Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Discussions about Sinclair ZX80 and ZX81 Hardware
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mrtinb
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by mrtinb »

Andy Rea wrote: Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:17 pm could you try loading the dkchr.rom ( can be found in the roms folder of eightyone. ) at memory address 8192 and then run the following program with the link on the 64 char position

10 RAND USR 11909
20 FOR T = 0 TO 63
30 PRINT CHR$(T);
40 NEXT T
50 PRINT
60 FOR T= 128 TO 191
70 PRINT CHR$(T);
80 NEXT T
90 GOTO 90

you should get 4 lines of characters top 2 lines normal chars bottom 2 inverted repeats of the first 2 lines, the characters should be pac-man some lines, playing card symbols, some squiggles, numbers and various space invader characters. the program then just loops for ever...
I tried a little more today.

It seems the ZxBlast is still a little buggy. Seems loading to adresse 8192 fails, so I can't try the UDG-designer.

Currently I can only get games to work, that contains the UDG and copies it to the right location. Software that needs seperat load of bin-file to 8192 currently fails with ZxBlast. I seem to remember these bugs will be fixed in next firmware.
Martin
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ZX81, Lambda 8300, Commodore 64, Mac G4 Cube
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Andy Rea
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by Andy Rea »

Do you have to manually load the bin files by entering that double shift menu thingy :mrgreen:
what's that Smell.... smells like fresh flux and solder fumes...
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mrtinb
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by mrtinb »

Yup!

Custom ZX81 ROM with ZxBlast LOAD/SAVE is on the roadmap. Currently bugs in the firmware has higher priority.
Martin
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by Andy Rea »

aha good to know i'm sure Pokemon is working as hard as it possible. ZXblast and ZXmore are massively complicated both from a hardware and especially software point of view, trying to keep track of different instances is an amazing feat of programming skill, its like instanly switching between emulator snapshots... BUT on real hardware :geek: :ugeek: :geek: hats of to Karl.

regards Andy
what's that Smell.... smells like fresh flux and solder fumes...
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PokeMon
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by PokeMon »

mrtinb wrote: Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:35 pm I have played Panic HR and ZX Galaxians HR from the Toddy Forth site. These use UDG or CHR$128, and the didn't crash, and worked fine. They didn't use ZonX sound.

I have a feeling ZonX code and ZxBlast are not best friends.

I have just packed it all away. I'll try dkchr.rom another evening.
I don't think it is the ZonX code but maybe Toddy Forth in general. I remember I run into problems when starting it on ZXmore in general and there is some different usage of system variables as I remember correctly. You could try not to start such game but work with Toddy Forth and see if it will hang after some time ...
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by PokeMon »

mrtinb wrote: Sun Aug 27, 2017 10:38 pm It seems the ZxBlast is still a little buggy. Seems loading to adresse 8192 fails, so I can't try the UDG-designer.

Currently I can only get games to work, that contains the UDG and copies it to the right location. Software that needs seperat load of bin-file to 8192 currently fails with ZxBlast. I seem to remember these bugs will be fixed in next firmware.
There was an issue when you try to load data from ZXblast loader routine into memory location 8-16k for any instance. These have been identified already as a hardware bug and need a newer CPLD (05/2017) and revision V1.1C. You can use the memory from any program inside working instance (1-7) but could not load data from instance 0 into other instance. As the ZXblast uses 16k rom (not full occupied but more than 8k) it could not activate RAM easily in this section to not kickoff it's own routines in flash memory 8-16k.

This is solved now but I am working on other problems as well - so would wait for an update of ZXblast in the meanwhile. I will announce when the next release is available.

See the Changelog in attachment:
Changelog.txt
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mrtinb
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by mrtinb »

mrtinb wrote: Sun Aug 27, 2017 10:38 pm Currently I can only get games to work, that contains the UDG and copies it to the right location. Software that needs seperat load of bin-file to 8192 currently fails with ZxBlast. I seem to remember these bugs will be fixed in next firmware.
I had only tried to load the ROM-file into RAM. This didn't work due to the current state of ZxBlast.

But when I flash the ROM-file into ROM at location $2000, then it works perfectly.

(Haven't figured how to run UDGDES yet.)
Martin
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Andy Rea
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by Andy Rea »

I could make a hi mem version of the UDG designer, to use say 32 to 40k region .... in practice it's just an arbitrary base address

Regards Andy
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mrtinb
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by mrtinb »

Andy Rea wrote: Mon Aug 28, 2017 11:04 pm I could make a hi mem version of the UDG designer, to use say 32 to 40k region .... in practice it's just an arbitrary base address
Currently it just crashes when all the questions are answered.
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Re: Something for Moggy... ( and probably lots of others )

Post by Andy Rea »

Ah i think i know why it crashes.... but i need to test my theory on my 64k machine... which i am nowhere near at the mpment....

The UDG Designer does a neat little trick in the lower half of the editor window, it displays a line of ROM character, then 1 blank scan line and then a row of UDGs chars, 1 blank scan line row of ROM chara so 8 rows and 8 blank scan lines during the blank scan line code is actually executed to alter the i register mid display.... so....

For it to work correctly the 16 to 32k memory must be mirrored to the 48 to 64k region always not just during the M1 fetch.

The code embedded on the blank lines is a CALL xxxx so your getting the CALL because that the M1 cycle but then your not getting the xxxx your getting something else from the other memory....

That's my theory anyway.... one of my other demos from a while back wouldn't work on some maxed out zeddy either for the same reason

Regards Andy
what's that Smell.... smells like fresh flux and solder fumes...
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