Poison Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Rapidus has killer aplication:) ZX Spectrum Emulator! Works perfectly, I tested few games and I was excited! watch this:) In czech lang. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 I'm no expert on the Rapidus (in the slightest), but how does the Atari produce all the colours in high res? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Impressive... that colour would be from just a little (or a lot) of help from VBXE. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillek Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Is that a dark grey falcon next to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Damn that's impressive...Shame about the high hardware cost needed but still damn impressive.. Looked and sounded like one of the Romanian guys that did my flat up over the last 3 weeks Congrats to the creators of that emulator(?), great to see the old Atari doing special stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikor Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 (edited) Congrats to the creators of that emulator(?), So, let's greets to Konrad Kokoszkiewicz, aka KMK aka Drac030 But, unfortunately - on real Atari (6502C, no Rapidus (or other 65816) and no VBXE this emulator won't run Edited August 13, 2016 by Sikor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetle Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 I was really impressed how many of the games we downloaded actually work, and how easy the usage of "Lets Emu!" is. This is really a good showcase of how to put a Rapidus+VBXE equipped machine into use... The 1200XL was running completely stable all weekend... Thanks to the developers of all this impressive new hardware upgrades. And still, i can switch everything back to normal 6502c, load a GTIA core and have a stock machine experience. Greets, Beetle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetle Posted August 13, 2016 Share Posted August 13, 2016 Is that a dark grey falcon next to it? Yes, thats my Falcon 060 (in a spraypainted ST case). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 That's amazing. So cool to see proper use of the latest and greatest upgrades! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Is it a stock VBXE Core or one that assists with the emulation? I'd have thought that using the blits would allow stock VBXE to deal with the graphical differences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 It is the stock FX core. The display itself is generated by ANTIC, the VBXE is used to add colors by means of the color map. The conversion of the color attributes from the ZX Spectrum format to the VBXE format is being done by the blitter, so it practically does not engage the CPU. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 Nicely done Draco....Glad to see those add ons getting a use and such a fun one.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 What about the game code? Is it by emulation or is it like other ports as in sit down and painstakingly translate line by line Z80 to 6502? I would have thought that even at 14 MHz there'd be massive slowdown... something like 3 times that speed again might be needed to equate to a 3.6 MHz Z80. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 (edited) The Z80 is emulated in software, a 20 MHz 65C816 is good enough to do the job so that most programs work well. EDIT: of course, the emulation is not cycle-exact, but it anyways turns out to be good enough in most cases. Those which do not work, fail mainly because of the Z80 R register not being emulated. I already have a version which emulates the R too, but it is a bit slower, so in future releases I will probably provide two separated binaries. Also TAP files which contain custom tape loaders will not load. I am glad that people find the program interesting, thanks for the nice words As about putting the Rapidus+VBXE into use, I have to add that the program itself was written and is being developed not on a PC, but on my "unreal Atari" (320k 65XE, Rapidus, VBXE, IDE+). Edited August 14, 2016 by drac030 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pirx Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 hehehe, I recall few years ago during a party you mentioned that the expected user base of the emulator is 2 people, look, there is the third user!!!! This is one massive increase! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 pirx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 An Atari with any 65816+RAM upgrade should be able to run CP/M through emulation quite well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Sure. It is a question of defining a generic CP/M machine and writing a BIOS for it. Then I could convert the existing ZX Spectrum emulator into a CP/M emulator. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Sure. It is a question of defining a generic CP/M machine and writing a BIOS for it. Then I could convert the existing ZX Spectrum emulator into a CP/M emulator. I have the BIOS source code for porting to new machines somewhere. I think it came from this link: http://compgroups.net/comp.os.cpm/computer-history-museum-cp-m-source-code-release/2999215 And some info on CP/M that might help. http://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/cpm-internals Then it's a matter of some terminal emulation for the screen. The 64 column text code I wrote for the Atom could be adapted to the Atari for 80 column support if you are interested. I started work on Atari and Plus/4 (C64?) ports but haven't gotten around to finishing them yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pirx Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 could BIOS be written in native code, not 8080? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 could BIOS be written in native code, not 8080? You still need to duplicate any parameters that can be read from the bios area, and the Z80 status bits need set properly for the return, but the code could be native. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 (edited) @JamesD Thanks for the links. As for the terminal, we already have a terminal for the Indus CP/M - namely TT (aka Trub's Terminal). It is a question of reusing its code. Of course, there is nothing difficult in making the BIOS running the native code. It is enough to setup a trap which will switch the execution between the emulated Z80 and the host CPU. The BIOS would have to do that anyways, to use the functions of the underlying OS and e.g. access the hard disk. Edited August 16, 2016 by drac030 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 I forgot, you also need a CP/M file system emulation, but that shouldn't be too difficult.Maybe some code could be borrowed from DOS/65.http://www.z80.eu/dos65.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 I am under the impression that CP/M FS emulation would only be needed if we wanted to replace also the BDOS with the native code. It may of course be profitable, but I think it is better to start off something simpler, i.e. just replace the BIOS and see how things work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 (edited) I am under the impression that CP/M FS emulation would only be needed if we wanted to replace also the BDOS with the native code. It may of course be profitable, but I think it is better to start off something simpler, i.e. just replace the BIOS and see how things work. Well, I think mounting disk images is more important than reading/writing physical disks. *edit* For compatibility testing I think Wordstar and Visicalc would be the first choices. Edited August 17, 2016 by JamesD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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