CoCoSDC and DragonMMC memory problems.

[zephyr]

You're welcome!

I haven't given up on this one, yet. I'll be working hard again today, trying to solve this problem.

[zephyr]

This test version of the game now disables the IRQ every time it reads the keyboard. This idea has (as expected) resulted in the gameplay being slowed down slightly. But if this idea fixes the problem, we can deal with that later.

[pser1]

Hi Robert,
excuse me if the answer is in previous messages, but I suddenly remembered that using a CoCo-SDC tied directly to the Dragon expansion connector
used to create random problems because the lines (data, address and control) are not connected to +5V as the CoCos have by default.
John Whitworth built a small module that can be put in the CPU socket adding some resistors, so solving that problem.
We discover that when he first created/replicated the module 'oojamaflip' that first came without resistors. Once we added them, it all worked flawlessly, so last version has resistors included.
If you already have those resistors, I am sorry for bugging you with such a (late) answer!
Otherwise, I hope this will help working around the problem
cheers!

[robcfg]

Hi Pere!

I thought of that too, but my 64 is equipped with the resistors on the CPU socket and it also happens with the DragonMMC.

Salva and I are testing different 'sensitivity' values for the joystick readings, and I need to test Zephyr's latest test files too.

Thanks for your kind help!

[robcfg]

Turns out that once we solved the binary header issue (which I'll try to detect and use in my program), the problem with the joystick control seems to be our assumption that if the joysticks are not connected, we'd get a 'neutral' value on the joystick readings, but there's at least one that is set to the maximum 63 value, thus looks like it's being moved to one direction.

Is that something that happens on all machines?

I did this small program to check the joystick values from Basic:

Code: Select all

10 CLS
20 PRINT@0,"RX:";:PRINT(JOYSTK(0));:PRINT("  ")
30 PRINT@32,"RY:";:PRINT(JOYSTK(1));:PRINT("  ")
40 PRINT@64,"RF:";:PRINT(PEEK(&HFF00) AND 1)
50 PRINT@96,"LX:";:PRINT(JOYSTK(2));:PRINT("  ");
60 PRINT@128,"LY:";:PRINT(JOYSTK(3));:PRINT("  ")
70 PRINT@160,"LF:";:PRINT(PEEK(&HFF00) AND 2)
100 GOTO 20

Could some of you test that on your machines without any joystick connected and post the values here?

Thanks!

[clwydog]

Hi Rob
Don't know if this is still helpful to you but here's my values
RX=63, RY=51, RF=1, LX=31, LY=34, LF=2

Dave

[robcfg]

Thanks, Dave!

At first glance, I'd say you ran the program with a Joystick in the left port, is that correct?

Cheers!

[clwydog]

No joysticks present at time of test!?

sorry if this is not what you want to see

Dave