Front-end for M4 board in ROM

[Swainy]

Ok, it's not the SD card after all. Although it is sort of SD card related. My M4 board doesn't read the card when I first switch it on unless I hit the M4 reset button. Is that normal? I haven't used it in a while but I did update the firmware yesterday.

[Swainy]

Hi everyone, I got my M4 back from Duke as I had to send it back for repair as the SD card was not always working. Anyway, it's back and it's now working fine, I've installed the front end and again that too is mainly working great, especially when using compact images from http://cngsoft.no-ip.org/


However, I'm trying to load the 128k version of Double Dragon, it loads the trainer fine and then tries to load from Disc A.



I'm still not sure that the M4 rom that I've got is the correct file. Where exactly are you guys getting that file from?


Thanks in advance.

[VincentGR]

http://cpccrackers.free.fr/Downloads/

Search "Double Dragon".. version from le Famous Cach seems to run fine on M4, didnt try the others.

From DUKE

[abalore]

Hi everyone, I got my M4 back from Duke as I had to send it back for repair as the SD card was not always working. Anyway, it's back and it's now working fine, I've installed the front end and again that too is mainly working great, especially when using compact images from http://cngsoft.no-ip.org/


However, I'm trying to load the 128k version of Double Dragon, it loads the trainer fine and then tries to load from Disc A.



I'm still not sure that the M4 rom that I've got is the correct file. Where exactly are you guys getting that file from?


Thanks in advance.

There are games that access directly to disc hardware instead of using the firmware calls, so the M4 hooks don't work with them. What I do in those cases is to write the games to disc using the included M4FE feature, and then play them from disc.

[Swainy]

Thanks guys but where do I find the M4 rom?

[VincentGR]

Ignore my edited post...


The M4 rom is automounted at slot 6

[Swainy]

Ok, only mine doesn't say that it's mounted? I guess that's normal?

[VincentGR]

Yes, I think I named it back then.

[Duke]

However, I'm trying to load the 128k version of Double Dragon, it loads the trainer fine and then tries to load from Disc A.

Are you using the modified lowerrom? -Otherwise this is a message you will often see when the discrom is re-initialized.
You can try this installer to setup the modified lowerrom:
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/technical-support/the-compatibility-of-the-m4-card/msg179713/#msg179713

I'm still not sure that the M4 rom that I've got is the correct file. Where exactly are you guys getting that file from?

No where. The M4 rom file is embedded into the M4 board.
The slot which the M4 is set to (ie. 6) is occuppied by M4. However you can still upload a rom to that slot. It will not show, unless you do |M4ROMOFF

[Swainy]

Ok, I've now put that version of the lower rom into slot 31 and Double Dragon (the Cache version) is still trying to load from disc. Where should I be downloading the Amsdos rom from?

[Swainy]

Right, started from scratch and everything is now working!. Thanks guys!!!

[xesrjb]

Here is the latest version with compatibility improvements.

I will try...


xesrjb

[CraigsBar]

OK I have been using this (V2.0.2) for a long time now and I love it. The dsk to Disc option is amazing


But @abalore are you still developing this ROM and (hopeffully) taking feature Requests?


I'd love to see support for the CPR files (Plus Cartridge Images) so that a CPR file could be flashed and launched straight from the M4FE interface.
Also a minotr touch, How about a clock taking it's time from the M4 clock in the top right corner of the screen?


Thanks


Craig

[abalore]

New M4FE version 2.0.3 which fixes a problem loading SNA files with name lengths other than 8.

[opticpow]

Hi All,


I'm trying to install this and every time I add the rom to my M4, when I restart I get a black screen. The only way to recover seems to be to remove the rom files from the /m4 directory on my SD card.


I've tried with & without the Modified LowerROM, and tried M4FE in a number of different ROM slots. I'm using a 6128 with the M4 in slot 6.


Wayne.

[abalore]

Hi All,


I'm trying to install this and every time I add the rom to my M4, when I restart I get a black screen. The only way to recover seems to be to remove the rom files from the /m4 directory on my SD card.


