SofaRun 3.0 & SofaROM 2.0 released

Great work!!!

Running it to full satisfaction here. As always a great job!

Today I'm very lazy... thank you!

I only discovered the wonders of Sofarun about a month ago,
Now I don't know how I lived without it!

Great work Louthrax, from a very grateful user!

It seems ok...

(translated from portuguese by sd_snatcher user, thanks!)

I would like to help with this topic, as I have some related projects that use VHDL code from the OCM.

This interface has 3 types of "megaRAMs" internally: the SCC-I, the ASCII8 and ASCII16.

In fact, it's implemented as two interfaces: one connected to the slot-1, and another connected to the slot-2. The slot-1 allows the selection of either the external connector or the SCC-I, while for the slot-2 it's possible to select between the external connector or one of the three types of MegaROM controller.

The Switched I/O ports are used to configure the slots and megaROM types. You need to write D4h to the port 40h, and then write to the port 41h one of the following values:

0x0D => Set External Slot-1 + External Slot-2;
0x0E => Set Internal SCC-I Slot-1 + External Slot-2;
0x0F => Set External Slot-1 + Internal SCC-I Slot-2;
0x10 => Set Internal SCC-I Slot-1 + Internal SCC-I Slot-2;
0x11 => Set External Slot-1 + Internal ASCII-8K Slot-2;
0x12 => Set Internal SCC-I Slot-1 + Internal ASCII-8K Slot-2;
0x13 => Set External Slot-1 + Internal ASCII-16K Slot-2;
0x14 => Set Internal SCC-I Slot-1 + Internal ASCII-16K Slot-2;

When the SCC-I is selected as the MegaROM controller in one slot, it behaves like the SD-Snatcher and ESE-SCC cartridges:

Frames:
1.0 => 0x4000-5FFF;
1.1 => 0x6000-7FFF;
2.0 => 0x8000-9FFF;
2.1 => 0xA000-BFFF;

The bank switching is done in the addresses below, only if the bits 6 and 4 of the register-1 (detailed below) are set to zero and the bit 4 of the register-2 is zero.

Writes to 0x5000~0x57FF => Select the page on frame-1.0
Writes to 0x7000~0x77FF => Select the page on frame-1.1
Writes to 0x9000~0x97FF => Select the page on frame-2.0
Writes to 0xN000~0xB7FF => Select the page on frame-2.1

To select the waveRAM, set the page-63 on the frame-2.0 and access it on the area 0x9800 to 0x9FFF

There are two extra registers:

register-1: Address 0x7FFE~0x7FFF (configuration register)
register-2: Address 0xBFFE~0xBFFF (SCC+ mode register)

The register-1 is accessible if the bits 4~5 of the register-2 are set to "00", and the register-2 is only accessible if the bits 4 and 6 of the register-1 are set to "0".

Register-1: (ESE-SCC configuration register)
bit7: not used
bit6: RAM A19 (see bellow)
bit5: not used
bit4: 1=allows RAM writes on frame-1. 0=blocks RAM writes on frame-1.
bit3: not used
bit2: not used
bit1: not used
bit0: not used

Register-2: (SCC+ mode register. Only some bits are implemented)
bit7: not used
bit6: not used
bit5: Sound Mode (0=SCC, 1=SCC+)
bit4: When set to 1, allows writes to the RAM (like the SD-Snatcher SCC+)
bit3: not used
bit2: not used
bit1: not used
bit0: not used

On reads and writes on the RAM, its A19 address is set to 0 for the frame-1.1, and to the register-1 bit6 on the other frames. That limits the effective available memory for ROMs to 512KB. It's possible to have a total of 1MB of ROM, but the frame-1.1 will always be limited to the lower 512KB.

Additional information can be found in the following links:
http://bifi.msxnet.org/msxnet/tech/scc
http://bifi.msxnet.org/msxnet/tech/soundcartridge

The ASCII8 and ASCII16 mappers are almost identical to their original implementation. There's one extra bit on the paging registers: if the bit7 is set to "1" for the following frames, it allows the RAM to be written:

ASCII8: frames 0, 2 and 3
ASCII16: frame 1

To load a ROM, select the mapper type, select the desired page with the bit7 set for the frame-1 on ASCII16, or for the frames 0, 2 and 3 for ASCII8. Then copy the data to those frames normally. After the data is loaded, just initialize all the page registers with the bit7 set to zero.

