MiSTer PCXT

[kitune-san]

I have modified KF8253 timer.
I am hoping this fix will improve the sound of the demo.

I will send a pull request if all is well.

[spark2k06]

I have modified KF8253 timer.
I am hoping this fix will improve the sound of the demo.

I will send a pull request if all is well.

I can't tell you if it improves the sound, but I have tried the area5150 and 8088MPH demos and they work and sound fine. With some speed variations at times, but I put it down to serdrive and the read limit at 460.8Kbps.

As far as I'm concerned, you can pull request to the prerelease branch without any problem

[kitune-san]

Previously, the melody did not play properly in two parts on 8088MPH.
I believe this has been improved with this fix.
Also, the last melody is now played.

AREA5150 has not been confirmed. Sorry.

[kitune-san]

Sorry, This problem appears to have already been fixed.
This is not an improvement due to my changes

Previously, the melody did not play properly in two parts on 8088MPH.
I believe this has been improved with this fix.

[friendly.joe]

@spark, @MicroLab, @kitune-san

I'm closely following the development of this core.
Congratulations on the achievements done so far!

[MicroCoreLabs]

@spark, @MicroLab, @kitune-san

I'm closely following the development of this core.
Congratulations on the achievements done so far!

What a friendly thing to say! Thank you friendly.joe!

[Juri]

How to use this core? i only get a splas/disclaimer screen. thanks

[breiztiger]

you can read this

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/PCXT_Mi ... structions

[spark2k06]

In order to facilitate the port to other SRAM-only FPGA projects, I have created a new branch and adapted it to SRAM:

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/PCXT_Mi ... e/exp-sram

For MiSTer to work, a dual SDRAM/SRAM memory module is required:

sramisterium1.jpg (43.21 KiB) Viewed 21973 times

I've done several tests, and everything seems to work fine... in fact, the implementation is much simpler than SDRAM.

@kitune-san, however, would you mind taking a look at this new branch in case you identify any improvement points in the SRAM driver implementation?

Thanks!

[pgimeno]

Did you try the symlink method? If you go to the Linux prompt on the MiSTer after connecting a USB floppy drive, you should be able to make a symlink to the floppy drive and if you then name that symlink something like floppydrive.img and place it in the PCXT or AO486 folder you should be able to mount that file in either of the cores and access whatever floppy is active in the drive. It probably still has some issues, since the controller in the core wont be the same as the controller for the USB drive... and I do not know if it can work with a bootable floppy.

I have not tried it myself yet, but I have read it being suggested a few times. If I test it myself, and it works for me, I will make a video about it.

Update:
Ah, seems to not be without issues. Flynnsbit wrote about his test of the symlink method. I guess for this to work fully, it will need support from the core and probably MiSTer Main and even then it might not be a good solution.
viewtopic.php?p=59252#p59252

I haven't tried myself either, but the method as described by flynnsbit in that post is wrong. Here's what I'd try:

1. Unmount the floppy if it's mounted (not sure if Linux will try to auto-mount it when it's connected; if it does, you will need to unmount it every time you reboot the MiSTer).
2. Create a symlink to the device (not the mount point folder!)
Note: there's no need to create an empty file at all. That serves no purpose, and may cause the `ln -s` command to fail.

For example, if the device is /dev/fd0:

umount /dev/fd0
ln -s /dev/fd0 /media/fat/games/ao486/floppy.img

[Caldor]

SRAM? What is that? I am pretty sure the two modules I have are 128MB SDRAM with no SRAM on them.

Does any other cores require SRAM?

[dmckean]

SRAM? What is that? I am pretty sure the two modules I have are 128MB SDRAM with no SRAM on them.

Does any other cores require SRAM?

In order to facilitate the port to other SRAM-only FPGA projects

[flynnsbit]

Did you try the symlink method? If you go to the Linux prompt on the MiSTer after connecting a USB floppy drive, you should be able to make a symlink to the floppy drive and if you then name that symlink something like floppydrive.img and place it in the PCXT or AO486 folder you should be able to mount that file in either of the cores and access whatever floppy is active in the drive. It probably still has some issues, since the controller in the core wont be the same as the controller for the USB drive... and I do not know if it can work with a bootable floppy.

I have not tried it myself yet, but I have read it being suggested a few times. If I test it myself, and it works for me, I will make a video about it.

