(4/4)
#TRS80CoCo : 42 (thank you Chip)
#Atari800 : 42 (thank you Mark Elliott)
#CBMPET : 43
#C64 : 43
#Dragon32 : 44
#SharpMZ80K : 45 (thank you Tim Holyoake)
#C16 : 46
#Altair8800 : 52
#MSX : 53 (thank you Pixel Purrito)
#C128 : 56 (default "mode")
#ZX80 : 57
#ZXSpectrum : 68 (thank you Adam)
#SharpPC1500A : 167 (thank you Karttu)
#SharpPC1245 : 405 (thank you Karttu)
#sharpmz80k — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #sharpmz80k, aggregated by home.social.
-
-
Latest #SharpMZ80K #RetroComputing post from me:
Fang, Claw and Knight’s WEE #FORTRAN - now updated with a patch for real numbers!
https://z80.timholyoake.uk/fang-claw-and-knights-wee-fortran/
-
New from me: Fang, Claw and Knight's WEE FORTRAN
https://z80.timholyoake.uk/fang-claw-and-knights-wee-fortran/
-
New from me: Calculating the date of Easter Sunday for all years from 1753 onwards ...
-
Pleasingly the #PicoMZ80K also works with the #RC2014 pico based VGA terminal with the addition of an external micro sd card reader and speaker. As I've used the ground on the expansion header for the sd card, I've borrowed a ground from the unused tx/rx pins for the speaker :)
Will be in my repo later once I've tidied the code up ...
-
Taking a break away from the Pico MZ-80K emulator over December seems to have done wonders for my debugging brain. I think I've finally managed to properly sort the keyboard handling so that the F9 kludge is no longer necessary! Testing so far is encouraging ...
-
Pico MZ-80K release 1.2.0 is now available, including support for the #RC2014 RP2040 VGA Terminal Card.
https://z80.timholyoake.uk/pico-mz-80k-and-the-rc2014-rp2040-vga-terminal-card/
-
@rc2014 Gave up with the active buzzer as I realised it was always going to produce a fixed tone. The expansion header was very useful for hooking up a passive one. All working ... I only need to update the repo and documentation now ...
-
@rc2014 It works! Thanks again for the hint.
Now *all* I need to do is tidy the code up (and break it at least twice more) so I can put it back into my repo. I also need to make the sound work properly over i2c ... It's just a monotone beep at the moment.
-
Playing around trying to get my #RaspberryPi Pico #SharpMZ80K emulator working on an #RC2014 RP2040 VGA terminal board.
Partial success as I can now read programs off the sd card and run them.
However, the buzzer isn't beeping, I can't figure out how to get it to work with a directly connected USB keyboard (perhaps I need to put it on a backplane with a UART module) and the diagnostics on version seems to corrupt the flash memory on reset. But definitely progress!
-
If anyone is thinking about playing with the Pico MZ-80K emulator, today would be a good day to purchase a Pimoroni VGA Demo Base as there's 30% off!
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pimoroni-pico-vga-demo-base?variant=32369520672851
Don't know about the Pico MZ-80K? Where have you been!!! Start here:
-
I've "temporarily" given up on emulating MZ-80K floppy disks :(
Instead, I've implemented Pico 2 support (by underclocking it by a third and adding a delay in the software!)
https://z80.timholyoake.uk/pico-mz-80k-now-with-pico-2-support/
#RaspberryPico #RaspberryPico2 #SharpMZ80K #RetroComputing
At least I've finished just in time to think about #AdventOfCode ... I'll probably pick a suitably old dialect of #Fortran this year ...
-
The quest to emulate 5 1/4" floppy disks on the Pico MZ-80K continues ...
-
Some progress implementing floppy disks for the Pico MZ-80K
-
First quick experiment to see if I can get the Pico MZ-80K to read a floppy disk. It proves I can get the FD ROM to load.
The diagnostics output shows that I need to implement the sio read/write routines for the appropriate addresses, which could take a while!
-
OK, I've got a reasonable change sorted that fixes most of the problems with keyboard handling, most of the time.
Not perfect, but it's certainly better than my original attempt, so there's now a 1.0.1 release.
Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can get Pico MZ-80K to work on a #RC2014 VGA board.
Where did I put my soldering iron??
-
I know what the problem is, I can fix it, but it breaks the 'correct' way of reading the keyboard that most programs use!
I'm now trying to find the least kludgy way of fixing both at the same time. I could implement a function key to switch between the two modes, but, yuk. Both keyboard input modes should be able to work together.
More thought and investigation needed.
-
Of course, almost as soon as I'd finalised my Pico MZ-80K 1.0.0 release I found a bug!
😩
Some (definitely not all) games written in machine code have difficulty in picking up keyboard presses.
I suspect this is because they're reading the keyboard scans directly, rather than behaving nicely and using the monitor subroutines provided for that purpose.
I think I should be able to fix this, but it may be quite tricky.
