Acorn Electron Core

[nico24]

What part of the Electron tape wasn't working? The last core had it working just fine.

[alanswx]

We don’t have tape loading from a uef file. We need to convert the uef into raw in the mister binary and feed it in. A few more days of work.

[nico24]

Ah = yes, I use FeeUEF to play them through the audio cable. There was a site where someone had analyzed the format of UEF files, but it's a bit of a headache!

[alanswx]

I think I have the hard parts worked out. I just need some time to finish the code.

[alanswx]

I will release tape support when the new mister binary ships..

[killersquirel]

Great news! Thanks for your work on the MiSTer project.

[alanswx]

We need another fix to main for compressed UEF files to work. I should have tested before i switched headers. sorry -- I will post when it is working correctly. Working on a tape status dialog for all the classic computers that have tape. With a status bar..

[breiztiger]

Tape dialog like on MiSTer with progressbar on tape loading ?

[alanswx]

34E1629B-B452-4F3F-A4C2-F218E8DFBDB4.jpeg (3.12 MiB) Viewed 7719 times

Something like this.

[breiztiger]

Oh cool if amstrad core can get that !!!

[kathleen]

Excellent @alanswx !!!

[pgimeno]

Oh no, you're going to spoil the fun of not knowing when it will finish and staying all the time there until it loads!

Just joking. Excellent work.

[lamarax]

Awfully sorry to be hijacking the Elk thread, but we need the latest Beeb core to be compiled in the main repo:

BBCMicro_20220123.rbf

(3.61 MiB) Downloaded 202 times

Most people who casually run the 'downloader' script once in a while and don't frequent the discord, won't even be aware of its existence!

@alanswx please nudge Sorg; he must have forgotten all about it

[alanswx]

Awfully sorry to be hijacking the Elk thread, but we need the latest Beeb core to be compiled in the main repo:

BBCMicro_20220123.rbf

Most people who casually run the 'downloader' script once in a while and don't frequent the discord, won't even be aware of its existence!

@alanswx please nudge Sorg; he must have forgotten all about it

I broke the timing.. the core still works well. But Sorg was going to take a look at the clocks and fix it.

[alanswx]

Let me know how tape works on the acorn electron. I noticed paperboy doesn’t work. But it doesn’t work on mame either. Bad dump? I noticed one other didn’t work in either spot.

[EeDee]

Let me know how tape works on the acorn electron. I noticed paperboy doesn’t work. But it doesn’t work on mame either. Bad dump? I noticed one other didn’t work in either spot.

Thanks for Core and updates. I owned an Electron for a short while in the '80s
ADC seems to work okay (full volume for me). However I've not been able to load a UEF file. All I get are data errors.

[alanswx]

Let me know how tape works on the acorn electron. I noticed paperboy doesn’t work. But it doesn’t work on mame either. Bad dump? I noticed one other didn’t work in either spot.

Thanks for Core and updates. I owned an Electron for a short while in the '80s
ADC seems to work okay (full volume for me). However I've not been able to load a UEF file. All I get are data errors.

Did you update the MiSTer binary?

[akeley]

I managed to load a few .uef tape games today, no problem. Tried Paperboy and while it did get through several stages, after the last one (where data gets loaded and there's garabge on screen) the game did not start. I tried to load the same .uef in Elkulator emu and it did load ok, with the same sequence and behaviour (garbage on screen in the last segment)

[alanswx]

Is there source for that emulator? I wonder if paperboy works on the replay core. It seems to fail the same way in Mame. I wonder what is wrong.

[akeley]

http://elkulator.acornelectron.co.uk/

I've tried it few more times on MiSTer, two different versions, and it crashes to a sort of text-filled red screen. At the same moment when the game starts on the emu.

[alanswx]

http://elkulator.acornelectron.co.uk/

I've tried it few more times on MiSTer, two different versions, and it crashes to a sort of text-filled red screen. At the same moment when the game starts on the emu.

I am not sure how to debug this.. Do you think it is a memory thing? Are we missing an expansion?

[danielb]

Hi, I get the same result.

I know nothing at all about the Acorn Electron, but assuming it has some custom ROM to load the MMB file, could this be interfering with loading from cassette?

D.

[alanswx]

Hi, I get the same result.

I know nothing at all about the Acorn Electron, but assuming it has some custom ROM to load the MMB file, could this be interfering with loading from cassette?

D.

Which error do you get?

I load the electron core, and get to the MMB menu. Then I hit shift-F10 to reboot to basic. Then I type "*TAPE" to get into tape mode. Then the CHAIN "" - will cause the tape to load (which you need to have loaded from the OSD before you type CHAIN of course)

Alan

[danielb]

Hi, yes I did that. I tried two tapes; Paper Boy and Arcadians. Both seemed to load and then crashed at the last minute. Paper Boy crashes to a red screen with text garbage that looks like Basic and an "Invalid Program" error. Arcadians crashes to a black screen with a text cursor in the corner and assorted garbage.

D.

[alanswx]

Hi, yes I did that. I tried two tapes; Paper Boy and Arcadians. Both seemed to load and then crashed at the last minute. Paper Boy crashes to a red screen with text garbage that looks like Basic and an "Invalid Program" error. Arcadians crashes to a black screen with a text cursor in the corner and assorted garbage.

D.

Weird, I have had no problem with Arcadians_E

[akeley]

Sorry, Alan, I also know zilch about Electron - this core is my first experience of this machine. But perhaps @danielb is right, since we're going through vhd/mmb to load the internal roms, it does not feel 100% kosher.

I can maybe ask on stardot forums (or maybe some members are reading this), been meaning to make account there for some other stuff anyway.

Arkadians also loaded ok for me.

[EeDee]

Let me know how tape works on the acorn electron. I noticed paperboy doesn’t work. But it doesn’t work on mame either. Bad dump? I noticed one other didn’t work in either spot.

Thanks for Core and updates. I owned an Electron for a short while in the '80s
ADC seems to work okay (full volume for me). However I've not been able to load a UEF file. All I get are data errors.

Forgot to do that small thing. Typical of me
Thanks

[danielb]

Arcadians_E ran without incident. I am wondering whether the files I tried might actually be for the BBC Micro, which would be kind of embarrassing...

UPDATE: I redownloaded a confirmed Electron version of Paper Boy, and it behaves in exactly the same way.

D.

[EeDee]

Got the same results as everyone else loading Paperboy from UEF so I tried Audio which runs to the end but doesn't start up, just crashes

[alanswx]

Paperboy doesn’t work. That is what I said now everyone is trying it. How funny.