MiSTer FPGA Forum

Moondandy wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 9:10 pmThe BIOS is open source so there are no copyright issues having it in the release folder.

Do you have a reference for that?

I've never heard of it being open-source, but I believe Sharp authorized noncommercial distribution of the X68000 ROMs and associated system software (e.g. Human68K and SX-Window) for use with emulators due to some user group activism. There's a document that appears to be a license text, although machine translation mangles it pretty badly, so it would probably require a native-level Japanese reader (perhaps even a Japanese lawyer) to explain the actual terms. Part of it does seem to say that the license document must be included with distributions of the software, though.

http://retropc.net/x68000/software/sharp/

pgimeno wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 11:30 pm

Moondandy wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 9:10 pmThe BIOS is open source so there are no copyright issues having it in the release folder.

Do you have a reference for that?

Apologies, I meant to write public domain not open source, Rysha mentioned this on the discord (why it is in the release folder on GitHub).

I've seen a couple claims floating around on the web that it's public domain, but I doubt that those are accurate. It's fairly common for people to misuse the term "public domain" for things that are still under copyright but have a license allowing redistribution by the general public.

mattsoft wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 10:53 pm

eewoke wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 8:51 pm

Murderface1982 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 15, 2021 7:53 am I'm getting nothing but jumbled static on my screen... X68k.rom is in the computer folder on the SD card games on my hard drive...

Me too. Unfortunately nobody has responded. Very strange.

I posted this question on the discord server and was told that the core currently only runs properly at 800x600 resolution because the core has not had the standard scalar framework linked in yet. Haven't tried that yet, but you might want to see if that fixes the issue.

Used the latest beta from discord. All fine now.

ExCyber wrote: ↑Sat Nov 20, 2021 1:48 am I've seen a couple claims floating around on the web that it's public domain, but I doubt that those are accurate. It's fairly common for people to misuse the term "public domain" for things that are still under copyright but have a license allowing redistribution by the general public.

Hmm that ringed a bell in my head. It may well have to do with the Japanese law. I've seen anime shows being posted in certain fan websites with no fear for copyright violation claims, and then withdrawn when a (Japanese) company acquired exclusivity rights over the work, which according to the website, resulted in these works no longer being public domain.

Someone more familiar with Japanese law could shed more light on this.

softtest9 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 1:51 am You can explore the contents of those floppies either within Human68k or one of those Windows programs that can open X68000 floppies. If there's a file called INSTALL.X or similar, that's probably what you need to run. You may need to set up a harddrive image with Human68k first.

Sorry for the late reply.

Appreciate the tip! It sounds like quite a bit of leg work for a console guy like me. I only get into the PC stuff casually and that includes the Mister. I was hoping there'd be an easier fix for something like this, changing a setting or something within the core itself. Going by your response that doesn't appear to be the case.

Chris23235 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 8:44 am

Captain FPGA wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 12:41 am https://youtu.be/0fggjHgRNUY

Apparently sound does work on Final Fight.

This is a video of someone running Final Fight on the Mister X68000 core. What's he doing to get both music and sound effects? Is he using the mt32-pi? If Final Fight gives sound fx I'll bet the farm both Street Fighter games do too. I want to know how?

I am pretty sure he does, as many of his videos deal with the MiSTer and an PI-MT32.

If you want to know which X68000 games had MIDI support look here (this site has other useful info on many games as well):

https://bitchinbits.foolproofdesigns.co ... -settings/

Also helpful, apparently only Super Street Fighter supports a special sound device (GM) but not Champion Edition, bummer there.

What's you guys' opinion on a dual SDRAM solution for the X68000 Sharp Core? In theory could the extra 256 MB help with the sound? I was thinking about getting something like this if the Playstation/Saturn core needed it. Then I thought about other possibilities that can be used with this thing that includes PC cores like the AO486 and the Sharp.

Captain FPGA wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 11:49 pm What's you guys' opinion on a dual SDRAM solution for the X68000 Sharp Core? In theory could the extra 256 MB help with the sound? I was thinking about getting something like this if the Playstation/Saturn core needed it. Then I thought about other possibilities that can be used with this thing that includes PC cores like the AO486 and the Sharp.

