Fiddling with old Time Capsule 1st gen and linux

So I got my hands on an old Apple Time Capsule (1st generation) just to see what it would do.

I wanted to see if it would mount under ubuntu 17.10 with cifs, and the instructions here were pretty useful.

http://blog.martinshouse.com/2014/09/mounting-apple-time-capsule-share-from.html


There was a little snag: It kept giving me Error 112 Host is down.

sudo mount.cifs //1.2.3.4/data -opassword=mypassword,sec=ntlm /mnt/mymountpoint
mount error(112): Host is down


Looking at the dmesg output:
dmesg

[716567.498354] No dialect specified on mount. Default has changed to a more secure dialect, SMB2.1 or later (e.g. SMB3), from CIFS (SMB1). To use the less secure SMB1 dialect to access old servers which do not support SMB3 (or SMB2.1) specify vers=1.0 on mount.
[716567.500002] CIFS VFS: SMB response too short (35 bytes)
[716567.500038] CIFS VFS: cifs_mount failed w/return code = -112


I needed to specify the SMB version as 1.0 for mount.cifs or it wouldn't work.


sudo mount.cifs //1.2.3.4/data -opassword=mypassword,sec=ntlm,vers=1.0 /mnt/mymountpoint



=============================================


and interestingly, smbclient won't display the actual share until you tell it not to use ntlmv2.

It will connect but it won't display the Disk.

smbclient -L //1.2.3.4
WARNING: The "syslog" option is deprecated
Server does not support EXTENDED_SECURITY but 'client use spnego = yes' and 'client ntlmv2 auth = yes' is set
Anonymous login successful
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Apple Base Station] Server=[CIFS 4.32]
Enter WORKGROUP\me's password:

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
IPC$ IPC


But if we give it an option of 'client ntlmv2 auth=no', then we can see it.


smbclient -L //1.2.3.4 --option='client ntlmv2 auth=no' -U example

smbclient -L //1.2.3.4 --option='client ntlmv2 auth=no' -U example
WARNING: The "syslog" option is deprecated
Enter WORKGROUP\example's password:
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Apple Base Station] Server=[CIFS 4.32]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
IPC$ IPC
data Disk


And we can see "data".

Huge mouse cursors with Ubuntu 17.10

I couldn't find my mouse cursor easily, so why not make it as big as possible.

First, get the dconf editor and then go to

org / gnome / desktop / interface

and set the cursor-size to 64.

You can set it to larger than 64 but it doesn't get any bigger than 64. I wish I could make it even bigger.

It takes a little getting used to but it's so much easier to see on my 50" tv screen.


You can do it from the command line too:

dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/interface/cursor-size 24
dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/interface/cursor-size 64


https://askubuntu.com/questions/126491/how-do-i-change-the-cursor-and-its-size

So many tabs and finding the one where you just were

I open a LOT of tabs in firefox. Sometimes it gets confusing to find the tab you were just using. Where is it? Where did it go?

For example, I click on new tab and my new tab opens on the far right of all of my tabs, and the one I was just using scrolls off the visible screen.

It'd be really slick to have a way to find your most recently used tabs, like under the history menu where you've got Recently Closed Tabs menu, just have a Recently Used Tabs menu.

Or a right+click on the List All Tabs button would give you the tabs sorted in order of last use.

Maybe an "about:recent" page.

ALT+TAB will get you to your most recently used window, but CTRL+TAB in firefox goes to the next tab, CTRL+SHIFT+TAB previous tab, not the most recently used tab.


I'm lost in the forest without a trail of breadcrumbs...

===============

A couple of other things that would be useful:

The mini-history in the back button (right click on the back arrow button) only shows you 15 entries, why not give me the option of displaying as many entries as will display on my screen by clicking on a down arrow or something. Scrollable, perhaps.


Also, a quick way to find out which windows are playing videos/sounds would be nice. "About:videos" with maybe an option to stop them all. Or just a menu option "Stop all videos".

================

The latest version of firefox have been auto-repeating my typing when the cpu gets hung up. So I get a lot of exxxxxxxxxxxxxxxtraaaaaaa characters sometimes while typing in the location box.

==================


My latest firefox discovery: The about:about page.

Ti99 game Rock Runner

I was looking at a page about boulder dash and different variants and wondered if there was a boulder dash clone for the ti99.

I read about this ti99 game rock runner which is a boulder dash clone so I had to give it a go.


There's the author's web page at:

http://www.lafortune.eu/rockrunner/index.html

Rock Runner Info

8-way scrolling game for the TI-99/4A.
Goal: collecting diamonds in a 2D world.
Simple physics: gravity, lava, bombs, butterflies,...
Written in TMS-9900 assembler.
Development tools: line-by-line assembler, hex editor, Mini Memory module, tape recorder.
Used a novel undocumented half-bitmap graphics mode of the TMS-9918A Video Display Processor.
Program code fitted in 4K of memory.
Distributed by Asgard Software.

and I was able to find a disk image on the net.

I've never used a ti99 before so it was difficult to get things set up:

Requirements: Editor/Assembler cartridge, 32K RAM, disk drive, joysticks.
Executable to run: ROCK (E/A Option 5)



./mame64 ti99_4a -cart1 editass -rompath 'mame190roms' -window -screen screen1 -resolution 640x480 -verbose -ioport peb -ioport:peb:slot8 hfdc -ioport:peb:slot2 32kmem -flop1 ../../Rockrun.dsk


I finally realized what E/A option 5 means:

Load the editor/assembler by pressing 2:



Press option 5 to load:



Then type DSK1.ROCK and ENTER (I think it needs to be caps-lock uppercase)








It's pretty challenging to finish the first level in the time limit.

Why does firefox keep eating my memory on Ubuntu 17.10?

Yes, I've got a lot of tabs open. But after firefox opens it only loads the frontmost tabs in the window.

So why does it keep gobbling memory. I've got 8GB but it slowly keeps allocating memory as I browse until it gets into the swapfile and beyond. And then my system goes unresponsive.

I sure wish I could get firefox to put a cap on how much memory it uses. Or a menu option to flush all of its buffers or something.

I just have to watch it closely with system-monitor and when it gets too big just close it and reopen it. Often when it makes a huge swapfile, when you close firefox it tells you that it crashed, probably because it took too long to shut itself down.

As much time as I've wasted I think I'll be boosting up my memory.

Ubuntu 17.10 and losing my EDID on a vga splitter

So I got a new 50 inch tv and I thought it'd be great to use it as a monitor. Getting a VGA splitter device allows me to hook up my 24 inch monitor and pipe the output into the TV's VGA input.

It looks great, but after rebooting, I discovered that I had lost the ability to read the monitor's EDID info so ubuntu gives me a 1024x768 display instead of the 1920x1080 display.

After reading a whole bunch of pages with suggestions and tips, here's what worked for me:

First get the read-edid with "sudo apt-get install read-edid"


I read the EDID info with just my original hannsg 24 connected and wrote that to a file.

sudo get-edid -b 1 > hannsg.bin

The -b is the bus number. As I have dual monitors, I had to figure out which bus it was on. One of my missteps was getting the edid for my other monitor (which tops out at 1280x1024) accidentally, hence manually specifying the bus number.

To make sure you've got the right monitor, pipe it to parse-edid:

cat hannsg.bin | parse-edid

and that should tell you that you've got the right monitor.

now you want to copy that file into /lib/firmware/edid

sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/edid
sudo cp hannsg.bin /lib/firwmare/edid/hannsg.bin


now I edit my ubuntu grub booting configuration:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub



There are built-in edid for common resolutions but this will only get you that one specific resolution:
You can try specifying a specific resolution like so:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/1920x1080.bin"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/1920x1080.bin"


I have changed the HIDDEN_TIMEOUT to 5 seconds so I have time to hit esc to get the GRUB menu after a reboot and also so you can edit the command line in grub with "e" (and CTRL+X to edit the grub boot editor). It's pretty useful to have the grub boot editor if you just want to test a specific command line settings without making permanent changes).

===============================

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
#GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin"


========================================

the important lines here are the ones with the drm_kms_helper

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin"


This is what the original section of /etc/default/grub looked like:

==================================================
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

=======================================================

Once you make your edits and save, then

sudo update-grub


So now after boot I get this when I check my dmesg:


dmesg | grep edid
[ 0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-19-generic root=UUID= ro drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/1920x1080.bin drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/1920x1080.bin
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-19-generic root=UUID= ro drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/1920x1080.bin drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/1920x1080.bin
[ 2.521260] [drm] Got built-in EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid/1920x1080.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
[ 34.742536] [drm] Got built-in EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid/1920x1080.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
[ 57.856240] [drm] Got built-in EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid/1920x1080.bin" for connector "VGA-1"




dmesg | grep edid
[ 0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-19-generic root=UUID= ro drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-19-generic root=UUID= ro drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin
[ 2.445432] platform VGA-1: Direct firmware load for edid/hannsg.bin failed with error -2
[ 2.445470] [drm:drm_load_edid_firmware [drm_kms_helper]] *ERROR* Requesting EDID firmware "edid/hannsg.bin" failed (err=-2)
[ 33.654278] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid/hannsg.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
[ 63.689153] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid/hannsg.bin" for connector "VGA-1"


And a couple of notes:

I have specified a connector name with "VGA-1:" so it gets that edid for that particular connector.

You can get the connector names by looking at /sys/class/drm

ls /sys/class/drm/
card0 card0-DP-1 card0-HDMI-A-1 card0-VGA-1 renderD128 version

Also I had problems because I didn't put the edid in the correct directory. One webpage I looked at said /usr/lib/firmware/edid which didn't work for me: I had to put it in /lib/firmware/edid. After I did that I was golden.

Before that I was getting these strange error -2 couldn't load the edid/hannsg.bin messages in my dmesg log. I do get an error -2 but it keeps retrying and finds it once it mounts the filesystem I think.

Doing a "dmesg | grep mount" tells me that my file system isn't mounted until 3.1 seconds mark so that's probably what's happening.

[ 3.137360] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 9.739364] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro



Now I can hook up my vga splitter box and it happily loads the proper edid and everything is right with the world.


I must've rebooted about 20-30 times to get this working. I found this process most difficult so I hope this helps you avoid the same frustration!

It'd be really cool to just have a "choose custom resolution" button in the display settings where you could enter "1920x1080x60" for example when it can't get a proper edid. That would be too easy, I guess 8-)





Another thing you can try is this from a terminal:

echo "VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin" | sudo tee /sys/module/drm_kms_helper/parameters/edid_firmware

(you need the tee even when you've done the sudo because it's the shell that does the redirection)

echo "VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin" > /sys/module/drm_kms_helper/parameters/edid_firmware
bash: /sys/module/drm_kms_helper/parameters/edid_firmware: Permission denied


If you have specified a value for this, then you see the value that you've set:

cat /sys/module/drm_kms_helper/parameters/edid_firmware
VGA-1:edid/hannsg.bin

My Weatherdirect boxes don't work anymore

*sniff* Weatherdirect has shut down its forecast service for their wireless forecasters that connected to the internet.

