SofaRun 8.0 has been released | MSX Resource Center (Pagina 4/9)

Van sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4307)

17-02-2021, 13:31

gdx wrote:

sdsnatcher73 wrote:

The question was regarding saving with OTHER loaders, so probably you used SCROM or SC-LOAD.

SCROM does not support Roms larger than 128kB.

I think it says so in the README but it actually loads bigger ROMs just fine (tried it with a 16Mbit ROM IIRC).

Van Popolon_fr

Expert (85)

17-02-2021, 14:39

Quote:

I saved the ROM loaded in the Sound Cartridge with MGSAVE then compared it with the original. Only last 2kB (800h bytes) are different. Sofarun doesn't seem to load the Rom until the end, 2kB are missing.

I think the problem is related to one of the features of the original Sound Cartridge. Probably the ROM loader uses the 8000h zone for loading. When page 3Fh is selected in this zone and then RAM mode is selected, the SCC registers remain active in read (writing has no effect) from 9800h to 9FFFh (idem in SCC-I mode for Zone B800h). This cuts the RAM memory by 2 kilobytes. It is possible that OpenMSX or the Zemmix does not reproduce this characteristic.

The solution is to switch to SCC-I mode to use the 9800h (3Fh->9000h) zone. And in classic SCC mode to use the B800h (80h->B000h) zone. This way, the SCC registers will not interfere, the data will be copied in the Ram and not in the "empty" zone.

Van gdx

Enlighted (6440)

17-02-2021, 15:20

OK, so the 256 registers are mirrored on this 2kB area. It is surprising that they are readable in RAM mode.

sdsnatcher73 wrote:

I think it says so in the README but it actually loads bigger ROMs just fine (tried it with a 16Mbit ROM IIRC).

I verified with MGSAVE, SCROM load 128kB only.

Van sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4307)

17-02-2021, 17:00

Okay, I ~~must be~~ am getting old...

I tried to load the unmodified Metal Gear 2 ROM with SROM MGEAR2.ROM on my FS-A1ST and it won't even come to the logo... it just reboots and then boots again. I even tried with DOS2 and SROM and ROM on a floppy and same thing happens.

Van olliraa

Champion (325)

18-02-2021, 06:55

It seems Shrines of Enigma (dsk) now goes a bit further compared to the earlier SofaRun version, but when the game starts the graphics are corrupted. The game does not crash, but the screen is just a mess. RAM issues? With earlier SR versions the game got stuck while loading the game, so this is an improvement regarding that Using opfxsd.com the game works.

VG8235 with 256KB
MSX2+ mod (ROMS also)
MF SSD SD
Latest SofaRun

Van gdx

Enlighted (6440)

18-02-2021, 09:06

sdsnatcher73 wrote:

I tried to load the unmodified Metal Gear 2 ROM with SROM MGEAR2.ROM on my FS-A1ST and it won't even come to the logo... it just reboots and then boots again. I even tried with DOS2 and SROM and ROM on a floppy and same thing happens.

I make a patch for SCROM v1.2 so that he is able to load the Roms larger than 128kB.
To apply it you must use a hexa editor and replace the indicated bytes at following addresses in the file.

0053h: 30 07 -> 18 0F
0101h: 10 -> FF
014Dh: 1F -> 24
021Ch: 1F -> 24
0266h: 10 -> FF
0274h: 1F -> 24
02BAh: 10 -> FF
02C9h: 1F -> 24
032Fh: 1F -> 24
0436h: 32 -> 33
0491h: 31 32 38 4B 62 20 52 41 4D -> 6D 6F 72 65 20 52 41 4D 20

With this patch Metal Gear 2 and Space Manbow work.

Van gdx

Enlighted (6440)

19-02-2021, 01:12

Popolon_fr wrote:

The solution is to switch to SCC-I mode to use the 9800h (3Fh->9000h) zone. And in classic SCC mode to use the B800h (80h->B000h) zone. This way, the SCC registers will not interfere, the data will be copied in the Ram and not in the "empty" zone.

For SCROM, I left in SCC mode and used the A000h~BFFFh area (instead of 8000h~9FFFh) to load the Roms.

Van gdx

Enlighted (6440)

19-02-2021, 15:42

I also tested Aleste 2 to see if the 2048kB Roms are loaded correctly. It works fine.
So I will submit this version of SCROM into downloads.

Van bobrocks95

Supporter (10)

31-03-2021, 09:07

Hi guys, I'm new to MSX land and didn't want to clog things up with a thread if these are pretty straightforward questions.

I have an SX1Mini+ FPGA machine for reference, so I have a decent amount of built-in options. My questions are:

- Do I need to concatenate multi-disk games? I saw some mixed reports, some people said they didn't in older threads. If I do, what's the simplest way to do that on Windows? If it's easier through MSX-DOS that's fine too, but I'm just popping in my SD card after moving files over on Windows.
- Is there a run-down somewhere on save support? For example, I have Castle Excellent which saves to tape, so I'm definitely not going to get saving running on my original cart. If I run the game with sofarun can I set up a virtual tape or something? Other games use different methods... What else is supported virtually? Do any carts have save batteries/RAM built in?

Van Manuel

Ascended (19688)

31-03-2021, 09:30

1. Yes, if you want to use SofaRun with SofaRunIt to run disk images. See https://www.faq.msxnet.org/suffix.html
2. There is emulation of the Game Master 1 and 2, which some Konami games support to save to disk. There are games that support saving to PAC/FM-PAC (an external SRAM cartridge) and some game cartridges have built in SRAM to store data on. AFAIK these are not supported in SofaROM.