Incoming new core: Amstrad PCW

[steddyman]

I've just tried it on a 15Khz CRT TV via Direct Video (VGA DAC-SCART). Got highly unstable, rolling image. Any ideas?

I haven't been able to test that myself, but I thought others above said they had tested it. I have an Amiga 1801 monitor coming in a few weeks at which point I can test. The PCW is a bit of an unusual resolution for the time at 720x256 but it is roughly in the same frequency range of a regular 15khz signal.

[akeley]

Great, thanks. It could be something on my side since I also have some similar problems with ST core and others have reported it to be working.

[breiztiger]

@steddyman can you make keyboard layout for different language (french for example ...)

[steddyman]

@steddyman can you make keyboard layout for different language (french for example ...)

I could if I know what is involved. How would it need to handle the keyboard differently?

[steddyman]

RAMTEST is now running and passing. Also, got it successfully booting PCW9512+ 720 3.5" disks when set to PCW9512+ mode. I had to create a fake daisywheel device for it to boot.

RAMtest.jpg (93.84 KiB) Viewed 2559 times

[breiztiger]

very good !!!

for french keyboard, it seem you don't have anything to do, it's just systems disks must be for french

[steddyman]

Yes, a lot of the system disks I have are French or Spanish. It was a very popular system in Europe.

Day of no progress todays. Had lots of hardware issues with one of my SSD's. Finally sorted (I think).

[steddyman]

Hi Breiztiger

I just found this. It looks like you can create your own keyboard mappings in MiSTer:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... i/Keyboard

[steddyman]

Ok major progress today. I have implemented CPC Paging mode now, and Hero Quest, Head over Heels and Abadia are now all working!

I've tested SymbOS again and it doesn't even attempted to the boot. So I tried the same disks in CP/M Box and Joyce, and it is exactly the same. Looking at the boot sector it is a standard CP/M Boot sector, but the directory does not contain an EMS file. The CP/M Boot sector looks for .EMS files and loads the first one it finds. Therefor this disk cannot possibly work.

Edit: It looks like you need to boot a CP/M disk first, and then boot SymbOS, which is odd because SymbOS does have a boot sector on it. I can then get it to load from drive B but it doesn't show the background and the Apps don't load.

[steddyman]

I'm pleased to report version 2 of the Amstrad PCW MiSTer core is now available with the following new features:

* Support for PCW9512+ Mode and 3.5" drives
* Support for two disk drives
* SDRAM support to provide upto 2MB memory
* Colour mode with configurable starting point
* CPC paging mode. Fixes issues with various games (e.g. Abadia, Head over Heels)
* Mouse movement improvements
* Daisywheel port emulation to allow PCW915+ CPM to boot
* Fixed issues with disk corruption and boot errors
* Fixed corruption issue with RAMtest
* F2/F4/F6/F8 no longer require you to press shift

More information is available in the following features video:
https://youtu.be/z-IoDr81xjE

[ron]

Great improvements, congrats !!!!
Testing , having nice time. Thank You

[Lodovik]

Great job! This computer can do so much more that I thought.

[kathleen]

Thank you so much @steddyman, you're amazing!.
Will try it this evening, I cannot wait.

[bazza_12]

brilliant core, congrats

[Nodoyuna]

Hi
Does this core supports 15KHz? If not, any plan on making it 15KHz compatible?
Thanks in advance

[steddyman]

Yes, it does support 15khz. I use it on an Amiga 1081 monitor.

Glad you all like it.

Thanks

[breiztiger]

hi

this dsk work on cp/m box emu but not in mister core

[Hodor]

hi

this dsk work on cp/m box emu but not in mister core

Uncompressed file works fine on my Mister. At least loads the menu, I haven´t gone further.

[steddyman]

Yep... I've played Batman on the MiSTer core many times. Works perfectly.

This was me playing it nearly a month ago, on the release 1 of the core: https://youtu.be/1IrI-LB45WU

[breiztiger]

i'm sorry i know that batman work but with this dsk and last build of core i have title screen, after some flash screen and 4 bips

i have delete config files but good at all

[steddyman]

Excellent. If you get 4 bips it means you have the wrong model PCW selected. A 9512+ PCW cannot boot 8256 disks. That's the same on the real hardware and I have mentioned that in the readme.

[breiztiger]

yes but as i have delete config files it's per default 8256

[steddyman]

Yep. Or you can just reselect 8256 in the OSD.

[NML32]

Is there a way to start Batman if you don't have a keyboard with a Numpad? If I press Enter on my keyboard (without a numpad) it just moves the menu selector.

[kathleen]

@steddyman,

Is there any progress on the Core ? I've in mind the SymbOS which is not working and the share folder ?.

Thanks you so much.

[steddyman]

Sorry, only just had chance to check the forums.

No, I've tried to contact the author of SymbOS through various channels to understand what it could be doing that isn't documented, but I've had no responses back.

[kathleen]

Thank you for the feed back @steddyman
Hope you'll get an answer from the author of SymbOS

[ron]

Hi folks !

The latest version of the Amstrad PCW core is 10 months old, I was wondering if there is an intention to resynthesize it with the new framework. I think the new scaling options as V-Integer, Narrower HV Int, Wider HV-int would improve the experience a lot since the core video is a bit corseted.

Thanks ! , cheers.

[thorr]

I didn't realize there were new scaling options. Do we need to download a new Mister.ini template to see all the options?

[ron]

I didn't realize there were new scaling options. Do we need to download a new Mister.ini template to see all the options?

Hi ! No, the core needs to be resynthesized using the latest MiSTer's framework: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Template_MiSTer

Then the core can be found at: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Amstrad-PCW_MiSTer

I'll try some workarround, just need to adapt existing core to the new template.

Regards