Thanks Fabio! I'll try to see if I could have these working in SofaROM. I'll need someone to make tests for me (I do not own a OCM, so that will be some "blind-coding" ).

Louthrax btw, in addition to Fabio’s information, there’s a complete overview pdf of all the I/O settings of the OCM in KdL’s firmware package if you’re interested.

I imagine SLOTMODE controls the settings Fabio mentioned. I haven’t used it myself, normally I use the DIP switches… seems handier to use that command line tool actually .

That's a super-weird case: I tried with the same configuration here (I'm the lucky owner of an SD Snatcher cartridge), and I indeed got the same "SCC not found" error (I tried to use SD Snatcher as "External SCC" in this case). I then "flashed" the SD Snatcher cartridge with a game (the Konami Game Collection version of Knightmare, that you can create with the KGC2ROMS tools). This was working perfectly, including SCC+ sounds.

After that, I reseted my MSX and made the first test again... and SD Snatcher was the recognized. And no way to reproduce the problem after that!

It seems like flashing the SD Snatcher cartridge restore it in a state that's compatible with the slot-expander... Could you try the same as I did (I can send you the Knightmare SCC+ ROM if you want), and let me know if that changes something ?

SLOTMODE is a temporary mode to change the DIP-SWs.
You can grab the 'Switched I/O Ports' references from the last OCM-PLD Pack.
If you do not choose the properly mode the SofaROM do not works.
Only my firmware can do it... the original 1chipMSX uses the DIP-SW only.
The OCM-EXTRA Pack has the source code of SLOTMODE command inside.

You can detect the presence of KdL firmware easily (out (40H),D4H; if in (40H) == ~D4H), also a version number can be read though I don’t know from the top of my head… If not detected, just rely on ESE-SCC support and let the user set the DIP switches correctly.

I just promoted those small fixes:

• Selected directory is now preserved when you go to the parent directory ("..") in the file browser.
• 1x is now the default flash speed for MFRSCC+ non-SD.
• Due to popular demand, .BAS file extension has been added to the SR.INI file (I was using .LDR for my personnal game setup to differentiate from .BAS files and know which file is the "official launcher", but that's not so handy for everybody).

I did not change the version number, just re-download from the same location.

Link in page no work.

Yeah, I had that request several times The Game Master (1 & 2) option already allows you to do that for most Konami cartridges games. That should be doable for DSK and other ROM games (on disk access, or keyboard access if that's done in a standard way) , the only thing is to "guess" the state of the VDP correctly (maybe that could be done through options).

Louthrax, maybe you can get in touch with the author of Game Runner or just see how it is implemented. I would love to be able to use save states on my real msx, but unfortunately I am limited to MSX-DOS 1.0 :(

Should be as simple as copying your concatenated SD Snatcher disks to your SD card along with the contents of the SOFARUN.ZIP file.

You have a full documentation of all options in SR.TXT for the user-interface use, and also SRI.TXT for the disk launcher and SROM.TXT for the ROM launcher (not needed if you launch things with SofaRun). All those help files are also viewable directly in the different "Usage" links on my website. All options are also displayed (with a bit less details) if you just launch SRI.COM and SROM.COM without parameters. Wondering what visibility I could add to that ?

Ah yes, a little quick start guide would be nice! I was also thinking about making a FAQ one day, covering the different MSX models and SD devices specific things...