My unit(s) stopped working a couple of weeks ago and I read this on weatherdirect.com:

August 9th, 2017

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING WEATHER DIRECT FORECASTING SERVICE

If you are currently utilizing a WD- or WA- Series (Model # begins with WD- or WA-) weather station to receive forecasts, please read on for important information about your station.

Due to changing technology, reduced demand and a changing market-place that is driven by connected devices and phones, we will be discontinuing our Weather Direct Forecasting Service to all WA- and WD- Devices effective August 31st, 2017.

device We apologize for any inconvenience that discontinuing service on your Weather Direct station will or may cause. Current Weather Direct users should have received an email notification of this as well, and a second email will be sent with more information on possible replacement items for your unit.

It is our goal to exceed your expectations in our products and in our customer service, and we are committed to making the transition from old to new as easy as possible for our customers.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions at http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/support/index/form/

Sincerely,

La Crosse Technology


*sigh* I really liked these units as you could connect multiple receivers to one internet-connected transmitter. My favorite was the WA-1440U 4-Day Talking Internet-Powered Wireless Forecaster where you could send it speech and it could read the news for example. You could even customize it with your name for example and the speech was extremely smooth and fluid.

I had 3 units around the house and it was nice to glance at them to see what the weather would be. They will be missed.

It would be so awesome if someone could reverse engineer the wireless protocol but that'd be pretty difficult now that its all shut down.

Ubuntu 17.04 screen redraw after coming out of standby

One of the things that is really annoying me is that the Ubuntu screen doesn't redraw itself properly when coming out of screen saver or when coming out of standby.

The screen is double buffered and one of the buffers doesn't get fully updated, so you get this horrible flashing/flicker effect.

So I have to take one of the windows and pull it up to the top of the screen to force a full screen refresh since it does that "zoom animation thing".

I wonder if it's worse because I run a dual monitor setup.


It's just kind of annoying as I hate anything that flickers. Just redraw that screen, baby!


I'm just running integrated intel graphics.

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)

lspci -v -n
00:02.0 0300: 8086:0152 (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: 17aa:308c
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 26
Memory at f7800000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
I/O ports at f000 [size=64]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities:
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915

TMS9918A added graphics mode 2 with 50 transistors

It's interesting to read up on the history of the TMS9918 and how they added the "super pattern graphics mode" aka Graphics Mode II with only 50 transistors. That allowed a full bitmap display to be generated with each color table byte setting a group of 8 pixels to have 2 colors out of 16.

Fascinating.



http://msx.hansotten.com/technical-info/tms9918/


The specific document being:

http://msx.hansotten.com/uploads/files/198x%20Super%20Pattern%20Graphics%20Mode%20(Mode%202).pdf

Writing to both the Third Millenium Arcade Board and the Super Sprite.

I wanted to write to the Third Millenium Arcade Board and the Super Sprite, but there's just one problem: The Super Sprite has its addresses at $C0F0 and $C0F1.

You can write to those addresses just fine in machine language with STA $C0F1 but an AppleSoft POKE doesn't work the same.

Applesoft POKE actually executes a STA ($50),Y to address $C0F1, but that actually reads $C0F1 before it writes $C0F1. It's kind of counter intuitive that you would have a read when you're trying to write something, but that's the wacky design of the 6502.

That read has the side effect of resetting the TMS9918A address pointer so when it writes, the TMS9918 thinks you want to specify the low byte of the address pointer. Each time you write $C0F1 it resets that pointer so you never actually finish setting the high byte of address pointer.

So you have to resort to assembly language, and I poke a little routine into memory and then call it. STA absolute doesn't have the same problem as the STA ($50),Y register indirect mode and it will write to $C0F1 properly without reading it first.

This applesoft program is horribly unoptimized, I just wanted something that would work.

It you let it run for a few minutes it will display the following:

(hint: display the frameskip with F11, set the frameskip to 6 with F8/F9 and unthrottle with F10 to speed things up)

