Got bored again...

[mahlemiut]

...so I made this.   Had to take a break from working on Cirrus Logic GUI accelerators.

cpcexp: added ROMEN signal, and a function to tell an expansion to se... ·

[robcfg]

Heh, super nice! 

[Gryzor]

Apologies, but what exactly is going on here?

[CraigsBar]

Yay.
Mess running a brunword elite ROM module I assume.

[Gryzor]

Ah, funny that

[TFM]

Hmmm... after taking a short look. Brunword seems to locate ROMs at &4000 and &C000... Well the SF2 can do that too. So a patch is thinkable. 

[CraigsBar]

Hmmm... after taking a short look. Brunword seems to locate ROMs at &4000 and &C000... Well the SF2 can do that too. So a patch is thinkable. 

How about the c4cpc, I'd love a brunword cart in CPR format?

[TFM]

How about the c4cpc, I'd love a brunword cart in CPR format?

The enhanced banking of the Cartridge ROMs (first can be used for that. So yes, the only thing you have to do is to change some ROM numbers in the banking of the Brunword Cartridge.


However, to be able to do this, one needs all the ROM content and their original position (address and I/O). Since I think that installing MESS is a mess - and I gave up, because my time is limited, I guess somebody else can do that. Or is everything already in the Wiki? I will take a look after I did pipet my RT-PCR. 

[mahlemiut]

Well, it happened again...







If you're impatient, it's in the MAME source now, otherwise wait for MAME 0.163 (coming very soon).

To use, add -exp hd20 to the commandline, which will also allow you to add -hard <filename>.

Code Select Expand

mame cpc6128 -exp hd20 -hard1 disk.chd

Only MAME CHDs are supported, you can create a blank hard disk image using chdman.  Geometry is 615/4/17.

Code Select Expand

chdman createhd -o disk.chd -c none -chs 615,4,17
(-c none means no compression, but this is required for MAME to write directly to the CHD image.  If you use compression, then data writes will be written to a separate file)

You can use X-DDOS 2.00 or 2.10 by using -exp hd20,bios=xddos200 or -exp hd20,bios=xddos210.  v2.10 is the default.

EDIT:
http://mahlemiut.marpirc.net/cpc_hd20.avi  -- just a quick demo loading a game from HD.

[TFM]

WoW!!!!!!! The legendary HD20 from Dobbertin!!!!!!!! This is pure awesomeness!!!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!! 


EDIT: Is there an ready to go archive of the emulator?

[Morn]

Yay, it works, after 90 minutes of compiling the latest git version of MAME on my slow-ass Linux PC.   

Strangely enough, chdman does not get installed on Arch Linux automatically but I found it in the build directory.

Nice work, mahlemiut!

I think the next MAME release is this Wednesday, so those who do not want to compile MAME themselves do not have to wait too long...

P.S. I've also updated the MAME ROM zip file on the Wiki to include the HD20 ROMs.

[TFM]

Would be nice to have an installation like for all other Emulators of the CPC on Windoof side. Just start & work with it.

[Morn]

Well, you can get stable release binaries for Windows: MAME | Latest MAME Release

But you will have to wait for 0.163 to get this hard disc feature.

[TFM]

It puts a lot of folders around, but I found nothing to start it.


As worse: No ROMs contained.


So is there a Manual somewhere? I tried that before, without any success. It may be a great emulator, but only PC experts can install or run it I guess.

[Morn]

The wiki page has instructions and a zip file with the CPC ROMs: MAME - CPCWiki

Unpack the ROMs into the roms folder, start cmd.exe, cd into the mame folder and run something like "mame cpc6218" (or mame64 if you have the 64 bit version).

I suppose you could try a GUI frontend, but usually they are better for arcade games. I hope now that MESS is part of MAME that will change and the GUIs will improve.

[Morn]

P.S. And if you manage to start MAME, it will be fullscreen by default. You can exit with "Rollen", then "Escape", or toggle back to windowed mode with Alt-Return.

