[ATARI] Altirra x86 i x64 4.30 test XXI 4/09/2024

Altirra 4.30 Beta XXI (21) 4/09/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Devices: Added 820, 825, 1025, and 1029 printers.
• Devices: Added 850 printer port support.

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

• Added 825 80-column printer emulation.
• Added 850 printer port.
• Added PDF export from graphical printer output.

825 printer emulation is based on the manual and sample printouts, as the controller firmware isn't available. It should support all of the documented behavior, at least:

As the 825 is a parallel port printer, you can't add it directly -- a parallel port adapter is needed. The 850 emulation now supports the printer port, and the 825 can be connected to other devices that have printer ports, like the Black Box.

PDF export is added as an experiment, though admittedly it has some problems. PDF export itself wasn't too hard, but the PDF file format is less effective at encoding vector geometry than I expected.

825 i support PDF'ów. Fajnie:)

Altirra 4.30 Beta XX (20) 2/09/2024

Head over Heels (1987, The Hit Squad)

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Simulation: Added a speed option to take periodic rewind snapshots.

bugs fixes:

• AltirraOS: Fixed P: compatibility issues with the 1025 printer.
  
• AltirraOS: P: device IDs are supported in XL/XE/XEGS mode.
  
• ANTIC: Added emulation of abnormal DMA caused by turning off playfield DMA mid-line.
  
• ATBasic: Fixed ICAX2Z handling issue preventing printing in sideways mode.
• Cassette: Fixed framing errors not being reported from during unaccelerated tape reads.
• Input: Keyboard input bindings are now released on key up even if Alt is pressed down in between the key down and key up.

author's comment:

• AltirraOS 3.42: P: device in XL/XE/XEGS build now supports different printer device units, and fixed invalid orientation values being passed to the printer.
• ANTIC: Added emulation of DMACTL-based abnormal DMA condition.
• ATBasic 1.59: Fixed AUX2 not being set up for print I/O, which also affects printer orientation.
• Cassette: Fixed framing errors not being reported.
• Input: Holding down Alt between pressing and releasing an input key no longer results in that input getting stuck on.
• Printer: Printer outputs are now held separately from the printer pane.
• Simulator: Added support for rewind recording.

The graphical printer output storage has been reworked to take less memory, so keeping long printouts shouldn't be an issue -- it now only takes 8 bytes per column of pins printed. Printer output is now also stored per printer output, so if you have multiple printers, each printer will get its own output. However, the UI doesn't currently let you see the other printer outputs until you remove the primary one. Rewind recording is the big new thing in this test release. It is disabled by default due to slight overhead, and enabled in System > Configure System > Speed. Once this is enabled, the emulator will automatically take snapshots every second, which can be returned to by the Quick Rewind command (System > Rewind > Quick Rewind). By default, this will rewind to between one half and 1.5 seconds back, and repeating in quick succession will rewind farther back. The emulator stores up to 20 rewind saves and the ones farther back are spaced farther apart, so it is possible to rewind up to a few minutes. This command is keyboard bindable through the usual methods (Tools > Keyboard Shortcuts or right-clicking on the menu option) and it is also controller bindable.

Altirra 4.30 Beta XIX (19) 12/08/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Debugger: FDC and DISKEMU logging channels are now off by default.
• Display: Added adjustable PAL phase.

bugs fixes:

• Save States: Fixed issue where sometimes P/M graphics would be missing after loading a state if P/M DMA was disabled.
  

author's comment:

• Fixed P/M graphics sometimes not rendering properly when loading a save state.
• Debugger: DISKEMU and FDC channels are now disabled by default.
• Fixed DCart keyhole access when flash is in autoselect mode.
• Added adjustable PAL phase (high artifacting mode only).
• Reworked bloom algorithm.

Bloom has been reworked in this version from a gaussian blur to a blur pyramid. This gives better control over the shape of the bloom so it has more of a long tail. It is supported in both D3D9 and D3D11, though the D3D11 version is somewhat faster. A simple tone mapping curve with a soft shoulder has also been added to soften the clamping at the high end (disabled when HDR is active).

