Re: [Sam-users] Prodos v2 and simcoupe 1.2.5

[Edwin blink]

Great!

 

looking forward to a new Dev build.

 

 

Van: Stefan Drissen [mailto:stefan.dris...@gmail.com] 
Verzonden: vrijdag 10 september 2021 08:12
Aan: Edwin blink
CC: Dan Doore; sam-users
Onderwerp: Re: [Sam-users] Prodos v2 and simcoupe 1.2.5

 

And fixed by Simon. :-)

 

On Thu, Sep 9, 2021 at 11:46 PM Edwin blink  wrote:

Thanks Dan and Stefan :)

 

Didn't want to submit an issue on Github right away in case I was just missing 
something obvious ;)

 

Van: Dan Doore [mailto:d...@dandoore.com] 
Verzonden: donderdag 9 september 2021 23:22
Aan: Edwin blink
CC: sam-users
Onderwerp: Re: [Sam-users] Prodos v2 and simcoupe 1.2.5

 

Put this on the SimCoupe GitHub issues - no wait, Stefan has already logged it 
:)

Dan.

 

 

On 9 Sep 2021, at 22:05, Edwin blink  wrote:



This ones probably for Simon :)

 

I was playing a bit with  prodos v2 and noticed I get a read only error with 
current simcoupe buid  (1.2.5)

 

Example:

-Boot Prodos v2 disk in simcoupe

-from menu:  new DOS CP/M disk

-format  b: -> OK

-copy a: b:  -> is read only error

-format b: -> Format error

 

Didn’t have any issues when using simcoupe 1.0

 

 

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Re: [Sam-users] Prodos v2 and simcoupe 1.2.5

[Edwin blink]

Thanks Dan and Stefan :)

 

Didn't want to submit an issue on Github right away in case I was just missing 
something obvious ;)

 

Van: Dan Doore [mailto:d...@dandoore.com] 
Verzonden: donderdag 9 september 2021 23:22
Aan: Edwin blink
CC: sam-users
Onderwerp: Re: [Sam-users] Prodos v2 and simcoupe 1.2.5

 

Put this on the SimCoupe GitHub issues - no wait, Stefan has already logged it 
:)

Dan.

 





On 9 Sep 2021, at 22:05, Edwin blink  wrote:



This ones probably for Simon :)

 

I was playing a bit with  prodos v2 and noticed I get a read only error with 
current simcoupe buid  (1.2.5)

 

Example:

-Boot Prodos v2 disk in simcoupe

-from menu:  new DOS CP/M disk

-format  b: -> OK

-copy a: b:  -> is read only error

-format b: -> Format error

 

Didn’t have any issues when using simcoupe 1.0

 

 

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[Sam-users] Prodos v2 and simcoupe 1.2.5

[Edwin blink]

This ones probably for Simon :)

 

I was playing a bit with  prodos v2 and noticed I get a read only error with
current simcoupe buid  (1.2.5)

 

Example:

-Boot Prodos v2 disk in simcoupe

-from menu:  new DOS CP/M disk

-format  b: -> OK

-copy a: b:  -> is read only error

-format b: -> Format error

 

Didn't have any issues when using simcoupe 1.0

 

 

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Re: [Sam-users] New Sam game.

[Edwin blink]

Hi Rob,

thanks for explaining about thepower led . I probably saw it on a preview image 
somewhere before. It's good to know that I'm not going mad.

It's nice to know you can choose a different palette for the display.


-Oorspronkelijk bericht-
Van: the wub [mailto:the...@gmail.com] 
Verzonden: zondag 5 september 2021 21:37
Aan: Edwin blink
CC: sam-users
Onderwerp: Re: [Sam-users] New Sam game.

Hi Edwin, really glad you're enjoying this! :)

I decided to lose the power LED as it was a bit distracting, and I didn't think 
it looked that good.  It seems a bit tidier without it to me.  I forgot to 
mention that if you press 'E' you can change the colour palette, of which 
there's four to choose from.

I wasn't too keen on clipping the ghost sprite, just purely to save some 
drawing time, but when I saw how funny it looked going over the edge of the 
bezel, I decided that was how it had to be.  Breaking the 4th wall is always 
very funny! :p

Adding keys was a bit of a nightmare, I neglected to consider keyboard input 
until right at the end of the project, but I'll definitely add ctrl and cursors 
if I update it in the future.

Thanks again,

Rob.

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Re: [Sam-users] New Sam game.

[Edwin blink]

All it's missing is some links to buy you guys a coffee or a beer ;D

-Oorspronkelijk bericht-
Van: sam-users [mailto:sam-users-boun...@nvg.ntnu.no] Namens the wub
Verzonden: zondag 5 september 2021 16:21
Aan: Dan Doore
CC: sam-users
Onderwerp: Re: [Sam-users] New Sam game.

The WOSAM page looks amazing, thanks for doing that Dan! :)

I was a bit worried about the copyright situation so I wasn't sure about
making an entry there, looks like I needn't have worried!
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Re: [Sam-users] New Sam game.

[Edwin blink]

Yay! another great game for Sam! Thank for bringing Bubble Ghost to Sam!

Played it a couple of times and it's as if I'm playing on Gameboy. But
without the motion blur :D
Also love the catchy sound track. Great Job!

I noticed Bubble Ghost can fly into the Gameboys gray bezel. Looks funny
like he's poping out and trying to leave the gameboy :)

Not sure if I'm mistaken but I could have sworn that I saw a red power LED
at one time. But now I don't see it and wondering if  I just imagined it.

Feature requist for when you're doing n update:  Could you add CTRL+CURSORS
as redundant keys for input?

-Oorspronkelijk bericht-
Van: sam-users [mailto:sam-users-boun...@nvg.ntnu.no] Namens the wub
Verzonden: zaterdag 4 september 2021 18:49
Aan: sam-users
Onderwerp: [Sam-users] New Sam game.

Hi all,

The new game is now available from https://wubsoft.org/

The controls are joystick or QAOP and space.

I really hope people have as much fun playing it as I had making it!

It seems to be perfectly bug free now but if anyone finds something weird
please do let me know via email, or here on the list, and I'll get it sorted
asap.

Have fun! :)

Rob.
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Re: [Sam-users] So what's up in SAM Wolrd?

[Edwin blink]

Hi Stefan

 

Thanks for explaining. I think I understand now. The higher octave channel must 
be changed before a full period has passed. A full period @ 61Hz(8MHz / 2^17 ) 
is ~16.4 ms.

doing a delay of 192 scanlines is ~12.31ms which is good enough. This delay 
method was probably chosen as it is a convenient way to generate the required 
delay.

 

> I do not think that I'm hearing a ticking distortion in SimCoupe (I'm using 
> v1.2.3 dated 2021-08-15

 

Ah! that explains it. I was using the 1-1-alpha release from Simcoupe website. 
I should have know to grab the latest version from GitHub:)

 

Thanks for the help Stefan.

 

Van: Stefan Drissen [mailto:stefan.dris...@gmail.com] 
Verzonden: donderdag 2 september 2021 19:06
Aan: Edwin blink; sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Onderwerp: Re: [Sam-users] So what's up in SAM Wolrd?

 

 

Hi Edwin (moving back on list) :-)

 

Regarding Anton's 4 bit SAA1099 sample player:

 

You stated: "Snap niet helemaal waarom 192 scanlines gewacht wordt want dit is 
ongeveer 12,3 ms (192/312*20ms/frame) (een halve periode @ 61Hz is ongeveer 8,2 
ms. Maar er zal vast een reden voor zijn en de sample in Rick Dangerous klinkt 
geweldig!" (you all know how google translate works)

 

Just jotting some numbers down to see if I can reason why this works:

 

Tone 0, octave 0 is 31 Hz.

To counter phase this, you need to jump in at 62 Hz.

Frame is 50 Hz

 

All channels are triggered on line 0 (detected by lightpen port)

Counter phase channels are triggered on line 192 (detected by lightpen port).

 

Total screen lines (1 frame) = 312.

192 / 312 = 61% 

 

So I must be missing something - since you are also suggesting something else, 

Unless the lightpen port would return 0 on the first border line, which it does 
not.

 

Anton did open an issue on SimCoupe about some very minute differences, see 
https://github.com/simonowen/simcoupe/issues/36 - but that was about gradual 
phase shift that became increasingly noticeable.

 

I do not think that I'm hearing a ticking distortion in SimCoupe (I'm using 
v1.2.3 dated 2021-08-15) - but well, a SAM playing samples and no distortion? 
;-)

 

Cheers!

