Recent posts

#91

Emulators / Re: ACE for Linux,Mac, Windows...

Last post by roudoudou - 22:12, 11 May 24

OUT &3DFF,X in CRTC3,4 should not set PAL.

this subject is under investigation since a few weeks because with age some strange things may happen on all CRTC
this is PROBABLY due to Z80 internal resistance which decreases over time (like AY)
then the CRTC can overtake the databus
an emulation option may appear in the future (anyway, as this "trick" cannot work on all CPC, it should be avoided)

#92

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Other Video Cards

Last post by robcfg - 21:20, 11 May 24

I'd love just to have mode 1 with 16 colours...

#93

Amstrad CPC hardware / Re: Other Video Cards

Last post by zhulien - 21:02, 11 May 24

Is the Zeal VGA card reasonable for a CPC if an adapter was made? An adapter would need to be in some ways similar to a memory expansion to service banking into the CPC.

https://zeal8bit.com/getting-started-zvb/
https://zeal8bit.com/docs/video_port/#overview

#94

Amstrad CPC hardware / Other Video Cards

Last post by zhulien - 20:58, 11 May 24

Discussion to group video card alternatives...

#95

Applications (CPC and CPC-related) / Re: HDCPM - boot and run CP/M ...

Last post by d_kef - 20:56, 11 May 24

I use WinAPE for developing HDCPM, so I also use it for building the distribution DSK file.
It has a nice DSK editor. You can use it to insert or extract files to/from a DSK image.

d_kef

#96

Applications (CPC and CPC-related) / Re: HDCPM - boot and run CP/M ...

Last post by pollito - 20:37, 11 May 24

@d_kef I have just swapped out the 1.10 ROM with the 1.11 ROM on my 464 (same config as before) but it just causes the machine to reset over and over again on power up before loading the new ROM. Any ideas?

EDIT: To clarify, I used CP/M Image File Explorer (image type cpcdata) to open Hdcpm111.dsk, then copied the hdcpm.rom file to my hard drive, and replaced the existing HDCPM ROM in the M4 slot with the new one. Maybe the file didn't copy correctly (although I did try again)? Is there a checksum I can compare it against?

Maybe it would be a good idea to put the ROM file itself on the download page, as I think this would be easier for many people.

Just tested the ROM and BIN with my 464, M4 and revaldinho's Universal 512K RAM.
It works without any restarts or any other strange behaviour.
The ROM itself does a checksum test during boot (since v1.10), so it will display an error message in case of data corruption.

Anyway I'm attaching the ROM here just in case.

d_kef

I used the version you attached, and everything is now good, so many thanks! Something must be happening when I extract the ROM from the DSK image.

What is the correct process for extracting the ROM from the DSK image on the CPC itself? I tried the |COPYF and |FCP to copy it to the root of the SD card but, failed with both, and SymbOS doesn't seem to be able to mount DSK images.

#97

Emulators / Re: ACE for Linux,Mac, Windows...

Last post by McArti0 - 20:19, 11 May 24

OUT &3DFF,X in CRTC3,4 should not set PAL.

#98

Emulators / Re: ACE for Linux,Mac, Windows...

Last post by roudoudou - 19:15, 11 May 24

thanks to Syx for testing/suggestions, new US keyboard mapping

found out how to deal with Linux compilation trouble with old CPU, should work on almost any very old machines (mail me if you want a 486DX version )

http://www.roudoudou.com/ACE-DL/

Code Select Expand

- little changes in Amstrad Plus monitor geometry
- added screen contours (Monitor>Plastic Cover)
- added US keyboard mapping
- keyboard mapping can be used in GUI (see new options in Configuration>Keyboard)
- bugfix some memory leaks
- bugfix FDC result persistence after Seek
- bugfix Green and Grey palette generation
- bugfix export of file >16K with floppy manager
- bugfix FDC timeout bug emulation, causing timeout on perfect writes...


#99

Applications (CPC and CPC-related) / Re: HDCPM - boot and run CP/M ...

Last post by d_kef - 17:08, 11 May 24

Interesting! I don't know, but has been CP/M prepared in the past for such kind of things (mounting activities) or did you change something?

CP/M Plus natively supports devices up to 16 MB. In addition it's the only native CPC OS which allows to use the full power of the Z80 - means use 2nd register set. This can speed up applications up to 30%-40% compared to a Z80 which does waste the 2nd register set for f.e. interrupt handling like the native OS (you see, they worked on 8080 before). Since CP/M 2.2 is using the Firmware as BIOS it also doesn't allow to use the genius 2nd register set sadly.

I was thinking more about "mounting" a device during runtime. I understand that a floppy or drive will be recognized and mounted by CP/M during the boot process, but it seems that is also possible after that process; some kind of "hot-plug-in". Tables / internal device lists have to be adapted... ? (It's obviously that I don't understand the CP/M system architecture )

You can change a disk as long as the DPB of the new one is the same to the old one.
In that case the partition or image is treated exactly like a floppy disc.
CP/M Plus can tell if the disk is fixed or removable by examining the CKS property of the DPB and re-initializes the directory allocation table etc. after the disk change.
The trick with the MOUNT.COM is that you can mount a new image (or partition) only if the mount point has been initialized/used during boot time. So if you mount CPMDSK01.IMG and CPMDSK03.IMG during boot, then you can only use mount points 1 and 3 with MOUNT.COM

d_kef

#100

M

Other retro / Re: C64 Nightmares Kickstarter

Last post by merman - 17:00, 11 May 24

48 hours to go and we've hit £20,000