Altirra 4.30 Beta XVIII (18) 16/07/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• nw

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

• Fixed J(Atari)Cart banking crash with <128K images.
• Added banked debugging support for J(Atari)Cart.

Altirra 4.30 Beta XVII (17) 14/07/2024

changes:

• Cartridge: Added support for J(atari)Cart (104-111) and DCart (112).

features added:

• nw

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

Adds support for J(atari)Cart and DCart cartridge types.

All of the new cartridge types of 128K or above are flashable. The flash configuration is not well defined for these types, so they have been mapped as follows:

• J(atari)Cart 128K: 39SF010 on 256K board (6 bit banking)
• J(atari)Cart 256K: 39SF020 on 256K board (6 bit banking)
• J(atari)Cart 512K: 39SF040 + empty socket on 1MB board (8 bit banking)
• J(atari)Cart 1MB: 2 x 39SF040 on 1MB board (8 bit banking)
• DCart: 39SF040

Altirra 4.30 Beta XXIII (23) 28/09/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Devices: Added 820, 825, 1020, 1025, and 1029 printers.

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

Adds 1020 Color Printer emulation:

Altirra 4.30 Beta XXIII (23) 20/09/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• nw

bugs fixes:

• AltirraOS: K: and C: now support forced read mode (ICAX1 bit 0).
• AltirraOS: Modified cassette routine SKCTL usage for compatibility with PokeyMAX 4

author's comment:

• Fix 1025 left margin in short line mode (64 columns).
• Fix device binding weirdness with the 850 parallel port.
• AltirraOS 3.43: SKCTL cassette adjustment for PokeyMAX 4, C/K device forced read (this is the same as 3.43 above).
• 8048 emulator now executes a NOP for $01 to allow the Polish 1029 firmware to run, which has an apparent corrupted byte at location 0.

I'm trying to derive a Unicode mapping for the 1029 Polish version, but the glyphs are kind of hard to read. Plain characters in a 5x7 matrix are tight enough, accented characters are worse:

Polish Atascii in ATARI 1029 printer emulation (require polish firmware)

 I attempted to decode them based on cross-referencing with the Polish ATASCII chart on atariki since the character set appears to be the same:

Altirra 4.30 Beta XXII (22) 15/09/2024

Mafia (2024, DrunkenEye). Port of Igelsoft Mafia from C64

Mafia (2024, DrunkenEye). Port of Igelsoft Mafia from C64

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Disk: ATX double density support is now enabled by default.
• Printer: Generic Printer (P:) device now supports translation modes for port output.

bugs fixes:

• Disk: Fixed handling of DRQ bit when reading double density ATX disks.
  
• Simulator: Fixed issue where internal BASIC could sometimes be enabled on a 1200XL.

author's comment:

• Implemented port translation setting for the generic Printer (P:) device when its printer port is connected.
• Fixed bug where internal BASIC could be enabled on the 1200XL.
• Fixed bug with ATX double density images where the DRQ bit would get left on sectors.
• ATX double density support is now enabled by default.
• PDF printer output is now optimized using custom TrueType fonts.

The PDF printer output now works by embedding a dynamically generated TrueType font with combinations of dot columns and rendering bands using the text primitives. It turns out that this is both massively more efficient to encode in the PDF and faster to render compared to using the vector graphic primitives. The downside is that PDF's character set encoding mechanism is horrific and arguably broken. Also, Acrobat Reader will let you copy the "text" even though it's gibberish.

Altirra 4.30 Beta XVI (16) 8/07/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Display: Enhanced CIO text mode rewritten with screen editing, control character, and pass-through support.

bugs fixes:

• Devices: Fixed 32-in-1 handling of Select key and selection is no longer reset when bypassing menu with Esc.
• Devices: SIO and CIO acceleration now better supports the Break key.
  