-
It's 2.45am, I can't get to sleep, so I've done something useful and written up my final reflections on this year's #RetroChallenge.
https://z80.timholyoake.uk/retrochallenge-2024-10-reflections/
-
It's escaped! Pico MZ-80K version 1.0.0 is in the wild.
-
Currently in Derby. The site around the former Duckworth Square shopping centre where my MZ-80K came from is being redeveloped, but the hole in the ground where the shopping centre was is still there, 20+ years on from demolition!
-
Anyway, onto the final stretch today. Consultation with the rubber duck has led to a couple of minor code improvements that don't seem to have broken anything so far. More tes... game playing and if I'm happy I shall put the code up in a public repository tonight.
-
There's still quite a lot I'd like to refactor and improve, but the project obeys my first law of coding - make it work, document it and *then* make it better.
But looking at the way I've abused C and the conventions around coding that have grown up in the last 30+ years since I did it for a living, I know some of it will make people wince. Some of it makes me wince!!
But does it work? Why yes, yes it does!
-
Still hacking away - this time on a "tape" counter for the emulator. If I'm going to make the 31st for a first release, I'm going to have to stop tweaking things soon!
-
Today's #RetroChallenge update is just a little bit sentimental and mushy.
-
🤯 🤯 🤯 I've let a beta version of the Pico MZ-80K emulator escape into the wild ...
https://z80.timholyoake.uk/retrochallenge-2024-10/#Oct27
Feedback welcome if you have a Pimoroni VGA base and pico available. Or you can just read the documentation and dream!
-
'tape' writing to sd card now seems ok. That's the last major component of my #SharpMZ80K emulator working.
Uh oh ... time for a code review with my nemesis ...
(can a rubber duck be a nemesis?!)
-
I've updated today's #RetroChallenge status with mad ramblings about the difficulties of implementing a write to tape routine for the #SharpMZ80K.
I think I've found a way through it in the end, but if you enjoy stream of consciousness stuff, this update is for you ;)
-
Updating the #RetroChallenge 'to do' list for the #SharpMZ80K emulator.
-
Today's #RetroChallenge updates - keyboard layout is sorted. Testing some real MZ-80K programs is going well, even if I'm rubbish at ten pin bowling.
The only major piece of functionality left to develop is 'tape' writing, but that's complex, so best left for another day.
-
Today's #RetroChallenge updates - keyboard layout rationalisation plus overclocking a #RaspberryPico to 175MHz to get a 2.1ishMHz #SharpMZ80K
-
It even plays nicely on named file loads as well!
Not a bad morning's work. #SharpMZ80K #RetroComputing #RetroChallenge
-
Happy with my compromise between authenticity and usability for tape handling. I've defined a key to let people toggle through the available tapes and then load the one selected. The tape name is displayed in the unused bottom 40 scan lines. #SharpMZ80K #RetroComputing #RetroGaming
-
Bodged stuff a little more and I can now read my 1982 port of The Valley off the sd card (well, it wouldn't be a proper #RetroChallenge for me without The Valley appearing at some point in the process ...)
-
Well - that's encouraging! Worked on the second attempt :)
-
Walk 6 completed - back to the #SharpMZ80K emulator #RetroChallenge today!
-
Spent time looking at how to implement an SD card module. Seems tricky. I could use the Pico popcorn demo approach & encode files as a single image (would make saving new programs very difficult) or try some 3rd party file system code. This looks best.
Won't be much progress on the #SharpMZ80K #RetroChallenge today as I'm going to walk the rest of the Monsal Trail for my #Lymphoma Action challenge. Details (and sponsorship link for this great charity) here: https://railwaywalks.timholyoake.uk
-
Sound is now working on the #SharpMZ80K emulator as demonstrated by the standard, but dull, "Spring Fashion in 1980" demo program. #RetroChallenge #RetroComputing #RaspberryPico
-
Experimenting with generating sound via the Pico's pwm capabilities today. Seems to work fine as a standalone test, now I need to figure out how the MZ-80K wants/needs to drive it.
Bonus - the Pico VGA board is stereo - the original MZ-80K only had a mono speaker.
-
A big effort on 8253 emulation has pared it back to the bare minimum, fixing the time going backwards issue.
Time synchronises with the pico RTC, so I don't think implementing counter 1 (clock rate generator) is needed, beyond returning from any calls to read or write to it (at address E005).
I may be able to do something similar for sound generation at E004 & E008. That will probably make implementing E007 redundant, as there are no other PIT control words used!
-
Fixed the shift key glitching issue. Implemented more key codes (just SML codes left now - lower case alpha & graphics).
I want to get cassette read to work properly, even though I can bash programs directly into memory (not satisfying for some reason).
Oh, and then getting the SD card to work. The Raspberry Pico example code doesn't work for me, which means I have a bad SD card or a bad pico demo board.
And my 8253 code is driving the MZ-80K's clock backwards!