Importing New GROMs & Roms on Classic99

[Ayce]

Hi,

 

Great to have ti99 emulator for windows 7+.

 

Question, I bought an older version of this from a software developer a long time ago.  He threw in a bunch of GROM & ROM files giving me access to a lot of the TI games.  I was wondering if there is any way to expand to game list available on this emulator (in particular, looking for ADVENTURE & MOON PATROL, two games I used to play on TI99 when I was a kid).

 

I have the old GROM & ROM files and tried to put them in the mods folder, but it didn't work.  

 

Again, any way to add these games to the list of available games on this emulator?

 

I have included copies of the old emulator I purchased along with an archive of the GROM & ROMS that came with it.  If that helps any.

 

Thanks

PC99mods.rar

Edited January 6 by OLD CS1
Removed PC99 as it is still a commercial product from CaDD.

[+OLD CS1]

16 hours ago, Ayce said:

Again, any way to add these games to the list of available games on this emulator?

You should check out the Classic99 thread and read its documentation.  Also, CaDD still sells their PC99 emulator, so I have removed that from your post.

 

 

[Tursi]

17 hours ago, Ayce said:

I have the old GROM & ROM files and tried to put them in the mods folder, but it didn't work.  

 

These are PC99 files, as hinted above. PC99 files are similar to GRAMKracker files in that they add a little 6 byte header, where we're pretty much standardized on no header at all. Classic99 doesn't attempt to auto-load these as I never had many of them to worry about, but it is aware enough to strip the header. Unfortunately the rest is up to you. You have two options for Classic99:

 

First is to create a Classic99.ini entry for each module. This describes whether is it ROM or GROM and where to load it, as well as assigns a name.

 

Second is a renaming exercise. But this requires you to identify each file. The ROM files are simple enough, rename to "xxxxxC.BIN" (for CPU memory), and GRM files begin as "xxxxG.BIN". But you have to make sure the rest of the name is the same for all files associated with the same cartridge, and this auto-load only works if all the GROM files are combined into a single image, which in this case would mean padding and concatenating.

 

So while the data in these modules is certainly compatible, unless you have something not already out in the community it might be easier to just go out and grab files already set up. https://ftp.whtech.com/ is the main repository - though it's not well sorted pretty much everything from the old days (at least!) is in there somewhere. SITELIST.TXT is searchable (though looks like it hasn't been updated since September). The naming convention here is borrowed from V9T9, so you can start there. The old MESS used to support the naming convention as well (but it was replaced with RPK and then raw BIN files with metadata embedded in the emulator). The raw files can be used with Classic99, and RPK can be unzipped in a ZIP application (I mean to add support someday).

 

You can also check out the Gamebase collection https://forums.atariage.com/topic/349217-ti-994a-gamebase/#comment-5223672

 

Or GameShelf - http://tigameshelf.net/

 

If you have files with the correct naming scheme (look for xxxC.BIN, xxxxG.BIN, xxxx8.BIN or xxxx9.BIN), you can add them permanently to the INI file, or just drag and drop one of the files onto the window to load it. If they don't have that scheme, manually adding to the INI is the only way.

 

[Tursi]

As for what you were looking for...

 

ADVENTURE is built into Classic99 with Scott Adam's permission and contains, as far as I know, all his released titles.

 

And Moon Patrol I'll not only drop, I'll drop you two versions

 

MoonPatrol.zipMoonPatrolMusicHack.zip

[Ayce]

Well, thx so much, that was quite a mouthful......................

 

So, let's slow down as to as much of this is over my head..............

 

With regard to files I submitted, I can't be sure which files are which games (the files names aren't that obvious), and I don't know how to combine them into one image.

 

That said, I had a look at the whtech.com site and downloaded a number of them.

 

Soooooo, where to put them in the classic99 folder?  Or do I need to alter the .ini file (I've edited ini files before, but it is not obvious to me where I should enter new games in the ini file).

 

Also, the window in CS1 post, I can't see how to launch it in classic99, I do I?

 

May you can walk me through "installing" Moon Patrol in classic99, I should be able to figure the rest out from there.

 

Thank you so much.

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

7 hours ago, Ayce said:

Soooooo, where to put them in the classic99 folder?

It winds up being arbitrary if the files are named following the naming convention.  You can have them in the MODS folder, then in Classic99 click on Cartridge > User > Open...  Then browse to the MODS folder, or wherever you saved the files, and voila.

 

Modifying the ini file is really only necessary if you want the cartridge to have a menu entry, or if the cart has some kind of configuration requirement (for instance, I have an ini entry for Extended BASIC which effectively disables the 32k expansion.)

7 hours ago, Ayce said:

(I've edited ini files before, but it is not obvious to me where I should enter new games in the ini file)

Page 46 of the manual describes the classic99.ini file.  Follow the details for "[UserCart0]" at the top of page 51.  You can use cartridge groups, if you want to get fancy, starting at the bottom of page 50.