Update:
Ah, seems to not be without issues. Flynnsbit wrote about his test of the symlink method. I guess for this to work fully, it will need support from the core and probably MiSTer Main and even then it might not be a good solution.
viewtopic.php?p=59252#p59252

I haven't tried myself either, but the method as described by flynnsbit in that post is wrong. Here's what I'd try:

1. Unmount the floppy if it's mounted (not sure if Linux will try to auto-mount it when it's connected; if it does, you will need to unmount it every time you reboot the MiSTer).
2. Create a symlink to the device (not the mount point folder!)
Note: there's no need to create an empty file at all. That serves no purpose, and may cause the `ln -s` command to fail.

For example, if the device is /dev/fd0:

umount /dev/fd0
ln -s /dev/fd0 /media/fat/games/ao486/floppy.img

Good call, it was the device and not the folder. It had been a while since I tried it.

[jordi]

SRAM? What is that? I am pretty sure the two modules I have are 128MB SDRAM with no SRAM on them.

Does any other cores require SRAM?

It won't be required, it's just a compatibility branch

[spark2k06]

I have added a second COM2 port (2F8h) experimentally, it now works on the USER_IO but I think a mouse could be implemented there... I would have to try to figure out how to do it:

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/PCXT_Mi ... a3a25145b1

20220821_194800-screen.png

I update the COM2 experimental branch on USER_IO port with the latest prerelease developments:

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/PCXT_Mi ... s/exp-com2

Theoretically, you could connect a serial mouse to that port, but I haven't tried it... it might not work because I used the same clock as the UART used for COM1 and serdrive, faster than usual. However, if anyone wants to try using an RX/TX to USB signal adapter, there is this application I found for PC that might be interesting:

https://github.com/mborjesson/USB-Mouse-to-Serial

On the other hand, I have created another branch from this one to carry out a first attempt at PS/2 to serial mouse implementation from RX/TX signals, using in this case the MiSTer sources from the Atari ST core:

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/PCXT_Mi ... xp-atmouse

You should be able to use these drivers for MS-Dos, but it didn't work for me:

http://www.ataripc.net/misc-software/

It is possible that the reason is the same as the one I mentioned before, the frequency of the serial port, which is the same as COM1 for serdrive... but I don't know if there is something else.

Maybe this implementation is too big for the purpose, but I understand that what needs to be implemented is a mouse-to-serial PS/2 signal converter... and the Atari ST implementation is the only one I've found.

I've left in this post all the progress I've made, in case someone manages to finish it off.

[Caldor]

Nice I have been hoping to see serial mouse support in AO486 because that would help support Settlers 1 and 2 in two player splitscreen mode. So if this works maybe it might be possible to port it to the AO486 core. Not sure who might be capable of doing that though. Probably Sorgelig, but he is usually busy. I have only a little experience with MiSTer Main development and so far looking into FPGA core coding has not gotten me anywhere. Or at least not anywhere that was productive enough to help with core development.

[jordi]

Nice I have been hoping to see serial mouse support in AO486 because that would help support Settlers 1 and 2 in two player splitscreen mode. So if this works maybe it might be possible to port it to the AO486 core. Not sure who might be capable of doing that though. Probably Sorgelig, but he is usually busy. I have only a little experience with MiSTer Main development and so far looking into FPGA core coding has not gotten me anywhere. Or at least not anywhere that was productive enough to help with core development.

https://everything2.com/title/Mouse+protocol


Protocol looks simple, but I am a humble developer, no core knowledge

[somhi]

@MicroCoreLabs If you have any Altera board with SDRAM (or SRAM) and enough BRAM I think I could "easily" port the PCXT core to it. Let me know if you are interested in testing the core.

[Mills]

Last update solves some issues in area5150 demo, for example, vertical scrolls are 1 pixel at a time, super smooth 60 fps. Previous versions of the core had a 2 pixel scroll, which looked like 30 fps. Also the multi layer scene, looks bad at 4.77 Mhz and looks ok at 7 mhz.

[Mills]

This new version (by spark2k06) implements two page VRAM for tandy, it solves flickering in many games that use double buffer.

[spark2k06]

This new version (by spark2k06) implements two page VRAM for tandy, it solves flickering in many games that use double buffer.

Some games that I have tested now graphically work perfectly:

- Bubble Bobble
- Arkanoid
- Xenon 2
- Gods

[suww37]

This new version (by spark2k06) implements two page VRAM for tandy, it solves flickering in many games that use double buffer.

Some games that I have tested now graphically work perfectly:

- Bubble Bobble
- Arkanoid
- Xenon 2
- Gods

I tested this core.
I feel much better.
Death track-> working, but very slow
bubble bobble -> freezing
ski or die -> no working

[wark91]

Lemmings have better graphics but still some parts are not good.

20220904_155236-screen.png (235.67 KiB) Viewed 20986 times

Great improvements !