[mahlemiut]

MAME 0.163 should be out within the next 36 hours, barring any major difficulties.

You can still build MESS, with make SUBTARGET=mess and if you want the tools (chdman and so on), add TOOLS=1 to that commandline.

A new feature in this release is being able to build an executable that runs a single driver.  make SUBTARGET=<driver> DRIVERS=<source file>
May not work in all cases, but this is being worked on, but when it does, it should be much quicker to build.
An example that does work - was able to test the new (and painfully slow) analog drums recently added to the arcade game Kid Niki, built using make SUBTARGET=kidniki DRIVERS=src/mame/drivers/m62.c

[Morn]

Yes, the SUBTARGET stuff came from the JSMESS project originally, didn't it? It's useful to have this in MAME too if you only want to build e.g. a CPC emulator from MAME without everything else.

EDIT: I've tried building the cpc6128 subtarget ("SUBTARGET=cpc6128 DRIVERS=src/mess/drivers/amstrad.c"), but the build process crashes. 

[remax]

The wiki page has instructions and a zip file with the CPC ROMs: MAME - CPCWiki

Unpack the ROMs into the roms folder, start cmd.exe, cd into the mame folder and run something like "mame cpc6218" (or mame64 if you have the 64 bit version).

I suppose you could try a GUI frontend, but usually they are better for arcade games. I hope now that MESS is part of MAME that will change and the GUIs will improve.

QMC2 has it all... for ages!

[Morn]

QMC2 has it all... for ages!

Compared to e.g. JavaCPC or WinAPE, inserting a disk image is too difficult with QMC2. Using the MAME commandline is easier than QMC2 IMO.

[TFM]

OK, if already getting a DSK in is such a problem I guess I give it up.


Maybe some day somebody will make an Archive of that MAME and then is will be usable for a broader range of people and not only super specialists who have hours time for installation (which may or may not succeed). Sorry for sounding a bit disappointed, I'm sure it's a great emulator.


So maybe somebody could put the new version (after it's release in 35 hours) somewhere into the CPC Wiki. Or drop an .ZIP here.

[Morn]

To be fair, you can also start the emulator without a disk image and then use the built-in menu to load a disc (under "File Manager"). This should work well for e.g. CPC games from the software list if the DSK image is in the MAME folder.

But if you want to load a .DSK from somewhere else on your hard drive, it's annoying that the built-in menu defaults to the root directory of your hard drive, so you have to navigate to the correct directory first.

So I use a Python script on Linux that calls MAME, which I run like "cpc somedisk.dsk" in the directory that has my disk image. This cpc script is also registered to handle .dsk files, so I can also just double-click a .dsk file in the file manager and MAME will pop up with the disc inserted.

Code Select Expand

#!/usr/bin/env python

# Starte MAME mit CPC-Emulation

# "cpc"  : emulated keyboard
# "cpcn" : natural

import os
from sys import argv

if 'cpcn' in argv[0]:
    nat = '-natural'
else:
    nat = ''

s = "/usr/share/sdlmame/sdlmame cpc6128 -skip_gameinfo -window %s -keymap -keymap_file /usr/share/sdlmame/keymaps/km-de.txt" % nat

if len(argv) > 1:
    for x in range(1, len(argv)):
        s += ' -flop%u "%s"' % (x, argv[x])
os.system(s)

# .zip Files mit .DSKs koennen als Directory übergeben werden


[TFM]

@Devilmarkus : Can you put the HD20 support in JavaCPC or maybe @Executioner can put it in WinApe?

[Morn]

@Devilmarkus : Can you put the HD20 support in JavaCPC or maybe @Executioner can put it in WinApe?

AFAIK they would need to implement an XT hard disk controller, which already existed in MAME/MESS for PC emulation.

[Morn]

So the simple solution to running MAME on Windows is......... install Linux! You know you really want to! You can even lock out velociraptors with it!