 

 

Stefan

 

 

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Re: [Sam-users] So what's up in SAM Wolrd?

[Edwin blink]

Yay! more good news :D

And that teaser video looks great! I like that gameboy game. Will be fun 
playing on SAM!

and written in Comet!? Awesome!

-Oorspronkelijk bericht-
Van: the wub [mailto:the...@gmail.com] 
Verzonden: maandag 30 augustus 2021 16:36
Aan: Simone Voltolini
CC: Edwin blink; sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Onderwerp: Re: [Sam-users] So what's up in SAM Wolrd?

The only preview I have right now is the video on my youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVIE3G26_As

Edwin will be pleased to know I created it with Comet :)

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Re: [Sam-users] So what's up in SAM Wolrd?

[Edwin blink]

Hi David,

Yay! receiving your reply confirms sam-users list still works (been a while I 
received last message).

Too bad facebook limits public access to a few posts. Had an account there 
once. But they didn't like I was using my handle rather then my name and 
decided to lock my account untill I uploaded a copy of my ID. 

The sam users list and the forum  will be it then :)

> ___

>Hi Edwin

>Facebook seems main contact point these days - although there is a little but 
>underused forum on the WorldOfSam.org site

>But think a lot of people still here fortunately.

>David

On 29.08.2021 15:29, Edwin blink wrote:
> So what's up in SAM Wolrd?
> 
> Other then SAM's getting pricey :P
> 
> Dug out my SAM yesterday and coincidentally discovered the just 
> released exelent Rick Dangerous conversion. Love the funny death 
> samples. Great work Anton Javorček / DTA !
> 
> I'm not on FaceBook so here's a piccie on twitter:
> 
> https://twitter.com/MstrBlinky/status/1431980769870815237
> 
> Now I  just need to find a good spot to put it :)
> 
> Edwin aka Mr.Blinky
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> sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
> http://nvg.ntnu.no/mailman/listinfo/sam-users

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[Sam-users] So what's up in SAM Wolrd?

[Edwin blink]

So what's up in SAM Wolrd?

 

Other then SAM's getting pricey :P

 

Dug out my SAM yesterday and coincidentally discovered the just released
exelent Rick Dangerous conversion. Love the funny death samples. Great work
Anton Javorček / DTA !

 

I'm not on FaceBook so here's a piccie on twitter:

 

https://twitter.com/MstrBlinky/status/1431980769870815237

 

Now I  just need to find a good spot to put it :)

 

Edwin aka Mr.Blinky

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RE: who

[Edwin Blink]

I’m still here too.

 

Haven’t done anything SAM wise for decade or so. My coupie is packed in moving 
boxes for years :P

 

>Here's an actual thing for your Sam:

 

  
http://innsmouth.dsanders.uk/ETracker-Brexit_Special.dsk

 

This brings back some memories. Can listen to Nameless Euro smup for hours.

 

 

Van: owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no [mailto:owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no] Namens 
David Sanders
Verzonden: vrijdag 8 december 2017 01:24
Aan: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Onderwerp: Re: who

 

Good to see a lot of people still here :-) 

 

Here's an actual thing for your Sam:

 

http://innsmouth.dsanders.uk/ETracker-Brexit_Special.dsk

 

David

 

 

On 27 November 2017 at 21:40, Thomas Harte  wrote:

I have recently been puzzling again on the topic of efficient division as I 
think I've finally resolved the precision problems that blocked my first-person 
efforts last time. But I've yet to so much as install an assembler, so that 
doesn't mean a lot.

 

On 26 November 2017 at 17:38, Andrew Park  wrote:

Still here too, I'm working on Hunchback at the moment


-Original Message-
From: owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no [mailto:owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no] On 
Behalf Of Simone Voltolini
Sent: 26 November 2017 16:44
To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Subject: R: who

Please finish it: Sam scene need new stuff and all to be ported, for me, in 
Physical format.

Sam need to reborn again.

Great job!!!



--Simon




-Messaggio originale-
Da: owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no [mailto:owner-sam-us...@nvg.ntnu.no] Per conto 
di Balor Price
Inviato: domenica 26 novembre 2017 17:25
A: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Oggetto: Re: who

Hey everyone!

I'm still here too.   When time permits I'm working on SAM versions of Thrust, 
Celeste, Split Personalities, and an assortment of other never-to-be-completed 
projects...

Cheers
-Howard



 

 

 

Re: Attempts at 3d on the Sam?

[Edwin Blink]

- Original Message - 
From: Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Edwin - i would it be okay by you, if I enable the download on WOS as  
well?


Go ahead you have my permission.

Edwin

Re: Short, short questions

[Edwin Blink]

1)

Normally the value is FF and it looks pretty stable too considering PRO-DOS 
uses IM 2 without a vector table. So your choices are IM 0/IM 1 both do a 
RST 38H or IM 2 which 'calls' the adress found at the address pointed by I 
register (MSB) and the value on the databus (LSB). Like the speccy there may 
be some hardware connected that changes the default value on the databus so 
a 257 byte vector table is recomended.



2)

If choose to put all the LSB at 32768 followed by the MSB then you could use 
the following:


set 7,h
lde,(hl)
set 3,h
ldd,(hl)

Other usefull addresses for the table would be 16384 (use SET 6,H), 8192 
(SET 5,H), 4096 (SET 4,H) or 0  (you don't need  the first SET instruction 
at all)


Edwin


- Original Message - 
From: Thomas Harte [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 3:03 PM
Subject: Short, short questions



I'm about to finish my lunch break, sorry if I sound slightly short...

1) is there any pattern or logic to the values placed on the bus
during interrupts? I guess an equivalent question is: what realistic
options do I have on the Sam for catching and processing interrupts?

2) are there any non-obvious tricks for fast access to a table
containing 16bit words, indexed by an 11bit (signed) integer? At the
minute I'm essentially doing:

[stuff to work out offset into table in hl]
ld bc, address of middle of table - which is aligned to a two-byte 
boundary

add hl, hl
add hl, bc
ld e, (hl)
inc l
ld d, (hl) 

Re: Short, short questions

[Edwin Blink]

From: Thomas Harte

Surely set would only work if I had an unsigned offset from the  beginning 
of a table? I'm using a signed offset from the middle of a  table.


it works the same as ADD HL,HL ADD HL,BC the difference is
you store the table entries LSB,MSB so you need the ADD HL,HL
First you get the LSB from the table then INC L points to MSB

When you store LSB,LSB... for all table enties first and then  MSB,MSB...
you don't need to do the add as HL already points to table entries LSB to 
get the MSB

you add 2K to get to MSB

Or am I getting something wrong ?

Because you have your table at address 0 the following would do :

LD E,(HL)
set 3,H;Add 2K to point to MSB
LD D,(HL)

takes 24Ts :-)

Edwin 

Re: Short, short questions

[Edwin Blink]

Boy Do I feel silly  I  missed that ADD HL,BC.

Edwin



- Original Message - 
From: Thomas Harte [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: Short, short questions


Surely set would only work if I had an unsigned offset from the  beginning 
of a table? I'm using a signed offset from the middle of a  table.


On 20 May 2008, at 19:48, Edwin Blink wrote:


1)

Normally the value is FF and it looks pretty stable too considering 
PRO-DOS uses IM 2 without a vector table. So your choices are IM 0/ IM 1 
both do a RST 38H or IM 2 which 'calls' the adress found at the  address 
pointed by I register (MSB) and the value on the databus  (LSB). Like the 
speccy there may be some hardware connected that  changes the default 
value on the databus so a 257 byte vector table  is recomended.



2)

If choose to put all the LSB at 32768 followed by the MSB then you  could 
use the following:


set 7,h
lde,(hl)
set 3,h
ldd,(hl)

Other usefull addresses for the table would be 16384 (use SET 6,H),  8192 
(SET 5,H), 4096 (SET 4,H) or 0  (you don't need  the first SET 
instruction at all)


Edwin


- Original Message - From: Thomas Harte 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 3:03 PM
Subject: Short, short questions



I'm about to finish my lunch break, sorry if I sound slightly  short...

1) is there any pattern or logic to the values placed on the bus
during interrupts? I guess an equivalent question is: what realistic
options do I have on the Sam for catching and processing interrupts?

