Overview Features Coding ApolloOS Performance Forum Downloads Products Order Contact

Welcome to the Apollo Forum

This forum is for people interested in the APOLLO CPU.
Please read the forum usage manual.
Please visit our Apollo-Discord Server for support.



All TopicsNewsPerformanceGamesDemosApolloVampireAROSWorkbenchATARIReleases
Documentation about the Vampire hardware

The Vampire MapRom

Pedro Cotter
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 308
26 Mar 2018 17:14



The Vampire MapRom - Transforming the Vampire into a Amiga 1000 - EXTERNAL LINK 
The Vampire MapRom - Mapping Amiga KickStart Roms - EXTERNAL LINK


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
26 Mar 2018 17:42


Its nice to see we can travel in time :-)
 
  With Atari ROM and EmuTOS we could travel to other machines.
 
  If v4 FPGA space allows it, native support for MacOS too would be great as well as for Atari (even Falcon) banging chipset.
 
  Kind of "3 in 1" (or more) 68k machine with SAGA flavour :-)


Simo Koivukoski
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 601
27 Mar 2018 05:15


Early tests with MapROM: EXTERNAL LINK


Eric Gus

Posts 477
27 Mar 2018 07:35


Now we just need some vcontrol options to set chip ram/fast ram limits !

Why?

some older classic software really doesnt like more than say 512kb chip and no fast ram.. etc..


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
27 Mar 2018 08:32


eric gus wrote:

  some older classic software really doesnt like more than say 512kb chip and no fast ram.. etc..
 

 
The 512KB slowmem (Ranger Mem) expansion was VERY common.
So its well supported by any AMIGA OS version and all software.

In fact old AMIGA OS version like OS 1.2 will not see memory expansions outside of the 24bit address space.
Therefore the Big amunt Fastmem of the VAMP will not be detected by them automatically.

But the 512 KB Rangermem expansion which is part of the VAMP will be seen and used. Therefore if you switch back to Kick 1.1 / 1.2 etc you will run with 512 KB fastmem.
This is very good for games.
Of course the complete amount of Fastmem can be enabled e.g. on 1.2 WB.


Eric Gus

Posts 477
28 Mar 2018 05:18


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

eric gus wrote:

  some older classic software really doesnt like more than say 512kb chip and no fast ram.. etc..
 

 
  The 512KB slowmem (Ranger Mem) expansion was VERY common.
  So its well supported by any AMIGA OS version and all software.
 
  In fact old AMIGA OS version like OS 1.2 will not see memory expansions outside of the 24bit address space.
  Therefore the Big amunt Fastmem of the VAMP will not be detected by them automatically.
 
  But the 512 KB Rangermem expansion which is part of the VAMP will be seen and used. Therefore if you switch back to Kick 1.1 / 1.2 etc you will run with 512 KB fastmem.
  This is very good for games.
  Of course the complete amount of Fastmem can be enabled e.g. on 1.2 WB.

Ok, thats good to know.. but what about chip ram?

Perhaps more so with Core3.0 .. this might be more relevant then.. but it would be nice to have some control with the maprom as to how much chip/fast-etc ram the system is using..


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6207
28 Mar 2018 07:37


eric gus wrote:

Ok, thats good to know.. but what about chip ram?

I'm not aware that of a program having a problem with more chipmem.
Can you name one?


Eric Gus

Posts 477
28 Mar 2018 08:41


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

eric gus wrote:

  Ok, thats good to know.. but what about chip ram?
 

  I'm not aware that of a program having a problem with more chipmem.
  Can you name one?

Electronic Arts "Instant Music" .. It prefers KickStart 1.2 .. though it will work with KS1.3..

Give it a go.. and let me know how you make out..


Chris T.

Posts 136
31 Jul 2019 22:18


Does anybody Can confirm that Maprom function with latest core and latest cofin Works? I Can only get kick 1.1 running. All others crash...


Sean Sk

Posts 488
01 Aug 2019 06:10


Chris T. wrote:
  Does anybody Can confirm that Maprom function with latest core and latest cofin Works? I Can only get kick 1.1 running. All others crash...

 
I can confirm the crash. Tried to MapROM Kickstart 1.3 and it just crashed. Perhaps post your problem in the GOLD 2.12 thread to keep all bug reports together.

EDIT: Actually I fixed the crash by disabling cache in early startup menu, booting into workbench and then maprom'd Kickstart 1.3. You could also try going into turtle mode by typing "vcontrol tu 1". I haven't tried this yet with maprom as I'm not in fron of the computer at the moment.


Chris T.

Posts 136
01 Aug 2019 09:03


Ok, thanks. How can disable Cache in early Startup? In user Startup?


Sean Sk

Posts 488
01 Aug 2019 09:26


When switching on your Amiga, or when rebooting, hold down both left and right mouse buttons. A menu screen will pop up called "Amiga Early Startup Control. Select "Boot Options" and then tick "Disable CPU Caches". Press "Use" which will take you back to the main menu and then select "Boot".
   
By doing that, you put the Vampire into turtle mode and will stay like that until you next reboot or power cycle your Amiga. The only exception to that is when the Amiga reboots immediately after you MapROM a kickstart, the computer will still stay in turtle mode.
 
Alternatively, an easier method is to just type in commandline: "vcontrol tu 1 mr (path to kickstart)", with "tu 1" being the option that enables turtle mode. I can confirm that Kickstart 1.3 also works with this method.
 


Chris T.

Posts 136
01 Aug 2019 15:21


Many thanks, however the machine still crashes.This happens with Core 2.11 as well with 2.12. Before that I have not tried. What Kind of kickroms work? I have tried many. Only the kick 1.1 seems to work...


Pedro Cotter
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 308
01 Aug 2019 19:27


What Vampire are you using Chris?
V500?


Chris T.

Posts 136
01 Aug 2019 21:23


I have the V500 V2+, but I had to do some fixes. But with that it ran very stable with Core 2.11 x 11. Now the same, but still no maprom function as it crashes with a yellow screen. Is it maybe related to the chipmen 1mb mod? I use the Boobip.com platine?


Pedro Cotter
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 308
02 Aug 2019 08:00


worth the try to test without the Boobip.
Also do a Mem test with MBRtest first?


Chris T.

Posts 136
02 Aug 2019 14:59


Yes, indeed. The ram expansion and chip mod was the problem. I switched now to my other A500+ Board and it runs well to implement any kickstart image without crashes. Great! But still room for improvements as some games still do not boot: I tested so far with negative results: FATE Gates of Dawn, Back to the future II, SWIV (all original disks). Bug Bomber as ADF Version works with kick 1.3. By the others I will get GURUs...

posts 17