New penultimate-plus-2-cartridge

[Rich]

Ive tried loads of .crt and .prg(cartridge games) not loading but all the .d64 and .prg from normal files load and play?

[Rich]

I`ll do a video of a normal file loading and a .crt not loading .......

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXbl2G1dqak[/youtube]

[AndyH]

Crt files are a little different to prg's and not as simple. Some cartridges have code and data in two banks (you'd have two files). Generally one of those banks will be at address $A000 which is where the Vic 20 looks for an autoboot signature and if found it will retrieve the start address of the code for that cartridge.

So on the P+2 either the file browser doesn't accommodate for it or if it does perhaps there's a problem with the structure of these files?

[Mike]

Rich,

there's no need to persuade me or someone else that loading cartridge images with the file browser of PU+2 does not lead to the desired result. Softloading cartridge images is a chapter in itself even with a standard RAM expansion (provided at least the relevant RAM areas are covered) - I could easily cite at least two dozen threads here in Denial where people ask for help in that regard.

Until recently, there had been no agreed-upon format for *.crt files. In most cases these files just contain the plain ROM contents, without load address. Their data then end up at some undefined place in memory and crash the VIC-20. You'll need to consult the manual of PU+2 about its understandings for *.crt files.

Once again, with PU+2, Gorf is featured in the menu of pre-installed cartridges. You can simply start Gorf from there.

Greetings,

Michael

[Rich]

Rich,

there's no need to persuade me or someone else that loading cartridge images with the file browser of PU+2 does not lead to the desired result. Softloading cartridge images is a chapter in itself even with a standard RAM expansion (provided at least the relevant RAM areas are covered) - I could easily cite at least two dozen threads here in Denial where people ask for help in that regard.

Until recently, there had been no agreed-upon format for *.crt files. In most cases these files just contain the plain ROM contents, without load address. Their data then end up at some undefined place in memory and crash the VIC-20. You'll need to consult the manual of PU+2 about its understandings for *.crt files.

Once again, with PU+2, Gorf is featured in the menu of pre-installed cartridges. You can simply start Gorf from there.

Greetings,

Michael

Cheers for the reply Gorf was just an example, I had a Vic20 back in the 1980`s and until the I used Vice and the a TheVic20 from retro games ltd, then I got a Vic20 from ebay and the rest is history I know about the Vic20 loading into memory blocks, but I thought the PU+2 did the rest may be not .
So now I`m looking for a SD card full of the latsest games and roms to load via this amazing cartridge......

I did look on the future was 8bit and It did say "The PU+2's Built in File Browser will automatically select the correct memory config when loading from SD2IEC or DISK File Favourites gives you easy access to PRG, D64 or CRT images from your SD2IEC."

[Mike]

You could attach "ADVENT.1.CRT" here (as featured in one of the photos above), in a *.zip archive, and I'll take a short look what you actually got with this file and whether the PU+2 file browser had any chance to recognize it as cartridge image.

This is supposedly the first of the Scott Adams Adventures, Adventureland. It resides as ROM in BLK2 and BLK3 and normally needs to be started with SYS32592 from the BASIC start-up prompt. If there is any extra RAM installed, it will not function correctly!

I did look on the future was 8bit and It did say "The PU+2's Built in File Browser will automatically select the correct memory config when loading from SD2IEC or DISK File Favourites gives you easy access to PRG, D64 or CRT images from your SD2IEC."

That is a very strong claim. However, the PU+2 file browser can't do much more than guessing a sensible RAM expansion from the load address of the file. If a load address if even present, that is. Sometimes however, the load address is not even a good indicator how the file should actually be loaded - prominent example are MG picture files, which feature a load address of $10F1 for their normal use within the BASIC extension that creates them. These files can however also be loaded to the normal BASIC start at $1201, which will then expose a BASIC program stub and starts the built-in display routine upon RUN.

To eludicate: what happens when you load this file - paradroid.prg - with the PU+2 file browser? Cross check with the file in the SD card home directory: select at least a +8K RAM expansion, enter BASIC, do LOAD"PARADROID.PRG",8 (*not* ",8,1"!) and then RUN.

