Apple ][+ Core

[Higgy]

Thanks for the 15Kkz support (not tried it yet). I had just downloaded loads of games in .nib after reading about Scott Adams adventures games in Retro Gamer mag.

[slingshot]

The Apple IIe was an extension of the 2+ that came with 128KB of RAM, 80 columns, and extemded character set (with international support with some country-specific ROMs).

I believe most games just need the extra memory which is already availavle in the core.

Yeah, but I'm not sure the Saturn RAM extension and the RAM in the 'e' is the same, e.g. Tetris 128k also doesn't start, but 48k does.

[Higgy]

Hi.
I managed a quick play with the Core. Here are some observations:
1.On 15kHz CRT TV picture is good, but is off to the left the same amount as original PC Engine Core. As the computer does not fill the whole screen you don't miss information like on the PC Engine but it would be nice if centering could be improved.
2. Is the memory being cleared properly with a Reset? I saw the title screen in the corrupted graphics on another time screen of a game I loaded.
3. The Apple ii originally had a strange joystick. Is this correctly translated in the Core? I was using a USB digital game pad. Apple joystick info -https://hackaday.com/2016/08/03/an-appl ... -gameplay/

Thanks

[vebxenon]

Thanks for the 15Kkz support (not tried it yet). I had just downloaded loads of games in .nib after reading about Scott Adams adventures games in Retro Gamer mag.

All the games I have are converted .nib games by me. Where have you found converted games?

[Chris23235]

Thanks for the 15Kkz support (not tried it yet). I had just downloaded loads of games in .nib after reading about Scott Adams adventures games in Retro Gamer mag.

All the games I have are converted .nib games by me. Where have you found converted games?

The TOSEC Set includes 74 MB of .nib games.

[Lane]

Thanks for the 15Kkz support (not tried it yet). I had just downloaded loads of games in .nib after reading about Scott Adams adventures games in Retro Gamer mag.

All the games I have are converted .nib games by me. Where have you found converted games?

The TOSEC Set includes 74 MB of .nib games.

Which TOSEC Set? The most recent one I can find (2017-04-23) only has 15.3MB.

[slingshot]

Hi.
I managed a quick play with the Core. Here are some observations:
1.On 15kHz CRT TV picture is good, but is off to the left the same amount as original PC Engine Core. As the computer does not fill the whole screen you
don't miss information like on the PC Engine but it would be nice if centering could be improved.

I suck at creating TV signals

2. Is the memory being cleared properly with a Reset? I saw the title screen in the corrupted graphics on another time screen of a game I loaded.

Reset doesn't clear the memory at all, but there's a cold reset option in the OSD.

3. The Apple ii originally had a strange joystick. Is this correctly translated in the Core? I was using a USB digital game pad. Apple joystick info -https://hackaday.com/2016/08/03/an-appl ... -gameplay/

The analog joystick port is not implemented.

[Chris23235]

All the games I have are converted .nib games by me. Where have you found converted games?

The TOSEC Set includes 74 MB of .nib games.

Which TOSEC Set? The most recent one I can find (2017-04-23) only has 15.3MB.

You are right, it's the dsk archive that is over 70 MB, the .nib archive is much smaller, it's contains of 171 images.

[DanyPPC]

and dsk can be converted in nib ?

ok, found the dsk2nib.exe in MiST repository

[Chris23235]

and dsk can be converted in nib ?

ok, found the dsk2nib.exe in MiST repository

Just wanted to post the same, here is the link:

https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-boar ... ls/dsk2nib

It works fine, dsk2nib is no problem, nib2dsk can be a problem, because the nib format can contain copy protected images.

[Higgy]

The TOSEC also has other formats '.do' for example that can be converted to .nib

Slingshot - I was mainly using 'Cold Reset' but I did use 'MiST Reset' a few times. But I think I used the 'MiST Reset' after I saw the previous games graphics as I thought 'MiST Reset' was better(?!). Thanks

[DanyPPC]

How do you rename the default folder for the Apple 2 Core ?

And, sorry for the Out Topic, Atari ST core one ?

[Newsdee]

The .dsk extension is probably more common. It would be nice if the core could load them directly, but converting via the dsk2nib utility is not too bad as long as you don't have a huge archive.

[Higgy]

Dump the .dsk files into a folder with the converter and use something like at command line:

Dsk2nib *.dsk *.nib

Batch converts the entire lot in seconds.

