[CSDb] - User Forums - Release id #197710 : Transwarp v0.64

You are not logged in - nap

CSDb User Forums

Forums > CSDb Entries > Release id #197710 : Transwarp v0.64

2020-11-22 17:12

Krill

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2982

Release id #197710 : Transwarp v0.64

General Q&A thread, also report problems and error logs here.

... 162 posts hidden. Click here to view all posts....

2021-08-16 22:17

Krill

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2982

Quoting Zaphod

hmm. it's 2 bits but also allows for run/stop. If that's sacrificed you can probably get a bit faster.

No need to sacrifice checking the stop key, really. The check takes just a few cycles, and it's sufficient to do that between incoming blocks rather than between bytes.

Quoting Zaphod

but it's on par with state of the art irq loading.

Which hints at some optimisation potential. =)

Quoting Zaphod

With screen off it really should be possible to do better than 25x, though...

Remains to be seen. Probably needs a few tricks beyond more efficient bus transfers.

2021-09-13 20:59

Zaphod

Registered: Jun 2012
Posts: 63

Any progress?

Btw, awesome version number (laugh)

Is there room to add transwarp to koronis rift NTSC version?

It would be nice to have a version that fastcopies and loads fast. :)

2021-09-13 21:09

Krill

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2982

Quoting Zaphod

Any progress?

Progress with what, exactly? =)

Quoting Zaphod

Is there room to add transwarp to koronis rift NTSC version?

Dunno. Do you have an image of the original that i could have a look at? But if the game loads data during gameplay, pretty likely there's not enough free space.

2021-09-17 21:14

Zaphod

Registered: Jun 2012
Posts: 63

I do have an original.

there are some actual free sectors to work with.

the following sectors are actually confirmed free. (filled with 4b 01 repeating)

2,14 to 2,20
3,20
4,0 to 4,20 (all of track 4)
5,5 to 5,20
18,7 18,8 18,10 18,11 18,13 18,14 18,16 18,17
31,8 to 31,16
35,6 to 35,16

The main program is tracks 7 to part of 17, and is 217 vorpal blocks as near as I can tell. the rest of track 17 is normal dos data. 233-234 transwarp blocks. the completely free track 4 would make up for it if we moved it to start there, and moved the remaining 3 blocks to the end of track 31, assuming a transwarp file can start in the middle of a track.

The lu logo intro is tracks 19 through 22, , and is 69 vorpal blocks as near as I can tell, with the rest of track 22 as normal data. This would be 74-75 transwarp blocks, and you should be able to move the final 12 blocks to the end of track 5.

the lu logo intro might be compressible. the main program will be hard to compress.

others may get freed with the vorpal loader getting replaced, with the protection check patched out, and by compressing some of the vorpal data after conversion to transwarp.

http://eunich.cochems.com/~zaphod/Koronis%20Rift.g64

NTSC version.

The existing non vorpal data will be challenging to relocate. the PAL version is in files, but it doesn't irq load, which breaks immersion.

Ballblazer (also NTSC) would be a much easier conversion, as it doesn't nearly fill the disk, and it's a single load. want it too?

2021-09-17 23:23

Krill

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2982

I have found some images of Koronis Rift originals over at The Internet Archive.

But the problem is not with available disk space (can always have some ever-so-slight compression to get it to just below the threshold), but enough space in RAM for the resident loader portion.

And as for Koronis Rift itself, it wants an IRQ loader, as you have pointed out here already. =)

2021-09-18 02:51

Zaphod

Registered: Jun 2012
Posts: 63

It doesn't need to remain resident after the main program loads.

and it doesn't need to hook kernal.

load stub. stub loads transwarp. transwarp loads logo intro, plays it, then relocates to somewhere it can fit while loading the now compressed main program. decompress, clobbering transwarp.

the vorpal loader is the same. it's not used after main program loads. it hides between $400 and $800, and loads both the intro and the main program from there. the main program clobbers it after. so transwarp can hide there too while loading the main program.

the irq loader that's used after reads standard sectors, so as long as they are in the right place, we are good.

ballblazer is a much easier one, vorpal in high memory there.

ahh the main program loads clear up to $d370. Which is why they used the $400 variant of vorpal but i think it still might be possible to relocate some of the code to the area between $400 and $800 to pull it off?

okay, figured it out. main program CAN be compressed enough to get it to load below transwarp. AR 5 was able to get it down to 193 blocks*254 bytes per block+2048, which loads up to C77E, which won;t clobber transwarp until after it's started, which is fine, cuz it's no longer needed.

Want the 193 block exe that starts the main game?

2021-09-18 05:34

Krill

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2982

Sounds like back to booter business, so you'd just find a crack with IRQ-loading of game data intact and just save the main program in Transwarp format.

2021-09-18 05:37

Zaphod

Registered: Jun 2012
Posts: 63

main program in transwarp. intro ALSO in transwarp. looks like there is enough space on the disk fo rit with some compression.

2021-09-18 12:04

Krill

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2982

Disk space doesn't seem to be an issue at all, and the (partial) compression on the main program would be just to make it end below $d000.

Couldn't find a proper crack that has IRQ-loading of game data on plain files via directory (the cracks with IRQ-loading still use the same track/sector-based loader), and the music in those cracks (based on the original NTSC release, not the rather bad European Activision release without IRQ-loading) plays at the wrong speed on PAL.

No plans to make a proper crack myself.

2021-09-18 20:18

Zaphod

Registered: Jun 2012
Posts: 63

The problem is there's no room for a file based irq loader.

Other crackers better than me have tried.

if you do irq load, you have to use the T/S loader.

Hence me wanting to make the NTSC release work.

plan is as follows.

1) rip lucsfilm logo from PAL Ballblazer, RLE pack and link it with the following basic program, and call it "KORONIS RIFT"

0 SYS 16384:POKE 53265,11:REM BLANK SCREEN
1 POKE54272,0:POKE54273,0:POKE54279,0:POKE54280,0:POKE54286,0:POKE4287,0:REM SILENCE SID
2 LOAD"COPYRIGHT 1985",8

2) save off and pack main program to get it under $d000, and name it "COPYRIGHT 1985"
3) transwarp encode them.
4) save main on tracks 4,7-16. save packed logo on 19-21, stuff transwarp in free sectors elsewhere.

done. I have the two programs ready.