Marius Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 @Jac Well... you are doing a wonderful job. I appreciate that very much. Hardware without good software is nothing (FJC already prove that with his excellent PBI driver for SIDE) and you are doing a great job. Other people involved in this project: thanks a lot too. I am already having a lot of fun with THE!Cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 (edited) ATR Support Based on what was discussed here http://atariage.com/forums/topic/222168-conversions-to-cart/I couldn’t stay calm (too concrete implementations already in my head, so I had to get them out of and into the code). It's all based on an article I read many years ago. There some researchers proved formally that it is not possible to create a "virtual machine/hypervisor" for Pentium based system. And the proof was correct. Then some programmers from VMWare proved the contrary and achieved it. The trick was to step aside and think about what the basic assumption was they could invalidate (thereby making the proof worthless). And they found that the proof was based on the assumption, that the code is (a) fixed and (b) interpreted directly by the CPU. So they decided to instead interpret the code "manually" when it was executed for the first time (=> b) and then change the code for the next execution (=> a).I totally loved that way of tackling the problem (today called "binary translation"). And for the ATR loading it means "When you assume the code in the ATR is constant, you must modify the OS to run from cart". That will work in many cases, but never in the case where the program uses the RAM under the OS itself or plays around with $d301 (intentionally or unintentionally). So instead of keeping the code stable and pachting the OS, I go for patching the code and keeping the OS stable.The Java Part (left screen shot) is basically done. Auto detection of SIOV/DISINV locations in the ATR and parameterized patching of the code (right screen shot). The user can modify the parameters that were auto-detected in case there are false positives (i.e. maybe some graphics data that also contains the same sequence). Now "all" that's missing is the Atari part. So I'll got to get dinner and start my IDE later ... Note: Of course there are also limitations to this approach, so it's not a replacement but an extension to what MegaCart etc. can already achieve. Edited February 18, 2014 by JAC! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 (edited) The!Cart Studio version 2014-02-22 released Download is available here as usual. Display type "Multiple Entries" is now also supported for seven additional older versions of the Atarimax Maxflash Studio menu. Those were the ones with "<A>,<B>,<C>" lists. So you can see and search the entries from the contained menu directly in the extended menu. Direct start of Atarimax entries resolved via the "Multiple Entries" option from the extended menu is supported for the latest version of the Atarimax Maxflash Studio menu. First - very experimental - support for ATR loading based on binary translation. Only non-encrypted single/enhanced density disks may work. This ATR loader supports loading of programs that use the RAM under the OS. For all other ATR stuff, you are currently better off with putting it into an Atarimax Maxflash image or MegaCart Studio image. Sort order in the extended menu is now case insensitive. New Atari software version 2014-02-17 included with improved high speed handling. Timing bugs fixed that could cause the menu or cart to freeze during boot or ROM start, for example Asteroids. Edited February 21, 2014 by JAC! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Hi Jac, That is getting something! Not sure when a disk is encrypted or when not, but I post you one that does not work, and might be an interesting one for investigation. I'm getting really excited about this cart! Greetz Prowizard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Strange thing: asteroids still does not start here. I have to press reset. Is there a chance that atari-part of software is not updated by incremental update? Where is that part located on the cart? I only saw it updating block at the end of the cart. I thought Atari Software was located at the start of cart, but I might be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 > Is there a chance that atari-part of software is not updated by incremental update?I can reproduce it on one of my maschines. Definitively a timeing issue again (shadow registers not updated before the cart start), should be easy to find now that I've got the Freezer. As for the flashing: I've never used anything but incremental flashing and everythings is fine. You can really trust the SHA512 checksum. And yes, the menu is in the begin of the banks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 For some strange reason my attachment is gone. I post it again. This might be an interesting one to investigate. Does it do strange things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 >Not sure when a disk is encrypted or when not / This might be an interesting one to investigateThat ATR was in fact the reason why I added that constraint :-) The cracker who did the intro has encrypted part of the the intro, so it decryptes the rest of the loader upon start. Something I can easily fix in the specific ATR (remove the intro & encryption), but impossible for the Studio and anything else to do automatically. Maybe you can find a non-cracked original somewhere - that might be easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 This one does more on The!Cart but does not run yet. I thought the one I attached here needed 128KB, but it runs on 64KB too. Would be amazing if it would be compatible with The!Cart. It is a fabulous game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grevle Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Display type "Multiple Entries" is now also supported for seven additional older versions of the Atarimax Maxflash Studio menu. Those were the ones with "<A>,<B>,<C>" lists. So you can see and search the entries from the contained menu directly in the extended menu. Direct start of Atarimax entries resolved via the "Multiple Entries" option from the extended menu is supported for the latest version of the Atarimax Maxflash Studio menu. Where can i find the "multiple Entries" ? in the cart studio i can only select the extended menu.. or do you mean a menu setting in Maxflash studio ? anyway there is something here i dont understand about the direct start of atarimax entries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Display type "Multiple Entries" is now also supported for seven additional older versions of the Atarimax Maxflash Studio menu. Those were the ones with "<A>,<B>,<C>" lists. So you can see and search the entries from the contained menu directly in the extended menu. Direct start of Atarimax entries resolved via the "Multiple Entries" option