2) are there any non-obvious tricks for fast access to a table
containing 16bit words, indexed by an 11bit (signed) integer? At the
minute I'm essentially doing:

[stuff to work out offset into table in hl]
ld bc, address of middle of table - which is aligned to a two-byte 
boundary

add hl, hl
add hl, bc
ld e, (hl)
inc l
ld d, (hl)

Re: Short, short questions

[Edwin Blink]

All 8 bits are used for LSB of the vector. The part where bit 0 always is 
zero is when one of the Z80's IO chips is connected (PIO,SIO,CTC etc) is 
connected.


Edwin

- Original Message - 
From: David Brant [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 1:02 AM
Subject: Re: Short, short questions


I've just been looking at my books. Although I can't find the bit that 
said about swapping to high,low but I'm sure that I did read it somewhere. 
It does say that the device only gives the bits 1-7 and bit 0 is always 0 
giving 128 possible addresses.


Dave

- Original Message - 
From: David Brant [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 10:49 PM
Subject: Re: Short, short questions


This was based on info from a book called z-80 Workshop manual by E.A 
Parr. The I register gives the high part of the table and the hardware 
gives the low part to the table then takes that word for the service 
routine. So if you start from one byte before the table and use the same 
address for all entries and over run it by one it will work. My demo of a 
full scrolling football pitch used this system, which I believe you saw 
many years a go.


Dave

- Original Message - 
From: Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 9:50 PM
Subject: Re: Short, short questions



Hi,

I'm sceptical about this claim. I've never heard anybody say that the 
vector formed is big-endian - it's just you don't know the byte offset 
from which the interrupt vector will be fetched. (As Edwin says, it is 
usually 255 - which is odd so your 1-aligned table will usually work - 
but I don't know that Sam's hardware guarantees this).


So the high byte comes from I, the low byte from the data bus; this 
forms a 16 bit address which will be incremented once (which is why  the 
table needs 257 bytes, not 256). You could, at least in theory,  read 
the vector address from even or odd overlapping entries, which is  why 
the usual strategy is to pick a vector address whose low and high  bytes 
are the same.


The last IM2 interrupt routine I wrote looked something like this:

ds ALIGN 256
IM2TABLE: equ $
IM2BYTE: equ im2table/256

IM2TARGETBYTE:  equ IM2BYTE+1
for 257, DB IM2TARGETBYTE

IM2TARGET: equ 257*IM2TARGETBYTE
ds IM2TARGET-$

EX   AF,AF'
...

Andrew


On 20 May 2008, at 21:16, David Brant wrote:

Mode 2 uses a table with 128 word address but as byte high,byte low 
not the normal low, high bytes


So if you set your org/dump address to ??FF (i.e. ??00-1)

and then do

  DEFWmode2.i,mode2.i

so you have 129 words.

mode2.i:
  di
  pushaf
  ina,(status.int)
 .
 .
  ei
  ret



- Original Message - From: Andrew Collier 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 3:22 PM
Subject: Re: Short, short questions




The usual strategies are to use mode 1, or to use mode 2 with a 257- 
byte table all

containing the same byte.





--
 ---   Andrew Collier 
   http://www.intensity.org.uk/ ---
  --

Re: In pursuit of Dead Wild Cat

[Edwin Blink]

Thanks for Sharing Ellvis !

Edwin


- Original Message - 
From: ellvis [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 9:00 AM
Subject: Re: In pursuit of Dead Wild Cat



Hi,

I am not really a coder, but you can always try to look at 
http://baze.au.com/misc/z80bits.html It's a collection of z80 math 
routines, all commented, it's done by Baze/3SC - Spectrum demo coder.


Just for an inspiration. Anyway, it's really great to read such a stuff 
here on the list, pretty inspirative!


ellvis

Chris Pile wrote:
 Re: code, I really don't think that cycle pinching is the main 
roblem  — I think it's algorithmic. I'm going to need to think about 
that a  bit more. At the minute I'm a bit indoctrinated as to how I 
think a 3d  pipeline should go, and I may need to rethink that.


Sometimes you have to take the unconventional route when optimising for 
old-skool
hardware!  Textbook methods are fine if you have the horsepower - if not, 
then you're

going to have to look at pulling out all the tricks you can.  :-)





--
ellvis/ZeroTeam


web: http://zeroteam.sk
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Sinclair ZX Spectrum support since 1996 

Website problems

[Edwin Blink]

Hi everyone

It Seems that my webpage is often not accesible. Today I found out  my 
webhost decided to limit the daily traffic to 50MB so I decided to move it.
Thanks to Stephen Parry-Thomas for offering the webspace it can now be found 
at :


http://www.samcoupe-pro-dos.co.uk/edwin/index.htm

Any links posted before on sam-users are still accessible when the first 
part of the old URL up to 'edwin.blink' is replaced with the above part up 
to 'edwin'
Please bookmark the above link when you don't want to missout on future 
updates :-)


Edwin 

Re: In pursuit of Dead Wild Cat

[Edwin Blink]

From: Thomas Harte

... dead wild cat demo ...

I'm don't remember this demo Where can it be found ?

BTW If you need some help with optimizing your (multiply/devide) code.
I'm always in for some byte/T-state banging :-)

Edwin

Re: SAMDOS

[Edwin Blink]

As far as I remember SAMDOS uses fixed adresses for IX/UIFA.
UIFA must be equal 4B00 (I think).

Edwin

- Original Message - 
From: David Brant

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 10:30 PM
Subject: SAMDOS


Hi All

Can anyone tell me why the following code works with master DOS but not in 
SAMDOS. The code should give the completed UFIA at IX+80 but samdos just 
returns.


  LD   IX,UFIA
  RST  8
  DEFB GETHEADER   ;get file header
  RET
UFIA:
  DEFB 19
  DEFM object


GETHEADER: EQU  129 

Re: iChat/AIM users

[Edwin Blink]

Mine MSN [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Used to use windows messenger that comes with XP Pro 


Now using Miranda. for it's auto recieving files feature.

Edwin

Re: New bit of hardware...

[Edwin Blink]

Came up with a new piece of hardware today.


Looks like we have similar ideas(hooking displays to SAM I mean).
A couple of weeks ago I made a single resistor (or wire) mod to sams 
parallel port
So A LCD compatible display can be added to SAMs parallel port with just 
using a cable.


http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/lcd/PLED-display.JPG

Instead of a LCD I used a 2x20 PLED display I had lying around for quite a 
while.
PLED displays have better brightnes/contrast then LCD displays. But they are 
a bit

harder to get because of a shortage.


Put together quickly with a bit of logic decoding and a microcontroller.


I guess you will be using the microcontroller to translate  SAMs (latched) 
Z80 Address/data bus

to readable output on thr display. Right ?

Edwin

Re: Sam Revival issue 19 out now!

[Edwin Blink]

From: Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED]



Onto the magazine. The cover gives away what I've been working on recently
myself - the Trinity Ethernet Interface, bringing ethernet to your Sam


When I read about your surprise project called trinity I had to think about 
the Matrix
Movie and wondered if it would be network related. Cool to see it is ! Can't 
wait for your mag to arrive and read more about it.


Edwin 

Atom-Lite+

[Edwin Blink]

Just thought I let you know that I've revised the Atom-Lite design a bit.

With the arrival of dual CF to IDE adapters I redesigned  AL a bit so CF 
cards can be inserted right side up. While at it I optimized the 
programmable logic chip a bit so I could add a Dallas clock.


heres a piccy of the old design and new design

http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/A-Lite/AL+Rev2.1-2.jpg


and a small video of the dallas clock test

http://www.youtube.com/v/BfYopljlINQ

Edwin 

Re: Which assembler?

[Edwin Blink]

Hi Calvin,

For SAM I recommend Comet

http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/software/comet/comet.htm

it's got fullscreen editor, syntax checking on entering a line and errors are 
inserted in the source just
above the line containing the error. Just great to get started.

For PC I recommend TASM and your favorite editor.

Edwin

  - Original Message - 
  From: Calvin Allett 
  To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 7:05 PM
  Subject: Which assembler?


  What Assembler would anybody reccomend me having a go with, i.e.
  preferably the most easy to use :)

  Feature`s don`t neccesarily top my needs, as I won`t be doing any
  games in MC, just wanting to learn the language, and be able to try
  a few small routines. 




--
  Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Try it now.

Atom-Lite on you tube

[Edwin Blink]

Here are some movies on the Atom-Lite.

http://www.youtube.com/v/xKIsEr660HA

http://www.youtube.com/v/QBVsGCV4sPA

Sorry for the poor  quallity. but it's a you tube thing. I don't have some 
place to store the original

40Mb and 20Mb versions

Edwin 

Re: Atom-Lite on you tube

[Edwin Blink]

From: Gavin Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Nice vids :) In the second one, you realise we can see you b*llock  
naked in the relection of the TV screen?


