flashjazzcat Posted February 29, 2016 Author Share Posted February 29, 2016 Hmmm I may have some suggestions what you could do with this 1200xl .... Just checked serial number: 83S DOA 019254 666 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Just checked serial number: 83S DOA 019254 666 You should have checked this earlier! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 You mean, like buying some ethanol and following the steps in the instruction manual? Instructions for the 1200XL and 1000XL Yes, that should work. But always keep in mind what the manual told you: If you did everything right it finally should look like this SCNR, Hias Whahahaha best comment ever! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Oh believe me, I know ... On that note and for what it's worth, when I have a day or two off again I plan to swap out those suggested logic chips in my 1200XL and try the U1MB install there again. Should be fun ... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk The 74LS swap was a false dawn here, sadly. The machine in question came straight from Hell. EDIT: another thing to try is putting the shielding back (at least the bottom layer). Makes a difference here. Well, I've still got the shielding so, what the hell ... When I get around to this project, I'll have to remember to give that a try too. But on a more positive note, I want to report that something I had previously tried a couple months ago that didn't work with an earlier version of your U1MB BIOS in conjunction with the SIDE2 cart now seems to be working correctly - a few months ago I had tried using the .ATR boot functionality to load up any number of different cracked games and such, basically just playing around with the novelty of booting a virtual disk off the SIDE2. Anyway, one of the game cracks that DIDN'T seem to work properly was Infocom's silly sex-parody. LEATHER GODDESSES OF PHOBOS. The game would boot, I could use the button to swap the .ATR files but after continuing past the swap disk message, the game's first page of text would load and then the program would immediately crash with the Infocom's "END OF SESSION" crash message. By contrast, I could run the same crack files off an SIO2USB device using AspeQt, RespeQt or SIO2OSX without a problem. Anyway, after updating to the latest BIOS versions you've posted lately (Ultimate 1MB BIOS 0.52, PBI BIOS 1.59, Loader 0.41) I tried the same very unscientific test using the same cracked game files and everything seems to be working great! Admittedly, I only played the game for a couple turns, but previously it would crash just after loading fully. Tl;dr: Jon, in case anyone hasn't said it lately, thanks for everything you do to squeeze ever more functionality and compatibility out of our souped-up old machines. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 Well, I've still got the shielding so, what the hell ... When I get around to this project, I'll have to remember to give that a try too. Not only did it make a difference here, it completely fixed the machine. Most odd, and there isn't really any rational explanation. Not a solution likely to work in any but these most unusual cases. But on a more positive note, I want to report that something I had previously tried a couple months ago that didn't work with an earlier version of your U1MB BIOS in conjunction with the SIDE2 cart now seems to be working correctly... That's good to hear. The XEX loader's size plummeted in recent revisions, so that's probably why. Jon, in case anyone hasn't said it lately, thanks for everything you do to squeeze ever more functionality and compatibility out of our souped-up old machines. Thanks for that. Fortunately I'm still managing to get some pleasure out of it too, although I'm kind of happy this particular project is just about complete. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morelenmir Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Obviously this is neither the dedicated uFlash nor SIDE2 thread, but I was wondering if FJC would upload the newest version of the *.ROM for that device and also the newest uFlash? I have been having a weird recurring problem in Altirra involving a crash after updating the SIDE2. I am not certain it isn't an issue with a mismatched uFlash (probably newer, from this thread somewhere way back) and the SIDE2 SDX *.ROM file (probably older, directly from 'atari8.co.uk'). The MD5's for the files I am attempting to use are: 6F05218D7A50D320C01B4175CE024B0F - uFlash F87E75DCE2DE29BD752E902088CDE2F0 - SIDE2 SDX *.ROM I need to compile a complete gestalt *.ROM image from inside Altirra in order to write it on to the SIDE2 flash chip via my TL866 as uFlash won't run on the 130XE with only 128kB available. The alternative of using the official SDX release updater for SIDE2 is unattractive as I could not customize the 'config.sys' and the user area of the SDX image. If I attempt to write a customized version of the SDX *.ROM with the official flasher then I get a checksum error. Final SIDE2 related question - is the *.OVL'ized version of MATR available somewhere other than the Ultimate1MB SDX *.ROM image? I would like to put it in to the user area of the SIDE2 SDX *.ROM but I can't seem to work out how to extract it from U1MB version of that file. The otherwise excellent 'SDXImager' has no 'Export' function. