[U1MB, Incognito, 1088XEL/XLD, SIDE, SIDE2 firmware 4.2 released]

16 minutes ago, patjomki said:

 

Actually I don't know because all the modifications were installed by @tf_hh I attached a picture of my XL. Perhaps you can see if it is connected like you described?

 

 

Can there be someone to make a board for ATARI at once with all these improvements? So many improvements and wires

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

9 hours ago, Dinadan67 said:

Today a very cheap USB blaster from China arrived and i managed to put the latest firmware on the ShamaXL. Now the keyboard click is working and Covox should be available on both port D280h and D600h. Nice!

I'll be ordering boards for the new release soon.

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

On 4/15/2023 at 7:10 PM, Dinadan67 said:

I got a new extension board for the PBI. The extension board is called "ShamaXL" and is produced by Aleksey Semenov. The ShamaXL has 512Kb Ram, two Pokeys and stereo Covox. The board is realized with an Altera MAX II CPLD. With a 600XL you get 512Kb (64KB base memory + 448KB Rambo), with an 800XL 576KB. In both cases you can also select 320KB according to the Compyshop standard. I've tested it with various demos and was able to run Numen, Boogie Nights and Alley Dog in stereo on a stock 600XL (16KB). The only limitation is that the keyboard click can only be heard through the internal pokey.

 

 

I added a keyboard click.

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

update

Recorded for comparison - DAC, PWM  & real POKEY

 

1787036068_FivetoFive(mono)DAC.mkv 675098133_FivetoFive(mono)PWM.mkv 1813749285_FivetoFive(mono)realPOKEY.mkv

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

Found music in which there is a noticeable difference in the mixing of audio channels.

Recorded on PWM version & real POKEY

1606962288_FivetoFive(mono)realPOKEY.mkv 1198921907_FivetoFive(mono).mkv

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

On 6/6/2023 at 1:40 AM, CharlieChaplin said:

Well,

 

back then when TMC 2.x was released no-one had a quad Pokey.

Nowadays it looks like no-one uses TMC anymore,  thus no TM2 sounds for 16 voices do exist.

(And somewhere I read, that TMC 2.x is buggy and does not really work with 4 Pokeys, unsure if this is true.)

Attached you will find some disks with several TM2 sounds, but afaik, they are all for two Pokeys or 8 voices.

 

Besides, all TMC players I have will only play sounds from TMC 1.x, the newer .TM2 sounds (from TMC 2.x) are not recognized or played correctly.

And in the last 20 years (or so) I merely found and collected eleven TM2 sounds, so there are not that many sounds available in that format.

 

TMC20.zip 85.15 kB · 2 downloads

TMC 2.00/2.0H player does not work with Quadro. When I select Quadro, TMC slows down music playback and data is entered only for 8 voices, not 16.

TMC20H.zip

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

On 6/1/2023 at 9:23 AM, IndusGT said:

Just wanted to drop a quick review:

 

Unfortunately my stock machines are in need of service, almost all my 8 bits are upgraded. Closest thing I hyad is an 800 xl w/ just a rambo, no other mods.  Have to say, I have almost every kind of stereo upgrade from lotharek to the original pokey gumby and other more rare ones. The sound coming from the Sharma is the RICHEST I have ever heard come fron an 8 bit for Mono stereo, Plain stereo and Covox. Blown away. IMHO.  As far as the memory upgrade, I think that the Rambo interfered w/ the 512 as I was unable to run bigger than 256K demos. . Will have to wait till my stock machines are operational.

The sound is better and cleaner, because I did the mixing differently than it is implemented in the original POKEY chip. In the original POKEY chip, voices 3 and 4 are inverted at the output. Because of this, there is a moment when the amplitude and impulses in channels 1 - 3 and 2 - 4 clearly coincide, due to the inversion, when the voices are summed, silence is obtained. The voices are subtracted. In voices 1-2 and 3-4, the same moment can also occur. I made it so that the voices only summed up. Therefore, the sound is more pleasant.

 

I made a quad POKEY chip. 

Where can I download music in TM2 format for 16 voices?

 

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

15 hours ago, ijor said:

Not necessary. Might be that just the monitor don't like a so called PAL60 video signal. If you only change ANTIC for a NTSC version, the video output is still PAL, but now at 60Hz refresh rate instead of 50Hz. Most TVs and Monitors don't output a correct color image in this configuration. Actually many just output a B&W image in this case.

I solved this problem. I bought an NTSC 600XL computer with a GTIA SECAM chip. Therefore, the image is black and white and only 8 shades are visible.

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

On 5/8/2023 at 8:12 PM, Dinadan67 said:

You can swap the Antic with the version from the opposite region. With that you can drive a NTSC machine with 50hz or a PAL machine with 60hz. The colours remain from the original region. I did this to one of my PAL 800XL to play older arcade games like Donkey Kong or Defender with the speed they were intendend to run. Now i have a real NTSC machine for that purpose.

