Altirra 2.20 released

[phaeron]

Dang it, seems the 64-bit pokey fix got reverted somehow too. Try this:

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.30-test11.zip

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.30-test11-src.zip

 

(Side note, the x64 version doesn't have some of the optimizations that the x86 version does, so currently it runs a teeny bit slower.)

 

The MyIDE-II SDX image doesn't work because it isn't meant to be used as a flash image -- it's supposed to be loaded into the cartridge SRAM. If you try loading it as a flash image, it banks itself out and blows up. You need to use a loader that knows how to copy it into SRAM.

 

SIDE/SIDE2 just use the same ROM image slot at the moment.

[Mclaneinc]

I have been away from the 'scene' - although only ever a VERY apreciative on-looker!!! - a long while now. Due to various health issues of myself and my familly I have had very little time or inclination for anything really,

 

As a fellow sufferer from numerous health issues I can fully understand, a lot of people fail to see how some health issues simply zap your enjoyment or wish to enjoy.

 

Hope its getting better...

[morelenmir]

Hey Paul!!!

 

Its good to hear from you - and many thanks for the well-wishes! I'm... keeping going, which at the moment is about as much as I can expect. I've really enjoyed tinkering with the new functions in Altirra though - which has cheered me up a great deal! Avery does it again!!!

 

Many thanks also for the reply Avery. In reagrds MyIDEII - I have been looking at the 'MaxFlash Workshop', which I think is used to package up the appropriate SDX ROM and load it into SRAM. There is something they call the 'Shipping Workbook' from which I have made a bootstrap ATR image and then attempted to follow the instructions for using it given over at 'AtariMAX'. All goes well until I am required to press and hold Start+Select+Option in the MyBIOS setup screen. For some reason it seems just about impossible to get the three keys all pressed together at the same time. Is there some trick I am missing? I have tried both RAW and COOKED key presses without any luck.

[phaeron]

This is unfortunately a common PC keyboard problem -- most keyboards have a limit as to how many keys can be simultaneously pressed before the keyboard controller stops reporting any more keys. This is because of limitations in the keyboard matrix and to prevent phantom keys from being sent. I just checked with a message monitor, and I have the same problem where three function keys can't be detected at the same time, although Z+X+C works. A real Atari doesn't have this problem because the Start, Stop, and Option buttons are connected directly to GTIA inputs and aren't in the keyboard matrix.

 

There are two ways around this. One is to rebind different keys to S/S/O through the input map system. Do this by creating a new input map and adding a controller of type Console to it; from there you can bind the S/S/O keys to either different keys or buttons on a game controller. The second way is sneakier and currently undocumented, and that is to bind to the UI Option and UI Cancel inputs on the Console controller. Activating UI Option will bring up an on-screen keyboard that you can use to hit one of the buttons while activating the other two elsewhere. UI Cancel clears the OSK.

[morelenmir]

MANY thinks Avery for replying to this! I will give the input mapping a try.

 

I sort of managed to get it working by using a keyboard macro program and setting the F2-F4 keys to 'click' with a delay of 0ms - so they macro 'pressed' them simultaneously. This is unwieldy though and given that annoying count-down MyBIOS has you have to run the macro very quickly without any fumbling around.

[morelenmir]

As an update - I used Avery's suggestion of the 'Console' Input mapping and attached all three Start+Select+Option buttons to Numpad '7'. Holding that key at the appropriate moment in MyBIOS brought up the setup menu just as required.

 

Problem solved!

[morelenmir]

A small but I think useful feature suggestion - a read/write indicator for IO access to the Host Device(H:).

 

It currently can be hard to tell if anything is going on over a long 'enter h6:..." operation, for example.

[phaeron]

There is... it's just broken.

 

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.30-test12.zip

http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.30-test12-src.zip

[Mclaneinc]

Phaeron, I just had Altirra attempt to call to a site so I thought whats going on as this has never happened before, I scanned the file and its appears clean and then I did a MD5 check on it and a redownloaded test12 from here and they matched perfectly.

 

I was just playing about with some ide util disks when it happened?

 

239.255.255.250 is the IP it was calling which turns out to be

 

MCAST-Net.

 

I always set my firewall to tell me when a program call out to be on the safe side.

 

Any idea's?

 

Here's the log showing the protocol and dest IP.

