MiSTer FPGA Forum

TI-99/4A Release
20210829
-Fix speech overflow
- From Flandango:
Disk Support
NTSC/PAL switch
Support for more cart types including Mega Cart
Larger SAM size support
Various improvements

***Note that adding support for more memory and larger carts means this core now requires the SDRAM module to function. ***

Linux & Main:

- Update Linux (buildroot) to v2021.02. So pretty much all packages got updated. Actually i'm not a big fan of updating the whole OS as MiSTer is not a PC and doesn't need upgrade without a good reason. Anyway it's worth to upgrade after 4 years.

- Some optimisation in boot sequence: connman has been removed in favor of traditional dhcpcd. Connman was used only for ethernet configuration but caused some disruptions in WiFi and BT while booting. So disk statistics utils were added (dstat, iostat, iotop).

- BlueZ (bluetooth stack) update to v5.61.

- Fixed: disk LED in previous release showed false disk activity.

- Added USB WiFi drivers: RTL8188EU, RTL8188FU

- Input: removed use of motion sensor in DualShock/DualSense.

- C64: fixed T64 format handling.

- Menu: arrange status icons dynamically.

Note: Linux release now uses 7zip compression due to size restriction on github.

Linux:

- Since MiSTer is not general PC, it should not include unused libraries. Thus, in order to free space for further useful apps, all libraries unused in current set of utilities are removed. Nothing changed for general user, just less unused files are in image now.

- ncFTP replaced by LFTP.

- Fixed broken unzip.

- Added SSL support to Python. Also added httplib2, pysocks, requests, urllib3 modules.

- Kernel updated to v5.14

- Ported USB host driver from socfpga-4.19 as more compatible and stable.

- Updated rtl8188eu driver.

- Replaced rtl8821cu BT firmware (used in WiFi+BT dongles) to more stable one.

- both 7zip (7zr) and unrar unpackers are added, so apps/scripts should check if it's available before downloading.

- added all paths from /media to samba

- Some other tweaks.

Compukit UK101:

Complete reimplementation of video to fix glitchy graphics in previous version.

Linux & Main:

Mostly polishing release to fix remaining problems after big changes.

- Add support for Switch SNES and NES online controllers (lost at some point).

- Support for XBox Series S/X controller.

- Additional link to certificate (to fix some apps/python modules)

- input: default mapping to gamepad if it's not configured yet. Don't relay on default map anyway. It's minimal to be able to go to map settings and define more specific buttons mapping.

- Bluetooth: faster pairing if device wasn't paired before.

NeoGeo:
- Audio fixes (greyrogue)
- Reduce SDRAM cycles (fixes KOF'94 and some other games graphics glitches).

TurboGrafx-16/CD:
- Fix CD audio (dshadoff).
- Support side mouse buttons like in original TGFX mouse (dshadoff).
- VDC and CPU fixes for various games (srg320).
- improve accuracy and boost of adpcm (kitrinx).

NES:
- Fix color emphasis (greyrogue).

SMS:
- Sega System E arcade implementation (greyrogue).
- Add paddle support (bellwood420).
- Audio volume boost (Robinson).
- VDP: adjust collision flag outside of active area (gyurco).
- Updated framework.

New Updater

Introduce you new Updater script made by theypsilon which you can download here:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Downloa ... r/releases
You need to download it only once. It will handle self updating automatically.

Main difference is this script works only with special distribution repository and doesn't walk through all MiSTer-devel repos, so update is much faster. It also doesn't stress github.

This updater will co-exist for some time with current updater so users will get used to it and most problems will be fixed.

Note: due to the way it works, it may need up to 20-30mins to get latest update available in Distribution repo, so after announce of some release, give it about 30min before check for updates.

Linux & Main:

- Update to Kernel v5.14.5 which brings some important fixes.

- exFAT: fixed memory mapped operations.

- exFAT: symlink flag moved from reserved to "system file" flag. It means now any regular file on exFAT partition marked as system means a symlink. It's done to preserve symlinks while copying SD card content on Windows. Before, any copy of symlinks on Windows would convert them to a normal files as windows always clears reserved flags. So, now make sure your normal files have no "system file" attribute. Actually it's unlikely in normal conditions. Driver supports old symlink flag too, but all new links will be created as "system file".

