FDOS Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 Welcome to the fun, FDOS! It is very good to see you online again. It's very good to be back. I really enjoy this hobby. Mainly software development, not hardware repair. I'm trying to get my original two F18A TI consoles upgraded, but have run into a keyboard problem that's not the keyboard, and a CF card in one of my CF7A+/NanoPEBv1/NanoPEBv2 sidecars corrupted data everywhere, GK,etc. fdos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDOS Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 It's about time you got back on here, Bill! ...lee Yes, I'm glad to be back doing hobby stuff. Keeps me off the streets at night. Right now sticking to TIB+ development, but hopefully will get back to X4th99 and eventually Forth+ v2.0. fdos 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Bill!!!! Great to see you posting, good buddy!! I still have most of the beta stuff you sent me 10 years ago, somewhere... Really excited to see how TIB+ is coming along!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 (edited) I'm not fully updated on specs and ideas. Sorry. Idea. Apart from the games on SD-card, there could be text files. Like this, minec.bin and minec.txt. Some special key combination on the menu (shift and letter) would go display the text file (perhaps on demand (not preloaded)). Maybe 40 column format. Lowercase (TI-99/8 font). Several pages. 1 or 2 lines reserved for info bar about keys, pages etc. A quick and dirty ... Edited February 12, 2017 by sometimes99er 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuTomato Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 I'm not fully updated on specs and ideas. Sorry. Idea. Apart from the games on SD-card, there could be text files. Like this, minec.bin and minec.txt. Some special key combination on the menu (shift and letter) would go display the text file (perhaps on demand (not preloaded)). Maybe 40 column format. Lowercase (TI-99/8 font). Several pages. 1 or 2 lines reserved for info bar about keys, pages etc. A quick and dirty ... I really like this idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted February 15, 2017 Author Share Posted February 15, 2017 Idea. Apart from the games on SD-card, there could be text files. Like this, minec.bin and minec.txt. Some special key combination on the menu (shift and letter) would go display the text file (perhaps on demand (not preloaded)). Yes, that could be useful. But unless someone writes txt files for all the old programs, there won't be a lot of text files. And for new programs, you could just include the description inside your program (but you couldn't read it before loading it). I'll keep it in mind, though, like many other things ... maybe I'll implement some suggestions via updates. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Yes, that could be useful. But unless someone writes txt files for all the old programs, there won't be a lot of text files. And for new programs, you could just include the description inside your program (but you couldn't read it before loading it). I'll keep it in mind, though, like many other things ... maybe I'll implement some suggestions via updates. If you decide to add this functionality the rest of us will worry about making txt files.. It would be nice to have instructions for some of these whacky programs that aren't self explanatory. Greg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted February 15, 2017 Author Share Posted February 15, 2017 If you decide to add this functionality the rest of us will worry about making txt files.. Sounds like a deal, I guess. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuTomato Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Yes, that could be useful. But unless someone writes txt files for all the old programs, there won't be a lot of text files. And for new programs, you could just include the description inside your program (but you couldn't read it before loading it). I'll keep it in mind, though, like many other things ... maybe I'll implement some suggestions via updates. I wouldn't mind volunteering for a "distributed community documentation jam" or whatever it would please people to call it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 I wouldn't mind volunteering for a "distributed community documentation jam" or whatever it would please people to call it. Kevin needs an excuse to turn on his "BIG TI" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aftyde Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 Would it be possible for the FinalGROM to function like a MiniMemory cart? By the way - sign me up for at least 2! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted February 20, 2017 Author Share Posted February 20, 2017 (edited) Would it be possible for the FinalGROM to function like a MiniMemory cart? By the way - sign me up for at least 2! Well, it depends on how much logic I can fit into the CPLD. XB is an extra rule, GRAM is an extra rule, GROM 0-2 is an extra rule ... But yes, I'll try. EDIT: Just for clarification, I don't think there'll be a battery ... Edited February 20, 2017 by ralphb 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted February 20, 2017 Author Share Posted February 20, 2017 I'm currently working on a "RAM mode" with RAM support (not GRAM!), and I'd like your feedback on this matter. Right now I favor to have a ROM section from >6000 to >6FFF and a RAM section from >7000 to >7FFF. A bank switch is done by writing to >6xxx, while writing to >7xxx will update the RAM value. This is quite simple to implement. IIRC the Wiesbaden Supermodule did it like this, and it also looks like the MiniMem. The ROM area could be reduced down to >6000->6100. This is the smallest area that needs to be reserved for bank switching to work. But having a smaller ROM area makes the internal logic mode complex, which is why I favor the 4K/4K variant. Now the main question is: Should the RAM be shared by all banks, or does each bank have its own 4K of RAM? The first version is much simpler to program for, but it has only 4K of RAM instead of the 256K of the second version. Can some developers comment what they would prefer (other than "both" )? Note that RAM mode will be a special mode that programs will have to choose; it's not the default for legacy programs. In other words, backward compatibility is not an issue here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F.G. Kaal Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 I prever 4K RAM shared by all banks. Every bank can reach all RAM data. If each bank has its own 4K of RAM it can be a lot of jugling to get data from one bank into the other. (but it is not impossible). (this is a difficult question if at this moment I don't have a clue what I want to do with all the RAM and then it comes out when I have a clue there is choosen for the wrong option so actually I want both ... o no! ... that option is not allowed). Fred 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 I also think I prefer shared RAM. Having 4K of non-pageable RAM and 256K of pageable ROM would make a very nice development platform for an unexpanded machine where you wouldn't have to think about trampoline functions etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 4K of shared RAM would work fine for me. Yes I would prefer that :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted February 21, 2017 Author Share Posted February 21, 2017 Thanks for the feedback. I've just had an idea how I could merge both proposals, but I need to verify it first on the weekend. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LASooner Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 So you didn't want anyone to say 'both' and then you figured out 'both' anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 So you didn't want anyone to say 'both' and then you figured out 'both' anyway? Yeah. I haven't tested it yet, but my idea was to have different bank switches for ROM and RAM sections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I was going to get a FlashROM 99, but I guess I'll wait for the FinalGROM instead. This looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I was going to get a FlashROM 99, but I guess I'll wait for the FinalGROM instead. This looks great! Well you can have both. They are not that expensive I guess. I myself will get a backup and a FinalGROM 99 as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Well you can have both. They are not that expensive I guess. I myself will get a backup and a FinalGROM 99 as well. Well there's not much point to have both. The FinalGROM 99 is better in every way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 Well there's not much point to have both. The FinalGROM 99 is better in every way. I guess the real thing is that the flashrom99 is available now.. the finalgrom99 isn't finished and he may be working on it for many moons before it's ready for public use.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 I've got my 2048K Games Cart and my CF7+. I'm good for now so I can afford to wait. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dphirschler Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 I hope you figure out all the problems soon. Thank you for making it fit in a standard TI cartridge case. Can it be SD micro? Waiting for this amazing cart to be released. BTW, tomorrow is my birthday. :-) Darryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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