[spark2k06]

This new version (by spark2k06) implements two page VRAM for tandy, it solves flickering in many games that use double buffer.

Some games that I have tested now graphically work perfectly:

- Bubble Bobble
- Arkanoid
- Xenon 2
- Gods

To me Bubble Bobble, except for the music that is a little accelerated, works very well. But at least in Tandy it requires the core to run at least 7 Mhz.

[NML32]

This new version (by spark2k06) implements two page VRAM for tandy, it solves flickering in many games that use double buffer.

Some games that I have tested now graphically work perfectly:

- Bubble Bobble
- Arkanoid
- Xenon 2
- Gods

I tested this core.
I feel much better.
Death track-> working, but very slow
bubble bobble -> freezing
ski or die -> no working

I got Bubble Bobble working by holding the shift key while DOS was booting to skip all my config settings.

[somhi]

@TheSonders has done a PS2 to Microsoft Serial module adapter. He does not have a way to test it on this core, so I'll test it in one of the deMiSTified FPGAs.
Here is the source code https://github.com/TheSonders/MouseConv ... eWrapper.v

I'm using COM2 but I have no idea what is the current speed of this port.
Currently I have a clk_uart2 of 1.84 MHz but that I don't know what is the equivalence in bps for this UART.

Anyone could let me know what the clk_uart MHz to bps correspondence is in this core ?

Microsoft mouse protocol should work at 1200 bps.

[Caldor]

It seems to me that the EMS RAM setting is reversed? If I enable it, it freezes at the EMS check. I should probably try another MiSTer Main. Which one is the recommended one for this core now?

I also have trouble with the highest speed setting. When I use it, it cannot read any disk images. Same as with the lowest setting.

[spark2k06]

It seems to me that the EMS RAM setting is reversed? If I enable it, it freezes at the EMS check. I should probably try another MiSTer Main. Which one is the recommended one for this core now?

I have it configured this way, and no problem... even removing the /n option (used to skip the test):

Code: Select all

FILES=40
BUFFERS = 30
DOS = HIGH, UMB
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\USE!UMBS.SYS C000-EC00
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\DOSMAX\DOSMAX.EXE /R+ /N+ /P-
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\LTEMM.EXE /p:A000 /x /n
SHELL=C:\UTIL\DOSMAX\SHELLMAX.COM C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:256 /P

Set A000 in the OSD and try again, remember also to use drivers provided by me for EMS management, No special Main is required for this to work:

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/PCXT_Mi ... e/main/hdd

20220905_072607-screen.png (152.42 KiB) Viewed 20723 times

I also have trouble with the highest speed setting. When I use it, it cannot read any disk images. Same as with the lowest setting.

The recommended UART speed for any CPU speed is 460.8Kbps... even so, serdrive can sometimes give problems, if that happens, reload the core... until we can get rid of serdrive in future.

[spark2k06]

Lemmings have better graphics but still some parts are not good.
20220904_155236-screen.png

Great improvements !

New update with support for 4 x 32Kb pages in 320x200x16 mode:

PCXT:
- 4 x 32Kb pages for Tandy 320x200x16 mode (More Tandy games now working)
- VRAM resizing for MDA to 4Kb
- LPT port mapping fix
- Removed DSS/Covox support (Not feasible for this core)

Now the Lemmings game, much better :

20220905_071211-screen.png (512.07 KiB) Viewed 20711 times

[Caldor]

It seems to me that the EMS RAM setting is reversed? If I enable it, it freezes at the EMS check. I should probably try another MiSTer Main. Which one is the recommended one for this core now?

I have it configured this way, and no problem... even removing the /n option (used to skip the test):

Code: Select all

FILES=40
BUFFERS = 30
DOS = HIGH, UMB
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\USE!UMBS.SYS C000-EC00
DEVICE=C:\UTIL\DOSMAX\DOSMAX.EXE /R+ /N+ /P-
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\LTEMM.EXE /p:A000 /x /n
SHELL=C:\UTIL\DOSMAX\SHELLMAX.COM C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:256 /P

Set A000 in the OSD and try again, remember also to use drivers provided by me for EMS management, No special Main is required for this to work:

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/PCXT_Mi ... e/main/hdd

Thanks I have been using this setup and your drivers. For some reason though I just had to disable the EMS setting and I still get the 2MB EMS RAM when its disabled. So it works normally if its turned off... but it might be some experimental version of MiSTer Main I am using. I will ensure I switch back to the latest official MiSTer Main. I was trying the experimental ones to try the different experimental versions of this core with AO486 floppy support and such.