./mame64 apple2e -sl4 arcbd -sl7 ssprite

1  DEF  FN LO(X) = ((X / 256) -  INT (X / 256)) * 256: DEF  FN HI(X) =  INT (X / 256)
4  GOTO 100
5  PRINT "REG WRITE: SLOT=";S;" VALUE=";W0;" REG=";W1
6 SB = 49280:S0 = SB + 16 * S:S1 = S0 + 1
7 IP = 16384
8  POKE IP,160 + 13: POKE IP + 1, FN LO(S1): POKE IP + 2, FN HI(S1): REM  LDA $C0C1
9 IP = IP + 3: POKE IP,160 + 9: POKE IP + 1,W0:IP = IP + 2: REM  LDA #$W0
10  POKE IP,128 + 13: POKE IP + 1, FN LO(S1): POKE IP + 2, FN HI(S1):IP = IP + 3: REM  STA $C0C1
11 IP = IP + 0: POKE IP,160 + 9: POKE IP + 1,W1:IP = IP + 2: REM LDA #$W1
13 IP = IP + 0: POKE IP,128 + 13: POKE IP + 1, FN LO(S1): POKE IP + 2, FN HI(S1):IP = IP + 3: REM STA $C0C1   
14  POKE IP,6 * 16:IP = IP + 1: REM 60 RTS
15  CALL 16384
16  RETURN 
50  PRINT "ADDR WRITE SLOT=";S;" VALUE LO=";W0;" HI=";W1
51 SB = 49280:S0 = SB + 16 * S:S1 = S0 + 1:IP = 16384 + 20:I0 = IP
52  POKE IP,160 + 13: POKE IP + 1, FN LO(S1): POKE IP + 2, FN HI(S1):IP = IP + 3: REM AD LDA $C0C1  
53  POKE IP,160 + 9: POKE IP + 1,W0:IP = IP + 2: REM  A9 LDA #$W0
54  POKE IP,128 + 13: POKE IP + 1, FN LO(S1): POKE IP + 2, FN HI(S1):IP = IP + 3: REM 8D STA $C0C1    
55  POKE IP,160 + 9: POKE IP + 1,W1:IP = IP + 2: REM  A9 LDA #$W1
56  POKE IP,128 + 13: POKE IP + 1, FN LO(S1): POKE IP + 2, FN HI(S1):IP = IP + 3: REM 8D STA $C0C1  
57  POKE IP,6 * 16:IP = IP + 1: REM 60 RTS
58  CALL I0
59  RETURN 
60  PRINT "DATA WRITE SLOT=";S;" VALUE=";W0
61 SB = 49280:S0 = SB + 16 * S:S1 = S0 + 1:IP = 16384 + 40:I0 = IP
63  POKE IP,160 + 9: POKE IP + 1,W0:IP = IP + 2: REM A9 LDA #$W0
64  POKE IP,128 + 13: POKE IP + 1, FN LO(S0): POKE IP + 2, FN HI(S0):IP = IP + 3: REM 8D STA $C0C0
67  POKE IP,6 * 16:IP = IP + 1: REM 60 RTS
68  CALL I0
69  RETURN 
70  PRINT "DATA READ SLOT=";S;
71 SB = 49280:S0 = SB + 16 * S:S1 = S0 + 1:IP = 16384 + 60:I0 = IP
73  POKE IP,160 + 13: POKE IP + 1, FN LO(S0): POKE IP + 2, FN HI(S0):IP = IP + 3: REM AD LDA C0C0
74  POKE IP,8 * 16 + 13: POKE IP + 1, FN LO(I0 + 18): POKE IP + 2, FN HI(I0 + 18):IP = IP + 3: REM 8D STA +18
77  POKE IP,6 * 16:IP = IP + 1: REM RTS 
78  CALL I0:R0 =  PEEK (I0 + 18): PRINT " VALUE=";R0
79  RETURN 
99  RETURN 
100 S = 4:W0 = 2:W1 = 128 + 0: GOSUB 5
101 S = 4:W0 = 196:W1 = 128 + 1: GOSUB 5
102 S = 4:W0 = 14:W1 = 128 + 2: GOSUB 5
103 S = 4:W0 = 255:W1 = 128 + 3: GOSUB 5
104 S = 4:W0 = 3:W1 = 128 + 4: GOSUB 5
105 S = 4:W0 = 118:W1 = 128 + 5: GOSUB 5
106 S = 4:W0 = 3:W1 = 128 + 6: GOSUB 5
107 S = 4:W0 = 15:W1 = 128 + 7: GOSUB 5
110 S = 7:W0 = 2:W1 = 128 + 0: GOSUB 5
111 S = 7:W0 = 196:W1 = 128 + 1: GOSUB 5
112 S = 7:W0 = 14:W1 = 128 + 2: GOSUB 5
113 S = 7:W0 = 255:W1 = 128 + 3: GOSUB 5
114 S = 7:W0 = 3:W1 = 128 + 4: GOSUB 5
115 S = 7:W0 = 118:W1 = 128 + 5: GOSUB 5
116 S = 7:W0 = 3:W1 = 128 + 6: GOSUB 5
117 S = 7:W0 = 4:W1 = 128 + 7: GOSUB 5
118  FOR I = 0 TO 15:W0 = I:S = 4:W1 = 128 + 7: GOSUB 5:W0 = 15 - I:S = 7:W1 = 128 + 7: GOSUB 5: NEXT :W0 = 15:W1 = 128 + 7:S = 7: GOSUB 5
119 SL(1) = 4:SL(2) = 7: FOR SI = 1 TO 2:S = SL(SI)
120  REM  INITIALIZE NAME TABLE
125 SR = 4:W0 = 0:W1 = 56 + 64: GOSUB 50: FOR J = 0 TO 2: FOR I = 0 TO 255:W0 = I: GOSUB 60: NEXT : NEXT 
126  REM  LOAD PATTERNS
127 SR = 4:W0 = 0:W1 = 64 + 1: GOSUB 50
128  READ CH: PRINT CH: IF CH =  - 1 THEN  RESTORE : GOTO 130
129  FOR I = 0 TO 7: READ W0: GOSUB 60: NEXT I: GOTO 128
130  REM  INITIALIZE COLOR TABLE
131 SR = 4:W0 = 0:W1 = 32 + 64: GOSUB 50: FOR I = 0 TO 6143: PRINT "COL ";I;:W0 = 15 * 16 + 4: GOSUB 60: NEXT 
140  IF S = 4 THEN A$ = "Third Millenium Arcade Board"
145  IF S = 7 THEN A$ = "Synetix Super Sprite"
150 AD = 16 * 256: FOR I = 1 TO  LEN (A$):C =  ASC ( MID$ (A$,I,1))
155  FOR J = 0 TO 7:SR = 4:A0 = (AD + 8 * (I - 1) + J):A1 = J + C * 8:W0 =  FN LO(A1):W1 =  FN HI(A1): GOSUB 50: GOSUB 70:W0 =  FN LO(A0):W1 =  FN HI(A0) + 64: GOSUB 50:W0 = R0: GOSUB 60
160  NEXT J: NEXT I
199  NEXT SI
1000  DATA  32, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
1001  DATA  33, 24,60,60,24,24,0,24,0
1002  DATA  34, 108,108,0,0,0,0,0,0
1003  DATA  35, 108,108,254,108,254,108,108,0
1004  DATA  36, 24,62,96,60,6,124,24,0
1005  DATA  37, 0,198,204,24,48,102,198,0
1006  DATA  38, 56,108,104,118,220,204,118,0
1007  DATA  39, 24,24,48,0,0,0,0,0
1008  DATA  40, 12,24,48,48,48,24,12,0
1009  DATA  41, 48,24,12,12,12,24,48,0
1010  DATA  42, 0,102,60,255,60,102,0,0
1011  DATA  43, 0,24,24,126,24,24,0,0
1012  DATA  44, 0,0,0,0,0,24,24,48
1013  DATA  45, 0,0,0,126,0,0,0,0
1014  DATA  46, 0,0,0,0,0,24,24,0
1015  DATA  47, 3,6,12,24,48,96,192,0
1016  DATA  48, 60,102,110,126,118,102,60,0
1017  DATA  49, 24,56,24,24,24,24,126,0
1018  DATA  50, 60,102,6,28,48,102,126,0
1019  DATA  51, 60,102,6,28,6,102,60,0
1020  DATA  52, 28,60,108,204,254,12,30,0
1021  DATA  53, 126,96,124,6,6,102,60,0
1022  DATA  54, 28,48,96,124,102,102,60,0
1023  DATA  55, 126,102,6,12,24,24,24,0
1024  DATA  56, 60,102,102,60,102,102,60,0
1025  DATA  57, 60,102,102,62,6,12,56,0
1026  DATA  58, 0,24,24,0,0,24,24,0
1027  DATA  59, 0,24,24,0,0,24,24,48
1028  DATA  60, 12,24,48,96,48,24,12,0
1029  DATA  61, 0,0,126,0,0,126,0,0
1030  DATA  62, 48,24,12,6,12,24,48,0
1031  DATA  63, 60,102,6,12,24,0,24,0
1032  DATA  64, 124,198,222,222,222,192,120,0
1033  DATA  65, 24,60,60,102,126,195,195,0
1034  DATA  66, 252,102,102,124,102,102,252,0
1035  DATA  67, 60,102,192,192,192,102,60,0
1036  DATA  68, 248,108,102,102,102,108,248,0
1037  DATA  69, 254,102,96,120,96,102,254,0
1038  DATA  70, 254,102,96,120,96,96,240,0
1039  DATA  71, 60,102,192,206,198,102,62,0
1040  DATA  72, 102,102,102,126,102,102,102,0
1041  DATA  73, 126,24,24,24,24,24,126,0
1042  DATA  74, 14,6,6,6,102,102,60,0
1043  DATA  75, 230,102,108,120,108,102,230,0
1044  DATA  76, 240,96,96,96,98,102,254,0
1045  DATA  77, 130,198,238,254,214,198,198,0
1046  DATA  78, 198,230,246,222,206,198,198,0
1047  DATA  79, 56,108,198,198,198,108,56,0
1048  DATA  80, 252,102,102,124,96,96,240,0
1049  DATA  81, 56,108,198,198,198,108,60,6
1050  DATA  82, 252,102,102,124,108,102,227,0
1051  DATA  83, 60,102,112,56,14,102,60,0
1052  DATA  84, 126,90,24,24,24,24,60,0
1053  DATA  85, 102,102,102,102,102,102,62,0
1054  DATA  86, 195,195,102,102,60,60,24,0
1055  DATA  87, 198,198,198,214,254,238,198,0
1056  DATA  88, 195,102,60,24,60,102,195,0
1057  DATA  89, 195,195,102,60,24,24,60,0
1058  DATA  90, 254,198,140,24,50,102,254,0
1059  DATA  91, 60,48,48,48,48,48,60,0
1060  DATA  92, 192,96,48,24,12,6,3,0
1061  DATA  93, 60,12,12,12,12,12,60,0
1062  DATA  94, 16,56,108,198,0,0,0,0
1063  DATA  95, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,254
1064  DATA  96, 24,24,12,0,0,0,0,0
1065  DATA  97, 0,0,60,6,30,102,59,0
1066  DATA  98, 224,96,108,118,102,102,60,0
1067  DATA  99, 0,0,60,102,96,102,60,0
1068  DATA  100, 14,6,54,110,102,102,59,0
1069  DATA  101, 0,0,60,102,126,96,60,0
1070  DATA  102, 28,54,48,120,48,48,120,0
1071  DATA  103, 0,0,59,102,102,60,198,124
1072  DATA  104, 224,96,108,118,102,102,230,0
1073  DATA  105, 24,0,56,24,24,24,60,0
1074  DATA  106, 6,0,6,6,6,6,102,60
1075  DATA  107, 224,96,102,108,120,108,230,0
1076  DATA  108, 56,24,24,24,24,24,60,0
1077  DATA  109, 0,0,102,119,107,99,99,0
1078  DATA  110, 0,0,124,102,102,102,102,0
1079  DATA  111, 0,0,60,102,102,102,60,0
1080  DATA  112, 0,0,220,102,102,124,96,240
1081  DATA  113, 0,0,61,102,102,62,6,7
1082  DATA  114, 0,0,236,118,102,96,240,0
1083  DATA  115, 0,0,62,96,60,6,124,0
1084  DATA  116, 16,48,124,48,48,52,24,0
1085  DATA  117, 0,0,204,204,204,204,118,0
1086  DATA  118, 0,0,204,204,204,120,48,0
1087  DATA  119, 0,0,198,214,214,108,108,0
1088  DATA  120, 0,0,99,54,28,54,99,0
1089  DATA  121, 0,0,102,102,102,60,24,112
1090  DATA  122, 0,0,126,76,24,50,126,0
1091  DATA  123, 14,24,24,112,24,24,14,0
1092  DATA  124, 24,24,24,24,24,24,24,0
1093  DATA  125, 112,24,24,14,24,24,112,0
1094  DATA  126, 114,156,0,0,0,0,0,0
1095  DATA  127, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
1096  DATA  -1

The simple routines I poke into memory and call:

4000: 2 writes to C0F1 to set an address, reading C0F1 first to make sure we reset the address register
     It's a register write if the second byte has the hi byte set.
4014: same routine as 4000
     It's an address write if the second byte has bit 6 set, bit 6 clear if just to read.
4028: write to C0F0, write DATA register
403C: read from C0F0, read DATA register

]CALL -151

*4000L

4000-   AD F1 C0    LDA   $C0F1
4003-   A9 0F       LDA   #$0F
4005-   8D F1 C0    STA   $C0F1
4008-   A9 87       LDA   #$87
400A-   8D F1 C0    STA   $C0F1
400D-   60          RTS   
400E-   00          BRK   
400F-   00          BRK   
4010-   00          BRK   
4011-   00          BRK   
4012-   00          BRK   
4013-   00          BRK   
4014-   AD F1 C0    LDA   $C0F1
4017-   A9 00       LDA   #$00
4019-   8D F1 C0    STA   $C0F1
401C-   A9 78       LDA   #$78
401E-   8D F1 C0    STA   $C0F1
4021-   60          RTS   
4022-   00          BRK   
4023-   00          BRK   
*L

4024-   00          BRK   
4025-   00          BRK   
4026-   00          BRK   
4027-   00          BRK   
4028-   A9 78       LDA   #$78
402A-   8D F0 C0    STA   $C0F0
402D-   60          RTS   
402E-   00          BRK   
402F-   00          BRK   
4030-   00          BRK   
4031-   00          BRK   
4032-   00          BRK   
4033-   00          BRK   
4034-   00          BRK   
4035-   00          BRK   
4036-   00          BRK   
4037-   00          BRK   
4038-   00          BRK   
4039-   00          BRK   
403A-   00          BRK   
*L

403B-   00          BRK   
403C-   AD C0 C0    LDA   $C0C0
403F-   8D 4E 40    STA   $404E
4042-   60          RTS   
4043-   00          BRK   
4044-   00          BRK   
4045-   00          BRK   
4046-   00          BRK   
4047-   00          BRK   
4048-   00          BRK   
4049-   00          BRK   
404A-   00          BRK   
404B-   00          BRK   
404C-   00          BRK   
404D-   00          BRK   
404E-   00          BRK   
404F-   00          BRK   
4050-   00          BRK   
4051-   00          BRK   
4052-   00          BRK   

Copy the Apple ii text screen to the Third Millenium Arcade Board

So I thought I'd see if I could copy the apple ii's text screen to the tms9918.

Once I've loaded the font into the tms9918 memory, I can just copy bytes from the apple ii's text screen to the tms9918's memory.

Yes, it's not optimized, because I was assembling it by hand with the CALL -151 monitor.

So to write bytes to the TMS9918, you write the low byte of the address to $C0C3, then the high byte with bit 6 set (so we add 64 or $40). We want to write to location zero, so that means writing a $00, then a $40 to $C0C3.

Now any bytes written to $C0C2 will go to that address and then auto-increment the destination address.

We use the routine at $FBC1 to calculate the address of the text line given in A. That clobbers A so we have to restore it. It stores the address in $28 and $29. We use LDA ($28),Y to access the text memory, then STA it to $C0C2. Keep going until we get 32 chars in the line CPY #$20, and then keep going until we've done 24 lines CPX #$18.

4030-   A9 00       LDA   #$00
4032-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
4035-   A9 40       LDA   #$40
4037-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
403A-   A9 00       LDA   #$00
403C-   AA          TAX   
403D-   8A          TXA   
403E-   20 C1 FB    JSR   $FBC1
4041-   A0 00       LDY   #$00
4043-   48          PHA   
4044-   B1 28       LDA   ($28),Y
4046-   8D C2 C0    STA   $C0C2
4049-   68          PLA   
404A-   C8          INY   
404B-   C0 20       CPY   #$20
404D-   30 F4       BMI   $4043
404F-   E8          INX   
4050-   E0 18       CPX   #$18
4052-   30 E9       BMI   $403D
4054-   60          RTS   

If you're wondering why it's multicolored, I was experimenting with the TMS9918 color table.