- Update rtl8761bu BT firmware. Add Edimax BT-8500 as known realtek device, so firmware will be loaded (instead internal one).

- Add Logitech D-Input devices.

- Slightly adjust CD DATA read speed to correct TurboGrafx16 (dshadoff).

- input: pace control for mouse messages (fixes mouse in ao486).

- Added xow (XBox wireless dongle) support. Don't use scripts anymore. Just plug and use.

- Add bt_reset_before_pair INI option.

- Some other tweaks and fixes.

Apple II:
- ProDOS HDD support (steven-a-wilson)
- Paddle support.
- Updated framework.

NES:
- Improved color emphasis bits.

SMS:
- Add SMS Japanese Audio Control disables (greyrogue)

NES:
- fix pixel shift

Scooter Shooter
New arcade core

PMD85:

First official release of Czechoslovakian 8-bit computer

SMS:
- Use proper master clock for PAL mode.
- Adjust PAL border + sync timing (Yimmers)

Gameboy:
- Add mappers: TAMA, MMM01, MBC6, HuC3, Rocket, Sachen (paulb-nl)
- Fixes & tweaks (paulb-nl)
- Updated framework.

Compukit UK101:

Load programs from text files.

Main:
- Fix file sorting in browser (Zembarian)
- input: special handling for ESP32 BLE projects.
- input: use X button on gamepad in file browser to go to parent folder.
- user_io: log starting path (if log_file_entry=1).

NES:
- fix emphasis bits shift.

Jailbreak, Scooter Shooter:
-Use a single common Konami 005489 implementation across both games
-Correct tilemap/sprite priority behavior; fixes layer priorities in Jailbreak during the self-test
-Implement proper ZRAM row scroll/column scroll handling
-Add horizontal mask register; this is set by Jailbreak after the self-test to mask the left-most and right-most 8 columns of the screen
-Change video output from 240x224 to 256x224 to show the behavior of the horizontal mask in Jailbreak (this behavior was not accurately recreated in the inital release and is present on the original PCB)
-Correct typos in MRAs for Credits A settings

Compukit UK101:

Added 64x32 screen mode.

Main:
- Add /dev/MiSTer_cmd screenshot support (Martin Donlon)
- input: support for second analog stick.


ao486:
- Support for second analog stick.

Since PC has no standard for joystick functions, some of them have single analog sticks (simple joysticks) and thus up to 2 joysticks can be used, other more complex joysticks may have 2 analog sticks and only one joystick can be connected. So this core has been selected as experimental support for 2 analog sticks found in most gamepads. OSD has new option to select between 2 joysticks and 2 sticks (single joystick). In system-wide joystick definition both sticks are already defined. The one stick defined as analog X/Y is now primary stick (usually called as left stick) and other one becomes a secondary (right) stick.

Note: you must update Main too!

Compukit UK101:

Added variable CPU clock speed.

Downloader:

- Version 1.1 released.
- Added Cheats and Palettes folder (removed Palettes.zip files)
- It now uses ZIPs to make fresh installs a bit faster
- Increased waiting time before reboot, as a measure to avoid problems during linux updates.
- Running time message is more realistic now.
- Other tweaks and optimizations.

Input Tester
- Support for 2nd analog stick
- Button test mode
- New UI

NES:
- Added mappers 196,227,246 (paulb-nl)
- Fix mask for non power of two sizes (Action 52) (paulb-nl)

Apple II:
- Fixed keyboard (incl. steven-a-wilson's fix).

Compukit UK101

- Added OSI mode to support an Ohio Scientific computer in addition to the UK101.
- Input files may have .bas and .lod extensions, as well as .txt.

Input Tester
- Fix analog display issues for devices 2-6
- Add keyboard navigation support
- Add keyboard + mouse output in advanced mode

C64:
- CIA: ignore input on PA/PB pins configured as output (fixes Transwarp loader).