TI-994a How-To

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Moondandy
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Moondandy »

Has anyone ever looked into supporting the Tomy Tutor in this core, or branching off and making one? I was just reading about it now and has similar architecture it seems.
The Tomy Tutor, originally sold in Japan as the Pyūta (ぴゅう太) and in the UK as the Grandstand Tutor,[2] is a home computer produced by the Japanese toymaker Tomy. It was architecturally similar, but not identical, to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, and used a similar Texas Instruments 16-bit CPU.[3] The computer was launched in Japan in 1982, and in the UK and the United States in the next year.

Technical specifications
CPU: Texas Instruments TMS9995
Video: Texas Instruments TMS9918 VDP
Resulution: 256 x 192 pixels
16 colors, up to 2 colors out of 8 horizontal dots
Up to 32 monochrome sprites of 8 x 8 pixels, max 4 per horizontal line
No hardware scrolling function
Memory: 20 KB ROM built-in, 16 KB RAM (with 256 bytes CPU RAM built-in)
Keyboard: 56 keys, JIS compliant
Sounds: 4 onomatopoeia and 3 chords
Weight: 1.7 kg (3.75 pounds)
Media: ROM cartridge, cassette
Expansion: data recorder (optional), game adapter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomy_Tutor
EeDee
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by EeDee »

Moondandy wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 5:51 pm Has anyone ever looked into supporting the Tom Tutor in this core, or branching off and making one? I was just reading about it now and has similar architecture it seems.
Just looked it up and rediscovered this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iIJyNpNFMvY
tmop
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by tmop »

The updated MegaPack V3.1 for the TI99 core is now available for download from the TI99IUC site:

https://www.ti99iuc.it/web/index.php?pa ... Un8RexxeUk!

it includes disks and carts to test the new features (eg. MiniMemory games, etc.) added in the last update of the core.

There is a readme file in the archive with some instructions on how to load the various types of programs for those that are not familiar with the TI99. Of course, in case of doubts/clarifications, just ask... :-)
cathrynmataga
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by cathrynmataga »

Nice, this core looks pretty good what I've seen so far. And yeah, I never had TI99, to me it is all a little quirky. I remember hearing TI99 programmers complaining and taking a long time and wondering myself what was so hard about it back in the day.
rhester72
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by rhester72 »

The 99 had...personality. *laughs* But it's those interesting quirks that distinguished it and keep it worth exploring to this day.

Then again, it was also my first computer, and in that era *ANY* computer was like a combination of black magic and Disneyland. It's something easily recaptured but hard to imagine for someone new to the machine in the 21st century.
Flandango
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

So, one of the many things I wanted to try out was interfacing with external devices through the User Port.
At first I was thinking of maybe an RS-232 port but then I came across Tipi and looked interesting.
I managed to get the TIPI firmware modified to work with Mister and the TI core and also connect the Raspberry Pi via the User Port.
If there is any interest, especially if you have some soldering skills and willing to make your own cable, I can post the core here for folks to try out.
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by tmop »

Flandango wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 4:43 pm So, one of the many things I wanted to try out was interfacing with external devices through the User Port.
At first I was thinking of maybe an RS-232 port but then I came across Tipi and looked interesting.
I managed to get the TIPI firmware modified to work with Mister and the TI core and also connect the Raspberry Pi via the User Port.
If there is any interest, especially if you have some soldering skills and willing to make your own cable, I can post the core here for folks to try out.
TIPI is an hot topic on AA TI99 thread, so you'll surely find a lot of people that are interested in it! I suggest you to post this stuff. :D

Where you able to do some progresses on the F18A side? The first alpha version was already bright.

