Omega-TI Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 I've not had a lot of time to play with it, but in the few minutes I had I decided to 'start at the top' to checkout programs for the FlashROM 99. #1 on the list appears to be a version of 4A/DOS....Has anyone managed to get this version for the FlashROM99 working? Whenever I try to run it, it keeps asking for CHARA1 on DSK1, which *IS* on the disk. I even pulled out my SuperCart for the first time in a long time to verify that the CHARA1 file was not corrupted and every thing worked great. Attached is the version I'm trying to use... 4ADOS.BIN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 ...and the CHARA is on the FloppyDisk (DSK1), and NOT on the SD-Card, right ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 Wouldn't 4A/DOS expect to run from RAM and not ROM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted June 1, 2016 Author Share Posted June 1, 2016 Wouldn't 4A/DOS expect to run from RAM and not ROM? Yeah, you would think. I'm assuming this is a 'modified version' of the program. I took a sector editor and peeked inside, but found nothing to explain why it would not work. The program loads and executes TO A POINT, that being as far as telling the user to have CHARA1 in DSK1., which is something the version I've been using for years does not, but it does not go past that point. The original program worked with the Editor/Assembler which I thought it was required, but then again I don't know what Ralf programmed into the chips of this thing, so I thought I'd ask, because it's possible I've overlooked something quite obvious. Gotta go, I'll be back home around 8:00pm and can play then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 I couldn't test this program, as I don't have the matching disk image. Could you perhaps post it here? Also try the following: load 4A/DOS as before, when running hit FCTN-=, then re-select 4A/DOS from the menu. (If FCTN-= is not working, try putting 4A/DOS as the single image on the SD card, and power on.) Does this work now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 I couldn't test this program, as I don't have the matching disk image. Could you perhaps post it here? Here ya go, it's in the attached zip. CHARA1.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 On my system when the cartridge is installed it does not seem to want to do any disk I/O functions. If I use any other cartridge, I have no problems reading or writing to disk. As a control test I tried a couple of other programs on the cartridge like Console Writer, all failed. Could there be a memory location used in the cartridge that is also trying to be used by the floppy drive controller or possibly any other cards. For reference, my systems current configuration is listed << HERE >>. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 OK, this probably warrants further investigation, and also more user reports. Console Writer is working for me, with both CF7+ and PEB + TI Controller. But please test again using the FCTN-= method described above, or using only one image per SD card. This ensures maximum compatibility, as the image selection software won't interfere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 4ADOS also works for me, at least with the CF7+. (Except I didn't quite know what to do with your sort-of-TIFILES file ... what's the native file format? PROGRAM? DIS/VAR? Record length?) Maybe one of your PEB cards is interfering, but then I would hazard a guess that this is not FlashROM specific, but inherent to the image. Please try the above at some point, I'm curious to know what might cause this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted June 2, 2016 Author Share Posted June 2, 2016 4ADOS also works for me, at least with the CF7+. (Except I didn't quite know what to do with your sort-of-TIFILES file ... what's the native file format? PROGRAM? DIS/VAR? Record length?) Maybe one of your PEB cards is interfering, but then I would hazard a guess that this is not FlashROM specific, but inherent to the image. Please try the above at some point, I'm curious to know what might cause this. Yeah that CHARA1 in the ZIP was in V9T9 format. I usually make my DSK images with Ti99Dir. It's quite possible that I have a card in the P-Box that idoes not play well thi this new cartridge, if so, bummer, because I'm not going to start pulling cards and swapping combinations of them I just don't have the time. I just thought it would be nice to be able to use this program without swapping carts. I have other alternatives so I'll use them. I gotta tell ya though, this thing works great for games! Okay made a quick & crude video to show you what is going on.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8BjIg815OU&feature=youtu.be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 OK, I see, thanks! I'm afraid your maxed out system does interfere, or maybe it's just the controller which doesn't play nice. I now properly transferred your CHARA1 to my CF7+, and it's working flawlessly, even through the FlashROM 99 menu. Having just one image on the SD card will load this image automatically upon startup and then transfer control to the TI 99 forever. In other words, the cart behaves entirely like a plain ROM cart. If this isn't working, then burning the image to an EPROM won't work either. (There's bank switching circuitry on the cart, but the 8K file is mirrored into all banks, so stray MOVs to ROM shouldn't affect execution.) And I'd like to stress again that images for the FlashROM 99 aren't special in any way. The 4ADOS.BIN above is simply the dump of the original cartridge. If that is not working, then chances are the original cart won't work either on your system. Which dump does your Supercart contain? Mind you, that's not my final verdict, just my working hypothesis. Let's see what others report for that program. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted July 8, 2016 Author Share Posted July 8, 2016 (edited) Okay, I thought I better terminate and cap off this thread with the solution in case anyone years from now reads this. This first run of the wonderful cartridges needed a little tweak. All subsequent cartridges work flawlessly. In the future this will probably not even be a issue, but I thought this thread needed a conclusion. --- Ω --- ** VIDEO REMOVED ** Edited July 8, 2016 by --- Ω --- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 That's some bad timing, Omega, as I was to post an update this weekend, with more information about that cap. The "rewire fix" you did will work on some systems, but on most systems it breaks bank switching and image selection completely. My latest recommendation is to simply remove the capacitor, on all board revisions -- this fixes the disk issues, and should work on all TI consoles. In fact, I've been building all my latest carts without cap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted July 8, 2016 Author Share Posted July 8, 2016 That's some bad timing, Omega, as I was to post an update this weekend, with more information about that cap. The "rewire fix" you did will work on some systems, but on most systems it breaks bank switching and image selection completely. My latest recommendation is to simply remove the capacitor, on all board revisions -- this fixes the disk issues, and should work on all TI consoles. In fact, I've been building all my latest carts without cap. Ahhh, it happens. I've removed the video and will do so from the blog entry as well. Thanks for the heads up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted July 10, 2016 Share Posted July 10, 2016 uurrrghhh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gferluga Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 But the CHARA1 to CF7+ how supposed to be copied into a disk image? Thx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Schmitzi Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 with TI99DIR maybe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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