My uploaded font, with the characters from 0-127 copied to 128-255 and colored with the color table. The color table for the 32x24 mode 0 has 32 bytes total: a single color for 8 character patterns.





I think the crazy colors look cool. Distracting but kind of cool.

Fun with TMS9918 fonts on the Third Millenium Arcade Board

So you have to upload fonts to the TMS9918 to get it to display anything textwise.

I came across this great thread about ti fonts by sometimes99er where he has put together a bunch of great fonts in gif format:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/165697-fonts/

There was one font in particular that is near and dear to me: The classic Amiga font.

Let's see if we can get the Apple II Third Millenium Arcade Board's TMS9918 to display it.

First, I thought I'd use HTML5 and firefox to generate the DATA statements for Applesoft:

So we create a canvas, draw the 0236.chr.gif into the canvas, and use getImageData() to get access to the data and generate a bunch of DATA statements.

<html>
<img id="graphic" src="0236.chr.gif">
<br>
<canvas id="mycanvas" height="300" width="800">
</canvas>
<div id="text1"></div><script>


window.onload = function() {

   var c=document.getElementById("mycanvas");
    var ctx=c.getContext("2d");
    var img=document.getElementById("graphic");
    ctx.drawImage(img,0,0);

var myimagedata = ctx.getImageData(0,0,10,10);
var mydiv=document.getElementById("text1");

var xchar,ychar,chartoget;

chartoget = 65;
xchar = chartoget % 8;
ychar = Math.floor(chartoget / 8);

linenum = 1000;

mydiv.innerHTML+=("<br>");

for (j=32;j<128;j++){

chartoget = j;
xchar = chartoget % 8;
ychar = Math.floor(chartoget / 8);
imagechardata = ctx.getImageData(xchar*8,ychar*8,8,8);

mydiv.innerHTML+= (linenum.toString()+" DATA "+chartoget.toString()+", ");

linenum++;

var buildbyte,row;

for (row=0;row<8;row++){

  buildbyte = 0;

  for (col=0;col<8;col++){ 
    if (imagechardata.data[((row*8)+col)*4]<128){ buildbyte += 2 ** (7-col);}
  }

  separator = ",";
  if (row==7) separator = "<BR>";
  mydiv.innerHTML+= (buildbyte.toString()+separator);
  }
}
}
</script>
</html>

This HTML5 generates the following DATA statements.

1000 DATA 32, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
1001 DATA 33, 24,60,60,24,24,0,24,0
1002 DATA 34, 108,108,0,0,0,0,0,0
1003 DATA 35, 108,108,254,108,254,108,108,0
1004 DATA 36, 24,62,96,60,6,124,24,0
1005 DATA 37, 0,198,204,24,48,102,198,0
1006 DATA 38, 56,108,104,118,220,204,118,0
1007 DATA 39, 24,24,48,0,0,0,0,0
1008 DATA 40, 12,24,48,48,48,24,12,0
1009 DATA 41, 48,24,12,12,12,24,48,0
1010 DATA 42, 0,102,60,255,60,102,0,0
1011 DATA 43, 0,24,24,126,24,24,0,0
1012 DATA 44, 0,0,0,0,0,24,24,48
1013 DATA 45, 0,0,0,126,0,0,0,0
1014 DATA 46, 0,0,0,0,0,24,24,0
1015 DATA 47, 3,6,12,24,48,96,192,0
1016 DATA 48, 60,102,110,126,118,102,60,0
1017 DATA 49, 24,56,24,24,24,24,126,0
1018 DATA 50, 60,102,6,28,48,102,126,0
1019 DATA 51, 60,102,6,28,6,102,60,0
1020 DATA 52, 28,60,108,204,254,12,30,0
1021 DATA 53, 126,96,124,6,6,102,60,0
1022 DATA 54, 28,48,96,124,102,102,60,0
1023 DATA 55, 126,102,6,12,24,24,24,0
1024 DATA 56, 60,102,102,60,102,102,60,0
1025 DATA 57, 60,102,102,62,6,12,56,0
1026 DATA 58, 0,24,24,0,0,24,24,0
1027 DATA 59, 0,24,24,0,0,24,24,48
1028 DATA 60, 12,24,48,96,48,24,12,0
1029 DATA 61, 0,0,126,0,0,126,0,0
1030 DATA 62, 48,24,12,6,12,24,48,0
1031 DATA 63, 60,102,6,12,24,0,24,0
1032 DATA 64, 124,198,222,222,222,192,120,0
1033 DATA 65, 24,60,60,102,126,195,195,0
1034 DATA 66, 252,102,102,124,102,102,252,0
1035 DATA 67, 60,102,192,192,192,102,60,0
1036 DATA 68, 248,108,102,102,102,108,248,0
1037 DATA 69, 254,102,96,120,96,102,254,0
1038 DATA 70, 254,102,96,120,96,96,240,0
1039 DATA 71, 60,102,192,206,198,102,62,0
1040 DATA 72, 102,102,102,126,102,102,102,0
1041 DATA 73, 126,24,24,24,24,24,126,0
1042 DATA 74, 14,6,6,6,102,102,60,0
1043 DATA 75, 230,102,108,120,108,102,230,0
1044 DATA 76, 240,96,96,96,98,102,254,0
1045 DATA 77, 130,198,238,254,214,198,198,0
1046 DATA 78, 198,230,246,222,206,198,198,0
1047 DATA 79, 56,108,198,198,198,108,56,0
1048 DATA 80, 252,102,102,124,96,96,240,0
1049 DATA 81, 56,108,198,198,198,108,60,6
1050 DATA 82, 252,102,102,124,108,102,227,0
1051 DATA 83, 60,102,112,56,14,102,60,0
1052 DATA 84, 126,90,24,24,24,24,60,0
1053 DATA 85, 102,102,102,102,102,102,62,0
1054 DATA 86, 195,195,102,102,60,60,24,0
1055 DATA 87, 198,198,198,214,254,238,198,0
1056 DATA 88, 195,102,60,24,60,102,195,0
1057 DATA 89, 195,195,102,60,24,24,60,0
1058 DATA 90, 254,198,140,24,50,102,254,0
1059 DATA 91, 60,48,48,48,48,48,60,0
1060 DATA 92, 192,96,48,24,12,6,3,0
1061 DATA 93, 60,12,12,12,12,12,60,0
1062 DATA 94, 16,56,108,198,0,0,0,0
1063 DATA 95, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,254
1064 DATA 96, 24,24,12,0,0,0,0,0
1065 DATA 97, 0,0,60,6,30,102,59,0
1066 DATA 98, 224,96,108,118,102,102,60,0
1067 DATA 99, 0,0,60,102,96,102,60,0
1068 DATA 100, 14,6,54,110,102,102,59,0
1069 DATA 101, 0,0,60,102,126,96,60,0
1070 DATA 102, 28,54,48,120,48,48,120,0
1071 DATA 103, 0,0,59,102,102,60,198,124
1072 DATA 104, 224,96,108,118,102,102,230,0
1073 DATA 105, 24,0,56,24,24,24,60,0
1074 DATA 106, 6,0,6,6,6,6,102,60
1075 DATA 107, 224,96,102,108,120,108,230,0
1076 DATA 108, 56,24,24,24,24,24,60,0
1077 DATA 109, 0,0,102,119,107,99,99,0
1078 DATA 110, 0,0,124,102,102,102,102,0
1079 DATA 111, 0,0,60,102,102,102,60,0
1080 DATA 112, 0,0,220,102,102,124,96,240
1081 DATA 113, 0,0,61,102,102,62,6,7
1082 DATA 114, 0,0,236,118,102,96,240,0
1083 DATA 115, 0,0,62,96,60,6,124,0
1084 DATA 116, 16,48,124,48,48,52,24,0
1085 DATA 117, 0,0,204,204,204,204,118,0
1086 DATA 118, 0,0,204,204,204,120,48,0
1087 DATA 119, 0,0,198,214,214,108,108,0
1088 DATA 120, 0,0,99,54,28,54,99,0
1089 DATA 121, 0,0,102,102,102,60,24,112
1090 DATA 122, 0,0,126,76,24,50,126,0
1091 DATA 123, 14,24,24,112,24,24,14,0
1092 DATA 124, 24,24,24,24,24,24,24,0
1093 DATA 125, 112,24,24,14,24,24,112,0
1094 DATA 126, 114,156,0,0,0,0,0,0
1095 DATA 127, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

and we paste this into mame's apple2 driver with SHIFT+Scroll Lock to enter it into our basic program:

and I choose background B = 4 and foreground F = 15 for white text on blue for that classic look.

