Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[CiH]

Even 2GB is an improvement.

Loving my 16GB memory sticks on Netusbee and Mint. Booting those into TOS as well would be peachy.

[agranlund]

New release zip here:
https://github.com/agranlund/raven/releases

I have tried to be careful making sure rom, rvbios and so on detects and works on both revision A1 and A2 but my rev.A1 board is disconnected at the moment so I haven't tried on that one myself.

Recommend having a backup of your previous working stuff before upgrading.
(older releases are now kept and available for download on the releases page, so the older last one before I started adding anything A2 related is still available for download also)

Code: Select all

261020:

rom:
- motorola fpsp related bugfixes
- general vector/interrupt performance increase
- general ISA-Mem performance increase
- grayscale bootlogo insted of 1bpp mono
- added dsp info to bios setup screen
- added fan controls to bios setup screen
- added rgb controls to bios setup screen (Rev.A2)

rvnova:
- general ISA-Mem performance increase

software:
- includes updated MagiC binaries for snapshots at
https://tho-otto.m68k.eu/snapshots/magicmac/
- moved software/raven/fpemu -> software/tools/fpu_emu/
- moved software/raven/ymodem -> software/tools/ymodem/
- added FAT32 filesystem driver for singletasking TOS
(software/tools/fat32)

[agranlund]

In case someone wants the FAT32 filesystem driver without grabbing the entire Raven dist:

fat32.zip

(16.99 KiB) Downloaded 7 times

I've been testing what I can think of on Raven with EmuTOS, and in Hatari with TOS206.
That said, it cannot be considered long-term tested.
It does direct access to physical sectors meaning a bug could potentially have pretty bad consequences, so as with any harddisk related program; Back up your disk, use this software at your own risk, and all the usual disclaimers applies.

sourcecode lives here:
https://github.com/agranlund/raven/tree ... ools/fat32
(I should probably move that out of the Raven source tree and into its own repo)

Program is built with the FatFs library (c)ChaN
https://elm-chan.org/fsw/ff/

[agranlund]

@agranlund
The 5426 finally arrived and makes the Raven more responsive, but I’ve run into a problem I can’t seem to solve: games like Doom, Scumm-based titles, and Castaway—which run at 320x200—just show a black screen. I’m unable to adjust the resolution settings for this mode using VMG.PRG (something I can do easily on the ET4000), because all the parameters I have are incorrect.

The resolution settings cannot be adjusted. The bib is basically only there to let nova, as well as programs, get a list of modes since NOVA itself has no concept of querying for supported modes, nor any API for programs to ask it what modes are available.
VGA register settings and whatnot are not used for anything.

For 320x200x8bpp, the SVGA driver simply calls the vgabios on the gfxcard and asks it so set mode 13h which has to be available on all PC gfxcards as per the VGA standard. So the lowlevel settings themselves live in the vgabios provided by the card manufacturer.
(For Raven there's a fair bit of plumbing around all of that of course, but in the end it results in a call to the bios on the gfxcard, especially for standard VGA modes that all cards are guaranteed to have)

Probably I'd need to make you a debug build of the driver so we can see what is happening, but before that I would try deleting all .BIB files from the AUTO folder so that they get re-created in case there is some kind of mismatch / leftover from when using the ET4000 -- it shouldn't but maybe I have some bug in the logic that goes "should i re-recreate the .BIB files now because driver has changed".
Get rid of C:\AUTO\XMENU.INF while you're at it. Reset and go into the bios setup screen, select SVGA driver and pick resolution again.
It's a bit of a long shot but worth a test since it's a quick thing to do.

If that solves nothing then you could also try with RVNOVA from the latest release package.
(delete existing rvnova folder, copy the latest one. delete xmenu.inf + bib files from the auto folder -- yes, that's being overly cautious and shouldn't be necessary but a 'fresh' installation limits the number of variables)

[luciodra]

Probably I'd need to make you a debug build of the driver so we can see what is happening, but before that I would try deleting all .BIB files from the AUTO folder so that they get re-created in case there is some kind of mismatch / leftover from when using the ET4000 -- it shouldn't but maybe I have some bug in the logic that goes "should i re-recreate the .BIB files now because driver has changed".
Get rid of C:\AUTO\XMENU.INF while you're at it. Reset and go into the bios setup screen, select SVGA driver and pick resolution again.
It's a bit of a long shot but worth a test since it's a quick thing to do.

If that solves nothing then you could also try with RVNOVA from the latest release package.
(delete existing rvnova folder, copy the latest one. delete xmenu.inf + bib files from the auto folder -- yes, that's being overly cautious and shouldn't be necessary but a 'fresh' installation limits the number of variables)

Thanks for the reply. I tried your suggestions, but there was no improvement.
I attempted to launch `doom.gtp` with the parameters `-width 320 -height 240`, and the result is shown in the attached image: Doom runs well, even though the screen size is reduced.

IMG_3329.jpg (319.06 KiB) Viewed 11 times

I suspect that the parameters for 320x200x8 are out of range...

A quick side note: since the latest update (thanks again), whenever I perform a reset using Ctrl+Alt+Del, the mouse (I’m using a CKBD) stops responding upon reboot, and I have to power off the Raven.

[agranlund]

I suspect that the parameters for 320x200x8 are out of range...

Mode13h is 320x200x8bpp @ 70hz
Many vga->hdmi and/or capture cards may have problems with these old MSDOS resolutions so I suspect you are right.
I take it an old PC with Mode13 doesnt work either on your screen hookup?

Adding a tweaked 320x240x8bp @ 60hz mode should be doable without very much work i think.
It’s the same timings as 640x480 60hz so should probably work on anything.