• UI: Added extra checking for Explorer's extended archive support, which doesn't support normal drag and drop interfaces.

author's comment:

• 32-in-1 fixed to properly check Select button and to work with the Esc use-current menu option.
• Block broken drag-and-drop from Explorer 7z/rar archives.
• SIO/CIO acceleration is now better at checking the Break key.
• Rewrote enhanced CIO text mode support.

The issue with drag-and-drop from 7z/rar archives in Explorer is an annoying one: the new Windows File Explorer archive support seems to be broken and doesn't support any proper data types in its drag-and-drop data object other than a shell ID list, which is useless to get the actual data. There was a bug in Altirra where it wasn't checking the data formats early enough, so it looked like you could drag from such archives, but it would fail at the last minute without warning. It now shows a blocked cursor to indicate that the drop can't be accepted. There doesn't seem to be any usable way to get data out other than to tell it to copy to a temporary file, which is annoying. This doesn't affect .zip archives, which do support stream interfaces.

Enhanced CIO text mode has been rewritten:

 

It is now a regular screen editor instead of a line-oriented terminal and has a specified fixed size, so it works more like the regular Display Handler. There are a number of other improvements:

• Control characters and custom fonts are supported. Any non-recognized characters that don't map to the normal font are rescaled.
• Font size now autoscales since the terminal size is explicit.
• Logical lines and tab stops are now supported.
• RMARGN is set >39 so the wider screen can be recognized.
• Added automatic pass-through when a custom display list or screen mode other than GR.0 is activated.
• Input is now taken through the regular emulation keyboard path instead of bypassing it, and regular caps lock behavior applies.
• Cursor control via CRSINH and CHACT bit 1 is now supported.
• The S: device is now also handled.

Altirra 4.30 Beta XV (15) 4/07/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Cassette: Added Turbo D support.
  
• Debugger: .diskdumpsec command can now display INTERNAL text.
• Devices: Added Remove/Settings commands to context menu.

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

• Added sound samples for 1025 and 1029 printers.
• Printer graphics window sends focus back to display on Esc and supports touch scrolling.
• Added Remove and Settings to device tree context menu.
• Added Turbo D turbo tape mode support.
• Debugger: .diskdumpsec command now takes -I to display INTERNAL characters.
• Fixed a crash when removing devices when an accelerated CIO operation is in progress.

1025 and 1029 now make some representative sounds, particularly the 1029, thanks to rather clean audio from the atarionline.pl video. 1025 has line feed sound, but not 1029 as I couldn't get a clean enough sample yet. The pin sound is still a bit quiet, but that might have to wait for the audio pipeline to be reconfigured, as all sound sample playback is currently behind the second high-pass filter.

Altirra 4.30 Beta XIV (14) 1/07/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• nw

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

• Added 1029 printer standard emulation.
• 820/1025/1029 standard printer emulations now support graphics output, accurate timing, and sound modes.
• P: CIO patch acceleration can now be interrupted with the Break key.
• Fixed a crash issue with the File Writer when attached to a printer output.

The standard printer emulation accurate timing mode should be reasonably accurate for the printing action; it's still inaccurate for the line feed, which I need to tune against the full emulators. However, because the standard emulators don't need to run the controller firmware, they can also run much faster with accurate timing turned off. The standard emulators should emulate all of the escape handling quirks now, especially the 1029 corner cases with mixing text and graphics output on the same line.

The printing sound is still placeholder. I tried putting in a sound sample but it didn't go well; the problem is that strong resonance/echo effects are involved and the videos I've been able to find are too poor quality and have too much being printed to extract a good impulse sound. Might try playing around with some IIR resonators to try to synthesize a sound sample.

Altirra 4.30 Beta XIII (13) 23/06/2024

Atari 1029 printer emulation

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Devices: Added 820, 1025, and 1029 printers.

