Minimig firmware/core update

[Dennis]

I have uploaded a new Minimig core and PIC firmware to my website.
This release adds support for Amiga Forever encrypted roms.
I have also cleaned up the PIC18 code a bit and added a simple form of error posting. :-D

I have been fighting with this update a couple of months as I couldn't get 512KB encrypted roms to load. It turned out there is a nasty bug in the floppy controller (floppy.v) that causes some bytes to get missed or added to the dma stream.  :pissed:

The fault lies with the fifo management. I have not fixed this (yet) but programmed some workarounds in the PIC code.  :roll:

I think this is also the reason that a lot of games refuse to load so I have started redesigning floppy.v. This will also make it easier to add write support for floppy's...

Ah well, more work to do :-)

Dennis

[Dennis]

@Darrin,
The new core isn't any more compatible than the old one. The changes are mainly in the PIC18 firmware. But, I *think* that the bug I found in the floppy controller is largely responsible for the bad compatbility. If that is fixed, it is time to retest some games  :-)

@AlexH
Yaqube's developments are very interesting. If you want some issues to put your teeth in:
* Supposedly (as reported by tobiflex) 68000 writes to ram/chipset take too long. This causes some graphic issues in some games/demos. If that is fixed, blitter timing can be made normal/standard again (read explanation in agnus.v/blitter.v)
* The bitplane dma engine is not right yet... Can you enable /disable dma in the middle of a line on a real amiga?
* Sprite engine is not right too, probably has something todo with memory slot allocation/timing relative to copper or the logic inside Denise.v. Superfrog shows partial sprites and is a good game to do some debugging.
* Collision detection is completely broken...
* Hardfile support!

Dennis

[Dennis]

(One thing: Troddlers did load and work before with just the player sprite missing, while now it locks up with a black screen with a red horizontal line just after the Title screen and before it would go to the player options).

Hmmm, strange. The FPGA core hasn't changed afaik.
Did you update your PIC firmware too? If so, did you try some Amiga Forever roms?

Dennis