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 (edited) I'll get all of the above done soon enough. Some rather tedious life issues are making any kind of quiet, productive time difficult to find. If you want to extract OVL files, just DIR +H CAR:MATR*.OVL and then TYPE +H CAR:MATRn.OVL >>FILENAME to extract to disk. Edited March 4, 2016 by flashjazzcat 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 I'll get all of the above done soon enough. Some rather tedious life issues are making any kind of quiet, productive time difficult to find. If you want to extract OVL files, just DIR +H CAR:MATR*.OVL and then TYPE +H CAR:MATRn.OVL >>FILENAME to extract to disk. That's why pubs were invented. Unfortunately that won't lend itself very well to coding either. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 That's why pubs were invented. And I shall be patronising several tomorrow night, although if pubs keep closing at the current rate, there will soon be few to choose from in this town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morelenmir Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 And I shall be patronising several tomorrow night, although if pubs keep closing at the current rate, there will soon be few to choose from in this town. First they came for the chippies, then they came for the Libs, then they came for the Pubs... Many thanks for that 'CAR:' tip FJC!!! I'll give it a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morelenmir Posted March 5, 2016 Share Posted March 5, 2016 Something I have never tried before - how does one go about making the Ultimate1MB 'forget' its previous settings? Update: Pull the battery - of course! Weird problem. I fitted the Ultimate1MB. It wouldn't boot. I thought the old settings might be either corrupt or incompatible with the new machine. Discover the battery removal trick. Machine boots to U1MB setup screen. If I change the memory configuration, change the OS, change the BASIC - a 'B' to exit and boot goes to a black screen. Power cycle - still black screen. Pull battery, wait, reattach - boot up again to setup. Change only SDX enable or even activate the PBI BIOS - boots properly and reads the SDX off the U1MB. I'm starting the think the thing really did bite it during the power excursion. Further update: Yep, almost definitely. Not only the weird behaviour mentioned above, but when the PBI BIOS and Hard Drive was enabled it was not seeing the SIDE2... Moreover the XILINX CPLD/FPGA/whatever was feeling very warm after only running for a minute or two - and I cannot remember that happening before. So... I guess I could have a bash at reworking the thing with a new programmable logic chip, which may be as much to source as a brand new unit. Bugger it!!! I really hoped the U1MB was going to turn out still alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 9, 2016 Author Share Posted March 9, 2016 Just finished a lot of minor changes and fixes and as soon as a second pair of eyes and hands have tested them, I'll likely go for a 1.0 release. Most useful change is probably to the XEX loader, which will now handle "MAP" files, which are simply lists of ATR filenames and their corresponding drive numbers. The loader will mount the whole lot in one go and then (optionally) reboot, making it much easier to launch multi-disk games. Something I have never tried before - how does one go about making the Ultimate1MB 'forget' its previous settings? Update: Pull the battery - of course! Or - with the new BIOS - Save and Exit -> Restore default settings (to the selected profile). 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Most useful change is probably to the XEX loader, which will now handle "MAP" files, which are simply lists of ATR filenames and their corresponding drive numbers. The loader will mount the whole lot in one go and then (optionally) reboot, making it much easier to launch multi-disk games. That sounds really cool. Are these .map files something that you designed new for this purpose, or are they used elsewhere too? Where can we get the specification for the file structure? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 9, 2016 Author Share Posted March 9, 2016 Are these .map files something that you designed new for this purpose, or are they used elsewhere too? Where can we get the specification for the file structure? A completely proprietary design, if you can even call it a design. Plain DOS/Windows/Unix text file like this: D1:Pacem in Terris (s1,320).atr D2:Pacem in Terris (s2,320).atr Drop that in the FAT and hit enter on it and you get both Pacem in Terris ATRs mounted and the first one immediately boots. You can then use the ATR swap button when the disk change is requested. Press Ctrl-Enter and the ATRs are mounted without a reboot. I was going to build a batch file processor so that one could make aliases for XEX files, etc, which switched BASIC on and off, but right now I'm up against the wall for code space and in any case I don't want to spend further weeks tweaking esoteric features which might go unused. Of course this is a first iteration so the mapping mechanism might be developed over time. The multiple ATR mounts thing definitely needed addressing, though. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panther Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Just finished a lot of minor changes and fixes and as soon as a second pair of eyes and hands have tested them, I'll likely go for a 1.0 release. Most useful change is probably to the XEX loader, which will now handle "MAP" files, which are simply lists of ATR filenames and their corresponding drive numbers. The loader will mount the whole lot in one go and then (optionally) reboot, making it much easier to launch multi-disk games. Awesome idea on the MAP files! You've done a lot of great work with it lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 9, 2016 Author Share Posted March 9, 2016 Awesome idea on the MAP files! You've done a lot of great work with it lately. Thank ProWizard for the excellent MAP file concept (plus lots of other great ideas). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 A few years ago I created a small tool for Sio2IDE (3.3a) and for ABBUC Sio2USB. With this tool you could create something like the MAP files FJC now created for SIDE-Loader. My tool saved very small XEX file. As soon as that XEX file was loaded, the right disks were mounted to the right slots on Sio2IDE or Abbuc-RAF Sio2USB. This way I could combine XEX-games and ATR games on my MyPICODOS 16MB games/demos partition. FJC and I spent a lot of time together testing and discussing his production(s) for U1MB. I must say I felt honored to be so close to the fire. I have flashed my U1MB hundreds of times with new test versions, and it grew better and better all the time. I'm a huge fan of The Brundles (that is a multiple disk game) and some time ago I brought the idea up that it would be great to be able to mount all the disks in one pass, just like I did on Sio2IDE/USB ... And now it is here on SIDE2 loader. The new BIOS, PBI-routine and Side2 are together an excellent and very powerful improvement on the original U1MB firmware! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panther Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Thank you, ProWizard! This was an excellent addition. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 10, 2016 Author Share Posted March 10, 2016 Mid-way through technical documentation tonight, so there's no reason everything can't be published over the weekend. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Looking forward to this very much, Jon! Thank you for all your hard work on making the A8 scene the best it can be. It does not go unappreciated. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Jon, this is some amazing work. You continually impress me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMontezuma Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 (edited) There is a similar functionality for the C64 SD2IEC (search for "Creating a swap list"): https://www.sd2iec.de/gitweb/?p=sd2iec.git;a=blob_plain;f=README;hb=HEAD I still have the "old" BIOS from Candle and since my ATARI has some hardware issues (visible together with The!Cart and MyIDE II) I'm a little bit afaraid of the migration. Jon mentioned that some hardware problems may become visible with the new BIOS (which were ignored by the old one). So I wondered if there is a way to go back? How could I back-up my old BIOS and flash the new one? Edited March 11, 2016 by TheMontezuma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 I guess you can save the old BIOS using Uflash. In fact this update is just a software-part of the u1mb. It's not JTAG update. But I know those issues. I have quite a few MyIDE 2 interfaces and the first batch I received when it just came out, had issues on my XE computers (especially the upgraded ones, but also even on a stock ATari 800XE). This visual effect is called 'birdies' I reported it to Steven Tucker and he then created a firmware upgrade for MyIDE hardware, which only can be programmed when you have the USB programmer. If you have one of the very first MyIDE 2 interfaces, you might have this issue too. I don't have any issue with MyIDE 2 and U1MB, but my Atari 800XL is very stable, so that is not a good candidate for test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMontezuma Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 I will try this weekend to update my Ultimate1MB Regarding MyIDE 2, I got my module last year, but had no time to test it immediately. The module was recognized and the menu was operating properly which made me think that everything is OK. The Flash loader however was always reporting no file system (tested with several CF cards). Steve was (as always) very fair and offered me a replacement of the module. So I sent my module back and got a new one, put it in my Atari and... the same results. Then it came to my mind, that it may be a compatibility issue. I inserted the module into a stock Atari and it worked fine. Interestingly, once I created a few MyDos partitions, they were working fine even with the 1MB extended Atari (only the Flash loader was not). The issue with The!Cart was even investigated by Jürgen, but he gave up at the end. The signals generated by my Ultimate1MB are not that perfect and The!Cart is too sensitive... Luckily, the Ultimate Cart is not and works very well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 11, 2016 Author Share Posted March 11, 2016 There are some stock ROM images a few posts back (on the pigwa server IIRC). They will probably get you out of trouble. I've been "lucky" enough to have a 1200XL here which exhibited stability issues which showed up with both the old and new BIOS. While the old BIOS showed screen corruption and was unable to reliably hold settings, the new BIOS menu totally blew up. Whatever: the hardware wasn't working, and once it was fixed everything was fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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