flashjazzcat Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 As I was saying.... Galaxian and Frogger are flashed to the latest Ultimate 1Meg, because you can change the BASIC ROM to those games and it worked. I assume Missile Command is in there too - but in the XEGS game rom section, but I can't/don't know how to access it. You need an XEGS OS as well as the XEGS pins on the board jumpered before there's any chance of Missile Command putting in an appearance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo-Rio Posted May 19, 2016 Author Share Posted May 19, 2016 You need an XEGS OS as well as the XEGS pins on the board jumpered before there's any chance of Missile Command putting in an appearance. Ah.... of course. I assume the XEGS ROM and the XL/XE ROMs are compatible? I'm just thinking which OS to reflash on my ultimate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 I assume the XEGS ROM and the XL/XE ROMs are compatible? I'm just thinking which OS to reflash on my ultimate. Yeah, I think the PBI code is still there in the XEGS OS, so you could replace the Stock XL/XE OS if you wanted. Just tested the XEGS OS here with the PBI HDD and it appears to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo-Rio Posted May 19, 2016 Author Share Posted May 19, 2016 (edited) I reflashed the OS with the XEGS OS ROM, and I found that the XEGS game ROMs could be accessed ONLY if there is no SIDE2 in the cartridge slot, and you hold SELECT from a cold power on. After getting Missile Command to work, I then loaded up the other XEGS slots with Space Invaders, Pac Man, and Centipede. I managed to get all of those to start on booting the XEGS. Again, you can only flash 8K roms, so some nicer games are not valid for the slots. I tried to flash one of the slots with Asteroids, but it didn't work for some reason. Booted up with a black screen. That was strange considering the image I have works OK in an emulator. All in all, the XEGS game rom slots are a bit useless when you have a SIDE2 - but that's how it works anyhow. Edited May 19, 2016 by Neo-Rio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 It makes sense that the game ROM won't boot when there's a cartridge present (since the cartridge will boot instead), but I'm not sure why you need to hold Select... unless it's because you have the keyboard plugged in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Profile 2 is what I use to invoke the XE Game slots. On profile 2 I have as OS the XEGS rom with SDX disabled the holding SELECT key down press 'C' for cold boot, and up pops the Game slot selected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Yeah, I think the PBI code is still there in the XEGS OS, so you could replace the Stock XL/XE OS if you wanted. Just tested the XEGS OS here with the PBI HDD and it appears to work. Can you please provide a link to download an XEGS rom image for the U-1meg. Profile 2 is what I use to invoke the XE Game slots. On profile 2 I have as OS the XEGS rom with SDX disabled the holding SELECT key down press 'C' for cold boot, and up pops the Game slot selected. Great idea! And now I have a better feel for what to use the Profiles for. - Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Can you please provide a link to download an XEGS rom image for the U-1meg. Here's the XEGS ROM I'm using: XEGS.rom It came straight from the EMUROMS pack I downloaded from somewhere on the Internet. Just flash to the OS slot of your choice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 Here's the XEGS ROM I'm using: XEGS.rom It came straight from the EMUROMS pack I downloaded from somewhere on the Internet. Just flash to the OS slot of your choice. Thanks - Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo-Rio Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 Maybe someone could try flashing Asteroids to one of the XEGS slots? Not sure why I couldn't get that to work, but other < 8K games had no problem.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Maybe someone could try flashing Asteroids to one of the XEGS slots? Not sure why I couldn't get that to work, but other < 8K games had no problem.... Asteroid.Rom This is working on My 800Xl and Xegs.rom.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo-Rio Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 (edited) Asteroid.Rom This is working on My 800Xl and Xegs.rom.. Strange. I just downloaded your image and tried flashing that ROM and I can report that it's not working on my XEGS in it's XEGS game mode slot. I just get a black screen. I wonder why my setup hates it so much? Edited May 20, 2016 by Neo-Rio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Put it into a basic slot and configure the bios for this in a basic slot. after clean boot type BASIC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo-Rio Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 (edited) Put it into a basic slot and configure the bios for this in a basic slot. after clean boot type BASIC Didn't work when flashed in a BASIC slot either. :/ ...and yet the image works fine in an emulator, just like the original one I flashed before. I have a PAL XEGS. I don't know if this makes a difference... although I can boot an XEX file of Asteroids from the SIDE2 just fine. Edited May 20, 2016 by Neo-Rio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo-Rio Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 Also booting the Asteroids ROM directly off my SIDE2 works fine as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 (edited) I'm not sure how this could even work in emulation, since the game writes $00 to PORTB and banks itself out, causing a crash on a BRK instruction at $AE33. Crashing quite consistently here with Altirra when flashed to XEGS slot 2. PS: You don't even need to use an XEX to run Asteroids from the XEX loader. It'll run the ROM straight from the hard disk. Edited May 20, 2016 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo-Rio Posted May 20, 2016 Author Share Posted May 20, 2016 (edited) Oh OK.... I see what you mean. I was loading it as a cartridge in the emulator, but I Just tried loading it as an XEGS game slot in Altirra myself and it crashes the emulator. I guess Asteroids simply isn't compatible with the XEGS game rom slots. That just leaves me trying to figure out how to boot Eggnapper when it is still reliant on OS-A/OS-B and ATR support isn't there through the SIDE2 because OS-B is selected. Is a SIO2SD my only solution there? Edited May 20, 2016 by Neo-Rio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I would say so. Any ATR requiring the 800 OS is high and dry when it comes to PBI solutions. Unless you can find an XEX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Since you guys are talking about using the U-1meg slots (including the Game ones), I was wondering if there is any shortcut I am missing to loading them? Keep