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1541 Ultimate II: New firmware v3.0 beta 5

October 18th, 2015 No comments

A new version of the firmware for the interface 1541 Ultimate II is released. This version runs only on the 1541 Ultimate II cartridge (new fpga).

Release notes 3.0 beta 5:

Major:

  • BUGFIX: Processor’s Data Cache stored result of IO read, causing wrong values to be read from the cache

Minor:

  • C64 Keyboard scan made a bit slower  (not tested)
  • Fixed configuration drop down
  • Fixed clock settings
  • Mount disk made first option in D64 file type
  • Updated Final 3 cart.

Release notes 3.0 beta 4 (first version released on Facebook):

  • The FPGA platform has gotten an upgrade. There is now a faster RISC processor on board (~10 times faster), and I have re-written the USB host controller, which has become ~50 times faster. The external memory of the FPGA also runs faster, and delivers now also approx. 7 times more bandwidth. With this faster platform, it has become possible to run a multithreaded OS.
  • There is now support for USB2LAN adapters, and 3.0beta4 runs two services: a (raw-)telnet (VT100) server that brings up the menu, and an FTP daemon for basic file transfer.
  • There is now support for reading the directories of D71 and D81 files in the browser.
  • There is a ‘CD’ command in the software IEC, and other improvements have been made to the soft IEC driver.
  • There is now a copy command in the file browser, that works with C=C/C=V (or CTRL-C / CTRL-V). It is not that fast, but for small files it works. You can also copy files from inside a D64/T64 to another location in the file system. The other way around is still under development, but will soon be possible as well.
  • UltiCopy is disabled for now, because it still needs to be ported to the multi-threaded operating system.

Download: 1541 Ultimate II Firmware v3.0 Beta 5 (1292)

source: 1541ultimate.net

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware v3.0.6.6a

October 11th, 2015 No comments

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports:

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.6.6a

  • Some more random crash issues corrected into the disks images managers.
  • USB Stack updated.
  • Firmware Update strongly recommended!

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.6.6a (1179)

source: hxc2001.com

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware v3.0.6.4a

September 27th, 2015 No comments

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports:

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.6.4a

  • Random crash issues corrected into the disks images managers.

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.6.3a

  • Some user interface delays added to make it more usable ;)
  • “Press select for the Setting menu” text added.

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.6.4a (1095)

source: hxc2001.com

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware v3.0.6.2a

September 21st, 2015 No comments

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports:

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.6.2a

  • Normal mode : Endless init loop corrected.

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.6.1a

  • Amiga : Disk change detection corrected : Desert Strike, Dizzy Crystal and probably others games disk change detection are now working properly.
  • Direct access mode : Correct interface mode set when activated from an PC HD image.

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.6.2a (1217)

source: hxc2001.com

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware v3.0.6.0a

September 15th, 2015 No comments

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports:

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.6.0a

  • Low level write layer redesigned : Some write issues solved.
  • 2 digits display detection issue corrected.
  • HFE : Index timing changed/corrected.
  • Select button added at the JA jumper position.
    • This additionnal button and the I2C LCD screen allow you to freely select a file image without the indexed mode or any selector software.
  • Indexed mode : “Previous”/”Minus” button repeat rate reduced.

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.6.0a (1078)

source: hxc2001.com

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 (Beta/Preview 4) released

August 18th, 2015 No comments

Ikari has released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom). The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Download: SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 Beta/Preview Rev 4 (1399)

Full Changelog:

  • Prevent software from using uninitialized DMA ch.0 transfer to corrupt the stack (fixes Nightmare Busters)
  • Disable PPU region patching during the menu
  • MSU1: Stop audio playback on reset (fixes static buzzing noise in games after soft-resetting out of an MSU1 game)
  • Cx4: Add a switch for original/fast mode. “Original” mimics the Cx4 timing better (Megaman doesn’t die in MMX2 attract mode) whereas “Fast” uses a single CPU cycle for every instruction, improving frame rate when drawing polygons (rotating head in MMX2 intro).
  • Hide dot files and directories again (Regression in 0.1.7).
  • “Stealth Mode” for in-game hook memory area hides the memory region used by in-game routines from games. (Fixes Equinox, Lion King)
  • In-game hooks are a bit less intrusive in terms of CPU time, hopefully reducing glitches a bit with problematic games.
  • System Information screen shows file system usage on card.
  • Slow down DSPx a bit to better match original speed (should have no noticeable effect)
  • Font height is reduced by one pixel to increase readability (lines of text are more distinguishable). This has an effect on the font style so some might not like it…?
  • Background is greyed out when a window is active in foreground
  • Menu now uses the dynamic hierarchical menu system, with automatic calculation of window dimensions, etc. Not much of it can be seen at the moment due to the lack of menu entries.
  • Experimental SRAM mapping for Cx4
  • FPGA: adjust address sampling time for “end-of-cycle” events. Should help primarily with DSP1 glitches.
  • MSU1: initial volume now adheres to the latest spec (initial volume = 0) so it must be initialized by software to the desired level. This actually breaks my own example player I will post an updated version of it shortly.