 

Here are my ini entries for a few of my cartridges:

[usercart0] 
; *** 4A Flyer - Works 
name="4A Flyer" 
rom0=C|6000|2000|MODS\4aflyerc.bin 
rom1=X|6000|2000|MODS\4aflyerd.bin 
message="Won't work on 99/4 or v2.2"
[usercart1] 
; *** JunkmanJr. 
name="Junkman Jr." 
rom0=C|6000|4000|MODS\junkmanc.bin 
rom1=X|6000|4000|MODS\junkmand.bin
[usercart2] 
; *** Super XB - works 
name="Super XB" 
rom0=G|6000|A000|MODS\SXBg.BIN 
rom1=C|6000|2000|MODS\SXBc.BIN 
rom2=X|6000|2000|MODS\SXBd.BIN
[usercart3] 
; *** The Attack - works 
name="The Attack" 
rom0=G|6000|2000|mods\attackg.bin
[usercart4] 
; *** Blasto - works 
name="Blasto" 
rom0=G|6000|2000|mods\blastog.bin
[usercart5] 
; *** Midnight Mason - works
name="Midnight Mason" 
rom0=C|6000|2000|MODS\Midnight_MasonC.bin
[usercart6] 
; *** Munch Mobile - works 
name="Munch Mobile" 
rom0=C|6000|2000|mods\Munch_Mobilec.bin 
rom1=G|6000|6000|mods\Munch_Mobileg.bin

 

Something else you can try is to drag and drop the cartridge binary onto the Classic99 window.  If it is compatible and recognized, it will run.

[Tursi]

20 hours ago, Ayce said:

With regard to files I submitted, I can't be sure which files are which games (the files names aren't that obvious), and I don't know how to combine them into one image.

This is one of the biggest reasons why PC99 files aren't more popular today. Nobody really cares what the TI part number was, they want to know what the title was.

 

Explaining how to combine the files is not trivial, and requires editing them at a binary level. Not something we can quickly describe.

 

20 hours ago, Ayce said:

That said, I had a look at the whtech.com site and downloaded a number of them.

 

Soooooo, where to put them in the classic99 folder?  Or do I need to alter the .ini file (I've edited ini files before, but it is not obvious to me where I should enter new games in the ini file).

I wouldn't bother, if I was you. I would just use Cartridge->User->Open, or drag and drop one of the files onto the window. It's faster and simpler, and the emulator still remembers the last 10 ROMs so you don't have to search for them again.

 

As CS1 notes, the manual explains the INI in detail. But I'm the creator and even I don't bother with it much anymore.

 

20 hours ago, Ayce said:

May you can walk me through "installing" Moon Patrol in classic99, I should be able to figure the rest out from there.

Don't worry about installing it. Classic99 is not meant as an easy-to-use game emulator. It's meant as a development tool. So it doesn't create lists of your ROMs or anything like that. But it still makes the basic stuff easy enough.

 

Just unzip the zip file anywhere you like. The Classic99/Mods folder is convenient, but it's not special. After extracting the files, you'll see MoonPatC.BIN and MoonPatD.BIN (or MoonPatrol8.bin for the music hack version). Just choose one of the files, and drag it over to the Classic99 window. The emulator will reboot (asking if you are sure if it was already in use), and you're done.

 

[Ayce]

Got it, thx.  These instructions should be sufficient.  Be back later if I need anything else.  

 

Neway, having a blast reliving my high school days playing ToD.  Thx again!  

[Ayce]

BTW, just out of curiosity.  Why is Ti99 emulation so popular.  I became compute literate at at time when there was IBM & Macs, Ti99 commodore64 and other systems were things of the past by the mid 90s.  I don't see a lot of other systems from the 80s & 70s being emulated as much so as the Ti99.  Again, just curious.

[+OLD CS1]

26 minutes ago, Ayce said:

Why is Ti99 emulation so popular.

Simplicity.  Portability.  Ease of maintenance.  Ease of development.  Ability to use whatever hardware you want without having to hunt it down.  Just off the top my my head.  Pretty much the same with emulating any other system.

 

Classic99 is a fully-loaded system, with speech, extended memory, and disk drives.  With MAME you can have a fully-loaded PEB with any selection of hardware you want, even run as a Geneve.  Not to mention, the developers of several supported emulators (including one for the Nintendo DS) are available right here and always happy and willing to help out.

26 minutes ago, Ayce said:

I don't see a lot of other systems from the 80s & 70s being emulated as much so as the Ti99.

I dunno about that.  The entire fleet of Commodores is emulated by Vice, the Amiga is emulated by UAE or Amiga Forever (essentially UAE with licensed Kickstart ROMs and preset configurations.)  Pretty much any system I grew up with is emulated these days by their own excellent emulators or in MAME: Apples, Macs, Atari ST, Atari 8-bit, Atari game systems, NES, Genesis, you name it.

[+helocast]

On 1/6/2024 at 3:20 PM, OLD CS1 said:

You should check out the Classic99 thread and read its documentation.  Also, CaDD still sells their PC99 emulator, so I have removed that from your post.

 

 

I went looking to purchase and download this suite after your post, having finally saved up enough to buy it.

Unfortunately, the 2 GB package doesn't download more than ~500 MB, creates an empty .zip, and terminates.

Contacted the seller via the 'contact' button TWICE and still no reply.

[+OLD CS1]

10 minutes ago, helocast said:

I went looking to purchase and download this suite after your post, having finally saved up enough to buy it.

Unfortunately, the 2 GB package doesn't download more than ~500 MB, creates an empty .zip, and terminates.

Contacted the seller via the 'contact' button TWICE and still no reply.

I am more surprised because, up until apparently about twenty minutes ago, the only way to purchase was by check.