ti99sim disks?

bkumanchik

I'm running ti99sim in Retropie on my Raspberry Pi 3B+ It's working great with the cartridges, etc.

I would like to be able to save BASIC programs to a disk (file) is it possible, I've seen this thread on AtariAge but havent been able to get it to work myself.

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/306583-can-i-save-basic-programs-through-an-emulator/

Thanks in advance for any help,

Brian

Folly

@bkumanchik

Your link is all about using mame.
If you want to use/try mame / lr-mess then use my project :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-lr-mame-and-mame-standalone

For ti99sim you have to read these pages :
https://mrousseau.org/programs/ti99sim/
https://github.com/billzajac/ti99sim

It describes that it's possible to save programs on HFE disk images and that you need a disk rom present.
You can use the disk utility that comes with the emulator to make blank disk files or to add/remove files from disk images. It even can convert disk images.

Description about disk support :

Disk Support

Emulation of the floppy disk controller (currently limited to SSSD and DSSD images).
Complete read/write support for floppy disks. NOTE: Requires a TI disk controller ROM dump.
Supports disk images created by AnaDisk, v9t9, PC99, HFE, and CF7+.
The disk utility can convert between formats, add, remove, and extract files.

Use the CLI/terminal for the disk utility :
(disk -h outputs the help on how to use the utility)

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cd /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ti99/
pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/roms/ti99 $ /opt/retropie/emulators/ti99sim/disk -h
(use something like this to create a blank disk (blankdisk is the filename)
pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/roms/ti99 $ /opt/retropie/emulators/ti99sim/disk --create=SSSD --force=HFE blankdisk

Note : I never tried what you are trying but above info looks promising for you.

Folly

@bkumanchik

I have ti99sim up and running now and tried to save a simple basic file to the blankdisk.ssd without joy.

I found that script file for running ti99sim is not directly suited for loading disks from retropie because the rom variable is inserted when using it from emulationstation.
So using it in this perspective needs patching or creating an other loader-script for loading disk files or something like that.

From the CLI however it probably can work because all arguments/options are pushed through when using the script like this :

pi@raspberrypi:~/RetroPie/roms/ti99/disks $ /opt/retropie/emulators/ti99sim/ti99sim.sh --dsk1=blankdisk.ssdd

On this page I found the info for above command :
https://github.com/billzajac/ti99sim
I read this command :

ti99sim-sdl --dsk1=MG_DIAG "TI Extended BASIC.ctg"

It shows that loading a disk file needs the "TI Extended BASIC" rom, more info over here :
https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/computing/msx/XB_Man_linked.pdf

So we need to look for this ctg in order to get it working.
(or covert exbasic or superxb bin files to ctg format)

Folly

@bkumanchik

I checked my script if I implemented ti99/4a with disk support for MAME / lr-mess.
And indeed, basically it works the same there.
There are already lines that will install ti994a with speech + disk support using superxb (super extended basic).
(already implemented in the past)

This is installable from :
Choose and install systems with >EXTRA< settings > Submenu
v
Systems: with extra options
v
TI-99/4A(32Kb) + speech + superxb + flop1-525dd(or 35dd)

bkumanchik

@Folly

Hey, thanks for all the help, If I get it working, I'll let you know.

Brian

Folly

@bkumanchik

Got it working with mame though it seems quite complicated.

In mame I choose to load a disk image that already contained something.
(otherwise mame will not boot, I used 525dd)
Then using "tab" in the mame UI you can create a disk.
I needed to load it again and use the "disk manager" cart to initialise(format) the disk.
Then restarted with "superxb" and created a simple basic file :
(use mame uI to flip keyboard input between emulated/natural, you see why when typing)

10 print"hello"

Saving it with (only uppercase worked) :

SAVE DSK1.LOAD

Using the filename LOAD makes the program autoload on a fresh boot.

So converting this to the approach for ti99sim.
You need to find a ctg cart that can format the disk and you need to find an extended basic cart.
I have xb25.ctg (extended basic 2.5) that loads.
I also have sxba.ctg (super extended basic) but doesn't work.
So xb25.ctg can be found in the regular cart files so probably the best to use.
no disk manager ctg found yet.

bkumanchik

@Folly

Which version of MAME are you using?

Folly

@bkumanchik

mame standalone 0.255

Btw. I found a working sxba.ctg and a diskman2.ctg and some potentially missing BIOS files like ti-disk.ctg for disk support.
(search for ti99sim12.zip on atariage)

Almost there but initialising a disk and saving to a disk still not working in ti99sim.
Not having any luck too with loading disks with content, very strange ;-(

Issues could be :

emulator is broken
ti-disk.ctg BIOS file isn't good
wrong/unsupported disk image format

Here are the sha1sums of the files I have used until now :
TI99sim BIOS and carts for disk support

bkumanchik

@Folly

Thanks again for the help!

Brian