Other peculiar stuff are the Gram Kracker and the P-System is you want to have additional fun with the TI99 system. ;-)
arcadeshopper
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by arcadeshopper »

Flandango wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 4:43 pm So, one of the many things I wanted to try out was interfacing with external devices through the User Port.
At first I was thinking of maybe an RS-232 port but then I came across Tipi and looked interesting.
I managed to get the TIPI firmware modified to work with Mister and the TI core and also connect the Raspberry Pi via the User Port.
If there is any interest, especially if you have some soldering skills and willing to make your own cable, I can post the core here for folks to try out.
Sure I can give it a try.. lmk
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

tmop wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 6:27 pm TIPI is an hot topic on AA TI99 thread, so you'll surely find a lot of people that are interested in it! I suggest you to post this stuff. :D

Where you able to do some progresses on the F18A side? The first alpha version was already bright.

Other peculiar stuff are the Gram Kracker and the P-System is you want to have additional fun with the TI99 system. ;-)
For the most part, I put the F18A on the back burner until I figure out how things work. The main issue I have is the F18A's GPU, and the best way to describe it, is it's not syncing right with the rest of the core, sort of a race condition happening somewhere and that's why you get garbled graphics and crashing/locking up.
The closest I got to something semi-working is to reduce the TI's core clock down to 1/4 it's speed (from ~42mhz to 10) then depending on the app/game, enable turbo after loading and/or disable 1K ScratchPad... And no matter what, I couldn't get Mario Bros to work right. If I can't get Mario Bros to work then what's the point of the whole thing?


When I get home this afternoon, I'll post the Tipi RBF and a quick description of the User Port to PI wiring.
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

Here is the core with Tipi support.
It has the DSR baked in so you don't need to change anything with existing roms.
It should work along with the Floppy Controller, but will disable floppy controller if you choose to use CRU 1100.
Available options for Tipi CRU at the moment are 1000, 1100, 1200 and 1400.
To download the TIPI image for your Raspberry PI, visit https://www.jedimatt42.com/downloads.html
Here is also a link to the TIPI WIKI: https://github.com/jedimatt42/tipi/wiki
For the User Port to PI connection, I used a USB 3.1 Breakout board I purchased from Amazon.
Here is a link to the one I purchased so you can get an idea. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MRK0REP
Here is the wiring. I chose this pinout because it lined up best with the breakout board I am using.

Code: Select all

RPI PIN		USER PORT PIN			USB Name
31			6			D+
33			2			TX-
35			3			GND_D
36			1			D-
37			0			D+
38			4			RX+
39			-			GND/SHIELD (NOT GND_D!!!)
40			5			RX-
Please pay attention to pin location on the Raspberry PI. The pins used are at the far end of the PI near the USB ports.
Avoid the other end because it contains the 5v pins, which can damage if not fry your Mister.


As I mentioned earlier, this core will also work without TIPI, just don't enable it.
It also includes the fix for Paged378 images that didn't work before....like the Smurf music compilation.
Attachments
Ti994a_TIPI_20210923.zip
(947.16 KiB) Downloaded 153 times
Flandango
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

tmop wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 6:27 pm Other peculiar stuff are the Gram Kracker and the P-System is you want to have additional fun with the TI99 system. ;-)
Ok, here is my first attempt at getting P-Code system implemented.
You will need the pcode grom file (one I'm using is pcode_g0.bin).
Don't know much about the P-Code system so my testing is limited.
A few quirks I noticed is that the keyboard mappings follow the original TI-994/A keyboard and not the extra key mappings such as the /? key implemented in the Mister core.
And sorry for the long filenames for the core...for now it's temporary...mostly using it to differentiate test cores.
Attachments
Ti994a_TIPI_PCODE_20210927.zip
(1.04 MiB) Downloaded 151 times
danielb
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by danielb »

Hi, I'd really like to try this but I'm having trouble finding the pcode system grom.
I did find a zip for the MAME emulator containing a file called pcode_grom0.u11, and several others, eg pcode_grom1.u13. Are these the right files, and do they need to be concatenated or whatever to work with the core?

Tks,

D.
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by tmop »

@Flandango great addition to the core!

