Serious issue with EightyOne emulator

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alowe
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Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:58 pm

Serious issue with EightyOne emulator

Post by alowe »

The issue is, you can set the hardware, like with a printer, enable RAM in 8k to 16k etc, and save a snapshot and reload it. Your basic program is there but there's about a 1 in 20 chance your hardware settings will be reset to defaults. The program is still there, but if you change the settings back to what they were when you saved the snapshot, you lose your program. Catch 22. No matter what you do, you lose all the work.

It doesn't matter how careful you are. Even if you check the hardware settings before every time you save a snapshot, there's a chance they won't be there when you load that snapshot.

So, for example, if you're writing a program to print to the printer, you'll have to retype the whole program randomly about every 20 saves. If your program uses any other hardware setting that is not the default, then the same is also true. And you can't guarantee that any hardware settings saved with a snapshot will be there when you load.

Over the years I've looked for other accounts of this issue and not found one. And I've tested it on different devices with different versions of windows, so it's not because of my setup. And I always use the most up to date version of the emulator.
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1024MAK
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Re: Serious issue with EightyOne emulator

Post by 1024MAK »

Can't you save to tape? That way you can load it in a different configuration, as long as it's not trying to do something stupid.
And yes, I know you can't save all memory this way. In which case use save memory block.

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Moggy
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Re: Serious issue with EightyOne emulator

Post by Moggy »

Has saving/loading memory blocks been fixed?
I know it was borked in some versions as I needed it to load/save certain memory blocks to use as ROM files and ended up going back to earlier versions to get it to work.
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1024MAK
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Re: Serious issue with EightyOne emulator

Post by 1024MAK »

Moggy wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2023 4:48 pm Has saving/loading memory blocks been fixed?
I know it was borked in some versions as I needed it to load/save certain memory blocks to use as ROM files and ended up going back to earlier versions to get it to work.
I've not actually tried any of the recent versions in respect of saving or loading memory blocks...

Mark
ZX81 Variations
ZX81 Chip Pin-outs
ZX81 Video Transistor Buffer Amp

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Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb :!:
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Fruitcake
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Re: Serious issue with EightyOne emulator

Post by Fruitcake »

alowe wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 10:49 pm The issue is, you can set the hardware, like with a printer, enable RAM in 8k to 16k etc, and save a snapshot and reload it. Your basic program is there...
I tried following your steps and managed to reproduce the problem. The snapshot support has several shortcomings, but I've made some changes and hopefully this issue is now fixed in v1.36.
Fruitcake
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Re: Serious issue with EightyOne emulator

Post by Fruitcake »

Moggy wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2023 4:48 pm Has saving/loading memory blocks been fixed?
I know it was borked in some versions as I needed it to load/save certain memory blocks to use as ROM files and ended up going back to earlier versions to get it to work.
I'm not aware of there being a problem with this functionality. Could you list the steps that will allow me to reproduce the problem.
Moggy
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Re: Serious issue with EightyOne emulator

Post by Moggy »

It was old version (can't remember which) set for 48k Spectrum and involved loading a file to a certain address using the block load menu, then saving it using the usual Spectrum SAVE "" CODE NNNNN,XXXXX routine, which balked on the version in question, but worked on an earlier implementation.
I'm sure someone on the forum pointed out that it didn't work on which ever version it was but if it works in the current crop I don't suppose it matters.



LATE EDIT.

It appears to be version 1.0a when the load block window comes up and you select the file to load it just hangs and you can't close the window so have to reboot the emulator.

Again being an older version it doesn't really matter.
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