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

• Adds support for Atari 1029 Printer full emulation.

problem:

When I run Altirra, I'm getting "BOOT ERROR" instead of a self test.
I'm using the profile "XL/XE", with the device "Printer (P:)" (Printer Output, no attached devices) in devices. If I remove the device, it works well.
 Such issue isn't in "test12".
It's a bug in the printer device ID checking code with a flipped comparison, I'll fix it next test release (14) -- in the meantime stick with test12 if you need to use the standard printer emulation.

Altirra 4.30 Beta XII (12) 21/06/2024

changes:

• nw

changes:

• nw

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

• Adds support for Atari 1025 80-Column Printer full emulation.

Altirra 4.30 Beta XI (11) 16/06/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Devices: Added 820 and 1025 printers.

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

Adds emulation support for the 820 and 1025 printers. Previously, there was only a single HLE printer device, which supported a general feature set interpreting incoming characters at ATASCII. The 820 and 1025 devices emulate the specific character sets supported by those printers, which in the case of 820 is a subset of ASCII and the 1025 is the international ATASCII character set. The Printer Output pane now maps the special characters to Unicode. The unique Sideways mode of the 820 is also supported, though not being able to actually rotate the characters, it at least renders them backwards as the 820 does. 1025 control codes are supported, though some of them like line spacing are ignored.

Also added is low-level emulation of the 820, running the actual 6507-based firmware. This includes rasterization of the actual dot matrix output:

Printer A1025, A820 Emulation

There is a simplistic sound emitted for the pins on the print head, though there is currently no sound for the head or paper movement. The print timing and geometry is estimated from the timings and measurements given in the 820 service manual. The output can be saved as a PNG image, at either 96 or 300 dpi, though the right-click context menu. Note that this can create a large image, if you've been printing for a while. A full 96 dpi listing of Nazz, for instance, is 372 x 13657.
When trying this, you'll notice that the printer stops periodically during printing. This is normal and is the anti-overheat mechanism in the firmware. It does slow down long printouts quite a bit.
I have plans for 1025 emulation as well, but need to implement 8051 emulation first.

Altirra 4.30 Beta X (10) 25/05/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• CPU: Added 23x multiplier option for 65C816 mode.
  

bugs fixes:

• Devices: Fixed 8048 timer interrupt bug that prevented the 1450XLD parallel disk controller from shutting off the spindle motor.
  
• VBXE: Added emulation of one-scanline vertical offset for NTSC.

author's comment:

• Added 65C816 23x multiplier option (41.16MHz).
• VBXE NTSC vertical offset is now enabled by default.
• Fixed 8048 timer handling bug that was preventing 1450XLD parallel disk controller from turning off drive motor.

Altirra 4.30 Beta IX (9) 25/05/2024

changes:

features added:

• Devices: Added parallel-to-serial adapter device.
• Display: Added emulation of long-persistence monochrome monitors.

bugs fixes:

• Printer: Fixed printer output going to printer window instead of printer port with P: CIO hook enabled.

author's comment:

• Added PAL Pole Position colors to colors dialog.
• Reworked monochrome color palette to generate brighter colors through gamut clipping.
• Added support for monochrome monitor persistence.
• Added parallel to serial adapter device.

Altirra 4.30 Beta VIII (8) 2/05/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Disk: "Show disk image file" drive menu option now works for mounted images within .zip archives.
  
• Display: Added color correction support for targeting displays that use raw gamma 2.2 or 2.4 instead of sRGB.
  
• PerfAnalyzer: Added import support for Atari800 5.x monitor traces.

--rmc (remove from changelog - why? I dunno;P (Faust))

• UI: Added support for more direct file association setting on Windows 11.

bugs fixes:

• Devices: SuperSALT Test Assembly now supports External Audio test.
• Display: Fixed incorrect gamma for Adobe RGB color matching mode with screen effect acceleration enabled.

--rmc

• CPU: Fixed incorrect LDA (zp) and STA (zp) execution in 65C02 mode only.
  
