Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
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- Vic 20 Afficionado
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Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
Even if the filename for saving is auto-generated we still need a way to enter the name when loading / restoring.
My preference would be for a patched game (all five of 'em!) because it is already a bit of a performance to load these on my hardware setup:
Enable write to 32K memory
LOAD "2PIR*", 8,1
Disable write to 32K memory
Hit reset switch on card
SYS 32592
Usually I forget the SYS address and have to do this at least twice! Having to preload something would be a bit of a pain. I usually have to preload the DOS wedge anyhow to navigate my SD card!
Right now I am distracted by other projects, so I'll take whatever I can get. I am in the process of playing Pirate Adventure at the moment, and saving to disk would rock!
A general purpose memory dumping and restoring mechanism triggered from an ISR could be useful for other things though perhaps?
My preference would be for a patched game (all five of 'em!) because it is already a bit of a performance to load these on my hardware setup:
Enable write to 32K memory
LOAD "2PIR*", 8,1
Disable write to 32K memory
Hit reset switch on card
SYS 32592
Usually I forget the SYS address and have to do this at least twice! Having to preload something would be a bit of a pain. I usually have to preload the DOS wedge anyhow to navigate my SD card!
Right now I am distracted by other projects, so I'll take whatever I can get. I am in the process of playing Pirate Adventure at the moment, and saving to disk would rock!
A general purpose memory dumping and restoring mechanism triggered from an ISR could be useful for other things though perhaps?
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- Vic 20 Afficionado
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Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
Clearly I need to buy real Scott Adams carts so I can write the SYS address on them with Sharpie pen like I used to back in the day!
- eslapion
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Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
I already said how to do that...Bobbi wrote:Even if the filename for saving is auto-generated we still need a way to enter the name when loading / restoring.
You suggest...eslapion wrote:Let's say you make 7 saves during a play session, you would find files A B C D E F G on disk. The next time you play, you just POKE767,71 (71 is 64 + 7) and then when you load a game, it will load game G and the next save will be H.
I studied the ROM data for all 5 games and there doesn't seem to be any space left in the $4000-$7FFF area used by the games so since we usually want to make a single contiguous file, this involves using the end of the BLK 1 ($2000-$3FFF) area to put in the extra code.My preference would be for a patched game (all five of 'em!) because it is already a bit of a performance to load these on my hardware setup:
Enable write to 32K memory
LOAD "2PIR*", 8,1
Disable write to 32K memory
Hit reset switch on card
SYS 32592
This means the games will now require a 24K RAM expansion to play. This also makes the patch incompatible with genuine carts or the Behr-Bonz multicart which contains all 5 games in ROM.
You need JiffyDOS !!... I usually have to preload the DOS wedge anyhow to navigate my SD card!
I'd rather try and do it right the first time around.Right now I am distracted by other projects, so I'll take whatever I can get.
Intercepting the LOAD and SAVE vectors is a form of ISR which is custom made for these specific games.A general purpose memory dumping and restoring mechanism triggered from an ISR could be useful for other things though perhaps?
Be normal.
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Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
Maybe I do need Jiffydos ... I have been looking at that actually That is probably another thread though.
I guess I was being non-commital on the basis that if you are the one doing the work, I don't feel entitled to demand that you scratch my itch, as it were
I will be grateful for any solution. If there is no space to patch the ROMs then a separate preload would work fine. Poking to set the load slot / next save slot seems fine too. I agree it would also be good if it worked with future multicarts.
I guess I was being non-commital on the basis that if you are the one doing the work, I don't feel entitled to demand that you scratch my itch, as it were
I will be grateful for any solution. If there is no space to patch the ROMs then a separate preload would work fine. Poking to set the load slot / next save slot seems fine too. I agree it would also be good if it worked with future multicarts.
- eslapion
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Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
I am in a personal battle to save my health right now... focusing my mind on projects like this has therapeutic virtues...Bobbi wrote:I guess I was being non-commital on the basis that if you are the one doing the work, I don't feel entitled to demand that you scratch my itch, as it were
Be normal.
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Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
The Friendly Computer can be excellent therapy.
Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
I've finally got around to debugging the wedge I wrote a couple of years ago, and it now works!
This image loads into BLK5 and patches the KERNAL save and load vectors so that the Adventure carts can save and restore to device 8.
This image loads into BLK5 and patches the KERNAL save and load vectors so that the Adventure carts can save and restore to device 8.
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- advent8.zip
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Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
Nice
Last edited by Noizer on Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
Valid rule today as earlier: 1 Byte = 8 Bits
-._/classes instead of masses\_.-
-._/classes instead of masses\_.-
Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
Good work! Your wedge is also likely to be useful for general disk purposes like Scott Adams stuff instead of tape operation
Valid rule today as earlier: 1 Byte = 8 Bits
-._/classes instead of masses\_.-
-._/classes instead of masses\_.-
- eslapion
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Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
I suppose it is too large to fit in the tape buffer.
On the Behr-Bonz multicart, BLK5 is a mirror of BLK2 so it's already occupied by unusable code.
Be normal.
Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
It's currently 145 bytes and could be shrunk a little. I haven't disassembled the Scott Adams Adventure carts yet so I don't know if it's safe to assume that the tape buffer is unused. I'll try an alternative build.
Re: Scott Adams - Save to Disk?
Here is a new version with both the BLK5 ROM image and a PRG file that loads into the tape buffer.
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- advent8.zip
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