I don't see where 256 MB could help you with on the X68000. The system was limited to 4 MB by default (12 MB were possible with a memory expansion board). The sound related issues in the core are due to its beta status only.

In general 256 MB SDRAM won't be of much use on the systems the MiSTer simulates at all. The typical 486 PC had a maximum of 32 MB RAM back in the day. There is no software needing 256 MB that will perform well on AO486.

FPGA zum Spass is working on getting the PSX core running on a single 32 MB SDRAM stick, the dual stick setup is only a temporary workaround during the development and not intended as the final requirement.

As far as I see it, you shouldn't invest in a second 128 MB stick, it will not getting used in any cores outside beta status.

Chris23235 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 22, 2021 6:37 am

Captain FPGA wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 11:49 pm What's you guys' opinion on a dual SDRAM solution for the X68000 Sharp Core? In theory could the extra 256 MB help with the sound? I was thinking about getting something like this if the Playstation/Saturn core needed it. Then I thought about other possibilities that can be used with this thing that includes PC cores like the AO486 and the Sharp.

I don't see where 256 MB could help you with on the X68000. The system was limited to 4 MB by default (12 MB were possible with a memory expansion board). The sound related issues in the core are due to its beta status only.

In general 256 MB SDRAM won't be of much use on the systems the MiSTer simulates at all. The typical 486 PC had a maximum of 32 MB RAM back in the day. There is no software needing 256 MB that will perform well on AO486.

FPGA zum Spass is working on getting the PSX core running on a single 32 MB SDRAM stick, the dual stick setup is only a temporary workaround during the development and not intended as the final requirement.

As far as I see it, you shouldn't invest in a second 128 MB stick, it will not getting used in any cores outside beta status.

Thx, I'll hold off on purchasing the additional RAM for now.

Okay, I kind of gave up on this... but I'm back it.

I have my mister connected to an external hard drive, I have no media/fat directories. I've tried moving the X86000.rom to the computer folder and the x86000 folder on my SD card, and I've also tried it in the games folder on my hard drive with my actual roms, I'm getting a black screen currently.

A.) Does the X86000 rom need to be renamed to boot.rom?

B.) If I'm using an external hard drive that contains my disk images where does that the rom file need to go?

C.) Am I missing anything? I imagine update all updated the x86000 to the correct version, am I wrong here?

You say you have no media/fat directories. What does that mean and how is your storage organized?
The rom has to be named X68000.rom but must be in games/X68000.
Your disk images have to be in games/X68000.
On my MISTer most directories are in /media/usb0 and I created symlinks in /media/fat.
Ex: /media/fat/games -> /media/usb0/games
/media/fat/_Computer -> /media/usb0/_Computer
and so on.


Edit: typing too fast lead me to make a big mistake. The X68000.rom must be in /media/fat/bootrom.

jca wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 6:23 pm You say you have no media/fat directories. What does that mean and how is your storage organized?
The rom has to be named X68000.rom but must be in games/X68000.
Your disk images have to be in games/X68000.
On my MISTer most directories are in /media/usb0 and I created symlinks in /media/fat.
Ex: /media/fat/games -> /media/usb0/games
/media/fat/_Computer -> /media/usb0/_Computer
and so on.

Okay, i made some progress... I am getting a proper core menu now. I had the wrong RBF file. The issue im having at this point is that when I look for D88 images it says directory doesn't exist, every other core recognizes their respective folders. Any ideas here? My D88 files are on an external hard drive, root of my hard drive looks like this... CONFIG, GAMES, LOST.DIR , and then my D88 files are... GAMES> X86000

I suppose GAMES> X86000 is a typo.

jca wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 6:53 pm I suppose GAMES> X86000 is a typo.

It is! My fault. I moved the room file to the computer core folder and now it's working... But I'm still not getting anything but "missing directory" when I search for disk images...

Is it possible that I need these files on the SD card?

I suppose you also have a games directory on the SD card. Is it empty or do you have non empty subdirectories for other cores?

Another question: what file system did you use on your USB drive?

I also made a mistake: X68000 must be in /media/fat/bootrom.

sub directories for other cores on the SD card. I figured the issue lies in the hard drive or file structure... I moved files to the SD card and it seems to be working albeit intermittently, but I think that has to do more with the fact that I'm pretty new at running this core.

