Altirra 2.60 released

[Mikerochip]

Hi.

 

I just registered to say the music at the start of AirStrike II still isn't correct! ( AirStrike: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-airstrike-ii_158.html )

 

You'll hear it at the start of this video:

[+JAC!]

Now THAT'S robust programming

 

[fujidude]

Now THAT'S robust programming

 

Altirra.png

 

I agree! But what the heck is a "Internet Explorer download location marker?"

[Mclaneinc]

Its the devil's domain...

[phaeron]

Hi.

 

I just registered to say the music at the start of AirStrike II still isn't correct! ( AirStrike: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-airstrike-ii_158.html )

 

You'll hear it at the start of this video:

 

What am I supposed to be hearing?

 

 

I agree! But what the heck is a "Internet Explorer download location marker?"

 

Internet Explorer adds a tag called the "Mark of the Web" to a file that it downloads from the Internet. It is a small INI file stored as an Alternate Data Stream (ADS) on the file, with the name :Zone.Identifier. This is how Explorer knows to display the Security Warning dialog even if you move the file.

 

Now, a while back, Microsoft had to deal with a security issue in HTML Help, and their solution was to block HTML Help on files from the Internet (zone 3) or Intranet (zone 2). That's fine, except they did it in a really lame way such that all the user saw was an "Action Canceled" error in the content pane of the help file, with no indication that the download zone was the issue or how to allow the file. This was also propagated by the built-in zip functionality such that extracting the help file from a .zip that had the tag also copied the tag to the help file itself. This meant that suddenly I started getting flooded with reports from VirtualDub users about the help file not working. Even worse, the way to unblock the file is obscure (Properties > Unblock in Explorer), and the file still doesn't work over a file share unless you modify the Registry to whitelist the path for HTML Help or modify the Internet Settings to mark the file share as Trusted. So to fix the problem, I added code to detect the issue and to try to remove the zone tag. When I started the help file for Altirra, I copied the code over.

[Mikerochip]

 

What am I supposed to be hearing?

.

Sorry, I should have been more specific.

 

At about 10 seconds in, the music in altirra sort of blanks out, but in the real hardware it play a few decending notes.

That's it really. I like the music almost as much as I like the game! It's very iconic.

[Keatah]

Right-Click and [uNBLOCK] fixes the help file issue. It's a Windows' generated notification.

[phaeron]

At about 10 seconds in, the music in altirra sort of blanks out, but in the real hardware it play a few decending notes.

That's it really. I like the music almost as much as I like the game! It's very iconic.

 

Are you playing the 16K version or the 32K version? The 16K version works fine for me but the 32K version doesn't seem to initialize the sound hardware properly, resulting in channels 3 and 4 being borked in the opening screen. Can't see how it would work on real hardware either.

[fujidude]

Thanks for the explanation phaeron.

[Keatah]

Is there a trick to loading the 32K cassette version of Airstrike II ??

[+Philsan]

Right-Click and [uNBLOCK] fixes the help file issue. It's a Windows' generated notification.

In Altirra warning message, I press YES to remove download marker.

Then Altirra Help appears, I select contents from the index, but nothing happens on the right side.

[Mclaneinc]

In Altirra warning message, I press YES to remove download marker.

Then Altirra Help appears, I select contents from the index, but nothing happens on the right side.

 

Keatah gave the answer a few messages previous, but we all miss stuff

 

Right click the help file, go to properties and down the bottom tick unblock...Your content will return..

[+Philsan]

 

Keatah gave the answer a few messages previous, but we all miss stuff

 

Right click the help file, go to properties and down the bottom tick unblock...Your content will return..

Thank you, I've done that, but I don't get any content.

[Mclaneinc]

That's weird, sorry it didn't work but I had exactly the same problem a couple of times and that always did the trick.

 

Sorry I can't help more...

[Kr0tki]

The 16K version works fine for me but the 32K version doesn't seem to initialize the sound hardware properly, resulting in channels 3 and 4 being borked in the opening screen. Can't see how it would work on real hardware either.

Thankfully, pressing Reset after loading the game fixes the issue.

[Roydea6]

I have several small basic 'Direct Mode" programs to do screen writes and several of them don't work with ATBASICX.XEX or the ATBASIC.BIN while using the Emulator or real hardware, and I have tried to rearrange the order some what and they still do not work.

