mamedev
Years in the asking has come to this.
I am trying to develop a new OS for the ADAM computer, but for some reason you have the ROMs CRC locked. This is despite numerous versions of EOS, Coleco BIOS, and the Smart Writer. No one can update the 6801's or anything.
So I ask you pleasantly to have a developer mode or a radio button to disable CRC checks.
The ADAM community is evolving, and everyone that is seriously interested is investing in the F18A or the PICO 9918 that uses the 9938 chipset for video. You don't support that as an expansion.
I'm not trying to bust your chops; I'm just trying to develop new software and hardware for this thing, and I am not getting any cooperation from the developers of basically 3 ADAM emulators on the entire planet.
In doing research before coming here, I looked. This issue has gone as far back as 2009, and my recent attempt at running alternate ROMs meets with the same problem.
Hi! If you run MAME from the command line directly (e.g. mame adam) it will warn about a checksum mismatch but continue anyway. This is exactly for developers.
Hi! If you run MAME from the command line directly (e.g. mame adam) it will warn about a checksum mismatch but continue anyway. This is exactly for developers.
That took about 2 seconds and works like a charm. I wish I knew about that a long time ago.
Any thoughts on adding the 9938 option? This would open up a ton of new games for the ADAM with advanced graphics and 80 column text based software.
If swapping in a 9938 is something people do on real ADAMs we can probably support it without a lot of effort.
Please do. For the ADAM but also the ColecoVision as well. The community has been installing the F18A for a few years now. Most recently, the cheaper PICO 9918. Both emulate the 9938. Both have VGA output with 80-column screens. Scrolling and a host of other advanced features.
As I mentioned before. I am writing a new OS for the ADAM using an 80x24 console. I have just replaced Smart Writer with my own code. Last night I successfully initiated all of ADAM's devices and used some of them. All outside of EOS or other software. I have an IDE card that I also want to use to create a hard disk environment but also use directories. I am banking RAM to achieve at least 1 meg. The card does exist from John Lundy Electronics.
People are buying this stuff with an active community on Atari Age and Facebook. It would be a great help if you added support.
Let's be clear, I don't think anybody in the regular contributors is an adam or colecovision specialist, nor is part of that community. So it would be quite useful if you could give us a list of what peripherals/upgrades would be interesting to support, and pointers to technical information about them (what they are, schematics, how they are connected, what software supports them for testing, that kind of stuff).
As far as the 99238 is concerned is that it interfaces the same as the 9928 and is backwards compatible 100% You already have the drivers for it on the MSX2
As far as the RAM expansion, that is just an add on card that is accessed through a port already built into the hardware itself Port $7F controls which initial ram is set up, that already works and I think port $45 controls the page for that RAM.
You already have an IDE card in your driver setup through the dip switches but I have no clue if that even works. I'll be happy with just the 9938, the rest I can do on the real hardware or in another emulator.
The ADAM settings in MAME are limited to only allow a 64K ram expansion as far as memory goes. I can only stress that the 9938 is priority over all other things.
F18A and the PICO 9918 are the top contenders to get ADAM and Colecovision out of the stone ages.
The PICO is basically, pop the 9928 out and solder the PICO in it's place, the same amount of pins and you no longer have to worry about the old VRAM or anything else. Plug and play.
alf@1 rev 57 u8, u20, and u21 are an older version of WP_r80.rom divided into 3 roms and are unnecessary. U8 was removed from the CPU, including the socket, when Smart Writer grew past 24k. Hence r(ev)57.
U20, U21, and U22 are 27C128s and are mapped by U23 (74LS139) through pin 22 and 27. While (U20) pin 27 is held on +5 (read only), (U21) and (U22) pin 27 are tied to address 14. So in reality, (U21) and (U22) are 27C256s (32k) but are mapped to only read the lower16k.
I am not sure who dumped your WP_R80, but my MAME was complaining about it despite it being the only dump out there. I have dumped it a few times and its all the same program, padded with zeros to fill 32k
There is an EOS 7 that could go in U21, but the CRC thing. It was an improvement for storage media more than anything else.
(U20)(U22) WP_R80 is Smart Writer revision 80 and is around 28k, padded to 32. It is mapped into the lower 32k. (U21) EOS 6 is the extended operating system, which is the actual BIOS of ADAM and is mapped at $E000 upper RAM. (U2) would be the ColecoVision BIOS that is shadowed into lower RAM when playing game cartridges. MIOC setting 3 (U6) would be the master 6801.
By the way, I am currently working on adding the Adam/EOS filesystem to floptool. Full read and write support is planned there.
floptool
I welcome any improvements. We have a tool called ADAM Image Manager and one that interleaves/deinterleaves disks. The Image Manager will allow you to create a range of disk sizes and will allow simple file copy as long as the directory is on block 1. It frequently crashes and is one of those programs that are not intuitively friendly.
That seems to be the way in the ADAM community. It's not malice, just everyday people trying to hack their way to the next thing. Recently it's been becoming more professional, like the TI994a was. Brand new hardware, but more for the ColecoVision than the ADAM.