10  REM  SLOT FINDER ROUTINE
20  FOR S = 7 TO 1 STEP  - 1
30 RD = 49280 + S * 16
40 RS = 49281 + S * 16
50 WD = 49282 + S * 16
60 WR = 49283 + S * 16
100 A =  INT ( RND (1) * 256)
110 B =  INT ( RND (1) * 256)
120 C =  INT ( RND (1) * 256)
130  POKE WR,0: POKE WR,64
140  POKE WD,A: POKE WD,B: POKE WD,C
150  POKE WR,0: POKE WR,0
155 T = S
160  IF  PEEK (RD) = A AND  PEEK (RD) = B AND  PEEK (RD) = C THEN S = 1
170  NEXT S
220 D =  PEEK (RS)
230  FOR R = 128 TO 135
240  READ D
260  POKE WR,D
270  POKE WR,R
280  NEXT R
281 CT = 255 * 64:C0 = ((CT / 256) -  INT (CT / 256)) * 256:C1 =  INT (CT / 256): POKE WR,C0: POKE WR,C1 + 64
282  INPUT "B";B: INPUT "F";F
285  FOR I = 0 TO 31: POKE WD,F * 16 + B: NEXT 
289  GOTO 400
350  DATA   0,192,0,255,4,56,7,0
400  POKE WR,0: POKE WR,64: FOR I = 0 TO 255: POKE WD,I: NEXT 
480  READ CN: IF CN =  - 1 THEN  GOTO 600
485  PRINT "CN:"CN
490 PN = 8192 + CN * 8: POKE WR,((PN / 256) -  INT (PN / 256)) * 256: POKE WR, INT (PN / 256) + 64
500  FOR I = 1 TO 8: READ C: POKE WD,C: NEXT I
510  GOTO 480
600  REM  
1000 DATA 32, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
1001 DATA 33, 24,60,60,24,24,0,24,0
1002 DATA 34, 108,108,0,0,0,0,0,0
1003 DATA 35, 108,108,254,108,254,108,108,0
1004 DATA 36, 24,62,96,60,6,124,24,0
1005 DATA 37, 0,198,204,24,48,102,198,0
1006 DATA 38, 56,108,104,118,220,204,118,0
1007 DATA 39, 24,24,48,0,0,0,0,0
1008 DATA 40, 12,24,48,48,48,24,12,0
1009 DATA 41, 48,24,12,12,12,24,48,0
1010 DATA 42, 0,102,60,255,60,102,0,0
1011 DATA 43, 0,24,24,126,24,24,0,0
1012 DATA 44, 0,0,0,0,0,24,24,48
1013 DATA 45, 0,0,0,126,0,0,0,0
1014 DATA 46, 0,0,0,0,0,24,24,0
1015 DATA 47, 3,6,12,24,48,96,192,0
1016 DATA 48, 60,102,110,126,118,102,60,0
1017 DATA 49, 24,56,24,24,24,24,126,0
1018 DATA 50, 60,102,6,28,48,102,126,0
1019 DATA 51, 60,102,6,28,6,102,60,0
1020 DATA 52, 28,60,108,204,254,12,30,0
1021 DATA 53, 126,96,124,6,6,102,60,0
1022 DATA 54, 28,48,96,124,102,102,60,0
1023 DATA 55, 126,102,6,12,24,24,24,0
1024 DATA 56, 60,102,102,60,102,102,60,0
1025 DATA 57, 60,102,102,62,6,12,56,0
1026 DATA 58, 0,24,24,0,0,24,24,0
1027 DATA 59, 0,24,24,0,0,24,24,48
1028 DATA 60, 12,24,48,96,48,24,12,0
1029 DATA 61, 0,0,126,0,0,126,0,0
1030 DATA 62, 48,24,12,6,12,24,48,0
1031 DATA 63, 60,102,6,12,24,0,24,0
1032 DATA 64, 124,198,222,222,222,192,120,0
1033 DATA 65, 24,60,60,102,126,195,195,0
1034 DATA 66, 252,102,102,124,102,102,252,0
1035 DATA 67, 60,102,192,192,192,102,60,0
1036 DATA 68, 248,108,102,102,102,108,248,0
1037 DATA 69, 254,102,96,120,96,102,254,0
1038 DATA 70, 254,102,96,120,96,96,240,0
1039 DATA 71, 60,102,192,206,198,102,62,0
1040 DATA 72, 102,102,102,126,102,102,102,0
1041 DATA 73, 126,24,24,24,24,24,126,0
1042 DATA 74, 14,6,6,6,102,102,60,0
1043 DATA 75, 230,102,108,120,108,102,230,0
1044 DATA 76, 240,96,96,96,98,102,254,0
1045 DATA 77, 130,198,238,254,214,198,198,0
1046 DATA 78, 198,230,246,222,206,198,198,0
1047 DATA 79, 56,108,198,198,198,108,56,0
1048 DATA 80, 252,102,102,124,96,96,240,0
1049 DATA 81, 56,108,198,198,198,108,60,6
1050 DATA 82, 252,102,102,124,108,102,227,0
1051 DATA 83, 60,102,112,56,14,102,60,0
1052 DATA 84, 126,90,24,24,24,24,60,0
1053 DATA 85, 102,102,102,102,102,102,62,0
1054 DATA 86, 195,195,102,102,60,60,24,0
1055 DATA 87, 198,198,198,214,254,238,198,0
1056 DATA 88, 195,102,60,24,60,102,195,0
1057 DATA 89, 195,195,102,60,24,24,60,0
1058 DATA 90, 254,198,140,24,50,102,254,0
1059 DATA 91, 60,48,48,48,48,48,60,0
1060 DATA 92, 192,96,48,24,12,6,3,0
1061 DATA 93, 60,12,12,12,12,12,60,0
1062 DATA 94, 16,56,108,198,0,0,0,0
1063 DATA 95, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,254
1064 DATA 96, 24,24,12,0,0,0,0,0
1065 DATA 97, 0,0,60,6,30,102,59,0
1066 DATA 98, 224,96,108,118,102,102,60,0
1067 DATA 99, 0,0,60,102,96,102,60,0
1068 DATA 100, 14,6,54,110,102,102,59,0
1069 DATA 101, 0,0,60,102,126,96,60,0
1070 DATA 102, 28,54,48,120,48,48,120,0
1071 DATA 103, 0,0,59,102,102,60,198,124
1072 DATA 104, 224,96,108,118,102,102,230,0
1073 DATA 105, 24,0,56,24,24,24,60,0
1074 DATA 106, 6,0,6,6,6,6,102,60
1075 DATA 107, 224,96,102,108,120,108,230,0
1076 DATA 108, 56,24,24,24,24,24,60,0
1077 DATA 109, 0,0,102,119,107,99,99,0
1078 DATA 110, 0,0,124,102,102,102,102,0
1079 DATA 111, 0,0,60,102,102,102,60,0
1080 DATA 112, 0,0,220,102,102,124,96,240
1081 DATA 113, 0,0,61,102,102,62,6,7
1082 DATA 114, 0,0,236,118,102,96,240,0
1083 DATA 115, 0,0,62,96,60,6,124,0
1084 DATA 116, 16,48,124,48,48,52,24,0
1085 DATA 117, 0,0,204,204,204,204,118,0
1086 DATA 118, 0,0,204,204,204,120,48,0
1087 DATA 119, 0,0,198,214,214,108,108,0
1088 DATA 120, 0,0,99,54,28,54,99,0
1089 DATA 121, 0,0,102,102,102,60,24,112
1090 DATA 122, 0,0,126,76,24,50,126,0
1091 DATA 123, 14,24,24,112,24,24,14,0
1092 DATA 124, 24,24,24,24,24,24,24,0
1093 DATA 125, 112,24,24,14,24,24,112,0
1094 DATA 126, 114,156,0,0,0,0,0,0
1095 DATA 127, 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
1096  DATA  -1
2000 AD = 32 * 12:A0 = ((AD / 256) -  INT (AD / 256)) * 256:A1 =  INT (AD / 256): POKE WR,A0: POKE WR,A1 + 64
2001 A$ = "This looks like the Amiga Font"
2002  FOR I = 1 TO  LEN (A$): POKE WD, ASC ( MID$ (A$,I,1)): NEXT 

Disassembling the VDPTEST program for the Third Millenium Enginnering Arcade Board

So I thought I'd have a look at what the VDPTEST program actually does.

Doing a PR#1 and LOAD VDPTEST and LIST gets me:

]LOAD VDPTEST
]LIST

10  REM  SLOT FINDER ROUTINE
20  FOR S = 7 TO 1 STEP  - 1
30 RD = 49280 + S * 16
40 RS = 49281 + S * 16
50 WD = 49282 + S * 16
60 WR = 49283 + S * 16
100 A =  INT ( RND (1) * 256)
110 B =  INT ( RND (1) * 256)
120 C =  INT ( RND (1) * 256)
130  POKE WR,0: POKE WR,64
140  POKE WD,A: POKE WD,B: POKE WD,C
150  POKE WR,0: POKE WR,0
155 T = S
160  IF  PEEK (RD) = A AND  PEEK (RD) = B AND  PEEK (RD) = C THEN S = 1
170  NEXT S
180  PRINT  CHR$ (4)"BLOAD VDPTST"
190 N = 129 + T * 16
200  POKE 4107,N: POKE 4112,N: POKE 4118,N - 1: POKE 4132,N: POKE 4135,N: POKE 4142,N - 1
210 C = 0
220 D =  PEEK (RS)
230  FOR R = 128 TO 135
240  READ D
250  IF D = 256 THEN  RESTORE : READ D
260  POKE WR,D
270  POKE WR,R
280  NEXT R
290 C = C + 1
300  PRINT "LOOP ";C
310  CALL 4096
320  IF  PEEK (8192) = 204 THEN 220
330  PRINT  CHR$ (7);"ERROR AT VRAM ADDRESS ";16384 - 256 * ( PEEK (8195) - 1) -  PEEK (8196)
335  PRINT "DATA WRITTEN: "; PEEK (8194)
340  PRINT "DATA READ:"; PEEK (8193)
345  CALL 768
350  DATA 2,192,6,255,3,56,7,3
355  DATA 2,193,7,127,7,48,7,4
360  DATA 2,194,14,255,3,120,3,6
365  DATA 2,195,15,127,7,112,3,10
370  DATA  256

]BLOAD VDPTST
]CALL -151

*1000L

1000-   A9 00       LDA   #$00
1002-   8D 4C 10    STA   $104C
1005-   A2 40       LDX   #$40
1007-   A0 00       LDY   #$00
1009-   98          TYA   
100A-   8D C1 C0    STA   $C0C1
100D-   A9 40       LDA   #$40
100F-   8D C1 C0    STA   $C0C1
1012-   AD 4C 10    LDA   $104C
1015-   8D C0 C0    STA   $C0C0
1018-   88          DEY   
1019-   D0 FA       BNE   $1015
101B-   CA          DEX   
101C-   D0 F7       BNE   $1015
101E-   A2 40       LDX   #$40
1020-   A0 00       LDY   #$00
1022-   98          TYA   
1023-   8D C1 C0    STA   $C0C1
1026-   8D C1 C0    STA   $C0C1
1029-   EA          NOP   
*L

102A-   EA          NOP   
102B-   EA          NOP   
102C-   EA          NOP   
102D-   AD C0 C0    LDA   $C0C0
1030-   CD 4C 10    CMP   $104C
1033-   D0 11       BNE   $1046
1035-   88          DEY   
1036-   D0 F5       BNE   $102D
1038-   CA          DEX   
1039-   D0 F2       BNE   $102D
103B-   EE 4C 10    INC   $104C
103E-   D0 C5       BNE   $1005
1040-   A9 CC       LDA   #$CC
1042-   8D 00 20    STA   $2000
1045-   60          RTS   
1046-   A9 00       LDA   #$00
1048-   8D 00 20    STA   $2000
104B-   60          RTS   
104C-   00          BRK   
104D-   00          BRK   
*

What you see the basic program do is to BLOAD VDPTST which goes to address $1000 (4096) and it will patch it with the proper io addresses for the slot number. So every occurrence of C0C0 and C0C1 will get patched.

It will CALL 4096 after the patching and it writes the entire 16K ($4000) of the TMS9918 with the value held in memory location $104C and then reads it back, comparing it to what's in $104C.

If it gets an error, it writes $00 to address $2000 (8192), but if everything is cool it writes $CC to address $2000 (8192).

What is complete BS is the error reporting in the basic program. It looks for error information at 8193, 8194, 8195 and 8196, but quite frankly I don't see where it's getting this information, because the assembly program just doesn't write those locations. There should be an STX $2003, an STY $2004 or something.