• Input: Fixed a crosstalk problem between ports 1/2 and 3/4.
  
• Simulation: 5200 uses floating bus again (fixes Star Raiders).
  
• UI: Fixed internal BASIC option not being selectable for the XEGS.

author's comment:

• Debugger: Added SIOREPLY logging channel.
• Devices: Added support for external audio test in the SuperSALT test assembly.
• ANTIC: Fixed virtual DMA cycle data when overlapping refresh on a system with data bus pull-ups.
• UI: Window caption is less spastic in turbo.
• Display: Added color correction modes for targeting displays that use pure 2.2/2.4 gamma instead of sRGB.
• Display: Fixed incorrect gamma in some cases with HDR or Adobe RGB.
• Disk: The "Show disk image file" option now works with images mounted from within .zip files.
• PerfAnalyzer: Can now import monitor traces from Atari800 5.2.0.

Altirra 4.30 Beta VII (7) 19/02/2024

Dude Story (2024, "Mq" Mariusz Ejchsztet)

changes:

features added:

• Disk: Super Archiver emulation now supports slow speed.
  
• Disk: Added emulation of the BitWriter add-on for the Super Archiver.
  
• UI: Added support for more direct file association setting on Windows 11.

bugs fixes:

• Input: Fixed a crosstalk problem between ports 1/2 and 3/4.

author's comment:

• Fixed an crosstalk issue between input ports 1/2 and 3/4.
• Fixed registration of file types for the current user only and added support for more direct entry to the default settings page for the program (Windows 11 only).
• Tweaked the inactive selection colors in dark theme.
• Super Archiver full emulation now supports slow disk speed.
• Added initial BitWriter emulation.

Altirra 4.30 Beta VI (6) 10/02/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• nw

bugs fixes:

• Debugger: Fixed panes not adapting properly after debug font change if undocked.
  
• IDE: Read Verify command fixed.
  
• UI: Fixed internal BASIC option not being selectable for the XEGS.

author's comment:

• Debugger: Fixed font updates on undocked panes.
• Debugger: Memory window now highlights location in both sections.
• IDE: Fixed Read Verify command.
• Fixed incorrect 5200 floating bus and XEGS internal BASIC settings.

Altirra 4.30 Beta V (5) 05/02/2024

Demo gry "Tony" - więcej AtariOnLine

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Debugger: Ctrl+Alt+click now reports scrolling offsets, pixel addresses, and VBXE information.
  
• Debugger: Added .vbxe_xdlhistory command.

bugs fixes:

• VBXE: Overlay and attribute map addressing are no longer reset at vertical blank.
• CPU: Fixed incorrect LDA (zp) and STA (zp) execution in 65C02 mode only.

author's comment:

• Added a cvar to apply a one-line vertical offset to the VBXE XDL in NTSC: devices.vbxe.ntsc_vertical_offset. It delays the XDL start from line 8 to line 9. This is disabled by default for now until we get more confirmation in the other thread.
• Fixed LDA (zp) instruction in 65C02 mode only.
• VBXE no longer resets overlay and attribute map addressing on vertical blank.
• Debugger: Added .vbxe_xdlhistory command.
• Debugger: Expanded Ctrl+Alt+click information. It now shows exact byte address at point, current value of that address (best effort), and also shows XDL and attribute map information for VBXE.

Altirra 4.30 Beta IV (4) 30/01/2024

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Display: Added support for deinterlacing interlaced video.

bugs fixes:

• Cassette: Fixed a crash that could occur when loading raw tape audio.
  
• CPU: Fixed incorrect STA (zp) execution in 65C02 mode only.
  
• Debugger: Register (r) command can now set S high byte in 65C816 native mode.
  
• Disk: Adjusted ATX density detection to allow for enhanced density disks with no non-boot sectors on track 0.
  
