Denial

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?

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!

Bobbi wrote:Even if the filename for saving is auto-generated we still need a way to enter the name when loading / restoring.

I already said how to do that...

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.

You suggest...

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

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.

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.

... I usually have to preload the DOS wedge anyhow to navigate my SD card!

You need JiffyDOS !!

Right now I am distracted by other projects, so I'll take whatever I can get.

I'd rather try and do it right the first time around.

A general purpose memory dumping and restoring mechanism triggered from an ISR could be useful for other things though perhaps?

Intercepting the LOAD and SAVE vectors is a form of ISR which is custom made for these specific games.

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.

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

I am in a personal battle to save my health right now... focusing my mind on projects like this has therapeutic virtues...

The Friendly Computer can be excellent therapy.

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.

Nice

srowe wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 1:56 am 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.

Good work! Your wedge is also likely to be useful for general disk purposes like Scott Adams stuff instead of tape operation

srowe wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 1:56 am 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.

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.

eslapion wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 9:20 pm 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.

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.

Here is a new version with both the BLK5 ROM image and a PRG file that loads into the tape buffer.