Hi z00pster,

Thanks for the nice words

That question is frequently asked these days here. Here's my attempt at doing a quick tutorial on this:

1. Format an SD card in FAT16 on your preferred desktop / laptop computer.
2. Unzip SOFARUN.ZIP to a "SOFARUN" folder on your SD card.
3. Copy your games, disk, rom or cas images to your SD card. I recommend grouping them into ZIP files (ROM.ZIP, DISK.ZIP, etc...) if you have lots of files and want to enjoy long file names.
4. With your favorite text editor, create a file named "AUTOEXEC.BAT" at the root of your SD card and put this line in it:
   

     A:\SOFARUN\SR.COM 

5. Insert that SD card in your MFRSCC+SD, boot your MSX and copy the files NEXTOR.SYS and COMMAND2.COM from the ROM disk to your SD Card (also backup the tools or files from the ROM disk that you find useful).
6. Remove the ROM disk: boot your MSX while keeping the [Up] cursor key pressed and then press [F3] ("Erase ROM disk").
7. Reset your MSX and start playing!
8. Finally be sure to check the SofaRun documentation to fully enjoy your MSX (lots of things can be configured, in the UI and in the .INI files).

I would start with these two steps, making a complete copy of the ROM disk to the SD-card (using Multi Mente), erasing the ROM disk and ensuring that it boots from the SD now and things still work. Perhaps slightly more foolproof that way for a novice. Paths will be set up correctly in the AUTOEXEC.BAT, etc.

After that you can do the steps to put SofaRun on there and modify the AUTOEXEC.BAT (replace the "MM" line with SR, rather than making a new one).

Sure, check the MFRSCC+ SD documentation (you can get the ROM disk image from the official site and have to use OPFXSD.COM).

Yes, that can be done with some MSX-DOS 2 commands, but I do not rememer the syntax exactly.

No, you can replace SofaROM with the ROM launcher of your choice or just remove it (would be curious to know why if you do so!), but you won't benefit from the ROM options in SofaRun. Check the SR.INI file and SofaRun documentation for details.

True! Thanks for the additional advice.

You have this in the per-game settings (check turboR / CPU option in the menu). This can be set as a default settings (check the "Global settings", so that will be applied to all games).

What's your intended use here?

Yep, settings in SofaRun have been designed for that purpose

It should work with 512K RAM. Can you type a "MEMORY" command in MSX-DOS and report what's displayed? (and what's you MSX model?)

Finally worked out what happened. I was originally going to order the 512K version of the megaflashrom (so this was highlighted in my emails on the subject) but in the end I didn't order the extra memory! I'm now ordering the extra memory so I can use it with SofaRun. Good to have a justification for the upgrade!

Great. Out of interest is there a list of software and tools that benefit from the additional memory?

I tried to run SofaRun from the B: drive ( using a MFR with ROM disk on A: ). I modified all three paths in the sr.ini file to B:, however when i try to launch a rom it still gives an error writing to A: (which ofcourse is read only). Am i still missing a setting somewhere?

Yes that was it, thanks!

Yes, I'd be glad to do that (already had several request), I'll just need a Carnivore 2 for that purpose. 8bits4ever mentionned they would send me a prototype version but I had no news so far.

MP do not work well on MRC these days. I sent you an email directly!

Does 3.2 support long filenames? I am using it and it seems to be the same as when I used v2.

Thanks!

Sweet! Time to try to remember where I downloaded the zip files...

Hi Lazzeri,

SofaRunIt requires MSX-DOS 2 (not necessary Nextor), and 256 KB RAM. No other additionnal hardware is required.

how to deal with multi disk games? just zip them into a zip file?

Hallo Louthrax,
so, no way to swap disk without concatenate it directly in SOFARUN?
Neither with tis 2 options:
- filename type xxx1.dsk xxx2.dsk etc.
- filename type xxxx.fd1 xxxx.fd2 etc.
- zipping files from one of the two options above?
?

SOFARUNIT seems to already do this
* Keyboard or joystick on the fly disk change

Great,

Are you planning a new release early?
Just to know before i cuncatenate tons of .dsk :-)

Thank you so much for your great work
Regards

Really a great piece of software, a must have for every MSX user. One question @Louthrax, I've tried to load a 64kb rom as Memory Mapper forcing with /D0 but it allways use flash memory, althougt I have 128Kb of RAM (VG8235) and my MFR is the one with 512Kb RAM (in fact, when I load 32kb roms it indicates 462kb free, so I suposse that Sofarun is using RAM expansion).

Anyway to really force load of 64kb ROMs as Memory Mapper? Thanks.