• UI: Added workaround for blank window label on Windows 11 taskbar.

author's comment:

• Fix for BRK flags push in 65C816 native mode (attempt 2).
• Debugger register (r) command can now set full 16-bit S register in native mode.
• Fixed STA (zp) instruction being broken only in 65C02 mode.
• Added video deinterlacing option.
  The deinterlacer is just a very simple auto-switch between bob and weave for areas of the screen based on a motion mask, no fancy ELA or mocomp. The effect is similar to what you see from some TVs that don't have true support for noninterlaced video and force-interlace the Atari's output.
• Workaround for empty label in Windows 11 taskbar (which is broken AF).
• Fixed a crash when loading some raw audio tapes.
• Tweaked ATX density detection to prevent false 1050 Duplicator DD detection with ED disks that have only boot sectors on track 0.

Altirra 4.30 Beta III (3) 24/01/2024

Dungeon Adventurer (2024, Next Generation)

changes

• nw

features added:

• UI: Added option to force program to efficiency or performance cores.
• UI: Added tool to scan for global hotkeys that block keyboard mappings.

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

• Fixed crash with some error dialogs.
• Added support for forcing the program to performance or efficiency cores.
• Added tool in the keyboard customization and shortcut dialogs to scan for global hotkeys.
• The performance/efficiency core selection will only work if you have a CPU with hybrid CPU cores. YMMV; it has some serious stuttering problems on my x64 device but no issues on the ARM64. It is the same as forcing CPU affinity, as the CPU sets API turned out to be ineffective (as in, it did absolutely nothing).

Rant about global hotkeys: It seems that almost any program these days feels entitled to commandeer random global keyboard shortcuts without warning, messing up other programs. The hall of shame includes: Macrium Reflect (Ctrl+Alt+M), Alienware Command Center (Ctrl+Shift+Y), and the winner, Intel Arc Control Panel with the ridiculous and unchangeable Alt+I and Alt+O keys. Some of these programs also fail to unregister global hotkeys even if you've disabled them in the UI, which leaves the corresponding key shortcuts simply inexplicably broken. There is also no way built into Windows to tell that this is happening. So now Altirra can tell you if another program is doing this.

Altirra 4.30 Beta II (2) 19/01/2024

Last Box (Agenda, 2024).

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Devices: Added Microbits MPP-1000E modem.
  
• Disk Explorer: Added MAC/65 file viewing mode.
• UI: Added screen reader support for word granularity.
• UI: Improved screen reader support in message boxes.

bugs fixes:

• CPU: Fixed 65C816 BRK instruction writing to wrong addresses in native mode with stack outside of page 1.

author's comment:

• CPU: Fixed BRK instruction pushing flags to wrong page in 65C816 mode with relocated stack.
  
• Devices: Added Microbits MPP-1000E modem.
  
• UI: Improved Unicode support in error messages.
  
• UI: Generic dialogs can now be closed by Esc key even when there is no Cancel button.
  
• UI: Added word boundary support to screen reader provider.
  
• UI: Improved screen reader output for generic dialogs.

Altirra 4.30 Beta I (1) 29/12/2023

changes:

• nw

features added:

• Cassette: Added Ogg Vorbis decoding support.
• Cassette: Added support for paired .data.cas+.audio.ogg files for more compact tape storage.
• Debugger: Added keyboard shortcuts to memory window.
• Printer: ATASCII special characters are now converted to Unicode equivalents.
• Tape Editor: Added Select All (Ctrl+A) and Deselect (Ctrl+Shift+A).
• VFS: Improved handling of Unicode filenames within .zip archives.

bugs fixes:

• nw

author's comment:

• Cassette: Added Ogg Vorbis decoding support.
• Cassette: Added support for paired .data.cas+.audio.ogg files for more compact tape storage.
• Debugger: Added keyboard shortcuts to memory window.
• Printer: ATASCII special characters are now converted to Unicode equivalents.
• Tape Editor: Added Select All (Ctrl+A) and Deselect (Ctrl+Shift+A).
• VFS: Improved handling of Unicode filenames within .zip archives.