It'll tell you there's an error, but the information reported is bogus.

I kept trying to figure out what the CALL 768 does. The CALL 768 in the program is setup in the HELLO program on the disk. It just resets the apple video output on reset according to the REM remarks.

]LOAD HELLO
]LIST

10  REM  SLOT FINDER ROUTINE
20  FOR S = 7 TO 1 STEP  - 1
30 RD = 49280 + S * 16
40 RS = 49281 + S * 16
50 WD = 49282 + S * 16
60 WR = 49283 + S * 16
70 A =  INT ( RND (1) * 256)
80 B =  INT ( RND (1) * 256)
90 C =  INT ( RND (1) * 256)
100  POKE WR,0: POKE WR,64
110  POKE WD,A: POKE WD,B: POKE WD,C
120  POKE WR,0: POKE WR,0
130 T = S
140  IF  PEEK (RD) = A AND  PEEK (RD) = B AND  PEEK (RD) = C THEN S = 1
150  NEXT S
160  REM  ENABLE APPLE VIDEO
170  POKE WR,1: POKE WR,128
180  POKE WR,128: POKE WR,129
190  POKE WR,0: POKE WR,135
200  HOME 
210  PRINT "THIRD MILLENNIUM ENGINEERING CORPORATION"
220  REM  POKE RESET ROUTINE TO ENABLE APPLE VIDEO INTO MEMORY AT $300
230  POKE 1010,0: POKE 1011,3
240  FOR I = 768 TO 799
250  READ J: POKE I,J
260  NEXT I
270 S = T * 16 + 129
280  POKE 769,S
290 S = S + 2
300  POKE 774,S
310  POKE 779,S
320  POKE 782,S
330  POKE 787,S
340  POKE 792,S
350  POKE 797,S
360  POKE 800,208: POKE 801,3
370  POKE 1012,166
375  PRINT  CHR$ (4)"RUN READ ME"

380  DATA  173,0,192,169,1,141,0,192
390  DATA  169,128,141,0,192,141,0,192
400  DATA  169,129,141,0,192,169,0
410  DATA  141,0,192,169,135,141,0,192,76

]CALL -151

*300L

0300-   AD C1 C0    LDA   $C0C1
0303-   A9 01       LDA   #$01
0305-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
0308-   A9 80       LDA   #$80
030A-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
030D-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
0310-   A9 81       LDA   #$81
0312-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
0315-   A9 00       LDA   #$00
0317-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
031A-   A9 87       LDA   #$87
031C-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
031F-   4C D0 03    JMP   $03D0
0322-   00          BRK   
0323-   00          BRK   
0324-   00          BRK   
0325-   00          BRK   
0326-   00          BRK   
0327-   00          BRK   
0328-   00          BRK   
*

]PR#0

So for fun, I thought I'd patch it by hand with the monitor so it would send the proper values to the basic program if there were an error. There's nothing like changing those values by hand.

I tested it using the mame debugger and changing the values in the TMS9918 vram by hand to simulate a memory error.

What was really driving me crazy is that the basic VDPTEST program kept patching the addresses after I'd changed them. A little "175 GOTO 210" fixed that. I changed the instances of $C0C1 to $C0C3 and $C0C0 to $C0C2 to get it to run under mame 189.

]CALL -151

*1000L

1000-   A9 00       LDA   #$00
1002-   8D 60 10    STA   $1060
1005-   A2 40       LDX   #$40
1007-   A0 00       LDY   #$00
1009-   98          TYA   
100A-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
100D-   A9 40       LDA   #$40
100F-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
1012-   AD 60 10    LDA   $1060
1015-   8D C2 C0    STA   $C0C2
1018-   88          DEY   
1019-   D0 FA       BNE   $1015
101B-   CA          DEX   
101C-   D0 F7       BNE   $1015
101E-   A2 40       LDX   #$40
1020-   A0 00       LDY   #$00
1022-   98          TYA   
1023-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
1026-   8D C3 C0    STA   $C0C3
1029-   EA          NOP   
*L

102A-   EA          NOP   
102B-   EA          NOP   
102C-   EA          NOP   
102D-   AD C0 C0    LDA   $C0C0
1030-   CD 60 10    CMP   $1060
1033-   D0 11       BNE   $1046
1035-   88          DEY   
1036-   D0 F5       BNE   $102D
1038-   CA          DEX   
1039-   D0 F2       BNE   $102D
103B-   EE 60 10    INC   $1060
103E-   D0 C5       BNE   $1005
1040-   A9 CC       LDA   #$CC
1042-   8D 00 20    STA   $2000
1045-   60          RTS   
1046-   8D 01 20    STA   $2001
1049-   8E 03 20    STX   $2003
104C-   8C 04 20    STY   $2004
104F-   AD 60 10    LDA   $1060
1052-   8D 02 20    STA   $2002
*L

1055-   A9 00       LDA   #$00
1057-   8D 00 20    STA   $2000
105A-   60          RTS   
105B-   00          BRK   
105C-   00          BRK   
105D-   00          BRK   
105E-   00          BRK   
105F-   00          BRK   
1060-   00          BRK   
1061-   00          BRK   
1062-   00          BRK   
1063-   00          BRK   
1064-   00          BRK   
1065-   00          BRK   
1066-   00          BRK   
1067-   00          BRK   
1068-   00          BRK   
1069-   00          BRK   
106A-   00          BRK   
106B-   00          BRK   

Samsung 171v and gddccontrol

There's no monitor file for the Samsung 171v (SAM0063.xml)l in ddccontrol-db, but there is a listing for the Samsung 173s in the (SAM00A3.xml) file which is extremely similar.

So we'll copy that and put it into /usr/share/ddccontrol-db/monitor/SAM0063.xml.


There's no speakers so we'll take the 62 entry out of the caps add line.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!--- Samsung SyncMaster 173s SAM00A3 has some partial DDC/CI support (no caps) -->
<monitor name="Samsung Syncmaster 171v SAM0063 copied from 173s SAM00A3" init="standard">

<caps add="(vcp(10 12 16 18 1a 20 30 d0 d2))"/>  

 <control id="fine"       address="0xd0"/>
 <control id="coarse"     address="0xd2"/>
 <!--- Control 0xdc: +/116/255   [???] -->
 <!--- Control 0xdd: +/116/255   [???] -->
 <!--- Control 0xde: +/115/255   [???] -->
 <!--- Control 0xe4: +/145/255   [???] -->
 <!--- Control 0xe6: +/140/255   [???] -->
 <!--- Control 0xe8: +/131/255   [???] -->
 <!--- Control 0xea: +/0/0   [???] -->
 <include file="VESA"/>
</monitor>

So if you're curious, here's the full ddccontrol -c -p -d output:

sudo ddccontrol -c -d -p

ddccontrol version 0.4.2
Copyright 2004-2005 Oleg I. Vdovikin (oleg@cs.msu.su)
Copyright 2004-2006 Nicolas Boichat (nicolas@boichat.ch)
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You may redistribute copies of this program under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Probing for available monitorsradeon_open: mmap failed: Invalid argument
..I/O warning : failed to load external entity "/usr/share/ddccontrol-db/monitor/SAM0063.xml"
Document not parsed successfully.
.....
Detected monitors :
 - Device: dev:/dev/i2c-4
   DDC/CI supported: Yes
   Monitor Name: VESA standard monitor
   Input type: Analog
  (Automatically selected)
Reading EDID and initializing DDC/CI at bus dev:/dev/i2c-4...
Invalid response, corrupted data - xor is 0x01, length 0x03
0000: 6e 83 f3 00 00 4f 00 ff 00 1e 65 85 00 00 00 00 | n....O....e.....
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 54 a4 10 30 | ............T..0
0020: 1c 30 02 80 3c 03 00 a0 00 00 00 3c 00 00 00 00 | .0..<......<....
0030: 04 82 40 04 18 08 22 01 3b 00 28 33 3c 33 1e 32 | ..@...".;.(3<3.2
0040: 3c a4 6d                                        | <.m             
Invalid response, first byte is 0x50, should be 0x6e
0000: 50 83 f3 00 00 4f 00 ff 00 1e 65 85 00 00 00 00 | P....O....e.....
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 d4 a4 10 30 | ...............0
0020: 1c 30 02 80 3c 03 00 a0 00 00 00 3c 00 00 00 00 | .0..<......<....
0030: 04 82 40 04 18 41 22 01 3b 00 28 5c 3c 33 1e 32 | ..@..A".;.(\<3.2
0040: 3c a4 6d                                        | <.m             
Non-fatal error: Invalid response, magic is 0x3e
Invalid response, corrupted data - xor is 0xbf, length 0x3e
0000: 6e 3e f3 00 00 4f 00 ff 00 1e 65 85 00 00 00 00 | n>...O....e.....
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 54 a4 10 30 | ............T..0
0020: 1c 30 02 80 3c 03 00 a0 00 00 00 3c 00 00 00 00 | .0..<......<....
0030: 04 82 40 04 18 08 22 01 3b 00 28 20 3c 33 1e 32 | ..@...".;.( <3.2
0040: 3c a4 6d                                        | <.m             
I/O warning : failed to load external entity "/usr/share/ddccontrol-db/monitor/SAM0063.xml"
Document not parsed successfully.

