A new MENU system for MMC/Gotek

[TonyHoyle]

Alas, same results.

I've now installed a TurboSPI as well so can use the MMFS version so don't need to worry about it - everything works on that. OTOH I'm still available to test things if necessary.

.

[tricky]

I'll try it on my Master and maybe see if I can get my B GOTEK working, but it works on the Compact

[tricky]

Added *DI. to the *DIN command and updated Frogger to one that runs at 50Hz instead of ~51hz (should fix some LCDs with sync problems).
ZIPs linked from the top post updated.

PS I guess that I should update my bbcmicro.co.uk copy!

[Steve8bit]

I'd love to make my own menu with like my top 30 games on it. but heck reading all the above makes my head spin! (I'm not exactly bright to begin with)
it's a shame we can't just copy a few disk images to the sd card and load it. This MMB thing as cool as it is, it very complex for numpties like me. haha

[tricky]

There is a menu system that I think will walk you disks and generate a menu.
For mine, you can copy your favourite games to DISCS\0 and add them to favorite.csv and run the .bat - I think two people have now been adventurous enough to try it!

[map856]

I seem to be having the same or a very similar issue as that described by TonyHoyle above:

When I shift break I get the menu.. but selecting any of the games just comes to a screen that says

GOTEK din
EXEC $.--00A--

Then it hangs and if I break the correct disc is mounted and I can load and run the game directly.

Here are some screen shots to hopefully illustrate the problem:

The first screen shows the ROMs in my BBC B: (https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArqEy3ELdGN4iZpl6iw ... w?e=qRh6vC)


This screen shows that the menu system appears to work:(https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArqEy3ELdGN4iZpkA2r ... Q?e=z3TCzT)


Finally, this screen shows what happens when I make a selection:(https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArqEy3ELdGN4iZpjVmA ... w?e=Zh46c3)


At that point, it just hangs. If I press BREAK, I can confirm the right disc has been selected and *EXEC --xxx-- seems to then run the selected game.

I should also mention that prior to any of this, I disable the Pi CoPro as well as the Aries B20 (using *XOFF and BREAK).

Since it seems that this menu system works well for others, I can only assume there's some sort of obscure compatibility issue!

EDIT: (Apologies, I couldn't get the screen shot pictures to display so added direct hyperlinks)

[tricky]

Could you try *UNPLUG 3 to "turn off" the DDFS as I can't think of anything else that might affect it

Do all the games you have tried hang?

Is you copy from the last month or so?

Please try Asteroids and let me know what that does.

The *EXEC does *B.|MCH."LOADER"|M.
Please check what happens when you *B. on you beeb (I'm clutching at straws here!).

I don't know much about disc systems or what makes them work/not work

Is there anyone else who has had this hanging problem and found a workaround?
Even if you don't think it is related, please post as it might inspire someone who does know about these things!

[map856]

Thanks tricky, I'll try your suggestions and will post my findings later today.

Meantime, I can confirm that all other games I've tried so far ended up hanging in exactly the same way.

[map856]

OK, I've done some further investigation.

Firsly, *B. just returns BASIC on my machine.

*UNPLUG just returned Bad Command so I guess I don't have the ROM that implements that command.

However, I loaded ARM 1.13 into Sidways RAM and used the *KILL command to achieve the same end. So, having removed the WE DDFS, I had another go, only to get exactly the same result.

Next, I got the idea to try using the Watford Electronics DDFS instead of Acorn DFS 2.26.

This proved an interesting experiment albeit ultimately unsuccessful. So, with DFS 2.26 disabled and running on WE DDFS, I selected Asteroids (first item on the menu) and that ran fine! Next I tried Astro Blaster and that too worked! I then tried a couple of others further down the page but alas, they did not run. However, instead of hanging, this time I would see:

GOTEK din
EXEC $.--00C--
File not found

I realised at this stage that games that were on the first disc image seemed to run fine but the menu seemed not to be moving to the target disc image before attempting to find the selected games.

I'm not too sure how helpful any of the above is but I hope it holds some clues.