Read more…

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Floppy Emulator: Firmware v3.0.5.4a

August 4th, 2015 3 comments

Jean-François DEL NERO (who’s behind the HxC SD Floppy Emulator) recently has released a version of the HxC emulator firmware that is compatible with the STM32 chip used in the Gotek floppy emulators.

This means that the great functionality of the HxC SD emulator is now available on cheaper and more widely available hardware.

The bootloader to convert the Gotek floppy drive in HxC compatible must be purchased on the website HXC 2001 by sending an email to Jean-François DEL NERO. The price of the bootloader is one-off 10 Euro per Gotek that you want to update. Future updates of the software are free and can be made from a USB stick

The HXC Usb (Gotek) firmware supports:

Release notes Firmware USB HxCFloppyEmulator v3.0.5.4a

  • Amiga : Extra Disk change delay added. Solve some disk change issues (Protracker 3.15, Defender of the Crown,…).

Download: USB Stick STM32 (Gotek) HxC Firmware v3.0.5.4a (1933)

source: hxc2001.com

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 (Beta/Preview 3) released

October 19th, 2014 No comments

Ikari has released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom). The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Full Changelog:

A minor update, mainly in the name of stability. This hopefully eliminates glitches unrelated to the in-game buttons on some consoles, e.g. Seiken Densetsu 3 rebooting intermittently or graphical glitches in DKC 2+3, that had been introduced with v0.1.7 preview 1.

  • Reintroduce more aggressive filtering for control and address lines from the SNES, previously removed after v0.1.6
  • Unify and centralize signal edge detection for all sub-units (e.g. S-RTC, MSU1, BSX, DSP etc.) instead of each unit having its own (slightly different) edge detection.
  • In-game controller scan has become slightly more time effective under certain circumstances (Auto Joypad Read enabled but no NMIs).
  • In-game hooks are now disabled for 10 seconds after loading or resetting a game to help certain games get past their boot screens. This will be configurable in the final.
  • Reconfigure the FPGA only when necessary on warm reset, speeding up “reset to sd2snes menu” by a couple hundred milliseconds.
  • Fix an MMIO access priority bug for DSPx.
  • Fix BS-X ROM detection for games with 2 startups left.
  • Fix directory browsing being broken after setting the clock.

Download: SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 Beta/Preview Rev 3 (1424)

source: sd2snes.de

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 (Beta/Preview 2) released

September 26th, 2014 No comments

Ikari has released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom). The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Full Changelog:

It addresses some issues reported with v0.1.7 preview (and some others).

  • Satellaview works again. BSX alters the original interrupt vectors at run time. The original interrupt vectors are now saved per hook call, not only once when loading the ROM.
  • In game buttons now work with MSU1, too.
  • Automatic hook method choosing: NMI is default but switched to IRQ when no NMIs are triggered. If both occur, NMI has priority. This should enable the in-game buttons for games that previously did nothing.
  • The hook routine saves some CPU time when auto joypad read is enabled by the game – it will just reuse the result instead of doing its own controller scanning. Also the controller is now only scanned every 8 frames. This helps alleviate some glitches, e.g. Secret of Mana now starts up correctly. There are still some glitches left which can’t be eliminated fully.
  • Auto region patching works again without having to delete the sd2snes.cfg.
  • BSX now emulates Type 1 memory packs instead of Type 2. Apparently the BSX BIOS is buggy with Type 2 packs when they contain HiROM games that are supposed to be run from PSRAM. So, at least Bomberman works now, and probably others too.
  • Fixed BSX PSRAM shadowing for HiROM.
  • Files and directories with “hidden” or “system” attributes are now actually hidden from the file browser.

