Putty Squad for Amiga CD32 request thread.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Psygore

CD buffer ~70k.

Is that within the loader?
As you can also alter the caches in ISOCD when creating disk. If I recall there are two. Altering either lower effects the cache and saves memory.
I have played around with reducing them to gain more memory for stuff that wouldn't load correctly due to caches taking up mem.

If you get the disc layout nice and tidy, then reducing caches doesn't hurt.

[Psygore]

Originally Posted by FOL

Is that within the loader?
As you can also alter the caches in ISOCD when creating disk. If I recall there are two. Altering either lower effects the cache and saves memory.
I have played around with reducing them to gain more memory for stuff that wouldn't load correctly due to caches taking up mem.

If you get the disc layout nice and tidy, then reducing caches doesn't hurt.

Yes, within the loader.
70k is the minimum requirement of memory to load a sector from the CD. The caches in ISOCD is used by the CD filesystem.
The rn cd32 loader doesn't use any OS functions and doesn't allocated more memory for caching file/dir/... it's just a hardcoded trackdisk loader.

[Toni Wilen]

Does 70k include 64k aligned RAM region for CD DMA? It isn't really required.

Use of first or last 2 or 3 4k CD sector "slots" should be enough (Hardware does not require use of all 16 "slots") without slowing down loading speed especially if system has been taken over, no other processes to slow down raw CD sector decoding.

[Psygore]

Yes, it includes the 64k aligned ram, like the cd.device does.

It seems it only works with at least 4 sector slots and it's a bit slower when loading the game. And maybe it could have some issues on real hardware (motherboard rev 3.0, 4.1) ?

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Psygore

Yes, it includes the 64k aligned ram, like the cd.device does.

It seems it only works with at least 4 sector slots and it's a bit slower when loading the game. And maybe it could have some issues on real hardware (motherboard rev 3.0, 4.1) ?

It has to work on real hardware because Lotus Trilogy Lotus III loads data to low part of 64k buffer and game won't work if loader also uses same buffer for CD DMA. Hardware always selects highest enabled and free slot when it looks for next buffer slot so if software is fast enough in decoding buffers, only few highest slots are actually used by the hardware.

Just make sure there is not too many overflow interrupts (all enabled buffers have been loaded and software didn't free any of them before new track comes), overflow requires restarting load command and I have no idea how long it takes for real hardware to re-seek.

[Psygore]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

It has to work on real hardware because Lotus Trilogy Lotus III loads data to low part of 64k buffer and game won't work if loader also uses same buffer for CD DMA. Hardware always selects highest enabled and free slot when it looks for next buffer slot so if software is fast enough in decoding buffers, only few highest slots are actually used by the hardware.

Just make sure there is not too many overflow interrupts (all enabled buffers have been loaded and software didn't free any of them before new track comes), overflow requires restarting load command and I have no idea how long it takes for real hardware to re-seek.

Thanks for the info. Yes the 2nd disk of Lotus3 is loaded into the cd buffer, but I think it's unwanted from the coder as the loader still searchs in all the dma buffer for sectors (and he does a checksum of the loaded data to be sure that it's ok).

Btw is there a cd32 hardware reference manual ?

[Amiga1992]

Wow looking forward to Putty Squad for CD32! Thanks Psygore!

[Ventilator]

Originally Posted by Psygore

Thanks for the info. Yes the 2nd disk of Lotus3 is loaded into the cd buffer, but I think it's unwanted from the coder as the loader still searchs in all the dma buffer for sectors (and he does a checksum of the loaded data to be sure that it's ok).

Btw is there a cd32 hardware reference manual ?

Check my old CD32 page. There is CD32 schematics etc. there.
http://cd32.amiga32.com

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Psygore

Thanks for the info. Yes the 2nd disk of Lotus3 is loaded into the cd buffer, but I think it's unwanted from the coder as the loader still searchs in all the dma buffer for sectors (and he does a checksum of the loaded data to be sure that it's ok).