[DrOG]

Hi.
I managed a quick play with the Core. Here are some observations:
1.On 15kHz CRT TV picture is good, but is off to the left the same amount as original PC Engine Core. As the computer does not fill the whole screen you
don't miss information like on the PC Engine but it would be nice if centering could be improved.

I suck at creating TV signals

Here are my screenshots, I think compatibility and overall picture quality is fine, image is shifted to the left a bit...

Slingshot, Thank you again for improving this core!

[DanyPPC]

But no one know how do rename the default disks folder for the Apple 2 Core ?

I named it "appleii", "apple-ii", "apple_ii" but when I load a nib file the system reports me to the root of the sdcard.
Here is my actual folders names, but apple2 and atarist are the wrong ones:

folders.jpg

[slingshot]

I think the MiST firmware doesn't like the + in the core's name. Will remove it next time.

[rittwage]

The emulator has all wrong colors now... What is orange is blue, and what is green is purple, and vice-versa, etc.

Even in the pictures posted above, all the colors are backwards, like 90 or 180 degrees out of phase. The ground is supposed to be purple (I know, stupid as that is, but that is how the game was released).

Try to test a different game like Pac-Man or RUN COLOR DEMO and you will see...

[DrOG]

The emulator has all wrong colors now... What is orange is blue, and what is green is purple, and vice-versa, etc.
Even in the pictures posted above, all the colors are backwards, like 90 or 180 degrees out of phase. The ground is supposed to be purple (I know, stupid as that is, but that is how the game was released).
Try to test a different game like Pac-Man or RUN COLOR DEMO and you will see...

I didn't notice that, as never owned the original hardware... But loaded the previous core, released in september by MasterOfGizmo, and ground is purple... Made 2 screenshots to show the difference (this older core does not support interlaced mode). So I can confirm the colors are different ... nice catch!

[slingshot]

The emulator has all wrong colors now...

Yeah, I didn't found it wrong also, as I'm not really knowing this machine (too). Will take a look at the issue (and still planning to do some IIe memory paging implemented).

[Newsdee]

Looks like the color output is just shifted. Here is a good coverage about how it works: https://www.xtof.info/blog/?p=768

[rittwage]

Technically, if you output the signal with the right original timings, you do not have to emulate the artifact colors. At 15Khz on an original RGB monitor, it should work just like the original Apple II.

[ijor]

Technically, if you output the signal with the right original timings, you do not have to emulate the artifact colors. At 15Khz on an original RGB monitor, it should work just like the original Apple II.

I don't think so. Atari 8-bit artifacts (NTSC artifacts, to be more precise) disappear on RGB. And Apple II artifacts seem to be (about) the same according to the link posted by Newsdee.

Artifacts are produces because the color carrier, even not modulated as on Video Composite, is too coarse to encode video pulses at high resolution. So quick pulses on the signal might be decoded and demodulated as a fake color.

If you remove the carrier, as it happens even on Svideo that has a separate chroma signal, and there are no artifacts anymore. Let alone, obviously, on RGB.

[rittwage]

Technically, if you output the signal with the right original timings, you do not have to emulate the artifact colors. At 15Khz on an original RGB monitor, it should work just like the original Apple II.

I don't think so. Atari 8-bit artifacts (NTSC artifacts, to be more precise) disappear on RGB. And Apple II artifacts seem to be (about) the same according to the link posted by Newsdee.

Artifacts are produces because the color carrier, even not modulated as on Video Composite, is too coarse to encode video pulses at high resolution. So quick pulses on the signal might be decoded and demodulated as a fake color.

If you remove the carrier, as it happens even on Svideo that has a separate chroma signal, and there are no artifacts anymore. Let alone, obviously, on RGB.

Ah, you are right... it only works in composite. I was thinking the GS does it, but it's emulated in hardware I suppose.

[slingshot]

As NTSC is not in the RGB color space, a conversion is needed anyway. However it was not hard to fix. Also did some improvement towards IIe support, the result:

Photo0035.jpg

Attached the core (it's a work in progress, no double hi-res, so some games are displayed wrongly, even POP title screen, no lower letters).
I wonder if a Apple II+ model would need to be preserved, since I've learned the //E model was the most common and successful, and mostly compatible with the +.

Upd: I was wrong some days ago, the joystick was implemented, just a bug prevented it to work. Now it's OK (at least works for me).