2013-03-22 13:20:21 D:\Atari\Altirra.exe Asked Out IGMP my IP 239.255.255.250

Edited March 22, 2013 by Mclaneinc

[morelenmir]

Many thanks for the swift fix Avery!

 

 

Also Paul, interesting it should be attempting to send an IGMP packet.

 

Is it possibly some code buried in the IDE controller flash-updates? Maybe some sort of phone-home to let the programmer know how many people are using SIDE or MyIDE or whichever it was?

Edited March 22, 2013 by morelenmir

[Mclaneinc]

Possibly, I was more playing with the discs than actually loading code, I can't remember if it came up when I did load code or not.

[morelenmir]

Altirra is just about the last place one would ever expect to find something like this! So far this has not happened for me using the newest version Avery linked above. Nonetheless I have set Look'n'Stop to notify on every outbound network connection from Altirra and log EVERYTHING. If I get something I will post the log here. Which version were you using Paul?

 

I wonder if Avery has a malware infection that has slipped under the radar and is infecting everything that goes out through his machine? It can happen to the best of us!!!

[Xuel]

I don't think it's malware. It's related to uPnP device discovery on the local machine. I googled the IP address and got the following:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317843/en-us

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Service_Discovery_Protocol

[phaeron]

Yes, this is most likely related to a system service. Altirra does not use uPNP itself, not even when network features are enabled, but it does use OS libraries which themselves can send network traffic. For instance, the file dialog can trigger a scan for machines on the local network. It is unusual for this broadcast to occur from within Altirra's process, though. I ran a test with Process Monitor and saw this traffic, but only from svchost.exe. It's possible that it may be in-proc on other versions of the OS or that other firewalls may report the source process differently.

 

In any case, Altirra doesn't do any networking unless you explicitly enable it to do so in the serial port options or have one of the file paths set to a network file share.

[Mclaneinc]

Cheers Phaeron for the heads up as well as others, most appreciated.

 

As I said, it was just weird that in all my time using Altirra which I do A LOT it had never done this so the worry was that it was a target of a virus which I ruled out by the MD5 and a scan.

 

I was never suggesting that Phaeron was using malware and do apologise if that seemed the case.

 

I just worried when things started calling out in this day and age..

 

Back to playing for me

[morelenmir]

Just noticed a couple of things with the latest build.

 

The first is incredibly minor. When using the H6: host device to read in a text file the shiny new progress meter only flickers the 'R' indicator on and off. The 'W' is not visible - even 'darkened' as inactive - and one character of empty background on the meter is visible. However if you write to H6: the 'W' of course flickers to show progress and the 'R', while not flickering is still present darkened. As I say, a fault so minor it is hardly worth mentioning.

 

My second discovery is a little less trivial. I have been writing out basic files in a windows text editor, copying them to the folder I have designated as the H: host device and then 'ENTER "H6:..."' those files to get them into Altirra. For the sake of convenience I have been using text files formatted to the unix 'LF' line-end encoding rather than the windows'CR+LF'. I don't know if that factor is important or not. However, on loading the text file into Altirra via H6 I found that the last line of the program was missing. After a LOT of head scratching and frustration I discovered this was due to my not pressing return and adding a new-line 'LF' marker to the last statement in the file. I guess this behaviour is logical and could be intended. However it certainly has had me grinding my teeth for the last two hours trying to work out why the last line in the programme - a RETURN - was 'not working'!!! Obviously the RETURN was present in the text file, but because it was not terminated by an 'LF' then Altirra had not inputted it when reading from H6:.

[w1k]

what about that cart i wrote?

[flashjazzcat]

what about that cart i wrote?

 

Must we have this refrain regular as clockwork every n posts in this thread? If you have an unresolved issue which even PMs haven't sorted out, then you need to sit back and wait for a response - not go on like a stuck record. It's like some kid in the back of a car going "Are we there yet?... Are we there yet?... Are we there yet?...".

[w1k]

no reply on PM..

 

this is normal thing on XE/XL, i cant understand why dont be emulated..

maybe atarians using only emulators and forgoting how atari works in 80-90 years?

[Mclaneinc]

And people wonder why emulation authors sometimes just stop bothering to update their programs.