Yeah, it is only accidental but nothing forces hardware to use all slots.

Btw is there a cd32 hardware reference manual ?

I don't think so.

Some quick notes: B80020 is the most important register, any 1 bit write will "arm" the slot. (OR-operation, zero bits do nothing). Writing also clears interrupt request. B80020 can be read normally, no side-effects.

When hardware needs to fetch new CD sector, it looks for "armed" slot (looks from bit 15 to 0, in decreasing order), if no 1 bits found: overflow interrupt and reading gets aborted. If 1 bit found, reading continues, when finished, bit gets cleared and interrupt is triggered. (Even if there is more one bits remaining)

(Sorry but I am too lazy to write full documentation... It isn't that complex, just "different", command input/output is separate DMA channel from data input)

Schematics won't help. All the magic is inside Akiko chip.

[SteveUK]

finally finished off the cover; good luck with the conversion

[Ventilator]

Thanks! Very nice cover.

I already made a bootable Putty Squad ISO before christmas (In UAE), but it will only work on a CD32 with extra Fast RAM. Means you need SX-1, SX32 or Promodule.

If you have expanded RAM in CD32 too, i could send the ISO.

[SolderPCB]

Was much progress made for Putty Squad CD32 unexpanded by Psygore? A lot of people seemed very interested

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by SolderPCB

Was much progress made for Putty Squad CD32 unexpanded by Psygore? A lot of people seemed very interested

I'm very interested and waiting.

[Psygore]

Sorry for the delay, I'm just finishing the loader, some minor things. Will be ready next days or at least at this month end (I hope).
Here what is supported:

CD³² BUTTONS
------------
- BLUE					- Jump
- PLAY					- Pause game
- REVERSE+FORWARD+RED+GREEN		- Esc
- REVERSE+FORWARD+RED+BLUE+GREEN+YELLOW	- Active trainers

TRAINERS
--------
- You will have unlimited lives
- Press FORWARD to skip level
- Hiscores will not be saved

HISCORES
--------
At start (System 3 logo):
- BLUE flash screen =    hiscores found and loaded from NVRAM
- RED  flash screen = NO hiscores found from NVRAM

After entering a hiscore:
- GREEN flash screen =    hiscores saved on NVRAM
- RED   flash screen = NO hiscores saved on NVRAM

[Amiga1992]

Great news!

[Deaths_Head]

Cool can't wait

[earok]

Originally Posted by Psygore

Sorry for the delay, I'm just finishing the loader, some minor things. Will be ready next days or at least at this month end (I hope).
Here what is supported:

CD³² BUTTONS
------------
- BLUE					- Jump
- PLAY					- Pause game
- REVERSE+FORWARD+RED+GREEN		- Esc
- REVERSE+FORWARD+RED+BLUE+GREEN+YELLOW	- Active trainers

TRAINERS
--------
- You will have unlimited lives
- Press FORWARD to skip level
- Hiscores will not be saved

HISCORES
--------
At start (System 3 logo):
- BLUE flash screen =    hiscores found and loaded from NVRAM
- RED  flash screen = NO hiscores found from NVRAM

After entering a hiscore:
- GREEN flash screen =    hiscores saved on NVRAM
- RED   flash screen = NO hiscores saved on NVRAM

Wow, I'm really excited about this. If you need testers for real CD32 hardware, sign me up (I'm presuming this is for stock 2mb CD32s..?)

[Psygore]

Originally Posted by earok

Wow, I'm really excited about this. If you need testers for real CD32 hardware, sign me up (I'm presuming this is for stock 2mb CD32s..?)

Yes, no need extra mem, only 2mb. I have sent you a beta version.

[earok]

Originally Posted by Psygore

Yes, no need extra mem, only 2mb. I have sent you a beta version.

Thank you mate, have responded with feedback

[zapiy]

Awesome development.