Amstrad CPC WiFi

[Maniac]

Just for info with the cart emulation my motherboard is a MC0122C in a 6128 Plus.

[Duke]

Both my 464 Plus & 6128 Plus happen to have the same revision mainboard - MC0122E

Just for info with the cart emulation my motherboard is a MC0122C in a 6128 Plus.

Thanks guys, there goes my motherboard theory
Here is a new beta, with cart loading tied to reset, hopefully it works better, a small issue was fixed too, so now "plotting" game also works for me:
http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/M4FIRM_v204b5.zip 

A small basic program to quickly upload and test the carts (be aware it uses autoexec.bas, so backup existing or rename it).
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=05169518012522975507

Sorry no other fixes or addition for now...

[Duke]

OFFTOPIC

Some pictures of my next board, just finished assembling the first prototype.

galaxy2.jpg
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galaxy4.jpg
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 [ Invalid Attachment ]
Fitted in the console, and the case closes fine

Now if only I had some more time...

[MissionComplete]

Is it possible to make directories on floppy disks? I tried with |mkdir, but I couldn't. Even if you use the command "|disc" and the current drive is floppy a: or b:, "|mkdir" always makes the directory in the sd card. If this is not possible now, I think it would be nice and usefull in the future 


Another question about manage files between SD and FD, if you let me. I noted that the command "|FCP" doesn't work with files which has names with more than 8 characters, like "exampl~1.dsk". It is necessary rename the file to be able to copy it.


Thank you for your work!

[CraigsBar]

Galaxy board? M4 for a gx4000?

Sent from my ONEPLUS 3t using Tapatalk

[Duke]

Is it possible to make directories on floppy disks? I tried with |mkdir, but I couldn't. Even if you use the command "|disc" and the current drive is floppy a: or b:, "|mkdir" always makes the directory in the sd card. If this is not possible now, I think it would be nice and usefull in the future 

It is not possible for discs, M4 rom does not contain any disc specific functions, all that is re-directed to amsdos/parados. If you want to do this you need to find a rom which supports ms-dos (or whatever) disk format, if this exists. It's beyond the scope of M4 rom that only provides functions for microSD & WiFi.

Another question about manage files between SD and FD, if you let me. I noted that the command "|FCP" doesn't work with files which has names with more than 8 characters, like "exampl~1.dsk". It is necessary rename the file to be able to copy it.

I see. Probably it would be best to simply drag and drop these files via the Web interface, again because I don't add support for other disc formats from floppy.

Galaxy board? M4 for a gx4000?

Yes, M4 + wireless usb keyboard/mouse + ram expansion and more (If I ever finish it). Of course it's not limited to GX4000.

[ASiC]

Yes, M4 + wireless usb keyboard/mouse + ram expansion and more (If I ever finish it). Of course it's not limited to GX4000.

Will it be possible to add support for USB game controllers please?

[Querubin]

Hi Duke,


Having the board for a few months now.


One question. It would be possible to implement keyboard shortcuts on the ROM to have fast load/save savestates?.


It would be refall in love again with the CPC because I am a bad gamer.

[Duke]

Will it be possible to add support for USB game controllers please?

It'd be possible yes, but probably at the cost of no usb keyboard/mouse (logitech unified, unless they do one that supports a controller aswell).

One question. It would be possible to implement keyboard shortcuts on the ROM to have fast load/save savestates?.

You mean like on the fly snapshots, like multiface 2 and the like. It's not easily possible I am afraid, I did do some work on it long time ago, but had some issues with issuing the NMI. Maybe sometime in the future, I'll pick up on it again

 

[CraigsBar]

Yes, M4 + wireless usb keyboard/mouse + ram expansion and more (If I ever finish it). Of course it's not limited to GX4000.

Oh wow. I will certainly want some of these.

2 cpcs
2 plus machines
Gx4000
Justcpc

I guess that will be 3 or 4 at least. Even if the cpc ones don't use the the USB keyboard the Gx4000 and justCPC ones will.