[Rich]

Cheers Mike will do this tonight but I've been on Tynemouth software and they put "Files with a load address of A000 (i.e. cartridge images) will be copied to block 5 and started from there. Only 4K and 8K cartridges are supported, not multipart ones"
So I guess not all are supported still a fantastic cartridge but is there a tool to convert.crt to .d64 or .prg?

[chysn]

but is there a tool to convert.crt to .d64 or .prg?

In VICE, attach the cartridge image. Then open the monitor and save the region of memory that contains the attached image:

Code: Select all

s "FILENAME" 0 a000 bfff

The 0 after the filename means "save to host file system." This will save the region as a PRG file (with the two-byte address header).

[Rich]

but is there a tool to convert.crt to .d64 or .prg?

In VICE, attach the cartridge image. Then open the monitor and save the region of memory that contains the attached image:

Code: Select all

s "FILENAME" 0 a000 bfff

The 0 after the filename means "save to host file system." This will save the region as a PRG file (with the two-byte address header).

Silly question how do you find the memory I loaded a .crt file and opened the monitor and it just showed (C:$a2ab) I then tyed s "FILENAME" 0 a000 bfff and it saved an 8kb file which would not load in Vice it gave a syntex error 40969

*******BUT WORKED ON THE REAL VIC20 !!!!!********** does the s "FILENAME" 0 a000 bfff only save 8k file as when i loaded a larger .crt it still saved 8k.

Also how do you find load address on .crt files

[Rich]

@Mike
To eludicate: what happens when you load this file - paradroid.prg - with the PU+2 file browser? Cross check with the file in the SD card home directory: select at least a +8K RAM expansion, enter BASIC, do LOAD"PARADROID.PRG",8 (*not* ",8,1"!) and then RUN.

When I used the file browser with 8k it came back with a syntax error in 0, but when I loaded it in basic with sd2iec it worked there was a picture of a droid with an arrow to a skull with red writing??

[Mike]

[...] it saved an 8kb file which would not load in Vice it gave a synt[a]x error 40969 [...]

In VICE, you either attach that file as cartridge, or you load it with LOAD"...",8,1 and then do a soft reset or SYS64802. With ",8" you'd load the file to the BASIC start which you don't want here, and which results in that ?SYNTAX error.

[...] BUT WORKED ON THE REAL VIC20!

The PU+2 file browser got things right in that case. It automatically did the LOAD"...",8,1 and issued the reset for you.

[...] how do you find load address on .crt files[?]

As I wrote, *.crt are a somewhat bad defined species of files. In VICE there now exists a particular definition, but many existing files just contain a raw memory dump without preceding load address - that such files should go to $A000 is merely a fair assumption (all autostarting cartridges have at least a venue there).

When I used the file browser with 8k it came back with a syntax error in 0, [...]

So the browser didn't get this right even though this file format (with its idiosyncrasies) exists since 2008 -

[...] but when I loaded it in basic with sd2iec it worked there was a picture of a droid with an arrow to a skull with red writing??

yes, that's exactly what it's supposed to look like.

[Rich]

Thanks again Mike slowly getting there, I know most of the .crt file have been converted, but its nice to have a play aground.......

[chysn]

Also how do you find load address on .crt files

Use the -f switch for VICE's cartconv command-line utility. It'll tell you the start address and size, if they can be determined:

Code: Select all

./cartconv -f ~/personal/vic/dungeon.crt

/Applications/vice-x86-64-gtk3-3.6.1/bin
CRT Version: 2.0 (VIC20 CARTRIDGE)
Name: Generic VIC20 Cartridge
Hardware ID: 0 (Generic VIC20 Cartridge)
Hardware Revision: 0

offset  sig  type  bank start size  chunklen
$000040 CHIP ROM   #000 $a000 $2000 $2010

total banks: 1 size: $002000

[Rich]

Thanks chysn I did see that in the vice bin folder

[Rich]

Just a quick question I made a folder with games on an SD card with folders a to z when I browser the folders I have to move down to O at the bottom and the next page Q is the start of the folders not P, I have to name the folder PP to show in the browser, look at the pictures below is this a BUG??

sorry for the poor picture this is my TV in the Kitchen with a scart plug