You should have seen me in the other takes I made. ;-)

Edwin

Atom-Lite CF interface

[Edwin Blink]

Hi  everybody

I'm pleased to see the list so alive lately. I like your game Calvin ! it 
reminds me of the early 80s handheld games. Simple gameplay but

very addictive. I hope we will see finished version in the near feature.

I have some good news too. After a long time I finally have made
a CF interface for SAM that  comes in  a light version of the Atom.
Light meaning it is has 8-bit wide databus. CF-card are accessed
in 8-bit mode.So no capacity is lost and speed  is even faster. It's
designed in such a way that it fits in the right floppydiskdrive bay
whitout the need to open up SAM.
It is also compatible with most existing Atom software (some minor
changes are needed in some cases though) for example I didn't need
to make any changes for the Atom versions of Price of Persia 
Lemmings.

Here are some piccies:

http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/A-Lite/A-Lite-top.JPG

http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/A-Lite/A-Lite-side.JPG

I've got parts for another 3 Anyone interested ? Contact me directly.

Edwin

Re: Atom-Lite CF interface

[Edwin Blink]

Hi Gavin,

just replied to your mail :-) Well not all software work because the 
original Atom swaps the high and low byte and the A-Lite doesn't.
This is no problem when writing and reading back the written data. But when 
reading out read only data like the Identifify Device data the bytes are 
swapped.

The old ATA Device detection  method as used  in BDOS does not work.

These are just minor issues are taken care of in a adapted version of BDOS.

Edwin

- Original Message - 
From: Gavin Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 3:00 PM
Subject: Re: Atom-Lite  CF interface



Hi Edwin
I've emailed you directly about getting one of these. Just wondering 
though, why wouldn't all Atom software work? I know the vast majority 
will work, I'm just curious.


Looks like a lovely little bit of hardware.

Lots of wee bits and pieces happening in the SAM scene this year, cool!

Gavin


On 18 May 2007, at 1:13 PM, Edwin Blink wrote:


Hi  everybody

I'm pleased to see the list so alive lately. I like your game  Calvin ! 
it reminds me of the early 80s handheld games. Simple  gameplay but

very addictive. I hope we will see finished version in the near  feature.

I have some good news too. After a long time I finally have made
a CF interface for SAM that  comes in  a light version of the Atom.
Light meaning it is has 8-bit wide databus. CF-card are accessed
in 8-bit mode.So no capacity is lost and speed  is even faster. It's
designed in such a way that it fits in the right floppydiskdrive bay
whitout the need to open up SAM.
It is also compatible with most existing Atom software (some minor
changes are needed in some cases though) for example I didn't need
to make any changes for the Atom versions of Price of Persia 
Lemmings.

Here are some piccies:

http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/A-Lite/A-Lite- 
top.JPG


http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/A-Lite/A-Lite- 
side.JPG


I've got parts for another 3 Anyone interested ? Contact me directly.

Edwin

Re: Atom-Lite CF interface

[Edwin Blink]

A DIY kit for 35,- Euros + PP This includes all the parts needed
including the CF adapter. you only need to supply your own CF-card.

A DIY kit + BootROM  37,50 Euros + PP. Note that SAM
has to be opened to replace the SAMROM with the BootROM.

For 10 Euros extra it comes prebuild and tested.

PayPal is fine

Edwin

- Original Message - 
From: Frans van Egmond [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 2:27 PM
Subject: Re: Atom-Lite  CF interface



I'm interested. How much, and do you accept Paypal?

Frans



Edwin Blink schreef:

Hi  everybody

I'm pleased to see the list so alive lately. I like your game Calvin ! it 
reminds me of the early 80s handheld games. Simple gameplay but

very addictive. I hope we will see finished version in the near feature.

I have some good news too. After a long time I finally have made
a CF interface for SAM that  comes in  a light version of the Atom.
Light meaning it is has 8-bit wide databus. CF-card are accessed
in 8-bit mode.So no capacity is lost and speed  is even faster. It's
designed in such a way that it fits in the right floppydiskdrive bay
whitout the need to open up SAM.
It is also compatible with most existing Atom software (some minor
changes are needed in some cases though) for example I didn't need
to make any changes for the Atom versions of Price of Persia 
Lemmings.

Here are some piccies:

http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/A-Lite/A-Lite-top.JPG

http://home.orange.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/A-Lite/A-Lite-side.JPG

I've got parts for another 3 Anyone interested ? Contact me directly.

Edwin

Re: Sound Chip

[Edwin Blink]

From: David Brant [EMAIL PROTECTED]

if you type:

snip

Comet will NOT come up with an error

Like Andrew said Comet is a two pass assembler During 1st pass no errors are 
generated. Any undefined symbols on pass two will cause a error.
Using undefined symbols in ORGs or in EQUs will cause unexpected results. 
Best practice is to make sure labels are defined before

used in these directives.

I don't see this as a bug.But less fool proof ;-)

Great to see a new assembler comming any details ? Something I always wanted 
to do in Comet is to binary sort the labels Because most of the time

is taken by searching  for labels.

Edwin

Re: Another year, another pyz80 revision

[Edwin Blink]

From: Simon Owen [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Converting existing source files is fairly easy, using the print-to-file 
feature in SimCoupe.


you can also use the COMetCONverter utiliy to convert txt files to comet 
source

and vice versa.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/software/comet/comcon.zip


So, what are you waiting for? :-)


Must have a go at it then. Wondering why I have not tried it yet...

Edwin 

Re: SAM Defender - Updated and Improved!

[Edwin Blink]

Hi Chris,

Exellent job ! Maybe now I have a better change on getting a real high score 
;-)


you had me fooled with the crash effect. I though the diskimage was corruped 
until I saw the initial test message :-)


Edwin

- Original Message - 
From: Chris Pile [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 8:08 PM
Subject: Re: SAM Defender - Updated and Improved!



Hi Wolfgang!

lol - yes, you may have seen the NVRAM stuff as I sent Edwin a test copy
to make sure the NVRAM save/load code worked on Edwin's actual Dallas
interface!

It wasn't really a secret - just a test version!  ;-)

Chris.



- Original Message - 
From: Wolfgang [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: SAM Defender - Updated and Improved!


Hi Chris.

Great work! Now I know what I saw on the Bunnik new years party what
Edwin wouldn´t tell me.
Was a secret?!

Keep on good work.
Wolfgang


Chris Pile schrieb:

Hi SAMsters,

I've updated SAM Defender!

Why?

Well, basically I did all of the things I *should* have done back in
'98.  Things that have been
annoying me for years!

Below are a list of the things changed, plus any new features and also
a link to where you can
get this - finally (probably!) final - version!

=

bouncy email

[Edwin Blink]

Hi guys. I'm back on the list. Looks Like I missed some posts.
To everyone who  has my old email address [EMAIL PROTECTED] in their 
addressbook.
please replace 'home' with 'versatel' to reach me. I'm also reachable via 
MSN with this same email address.


Edwin

RE: ROM Versions

[Edwin Blink]

 

On Behalf Of Dan Dooré

If they were ever out in the wild and you have the images can they be added
to a 'Edwin's Boot ROM' page for posterity?

Ofcourse ! 

 There are also two versions of the HDBOOTROM by me the first one uses 
 a IDE hardware reset To reset the harddisk and displays HDBROM 
 256/512K in the copyright message.
 The 2nd
 Version uses a IDE software reset and displays HDBROM 2.0  as 
 copyright message.

The image we have on WOSam (http://www.worldofsam.org/node/235) and on NVG
says HD BOOTROM so is that the older one - can you upload the newer to
WOSam?

Oops I mixed it up a bit version two says 'HD BOOTROM' I'm not sure now what
the first one
Says excactly but the important thing is that the number of Ks is displayed
besides the message. If I had a copy of the 1st v ersion I would know it.
But unfortunately I lost the dump and source hopefully they pop up from some
place sometime.

Edwin

Re: Sophistry

[Edwin Blink]

From: Simon Owen [EMAIL PROTECTED]

I don't think I've ever seen an unprotected version...  Do you have a 
sample

image you could send me?


http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/diskimages/Sophistry.zip

This is a Atom friendly version that will also run the speccy version when 
you hold down
the S key while loading.(simcoupe requires that fast disk loading is 
disabled to see the key ???)


Will be removed after the rightfull copyright owner starts moaning ;-)

Edwin 

Re: [OT] Outlet

[Edwin Blink]

From: DAVID LEDBURY

Does anyone actually have any copies as dsk or
whatever?

