X68000 Beta - Updates and Releases

[tontonkaloun]

Thank you Mr Puu !! It's OK

[tom5151]

Thanks @puu. The last release (20200622) fixed my "HDF not loading" issue.
Could someone explain what "load / store sram" is ? What file to load ? What file to store ? When ? Is it required when using HDF ?

[breiztiger]

as i understand it's memory config

[Cebion]

Yes, ,you can set the amount of ram in the machine and then "store" it in the ram file. When you load the machine you can "load" the ram back into the machine

[puu]

The JP106/JP109 keyboard used in Japan has a backslash key to the left of [BS] and left of right [SHIFT]. (Although it is a yen (¥) symbol in JIS)
In SHIFT state, [BS] left is "|", right [SHIFT] left is "_" key.
It is an important key in DOS, so I would like to support it, but I think it is probably a problem with the linux side code. I think that /usr/bin/coreutil does the service for the FPGA on linux side, but where is the source of this?

[dshadoff]

In Main_MiSTer, commit # a7f472e (June 22) seems to be related.
Please take a look at file 'input.cpp'.
I think the key you are thinking about might be on line 425, and disabled:
NONE, //124 KEY_YEN

There are also other keys which might be important for Japanese keyboards... please take a look.

[puu]

OK. I'll check it. Thank you.

[Alkadian]

Hi guys,

Could someone please be so kind as to share a compiled file of the latest version? That would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks!

[tontonkaloun]

it's easy to compile with Quartus lite (and free)

https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/7ba0dc3 ... 5b10141eec

[Alkadian]

@tontonkaloun,

Many thanks for that. I will try to study Quartus as well. I love learning new things.

[Alkadian]

Maybe a stupid question. Would it be possible to use .DIM or .HDM files?

Also, do I need additional files for this core?

[puu]

The X68000 BIOS image is released by the manufacturer SHARP. Although the font is not disclosed, it is merged with the BIOS image converted from the font for X11 and archived as X68000/BIOS/boot.rom. If you have all the files, However, this core requires an SDRAM board.

Floppy images accept only .d88 format, so you need to convert it to .d88 with some software.
ex.Virtual Floppy Image Converter
https://www.vector.co.jp/soft/win95/util/se151106.html

[Alkadian]

@puu,

First of all many thanks for your big efforts that you are putting on this fantastic core!

Thanks for the Virtual Floppy Image Converter link, I have dowloaded it and I can confirm it worked like a charm on my win10 laptop by running it as winXP SP2 compatibility mode. Excellent!

I must admit I am struggling to get the core to work. In fact I am sure I am missing something in the set up and I would really appreciate some assistance.

This is what I have done so far:

1. Placed the .rbf file kindly provided by tontonkaloun (thanks again) in /media/fat/_Computer/
2. Placed the .D88 file in /media/fat/games/X68000/
3. Placed the boot.rom file in /media/fat/games/X68000/
[edit] Placed the x68000.rom in /media/fat/bootrom/
4. I have renamed the file SRAM.DAT to SRAM.RAM and placed it in /media/fat/games/X68000/

Then from the Mister OSD interface I have specified the location for:

FD00 *.D88
SRAM *.RAM

and I have clicked on:
sync FD00
LOAD SRAM
STORE SRAM

Can you please shed some light? My apologies if I am missing the obvious but I am not an expert.

Thanks a lot!

EDIT: It worked!

I have just placed the x68000.rom in /media/fat/bootrom/ and then I have clicked on reset on the OSD interface. I am a super happy boy now THANKS!

[Alkadian]

it's easy to compile with Quartus lite (and free)

https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/7ba0dc3 ... 5b10141eec

Hi tontonkaloun,

As I mentioned in my earlier post I love learning new things. When you get a chance, would you please be so kind as to guide me through the process of compiling with Quartus Lite?

For now I have downloaded the windows version from the intel website.

Thanks a lot!

[Chris23235]

I tried some games on d88, with many games I only get a black screen, I can hear the sound, but there is no picture. I am on HDMI, is this a common issue? Some other games work fine.

[tontonkaloun]

it's easy to compile with Quartus lite (and free)

https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/7ba0dc3 ... 5b10141eec

Hi tontonkaloun,

As I mentioned in my earlier post I love learning new things. When you get a chance, would you please be so kind as to guide me through the process of compiling with Quartus Lite?

For now I have downloaded the windows version from the intel website.

Thanks a lot!

Just open the qar file
Then you need to launch the ip upgrade tool and run the automatic process (upper left corner)
and finally you can compile

with the browser file, you are looking for the file output from the folder (* .rbf)

[Alkadian]

it's easy to compile with Quartus lite (and free)

https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/7ba0dc3 ... 5b10141eec

Hi tontonkaloun,

As I mentioned in my earlier post I love learning new things. When you get a chance, would you please be so kind as to guide me through the process of compiling with Quartus Lite?

For now I have downloaded the windows version from the intel website.

Thanks a lot!

Just open the qar file
Then you need to launch the ip upgrade tool and run the automatic process (upper left corner)
and finally you can compile

with the browser file, you are looking for the file output from the folder (* .rbf)

That’s fantastic! Many thanks for taking the time to get back to me. Much appreciated.

Looking forward to give it a go!

[dshadoff]

I'm not sure if this is clear to everybody, but this core is still under development; I don't think that it's 100% ready for general use.
Please let puu complete his work before asking for support.

