ShakerLand Portal

[Longshot]

Hello All

The 1.3 version of the compendium is now available here:
http://logonsystem.fr/html/engdownloadlogon.htm
English version is beeing checked by Marc.

SHAKER is currently in version 2.2 and is now composed of 3 executable modules (A, B, C).
The objective of SHAKER is to carry out extensive tests on the video circuits of the CPC.

In order to facilitate access to the results of these tests, a portal was created.
https://shaker.logonsystem.fr/



The main objective of this portal is to show the results produced by the tests of the different SHAKER modules on real machines.
(This represents approximately 1500 photos to cover all the tests for the 5 identified CRTCs.)

The data can help people working on emulator development to know the expected results when running SHAKER.
Only the 3 non-asic CRTCs are currently processed (0,1,2).

The portal also allows you to compare the results produced by some emulators with those of real machines.
The featured emulators are:
    AMSPIRIT, Version 0.687
    WINAPE, Version 2.0 Beta 3
    ACE, Version 1.22
    CPCEC, Version 2022-08-06

Thanks to
Siko for the portal.
Ced for the graphics.
Tronic for the hosting server.
Marc for compendium english checking.

DManu for the considerable work he provided on his emulator.
He has released a new version of Amspirit (0.704b):
https://forum.system-cfg.com/viewtopic.php?t=11535

[Longshot]

In addition to the SHAKER emulation tests, I post the DSK of a protection that I had written in 1989, and which crashed on certain CPCs. No emulator before Amspirit had managed to make it work.

If the protection works, it launches the REVOLOG demo.

The analysis of this problem has shown that the interrupt system on CPC is not reliable between 2 machines.
As a reference, chapter 25.7.2 of compendium 1.3 describes the analysis of this subject.
(English version will be online soon)

[Longshot]

Hey @Optimus.

Thank you for this video, which I have just discovered, which presents my work :

I too am not an expert in taking screenshots.

This is why there are some tests on the portal for which there are additional zoom screens (test B7 for example).

[Longshot]

The English version of the compendium 1.3 is available here:
http://logonsystem.fr/down/ACCC1.3-EN.pdf
Many thanks to Marc for his remarkable work.

[slingshot]

Seems the website is down
Is there any link to the English version?

[poulette73]

Hello,

You can try these links :

http://logon.system.free.fr/down/ACCC1.6-FR.pdf

http://logon.system.free.fr/down/ACCC1.6-EN.pdf

[Longshot]

Version 1.7 of the Compendium (French+English) and SHAKER 2.5 are now available here:
https://shaker.logonsystem.eu/

SHAKER is now composed of 4 executable modules (A, B, C, D).
As a reminder, the objective of SHAKER is to carry out extensive tests on the video circuits of the CPC.

On the ShakerLand portal, two new standards are presented.

SSM for screenshot management
This standard allows a program written in Z80A to ask the emulator to generate screenshots (or snapshots).

CSL for CPC Script Language
This is a new type of ASCII file format containing instructions that an emulator can interpret.
The instructions make it possible to replace the user with commands in order to control the emulation.
It is possible to insert a floppy disk, to reset the CPC, to change CRTC, to simulate keyboard input or to define different delays (in emulated µseconds).
It is also possible to override the standard name of a screenshot (or a snapshot) and generate it on demand, or launch another script.

In the context of SHAKER and the SHAKERLAND portal:
CSL files are used to automatically launch the different SHAKER test modules and run all the tests.
CSL files for each module (A, B, C, D) and for each CRTC (0, 1, 2, 3, 4) are available on the portal.

Since version 1.5 of SHAKER, the tests of the different modules generate SSM codes that allow automatic screenshot generation by an emulator.
These screenshots represent those available on the portal from photos taken on the real hardware.
Images are then produced by different emulators at exactly the same time (same µsecond in the frame).

They can also enable us to easily integrate all the images produced by an emulator automatically on the portal.
To this end, a file allows us to establish the correspondence of the 16-bit SSM codes with the images stored in the SHAKERLAND databases.

Non-regression tests on emulators
A common difficulty encountered by several emulator authors during an update concerns non-regression tests.
Indeed, a correction made in the emulation to satisfy the requirements of a particular program can generate side effects on other programs.

In order to simplify the non-regressions management between 2 versions, the following method uses at least one of the two standards, CSL and SSM.

The main method is based on the principle of the automatic screenshot generation by the emulator.
By then comparing the binary screenshots generated with those of a reference file using a script, it is possible to quickly detect any regression.

Thanks to Siko for the portal and Ced for the graphics.
DManu has just released a new version of Amspirit (0.947D), available at https://www.amspirit.fr/
Amspirit is capable of displaying this little intro on CRTC 1, available at https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=95354

Of course, accurate emulation is imperative to do cross dev via an emulator using up-to-date techniques.