Awesome core when it works right.

With multi disk games, are do you load both the disk images at the same time? Ioaded dracula in both disk drives and that seemed to be the only think that got it working...

Yes, if the game comes with 2 floppies, you pretty much always run it by putting floppy 1 in drive 1 and floppy 2 in drive 2. If the game comes with 3 or more floppies, it's harder to tell. It could be that it has two floppies for playing and a third floppy for saving progress. Or it might not run at all unless you install it to the harddrive. It depends on the game.

@ Murderface1982
You did not say what FS you used on the USB drive. If it is NTFS note that it is case sensitive and X68000 must be with a capital X.

I can't remember I'll check when I get home... My file system works for every other console and I made sure the uppercase lowercase matched on both... Games might not matchup or something though, but then I would assume my other cores wouldn't be able to locate files either.

It's the weirdest fucking thing... I'm intermittently getting Directory not found now. It works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. I have no idea what the hell is causing this...

Power supply problem?
Apparently X68000 is/was the only games subdirectory you have/had on your USB drive. The case sensitivity is only for USB drives formatted NTFS so it does not affect what is on your SD card.
Is the USB drive a new addition to your setup?
Did your run anything else from your USB drive?
How many Amps can your power supply deliver?
Now that you moved X68000 to your SD card did you disconnect your USB drive?
If not disconnect it and see if it works. If it does it means that your power supply does not deliver enough Amps.

Murderface1982 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 3:50 am It's the weirdest fucking thing... I'm intermittently getting Directory not found now. It works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. I have no idea what the hell is causing this...

I can think of a couple things that might cause this behavior:

1) Insufficient power supply causing the drive to be unreliable.

2) Two file systems covering the same portion of the drive. I've seen this before, but I don't know exactly how it got into that state. Basically, I had a Linux system that prioritized mounting /dev/sdb, while plugging the same disk into Windows would prioritize the equivalent of /dev/sdb1 (or maybe it was the other way around). Both appeared to be valid file systems, but their contents didn't match and attempting to access certain files would cause strange failures because related structures had been overwritten by the other system.

jca wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 4:28 am Power supply problem?
Apparently X68000 is/was the only games subdirectory you have/had on your USB drive. The case sensitivity is only for USB drives formatted NTFS so it does not affect what is on your SD card.
Is the USB drive a new addition to your setup?
Did your run anything else from your USB drive?
How many Amps can your power supply deliver?
Now that you moved X68000 to your SD card did you disconnect your USB drive?
If not disconnect it and see if it works. If it does it means that your power supply does not deliver enough Amps.

Hilarious, unplugged my hard drive and now I am good to go. So weird.

I have 2 recommendations for you:

1. When you ask for help people trying to help will ask you questions, answering them will make things a lot easier and faster to solve your problems.
2. If you want to use a USB drive ditch the power supply which came with the DE10-Nano and get a beefy one.

That said I am done with this problem.

eewoke wrote: ↑Sun Nov 21, 2021 11:41 am

mattsoft wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 10:53 pm

eewoke wrote: ↑Fri Nov 19, 2021 8:51 pm

Me too. Unfortunately nobody has responded. Very strange.

I posted this question on the discord server and was told that the core currently only runs properly at 800x600 resolution because the core has not had the standard scalar framework linked in yet. Haven't tried that yet, but you might want to see if that fixes the issue.

Used the latest beta from discord. All fine now.

Have you got a link and version that fixes this, pls?

Anyone got pi-midi working with other games than Akumayou Dracula??

With X68000_20211108 core version only works with that game, with other games core hangs after changing to midi sound in menu

Hello all,
i finally register to this great community and first want to thank all the genius people for the nice work with this stuff ;D

So i just tried the X68000 Core and run into the same problem like "catenaccio"

catenaccio wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 5:46 pm Anyone got pi-midi working with other games than Akumayou Dracula??

With X68000_20211108 core version only works with that game, with other games core hangs after changing to midi sound in menu

What we missing? Or is it just because it´s still beta?

cheerz

There are issues with MIDI, I believe Kitrinx said there are some unimplemented interrupts.

Some games work with it, others will just hang