[puu]

I know there are some known issues and some unexplained issues with the X68000 core, but I suspect that a fair amount of software can work.
If there is software that does not work properly, please tell us the specific software name and the location where it occurred, and it will be a clue to the cause.

One of the known problems is that the behavior differs from the actual device due to the difference in the SDRAM connection method when writing to the graphic screen with 16bit color setting and displaying with 4/8bit color setting.
In the actual machine, writing is done simultaneously on different planes with the same coordinates (4 planes in 4bit color), but in the FPGA version, it is written simultaneously in 4 dots across.
This is because the screens that have four sides are not always overlapped with the same offset at the time of display, and in most cases the readout is performed continuously in the horizontal direction, which allows efficient operation.
In the actual machine, it is probably using VRAM of another chip for each surface, but in the FPGA version it is processed with a single SDRAM of 16 bit width, so I think that there is no help in working with a limited bandwidth.
.. In addition, it is a technique to specify different number of colors for display and writing and to perform high-speed writing, but it is not the operation specified in the specifications.
This technique seems to be used in Gradius 1 to my knowledge.

[Chris23235]

Thanks for all you work puu, I really appreciate it. One of the games I tried, that only gave me sound, but no picture was Space Invaders (1989) (Tiny-Tomo). The game boots up fine and the Tini-Tomo logo appears, but then when the game starts it is only a black screen with sound. I use the MiSTer with HDMI and a 128 MB module, hope this information is useful for you.

[MaxPlaysMiSTer]

I'm really enjoying the core! Cho Ren Sha and Otoko Dama look and sound beautiful!

I have a game with only sound as well that I can share:

ZugyA (Sprite 1996)
Boots fine and sound seems okay but no video. When I emulated the game I noticed that it does boot into 15khz mode by default with a 31mhz mode accessible via a menu.

MiSTer HDMI, 128MB

[tontonkaloun]

Hello,

In the game "View point" for example, we see a graphic bug on the sprite from the menu of the game which then continues
MiSTer HDMI, 128MB

[suverman]

Super Street Fighter II crashes after one or two rounds in game.

Illumination Laser has wrong graphics / garbled graphics.

Strider - never got it to run.

Detana Twinbee (Not the normal Twinbee which runs great) crashes just before the first stage.

Otakudama crashes sometime 2 to 5 minutes ingame.Edit: Its working fine now. No problem.

Genocide 2 has bad graphics.

Thanks

[Alkadian]

@Puu,

Here my findings:

1. There are certain games (like Cotton Fantastic Night Dreams, Otoko Dama) that are not centered in the screen, they are shifted towards the top/left of my TV screen.
2. Bubble bobble crashes as soon as it boots up.

Thanks and keep up the excellent work

[pgimeno]

Can anyone please share a .D88 disk image that is working (a legal one, please)? I have some .DIM disk image files and since I'm on Linux, I can't use the converter that was posted upthread, so I made my own based on this specification: http://www.z88dk.org/tools/x1/XBrowser_User_Guide.pdf ; however, it's not working and I would like to have a reference .D88 image that I can check, to see what I might be doing wrong.

I've found no .D88 disk images online. I found this free game: https://www.vector.co.jp/vpack/filearea/x68/game/rpg but the image is in XDF format.

[puu]

Excuse me. It is such a specification that is displayed in the upper left of the screen. Display dots at 800x600 resolution, regardless of the screen settings of X68000. Display raster display dots from the upper left.
Because this is the easiest to implement.

[Alkadian]

Excuse me. It is such a specification that is displayed in the upper left of the screen. Display dots at 800x600 resolution, regardless of the screen settings of X68000. Display raster display dots from the upper left.
Because this is the easiest to implement.

Oh I see! Many thanks for your kind explanations!

[cavemanxzx]

Can anyone please share a .D88 disk image that is working (a legal one, please)? I have some .DIM disk image files and since I'm on Linux, I can't use the converter that was posted upthread, so I made my own based on this specification: http://www.z88dk.org/tools/x1/XBrowser_User_Guide.pdf ; however, it's not working and I would like to have a reference .D88 image that I can check, to see what I might be doing wrong.

I've found no .D88 disk images online. I found this free game: https://www.vector.co.jp/vpack/filearea/x68/game/rpg but the image is in XDF format.

For D88 you have to look for PC88 software. It's the PC88 standard format.

I don't know which converter was posted upthread, but vfic (virtual floppy image converter) is working fine using wine on linux. It's Win95 software.

[puu]

I understand why the screen of ZugyA is not displayed. There seems to be a problem on the software side. There is a screen priority setting at 0xe82500, but it seems that 32bit writing is probably done when writing here, and 0000 is written to 0xe82500 and the value originally intended to be written to 0xe82502 is written. The actual device ignores the address bit1 for this register, so it is predicted that it is operating normally. The screen has been modified so that it will respond to the address 0xe82502.
I would like to check other software and upload them all at once.

[tontonkaloun]

Can anyone please share a .D88 disk image that is working (a legal one, please)? I have some .DIM disk image files and since I'm on Linux, I can't use the converter that was posted upthread, so I made my own based on this specification: http://www.z88dk.org/tools/x1/XBrowser_User_Guide.pdf ; however, it's not working and I would like to have a reference .D88 image that I can check, to see what I might be doing wrong.

I've found no .D88 disk images online. I found this free game: https://www.vector.co.jp/vpack/filearea/x68/game/rpg but the image is in XDF format.

https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/f3ed4e8 ... a9bf0db063