High resolution graphics for the base/unmodified Superboard II / C1P

[Thomas]

This is great and looks phenomenal on the real machine.
Attached an further improved trail version of the Emulator with faster graphic processing. It now includes the semi graphic functionality and handles better suppression of artifacts during access of the character RAM, like on the real machine.

W_osi_HighresBoard.zip

(21.95 MiB) Downloaded 247 times

Game_mazcg.jpg (122.87 KiB) Viewed 12285 times

[HOWARDHB]

Wow, that looks superb!

[Thomas]

To test the character RAM board on the famous Compukit UK 101, I had to have a look to the one stored for some time in my attic.
The machine came in a nice wooden case with an acrylic top glass to compete with other more expensive "ready to use" systems.
It also had the obligatory Mod to 64x32 characters, witch does not match with the size of character RAM board of 8k of RAM.

So I had to reverse the Mod to bring back the UK 101 into it's original state by reconnecting a few traces and removing the back pack video RAM chips. The 64x16 characters are really enjoyable (double line scan) and totally sufficient for any task.

The character RAM board fits perfectly into the ROM/RAM sockets, like on the SBII

PC1.jpg (214.74 KiB) Viewed 12262 times

The character ROM bits are inverted compared to the SBII but in the same order like in today's systems. The Compukit uses a Monuk02 ROM, the so called new monitor (2nd version).

PC3.jpg (52.51 KiB) Viewed 12262 times

The character RAM board has been tested in the identical configuration to the SBII and works perfectly.
It provides 512x128 pixel (minus the hidden borders). Here an example of the high resolution mode.

PC4.jpg (75.73 KiB) Viewed 12262 times

[Thomas]

Actually, the characters that appear in programs 8 and 9 were not intentional, they are just byproducts of the character set that was created for program 5. The "bumper" is an outline Pac-Man, which flashes alternately with the regular Pac-Man when a life is lost by colliding with a monster/ghost. And the jumpers in program 9 (OSI Grand) are supposed to look like people (well, stick-figure people), not Pac-Men. These are the characters that I changed (based on MM.BAS on nama's disk #25): MM to Pac-Man.png

Perhaps I should add an entry-point to reset the board to use the character ROM, as the board cannot see the reset line.

BTW, one thing I think should be added to the board is a way to quickly copy the character ROM to character RAM, so that a few characters can then be changed while leaving the rest intact. Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect it would be fairly simple to make writes in "character ROM" mode write to the RAM "under" the ROM, kind of the way the C64 lets you write to RAM "under" the BASIC and Kernal ROMs.

Philippe, sorry about hijacking your thread.

Danny,
actually this kind of function has been considered in the hardware, but not implemented yet as I was just glad, everthing was working as is.
First the GAL(CPLD) was updated, to verify how it works on an actual machine, and its works!
Now you can read form the charater ROM section and write it back directly to the character RAM. Makes moving the data much easier.
The 2x1k ROM section will repeat, when addressing the character RAM via the 3 address bits in the mode register
And in addition, if the Semi Graphic bit is set, the second 2x1k in the character ROM (of an 4k EPROM) is selected.
The file "New_RW_Test.asm" in the SOURCE folder illustrates, how this works. Make sure, the code always returns to normal ROM/RAM mode, because the screen will be blanked otherwise (see code examples).
Basically everthing works the same, exept writing to the Character ROM now ends up in the Character RAM.

In the PAC-Man code, I have seen your method how to detect, if this Character board is present or not. Quite nice!

Here the updated preliminary Emulator for testing. There is a Pico_DOS configuration using your previous image file.

W_osi_HighresBoard.zip

(22 MiB) Downloaded 254 times

Thomas

[Thomas]

After some time, I had to update my Emulator to the latest version of the Character RAM board.
The new feature is, that C1E color now works as usual in standard text mode and as well in Character RAM mode.
Color is turned on/off by $02 stored into the $D800 latch with the color data in $D400 to $D7FF.
Five color option exist. Plain B/W, Amber or Green Monitor or OSI color, RGB16 color and even a ZX-Spectrum palette.

Here an example of the Maze program Danny modified for the Character RAM board, now using a simple static RGB color palette.

Animation.gif (268.37 KiB) Viewed 11551 times

A short version Emulator is also attached with faster graphic processing, all mode colors, semi/full graphics and suppression of artifacts during access of the character RAM, like on the real machine (if you have the RGB color option for the C1P)