Emulator support for VideoNuLA

[Coeus]

New pre-release with the new code to emulate black better at https://github.com/stardot/b-em/release ... mode7-pre2

[jonesypeter]

I was wondering what the current status is with VideoNuLA emulation? Coeus very kindly issued a release of his emulator with the Spectrum attribute mode last year, which was excellent.

I'm now wanting to experiment with the BBC Modes. I downloaded the latest version (https://github.com/stardot/b-em/releases/tag/vdfs%23186), checked that VideoNuLA was ticked, and typed:

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HELP VIDEONULA

I was expecting:

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VideoNuLA 1.02
 VNDISABLE
 VNGREY
 VNPALETTE
 VNRESET
 VNVDU ON/OFF

But, just got:

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OS 1.20

So, it's as though it's not enabled.

Thanks

[billcarr2005]

Perhaps you still need to insert the VideoNULA ROM into the emulated BBC?
It's in roms\general - vnula.rom

[VectorEyes]

The support ROM isn’t actually necessary for the NULA to work. If it’s installed in the machine (or you’re running an emulator and NULA support is enabled) then it’ll be there doing its thing. The ROM just lets you test it out and configure it more easily.

[jonesypeter]

Please excuse my simplistic BASIC, but I would expect this to produce red, green, yellow, blue, magenta. Instead I get red, yellow, white and black foreground text. Also, none of the support ROM functions seem to work such as *VNGREY

I have checked that 'NuLA is clicked on the video menu.

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10 MODE 97
20 COLOUR 1
30 PRINT '"THIS IS COLOUR 1"
40 COLOUR 2
50 PRINT '"THIS IS COLOUR 2"
60 COLOUR 3
70 PRINT '"THIS IS COLOUR 3"
80 COLOUR 4
90 PRINT '"THIS IS COLOUR 4"
100 COLOUR 5
110 PRINT '"THIS IS COLOUR 5"

[tricky]

I don't know BASIC either, but 97 = 64+32+1, so some variant of MODE 1 which only has four colours.

[jonesypeter]

Yes, it seems like it's not enabled.

[jonesypeter]

I tried *VNVDU ON, but I get invalid command. I'm obviously doing something wrong!

[billcarr2005]

*VNVDU ON / OFF is a command within vnula.rom

[jonesypeter]

So, what do si need to do with the emulator?

[billcarr2005]

install the support ROM by clicking ROM on the menu bar, changing a spare bank to ROM by clicking on the RAM part to toggle it off, then selecting vnula.rom from roms\general, then CTRL-BREAK to reset the machine

[jonesypeter]

Many thanks billcarr2005. That worked!

[Zeb]

Hi, anyone able to compile this for Linux please? I've tried BeebEm on here and it runs like it's flooded with treacle.

I would attempt it myself but I've no idea what to type. I'm running Manjaro if that makes a difference.

Kieren, if you can manage it for us I'll buy you a big bottle of something at the next Nova

[VectorEyes]

Compile what for Linux, specifically? There are several emulators that support the NULA these days.

[tom_seddon]

b2 supports a certain amount of Video NuLA functionality. It's not perfect (an ongoing task...), but the 6502 BBC stuff I've tried does look as expected.

It builds on Linux: https://github.com/tom-seddon/b2/blob/m ... uilding.md

There's also a snap, looked after by Alan Pope: https://snapcraft.io/b2 - unsupported by me, but I do approve

(The key platforms for b2 are Windows and macOS, in no particular order, but it is supposed to work on Linux too even though I don't use it myself. The CI system does a Linux build and runs the unit tests, to ensure I haven't obviously broken anything, and I do occasionally start up a Linux VM to check that the Linux build actually runs.)

--Tom