My NTSC machine only shows 8 shades. Most likely, the GTIA chip is faulty.

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

On 5/4/2023 at 10:52 AM, IndusGT said:

I ordered in april 24, mine is currently in customs

The latest status of your package - Handed over to the courier, May 08, 2023, 07:20, USA.
USA does not block incoming parcels

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

On 4/24/2023 at 6:48 PM, IndusGT said:

I have NTSC machines w/ PAL chips in them, so we'll see

Are GTIA chips of PAL and NTSC versions compatible with each other? My NTSC machine has a completely different color palette. The NTSC GTIA test shows only 8 color gradations, while the PAL GTIA shows 16 gradations. Is that how it should be?

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

2 hours ago, Peri Noid said:

I'd say... that's good ;-)

Moscow/Russia - Such data were listed on your SellMyRetro account. Now I can see Ipswich/UK.

this is the address of the virtual warehouse

I live in Moscow. I visited 61 cities in Europe. Traveled a lot. Everything is fine, except for the 50 km/h car speed limit for the city. In Moscow, inside the city is from 80 to 120 km/h car speed limit. In a big city, this is very convenient.

 

Now I observe that all the parcels sent by me to Europe are at customs for more than 1 month. Quickly delivered only to Budapest in 12 days from Moscow. Previously, only Germany and the Czech Republic detained. One parcel was at the customs of the Czech Republic for exactly 4 months.

In fact, the export of electronics manufactured in Russia, microcircuits, resistors and capacitors is prohibited from Russia. At the same time, electronics from Russia pass customs without any problems.

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

On 4/23/2023 at 1:21 PM, Peri Noid said:

The seller is from Moscow, Russia. Good luck receiving the package in a reasonable time now due to the war in Ukraine - because of Russia.

In fact, everything is completely different. I can't talk about it in this forum.

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

On 5/4/2023 at 10:49 AM, Алексей said:

yes, with this speaker no problem.

 

Your device has been in the USA since 01 may 2023.

It looks like the parcel will be in customs for a long time.

 

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

3 minutes ago, IndusGT said:

I ordered in april 24, mine is currently in customs

yes, 01 may 2023   I made a mistake

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

51 minutes ago, IndusGT said:

ok that helps, thanks, I was actually gonna a speaker that connects directly w/ a 3.5 mm:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234155214607

yes, with this speaker no problem.

 

Your device has been in the USA since 01 may 2023.

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

2 hours ago, IndusGT said:

so with the DAC version can anything be connected to it like speakers, or is that only for the PWM ?

You can connect speakers to both versions.

Headphones are low-impedance loads. The output current of the DAC version is low and there will be a quiet sound.

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

On 4/23/2023 at 11:09 PM, pirx said:

ShamaXL says it is PAL/SECAM. Will not work for NTSC 600XL? I have one and looking for such an expansion...

Work for PAL/SECAM/NTSC 600XL/800XL machines.

I did debugging on NTSC 600XL machine.

 

The CPLD chip does not want to work normally at frequencies below 8 MHz.

Clock Frequency on the PBI bus - 1.7734375 MHz PAL and 1.79 MHz NTSC.

When using the clock frequency from the PBI bus, extraneous harmonics appear. For example, in the demo Perestroyka.

I had to add a 28.375 MHz generator.

28.375 / 16 = 1.7734375 = PAL

28.636 / 16 = 1.78975 = NTSC

 

Almost all software is written for PAL machine.

On NTSC machine music for PAL machine will play correctly, but with an acceleration of 20%. There is a player that slows down by 20% when playing SAP files on NTSC machine.

But, if the music is written purely for the NTSC machine, then it will be played with an error in frequencies, as in PAL machine. The vast majority of people won't notice it. Only professional musicians.

 

The console sound was not specifically brought out. I disabled the sound output on the internal POKEY chip and left the console sound.

 

I noticed in the photo that the manual stereo mode is on.

It is better to enable automatic detection. When the stream is mono, audio is played on the left and right channels.

If there is a data flow to the second chip, which is determined by writing to its registers during 65536 processor cycles, or the volume of any channel is greater than 0, then the first chip will be for the left channel, and the second for the right. When auto stereo playback, the green LED will light up.

 

The difference between the DAC and PWM versions will not be heard even by a professional musician.

Only the oscilloscope will show it.

The output volume of both versions is the same. But, the PWM version has more current and you can directly connect headphones.

 

Recorded music from both versions:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15ughVu-Ay1X7gZcosUdb_GTBbKz411Ff?usp=share_link

 

С уважением,

Алексей

[Altirra 4.00 released]

В вашем эмуляторе совершенно неверно работает счётчик 5 bit poly. Если Вам интересно, могу написать, что необходимо сделать для получения правильной последовательности счётчика, которая на выходе получается не 31, а 62 бит.