EDID readings:
 Plug and Play ID: SAM0063 [VESA standard monitor]
 Input type: Analog
=============================== WARNING ===============================
There is no support for your monitor in the database, but ddccontrol is
using a basic generic profile. Many controls will not be supported, and
some controls may not work as expected.
Please update ddccontrol-db, or, if you are already using the latest
version, please send the output of the following command to
ddccontrol-users@lists.sourceforge.net:

LANG= LC_ALL= ddccontrol -p -c -d

Thank you.
=============================== WARNING ===============================

Capabilities:
Invalid response, corrupted data - xor is 0x01, length 0x03
0000: 6e 83 f3 00 00 4f 00 ff 00 1e 65 85 00 00 00 00 | n....O....e.....
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 14 a4 10 30 | ...............0
0020: 1c 30 02 80 3c 03 00 a0 00 98 96 80 00 00 00 00 | .0..<...........
0030: 09 82 40 04 19 41 10 01 3b 00 28 1a 3c 33 1e 32 | ..@..A..;.(.<3.2
0040: 3c a4 6d                                        | <.m             
Invalid response, first byte is 0x50, should be 0x6e
0000: 50 83 f3 00 00 4f 00 ff 00 1e 65 85 00 00 00 00 | P....O....e.....
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 14 a4 10 30 | ...............0
0020: 1c 30 02 80 3c 03 00 a0 00 00 19 02 00 00 00 00 | .0..<...........
0030: 09 82 40 04 19 41 10 01 3b 00 28 43 3c 33 1e 32 | ..@..A..;.(C<3.2
0040: 3c a4 6d                                        | <.m             
Non-fatal error: Invalid response, magic is 0x3e
Invalid response, corrupted data - xor is 0x0e, length 0x3e
0000: 6e 3e f3 00 00 4f 00 ff 00 1e 65 85 00 00 00 00 | n>...O....e.....
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 14 a4 10 30 | ...............0
0020: 1c 30 02 80 3c 03 00 a0 00 00 18 fc 00 00 00 00 | .0..<...........
0030: 0a 82 40 04 18 08 22 01 3b 00 28 07 3c 33 1e 32 | ..@...".;.(.<3.2
0040: 3c a4 6d                                        | <.m             
Invalid response, corrupted data - xor is 0x4f, length 0x03
0000: 6e 83 bd 00 00 4f 00 ff 00 1e 65 85 00 00 00 00 | n....O....e.....
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 54 a4 10 30 | ............T..0
0020: 1c 30 02 80 3c 03 00 a0 06 3f 1f 00 00 00 00 00 | .0..<....?......
0030: 0a 82 40 04 18 08 22 01 3b 00 28 30 3c 33 1e 32 | ..@...".;.(0<3.2
0040: 3c a4 6d                                        | <.m             
Invalid response, corrupted data - xor is 0x4f, length 0x03
0000: 6e 83 f3 4e 00 4f 00 ff 00 1e 65 85 00 00 00 00 | n..N.O....e.....
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 d4 a4 10 30 | ...............0
0020: 1c 30 02 80 3c 03 00 a0 00 00 00 3c 00 00 00 00 | .0..<......<....
0030: 01 82 40 04 18 08 22 01 3b 00 28 59 3c 33 1e 32 | ..@...".;.(Y<3.2
0040: 3c a4 6d                                        | <.m             
Invalid response, corrupted data - xor is 0x4f, length 0x03
0000: 6e 83 f3 00 4e 4f 00 ff 00 1e 65 85 00 00 00 00 | n...NO....e.....
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 54 a4 10 30 | ............T..0
0020: 1c 30 02 80 3c 03 00 a0 00 00 00 3c 00 00 00 00 | .0..<......<....
0030: 02 82 40 04 18 41 10 01 3b 00 28 1e 3c 33 1e 32 | ..@..A..;.(.<3.2
0040: 3c a4 6d                                        | <.m             
Invalid sequence in caps.
Raw output: 
Parsed output: 
 VCP: 
 Type: Unknown

Controls (valid/current/max) [Description - Value name]:
Control 0x10: +/7/36   [???]
Control 0x12: +/41/100   [???]
Control 0x16: +/0/16   [???]
Control 0x18: +/8/16   [???]
Control 0x1a: +/8/16   [???]
Control 0x20: +/51/255   [???]
Control 0x30: +/30/255   [???]
Invalid response, first byte is 0x51, should be 0x6e
51 82 01 8a 36 00 00 00 00 00 3c                | Q...6.....<     
Control 0xd0: +/50/50   [???]
Control 0xd2: +/60/120   [???]
Control 0xdc: +/109/255   [???]
Control 0xdd: +/100/255   [???]
Control 0xde: +/99/255   [???]
Control 0xe4: +/142/255   [???]
Control 0xe6: +/133/255   [???]
Control 0xe8: +/125/255   [???]
Control 0xea: +/1/0   [???]

Fun with the Synetix SuperSprite board

I was looking at the old Creative Computing article again about the Third Millenium Arcade Board and the Synetix Supersprite board and I thought, why not see if I could make a copy of the a2arcadebd.cpp and see if the SuperSprite would work?


So let's take a2arcadebd.h and a2arcadebd.cpp and search and replace arcadebd with ssprite, and change a few of the strings, and save it as a2ssprite.h and a2ssprite.cpp. The Synetix Supersprite demos hang when it tries to do speech, so we hook up a tms5220, copying lines from a2echoii.cpp.

src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.h

// license:BSD-3-Clause
// copyright-holders:R. Belmont
/*********************************************************************

    a2ssprite.h

    Synetix SuperSprite 
    (code based on Third Millenium Engineering Arcade Board)

*********************************************************************/

#ifndef MAME_BUS_A2BUS_A2SSPRITE_H
#define MAME_BUS_A2BUS_A2SSPRITE_H

#pragma once

#include "a2bus.h"
#include "video/tms9928a.h"
#include "sound/ay8910.h"
#include "sound/tms5220.h"

//**************************************************************************
//  TYPE DEFINITIONS
//**************************************************************************

class a2bus_ssprite_device:
 public device_t,
 public device_a2bus_card_interface
{
public:
 // construction/destruction
 a2bus_ssprite_device(const machine_config &mconfig, const char *tag, device_t *owner, uint32_t clock);

protected:
 a2bus_ssprite_device(const machine_config &mconfig, device_type type, const char *tag, device_t *owner, uint32_t clock);

 virtual void device_start() override;
 virtual void device_reset() override;
 virtual void device_add_mconfig(machine_config &config) override;

 // overrides of standard a2bus slot functions
 virtual uint8_t read_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset) override;
 virtual void write_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset, uint8_t data) override;

private:
 DECLARE_WRITE_LINE_MEMBER( tms_irq_w );

 required_device<tms9918a_device> m_tms;
 required_device<ay8910_device> m_ay;
 required_device<tms5220_device> m_tms5220;
};

// device type definition
DECLARE_DEVICE_TYPE(A2BUS_SSPRITE, a2bus_ssprite_device)

#endif  // MAME_BUS_A2BUS_SSPRITE_H

src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.cpp

// license:BSD-3-Clause
// copyright-holders:R. Belmont
/*********************************************************************

    a2ssprite.c

    Implementation of the Synetix SuperSprite

    

*********************************************************************/

#include "emu.h"
#include "a2ssprite.h"
#include "sound/tms5220.h"
#include "speaker.h"


/***************************************************************************
    PARAMETERS
***************************************************************************/

#define TMS_TAG "ssprite_tms"
#define TMS5220_TAG "ssprite_tms5220"
#define AY_TAG "ssprite_ay"
#define SCREEN_TAG "screen"

//**************************************************************************
//  GLOBAL VARIABLES
//**************************************************************************

DEFINE_DEVICE_TYPE(A2BUS_SSPRITE, a2bus_ssprite_device, "a2ssprite", "Synetix SuperSprite")

//-------------------------------------------------
//  device_add_mconfig - add device configuration
//-------------------------------------------------

MACHINE_CONFIG_MEMBER( a2bus_ssprite_device::device_add_mconfig )
 MCFG_DEVICE_ADD( TMS_TAG, TMS9918A, XTAL_10_738635MHz / 2 )
 MCFG_TMS9928A_VRAM_SIZE(0x4000) // 16k of VRAM
 MCFG_TMS9928A_OUT_INT_LINE_CB(WRITELINE(a2bus_ssprite_device, tms_irq_w))
 MCFG_TMS9928A_SCREEN_ADD_NTSC( SCREEN_TAG )
 MCFG_SCREEN_UPDATE_DEVICE( TMS_TAG, tms9918a_device, screen_update )

 MCFG_SPEAKER_STANDARD_MONO("mono")
 MCFG_SOUND_ADD(AY_TAG, AY8912, 1022727)
 MCFG_SOUND_ROUTE(ALL_OUTPUTS, "mono", 1.0)

 MCFG_SPEAKER_STANDARD_MONO("mono2")
 MCFG_SOUND_ADD(TMS5220_TAG, TMS5220, 640000) // copied this line from a2echoii.cpp
 MCFG_SOUND_ROUTE(ALL_OUTPUTS, "mono2", 1.0)
MACHINE_CONFIG_END

//**************************************************************************
//  LIVE DEVICE
//**************************************************************************

a2bus_ssprite_device::a2bus_ssprite_device(const machine_config &mconfig, const char *tag, device_t *owner, uint32_t clock) :
 a2bus_ssprite_device(mconfig, A2BUS_SSPRITE, tag, owner, clock)
{
}

a2bus_ssprite_device::a2bus_ssprite_device(const machine_config &mconfig, device_type type, const char *tag, device_t *owner, uint32_t clock) :
 device_t(mconfig, type, tag, owner, clock),
 device_a2bus_card_interface(mconfig, *this),
 m_tms(*this, TMS_TAG),
 m_ay(*this, AY_TAG),
 m_tms5220(*this, TMS5220_TAG)
{
}

//-------------------------------------------------
//  device_start - device-specific startup
//-------------------------------------------------

void a2bus_ssprite_device::device_start()
{
 // set_a2bus_device makes m_slot valid
 set_a2bus_device();
}

void a2bus_ssprite_device::device_reset()
{
}

/*
    C0nx map: (info from Synetix SuperSprite Owners manual.pdf page 33 of 266)
    0 - TMS9918 VDP vram read/write
    1 - TMS9918 VDP register write
    2 - TMS5220 Speech read/write
    3 - Video Switch APPLE VIDEO IN OFF
    4 - Video Switch APPLE VIDEO IN ON
    5 - Video Switch APPLE ONLY OUT
    6 - Video Switch MIX VDP/EXTERNAL VIDEO
    7 - TMS 9918 WRITE ONLY/FRAME RESET
    C - AY Sound data write
    D - AY Sound data write
    E - AY Sound register write or data read
    F - AY Sound register write or data read
*/


uint8_t a2bus_ssprite_device::read_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset)
{
 switch (offset)
 {
  case 0:
   return m_tms->vram_read(space, 0);
  case 1:
   return m_tms->register_read(space, 0);
  case 2:
   return 0x1f | m_tms5220->status_r(space, 0); // copied this line from a2echoii.cpp
  case 14 ... 15:
   return m_ay->data_r(space, 0);
 }

 return 0xff;
}

void a2bus_ssprite_device::write_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset, uint8_t data)
{
 switch (offset)
 {
  case 0:
   m_tms->vram_write(space, 0, data);
   break;
  case 1:
   m_tms->register_write(space, 0, data);
   break;
  case 2:
   m_tms5220->data_w(space, offset, data);
   break;
  case 12 ... 13:
   m_ay->data_w(space, 0, data);
   break;
  case 14 ... 15:
   m_ay->address_w(space, 0, data);
   break;
 }
}

