FE3 Loader Menu..What am I doing wrong?? Megacart Rom conv.

[justarb]

So we have 9c80,9d00,9d80,and 9e00 in use on the megacart correct?

And the FE3 only uses 9c02 and 9c03.

So even if he is writing to Megacart registers, they should have no effect on the FE3 correct?

later,
dabone

No, if he is writing to the Megacart registers for some specific reason, that bit of code will not work on anything other than the Megacart. The point of all this is, the Megacart-specific changes may mean that these ROM images will not work properly on other hardware. The ROMs may appear to work, but there are no guarantees that they will not fail at some point.

[dabone]

I just meant that those registers and the FE3 registers are in different places, so the odds of his code accidentaly erasing part of the fe3 flash is very very small. Yes it might crash, but shouldn't hurt anything.

Any being able to run them at all, even with the threat of crashing, beats not having them available at all.


Later,
dabone

[justarb]

I just meant that those registers and the FE3 registers are in different places, so the odds of his code accidentaly erasing part of the fe3 flash is very very small. Yes it might crash, but shouldn't hurt anything.

"the odd .. very small", "might crash", "shouldn't hurt anything" - these are the very reasons why he doesn't want these ROMs out in the wild for just anyone to grab - they might crash and might very well cause some damage. Can you be sure that the ROMs don't hit the FE3 registers at all? Imagine the drama if one of the ROMs does somehow wipe the FE3 flash - nbla000 wouldn't want his name attached to ROMs that even have only a slight chance of causing grief to someone who downloads them from some random site.

If you want the carts to work with FE3, grab the original ROMs and fix them yourself. Then you can have all the glory you seek by releasing the fixed ROMs to the world. nbla000 doesn't want his modified ROMs spread, so do it yourself and avoid the drama.

[dabone]

these are the very reasons why he doesn't want these ROMs out in the wild

And these are the reasons I'm not releasing them into the wild.

I just meant for myself.

Would still love to see him release his fixes for everybody.


Later,
dabone

[dabone]

If you want the carts to work with FE3, grab the original ROMs and fix them yourself. Then you can have all the glory you seek by releasing the fixed ROMs to the world. nbla000 doesn't want his modified ROMs spread, so do it yourself and avoid the drama.

Why does everyone think I want to do it for glory? WTF people.
Plain and simple, I don't care who releases it, just as long as it is out there and preserved. Heck, I'd even throw it out there as a anonymous upload for all I care.

Currently, I'm recopying and renaming files from the zimmers collection to my rom set, that way I can be sure NOT TO GET ANY OF HIS PRECIOUS CODE INTO THE *(#^$%#(*^(* WILD!

In 10 Years when he is no longer active, and the only NTSC fixes are in old megacart dumps, I'm sure people will rip them and use them just fine.

The carts seem to work with MY fe3 and thats good enough for me, apparently screw anybody else for using them on a NTSC machine.

Mods please close this thread, it's not producing ANYTHING useful.

Later,
dabone

[nbla000]

I guys, first of all sorry for the late reply.

I'm really busy with the real life at the moment and I've no time enough for Denial

Please consider that my english is not good so maybe my opinion is not well translated in english.

Unfortunatelly I've no time to check all olds fixes but I rememeber that I've fixed some 8k games by using free space of another 8k block and other similar things, so for example a game may call a JMP to a place that is ok on Mega-Cart but may produce unforeseeable effects on FE3.

This is the only reason why I suggest to re-fix it, If I find time I may help you but now I may just follow the Mega-Cart site and some other small things, the work and the family take me very busy.

About FE3 / Mega-Cart I don't want to start a flame, we still selling Mega-Carts and on April 2011 we had also the monthly order record !!!

And yes it is and it still is an non for profit project but it does not mean for example that other people may have profit from our project.

So really I've nothing against FE3 and related projects, I think also that they have different user targets so no problems for me and Brian Lyons said the same to me.

Brian is still building new Mega-Cart for Vic-20 enthusiasts and I assure you that it is a very big work, I think this is a big service for the Vic-20 community so there is no reason to start a war.