 

W1K, I know you want it emulated, you know you want it emulated and Phaeron knows you want it emulated but since out of us 3 only Phaeron has the skill and knowledge to do it I'd get off his case and stop this childish like rant.

 

Me, I don't care if its emulated as just about every single program is out there and works wonderfully on Altirra (Avery would probably disagree there) and just about every Atari device has been emulated, this was the goal of Altirra so everything else is a lovely bonus for the end user.

 

This "I want" attitude is simply rude, as YOU can't write the code so you have to wait and see what comes or not, Avery is a busy guy with 2 huge programs to deal with plus working and having a life of his own, you have no right to demand anything, don't you see that?

 

I'm sure the carts you want working are very nice and all that but since YOU don't have the skill to code I'd get off the back of the man that has, nothing is ever gained by demanding.

Edited March 24, 2013 by Mclaneinc

[Keatah]

Altirra is fine as it is. Any new features and fixes are considered icing on the cake at this point. Author should take a break and we users should jam on some games for a while.

[morelenmir]

Well said Keatah!!!

 

I think bug reports are actually an aide to Avery's process, but demanding new features... After a couple of requests I think you have to wait and see.

 

In that spirit, I think that Alitrra's SIDE emulation may have broken at some point after 2.10. In all the following cases I had the "SIDE" hardware enabled for the Hard Disk setup, not (post 2.20) "SIDE 2".

 

In 2.10 I can run the sdx445 SIDE1 flasher and once the resulting firmware has been saved reboot and fully access the SIDE device. Interestingly I CANNOT use the flash for SIDE that comes with SDX446. It just hangs at the 'waiting for cartridge message'.

 

In 2.20 I can run the SDX445 SIDE 1 flasher, but it hangs after writing bank 1 and while attempting to verify it.

 

in 2.30 test 12 the same thing happens when I try to run the sdx445 flasher. Next, the sdx446 SIDE flasher WILL run and successfully both write and verify the emulated cartridge. HOWEVER; once the flash is complete and I have saved the resulting ROM image to disk, specifying it correctly for the SIDE item in the Firmware/ROM Images dialog box - on rebooting Altirra performs the handshaking buzz-of-death and drops into 'Self Test'.

 

I have tried this process several times. IF I try to run 2.30 test 12 using the SIDE 445 rom I successfully generated in Altirra v2.10, the emulator does not boot and hangs instantly at a black screen before any sound or picture is displayed.

Edited March 24, 2013 by morelenmir

[phaeron]

Okay, there are a couple of factors here:

• SIDE cartridge banks are stored backwards in 2.10 and earlier. I fixed this in 2.20+ once I found out about the difference between the Am29F040 and Am29F040B and how that allowed the flasher to work even though it was using the wrong bank numbers in the unlock sequence. This means you cannot use an image flashed under 2.10- under 2.20+ or vice versa.
  
• The System > Console Switches > Enable Cart SDX option needs to be enabled in order for the flash to succeed. Otherwise, the flasher will be able to unlock the flash cart and erase, but it will fail to flash because the top cart half functionality will actually be enabled instead of the SDX cart half and thus the flasher won't be able to change banks properly.
  

[onlysublime]

ever thought of making a Windows Store (aka Metro aka Modern) version of Altirra? It would be super popular, especially those that want Atari emulation on the go.

 

You've already made it in Visual Studio. how much work would it be to compile it with a Windows 8 interface? I'd pay for it. Or you can do it for free with an ad model? I've seen a nice SNES emulator (based on SNES9x) as well as some other emulators in the marketplace. Nice, but I grew up on Atari (Nintendo was kind of the enemy). I see it as a great way to have some residual income with all the distribution logistics handled by someone else but also bring some more exposure to the emulator.

 

I'm learning Visual Studio Express/C# as a hobby. I don't even have a bare minimum understanding of programming to do the job but I love Altirra and would love to see more people use it.

[Mclaneinc]

I think that's a wonderful idea, I know Avery has shunned donations in the past but this would put it on a professional standing (trade wise).

 

I bet Avery says thanks but no, he's just that sort of guy were thanks are good enough.

 

 

As always a top man...

 

I think you should go for it,Altirra is a superb product and a little extra income never hurts. Being a poor sod like me where internet access is a luxury I afford with a few pounds to spare isn't great fun.

Edited March 25, 2013 by Mclaneinc