Got issues 33 to 65.
if anyone has issues before 33 or after 65 (if there where any) please let
me know.

Edwin

Re: [OT] Outlet

[Edwin Blink]

- Original Message -
From: Simon Owen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 5:32 PM
Subject: RE: [OT] Outlet


 Edwin Blink wrote:
  if anyone has issues before 33 or after 65 (if there where
  any) please let me know.

 I've got 32 - the intro makes it sound like the first SAM-supported issue.
 I'm missing 66 but have 67, which isn't bootable and contains only
Spectrum
 files.

 Si

Re: Who`s missing?

[Edwin Blink]

use my email address

Edwin

- Original Message - 
From: david [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: Who`s missing?



[EMAIL PROTECTED]

--- Steve Parry-Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 
 
 May be folks now use MSN ? 
 
 
 
 Any body want to post their MSN id ?
 

Re: Experimental compact flash interface on ebay

[Edwin Blink]

I would have placed a bid - but I don't use paypal :(

Too bad. Looks like you're the only one interested for a bid :-(

Edwin 

Re: Experimental compact flash interface on ebay

[Edwin Blink]

Hi all,

The experimental compact flash interface auction will end in about 12 hours.
If any of you have interrest in it or other auctions please bid before you
forget it.
This is a one time change only and any unsold items will not be relisted.

Edwin

Experimental compact flash interface on ebay

[Edwin Blink]

Hi everyone,

As a follow up to my other auctions.
I've put my experimental compact flash 'spagetti' interface on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=1247item=521314617
6rd=1


Edwin

ASIC and SAA spares on ebay

[Edwin Blink]

Hi if anyone is looking for a replacement SAA soundchip or ASIC or just as
spares.
 i've put one of each on ebay.

SAA

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=1247item=521172349
0rd=1

ASIC

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=1247item=521333192
8rd=1

Edwin

Re: Instructions-info for SamCo Mouse and SDI interface wanted.

[Edwin Blink]

 Is any one willing to scan me the instructions that came with these items?
 Was there  any disks, drivers or other software?

I think the SDI interface came with a DOS (utility)disk and the mouse
interface came with a mouse driver disks.

 anyone know the default jumper setting from factory?

 jumper D1 - D2, sets SDI to drive 1 or 2 ?  (y/n) , no  jumper = ? ,
 default=?

From the schematic D1 controls drive select 1/2. the jumper must be there
and may not be removed.

 and P1 - P2 , printer port address ?,

Yep. But don't remove the jumper too.

Edwin

Atom and other SAM stuff on ebay

[Edwin Blink]

To all monitoring my auctions and waiting for the final moments of the
auctions.
You don't have to wait till Sunday. The Auctions will close two days earlier
on Friday.

Nice to see so much interrest in the Atom ;-)

Edwin

Re: Atom and other SAM stuff on ebay

[Edwin Blink]

From: DAVID LEDBURY

Will you take payment by cheque?

I'll have to look into this. But I think a banktransfer is faster and
cheaper.

Edwin

Re: Atom and other SAM stuff on ebay

[Edwin Blink]

Just Checked the Banks website And it's a defenitive No as the costs are
just too high.
It takes 12.50 euros to clear the check and another euro 5.75 to send it to
the bank by registered mail.

Edwin

ATOM Prototype for sale

[Edwin Blink]

I've just put my Atom prototype on auction on ebay. Anyone looking for a
Atom head over to:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=1247item=521066198
3rd=1

I'll be putting some more of my unique designs on ebay later.

Edwin

Re: ATOM Prototype for sale

[Edwin Blink]

I've put some more of my SAM stuff on ebay. So have a look at my other items
too.

In case anyone is wondering. I'm not quitting on SAM. I'm working at
multiple projects at the moment and I'm cleaning out some of my older ones.

Edwin

- Original Message -
From: Edwin Blink [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2005 11:22 PM
Subject: ATOM Prototype for sale


 I've just put my Atom prototype on auction on ebay. Anyone looking for a
 Atom head over to:


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=1247item=521066198
 3rd=1

 I'll be putting some more of my unique designs on ebay later.

 Edwin

Re: 10th Anniversary!

[Edwin Blink]

Hi Colin,

Congrats on your 10th anniversary and up to the next one !

 http://www.samcoupe.com/preview.htm

Nice to see some more about Chrome and hope it sees the light of day
sometime as it would be a unique game to SAM.

For the scrolling bit planned for Harlequin. What kind of scrolling do you
have in mind (pixel, dixel , 8 directional?) and at what speed would your
accelerator run then ?

Edwin

Re: Fuxoft [Re: Still no tapes received]

[Edwin Blink]

 IMO, the music for Lord Insanity's Tetris was also very good.  Does
 anyone know the name of the original version?

Nemesis the Warlock

Edwin

Re: SAA 1099 Cards

[Edwin Blink]

Was a little to fast hitting that button.

They gameblaster may have short lived but the CMS-301 chips (thats what
Creative called the SAA1099) where also
used  on early soundblasters like you said so you will find them easier.
When you see a board look for the
sockets whete the CMS-301 chips should be.

Also nice to know that SAM has soundblaster technology :-)

Edwin

Re: Blue Two

[Edwin Blink]

david:

 Except for the CF side of this, this does sound a
 little like the idea Cookie  Martin Rookyard worked
 on - the MultiROM... 

I only know the MGT ROM-RAM interface. Dis it get further than
an idea and are there any docs/details about it ?

 Good work - very colourful idea!

Thanks.

Blue Two

[Edwin Blink]

In all those years I never needed to hook two interfaces to SAM at the same
time. But now I do
so I needed to make a two way board.So I decided to make a special one

http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/Blue%20Two%20without%20
interfaces%202.jpg

http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/hardware/Blue%20Two%20with%20int
erface%20and%20flashrom.jpg

Edwin

Re: Blue Two

[Edwin Blink]

Steve:

 I like it the glue adds to it !.

Yes it's the milky/frosty look glue that spreads the light nicely.

I would like to have a go at your  flashrom,
 where can I find the info on it? Do you use Bdos to write to it?

The flash rom is a prototype and there is no support for it yet.
The basic idea was just to be a devellop tool to design a new bootrom that
can boot from a CF card with my new interface i'm designing. But After
thinking up a simple banking mechanishm it can hold 16 32K rombanks
with a512K flashrom. the chip in the picture is a 256K flashrom and has 8
banks
This mega rom will also be build into the CF interface so the interface can
be plugged
into the sam and there is no need to open-up sam to replace the rom.

Edwin

Re: Hotline up to end of Jan 1990

[Edwin Blink]

From: Ian Spencer

So I've now added the hotline messages I have for December 1989 and January
1990 to what was already uploaded and that's it until I've searched through
another 'X' layers of junk to find the other MGT and SAMCO tapes.

Excellent Ian.

Keep on Diggin' ;-)

Edwin

Re: Re[2]: Hotline up to end of Jan 1990

[Edwin Blink]

Andy Chandler:

 Mine is an A4 brochure, with very little detail inside!
 It's on thin glossy card if I remember rightly.

I remember I got something A4ish too. I don't have it anymore. But I
remember
vaguely that it was not much different than those 4 page adds that showed up
in the well know mags:

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/magazines/Crash/Issue72/Pages/Cra
sh7200011.jpg

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/magazines/Crash/Issue72/Pages/Cra
sh7200012.jpg

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/magazines/Crash/Issue72/Pages/Cra
sh7200013.jpg

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/magazines/Crash/Issue72/Pages/Cra
sh7200014.jpg

(Sorry for hotlinking WOS)

Dan:

 Dan I have a brochure - A5, colour and about 8 pages long, text by Nick
 Dan Roberts - is this the one?

Could you scan your brochure Dan ?

Edwin

Re: Re[4]: Hotline up to end of Jan 1990

[Edwin Blink]

Andy Chandler:

 That advert was not the brochure I have in front of me.

Any change for some scans ?

Edwin

Re: Re[6]: Hotline up to end of Jan 1990

[Edwin Blink]

Andy Chandler:

 It's done !
 You can find it's temporary home at 
 
 www.jukebox.btinternet.co.uk/sam/sambrochure.rar

Thats Great Andy !

Edwin

Re: Brochure scans

[Edwin Blink]

Simon:

 While we're at it, here are thumbnails of another SAM brochure:
   http://simonowen.com/sam/sambrochure2.jpg (106K)
 
 Larger scans of the 4 pages are here:
   http://simonowen.com/sam/sambrochure2.zip (2.1MB)

Very nice and colorful brochure Simon !