I've tried with & without the Modified LowerROM, and tried M4FE in a number of different ROM slots. I'm using a 6128 with the M4 in slot 6.


Wayne.

Silly question: did you decompress the file?

[GUNHED]

How to check for ROM integrity?
- See it the ROM works with an emulator, if not: Download it again!


The ROM is 12 KB, so it lacks the checksum at &FFFF, some installer-software may have problems with that.
The ROM has no header, same issue.


If the WEB interface doesn't work, use ROManager 2.37.


Also: pick the right ROM number (don't overwrite 0, 7, slot-of-M4-ROM).


Good luck!!!

[opticpow]

Hi Guys,


So I tired the rom on WinApe, and it loads fine. So I don't think there is anything wrong with the ROM.
I'm uploading the ROM via the web interface on the M4. I've tried both a 6128 & a 464 with the same result. ROM uploads fine, but when I reset the M4, I get the black screen.
Another thing I've tried is to upload the ROM on the CPC side using

Code Select Expand

|romup,"M4FEv203.rom",5 then when I issue

Code Select Expand

|romupd the CPC eventually returns to the prompt. However when running a |m4help, I get a strange character instead of the ROM name, and when I reset the M4, I don't the get banner from the M4FE ROM
It's a bit of a strange one!


Thanks, Wayne.

[abalore]

Hi Guys,


So I tired the rom on WinApe, and it loads fine. So I don't think there is anything wrong with the ROM.
I'm uploading the ROM via the web interface on the M4. I've tried both a 6128 & a 464 with the same result. ROM uploads fine, but when I reset the M4, I get the black screen.
Another thing I've tried is to upload the ROM on the CPC side using

Code Select Expand

|romup,"M4FEv203.rom",5 then when I issue

Code Select Expand

|romupd the CPC eventually returns to the prompt. However when running a |m4help, I get a strange character instead of the ROM name, and when I reset the M4, I don't the get banner from the M4FE ROM
It's a bit of a strange one!


Thanks, Wayne.

Could you record a video of what you do? Maybe there is a minimal detail unnoticed.

[abalore]

Hi Guys,


So I tired the rom on WinApe, and it loads fine. So I don't think there is anything wrong with the ROM.
I'm uploading the ROM via the web interface on the M4. I've tried both a 6128 & a 464 with the same result. ROM uploads fine, but when I reset the M4, I get the black screen.
Another thing I've tried is to upload the ROM on the CPC side using

Code Select Expand

|romup,"M4FEv203.rom",5 then when I issue

Code Select Expand

|romupd the CPC eventually returns to the prompt. However when running a |m4help, I get a strange character instead of the ROM name, and when I reset the M4, I don't the get banner from the M4FE ROM
It's a bit of a strange one!


Thanks, Wayne.

And let me insist, are you sure you are not trying to load the ZIP file? because the emulator will correctly load it but not the M4.


One last thing you can try is to update the M4 to the latest firmware if already didn't: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/M4_Board

[Redbug]

Hi Abalore,
Do you have tested it with CPCemu and it's m4 support ?
I could enter in a disk but running a file doesn't work. I always have 'file not found'

[abalore]

Hi Abalore,
Do you have tested it with CPCemu and it's m4 support ?
I could enter in a disk but running a file doesn't work. I always have 'file not found'

Hello, I tried, but I don't know how to load ROM files into CPCemu (Linux version).

[Redbug]

Copy the m4fev203.rom file in the .cpcemu/rom folder

And in CPCemu.cfg:

Code Select Expand

ROM_BLOCK = 6, "M4.ROM", 0
ROM_BLOCK = 11, "M4FEv203.rom", 0

First line is already there

[abalore]

Copy the m4fev203.rom file in the .cpcemu/rom folder

And in CPCemu.cfg:

Code Select Expand

ROM_BLOCK = 6, "M4.ROM", 0
ROM_BLOCK = 11, "M4FEv203.rom", 0

First line is already there

It seems a problem with file names shorter than 8 characters. But if it works with the real hardware, I can't do anything about it.

[GUNHED]

... But if it works with the real hardware...

That's all that counts.    And yes, same here.