Sent from my ONEPLUS 3t using Tapatalk

[keith56]

Yes, M4 + wireless usb keyboard/mouse + ram expansion and more (If I ever finish it). Of course it's not limited to GX4000.

I'm all for anything that upgrades the GX4000 into a full CPC! I'm not keen on rewriting my games to support carts - and developing for 64k systems is painful!

[GUNHED]

So true, 64 KB suxx. 512 KB rulez!

[Querubin]

Maybe sometime in the future, I'll pick up on it again

Yes, save or load snapshots.

Thanks for your reply.

[00WReX]

Thanks guys, there goes my motherboard theory
Here is a new beta, with cart loading tied to reset, hopefully it works better, a small issue was fixed too, so now "plotting" game also works for me:
http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/M4FIRM_v204b5.zip 

A small basic program to quickly upload and test the carts (be aware it uses autoexec.bas, so backup existing or rename it).
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=05169518012522975507

Sorry no other fixes or addition for now...

Hi Duke,
Well this is really interesting. Today I got out the 6128Plus (the one I've had the main issues with) and loaded (firstly) 'Plotting' as that was the fix you mentioned. It worked fine.
So then I tested the games I had previously had issues with, and they all worked...
World Of Sports, was the only one that initially did not work, but on retrying it, it did work. Tried them all a second time...all good.
I would be interested in what 'Maniacs' tests would be like on this new M4 fw.
Is it possible the fix for 'Plotting' has helped ? 

Cheers,
Shane


And just to confirm. I upgraded to beta5 before these tests.

[Duke]

Hi Duke,
Well this is really interesting. Today I got out the 6128Plus (the one I've had the main issues with) and loaded (firstly) 'Plotting' as that was the fix you mentioned. It worked fine.
So then I tested the games I had previously had issues with, and they all worked...
World Of Sports, was the only one that initially did not work, but on retrying it, it did work. Tried them all a second time...all good.
I would be interested in what 'Maniacs' tests would be like on this new M4 fw.
Is it possible the fix for 'Plotting' has helped ? 

Cheers,
Shane


And just to confirm. I upgraded to beta5 before these tests.

Great, thanks for testing.
I think what helped was the sync'ing to reset, so instead of enabling the cart lower rom, clearing ram and jumping to 0x0. A hardware reset is performed and starting the cart, as "lowerrom" from the cart is forcefullly mapped at 0-3FFF. Also for plotting iirc. it was expecting to see physical cart rom 1 at logical rom 1 (so it would be mapped to all logical roms, kinda like basic rom is on cpc, when no other roms are overwriting it).

Good news, hopefully others have similar results. Other fun thing, is I managed to start Barbarian 2 cart on my regular cpc6128, I suppose it uses no plus feats at all

[Maniac]

Great, thanks for testing.
I think what helped was the sync'ing to reset, so instead of enabling the cart lower rom, clearing ram and jumping to 0x0. A hardware reset is performed and starting the cart, as "lowerrom" from the cart is forcefullly mapped at 0-3FFF. Also for plotting iirc. it was expecting to see physical cart rom 1 at logical rom 1 (so it would be mapped to all logical roms, kinda like basic rom is on cpc, when no other roms are overwriting it).

Good news, hopefully others have similar results. Other fun thing, is I managed to start Barbarian 2 cart on my regular cpc6128, I suppose it uses no plus feats at all

I'll try to give this a go at some point but times limited this weekend! Report coming soon...

[00WReX]

Awesome. Thanks Duke.
Also, with all the success I got adventurous  and ran the 'barbar' demo that I copied  from the C4CPC to the M4.
This is a 256kb .cpr file.  It also worked perfectly. 


Cheers,
Shane

[Maniac]

Great, thanks for testing.
I think what helped was the sync'ing to reset, so instead of enabling the cart lower rom, clearing ram and jumping to 0x0. A hardware reset is performed and starting the cart, as "lowerrom" from the cart is forcefullly mapped at 0-3FFF. Also for plotting iirc. it was expecting to see physical cart rom 1 at logical rom 1 (so it would be mapped to all logical roms, kinda like basic rom is on cpc, when no other roms are overwriting it).