While we're at it :-) Anyone else having brochure scans ?

Edwin

Re: Hotline up to end of Jan 1990

[Edwin Blink]

Dan:

 No need - it's the one that Si has scanned.

Thanks for telling. Does yours also have a address sticker at the rear page
8 ?

Edwin

Re: Sam Coupe Hot-Line Update

[Edwin Blink]

From: Ian Spencer [EMAIL PROTECTED]


 Well some good news I've found the first tape which covers the period
Aug89
 to Feb90. This was the earliest phase of the hot-line and covers the
period
 before the first shipments in December and beyond.

That's great news Ian.

Edwin

Re: Sam Coupe Hot-Line

[Edwin Blink]

 Colin included a recording from one weeks news on the latest Sam Revival
CD.
 Are these recording really rare?

I think so the one you heard was a mastercopy I recieved from SAMCo in 1991

 I'm sure I have almost all of the Hot line recording on tape somewhere ?
Is it worth me trying to find them in amongst my several tons of junk.

It would be fantastic if you still have those recordings and it certainly is
worth the trouble
to go look for them !

Edwin

Re: Re[2]: Ideas for the ultimate emulator :)

[Edwin Blink]

From: david [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Or get a Sam-in-a-can :)

your sam in a can ?

Edwin

Re: Fastest memory transfer (on Sam)

[Edwin Blink]

 Edwin,

 I have another question: On Spectrum, it was the basic asm knowledge that
JR
 is shorter but slower than JP. But how does it work on Sam? I assume
 (without any exact computation) that due to the contention, JR is probably
 faster than JP in general cases. Am I right? (I consider conditional jump
 when the condition is true as the most important, i.e. general case.)

Well thats the good thing you get from the contention. There equal in length
 during ram contention and faster during display contention. So you can save
a byte. Another good thing is that code like below will take the same amount
of time during ram contention (not during display).

cp Max+1
jr c,$+3
xor a

here are some timings: rom, ram, display:

JP nn 10(4,3,3) 12(4,3+1,3+1) 24(4+4,3+5,3+5)
JR dis 12(4,3,5) 12(4,3,5) ) 16(4+4,3,5)
JP cc,nn 10(4,3,3) 12(4,3+1,3+1) 24(4+4,3+5,3+5)
JR cc,dis 12/7(4,3,5/4,3) 12/8(4,3,5/4,3+1) 16/16(4+4,3,5/4+4,3+5)
DJNZ dis 13/8(5,3,5/5,3) 16/12(5+3,3,5/5+3,3+1) 16/16(5+3,3,5/5+3,3+5)

Edwin

Re: Text conversion

[Edwin Blink]

From: Paolo Borzini [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Probably not recognize the CR and LF .

This freeware editor can do a lot and can 'convert' CR/LF by selecting the
format you want..
To convert to 64Col/Outwrite format use one of the SAM utils mentioned.

http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

Edwin

Re: Fastest memory transfer (on Sam)

[Edwin Blink]

From: Geoff Winkless [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Please understand that I'm not trying to be awkward; I just don't
comprehend
 the logic.

No prob. I hadn't looked this close on ROM Display contention before so it
is interesting to look into and discuss it, also a reminder to get on with a
Z80
T-States list for SAM

I hope this makes it little less confusing and help you understand the logic
a bit more:

The ASIC allowes the Z80  to access RAM only once in every 4Ts(RAM) or
8Ts(Display) at the exact same moment.
For convenience, lets say only on the 1st of every 4Ts or 8Ts. Now when the
Z80 tries to access RAM on the 2nd the ASIC tells  the Z80 to wait for 3Ts
or 7Ts.

Before I used the notation 3+5 to tell the NEXT memory cycle in RAM will be
delayed by 5 Wait States.
It is more confenient to write it like this. But it can be confusing. To
make it less
confusing I will use the following formulas to tell how many wait states
there will
be on a RAM memory cycle.

RAM contention: Wait states = 4-(T MOD 4)
Display contention: Wait states  = 8-(T MOD 8)

where T is the number of Tstates passed before the cycle starts.

So looking at the LDIR again with Z80 is in 'in sync'
(the moment  where (T MOD 4)=0 or (T MOD 8) =0) with ASIC.
The numbers in [] are the number of Ts passed before the cycle:

1st: LDIR
[0] 4,4 (LDIR) in ROM,  no contention
[8] 3 (read from RAM)   8-([8] MOD 8)=0 wait states
[11] 5 (store in RAM ,adjust regs)  8-([11] MOD 8)=5 Wait States
[21] 5 (BC0 PC-2)  internal, no wait states
2nd LDIR:
[26] 4,4 (LDIR) in ROM,  no contention
[34] 3 (read from RAM)   8-([34] MOD 8)=6 wait states
[43] 5 (store in RAM ,adjust regs)  8-([43] MOD 8)=5 Wait States
[53] 5 (BC0 PC-2)  internal, no wait states
[58]

The 1st LDIR takes 26T when Z80 is 'in Sync' then the 2nd to 2nd last will
take 32T each The last one takes 21T.

In case of the call to the ROM LDIR routine the first LDIR will take
31Ts(5Ts to get in sync) and after the last one there will be an extra 7
wait states for fetching the LSB return address for RET ie:
[21+(BC-1)*32] 4 RET  in rom, no contention
[25+(BC-1)*32] 3 LSB from stack   8-([25+(BC-1)*32] MOD 8)=7 wait states
[35+(BC-1)*32] 3 MSB from stack   8-([35+(BC-1)*32] MOD 8)=5 wait states

Is it less confusing now or did I give you an headache ?
I'll save the ASIC I/O part for a later time ;-)

For a list what would you prefer or would be less confusing :

RET 10 (4,3,3) 12 (4,1+3,1+3) 24 (4+4,5+3,5+3)

1+.. Number of Wait states added.

or

RET 10 (4,3,3) 12 (4,3+1,3+1) 24 (4+4,3+5,3+5)

..+1 Number of Wait states added.

Edwin

Re: Fastest memory transfer (on Sam)

[Edwin Blink]

- Original Message -
From: Aley Keprt [EMAIL PROTECTED]

I originally though it's number of T-states, but POP must take at least
12T,
definitely not 4T.

Obviously a typing mistake :-)

here are some more timings for PUSH/POP:
PUSH qq (5,3,3) Standard =11Ts
PUSH qq (5+3,3+1,3+1) RAM contention =16Ts
PUSH qq (5+3,3+5,3+5) Display contention =24Ts
POP qq (4,3,3) Standard = 10Ts
POP qq (4,3+1,3+1) RAM contention =12Ts
POP qq (4+4,3+5,3+5) Display contention =24Ts

Edwin

Re: Fastest memory transfer (on Sam)

[Edwin Blink]

 Incidentally, what are the 5 cycles for an LDIR?

It uses the same technique as used by  relative jumps to add a value of -2
to PC.

so is it really the case that the z80 reads the (erroneous) next
instruction before doing PC-=2 (as
 one source on the web suggested)?

I think that suggestion comes from a TI 83/87 related sources. As I
understand it, those calculators use a custom Z80 that uses prefetch.
Ordinary Z80s do not have prefetch.

Edwin

Re: Fastest memory transfer (on Sam)

[Edwin Blink]

From: Geoff Winkless [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Without wishing to appear stupid (yeah, I know, too late, haha), I'm still
 not clear why that's a memory access.

It's not. The delay is added there for convenience. But in fact it will
delay the next
opcode fetch (unless it is in rom but read below).

Shouldn't that round up to 4,4,8,8,5 if in ROM with display contention
 and 4,4,4,8,5 with RAM contention?

The delay shifts to the next (HL) cycle on next LDIR.

  4,4,3+5,5,5+6 LDIR in ROM with Display contemption = 32Ts

 ought to be

 4,4,3+5,5+3,5 = 29Ts

 since the next instruction fetch will also be in ROM and therefore
 uncontended.

Wish it was but it is will be 4,4,8,5,5 for 1st LDIR then next 4,10,8,5,5
etc
the RAM can be accessed once every 8T during display(PAPER for Ales)
contention and once
every 4Ts during RAM contention (the +X wait-states are applied to next RAM
cycle)

 Compared to 24+48/14 or 27.43 means the stack method is still faster, but
 you also need to bear in mind the setup cost of storing the stack pointer
 (or leaving it in a known state) and any registers you want to keep, plus
 the lack of flexibility and memory costs. I wonder at what point it
becomes
 worthwhile.

