Doesn't work on real hardware.

[fvdhoef]

Real hardware (or emulator with SD card attached) only supports filenames with 8.3. So the release files can't be loaded.

[SlithyMatt]

Try release v0.5.1. That keeps all filenames within 8+3. I'm keeping this issue open until I get confirmation of the game working on actual hardware. Very exciting!

[fvdhoef]

Sadly, it still doesn't work on real hardware. The main PRG file loads, after that there is a long black screen (probably loading the title screen), after that it returns to BASIC. I also tried putting the files on an SD card image attached to the emulator and it does work there. Also quite long a black screen and then the game runs fine. This means there are still differences between the emulator and real hardware, which must be fixed.

[SlithyMatt]

It goes back to BASIC on its own? Is there any way to do a RAM dump?

[SlithyMatt]

I'm also creating another issue for load time feedback and have an SD card image be part of the next release. This should help us figure out where it's failing.

[fvdhoef]

I suspect it runs against a BRK somewhere, which will result in a return to BASIC. The current kernel ROM doesn't support saving to SD card yet, so it will be difficult to do a RAM dump. It could well be the case that loading the files works just fine, but it crashes on something else. My hardware setup doesn't have any joystick ports, no YM chip, the timing of the peripherals is probably different from the emulator, so lots of places things can go wrong. It could be something simple like not disabling the interrupts while setting the kernal interrupt vector.

[SlithyMatt]

Sounds just as likely to be in the Kernal as in my code, since I'm doing all these hardware requests. I can surround my interrupt vector change with sei/cli. That is one of the first things I do after loading all the files.

[fvdhoef]

Hi Matt, I tested your latest commit with the loading screen. The loading screen itself works, but it fails after a few files. I highly suspect the problem being in the FAT32 and SD card handling code in the ROM as directory listings in BASIC also only work about 75% of the time. There is also a problem in the FAT32 implementation where it isn't showing all the files that are present on the card. I think it is best to wait further fixes (if needed) until the ROM has been fixed.

[SlithyMatt]

Thanks for trying it, Frank! I posted an issue regarding the apparent 10-file limit for FAT32 on the emulator repo yesterday. I am going to try consolidating some of the files to see if I can at least get it to work on the emulator. But I will hold off on releases until the issue is fixed.

[fvdhoef]

Hi Matt, your game is finally working on real hardware! Check my latest Facebook post for a video. The problem was in the FAT code and was fixed by some patches submitted by theelkmechanic (Mike Ketchen).

[SlithyMatt]

Great to hear and now see! I will close this issue once those ROM fixes are included in a release build and put out new beta release of Chase Vault.