Good news, hopefully others have similar results. Other fun thing, is I managed to start Barbarian 2 cart on my regular cpc6128, I suppose it uses no plus feats at all

Sorry to say that things for me are worse with Beta 5 of this firmware.


Robocop II - Crashes at the title screen - no longer able to get to the game
Navy Seals - starts and displays
Pang - screen goes black and nothing further happens
Switchblade - works
Crazy Cars II - Gfx corrupt on title screens and when games starts it crashes
Fire & Forget II - Gfx corrupt on title screen and then goes blank
Tennis Cup II - seems ok but I can't play it
Panza Kick Boxing - some gfx seem corrupt/out of place
Copter 271 - starts to display Loricels logo but crashes
Klax - works
Dick Tracy - Title screen and music displayed by when select Music/Fx Sound it crashes
World of Sports - Shows a black screen
Operation Thunderbolt - Shows a black screen
No Exit - Title screen and menu work but then shows a black screen and stops
Pro Tennis Tour - no longer works
Tin Tin On The Moon - Intro sequence works but with corrupt gfx and now games seems to work
Batman The Movie - title screen shows but then goes to a black screen and stops
Mystical - Starts but then crashes when starting game
Burnin Rubber - Starts but then goes to a black screen and stops
Plotting - Starts and displays title screens but when try to start game crashes
Pinball Magic - Starts but you can't play as ball drops out everytime


If I quickly switch off and back on again with power switch some games like World of Sports start but crash soon after.

[00WReX]

Hmm, interesting, I did not think of re-testing on my 464Plus as they previously worked on that...but maybe I should give it a go on that again to see if anything has changed.

Cheers,
Shane

[CraigsBar]

Upgraded to b5 and definitely better results. Tested pang. Loads but crashes when starting a game. Navy seals work sometimes and sometimes not. Robocop2 works fine everytime switchblade no joy I'm afraid.


All carts downloaded from WWW.GX4000.CO.UK

[Duke]

@Maniac & @CraigsBar
Thanks for testing again.
Beats me what is wrong, I think I will leave this feature for now, until I sometime can pick up another CPC+ and hopefully have similar issues myself.

[arnoldemu]

@Maniac & @CraigsBar
Thanks for testing again.
Beats me what is wrong, I think I will leave this feature for now, until I sometime can pick up another CPC+ and hopefully have similar issues myself.

Now that I have a M4 I'll see if I can find the problem through some test programs.

@Duke ran my rmr2 test and it passed, so I'll try more testing and see if I can find it.

[Duke]

Now that I have a M4 I'll see if I can find the problem through some test programs.

@Duke ran my rmr2 test and it passed, so I'll try more testing and see if I can find it.

Cool, thanks. Yes the test passed for me, but it may not pass for those that have problems, for me every plus game works perfectly, so hopefully you have a CPC+ where some games fail

[00WReX]

Phew, just tested all games again on my 464Plus.
All worked with the occasional lockup on loading.  Retrying worked on those.
The only issue observed was that the 'OCEAN' logo on the initial screen for 'Navy Seals' gets corrupted, although everything else loads and the game seems OK.
I tried re-loading this a number of times with the same result.

Another pair of eyes looking into is cool, as this is a really nice addition to the M4 board. 

So with FW2.0.4beta5  tested on both my 464 & 6128 Plus, I have almost a 100% success rate, with the odd glitch.

Cheers,
Shane

[CraigsBar]

Phew, just tested all games again on my 464Plus.
All worked with the occasional lockup on loading.  Retrying worked on those.
The only issue observed was that the 'OCEAN' logo on the initial screen for 'Navy Seals' gets corrupted, although everything else loads and the game seems OK.
I tried re-loading this a number of times with the same result.

Another pair of eyes looking into is cool, as this is a really nice addition to the M4 board. 

So with FW2.0.4beta5  tested on both my 464 & 6128 Plus, I have almost a 100% success rate, with the odd glitch.

Cheers,
Shane

One question... What's your setup.... Ram expansion? C4cpc? M4 roms etc....

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