UltiMem

[eebuckeye]

I flashed the latest image and noticed some cartridges would not load such as Donkey Kong, Dig Dug and some others. Most worked great though!

Is this a known issue?

[tokra]

Same for me. The 16K-images do not work. I assume this is because the software was initially written some years ago for the never released "VIC Flash Plugin" and would need adjustments for the UltiMem. Also: The memomry expansion choices for this software are very limited. You can only have unexpanded, 3K, or 24K - not the often needed 32K or 35K. Fixing this is beyond the scope of my abilities though.

[brain]

Would be nice if there was an "official" boot image for this cart along the lines of the megacart menu. I guess this cart would then offer everything the MC does but offer the benefit of ready availability, updatable and larger memory.

The "official" menu is Marko Makela's version, adapted from the VIC Flash Plugin. It's on my web site in the downloads section.

But...

I realize that some folks want a different menu presentation, more like Mega Cart, so something like that may develop in time.

As for the cart images that do not work, I'd check the original files to see if there are issues. That will help pinpoint the culprit.

Jim

[brain]

Same for me. The 16K-images do not work. I assume this is because the software was initially written some years ago for the never released "VIC Flash Plugin" and would need adjustments for the UltiMem. Also: The memomry expansion choices for this software are very limited. You can only have unexpanded, 3K, or 24K - not the often needed 32K or 35K. Fixing this is beyond the scope of my abilities though.

Marko did start with the VIC Flash Plugin menu, but he has fully adapted for Ultimem. If the images do not work, let me know which ones, and I will check with Marko.

Jim

[eebuckeye]

Some of the game cartridges I tried and do not work:

Load Runner
Arachnoid
Donkey Kong
Ms. Pac-Man
Dig Dug
Robotron
Battlezone
Centipede
Jungle Hunt
Defender
Pole Position

Many Atarisoft games but others affected too.. Of course I did not try all of them..

[pixel]

Should you desire to give the Flash chip a good rub, a bunch of example code for erasing and writing can be found here: https://github.com/SvenMichaelKlose/g/b ... basics.asm

[eslapion]

Some of the game cartridges I tried and do not work:

Load Runner
Arachnoid
Donkey Kong
Ms. Pac-Man
Dig Dug
Robotron
Battlezone
Centipede
Jungle Hunt
Defender
Pole Position

Many Atarisoft games but others affected too.. Of course I did not try all of them..

All of these games have a few simple common characteristics.

They are all 16k and so they occupy BLK5 and BLK 1 or 3. They all try to self modify as a means of copy protection.

[brain]

I'd check them in VICE, to see if it's the apps, the menu (maybe not setting paramaters correctly), or the HW.

I am not in front of a unit right now, but will be later this week. I'll test the images then.

Jim

[tokra]

I tested in VICE, same behaviour. The 16K-games just won't work. I suspect the menu is setting the parameters of the expansion wrong for these. Either it sets the wrong memory areas or it sets them to RAM instead of ROM leading to the copy protection triggering.

[brain]

Marko sent me a patch. I just came back from a trip, so have not had time to merge it. Pixel, any chance you could get it merged?:

Code: Select all

Index: menu.s
===================================================================
--- menu.s	(revision 115)
+++ menu.s	(revision 117)
@@ -35,8 +35,8 @@
 
 mout	= $d1			; pointer for writing menu characters
 cout	= $c3			; pointer for colourising menu entries
-mbits	= $f7			; bit store for menu characters
-tmp	= mbits			; temporary location used by getbyt1
+mbits	= $0a			; bit store for menu characters
+tmp	= $f7			; temporary location used by getbyt1
 typefl	= $f9			; directory entry type
 tmpos	= typefl		; temporary position, 24 bits
 menupos	= $fc			; menu position, 24 bits
@@ -1085,8 +1085,8 @@
 
 	;; table=>bitmasks for the configuration register,
 	;; and bit patterns for selecting ROM
-	;; 0=BLK1,1=BLK2,2=BLK2,3=BLK3
-blkmask	.byte $03,$01,$0c,$04,$30,$10,$c0,$40
+	;; 0=BLK1,1=BLK2,2=BLK3,3=BLK5
+blkmask	.byte $fc,$01,$f3,$04,$cf,$10,$3f,$40
 
 	;; clear the low RAM, copy the RESET code
 	;; restore normal key repeat and set the cassette buffer pointer

[majikeyric]

Seems to have fixed the problems.

Now the quick menu navigation using the first letter of an entry works too

Thanks!

[brain]

I put updated files on my web site today:

http://www.go4retro.com/downloads/UltiMem

• Source Code ZIP file
• Updated binary files that fix games not running, and add some more menu features
• Standalone ultimem.prg app to set configs (from Marko)

Let me know if there are other issues.

[tokra]

Thanks for the fix. Memory-expansion-setting could still be easier and accessible from the main-menu. While the ultimem.prg provides great flexibility, it has to be loaded separately and cannot set the IO2/IO3 areas.

For daily use I think one of the main menu-settings if not the first one should be the memory-config-option to be able to use the UltiMem as a simple RAM-expansion without too much fuss that could be confusing the end-user. Being able to type

run/stop for unexpanded
3 for 3K
8 for 24K

is something you have to know or find out first. Also this leaves the option for 32K and 35K which is needed by Popeye or Realms of Quest III (32K) and Doom (35K).

[majikeyric]

@Jim:

In banktest.s (lines 48 and 181) Marko assumes the VIC-MIDI has 512KB of RAM. isn't it 128 KB ?

[groepaz]

just for info: i removed support for 16MB images from VICE again, as apparently no such hardware exists :=)