 

BUT, with ATARI BASIC, TURBOBASIC, and the newest basic offering by Konrad UBI.EXE the programs complete as programed..

 

One example is a Directory listing :

DIR3N.TXT

 

This reads a 3 column directory of the selected drive # D1 thru D9: with all the basic's except altirra's ATBASICX.XEX and ATBASIC.BIN. version 1.45

 

E. "D:DIR3N.TXT" and select drive number 1-9 or A-O for SDX44x.

 

 

 

 

[Madi]

I have several small basic 'Direct Mode" programs to do screen writes and several of them don't work with ATBASICX.XEX or the ATBASIC.BIN while using the Emulator or real hardware, and I have tried to rearrange the order some what and they still do not work.

 

BUT, with ATARI BASIC, TURBOBASIC, and the newest basic offering by Konrad UBI.EXE the programs complete as programed..

 

One example is a Directory listing :

DIR3N.TXT

 

This reads a 3 column directory of the selected drive # D1 thru D9: with all the basic's except altirra's ATBASICX.XEX and ATBASIC.BIN. version 1.45

 

E. "D:DIR3N.TXT" and select drive number 1-9 or A-O for SDX44x.

 

 

 

 

madi

[Madi]

I have several small basic 'Direct Mode" programs to do screen writes and several of them don't work with ATBASICX.XEX or the ATBASIC.BIN while using the Emulator or real hardware, and I have tried to rearrange the order some what and they still do not work.

Under Altirra, the program does run normally using atbasic.bin or the Atari BASIC ROM.

The first picture is the direct copy just to show the code and atbasic version. The other picture is the entered using E. "H6:DIR3N.TXT" (Host disk)

PIC#1 PIC#2

madi

[phaeron]

It wasn't working with 1.45, due to an issue with the ENTER command.

New build (Altirra BASIC 1.46 attached):
http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.70-test24.zip
http://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-2.70-test24-src.zip

• ATBasic: Fixed bug where the interpreter would leave an EOL in the program when an I/O statement taking a literal filename was interrupted by a warm reset. The interpreter now restores the EOL after a warm start.
• ATBasic: Fixed ENTER resetting the execution IOCB to #0 after executing an immediate line.
• ATBasic: Fixed CLOAD/CSAVE not consistently requesting short IRGs.
• Network: Fixed TCP retransmit behavior. Retransmit timers were being tracked per packet instead of per connection, causing unnecessary retransmits.
• Input: The rebind and mapping edit UIs will now prefer an analog stick code over a digital one when binding an analog input. Previously, attempting to push left stick to bind it to paddle left/right, for instance, would choose the digital code and you'd have to select the analog version manually.
• Input: The entire keyboard mapping is now customizable in Input > Keyboard, including the previously hardcoded F2/F3/F4/F6 bindings. Note that it's a lot of work to rebind the whole keyboard, but there is an Import/Export option to make this a bit easier to deal with once you get a setup you like. The default keyboards use a mix of virtual key and character bindings so as to not end up completely scrambled on a non-US-English keyboard, but using virtual keys for everything is fine if you only have one keyboard layout.
• Input: It is no longer possible to trigger a Break IRQ or toggle the Shift key bit in SKSTAT when keyboard scan is disabled.
• Input: The default key mode has been switched from cooked to raw. Too many bug reports from cooked mode not being able to report key downs, and most people don't try to type in turbo mode.
• Input: Added a mode to do full keyboard scan emulation in 800 mode, like the emulator was already doing in 5200 mode. This enables several corner-case behaviors possible on real hardware with debounce disabled: triggering key interrupts with multiple keys pressed, triggering phantom Ctrl/Shift/Break key presses, and triggering key codes not connected in the physical key matrix.
• Debugger: Execution history now shows when a high-level emulation intercept has taken place. This avoids the mysterious JSR call that takes 20 cycles, pops four bytes off the stack, and doesn't seem to go anywhere....
• ANTIC: Fixed bug where STA WSYNC could stop working if a warm reset happened during a WSYNC wait.
• Display: Fixed enhanced video display being red/blue swapped in Direct3D 11 mode. Wasn't noticed previously because the XEP80 display is black and white....

