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Tech and Homebrew => Turbo/PCE Game/Tool Development => Topic started by: nullity on November 10, 2015, 10:05:30 AM
Title: We need a hero...
Post by: nullity on November 10, 2015, 10:05:30 AM
So...
Samiam and Elmer are cranking out translations.
Bernie and co. are cranking out Tobias booties left and right.
All these games and our Duos still only have 2kb save ram.
Who among us is man enough to hack out the Memorybase 128 management tool from Emerald Dragon and turn it into a translated ROM we can load from our everdrives? MB128 are still cheap, and I can't help but dream of a future where I can manage save banks and boot a system bios all from the same hucard, swapping discs only to change games.
* nullity casts glances in bonknuts' direction... Anyone?
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: Dicer on November 10, 2015, 10:11:29 AM
Is it possible to hardwire more save space directly into a Duo?
Thought I saw this somewhere, but I can't be entirely positive...
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: GohanX on November 10, 2015, 10:35:36 AM
Peasants, just buy multiple Duos. One for every five games or so.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: elmer on November 10, 2015, 12:29:51 PM
Who among us is man enough to hack out the Memorybase 128 management tool from Emerald Dragon and turn it into a translated ROM we can load from our everdrives? MB128 are still cheap, and I can't help but dream of a future where I can manage save banks and boot a system bios all from the same hucard, swapping discs only to change games.
???
If you've got an Everdrive ... is there some reason that you don't just want to move save data from the PCE to the SD card? That would seem to make the most sense.
Should be possible with either version of the TED ... just needs a programmer.
Now that CC65 is supposed to work on the PCE, it shouldn't be too difficult for any of the community's C programmers.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: SignOfZeta on November 10, 2015, 12:45:52 PM
I can't program anything, but I'm man enough to just play through my games again if my save disappears. If the PCE had Six Man Scramble or Mario Maker it would be a different story, but few if any of these kinds of games exist on the system. What are you going to do, beat Dracula X once? I clear it every year. If there is an RPG I like, unless I'm saving before cinemas (which I used to do all the time) I don't see what good a four year old save file is for a game I can barely remember at that point. If I beat it, the only way to enjoy the game more is usually to beat it again. I can't think of any New Game + RPGs on PCE. If it's an incomplete, years old save for an RPG, I know I'll never finish it without starting over.
I arrived at this conclusion after losing my saves many times and realizing it doesn't matter. The only save I actually make a point to keep around is the Force Gear unlock for Tokimeki, and I have a CD-R with that on it.
I don't want to discourage a good idea like this, I'm just trying to spread the world that losing a PCE save isn't as tragic as it sounds, partly because the amount of save space is so tiny that it really can't store anything important.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: Bonknuts on November 10, 2015, 01:33:55 PM
Who among us is man enough to hack out the Memorybase 128 management tool from Emerald Dragon and turn it into a translated ROM we can load from our everdrives?
That would be ccovell. ;>_>
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: Bonknuts on November 10, 2015, 01:49:23 PM
I got other stuffs I'm working on. Too much food on the plate, and the gravy is going to pour over the edge. And nobody wants that.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: sirhcman on November 10, 2015, 01:57:00 PM
Who among us is man enough to hack out the Memorybase 128 management tool from Emerald Dragon and turn it into a translated ROM we can load from our everdrives?
That would be ccovell. ;>_>
This coming from the guy who made a nes cart play on a pce cd?!
* nullity makes hailing-esque eyes at ccovell...
You'd better get that thing fixed.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: TheOldMan on November 10, 2015, 03:47:54 PM
I nominate ccovell, too....But not to hack a memory base128.
What would it take to use your rs232 code to send/receive a text file (ie, hex digits) to/from the pce? A cable can be hacked together, and for those without rs232 an rs232->usb converter used. I like the idea of having my saves on a computer more than on a mb128; no batteries to worry about, etc.
Just give it some thought.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: thesteve on November 10, 2015, 03:58:04 PM
adding a save bank to a duo would be as simple as adding another chip and a switch between, done just like a sega multibios setup
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: HailingTheThings on November 10, 2015, 04:34:51 PM
Who among us is man enough to hack out the Memorybase 128 management tool from Emerald Dragon and turn it into a translated ROM we can load from our everdrives?
That would be ccovell. ;>_>
This coming from the guy who made a nes cart play on a pce cd?!
(http://i.imgur.com/QM2sqz1.gif)
Fixed.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: johnnykonami on November 10, 2015, 04:49:34 PM
Thread soundtrack:
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: ccovell on November 10, 2015, 05:11:16 PM
All I can say is it looks amazing but very limited in it's current form. It only works with a small hand full of games correct?
You cannot even really begin to fill up what this unit has with those games alone. Am I correct in this assumption?
Something like this makes me wish I got into programming at some point in my life... I think it is a great idea Nullity.
I think the way it works is you need those certain games to access the memory managers. But say I was playing Exile and it was saved to my duo I think I can backup the entire memory to the MB128. That's how I understood it but I don't currently own a MB128.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: ccovell on November 13, 2015, 07:43:34 AM
I'm currently working on memory base 128 management. I still to figure out one thing or too.
I think I'll let Mooz finish up his MB128 manager. Emerald Dragon's manager program is wrapped too tightly around the system card (and writable RAM in the program area) that it's not an easy job to make a ROM-only version of it.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: Pokun on November 27, 2015, 07:35:29 AM
All I can say is it looks amazing but very limited in it's current form. It only works with a small hand full of games correct?
You cannot even really begin to fill up what this unit has with those games alone. Am I correct in this assumption?
Something like this makes me wish I got into programming at some point in my life... I think it is a great idea Nullity.
I think the way it works is you need those certain games to access the memory managers. But say I was playing Exile and it was saved to my duo I think I can backup the entire memory to the MB128. That's how I understood it but I don't currently own a MB128.
I don't know whether or not the games that support mb128 actually save directly to it... but they do have a management program that lets you copy 2kb "banks" to and from the device. The duo only holds 2kb of save data, so this in effect gives you 64 "full duo" backups.
Like a massive tennokoe.
Yep, some MB128 games can only save their own data directly to the MB128/Save-kun but other games like Private Eyedol can copy the whole 2 kB BRAM contents to it like you said. There's no manager that can copy individual files though.
I'm awaiting Mooz' upcoming manager!
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: MooZ on November 29, 2015, 05:05:05 AM
First draft of the technical doc mb128.txt
As for the manager... erm... I'll need to grab a TED v2 for the extra RAM.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: elmer on November 29, 2015, 06:58:20 AM
The extra RAM is only needed if some kind of editor is needed and because I'm lazy :p
Hahaha ... makes sense! :wink:
BTW ... thanks for all your hard work in writing the low-level TED1 SD card routines in assembly language.
I've been using your code as the basis for a TED2 version, but it's been a bit frustrating so far, because it looks like KRIKzz changed a couple of things (particularly how the accelerated-read works).
I'm running around in the dark without any background knowledge of how the SPI-mode access is supposed to work ... but I'm sure that I'll get there eventually.
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: MooZ on November 30, 2015, 09:01:18 PM
Thanks :) SD card SPI interface is a pain in the harp in general (multiple sector write in particular). Did you manage to get single sector read working?
Title: Re: We need a hero...
Post by: elmer on December 01, 2015, 03:47:37 AM
Nope. It executes, but I'm not convinced that the data is correct. And something in the flow is broken because a 2nd single sector read fails.
It's probably something as simple as the new "accelerated-read" swallowing one-byte-more or one-byte-less than it used to on the TED1, but I've not had the time to experiment.