Carnivore 2 Software update

RBSC has announced the big update for Carnivore2.

To avoid unnecessary questions please make sure to read the "readme.txt" file. We also have the illustrated English documentation for the cartridge.

All the files can be found in the Carnivore2 repository on GitHub.

List of changes:

15.03.2020 (required updates: FPGA firmware, Boot Menu, all utilities, DefConfig entry; the "Power-up fix" must be removed if it was implemented on board!)

1. The new setup screen was introduced - slot configuration. It can be called with "O" hotkey or with "Enter". The new setup screen allows to run dual-slot configuration with flexible options selection for the master slot (you can choose what Carnivore2 built-in devices to enable). You can select 2 ROMs to run simultaneously. The only restriction for the slave slot is that it can run games with Konami4 and Konami5 mappers as well as small games up to 32kb without mapper. The slave slot becomes available if there's one unused physical slot in MSX and it is not occupied by another device
2. The Boot Menu main page's UI was adjusted to have all main hotkeys easily visible. Also the Boot Menu now has the visible selection for master and slave slots called "Dual-Slot". The entry for the master slot can be selected by pressing "1", the entry for the slave slot can be selected by pressing "2". The "D" key clears the selection as well as Autostart entry
3. The DefConfig's settings were changed and the Boot Menu was adjusted so that when this default configuration is started, the Boot Menu remains in the primary slot, allows the system to start and is always detectable by C2MAN and other utilities. The C2MAN and C2MAN40 utilities now write the adjusted DefConfig entry into the directory when you optimize directory entries from the Service Menu
4. A new setting has been added into the Configuration screen to set the desired frequency at startup. A user can choose between 50Hz, 60Hz and the default computer's frequency (no forcing, this is marked as "--"). The setting is saved into the configuration EEPROM. Now the "F" button in the Boot Menu only temporarily switches the frequency between 50Hz and 60Hz
5. The Configuration screen got yet another new setting - "Dual-reset on cold boot". It makes the computer restart twice after the cold boot. This is necessary to make sure that the cartridge is fully initialized when a computer is just powered on. So it is recommended to enable the dual-reset feature
6. The C2CFGBCK utility no longer does the BIOS ROM shadowing and therefore starts faster
7. The Boot Menu's data section has been heavily optimized to have space for more features. The repeated characters are now output with a macros (this saves space). The data for Boot Menu's screens is now written in the last two 8kb blocks of the first 64kb FlashROM block. This saves a lot of space.
8. The firmware now reports its internal version in the configuration registers (3 bytes) in ASCII format (only starting from v2.30)
9. The cartridge now outputs the actual versions of the Boot Menu and the firmware during the cold boot and then either reboots a system again (dual-reset) or continues to the Boot Menu
10. The cartridge will not work in slot 0 and slot 3, it will output a message and halt a system if it detects that it's used in those slots
11. The IDE BIOS has been changed to Nextor 2.1.0 Beta 2. This is a stable version with many bugfixes and new features provided by Konamiman
12. The Configuration screen got another new setting - "Disable FMPAC stereo". It disables the stereo output of FMPAC from Carnivore2's audio socket
13. The Boot Menu now detects that it is running on Korean or Arabic MSXs and in case it is not compatible with those systems, it will output a message and will try to boot to DOS after 10 seconds. In such a case a compatible Boot Menu (BOOTCMFC.BIN) should be installed into the cartridge (see the "Special" subfolder in the repository for the compatible version of the Boot Menu
14. ROMs can be selected with the "Space" key in the Dual-Slot screen. Pressing space will allow to cycle through compatible ROMs for each slot. After the full cycle there will be an "empty" selection to keep the slot vacant. In addition, the master slot can also use the "Konami SCC+" configuration. So you can run SCC+ games in the slave slot and enjoy SCC+ and a game on a single cartridge. When the master slot's expansion is enabled, any of its devices (RAM, FMPAC, IDE) can be enabled or disabled with the "Space" key
15. The autostart countdown can be skipped with "Space" key. The same applies to the message about the incompatible Boot Menu
16. All screens now support joystick. The joystick's directions are interpreted as cursor keys and the buttons are interpreted as "Space" or "ESC". Please see the readme.txt for more info
17. In the PSG/PPI settings the "Space" key now enables or disables the PSG and the "Enter" key enables or disables the PPI clicker. This is done to better support joystick usage in this screen
18. During the autostart countdown joystick buttons allow to either skip the countdown and start an entry or to cancel the countdown and go to the main menu. Please see the readme.txt for more info
19. The Boot Menu detects Russian network modules and halts a system to prevent conflicts

We have a few non-critical issues in this release, that will be addressed in the next version. If you would like to report a bug or ask for a new feature, please feel free to create a ticket through the Carnivore 2 Issues Tracker