WRITE_LINE_MEMBER( a2bus_ssprite_device::tms_irq_w )
{
 if (state)
 {
  raise_slot_irq();
 }
 else
 {
  lower_slot_irq();
 }
}

and we need to hook it up in the apple2e driver with an #include and a SLOT_INTERFACE and put a couple of lines in bus.lua for a2ssprite.h and a2ssprite.cpp:

diff --git a/src/mame/drivers/apple2e.cpp b/src/mame/drivers/apple2e.cpp
index 732a525b6d..ec55024dc8 100644
--- a/src/mame/drivers/apple2e.cpp
+++ b/src/mame/drivers/apple2e.cpp
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ Address bus A0-A11 is Y0-Y11
 #include "bus/a2bus/laser128.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2echoii.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2arcadebd.h"
+#include "bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2midi.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2zipdrive.h"
 #include "bus/a2bus/a2applicard.h"
@@ -3713,6 +3714,7 @@ static SLOT_INTERFACE_START(apple2_cards)
        SLOT_INTERFACE("vtc1", A2BUS_VTC1)    /* Unknown VideoTerm clone #1 */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("vtc2", A2BUS_VTC2)    /* Unknown VideoTerm clone #2 */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("arcbd", A2BUS_ARCADEBOARD)    /* Third Millenium Engineering Arcade Board */
+       SLOT_INTERFACE("ssprite", A2BUS_SSPRITE)    /* Synetix SuperSprite Board */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("midi", A2BUS_MIDI)  /* Generic 6840+6850 MIDI board */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("zipdrive", A2BUS_ZIPDRIVE)  /* ZIP Technologies IDE card */
        SLOT_INTERFACE("echoiiplus", A2BUS_ECHOPLUS)    /* Street Electronics Echo Plus (Echo II + Mockingboard clone) */


diff --git a/scripts/src/bus.lua b/scripts/src/bus.lua
index bbf1f35bd5..8fe12f0b58 100644
--- a/scripts/src/bus.lua
+++ b/scripts/src/bus.lua
@@ -1673,6 +1673,8 @@ if (BUSES["A2BUS"]~=null) then
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2echoii.h",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2arcadebd.cpp",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2arcadebd.h",
+               MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.cpp",
+               MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2ssprite.h",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2midi.cpp",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2midi.h",
                MAME_DIR .. "src/devices/bus/a2bus/a2vulcan.cpp",

After you do this and compile with make you can launch mame with the -sl7 ssprite parameter and run the supersprite demo programs.

./mame64 apple2e -sl7 ssprite -flop1 "StarSprite Demonstration.DSK"










from "Third Millenium Arcade Board - Article Creative Computing 1984.pdf"

Getting the Third Millenium Arcade Board MLDEMOS to run

I loaded up the MLDEMOS on the Third Millenium arcade board and took a look at where it was hanging up.

./mame64 apple2e -sl4 arcbd -flop1 Amparcade_1983_Third_Millenium_Engineering_Corporation.do -debug


It was spinning in a loop around 088e and proceeding no further.

I set a break point at 088e with "bpset 088e" and after it hit the breakpoint, did a "history".

It was obviously writing data to $c0c1 and $c0c0.



I also did a disassembly from 800 to 1800 with "dasm mldemo.asm,800,1000" to take a look at.


less mldemo.asm | grep '$c0c1'
08E4: AD C1 C0 lda $c0c1
0990: 8D C1 C0 sta $c0c1
0993: 8E C1 C0 stx $c0c1
0A80: 8D C1 C0 sta $c0c1
0A83: 8C C1 C0 sty $c0c1



less mldemo.asm | grep '$c0c0'
0859: 8D C0 C0 sta $c0c0
09B3: 8D C0 C0 sta $c0c0
09DE: 8D C0 C0 sta $c0c0
0A09: 8D C0 C0 sta $c0c0
0A3B: 8D C0 C0 sta $c0c0
0A68: 8D C0 C0 sta $c0c0


The arcade board is supposed to be in slot#4 which maps to the $c0cx memory space, and the code in a2arcade.cpp looks like this:

======================================================




/*
    C0nx map:
    0 - TMS read vram
    1 - TMS read status
    2 - TMS write vram
    3 - TMS write register
    5 - AY register select
    6 - AY data
*/


void a2bus_arcboard_device::write_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset, uint8_t data)
{
 switch (offset)
 {
  case 2:
   m_tms->vram_write(space, 0, data);
   break;

  case 3:
   m_tms->register_write(space, 0, data);
   break;

  case 5:
   m_ay->address_w(space, 0, data);
   break;

  case 6:
   m_ay->data_w(space, 0, data);
   break;
 }
}

So if it's writing c0c0 and c0c1, nothing is happening since we've got no cases for that.

So let's add case 0 and case 1: (assuming they're just like case 2 and 3)
=================================





void a2bus_arcboard_device::write_c0nx(address_space &space, uint8_t offset, uint8_t data)
{
 switch (offset)
 {
  case 0:
   m_tms->vram_write(space, 0, data);
   break;
  case 1:
   m_tms->register_write(space, 0, data);
   break;
  case 2:
   m_tms->vram_write(space, 0, data);
   break;

  case 3:
   m_tms->register_write(space, 0, data);
   break;

  case 5:
   m_ay->address_w(space, 0, data);
   break;

  case 6:
   m_ay->data_w(space, 0, data);
   break;
 }
}

And things start working!








Happy guy from the MLDEMO hotel scene:

Playing with the Arcade Board on Apple2e

I thought I'd see what the Arcade Board would do on the apple2e driver. If you didn't know what it is, it's a card that has a tms9918 graphics chip and a sound chip.

So the arcade board prefers to be in slot 4.

./mame64 apple2e -sl4 arcbd -flop1 Amparcade_1983_Third_Millenium_Engineering_Corporation.do


and once it boots, you can run the basic demos.




But just for fun, let's see what modifying the TMS9918 memory will do, so we launch mame with the debug.

./mame64 apple2e -sl4 arcbd -flop1 Amparcade_1983_Third_Millenium_Engineering_Corporation.do -debug


If you CTRL+C the basic demo, the animation stops.

So let's open a memory window and choose the TMS9918 vram space:



and I've written bytes 68 6A to memory positions 00 and 01
and 69 6B to memory positions 20 and 21, which has the effect of changing the tiles to the letter M.



and you can see the M in the upper left:

Getting 80 column BASIC listing on apple2e

So I was disappointed that I could only get a 40 column wide printout from my basic listing, so I tried PR#3 to activate the 80 column card but once you activate the printer with PR#1, that brings it back to 40 columns.

Thinking about it, I remembered that Beagle's Double-take would let me do listings in any column width.

Launching mame with the double take floppy:

./mame64 apple2e -sl1 ssc -sl1:ssc:ssc_rs232 printer -printout myprintfile8.bin -flop1 Double\ Take.zip












Booting double-take and then

CTRL+F shift+1 /80 will get you 80 columns
CTRL+F shift+1 /255 will get you 255 columns

Interestingly, mame's -printout function won't wipe out your previous printout file if it has the same name, it just overwrites the data in the existing file.

cat myprintfile8.bin | tr '\200-\377' '\000-\177' 


(without parameters, it's your regular 40 columns)

]FUNCTION? LIST 

90 DIM PP(192)
100 HGR 
110 FOR Y = 0 TO 191
120 M = (Y / 8 - INT (Y / 8)) * 8
130 N = INT (Y / 8)
:N = (N / 8 - INT (N / 8)) * 8
140 O = INT (Y / 64)
150 P = M * 1024 + N * 128 + O * 40
+ 8192
155 PP(Y) = P
160 POKE P,Y
170 NEXT 
180 FOR Y = 0 TO 191
:POKE PP(Y) + 1,Y
:NEXT 


(so here we have an 80 column list by adding /80)


]FUNCTION? LIST /80

90  DIM PP(192)
100  HGR 
110  FOR Y = 0 TO 191
120 M = (Y / 8 -  INT (Y / 8)) * 8
130 N =  INT (Y / 8):N = (N / 8 -  INT (N / 8)) * 8
140 O =  INT (Y / 64)
150 P = M * 1024 + N * 128 + O * 40 + 8192
155 PP(Y) = P
160  POKE P,Y
170  NEXT 
180  FOR Y = 0 TO 191: POKE PP(Y) + 1,Y: NEXT 

Getting a BASIC listing from mame's apple2e driver

So after much much fiddling, I've figured out how to get my basic listing out of the apple2e driver in mame 0.188.


I launch mame with the following command line:


./mame64 apple2e -sl1 ssc -sl1:ssc:ssc_rs232 printer -printout myprintfile.bin


and then I ctrl+reset (ctrl+f12) to get to a command prompt, type

PR#1
PRINT "HELLO THERE"
PR#0

and then drop out of mame with ESC.


But I look at the output file and it's not right.

hexdump -C myprintfile.bin 
00000000  8d 8a dd d0 d2 c9 ce d4  a0 a2 c8 c5 cc cc cf a0  |................|
00000010  d4 c8 c5 d2 c5 a2 8d 8a  c8 c5 cc cc cf a0 d4 c8  |................|
00000020  c5 d2 c5 8d 8a 8d 8a dd  d0 d2 a3 b0 8d 8a        |..............|
0000002e

So I use unix tr to get rid of the high bit, and the text is there.

tr '\200-\377' '\000-\177' translates characters 128-255 to 0-127.

cat myprintfile.bin | tr '\200-\377' '\000-\177' | hexdump -C
00000000  0d 0a 5d 50 52 49 4e 54  20 22 48 45 4c 4c 4f 20  |..]PRINT "HELLO |
00000010  54 48 45 52 45 22 0d 0a  48 45 4c 4c 4f 20 54 48  |THERE"..HELLO TH|
00000020  45 52 45 0d 0a 0d 0a 5d  50 52 23 30 0d 0a        |ERE....]PR#0..|
0000002e

So now I can get my listing, hooray!

I suppose that I could just set the SSC card to 7 bits.

computing the address of a hi-res line

]PR#1
]LIST

90  DIM PP(192)
100  HGR 
110  FOR Y = 0 TO 191
120 M = (Y / 8 -  INT (Y / 8)) * 
8
130 N =  INT (Y / 8):N = (N / 8 - 
 INT (N / 8)) * 8
140 O =  INT (Y / 64)
150 P = M * 1024 + N * 128 + O * 
40 + 8192
155 PP(Y) = P
160  POKE P,Y
170  NEXT 
180  FOR Y = 0 TO 191: POKE PP(Y)
 + 1,Y: NEXT 

]PR#0

Checker King for apple 2

I've been playing a bunch of apple 2 games lately, and rather enjoying the "classics".

I fired up this game disk called "The Black Sage" and interestingly, after running a catalog, finding a Checkers game called Checker King.












You type N to put numbers on the squares (so you know what square is what)

P to pass (though I thought you weren't allowed to pass)
R to reset everything
C to clear everything
M to change the pieces
IQ8 to set the computer's intelligence to level 8, can set from level 1 to 8



and a typical move will be something like:

22-18

and if you can do multiple jumps just put dashes between each step

25-18-9