FlashFloppy v1.0 and AutoSwap
I'm pleased to announce the release of FlashFloppy v1.0!
The major feature in this point release, apart from finally branching a stable release series from major-feature development, is support for automatic disk swapping in suitably-patched multi-disk software titles. So far I have patched five games for Amiga to eliminate all manual disk swapping:
The game patches are freely available in source form, and of course I have pre-built binaries for general users: Source: https://github.com/keirf/FF_AutoSwap.git Binary: https://github.com/keirf/FF_AutoSwap/wiki/Downloads Thanks are due to JOTD (WHDLoad project) for his game cracks and fixes, which I cribbed or outright stole. Also to ross (EAB of course) for his addchip bootblock which allowed me to support BASS on 512+512k Amigas. FlashFloppy v1.0 full feature list:
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Ooh, that's an awesome feature to have. Well done, and thanks for all your work on Flash Floppy!
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I would like some requests for swap-heavy arcade titles if any. Non-AmigaDOS titles to use as proof of concept for any other interested hackers.
All the titles so far are super easy, using AmigaDOS hook(s): I will add more of those titles in due course (Flight Of The Amazon Queen? Legend of Kyrandia? Cruise for a Corpse?). But of course they tend to be adventure genre. |
:great
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Thanks for this & the prepatched files :)
swap-heavy arcade titles - Street Fighter 2 ;) |
The Fairlight Mortal Kombat crack seems to have lots of disk swaps before you even get to play the game.
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Rise Of The Robots would also be a good candidate.
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I tried this last night. Awesome work kaffer!
On my Amiga 500 I dont have a HD, and thus can't use WHDLoad stuff, nor do I really want to. So this is perfect for my use case. BASS is very playable now. Looking forward to try more patched games in the future. Even classics on fewer disks like Cannon Fodder could benefit I think. On of my favourite games is Pinball Fantasies. But since disk switching are used to select tables, it might not be possible to patch a game like that. Unless a way could be figured out to be able to select from all four tables in some way. |
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An update to say that Mortal Kombat is done.
Based on the original Fairlight crack, the AutoSwap version has the following features:
There is now a ~1kB assembly version of the AutoSwap patch, suitable for dropping into other arcade titles (where disk/memory constraints permit!). I will shortly write a Wiki article explaining the patching process, though it is a pretty straightforward job for a cracker to plumb in my routines. |
This is pretty damn awesome :great
n00b question but is the Gotek hardware limited to emulating one drive? i.e. if SEL 2 and SEL 3 were also wired-up would the firmware feasibly be able to emulate more than one drive? e.g. with a DF0 selector switch in an A500 and a cable with the right wiring is there a world where a single Gotek could act as DF0, DF2 and DF3? (DF1 skipped I presume) I ask because I'm sure there a loads of 2-3 disk games that would befit from something like this, but patching them sounds like a lot of effort ;) |
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I do plan to get this finished now that v1.0 is out but it's a tricky patch and apart from this use case its utility is probably quite limited. So the effort-reward tradeoff isn't super motivating ;) |
How about test clips to the CIA chip to get the additional two selects?
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Using all three select lines externally with a DF0 selector (again cheap) is pretty plausible. (I know not all games work with that 'hack' but the majority do) And with kickstarts after 1.3 the early boot menu removes the need for the DF0 selector switch. But doubling the drives with the same hardware sounds like an epic win to me in case that helps with motivation! :D (If it helps as well I'd be more than willing to buy a Gotek and do testing, but I doubt I can be help with the tricky patch :sad sorry) |
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Fiendish Fred and Big top of Fun would be great to have autoswap too. Its been hard to convert Whdload and only way to play it is via disk
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I want to make a config close to Amiga drives :) Do you mind a few questions? 1. How are the images ordered? (Alphabetical from 000 and up?) I'd like to use non-indexed mode because indexed mode sorta destroys the names :p 2. What does index-suppression do? 3. Is head-settle-ms = 12 a compatibility setting for various Amiga loaders, or taken from HRM, or an average for Amiga drives? (Why not 0? The loader would read it and be happy whatever its timing, or how do I think about this?) 4. (Sketchy I guess) Any hope for .DMS support? It's just a fact that a large portion of the images were released as .DMS, so it would save a step. |
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I'm not actually sure whether original Amiga drives suppress IDX during track changes? The HRM doesn't specify and I haven't actually tested. I think 3.5-inch DD drives do, and it's older 5.25-inch ones that may not. You could check by stepping in and out in a long loop and check if IDX is interrupted. Quote:
(a) A real drive will certainly have *some* settle time (and likely 18ms) (b) Even set to 0, FlashFloppy takes time to fetch new track data and prime the pipeline. This would likely be 5ms+. (c) A more significant setting might be 'track-change='. The default 'instant' pauses disk rotation during track changes, so you lose rotation time during step operations. Obviously unrealistic but it definitely behaves better on a wider range of platforms out of the box. On Amiga you could use the more realistic 'realtime'. If you really want to be like a real drive I would suggest: 'track-change=realtime' and 'head-settle-ms=18'. I would avoid 'index-suppression=no' as it actually deliberately messes with IDX for systems which rely on regular IDX to generate RDY/DSKCHG type signals. Quote:
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I'm thinking just some lesser selector replacement for day-to-day use. (I first followed HxC compat instructions which didn't let me swap slots and no Selector in .zip...? Be happy to help with a selector for native mode.) Alphabetized would allow renaming without destroying the filename PC side for putting on new images. Fantasizing now: If there was some mode toggle between directories and files (e.g. both button press or long-press), you could leverage 100+ images to some degree. 1000+ and you'd want an Amiga selector. But you can also prepare PC side, just a few images, and if they're alpha-sorted (or if, say, indexed mode used 000*.*, 001*.* etc), you could add on a few images with a minimum of fuss. Quote:
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Supporting DMS would be an awesome feature, though, since it's a popular format. :great While I'm dreaming :D how about hot-swap? (I actually haven't tried, since the USB stick keeps blinking forever even when not loading, so I guess it's not safe.) Then, you could keep the root folder empty and just put the ones on that you want to try for the day and all the points about Selectors and slot mapping would be mostly moot. |
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