Dustym
Experienced Member
Has anyone written a Model 2 emulator?
Has anyone written a Model 2 emulator?
Hi guys, pski I don't agree with you, most of the MII files didn't load or boot.
LSDos only boot after a kind of reboot during load. Can't find most files on a disk. (File not found error)
Awful interface to work with.
I have used all available BIOS versions, different older mame versions.
The keyboard interface gives many wrong characters and problems.
The directory structure is not very easy to use.
I think it is giant piece of work and would work for most computers, but for the ModelII family it is not a serious emulator.
Btw I use Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.
Hi guys, pski I don't agree with you, most of the MII files didn't load or boot.
LSDos only boot after a kind of reboot during load. Can't find most files on a disk. (File not found error)
Awful interface to work with.
#
# OSD VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video auto
numscreens 1
window 1
keepaspect 1
maximize 0
waitvsync 0
syncrefresh 0
I have used all available BIOS versions, different older mame versions.
The keyboard interface gives many wrong characters and problems.
The directory structure is not very easy to use.
I think it is giant piece of work and would work for most computers, but for the ModelII family it is not a serious emulator....
Thanks guys, it was just that I was asked a couple of days ago, and I didn't know !
I've found various CP/M emulators but not a M2.
I'll use you info and publish it in the Sept. TRS8BIT newsletter if it'd OK with you.
Agreed Hans01, it is not on the same level as some of the MI/III/4 emulators, but it's all we have for the MII. However, most of the software runs fine for me on the Mac. It sounds like the Windows version is more problematic based on you and lowen's experience.
@Iowen,
I didn't know you are involved in this huge project. I hope I have not disappoint you with my comment on the emulator.
Your advised setup makes a lot of difference. It is working a lot better now.
Yes, the name "serious emulator in a beta test state." fits much better with this Model II project.
I'am sorry but the user interface keeps a terrible tool and it takes hours to change and find the options.
How do I change the CPU speed, the available disks, video choices, etc and SAVE them for this machine.
I hope you find some time to improve the emulator, for this is all we have at the moment.:D
So, dumping the keyboard ROM: that's something I can do and something that doesn't require deep C++ skills and a deeper knowledge of the MAME codebase.
How do you go about getting a ROM added to MAME?
After a whole day of testing, here are some remarks about working with mame.
First read the first email from Iowen.
...
First press "Slot Devices", setup the drives and printer and press "Reset" twice
to store the info. This is not permanent and must be done after every restart.
#
# SLOT DEVICES
#
u6:0 8dsdd
u6:1 8dsdd
u6:2
u6:3
j2 printer
#
# IMAGE DEVICES
#
floppydisk /home/lowen/development/mame-0175/L2-631SS.IMD
printer
floppydisk2 /home/lowen/development/mame-0175/L2-631DS.IMD
...
Remember this is only my personal experience, any comments are welcome.
No boot or boot error's with
TRSDOS 1.1
TRSDOS 1.2 (partial with Bios version 1)
TRSDOS-II 4.2
DOSPLUS II
Some CP/Ms refuse to work because they require writing back to the disc (image) whilst booting, which Mame-II doesn't allow with the IMD format.
I am disappointed that you don't have TRSDOS 1.1. It's just that when you said:I put them on the list as not working or not available (no important difference for me at that moment)
I didn't think 'no boot' meant 'not available'; I assumed that you had TRSDOS 1.1 - just that it didn't boot or had errors, especially when you put it with the others and qualified TRSDOS 1.2 with the partial.No boot or boot error's with
TRSDOS 1.1
TRSDOS 1.2 (partial with Bios version 1)
TRSDOS-II 4.2
DOSPLUS II
... That's making me sad all over again.
Aaron
...
Ian gave me a heads-up a few days ago about you guys talking about a Model II emulator, and asked me for my thoughts; as some know, I began writing a Model II accurate emulator back in may 2006, and I've been attempting to finish it ever since. ....
It's 'working', but still exhibits some of the same foibles as franken-MESS/MAME-II. The keyboard and display work in a more accurate way than Mame-II does, certainly.
I think the problems that exist with both mine and Mame-II are because the code does not do exactly what a real Model II hardware system does. The executed z80 code listings generated from Mame-II and my emulator both differ from what a real Model II does when booting and beyond, from the listing I've generating with an ICE.
Everything seems to get unstuck with the emulators about the HALT/INT sequences, and the FDC FDIV INTerrupt command and acknowledgement routine. I believe this is what's causing most of the trouble with booting on an emulator.
LS-DOS 631A seems to be the exception to this rule on my emulator:....
Which version of DosPlus II did you use, Hans? was in A.00, A.01, or A.01 with the 'Date Enhancement' to make it work past 1987 (which is just shifting the goalposts from 1980-87 to 1987-94)? I know I got DosPlus II v A.00 working in v147(?) of MESS, but that seemed to disappear by v153.
TRSDOS 1.2 and 2.0 have the most convoluted code of anything I have ever seen, there's stuff in there I cannot fathom the purpose of, even though I've been looking at it for at least 7 years now. TRSDOS-II doesn't want to work if it cannot see the extra memory and/or the extra ports for the 68k board IIRC. It also is one that writes back to the disc whilst booting....
PS: Pete and Lamar; I'll reply to your emails very soon, I promise - sorry for dropping off the end of the world.
Everyone,
The community is small, but there are at least 5 people on the board that I know of who have unique 8in media that has not been imaged. I'm sorry if that sounds curmudgeonly, but I'm not well By my count at least 95% of the images in pski's model2archive came from me, beit directly or indirectly. Please people image and share! *cough* *sneeze*
Everyone,
I do have the source code for LS-DOS 6.2, but no disc image. I'm pretty sure Pete can image 8in, but I'll let him respond to that. Yes, the code for 6.2ßAC is a bit of a nightmare, and disassembled 6.3.1A code does show a lot of fixes and bugfixes.
It was because of Frank Durda's challenge stating that "it couldn't be done - certainly not in BASIC!" - that I began to write the emulator back in May of 2006, and have successfully got it to the stage where each process thread emulates the main chips (Z80, FDC, DMA, SIO, PIO, CRTC, KB, HDC, Mem, Corvus, CCB-II, and Arcnet) in a sometimes chaotic exchange of windows message passing. Everything is fine, except when the DMA and FDC is involved or INTerrupts are enabled... then it becomes a somewhat capricious beast, not unlike a real Model II.
Even when following the logic of some of the Model II boards, there is endless try-and-fail to accurately emulate some things, because the Model II boards aren't doing what they are supposed to. With the non-reset of the FDC in the RevA and RevB boards (as a result of using cheaper WD1791s) there is no way in the hardware to reset the Z80DMA, let alone be able to predict what state the DMA would have after it does reset itself. That's why TRSDOS 1.2a and 2.0a were brought out, before the RevC board fixed one thing, but broke another! Emulating those foibles is always a challenge, especially when TRSDOS 2.0 delights in reading in the same 6 bytes of sector 26 on any track (except boot) on every revolution of the disc. This involves both endlessly sending in quick succession the FDC INT command, a readsector command, the DMA setup command and then START, it receives (sometimes) an INT from the FDC and then it tries to reset the DMA to stop this from continuing past Byte 6! If not, it tramples the 250 bytes beyond where it needed to stop, which is what I think is killing TRSDOS 2.0 in Mame-II.
The Arcnet process is commented out to a stub, because that board's wacky interfacing to its memory and the 80C26 had so many many problems I gave up (I will deal with it later). Ask Frank about Arcnet boards - I dare you!