Download: SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 Beta/Preview Rev 2 (1485)

source: sd2snes.de

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 (Beta/Preview) released

September 19th, 2014 No comments

Ikari has released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom). The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Full Changelog:

  • In-game button combinations are in effect. See the table below for the key mapping. Note that some games show glitches with the in-game functions in place. I added an additional feature to temporarily disable them in case of game glitches (e.g. Secret of Mana hangs at the Squaresoft logo, displaying only garbage). I’m not entirely happy with the button choice but it will do for now. ;)
  • LED blink codes for file system errors – e.g. in case the SRM file cannot be saved this will tell you that something’s gone wrong. The blink codes are yet to be listed.
  • Also the sd2snes will retry saving until it works so you have the chance to swap out the SD Card. In that case the directory structure must be present where the sd2snes expects to save the file.
  • “Screen saver” – in the menu, the screen is darkened after some idle time to reduce wear on CRT and plasma screens.
  • Memory sharing between SNES and the sd2snes CPU is greatly simplified (The FSM is reduced to only 5 states instead of 18) and timing is more relaxed. This should help with stability on a wider range of consoles.
  • On-the-fly file browsing. Also shows a little “loading…” window when loading directories/files.
  • Windows are now blue so they stick out better in front of yellow directory listings.
  • Cx4 data ROM is now embedded in the FPGA configuration – no more need for the external file cx4.bin.
  • Initial Satellaview clock is back to 18:00:00 from 18:05:30.
  • SD cards can be hotswapped. Currently there is no automatic refresh of the file list so tapping reset on the SNES or changing the directory is necessary to get the new contents.
  • The status line is moved upward a few pixels so hopefully it doesn’t get eaten by overscan.
  • Navigation: When scrolling page-wise with the right D-pad arrow, the end of the file list is now aligned to the bottom of the screen.
  • Navigation: The shoulder buttons can be used to jump to the beginning/end of a directory listing.
  • Bugfix: some compatibility issues with a number of games. (Super Play Action Football (S-RTC interference), GP1 Part II (WRAM initialization), Human Grand Prix (mapper detection bug))
  • Bugfix: properly initialize FPGA state machine (on some consoles the menu failed to start at all)
  • v0.1.7 final will contain menu items for various configuration settings and a cheat interface.

In-game button mappings:

  • L+R+Select+Start = Reset game
  • L+R+Select+X = Reset to sd2snes menu
  • L+R+Start+B = Disable cheats
  • L+R+Start+A = Enable cheats
  • L+R+Start+Y = Kill in-game routines (in case they interfere with game operation).
  • L+R+Start+X = Temporarily kill in-game routines (~10 seconds – if you need to get past a glitch but don’t want to lose in-game buttons)

Download: SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 Beta/Preview (1356)

source: sd2snes.de

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

C64SD V2 Infinity + ITS firmware update v0.10.3.9

July 10th, 2014 No comments
ITS TAP Module

A new version of the firmware for the interface C64SD Infinity + ITS Module by Manosoft is released.

Changelog:

  • Implemented functionality that allows to save a placeholder (unique for each .TAP file) pressing the red button on the back of the card. User can set back the read pointer at which TAP data is played back by pressing “Next” button on the card. Useful for multi load .TAP or games asking to reset the counter of the tape and then to rewind the tape that specific point.

Download: C64SD (ITS) Firmware v0.10.3.9 (1531)

source: manosoft.it

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 status update

June 25th, 2014 No comments

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.7 status update

Directly from the SD2Snes Homepage:

Here’s what I’ve been working on in the meantime:

