Page 2 of 3

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 11:31 pm
by nico24
What part of the Electron tape wasn't working? The last core had it working just fine.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 3:32 am
by alanswx
We don’t have tape loading from a uef file. We need to convert the uef into raw in the mister binary and feed it in. A few more days of work.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 3:47 am
by nico24
Ah = yes, I use FeeUEF to play them through the audio cable. There was a site where someone had analyzed the format of UEF files, but it's a bit of a headache!

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:50 pm
by alanswx
I think I have the hard parts worked out. I just need some time to finish the code.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 4:47 am
by alanswx
I will release tape support when the new mister binary ships..

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 5:47 am
by killersquirel
Great news! Thanks for your work on the MiSTer project.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:29 pm
by alanswx
We need another fix to main for compressed UEF files to work. I should have tested before i switched headers. sorry -- I will post when it is working correctly. Working on a tape status dialog for all the classic computers that have tape. With a status bar..

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:09 pm
by breiztiger
Tape dialog like on MiSTer with progressbar on tape loading ?

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:28 pm
by alanswx
34E1629B-B452-4F3F-A4C2-F218E8DFBDB4.jpeg
34E1629B-B452-4F3F-A4C2-F218E8DFBDB4.jpeg (3.12 MiB) Viewed 6251 times
Something like this.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2022 6:55 am
by breiztiger
Oh cool if amstrad core can get that !!!

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2022 11:22 am
by kathleen
Excellent @alanswx !!!

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:00 pm
by pgimeno
Oh no, you're going to spoil the fun of not knowing when it will finish and staying all the time there until it loads!

Just joking. Excellent work.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2022 6:28 pm
by lamarax
Awfully sorry to be hijacking the Elk thread, but we need the latest Beeb core to be compiled in the main repo:
BBCMicro_20220123.rbf
(3.61 MiB) Downloaded 128 times
Most people who casually run the 'downloader' script once in a while and don't frequent the discord, won't even be aware of its existence!

@alanswx please nudge Sorg; he must have forgotten all about it :)

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2022 5:36 pm
by alanswx
lamarax wrote: Tue Feb 08, 2022 6:28 pm Awfully sorry to be hijacking the Elk thread, but we need the latest Beeb core to be compiled in the main repo:

BBCMicro_20220123.rbf

Most people who casually run the 'downloader' script once in a while and don't frequent the discord, won't even be aware of its existence!

@alanswx please nudge Sorg; he must have forgotten all about it :)
I broke the timing.. the core still works well. But Sorg was going to take a look at the clocks and fix it.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:19 am
by alanswx
Let me know how tape works on the acorn electron. I noticed paperboy doesn’t work. But it doesn’t work on mame either. Bad dump? I noticed one other didn’t work in either spot.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 9:42 am
by EeDee
alanswx wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:19 am Let me know how tape works on the acorn electron. I noticed paperboy doesn’t work. But it doesn’t work on mame either. Bad dump? I noticed one other didn’t work in either spot.
Thanks for Core and updates. I owned an Electron for a short while in the '80s
ADC seems to work okay (full volume for me). However I've not been able to load a UEF file. All I get are data errors.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 4:19 pm
by alanswx
EeDee wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 9:42 am
alanswx wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:19 am Let me know how tape works on the acorn electron. I noticed paperboy doesn’t work. But it doesn’t work on mame either. Bad dump? I noticed one other didn’t work in either spot.
Thanks for Core and updates. I owned an Electron for a short while in the '80s
ADC seems to work okay (full volume for me). However I've not been able to load a UEF file. All I get are data errors.
Did you update the MiSTer binary?

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 5:23 pm
by akeley
I managed to load a few .uef tape games today, no problem. Tried Paperboy and while it did get through several stages, after the last one (where data gets loaded and there's garabge on screen) the game did not start. I tried to load the same .uef in Elkulator emu and it did load ok, with the same sequence and behaviour (garbage on screen in the last segment)

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 5:54 pm
by alanswx
Is there source for that emulator? I wonder if paperboy works on the replay core. It seems to fail the same way in Mame. I wonder what is wrong.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 6:12 pm
by akeley
http://elkulator.acornelectron.co.uk/

I've tried it few more times on MiSTer, two different versions, and it crashes to a sort of text-filled red screen. At the same moment when the game starts on the emu.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 6:24 pm
by alanswx
akeley wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 6:12 pm http://elkulator.acornelectron.co.uk/

I've tried it few more times on MiSTer, two different versions, and it crashes to a sort of text-filled red screen. At the same moment when the game starts on the emu.
I am not sure how to debug this.. Do you think it is a memory thing? Are we missing an expansion?

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 6:52 pm
by danielb
Hi, I get the same result.

I know nothing at all about the Acorn Electron, but assuming it has some custom ROM to load the MMB file, could this be interfering with loading from cassette?

D.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 6:57 pm
by alanswx
danielb wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 6:52 pm Hi, I get the same result.

I know nothing at all about the Acorn Electron, but assuming it has some custom ROM to load the MMB file, could this be interfering with loading from cassette?

D.
Which error do you get?

I load the electron core, and get to the MMB menu. Then I hit shift-F10 to reboot to basic. Then I type "*TAPE" to get into tape mode. Then the CHAIN "" - will cause the tape to load (which you need to have loaded from the OSD before you type CHAIN of course)

Alan

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:03 pm
by danielb
Hi, yes I did that. I tried two tapes; Paper Boy and Arcadians. Both seemed to load and then crashed at the last minute. Paper Boy crashes to a red screen with text garbage that looks like Basic and an "Invalid Program" error. Arcadians crashes to a black screen with a text cursor in the corner and assorted garbage.

D.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:04 pm
by alanswx
danielb wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:03 pm Hi, yes I did that. I tried two tapes; Paper Boy and Arcadians. Both seemed to load and then crashed at the last minute. Paper Boy crashes to a red screen with text garbage that looks like Basic and an "Invalid Program" error. Arcadians crashes to a black screen with a text cursor in the corner and assorted garbage.

D.
Weird, I have had no problem with Arcadians_E

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:10 pm
by akeley
Sorry, Alan, I also know zilch about Electron - this core is my first experience of this machine. But perhaps @danielb is right, since we're going through vhd/mmb to load the internal roms, it does not feel 100% kosher.

I can maybe ask on stardot forums (or maybe some members are reading this), been meaning to make account there for some other stuff anyway.

Arkadians also loaded ok for me.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:11 pm
by EeDee
EeDee wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 9:42 am
alanswx wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:19 am Let me know how tape works on the acorn electron. I noticed paperboy doesn’t work. But it doesn’t work on mame either. Bad dump? I noticed one other didn’t work in either spot.
Thanks for Core and updates. I owned an Electron for a short while in the '80s
ADC seems to work okay (full volume for me). However I've not been able to load a UEF file. All I get are data errors.
Forgot to do that small thing. Typical of me :roll:
Thanks

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:19 pm
by danielb
Arcadians_E ran without incident. I am wondering whether the files I tried might actually be for the BBC Micro, which would be kind of embarrassing...

UPDATE: I redownloaded a confirmed Electron version of Paper Boy, and it behaves in exactly the same way.

D.

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 8:17 pm
by EeDee
Got the same results as everyone else loading Paperboy from UEF so I tried Audio which runs to the end but doesn't start up, just crashes

Re: Acorn Electron Core

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2022 5:06 pm
by alanswx
Paperboy doesn’t work. That is what I said 😎 now everyone is trying it. How funny.