I've tried it, but also for me it's not clear how to run it on MiSTer.

On the TI, the P-System has a card to install on the PEB, a cartridge and 4 disks (2 for the Editor&Filer, 1 for the Assembler and 1 for the Compiler).
On MAME I usually insert the cart, mount the disks and anable the card switch on the Peb. On the TI Menu, selecting option 4 (Pascal Boot Loader) I reach the "Pascal Welcome" screen, with the Editor/Compiler selection.

Not sure of the correct steps on MiSTer. Moreover, you mentioned the "pcode_g0.bin" file, but I cannot find a correspondence with MESS BIOS files for the P-Code. It has 10 files: pcode_grom0.u11, pcode_grom1.u13, pcode_grom2.u14, pcode_grom3.u16, pcode_grom4.u19, pcode_grom5.u20, pcode_grom6.u21, pcode_grom7.u22, pcode_rom0.u1, pcode_rom1.u18). Have this files to me merged into one?

Thanks.
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by rhester72 »

@flandango Awesome! How are you managing without loading the R0/R1 ROMs? :)

pcode_g0.rom is each of the MAME/MESS GROMs concatenated together with 2K padding after each one (so the full 64KB GROM space in total).
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by danielb »

rhester72 wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:08 pm @flandango Awesome! How are you managing without loading the R0/R1 ROMs? :)

pcode_g0.rom is each of the MAME/MESS GROMs concatenated together with 2K padding after each one (so the full 64KB GROM space in total).
Thanks! I got it to work :)

This is a wonderfully arcane system :) The manuals are available online (e.g. here: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/15370 ... resources/) and you'll need them to use it.

Thanks Flandango for getting it working!

D.
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

Sorry for late response, just got back home from work.
Yes, for the mame roms, pad each file with 2k. I forgot where I got the all in one grom file.
As for the R0 and R1 files (DSR), I currently have it encoded in the core.
In the long run, and in order to make it more...MiSter compliant, I will have to move them (along with the TIPI DSR) out of the core.
arcadeshopper
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by arcadeshopper »

Flandango wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 8:50 pm Here is the core with Tipi support.
It has the DSR baked in so you don't need to change anything with existing roms.
It should work along with the Floppy Controller, but will disable floppy controller if you choose to use CRU 1100.
Available options for Tipi CRU at the moment are 1000, 1100, 1200 and 1400.
To download the TIPI image for your Raspberry PI, visit https://www.jedimatt42.com/downloads.html
Here is also a link to the TIPI WIKI: https://github.com/jedimatt42/tipi/wiki
For the User Port to PI connection, I used a USB 3.1 Breakout board I purchased from Amazon.
Here is a link to the one I purchased so you can get an idea. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MRK0REP
Here is the wiring. I chose this pinout because it lined up best with the breakout board I am using.

Code: Select all

RPI PIN		USER PORT PIN			USB Name
31			6			D+
33			2			TX-
35			3			GND_D
36			1			D-
37			0			D+
38			4			RX+
39			-			GND/SHIELD (NOT GND_D!!!)
40			5			RX-
Please pay attention to pin location on the Raspberry PI. The pins used are at the far end of the PI near the USB ports.
Avoid the other end because it contains the 5v pins, which can damage if not fry your Mister.


As I mentioned earlier, this core will also work without TIPI, just don't enable it.
It also includes the fix for Paged378 images that didn't work before....like the Smurf music compilation.
you have D+ listed twice is the top one TX+? .. also the unit I got from amazon (after 2 tries) has different numbers of course sigh

Greg
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

Greg,
Sorry and yes you are correct, the top one is TX+

Code: Select all

RPI PIN		USER PORT PIN	USB Name
31			6				TX+
33			2				TX-
35			3				GND_D
36			1				D-
37			0				D+
38			4				RX+
39			-				GND/SHIELD (NOT GND_D!!!)
40			5				RX-
As for numbers, do you mean the USER PORT Pin #s? If so, yeah those won't be on the breakout port, those are the pin #s as known by Mister (i.e. I don't see them labeled anywhere on the IO card, just in the schematics.
The breakout board you got, does it at least have the USB Names on it?
arcadeshopper
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by arcadeshopper »

Yes it has both on the board I got
It matches the photo on Amazon
Not working first try is there any thing else I need to check on the mister?
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

After looking closely at the my spare board that I ordered, it does have #s on them.
I've included the USB Pin# next to the name in the following list.