in mind that I am a newbie to using the U-1meg. Presently the way I have been doing it is to go to U1's setup menu, change it, save it -- reboot. Although this isn't terribly time consuming, it still left me thinking wouldn't it be cool to be able do some sort of CTRL+SHIFT+1-8 thingie that would switch slots and then reboot automatically. Just a thought - Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 The configuration must be unlocked to switch slots, and this only happens immediately after a machine reset. I wouldn't fancy having hotkeys changing ROMs on reset (in any case, an OS reboot should be mandatory). Could have "hold 1 on coldstart to boot slot 1", etc, but I'm not a fan of crowding the keyboard with hotkeys anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I wouldn't fancy having hotkeys changing ROMs on reset (in any case, an OS reboot should be mandatory). Yes I understand completely, and it does seem risky, but then again it could be an option that defaults to OFF and requires the user to enable it. I just wish there was an extra modifier key similar to CTRL or SHIFT that could be enabled through TK-II. Then something like the ALT key could be used, which would be outside the normal Atari key matrix. Of course that isn't something that POKEY can do (at least not that I am aware of). As I said before just a thought that I'm throwing out there in order to explore the pros and cons. - Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 The new BIOS can't do "one shot" configuration changes (i.e. settings that aren't first saved to the NVRAM), so - say - holding "2" on boot would involve a write back to NVRAM, otherwise the NVRAM setting would be switched back in on the next reset. I'll give it some thought, but truthfully this is what the dual configuration profiles were meant to address (quickly switching between two completely different setups with Help+Reset, P, C). Anyway you just helped me find a small bug. Switching profiles doesn't force an OS reboot on critical changes, so if you leave setup with Esc after switching profiles, you sometimes get a crash. Thanks! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 The new BIOS can't do "one shot" configuration changes (i.e. settings that aren't first saved to the NVRAM), so - say - holding "2" on boot would involve a write back to NVRAM, otherwise the NVRAM setting would be switched back in on the next reset. I'll give it some thought, but truthfully this is what the dual configuration profiles were meant to address (quickly switching between two completely different setups with Help+Reset, P, C). Anyway you just helped me find a small bug. Switching profiles doesn't force an OS reboot on critical changes, so if you leave setup with Esc after switching profiles, you sometimes get a crash. Thanks! I hope that was a good thanks, and not a thanks a lot for ruining my day thanks Maybe not have it do any 'real' configuration change, or at least nothing permanent. Think of it more as a temporary jump to a given slot without care for what is in there or what its name is, and yes once the new slot has been selected (by a number?), the U-1meg would reset and come back up with that slot enabled on a one-shot basis (no other changes). In other words it would be like having a 64K EEPROM (8x8K slots) in the language ROM socket, and I was able to 'via a hot-key sequence' manipulate the 3 upper address lines (through an addressable latch), and then initiate a reset booting up with the selected slot enabled. This latch would be cleared on a subsequent power-up reset, and slot control would revert back to the U-1meg configuration. I do realize that the existing 8 slots I am referring to are not contiguous (4 Language and 4 Game on XEGS only), so maybe only the 4 Language slots would have this option. Now maybe its just me, but I think that this would be sweet! As for can it be done in reality, you tell me. - Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 (edited) I hope that was a good thanks, and not a thanks a lot for ruining my day thanks No - it was a genuine thanks, since bug eradication is good. I've just fixed it (switching profiles now checks the new config against the copy made when setup was first entered, just as is done when saving the config, and the cold boot flag is set accordingly) and will release the update as soon as I get the Rapidus/DracOS/PBI bug fixed. It's a "don't care" in the meantime as long as you exit via a soft reboot after switching profiles. The temporary change to the slots is tricky without allowing a rather untidy reversion to the saved slot on warm reset, since the NVRAM is read every time reset is pressed and the content reapplied to the configuration registers. I think reading the NVRAM would have to be deliberately bypassed on reset and the config information taken from the config buffer in IO RAM instead. This should be doable, since the config buffer is at $D100 and isn't overwritten by PBI stuff. Much scope to break things here, though, so I don't want to rush into it. Edited May 20, 2016 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 (edited) Much scope to break things here, though, so I don't want to rush into it. Hey no problem on time frame. I'm just happy that you might even consider doing such a thing. But the last thing I would want to happen is for this to be responsible for breaking something. Anyway I think I've gone off topic long enough on this thread, so this will be something that we can continue on another topic. Thanks for discussing the possibility Getting back to the topic at hand... So I've been really getting jazzed (no pun intended) about my XEGS with U1-Meg installed, and I've got to say the more I'm using it the more I love it. It is incredible to have this kind of technology in my A8, and is something I have always wanted since way back when Mike Hohman of FTE fame proposed the ill fated Mars 8 project. After that died and Atari folded up shop, I never would have believed 20+ years later I would not only be back on the A8 bandwagon, but also having such great upgrades to go with it! So yesterday I put an internal TK-II-Piggyback inside my XEGS, and installed the TK-II-INTFC PS/2 connector board on the back. Good thing the XEGS case has a lot of headroom, now that I got a 2nd POKEY piggyback happening. I had to shave off the right corner of the TK-II-INFC board to clear the cart plastic (did the same for the U-Switch board as well). So now I can use two external keyboards. One plugged into the back, and the other thru the normal side keyboard connector (either stock XEGS keyboard or another PS/2 keyboard via a TK-II-XEGS board). So what's next? I want to do this: Custom recolor for XEGS case Or something very similar. - Michael Edited May 20, 2016 by mytekcontrols 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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