Speed will always have it's price.

 Of course using ROM routines means you have to have the ROM paged in and
 therefore drop back to the system interrupt routines and lose 16k of
memory
 access. So either way it's not win-win.

If needed IM2 can be used.

 The ideal solution, of course, would be to build a custom ROM with a set
of
 PUSH/POP's. But that defeats the object somewhat, since if we're resorting
 to hardware solutions then a blitter accelerator board (or a redesigned
ASIC
 with such capability built-in) would be far the best option :)

I'd prefer a redesigned ASIC (with a few other fixes). I see little
advantage in
having a accelerator board Because the extra power is needed in handling
video memory. An accelerator board would have to wait just like the Z80
does.

Edwin

Re: Fastest memory transfer (on Sam)

[Edwin Blink]

I already tried many LDI's and PUSH/POP system on my own, but unfortunately
the process of changing SP makes PUSH/POP slower than sequence of LDI's.

The fastest scrollleft code I could think of is the folowing code snippet
which should be repeated 9*height times and
It's best to write a routine to generate it runtime and fill in the proper
SP values.

;2 pixel scroll left code element 224Ts or 16T/byte

;AF' and index registers are note used as they slowdown the avarage speed.

 LD SP,8001 ;12 HardCode address for each element
 POP AF;4
 POP BC
 POP DE
 POP HL
 exx ;4
 POP BC
 POP DE
 POP HL
 dec sp;8
 push hl   ;16
 push de
 push bc
 exx
 push hl
 push de
 push bc
 push af

It's 20% faster and takes 29% less space then LDI's.

BTW These timings (and earlier mentioned) are RAM timings when the ASIC is
NOT updating the display.

Edwin

Re: Fastest memory transfer (on Sam)

[Edwin Blink]

From: Geoff Winkless [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Trying to think this through...

Like the Idea. So I looked a bit better at LDIR in ROM too.

LDIR is made up of 5 M-cycles:
4,4,3,5,5 for standard LDIR = 21T
4,4,3+1,5,5+2 LDIR in RAM with RAM contemption = 24T
4+4,4+4,3+5,5,5+6 LDIR in RAM with Display contemption = 40Ts
4,4,3+1,5,5+2 LDIR in ROM with RAM contemption = 24Ts
4,4,3+5,5,5+6 LDIR in ROM with Display contemption = 32Ts

From this you can see that a LDIR in ROM during RAM contemption is
as fast as when the LDIR that is in RAM, during display contemption it is
8Ts faster. But it still is 32Ts per byte. So the SP method is still worth
the effort.

When looking at a LDI:
a LDI takes 4 Mcycles:
4,4,3,5 Standard = 16Ts
4,4,3+1,5+3 LDI in RAM with RAM contemption =20Ts
4+4,4+4,3+5,5+3 LDI in RAM with display contemption =32Ts
4,4,3+1,5+3 LDI in ROM with RAM contemption =20Ts
4,4,3+5,5+3 LDI in ROM with display contemption =24Ts

From the above timings you can see that a block of LDIs is 4Ts or 16.6% per
byte faster then a LDIR
(anywhere) during RAM contemption. But during display contemption a  LDIR in
ROM is
as fast as a LDI in RAM. 41% of the time there is display contemption so
large block of LDI's
would then be a little under 10% faster than a LDIR in ROM.
When using a LDIR in ROM or in RAM then on large blocks the rom version is
8.2% faster.

Edwin

Re: Newbie would like help ... Please!

[Edwin Blink]

Welcome to the SAM-users and this list !

The manuals should be no problem. Stephen Parry-Thomas did some excellent
PDF-alization of
most of the manuals made for SAM.

To get started I recomend to get the SAM Users' Manual and SAM Drive Users
Manual to
get a understanding of SAM Basic and DOS You can get them from Gavins Site:

http://www.samcoupe.org/downloads/docs/

You can shoot your questions on this list or search the archives for info
at:

http://www.mail-archive.com/sam-users%40nvg.ntnu.no/

To discover SAM on the net start at the SAM Webring:

http://v.webring.com/hub?ring=samcoupe


Adrian wrote:

If anyone has any midi programming knowledge on the sam
then please let me know as im having a lot of fun with a little project
that
many should like ;)

Anything to do with 4 pasive components and a serial cable ?
I only missuse the midi port to communicate with a PCs serial port. But what
do you
want to know about midi ?

Edwin

Re: Fastest memory transfer (on Sam)

[Edwin Blink]

I need to move (video) memory on Sam, what's the fastest routine? I expect
it must utilize push  pop instructions, since they take just 10T to move a
byte, but I am unsure what is exact look of the whole routine. Please can
somebody help me?

There is not a single fastest routine for everything. To get the fastest
routine it
must be tailormade for it's task.

For clearing or filling  use PUSHes 16T per two bytes
For scrolling use PUSH/POPS 28Ts per two bytes
For copying use many LDIs 20 T per byte
For sprite drawing use LD (HL),nn,INC L 16 T per byte

Note that a PUSH qq  takes16T and a POP qq takes 12T

Edwin

Re: Development tools wanted

[Edwin Blink]

cross-assembler for PC could be better for me. (But I need to convert the
Comet source to it somehow.)
Any advices?

Convert Comet sources in both ways:

http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/software/comet/comcon.zip

Cross assembler that supports Z80:

http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/avigo/programming/tasm301.zip

Edwin

Re: Development tools wanted

[Edwin Blink]

 tasm301.zip contains documentation in another packed file. It has .zoo
 extension. How to read or unpack it?

uses the BOOZ.EXE in the archive

BOOZ.EXE x filename.zoo

Edwin

Re: Development tools wanted

[Edwin Blink]

 Actually, what is the timing issue, I don't think I ever really properly
 understood it... is it every contended memory access is 4 cycles?

Only (Non ASIC I/O) instructions executed in ROM space are uncontended
and use the standard Z80 timings In ram instructions are always aligned to a
multiple
of 4 Ts. and ASIC IO to multiples of 8Ts
When the ASIC needs to draw the screen there is an additional delay of I
think 4Ts.
With ASIC IO I mean IO instructions using ports 248 to 255 or F8 to FF in
hex.

Edwin

Re: Where can I get latest SimCoupe?

[Edwin Blink]

 I have just noticed something similar with some options like the 'auto
 boot on startup screen' which if you set them, exit and then go back in
 they stay but if you exit and then launch a .DSK file that fires up the
 EXE the option is lost.

This just sounds like a work directory problem.
When you start the exe  the config file is created in the startup dir where
simcoupe is.
When you drag and drop a dsk onto the exe it uses root, windows or Document
and Settings
folder depending on OS in use.

Create a shortcut and set the work dir to the simcoupe exe. I'm pretty sure
this will fix your problem.

Edwin

Re: SAM PCB production

[Edwin Blink]

From: Nev Young [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Well they say a pic is worth 100 words so;
 http://www.nfy53.demon.co.uk/pics/sampcb1.jpg

Another 49er, Nice one Nev

Edwin

Re: Christmas Present

[Edwin Blink]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemcategory=1247item=515732224
3rd=1

I think the seller had second thoughts about selling it :-)

Edwin

Re: Christmas Present

[Edwin Blink]

Nevermind my previous post it I didn't copy and past the complete link

Was the messenger sold without a case ?

Edwin

Re: SAM PCB production

[Edwin Blink]

From: Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Just checked a fair few PCB's ... 48/49 seem to be very common production
 weeks but i've got one with week 47.

So week 47 is the earliest sofar.

 I've also got a Week 48 board, but it appears to have been made by a
 different PCB company - the date code is in a different place - 4889
(silk
 screen layer) and 2V0G located just above it in the copper layer. Also
the
 silk screen is in white, not yellow.

Interresting. I wonder what the reason was for using another company.
Couldn't the first one produce enough PCBs ?

I'm curious what other production dates will show up.

Edwin

SAM PCB production

[Edwin Blink]

I have discoved a production datestamp on the SAMs PCB.
Just under the big hole in the center on the PCB it reads something
like KCC8949 which is the production date off the PCB.
89 stands for 1989 and 49 for week 49.
I've seen 8949,8950,8951 sofar and I'm wondering what other
productions dates are out there.
I don't expect anyone to openup their sam and have a  look and I
don't recommend it too. Because of a high risk at damaging the keyboard
membrane. But for the experienced, the ones that have put their SAMs
in different casing or have a couple of PCBs lying around (like me :-)
could you have a peek ?