Code: Select all

RPI PIN		USER PORT PIN		USB Name	USB Pin
31			6		TX+		(6)
33			2		TX-		(5)
35			3		GND_D	(7)
36			1		D-		(2)
37			0		D+		(3)
38			4		RX+		(9)
39			-		GND/SHIELD (NOT GND_D!!!)	(10)
40			5		RX-		(8)
arcadeshopper
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by arcadeshopper »

Flandango wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 12:07 am After looking closely at the my spare board that I ordered, it does have #s on them.
I've included the USB Pin# next to the name in the following list.

Code: Select all

RPI PIN		USER PORT PIN		USB Name	USB Pin
31			6		TX+		(6)
33			2		TX-		(5)
35			3		GND_D	(7)
36			1		D-		(2)
37			0		D+		(3)
38			4		RX+		(9)
39			-		GND/SHIELD (NOT GND_D!!!)	(10)
40			5		RX-		(8)
I've matched this, nothing when I call tipi is there any other settings on the mister I need to set
Flandango
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

Other than Enabling Tipi the default CRU of 1000 should be enough.
Have you checked the Tipi logs on the PI (/home/tipi/logs/tipi.log) to see if there is any activity?
Edit- Also, if you are using an IO board with the jumper (IO6) next to the IO port, can you verify that it's set to I/O and not 3.3V?
arcadeshopper
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by arcadeshopper »

tipi logs
no tipi log, in the daemon.log i can see it resetting the service when i reset the ti .. so that part works, just put the pi on a real tipi and it works fine..so something with my wiring perhaps.. that jumper is on io
Flandango
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

When you do Call Tipi does it hang or just complains that it can't find it?
Here is how I wired it...for comparison and in case I mis-labeled pinouts.
Breakout-Wiring.png
Breakout-Wiring.png (387.08 KiB) Viewed 11190 times
Pi-Wiring-A.png
Pi-Wiring-A.png (192.63 KiB) Viewed 11190 times
Pi-Wiring-B.png
Pi-Wiring-B.png (544.37 KiB) Viewed 11190 times
arcadeshopper
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by arcadeshopper »

hangs.. I'll compare wiring :)
arcadeshopper
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by arcadeshopper »

whats the wire on pin34 doing? I don't see it connected to the userport usb thing
Flandango
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

Grey wire...that is not connected. It's a ground line but it's not needed and I am not 100% sure the "GND" pin on breakout is actually ground at all times. I'll need to look at the IO board schematics again.
arcadeshopper
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by arcadeshopper »

ok i got it working using a pi3b+ originally I was using a pizeroW I'm wondering if there are timing issues, TIPI adjusts itself based on the pi its running on..

seems to work for telnet, loading off tipi drive.. yay! I'll do more testing.. n
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by Flandango »

I am also using a PI3b+. Will see about getting a ZeroW and trying it out and see what is up.
notFound
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Re: TI-994a How-To

Unread post by notFound »

Hi All, I'm interested in the last TI-994a core with TIPI support but I can't figure out how to get the TIPI send response to the Mister. I followed the Flandango steps but nothing, the TI hangs. Does somebody know how to get TIPI working? No logs on the Raspberry side, I use PI3B+ and the USB 3.1 Breakout board mentioned by Flandango in past posts to link Mister and PI3B+ together.
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