Wasted some time trying to track down a problem with 5200 Qix that turned out to be an issue with the PS/2-USB keyboard adapter I was using. If you run into weird problems with 5200 input where the top button (Shift) stops working intermittently with the default keyboard mapping, try rebinding it or the arrow keys to different keys to see if that solves a problem. Seems these adapters can break key combinations that work fine when the keyboard is directly plugged into a PS/2 port.

atbasic.bin

atbasicx.xex

[flashjazzcat]

Help+Reset entry into new Ultimate BIOS appears broken.

[drac030]

 

 

Input: The entire keyboard mapping is now customizable in Input > Keyboard, including the previously hardcoded F2/F3/F4/F6 bindings. Note that it's a lot of work to rebind the whole keyboard, but there is an Import/Export option to make this a bit easier to deal with once you get a setup you like. The default keyboards use a mix of virtual key and character bindings so as to not end up completely scrambled on a non-US-English keyboard, but using virtual keys for everything is fine if you only have one keyboard layout.

 

Saying truth, this was the reason for me to download the new version, as I wanted to remap the F-keys in a way that I find more convenient (i.e. F1 = F1, F2 = F2, F3 = F3, F4 = F4, F5 = HELP, F6 = START, F7 = SELECT, F8 = OPTION and F12 = RESET). But remapping the Reset key does not seem possible, unless I am missing something.

[vitoco]

I haven't seen a post about this issue:

 

Many (if not most) of the times when I change the focus from Altirra to any other program and then return to it about an hour later (more or less), the display remains freezed, but it is posible to hear the keyclicks if type something. To solve this problem, I only need to minimize the window and immediately restore it... then the screen is refreshed and the typed letters are visible.

 

I've seen this behavior in Altirra 2.50, 2.60 and even in the Test-24 of 2.70 I downloaded today.

 

Both of the computers I use have Windows 7, one is x86 and the other is x64.

[flashjazzcat]

A suggested fix for this was to switch to DirectX 11 in display options. It worked for me.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well

 

today I encountered a somehow strange DIR behaviour or incompatibility of the DIR command between TB XL and Altirra Basic. I executed an Atari Basic program that displayed ASCII-movies. The first thing it did was to ask for the drive number ( 1-8 ) where the ASCII-movies are located, then it did ask for a filename. Since I had not displayed a directory before, I did not know any filename. To avoid this in future sessions, I loaded TB XL and added one more line to the Basic program which displays a directory first:

 

35 DIR"D1:*.MVI"

 

Saved it to disk and the program worked fine under TB XL and always displayed a DIR first. Of course this simple DIR statement (line 35) made the program incompatible to Atari Basic and I had to load TB XL from now on to execute the program. But hey, the whole program was written in Atari Basic, only the DIR statement had been added by me - Altirra Basic also has a DIR statement, why not try it there ? Alright, loaded the same program under Altirra Basic 1.45, but it did not display a DIR listing, instead it locked/protected all *.MVI files...?!? So I looked at line 35 again and it showed a XIO statement, which was the equivalent to lock/protect file...

 

Alright, change line 35 under Altirra Basic into DIR"D1:*.MVI", save the changed program again to disk and it worked fine under Altirra Basic. But now I thought, what would happen, if I execute this program under TB XL again - would it work as expected ? Well, I tried and it did not work as expected, the program did not display a DIR listing, instead it unlocked/unprotected all *.MVI files. Looked at line 35 again and it displayed Unlock"D1:*.MVI"...

 

My conclusion: The DIR statement of Altirra Basic seems not to be compatible with the DIR statement in TB XL, if you use it in a line-number of one language, it will do something different in the other language. Is this normal ? And errm, if I use DIR in a line-number under Altirra Basic will the program only work under Altirra Basic then, or are there other Basic versions (Basic XL, Basic XE, MS-Basic, MS-Basic 2, Hypra-Soft Basic, etc.) where the DIR statement works fine and displays a directory (assuming the Basic language has a DIR statement) ?!?

Edited September 7, 2015 by CharlieChaplin

[fujidude]

I don't wish to speak for phaeron here, but I believe Altirra BASIC is 100% token compatible with Atari BASIC for the statements that are in common with Atari BASIC. The extended statements of Altirra are token compatible with OSS BASIC XL/XE, not Turbo BASIC XL.