Edwin

Re: SimCoupe formatting query

[Edwin Blink]

 With MasterDOS loaded under SimCoupe I have been trying to format a
 drive with more than 80 file allocations e.g. FORMAT d2,6 and the disk
 formats but only reports 80 files free.

Tried it:

Started simcoupe,mdos1.3 in fdd1, untitled.dsk in fdd2 FORMAT d2,6,
Pressed Y
DIR 2  770kB, 118 Free Slots

I did a 2nd attempt by creating a  new disk in fdd2 and it was the same.
Maybe it was fixed in a more recent simcoupe or you used a different mdos
version ?

Edwin

Re: SimCoupe formatting query

[Edwin Blink]

From: Simon Owen [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 I'd better get a new version and source out quick, before someone sends
the
 lads round...  ;-)

You'd better hurry then as they're already on their way ! ;-)

Edwin

Re: Still no tapes received

[Edwin Blink]

From: Aley Keprt [EMAIL PROTECTED]

A few days ago, I asked here if somebody could possibly send me his Sam
Copue tapes in TZX format to let me test them in emulator. Up to now, nobody
sent me anything :-

Did Ya ? Then I missed your post.
I've got goldmine from SU covertapes 109 and SU 99 cover tape with a sam
demo on them
I'll mail them offlist.

Yesterday, I played around with TZX files, and it seems pretty well. You can
use Ramsoft's MakeTZX utility (downoad from www.WorldOfSpectrum.org). It
is assured to fully support Sam tapes. I tested it and it works 100
correctly with my 15 years old cheap Sony HF-90 tapes! :-) It's simple, but
very good.

Do they work good with standard speed or turbo also ?

I will definitely add TZX support to emulator (ASCD for sure, maybe also
SimCoupe if Simon Owen will let me to do so :-), because it supports blocks
 65535 bytes, and that is the major problem of TAP usage on Sam Coupe.

So there wasn't a fancy solution for handling 65535 TAPs ?

So, please send me some tape images. At last! I have only some test files I
personally save on my real Sam Coupe. They works, but it's not enough for
real testing. Thanks.

Mailed them of list,

Edwin

Re: Still no tapes received

[Edwin Blink]

 So, please send me some tape images. At last! I have only some test files
I
 personally save on my real Sam Coupe. They works, but it's not enough for
 real testing. Thanks.

 Mailed them of list,

Your mail server rejected them So I've resend them seperate I think one came
thru 50Kb
the goldmine one was rejected again 192K.

Edwin

Re: Still no tapes received

[Edwin Blink]

From: Simon Owen [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 I've just e-mailed you the 8 TZX files I have (all untested), which
include
 some demos from Crash/YS cover tapes.

I wonder if they get bounced like mine.

Could I have a copy of them to please ?

Edwin

SAM Newsdisks

[Edwin Blink]

I was just browsing through my old disks and found five SAM Newsdisks.
I wondered how many there where  released. Does anybody know ?

Thanks

Edwin

Re: SAM Newsdisks

[Edwin Blink]

 5 - although part of Newsdisk 6 became SAM Prime 1

Thanks and SAM Prime became Blitz ?

Edwin

Re: Comet-ASCII

[Edwin Blink]

From: Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED]

  For PC too ?

 Nah, runs on the SAM itself. But it converts to and from ASCII and COMET
 formats, with your own choice of line terminator.

Ah! good then I knew you did a SAM version But if you did a PC one then
mine's
wasn't really needed :-)

Heres v1.2 that can cope with multiple sources and longfiles for output
files.

 http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/software/comet/comcon.zip

Edwin

Re: Let's discuss ZX Spectrum games

[Edwin Blink]

 Shouldn't the archive aim to store software in its original format?  Some
 titles were released on both disk and tape, so it would make sense to
 preserve both disk and tape images, and not just the most convenient
format.

I agree

 Converting existing disk titles to tape files seems wrong to me, and would
 also make them much less convenient for use on real machines.

I disagree on that part.  I've seen several SAM go on ebay without
discdrives and I'm sure
there are many more and SAMs with faulty discdrives too. TAPes can  can be
easely converted
into WAVs and burned on a audio CD and can then SAM users without floppy
drive can enjoy
some of that stuff on the real machine too.

 I've implemented a quick test version that does a temporary disk image
 switch when attempting to boot from a non-bootable disk.  It loads only
DOS
 from the switched disk, returning to the original disk for the AUTO* file
 search (if required).  In the options you just specify the path of the
disk
 image or .SBT file containing DOS.  Does that fit your requirements?

Excellent.

 It might even be nice if SimCoupe had a built-in DOS image so the option
 could be enabled by default, to help out new users...

Good Idea and I think it would nice for experienced users too.

Edwin

Re: How ROM knowns wheter a disk is bootable

[Edwin Blink]

 I have a little technical question: How does Sam ROM know whether the file
 no.01 is DOS, or not?

track 4 sector 1, offset $0100 the word BOOT bits 7 and 5 of each char is
ignored
If it finds it sector which was loaded at 8000 will be executed  8009 as
the first 9 are part of
(inherited from GDOS) file header which is unused.

Edwin

Re: How ROM knowns wheter a disk is bootable

[Edwin Blink]

From: Frode Tenneboe [EMAIL PROTECTED]

But you could put the rest of the DOS anywhere you like on the disc. Cookie
did that to good effect in MaxiDOS/QDOS where he put the DOS on tracks
80-82.

Just side one

BTW if you wish you could store DOS anywhere into the directory as long as
there is one
slot before it that has both filetype and 1st char of filename zero to mark
end of directory.
When storing the remaining 19 sectors of SAMDOS at track 2,sector 2 then
there would
be room for 41 files on such a disc. :-)

Edwin

Re: How ROM knowns wheter a disk is bootable

[Edwin Blink]

From: Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 I seem to remember that SAMDOS needs to find a whole sector clear, so
 you'd need two empty entries. (Or perhaps it only checked for the zero
 marker at the start of the zero marker, and not 256 bytes in.)

Just the first two bytes

try this funny thing:

rename file to chr$ 0
erase chr$ 0

and voila all the files after that disappear.. 

SAVE phew

and the files reapear (if it uses the save slot ofcourse) :-)

Edwin

Re: Comet-ASCII

[Edwin Blink]

From: Simon Cooke [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Hey! Mine converts both ways too!

For PC too ?

Edwin

Re: Let's discuss ZX Spectrum games

[Edwin Blink]

 I think that in the real world a DOS is on each disk (or at least 98% or
 so).

Most of them probably But I rember  a lot of disks by individuals that
didn't,
to save on those precious 10K

 Having 32KB ROM full of rarely used stuff instead of DOS is one of the
 biggest mistakes of Sam designers.

Don't forget that SAM was (technically) lauched as a Tape machine.
But if they put a a compressed basic (and maybe a dos) into the ROM
and it was just there to unpack it to RAM and execute it then things could
have been a lot easier for MGT then they didn't need to send out all those
rom packets and maybe didn't need to call in the recievers.

 I think that booting from a virtual disk would be very good. Wow, who will
 implement it? :-)

Maybe if we ask Simon nicely. He will ;-)

Edwin

Re: Comet-ASCII

[Edwin Blink]

For those who downloaded it already, make sure it is version 1.1
otherwise download it again to get the proper version.

 http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/software/comet/comcon.zip

Edwin

Re: Comet-ASCII

[Edwin Blink]

From: Andrew Collier [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 I have a copy of the COMET - ASCII converter program, which says it's 
 version 1.2. Is there a later version anywhere? I've got a couple of 
 comet files which seem to make it fall over.


Try my new comet converter which converts both ways:

http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/software/comet/comcon.zip

Edwin

Re: Let's discuss ZX Spectrum games

[Edwin Blink]

From: Frode Tenneboe [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Discs was (and still is) the standard way of distributing SAM software.
The only reason for any TAP support must be to archive the Flash!
tape, the SAMDOS tape and the two games ever released on tape in a
reproducible format.

Hey I've got Lerm assembler on take ! I'm sure there where some things that
where
on tape

There is no practical reason for having separate single-file archives
(as opposed to discs). The extra amount of a compressed SAMDOS2 file
takes is a minuscle 7K and if one is unhappy with the layout, one
can always change it oneself. :)

I don't think SAMDOS should be on each disk. It is convenient for using the
disk with simcoupe
until simcoupe has a 'replacement boot' feature (hint hint !)  that boots
dos from a virtual drive when
attemting to boot from a nono bootable disk.

Edwin