[tricky]

That doesn't give me any new ideas I'm afraid.
You could try changing what is in the exec files.
When my new EPROMs arrive, I'll try DFS 2.26 and see if I can reproduce it.
It probably could be debugged with an ice 6502 or tube logger.

[tricky]

Could you try changing the __001__ file from:

Code: Select all

*B.
CH."LOADER"

to:

Code: Select all

*B.
CLOSE #0:CH."LOADER"

I do this with a basic program:

Code: Select all

10*SPOOL __001__
20P."*B."
30P."CLOSE #0:CH.""LOADER"""
40*SPOOL
RUN

I'm sure that there is an easier way, but I can't remember it!
All of the EXEC files should have CLOSE #0, but I must have broken something!
I don't think it will make a difference, as it affects programs that just *RUN, but it is one more thing to eliminate!
Thanks to Chris Evans for pointing out my omission and to Michael Brown for his work in making the standard EXEC file that I have somehow messed up.

[tricky]

I've refreshed the files from bbcmicro.co.uk in the top post, but most will already have the CLOSE #0 as all I change is to prepend *B. if there isn't already one.

[map856]

Thanks tricky for your patience and perseverence! I didn't mean to take up so much of your time and I'm certainly not expecting you to spend any more on this problem. However, I thought I'd post an update.

I started by downloading GOTEK.zip to make sure I have the latest, particularly since you mentioned you refreshed the files from bbcmicro.co.uk.

Next I updated __001__ using your BASIC program and *TYPE'd it to make sure I got it right.

Then I tried SHIFT BREAK using Acorn DFS 2.26 and selected Asteroids.

I got exactly the same result as before, i.e.:

GOTEK din
EXEC $.__001__
and it hangs at this point. However, out of interest I checked the display on the GOTEK:

*Direct Access*
000/465 T:254.0

Next I decided to go through the same process but this time using the Watford Electronics DDFS 1.54T

As in my previous post, Asteroids ran successfully but the display on the GOTEK different to above:

DSKA0000
000/465 T:13.0

I'm not sure whether this helps but perhaps someone might find it useful.

[tricky]

It might, I'm not sure.
I believe that is showing that disc 0 of 465 is the current disc and it is on track 254 for DFS, which is how you "talk" to the GOTEK. The ddfs seems to be on track 13, which is probably the end of asteroids.

I think it needs to be caught in a debugger, but as no emulators support GOTEK, that leaves ICE 6502 or something on the tube logging activity and then Hoglet's decoder to see what's happening.

The only other thing that I can think of is to kill all of the other ROMs, just in case.

There is also a gotekmenu.zip that has some commands for talking to the GOTEK, you could see if they work.

One last question. If you are not on disc 0, what happens when you shift-break?

[map856]

OK, so turning all ROMS off except for BASIC, DFS 2.26 and ARM 1.13(required for the *KILL command) results in exactly the same behaviour as before.

Pressing SHIFT+BREAK from discs other than 0 causes the GOTEK to go back to disc 0 and display the main menu.

Next I added GOTEKMenu.ssd to the USB drive. This ends up as disc number 465.

Trying the DIN command, I found it works but requires a couple of steps, for example:

*DIN 50 initially results in this display:

*Direct Access*
465/465 T:254.0

Then if I press the rotary knob:

*Direct Access*
**Eject Menu**

Then press the knob again:

*Direct Access*
050/465 T:254.0

Next I tried the DBOOT command.

*DBOOT 50 caused the GOTEK to find disc 50 and seek through tracks on that disc, but immediately kept going to disc 0 and displayed the main menu.

Just to double check, I tried *DBOOT 35 and this resulted in exactly the same behaviour.

Finally, *BOOT0 causes the GOTEK to go to drive 0 and display the main menu.

Many thanks again.

[tricky]

DBOOT and DBBOT0 are behaving as expected as disc 0 is set to run the menu and all the others are set to select disc 0 and run the menu.

The main difference between those and when you try to run a game is that they *RUN the menu, but the games are started with *EXEC.