I remember that if you are searching flexibility my latest Mega-Cart firmware version allows you to start the cart from an external menu/program in an SD drive for example instead of the self builded menu, this is an advanced feature for advanced user like you but standard user will find the integrated menu a very good way to use it

Peace and Love and sorry for my absence on Denial

[e5frog]

Hey there... it shouldn't be this hard...

(EDIT: Final Expansion v3.2, r022d is used)

I was going to try and run a cartridge file on the FE3, I have read the "VIC-20 Final Expansion User Manual.pdf" (where most links are dead).
(Yes... I know I helped Heather making the latest released EF3 PCB - that doesn't mean I have tried it much or know every aspect)

I understand I should a file called "LOADER" on root of SD-card. I copied the beginning of someone else's file (here on Denial) and edited it.
When trying to go into "Cart Loader" I just get an empty screen.

This is the contents of my current LOADER-file, it's on root of the FAT formatted card, as is the "diag.bin"-file:
10 "Return To Main Menu"
20 +@"cd//"
30 +reload
100 " "
105 " Menu Title "
110 " "
900 "VIC-20 DIAGNOSTIC"
901 +"diag",c,$a000
902 +blkd 1,2,3:blkp 5:noio:reset

The manual skips some intersting details, there are examples but it doesn't say what the examples actually do.
I expect to get this:

{rev on}---- Cart Loader ----{rev off}
_________________ (what use is this extra line BTW?)
Return To Menu

Menu Title

VIC-20 DIAGNOSTIC

_________________
etc

When selecting the last row I expect it to load a program called diag.bin (or should file be called just "diag"?) at $A000, BLK 1,2,3 are disabled, still RAM at BLK 0, BLK 5 is protected (cart image there), FE3 IO is hidden/off, reset is done. BTW what does BLK x do? BLKD and BLKP are mentioned in the pdf but no explanation on BLK. It says "All five memory blocks are enabled by default and must be turned off"

But if I can't even get the loader-file to show then... it doesn't matter if it's correct. Doesn't the loader text show if the file(s) aren't in root as well?

LOADER-file, is it supposed to be called "LOADER" with capital letters, no file ending (suffix)?
I have tried loader.txt, LOADER.TXT, LOADER.txt, loader.prg, LOADER.prg, LOADER.PRG, loader, LOADER - nothing.
SD card holder is wearing out from attempts, so I decided to ask here.

I have edited "LOADER" text file in Wordpad on the PC, it uses $0D, $0A for new row (carriage return, new line or if it's in reverse order) - is that a problem? Or is it something stupid like no enter at the end or only one enter at the end?

Will appreciate some insight.
I don't suppose anyone made any PC software where you could just drop files and make settings and a finished loader file pops out?

EDIT2: SD card seems to work fine, I get a proper list when reading the directory.

[srowe]

The loader file is a pseudo BASIC program, has line numbers etc. Take a look at the examples in my User Guide linked off the FE3 wiki page.

You can use PETCAT to convert a text file to a program file

Code: Select all

petcat -w2 -l 1201 -o loader -- loader.txt

[e5frog]

Thanks srowe, SkyDivinGirl helped me figure it out in a few days... as the notification of your reply has ended up in the gmail spam folder.

The detail I had missed was that it's supposed to be a .prg file, saved as an actual BASIC file that is.

I solved it with copy and paste into WinVICE, a "drop file here"-bat file using petcat would solve it nicely as well.

The User Guide I found says:

The Disk loader is free configurable. For this we use (LOADER files). These LOADER files are simple files with filename “LOADER” and same structure as normal BASIC program files.
Since LOADER files are similar to BASIC programs, we can do the same well known procedures like LOAD, SAVE and LIST. We can edit LOADER files like normal BASIC programs, first LIST the code and edit directly on the screen, exactly as we would do with BASIC code. We need no utility, all editing can be made by VIC-20 standard methods.

Which doesn't really say that it is a BASIC program listing saved as a BASIC program file.

Yours say "Loader files are BASIC programs..." simple and easy, no misunderstanding possible.

Great User Guide, even if it's in a small format.