SAM Coupe core for MiST

[Sorgelig]

More about D/A converters, if needed:
http://velesoft.speccy.cz/samdac-cz.htm

I'm confused. In SAM MOD player SAMDAC is listed as 7-bit stereo, while on Velesoft page all 8 bits are connected and called as 8-bit DAC. Where is the true?

[ericgus]

I look forward to trying this core .. I have to admit Sorgelig you have made me curious about this machine and some of the other cores you have worked on. I've never used (or seen) a SAM so this should be interesting as a first impression.

[Sorgelig]

I've also never seen SAM in real life

[goran]

[SirDavid]

I'm confused. In SAM MOD player SAMDAC is listed as 7-bit stereo, while on Velesoft page all 8 bits are connected and called as 8-bit DAC. Where is the true?

SAMDAC is 8-bit per channel, but in MOD player two Amiga 8-bit channels have to be mixed to one.

[Sorgelig]

DAC is working.

[Newsdee]

Firmware is out - pls give it a try

[Sorgelig]

New release:
- Added stereo SAM DAC on LPT1
- Fix: SAA1099 L/R channels was swapped.

[NML32]

Is there a way to get usb joypads to work with the SAM Coupe core or does that require additional coding to the core? Just wondering.

[Sorgelig]

Is there a way to get usb joypads to work with the SAM Coupe core or does that require additional coding to the core? Just wondering.

They should work already. It's FW maps real joysticks/gamepads. I'm using joystick emulation by keyboard. Since it works, real joysticks should work as well.
If you use ZX import games then you need to choose Sinclair 1 or 2 as a joystick.

[NML32]

Is there a way to get usb joypads to work with the SAM Coupe core or does that require additional coding to the core? Just wondering.

They should work already. It's FW maps real joysticks/gamepads. I'm using joystick emulation by keyboard. Since it works, real joysticks should work as well.
If you use ZX import games then you need to choose Sinclair 1 or 2 as a joystick.

Unless I'm doing something wrong only DB9 joystick seems to work on the games I've tried although if I press Start and Select it does launch the core OSD.

[Sorgelig]

The whole "zoo" of joysticks are handled inside ARM firmware, not in core. From core view: it just gets 5-6 wires from ARM. It doesn't know if it emulated through keyboard, DB9 or usb joysticks. May be your USB gamepad is simply not supported by firmware. About DB9 buttons - probably it's supposed to be this way.

[SirDavid]

Mouse and SAM DAC work great! Thank you very much!
Now let's go back to the hard disk support There are some images from different people available on internet. The best example would be a collection of demos:
http://sam.speccy.cz/al-software/sc-demos_collection_2014-11_atomlite.7z
You can try it in SimCoupe 1.1 alpha. It starts to the fullscreen menu. You can select the demo using mouse or by pressing only one key. To use HDD you need to insert B-DOS disk D1 (as disk1 - HDD has to be connected as D2) or use modified ROM (AL-BOOT ROM), which can start from HDD if present (then HDD can be connected as D1 or D2, I think).
There's my very old demo on this image, but modified by someone. I haven't named it "Samples 4 SAMCon" This is 3-disk demo and you had to change disks when prompted. Someone modified it for HDD and now it changes disks by itself. How? It is not magic Just simple BASIC command: ' DPOKE DVAR 25,(DPEEK DVAR 25)+1 '. DVAR 25 is a DOS variable containing the number of the current partition. It sets the next partition as current. The demo simply must be saved in consecutive records and that's it.
HDD support would be very useful, but you have to decide for yourself whether it is worth.

[NML32]

The whole "zoo" of joysticks are handled inside ARM firmware, not in core. From core view: it just gets 5-6 wires from ARM. It doesn't know if it emulated through keyboard, DB9 or usb joysticks. May be your USB gamepad is simply not supported by firmware. About DB9 buttons - probably it's supposed to be this way.

Ok, thanks for the explanation.

[ericgus]

You guys should see if Sorgelig can hook up the serial port to the MiST's serial midi header (like on the Amiga and Atari cores) that way you can connect it to say a RaspberryPi running TCPSER and "dial" into internet based BBS'es.. via tcpip..

[Newsdee]

The whole "zoo" of joysticks are handled inside ARM firmware, not in core. From core view: it just gets 5-6 wires from ARM. It doesn't know if it emulated through keyboard, DB9 or usb joysticks. May be your USB gamepad is simply not supported by firmware. About DB9 buttons - probably it's supposed to be this way.

Maybe games don't support the joystick? I tried a few and they seem keyboard only.
Of course one could map joystick to keys, but since it changes per game it's a bit annoying...

[NML32]

The whole "zoo" of joysticks are handled inside ARM firmware, not in core. From core view: it just gets 5-6 wires from ARM. It doesn't know if it emulated through keyboard, DB9 or usb joysticks. May be your USB gamepad is simply not supported by firmware. About DB9 buttons - probably it's supposed to be this way.