I'm not sure about the *DIN results.
if you do *DIN 50 and the *., does it work?

Either way, this seems to be down do the difference between *RUN and *EXEC which seems like it is going to be a DFS issue.

I'll try and get a GOTEK working in a model B with DFS 2.26 and TUBE logging (I haven't managed to get this working yet) then see if I can reproduce the symptoms.

PS If anyone else has a GOTEK with DFS2.26, please post to say if it works for you.

[map856]

Confirming that if I do a *DIN 50 immediately followed by *., I get a directory listing of disc 50 as expected. So that seems to be working even without the two additional steps I mentioned earlier.

It'll ultimately be interesting to see how this is DFS sensitive since (at least in my case) both the Acorn and WE DFS's have issues, albeit different in nature.

Once again thanks for your help - I'm not expecting you to devote more time to this (unless you feel so inclined!). Much as I'd love to see it working, it's not an urgent or critical issue by any means.

[tricky]

I wonder if somehow it is missing the *DISC, I'll check that as that was the issue last time if I remember and it doesn't seem to be printing it, so it may not be doing it either.

[Simon]

I have the same issue with dfs 2.26, the same usb stick works on my master.

[tricky]

Minor update of the SWRAM loader for the CC-Speech demo and added a joystick test program that checks for light pen strobe selected buttons 3 and 4.

[tricky]

Is anyone having issues using this menu on their GOTEK?
There is one here and whilst it will jump from any drive to drive 0 and boot the menu, it is getting stuck selecting any other disc!
It shows direct access mode and if you then turn the selector, it will have gone to the correct disc, but does not boot it.
I will add some more debug code when I get back from ABUG to debug more, but won't have access to the drive then.

[AndyGarton]

I've just received my Gotek and have exactly the problem you describe Tricky, the menu works, but attempting to launch any game hangs as noted. My Model B has Acorn 1770 DFS/DFS 2.22. The Gotek works fine otherwise (i.e. not using your menu).

[AndyGarton]

... and oddly enough the same thing happens on my other Model B, this one running DFS 2.26.

[AndyGarton]

And finally for now fwiw - I tried a couple of different USB sticks, and also a freshly formatted on Windows (SD Card Formatter) clean drive, as opposed to using my Mac as I had before, and got just the same results.

[tricky]

Thanks for the testing.
I've not been very well and haven't got around to looking at what is going wrong. I suspect it is a new firmware incompatibility, but I've no idea about what it could be.
Auto selecting disc 0 and launching the menu works from any disc, so it can swap and launch.
I did have a quick look at the coffee when I got back from ABUG and although the code is different as it doesn't have to parse disc number of detect whether to *run out *exec, that code doesn't interact with the gotek.

[tricky]

Main links updated to include missile command and couple of MMFS compatibility fixes for MoonPatrol demo and Astro Blaster.

[tricky]

Main links updated to include missile command and couple of MMFS compatibility fixes for MoonPatrol demo and Astro Blaster.

[Sazhen86]

Hi Tricky

I've just installed your menu system on my gotek and it works fine on my BBC model B with 8271 FDC. Thanks for working on this, it's a really nice way of using the gotek.

Also I just ran your scramble port and I have to say it's awesome! Took me back to the 80's when I struggled to play it in the arcade.

[tricky]

Thanks and I find I can fairly easily loop scramble at least once per game on keyboard as I find the maze section is then easy, but it doesn't really help with the others.

It is good to hear that it still works on new kit as a couple of people had problems over the last couple of years.

[Sazhen86]

Thanks and I find I can fairly easily loop scramble at least once per game on keyboard as I find the maze section is then easy, but it doesn't really help with the others.

I never finished scramble in the arcade. I'm going to blame it on worn out joysticks that made the maze section quite difficult. Does your BBC port support joysticks? If so, I might have to build one and have another go.

It is good to hear that it still works on new kit as a couple of people had problems over the last couple of years.

I recently acquired a Master 128 and it works fine on there too with the same gotek.