  • More refactorings of the menu ROM. This will facilitate further UI development (sub-menus etc.)
  • NMI+IRQ hook routine – these are required for WRAM cheats and in-game reset. The latter is in working state as of now. I’d like some input on which key combinations would be desirable ;-) (some conflicts can arise with existing SNES mods, see below). There is now a dedicated memory area in FPGA block RAM mapped to $2a00-$2aff which is used for the hook routine and command exchange between a running game and the sd2snes main CPU.
  • Game loading handshake between SNES menu and sd2snes CPU – this is a technical prerequisite for error handling (such as missing supplementary files, write-protected SD Card, etc.)
  • LED blink codes for file system errors – e.g. in case the SRM file cannot be saved this will tell you that something’s gone wrong. Also the sd2snes will retry saving until it works so you have the chance to swap out the SD Card etc.
  • “Screen saver” – the screen is darkened after some idle time to reduce wear on CRT and plasma screens.
  • Memory sharing between SNES and the sd2snes CPU is greatly simplified (The FSM is reduced to only 5 states instead of 18) and timing is more relaxed. This should help with stability on a wider range of consoles.
  • Fixed some compatibility issues with a number of games. (Super Play Action Football (S-RTC interference), GP1 Part II (WRAM initialization), Human Grand Prix (mapper detection bug))

To do for the upcoming release:

  • Cheat management – technical prerequisites for cheats (ROM+WRAM) are met, now to code the GUI for it…
  • Finish on-the-fly file browsing
  • Decide on key combinations for in-game functions. (en/disable cheats, kill cheat engine, reset game, reset to menu)

About key combinations:

I wanted to use combinations that don’t interfere with my SNES IGR mod. This mod uses L+R+Select in combination with Start, A, B, X, or Y to perform different operations. In that scenario I still had the four directional buttons left to put other functions on. However :D With borti4938′s release of the feature-enriched uIGR these are now taken.

So far this is my new proposal for key combinations (UPDATED 2014-06-24):

  • L+R+Select+Start = Reset game
  • L+R+Select+X = Reset to sd2snes menu
  • L+R+Start+B = Kill in-game routines (in case they interfere with game operation).
  • L+R+Start+A = Disable cheats
  • L+R+Start+Y = Enable cheats

Updated to reflect some of your suggestions. Already looks better to me. I steered clear of L+R+Start+X because it’s similar to L+R+Select+X. ;)

source: sd2snes.de

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.6 released

March 18th, 2014 No comments

It was released a new firmware for the SD2Snes Flash Cartridge (Super Nintendo/Famicom) by Ikari. The upgrade instructions can be found here.

Changelog:

Added:

  • OBC1 support (Metal Combat: Falcon’s Revenge works)
  • Menu now displays the 10 most recently played games instead of one.
  • Hidden and system files are now ignored in the file browser.
  • Some minor internal changes for convenience of development.

Fixes:

  • Partial-size BS dumps should now load correctly.
  • Fixed a PSRAM mapping bug in the new BS-X mapping logic that caused graphical corruption on some games (notably Treasure Conflix garbled sprites)
  • SRAM mapping for LoROM
  • 0000-7fff only. Fixes saving in some games, e.g. Ys III Wanderers from Ys.

Download: SD2Snes Firmware v0.1.6 (1467)

source: sd2snes.de

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

HxC Floppy Emulator: firmware (fat) v1.8.2.40 / (slim) v2.1.2.40

October 1st, 2013 No comments

The HxC Floppy Drive Emulator is a software and hardware system created by jfdn aka Jeff.

The aim of this project is to replace the floppy disk drive by an electronic device emulating the floppy disk drive (list of supported Computer/Hardware).

There are two differents emulators:

  • A USB version which allows to connect the floppy disk drive interface of the computer to a PC via a USB cable.
  • A SDCARD version which allows to emulate floppy disks which images are stored in a SDCARD.

Changelog SD HxCFloppyEmulator v1.8.2.40 (fat) & v2.1.2.40 (slim):

  • Index signal behavior corrected while the host system attempt to format a drive without image loaded.

Download:

source: hxc2001.free.fr

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today

HxC Floppy Emulator: firmware (fat) v1.8.2.36 / (slim) v2.1.2.36

September 6th, 2013 No comments

The HxC Floppy Drive Emulator is a software and hardware system created by jfdn aka Jeff.

The aim of this project is to replace the floppy disk drive by an electronic device emulating the floppy disk drive (list of supported Computer/Hardware).

There are two differents emulators:

  • A USB version which allows to connect the floppy disk drive interface of the computer to a PC via a USB cable.
  • A SDCARD version which allows to emulate floppy disks which images are stored in a SDCARD.

Changelog SD HxCFloppyEmulator v1.8.2.36 (fat) & v2.1.2.36 (slim):

  • Write Support : Write issue with VIA VT82C686A chipset based motherboard corrected.

Download:

source: hxc2001.free.fr

Categories: Firmware, News & Rumors, Today