Maybe games don't support the joystick? I tried a few and they seem keyboard only.
Of course one could map joystick to keys, but since it changes per game it's a bit annoying...

I tried Bowin and the Count Dracula (1991) (Lucosoft and Revelation).dsk and it works with my DB9 joystick but not my USB joystick.

If a game works with the DB9 Joystick shouldn't it work with a supported USB joystick?

It's ok I'm fine using my DB9, I was just wondering if the USB joystick should work in place of the DB9 joystick.

[Newsdee]

I tried Bowin and the Count Dracula (1991) (Lucosoft and Revelation).dsk and it works with my DB9 joystick but not my USB joystick.

If a game works with the DB9 Joystick shouldn't it work with a supported USB joystick?

It's ok I'm fine using my DB9, I was just wondering if the USB joystick should work in place of the DB9 joystick.

It looks like joystick 1 is reported as 2 to the core and vice-versa. Try plugging a second USB stick and see if it's recognized.
(this forces the DB9 connection to become the 3rd joystick)

Maybe the core needs an option to swap joysticks, as there is in the C64 and Apple II cores?

[NML32]

I tried Bowin and the Count Dracula (1991) (Lucosoft and Revelation).dsk and it works with my DB9 joystick but not my USB joystick.

If a game works with the DB9 Joystick shouldn't it work with a supported USB joystick?

It's ok I'm fine using my DB9, I was just wondering if the USB joystick should work in place of the DB9 joystick.

It looks like joystick 1 is reported as 2 to the core and vice-versa. Try plugging a second USB stick and see if it's recognized.
(this forces the DB9 connection to become the 3rd joystick)

Maybe the core needs an option to swap joysticks, as there is in the C64 and Apple II cores?

Yes, you are correct once I plugged in a second USB joystick it worked.

[Sorgelig]

It looks like joystick 1 is reported as 2 to the core and vice-versa. Try plugging a second USB stick and see if it's recognized.
(this forces the DB9 connection to become the 3rd joystick)

Maybe the core needs an option to swap joysticks, as there is in the C64 and Apple II cores?

Since i don't have usb joystick i didn't catch the source of problem.
Why USB joystick reported as a second one?

Btw, because there are 2 joysticks in SAM Coupe, some games require Sinclair 1 joystick while other games may requires Sinclair 2 joystick. I don't know how it's handled with real joysticks. When i use emulated joystick, i can switch between 2 joysticks by key Scr Lock.

May be FW needs similar implementation of quick joystick swap by some hot-key?

[Newsdee]

Since i don't have usb joystick i didn't catch the source of problem.
Why USB joystick reported as a second one?

Reading comments in the firmware it's because the physical Joy0 is reserved for a mouse (Amiga and/or ST I suppose),
and only deactivated once one plugs a second USB stick. Check joystick_renumber() in user_io.c.

Code: Select all

// Since the primary joystick is in port 1 the first usb joystick
// becomes joystick 1 and only the second one becomes joystick 0
// (mouse port)


This convention might be from original minimig...

[Sorgelig]

HDD support would be very useful, but you have to decide for yourself whether it is worth.

It requires a lot of work to implement HDD support and at the return gives almost nothing special. TBH, It's very convenient to choose disk from OSD than in HDD menu. You can have more than 36 items (unlike HDD) and compile your own set. Remember, if you have lond list of files, then simply press first letter to jump quickly somewhere in the middle of list.
Currently, i'm not convinced to implement HDD. You example of COVOX disk set is pretty unique. I don't want to make HDD support just for this covox demo.
Actually, this core is open source and anyone can add more features I prefer to focus on features giving some noticeable advantages.

Btw, did you check disk write ability?

[Sorgelig]

Reading comments in the firmware it's because the physical Joy0 is reserved for a mouse (Amiga and/or ST I suppose),
and only deactivated once one plugs a second USB stick. Check joystick_renumber() in user_io.c.

I think, you are familiar with joysticks already
So, what about this mod to FW: If real USB or DB9 joysticks are connected to MiST, then SCRLOCK key acts as joystick swap key.
If no real joysticks are connected then SCRLOCK key switches between emulated through keyboard joysticks (current implementation)?
In this case you don't have to occupy new key for this feature.

[Newsdee]

ScrLock actually acts on the emulated joystick, not the physical one. And I'm a bit worried of breaking code that assumes the current setup for physical ones. Maybe I can add the option to disable the renumbering logic in MIST.INI, for now.

[SirDavid]

Btw, did you check disk write ability?

It works on some disks and doesn't on others. On these others I can do nothing, nither read nor write. I have the "87 Check disk in drive" error. I think it's the same disks that had a problem with booting in the earlier cores.

Edit: Sorry, my mistake. These were EDSK disks, not MGT.