless files as DF128 on FIAD drives
-Some cleanup in the disk system
-Fixed file identification bug in FIAD disk support
-Fixed detection of V9T9 files in FIAD subdirectories
-Fixed filename matching of V9T9 files where the unknown file is NOT V9T9
-Fixed memory leak in FIAD directory listings
-Added muting of high frequency tones
-Changed disassembly history to include cartridge bank when applicable
-Made warning debug display correct PC more often, as well as the cartridge and DSR banks
-Fix CPU cycle counting on byte memory accesses a little better
-Fix crash bug with a particular sequence of switching between DX and non-DX modes

http://harmlesslion....tware/classic99

----

For those who want to try the DSK image support, it's not super useful yet.

First, it's read-only, and only through normal DSRLNK calls (the SBRLNK call to read files per sector is not implemented).

Second, and what makes it useless, it can only be configured via Classic99.ini - which means you need to shut down the emulator to change the disk. I just ran out of time tonight, it wasn't my intent to do DSK at all. But I got it working so I wanted to release it.. I'll have to do the GUI next. Just not right now.

Anyway, it's in the manual, but to configure it, you set the disk type to "3", and set the path to the full path and filename of a DSK image file. And that'll make that DSK be that image file.

It is not using the disk controller, it's still native code. Disk controller emulation is another deal altogether. But the first part of disk images is there now.

[ti99userclub]

Tursi, on Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:15 AM, said:

For those who want to try the DSK image support, it's not super useful yet.
First, it's read-only, and only through normal DSRLNK calls (the SBRLNK call to read files per sector is not implemented).
Anyway, it's in the manual, but to configure it, you set the disk type to "3", and set the path to the full path and filename of a DSK image file. And that'll make that DSK be that image file.

GREAT WORK ! .... Congratulation Tursi !... it's compatible with my work style at now... ... hoping you will able to continue on dsk support i write more congratulation for your Emulator... it's THE BEST ! ....

Tursi, it will be ok for you if i will translate the documentation of your emulator in Italian ?
i would want support on my site the italian people in use with your emulator

Edited by ti99userclub, Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:21 AM.

[Tursi]

ti99userclub, on Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:09 AM, said:

Tursi, it will be ok for you if i will translate the documentation of your emulator in Italian ? i would want support on my site the italian people in use with your emulator

Thank you. That'd be very cool! I've never had anything translated before.

I will definately finish the DSK support, just not necessarily this week. It will stay read-only until I'm sure it works on most disks, though, because I don't want it to start accidentally scrambling people's disk images. The FIAD system could only screw up one file at a time, so I am a little more wary on this one.

[sometimes99er]

Tursi, on Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:14 AM, said:

It was an A2000, but when I wrote that comment that it was at 7MHz, I forgot that I had an 030 accelerator board at 20MHz in there. There were a lot of optimizations to the code after that version, and especially the way the video was updated (it was just a quick hack to see what was on the screen) was very inefficient.

I don't intend to go back to the Amiga. The reason I finally gave up and bought a PC was so that I could develop for a platform with a large number of users. (And yet I keep writing TI software, hehe.) I haven't even booted my old workbench for a long time now, mostly because I lost most of my software. :/ I still have my BBS though, CNET was awesome.

Ah, the A2000. I must have had mine not long after release (included color monitor). My Atari ST friends turned Amiga straight away, and we all had our separate half meter stack of reference manuals at the word go, that be "Intuition" etc.

Amiga books and manuals

OMG, the "Amiga System Programmers Guide", the number one book for me ! Okay, "Hardware" before that. "Libraries and devices" was a monster (like 6 cm high, printed on thin paper).

What did I get for it (not that I was/am wealthy as such or anything) ? Extra internal diskdrive. 47M harddrive. Soundsampler. Midi interface. External speakers of course. 2M RAM. Kickstart 2.04. And yes, loads of joysticks (Konix Speedking ended up being my favourite). My main machine thru to at least 1993. Started to get free PCs from work from then on. Had 2 kids at the time too, and I started to have to share my hardware with the family. Today it's new l/wife and a 2 year old son. And he's totally insane with a computer. I'm almost afraid he's going to turn into half the freak I am.

Wonder why I'm dedicated to TI-99, and cares so much less about the Amiga. Maybe it's because the TI is so "unexplored" or underrated. The MSX1 and ColecoVision did so much more - well, in certain areas. Think I read about an Amiga like OS for PC somewhere ?

I think I might even have been a bit late to pickup on the PC (Microsoft), since it was actually so "de facto" (standard) in big business (here at least, albeit also as dummies for mainframes) - and the way I make my living (mostly).

PS. Sorry for bringing this off topic if it is.