Extend CD32 NVRAM?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by xArtx

The hardest hitting data is probably the game title to display in the game save screen!
At the time I started using them is was a usual thing to use 24C16 (years after CD32 came out).
Commodore couldn’t have known the methods to control the larger chips at the time.

A shift register could be used to cycle through 8x24C01B with a button,
but I can’t see it being a marketable product considering the installation of a board to an 8 pin SOIC footprint

Easiest way would be to do what me and earok have been doing. Save games to ram: then when you exit game, it will copy save to the NVRAM. Then when you boot game up next, it copies save back to ram, then game can load it from there.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by FOL

Easiest way would be to do what me and earok have been doing. Save games to ram: then when you exit game, it will copy save to the NVRAM. Then when you boot game up next, it copies save back to ram, then game can load it from there.

You're still limited by the shitty NVRAM and can't store more than one at a time or whatever.

I would really love it if I could play Frontier but the shitty NVRAM puts me off.
If there was some kinda way for it to work, it would be amazing. Even if it means patching games to support the extra NVRAM.

Maybe an NVRAM emulator? Can it be interfaced to the expansion port? What is NVDISK?

[FOL]

I think this touches on what art was saying. The squirrel cd32 emu, uses env-archive to redirect nvram stuff to location on hdd.

One save is better than no saves, earoks nv tool will let you put anything into nvram. Just be nice if 68k machines had a really good compression program.

[Retro1234]

Most CD32 games that will run on other amigas only need a assign to redirect nvram - I cant quite remember but like Fol says it ends up in env-archive.

maybe because of my nonvolatile.library - might have come from Surf squirrel?

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Boo Boo

Most CD32 games that will run on other amigas only need a assign to redirect nvram - I cant quite remember but like Fol says it ends up in env-archive.

maybe because of my nonvolatile.library - might have come from Surf squirrel?

Not so.

Nonvolatile.library is defaut programmed to search for other drives to save to before it considers NVRAM in the CD32.

So long as nonvolatile.library finds the 'nonvolatile' redirect file in prefs/env-archive/sys, then it will first try to load/save via there.

So even on CD32, if you plug in a floppy drive with a formatted disk which is correctly setup, nonvolatile.library will always load/save there in preference over the CD32's NVRAM.

It appears some designed nonvolatile.library with some foresight thinking the NVRAM size was a bit of a joke.

[Amigajay]

Yeah in the Castles II booklet it states 'Commodore are planning a CD32 Disk Drive which will enable you to save' so the programmers put the solution in the game, but the solution never came for most, so like most things with Commodore it was get the product out there and give the proper solutions afterwards!

Edit: so if/when the CD32 expansion board comes out, would it be possible to create a partition on the CF drive that acts as DF0? And use that to save?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

Nonvolatile.library is defaut programmed to search for other drives to save to before it considers NVRAM in the CD32.

So long as nonvolatile.library finds the 'nonvolatile' redirect file in prefs/env-archive/sys, then it will first try to load/save via there.

This is what I fiqured. So if your CD32 had HDD, you could have env-archive setup with correct files and it would save to location.

[Amiga1992]

And every game will work with this solution? seems like if there are games not following rules (like they always do) this wouldn't work.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by FOL

This
is what I fiqured. So if your CD32 had HDD, you could have env-archive setup with correct files and it would save to location.

Yup. nonvolatile.library searches ALL drives other than NVRAM first. So long as the relevant file is present in the correct location, then saves will be put there.

As for ones that break the rules, well those must be the ones using the RNC CD32 loader that directly accesses hardware and bypasses the need to have AmigaDOS present, which is memory saving for those games that need it, but obviously from a saving perspective, is a pain in the arse.

However, it is largely trivial to patch these RNC CD32 loading games to put in a floppy load/save patch for those that have a floppy drive, so again, saving and loading isn't really an issue.

But if the game uses AmigaDOS and accesses NVRAM only via nonvolatile.library, then load/save of NVRAM can be on any drive.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Akira

And every game will work with this solution? seems like if there are games not following rules (like they always do) this wouldn't work.

So far every game, I have played / tried saves fine to HDD. However, cant say I have played any of the games that use RNC loaders.
Will give them a try.

[mombasajoe]

Originally Posted by mombasajoe

IIRC a friend of mine from the german-amiga-community.de (crazyIcecap) tried to build a kind of "switch-solution" (selecting one of 4 nvrams). But I don´t know if that worked. I´ll ask him.

Btw.: It works.

[xArtx]

24C08, So actually is a real kilobyte! I don’t know where I got 24C01 in my head from.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by xArtx

24C08, So actually is a real kilobyte! I don’t know where I got 24C01 in my head from.

Didin't want to say anything. Anyway to increase the NV would be great. However switching between chips is not ideal, I was looking at a larger solution. Hence I mentioned the 16KB, which seems to be pin for pin. Just would need the hardcoded stuff changed in nonvolatile.library.

[xArtx]

Haha well they are pushing it calling it NVRAM then. The EEPROM takes a lot longer to write than to read

I would draw one, but can’t see too many people making it including myself.
It would take a 4017 decade counter and a pair of 74HC04 to cycle through up to eight
devices with a soft push button. Then an resistor and capacitor to power on reset the
decade counter to ensure the machine powered up addressing a known device (EEPROM 0).

If the I2C bus were lead out the expansion connector it would be a good addition to one
of the expansions, but I doubt that it is.

If you could tweak the Amiga software to address a larger device they are
definitely physically compatible throughout the entire family to just solder a larger one in.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by xArtx

I would draw one, but can’t see too many people making it including myself.
It would take a 4017 decade counter and a pair of 74HC04 to cycle through up to eight
devices with a soft push button. Then an resistor and capacitor to power on reset the
decade counter to ensure the machine powered up addressing a known device (EEPROM 0).

Yep, it should be simple enough, and probably the only way to do it fully transparently to the software.

If you could tweak the Amiga software to address a larger device they are
definitely physically compatible throughout the entire family to just solder a larger one in.

And that's the problem... Patching the OS should be possible and would work, but it doesn't solve the problem of games that bypass the OS to do their saving. Why they bother to do that I've no idea since the API looks good to me, but that's what it is. As Galahad says, games like that would need to be patched individually, making it a little bit awkward if you want to play original game CDs.

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

And that's the problem... Patching the OS should be possible and would work, but it doesn't solve the problem of games that bypass the OS to do their saving. Why they bother to do that I've no idea since the API looks good to me, but that's what it is.

probably because nonvolatile requires dos to be available, which in turn requires multitasking to be enabled..

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by hooverphonique

probably because nonvolatile requires dos to be available, which in turn requires multitasking to be enabled..

Bingo

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by mombasajoe

Btw.: It works.

Hey, was there any development of this NVRAM switcher after this?

I figure it could work *kind of* like a gotek drive where you would simply assign a number to each game "memory bank" and write it down so that you would know which bank to use for each game.
Don't see why one would have to limit it to 4 banks though. Why not say 32? ;-)


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[pandy71]

http://www.cypress.com/documentation...ial-i2c-nvsram

[Leffmann]

It always had a full kilobyte, they're just mixing up kilobytes and kilobits, but yeah the whole CD32 and the AGA architecture were missed opportunities. They weren't exactly showering the R&D in money.