29 December 2022, 18:20 | #1 |
Kickstart Hacker
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Wales
Posts: 83
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Kickstart Editor (Windows GUI, DOS/Linux/MacOS CLI)
I've been on and off writing a Amiga Kickstart ROM editor for some time, with various features, basically I wanted something like Remus and other ROM tools, but all in one single download, uses text based definition files, that runs on Windows/Linux/MacOS, because for most people burning ROMs it can be more inconvenient to download it all on to an Amiga (although WinUAE makes that super simple really, if you use Windows).
Anyway, I tried to make it a one-stop shop that can do a bunch of useful things all in one interface. Split ROMs Create ROMs; add/delete etc. Calculate checksums Save ROMs; with byteswapping/splitting HI+LO/CD32 interleaving/overburning/chopping @512k For ROMs it doesn't know about you can can analyse for RELOCs, compare etc. If you want to edit ROMs there's a "patching language" so you can overwrite bytes, search for opcodes etc. There's a (basic) disassembler, not as good as WinUAE, mainly just 68000, no FPU etc. but it tries to understand libraries You can generate Skick RTB files from the tool, looks like I can soft boot 2.05/3.1.4/3.2 etc. with the generated files, might be useful for WHDLoad You can read files from ADFs Anyway, if there's features you'd like to see, please suggest... I've tried to put together some guides for things people might want to do (1.3+scsi, 1Mb, Terible Fire ehide etc.) Obviously, no ROMs are included in the editor! http://capitoline.twocatsblack.com/ Last edited by Mikeywikey; 02 March 2023 at 18:50. Reason: New website address added |
29 December 2022, 18:35 | #2 |
Paranoid Amigoid
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Athens/Greece
Age: 45
Posts: 1,978
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Fantastic idea man!!!
Thank you very much for this. Will definitely give it a go and report back! \o/ |
29 December 2022, 18:49 | #3 |
Kickstart Hacker
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Wales
Posts: 83
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Thanks dude! I’ve heard you might know one or two things about editing kickstarts…
Last edited by Mikeywikey; 29 December 2022 at 18:50. Reason: Weird character came out as ? |
30 December 2022, 11:57 | #4 |
Registered User
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Italy
Posts: 214
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Fantastic! The idea for this is just great and for me quite useful for creating custom roms, like I usually do with Remus
I believe it is just me and have tried too shortly (10 min) but I was expecting to dissect/edit existing roms, changing some of its module and saving it. The thing is that I am not able to load any rom. When opening from the GUI Object browser and mapping a the Capitoline Hashes folder it seems not to load them. I am able to create an empty rom with the desired size and layout (juicy you have already foreseen even the CD32 one) but then how I am supposed to put the modules in there? Again, it is just me not knowing how to use that and doing something wonky, but what would be the right approach? Should we create a new rom and then add/replace the KS modules? Many thanks for the tool Last edited by RoC; 30 December 2022 at 12:16. |
30 December 2022, 18:53 | #5 | |
Kickstart Hacker
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Wales
Posts: 83
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Quote:
Once you have copied your ROMs into the ROM directory, then click on [Select Folder], and choose the directory that contains the Capitoline Hashes/Components/ROMs/Licence Keys, you'll then be able to browse the ROMs folder using the [Object browser] tab. If you add more ROMs, it's probably best to close and re-open the tool, the reason for this is that it needs to analyse all the files you have, this can take some time if you have loads of ROMs as it does a CRC32 hash to identify all files - so dont put massive files in here, just kickstarts. I think I'm gonna do a quick YouTube video, as it's not as intuitive as I thought - appreciate the feedback. |
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30 December 2022, 19:25 | #6 | |
This cat is no more
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: FRANCE
Age: 52
Posts: 8,403
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Quote:
I'm curious. I asked that question a while back and ended up computing RTB myself for kickstart 1.1, but with a lot of disassembly and heuristics & testing https://retrocomputing.stackexchange...es-rtb-created |
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30 December 2022, 21:39 | #7 | |
Kickstart Hacker
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Wales
Posts: 83
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Quote:
If you don’t have a loadable library, the next step is to do a byte compare with a ROM that has the same module, in a different location, the relocs are the only things that change, if you don’t have the same version then you can heuristicslly compare similar modules, finally, disassembling and comparing the code with reloc candidates will work, but it’s tedious. I *could* have just ripped the Remus dat files, but that feels like cheating, I wrote every line of code, and the challenge was to do it myself. I wrote the ADF code from the ground up and reverse engineered the RTB stuff (which is why I don’t fully understand it). It’s mainly just a code exercise, full of individual and different challenges, but if people find it useful, cool. |
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30 December 2022, 22:11 | #8 | |
Kickstart Hacker
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Wales
Posts: 83
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Quote:
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30 December 2022, 23:54 | #9 |
Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Stockholm
Posts: 4,362
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I think it's a greater win for the community if tools share common formats and the effort to generate data files instead of everyone going his own way.
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31 December 2022, 01:44 | #10 | |
Kickstart Hacker
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Wales
Posts: 83
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Quote:
My files are human readable text files anyone can add or update, skick/remus are closed source unpublished formats... ;p All joking aside, the point of the tool is to make things easier, can’t do that if you don’t reinvent. |
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31 December 2022, 09:57 | #11 | |
Registered User
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Italy
Posts: 214
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Quote:
Now I can see all of the roms (eventually I moved my roms pack into it) It looks very good, now starting to play with it to |
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31 December 2022, 10:48 | #12 |
Kickstart Hacker
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Wales
Posts: 83
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31 December 2022, 12:04 | #13 |
Thalion Webshrine
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Oxford
Posts: 14,560
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Thanks for all the hard work. Does it support CDTV extended ROMs? Maybe the recently released v2.35?
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31 December 2022, 16:34 | #14 | |
Kickstart Hacker
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Wales
Posts: 83
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Quote:
Off the top of my head I can’t remember what the difference was between the A570/A690 and CDTV, mainly no floppy boot? I have a CDTV but I’m not an expert (I’m reverse engineering the CD interface to implement as FPGA, but haven’t touched it for a couple of years). |
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31 December 2022, 23:31 | #15 |
Thalion Webshrine
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Oxford
Posts: 14,560
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A570/A690 differences are down to the two different NVRAM implementations.
If you want any encouragement on the CDTV CDROM interface or FPGA programming just ask. I know a bit about the first one, and almost everything about the 2nd one. |
31 December 2022, 23:51 | #16 | |
Kickstart Hacker
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Wales
Posts: 83
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Quote:
I’ll keep you in mind when/if I start up the CDTV project again - good to know, I’ve only got as far as using my logic analyser on basic handshakes so far. |
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18 August 2023, 18:06 | #17 |
Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Leamington Spa / Warwickshire
Posts: 532
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Hi
I have run the program with my 3.2.1 ROM I have just bought from Hyperion - in the object browser though the A1200.47.111.rom is just coloured red and when i look at the components binary chucnks and click on 1Mb_Scantable_3.2 is just says 'Unknown, no INI, no default in the right hand screen, Any ideas what i am doing wrong? |
22 August 2023, 20:04 | #18 |
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Location: Fay-aux-Loges (France)
Posts: 53
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@Mikeywikey Is there a video tutorial that explain how to use this tool ? Thank a lot for your app !
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05 September 2023, 10:19 | #19 | |
Kickstart Hacker
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Location: Wales
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05 September 2023, 10:19 | #20 |
Kickstart Hacker
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