from the extended menu is supported for the latest version of the Atarimax Maxflash Studio menu. Where can i find the "multiple Entries" ? in the cart studio i can only select the extended menu.. or do you mean a menu setting in Maxflash studio ? anyway there is something here i dont understand about the direct start of atarimax entries. It's a setting in the mainscreen of the studio. When you create an AtariMax workbook and export this as a BIN/CAR file, you can import this in THE!Cart studio. By default this is already visible as multiple entries in the main menu of your cart (in the studio you see this in one of the tabs) ... but if you don't want that, but you only want the in the workbook created car/bin is visible as a single entry you have to toggle that setting. If you create a workbook that is called 'Arcade games' and you export this to BIN/CAR and you put this in THE!Cart studio and you set this to Single Entry your BIN/CAR file would be visible as 'Arcade Games' in your THE!CAR menu. If you toggle the setting to Multiple Entries you will see all the entries of that workbook in your THE!CAR menu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grevle Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 (edited) Thank you., Now i found it, its under the "display mode" tab in the main window. But im not able to direct start the Atarimax entries.When i try that my Atari XEGS just hangs with a black screen,Thats a NTSC version of XEGS.Haven't tried Pal Atari yet. Those was created with maxflash studio 2.4. isn't that the latest version of maxflash studio ? Edited February 22, 2014 by Grevle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 (edited) 2.4 is the lastest version and should work. The studio will simply not generate the item specific start if the menu version is not supported. So you should end up of the Atarimax Menu, but never hang. As there still are some timing issue when starting, NTSC is untested (as I don't have one) and might make that issue worse. Please PM the ATR and I'll have a look. Johny's trouble is meanwhile reaching the main game screen, yet the subsequent loading of the level picture fails... progressing. And BigBen was very helpful and provided the information I need to add direct start also for MegaCart 2MB images. Slowly everything falls into its place - bit by bit... (well, MB by MB in this case) Edited February 22, 2014 by JAC! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Ooooh i love this project!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Does somebody know if this is maybe an old version of the Maxflash Studio menu? It's located in Bank 127, which indicates that it assumes (and only works) with old Atarimax carts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Does somebody know if this is maybe an old version of the Maxflash Studio menu? It's located in Bank 127, which indicates that it assumes (and only works) with old Atarimax carts. OldMenu.png Jason's Favourites (8MB maxflash image).atr Here is the (8MB MaxFlash image that I have.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 I know Tucker on a certain moment start using a GAL that has slight different specs than the ones he was used to use. A few years ago I bought a few of his new AtariMax carts, and I found out that I was not able to play Space Harrier with these carts. So he exchanged the GALS with other ones, so my carts would be backward compatible with older software. I am not sure whether the older or the new ones started at bank 127 (128?) and which one start at bank 0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Newer ones start at bank 0, older ones at 127. But my question rather was if the menu in the screen shot is an original Maxflash menu or not. I do have some roms with that menu above, but they do not contain any indication who created the menu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 If found that Johny's trouble uses a not allowed direct jump into the OS. This will neither work with non standard XL OSes not with any kind of ATR loader. Here's a fixed version that should work (must be added again to the workbook to repeat the analysis). Works with my The!Cart Studio local version at least (soon to be released, too). Funny that the loading screen calls it "Johny's Problem" instead, maybe I'll fix that, too. Also what's the difference to "Problem Jasia" - maybe I should ask Jakub. JTROUBLE-Fixed.atr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I will give this one a try now! The difference is that it is translated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Unfortunately it does not work here. It hangs after some loading on real hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) >on real hardware. Did you test the ATR as such or starting it from "The!Cart"? The ATR works fine in all my emus but I have no way to testing on The!Cart right now (but also works in Altirra with "The!Cart"). I've uploaded the latest studio to the usual site, please test with it. After adding the ATR, the "Parameters" column in the workbook (hidden by default) should contain: "base=$0400, $027a=dskinv, $293e=dskinv, $8ef5=dskinv" I also fixed the title screen & charset now :-) JTROUBLE-Fixed-Title.atr Edited February 27, 2014 by JAC! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) Hi Jac, Tested it with your newest THE!Cart studio, and now it works. You are a GENIUS. I have been wishing forJohny's Trouble on 64K Atari for a cart so long. You really made my day (which was terrible btw, so you imagine how cool this is!) Greetz M. Edited February 27, 2014 by ProWizard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Patched ATR works "here" too. Nice work Jac! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) Thanks! Considering that even that works, I can probably official release the new version. I rather get things out these days and have themtested in "the wild" :-) The!Cart Studio version 2014-02-27 released Display type "Multiple Entries" is now also supported one additional older versions of the Atarimax Maxflash Studio menu. For the very first version, this also includes the direct start. Looks like there were as many releases of that software as for The!Cart Studio.... Direct start of MegaCart's inner menu entries from the extended menu is supported for the latest version of the MegaCart Studio menu. Thanks to Bernd for his support to make this possible so quickly. By holding down "SHIFT" when starting an entry that comes from an inner menu disables the immediate start and brings you to the inner menu instead. New Atari software version 2014-02-24 included. It includes fixes for the handling of the SPI EEPROM which stores the configuration of the simple menu. Yesterday I tried to reproduce the "hanging" Asteriods issue, but it always simply worked. Maybe you can test that again. Edited February 27, 2014 by JAC! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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