gregf |
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Haze wip update - ‘Magnet System’
#359819 - 10/22/16 02:46 PM
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Electrónica Funcional Operativa (EFOSA) Magnet System getting some preservation attention. Kudos to the folks in Spain trying to preserve an alternate hardware design system that was made and marketed in Spain and maybe Europe region.
More details by dave00's post and also the Electrónica Funcional Operativa (EFOSA) entry on UnDumped Wiki page.
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Re: Haze wip update - ‘Magnet System’
[Re: gregf]
#359821 - 10/22/16 04:42 PM
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gregf |
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Re: Haze wip update - ‘Magnet System’
[Re: Diet Go Go Fan]
#359829 - 10/22/16 11:47 PM
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>When I heard that Haze was emulating a prototype arcade system with three bad games on it,
I figured it had to be some offbeat system when noticing one of the old shoutbox comments from days earlier had mentioned diskette drive hardware (FDC) being used, but I wasn't sure what system it was.
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Re: Haze wip update - ‘Magnet System’
[Re: gregf]
#359867 - 10/24/16 12:50 AM
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I'm glad this system is finally going to be emulated. I started to document it about 2 years ago trying to learn more about this hardware, a lost chapter in spanish arcade videogames design history. I hope the games designed exclusively for this system will be found someday.
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gregf |
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Re: Haze wip update - ‘Magnet System’
[Re: dave00]
#359882 - 10/24/16 11:23 AM
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>I'm glad this system is finally going to be emulated. I started to document it about 2 >years ago trying to learn more about this hardware, a lost chapter in spanish arcade >videogames design history.
Yep. Haze and company off to a preliminary start getting the system up an running.
>I hope the games designed exclusively for this system will be found someday.
With the hardware system being preserved, it definitely increases chances of other games for the system maybe turning up later. One example would be the DECO cassette arcade system. Once that system became working in MAME, various DECO cassette tapes of various games surfaced over the many years and were eventually emulated with some modifying of the DECO cassette C++ driver file.
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Re: Haze wip update - ‘Magnet System’
[Re: gregf]
#359886 - 10/24/16 12:58 PM
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> > I'm glad this system is finally going to be emulated. I started to document it about > 2 > > years ago trying to learn more about this hardware, a lost chapter in spanish arcade > > > videogames design history. > > Yep. Haze and company off to a preliminary start getting the system up an running. > > > > I hope the games designed exclusively for this system will be found someday. > > With the hardware system being preserved, it definitely increases chances of other > games for the system maybe turning up later. One example would be the DECO cassette > arcade system. Once that system became working in MAME, various DECO cassette tapes > of various games surfaced over the many years and were eventually emulated with some > modifying of the DECO cassette C++ driver file.
I just hope somebody can step forward and sort out some of the remaining issues with the driver, especially the sound as I don't really have a good understanding of the Z80 peripherals at all, and even after looking at other drivers I've not managed to hook up the Z80 CTCs / Daisychain etc. properly.
If you ignore the CTC IRQ vector by not hooking up the daisychain you get the default interrupt vector in IM2 of 0xff (so read interrupt address from 0xff, 0x100) which seems to fire with great frequency.
That interrupt doesn't seem to do much good, apart from read what I assume is the soundlatch, code can't go anywhere useful from there (needs some bytes in ram to change)
If I hook up the Z80 and Daisychain the interrupt stops firing at all. If I force an interrupt, the Z80 CTC initially has the vector set to 0xf6, which is a valid pointer, but it then gets set to 0xf0, which just points at at 00 and as soon as another ei instruction is hit a new interrupt with the invalid vector is immediately fired for reasons I don't understand (all code is in RAM, so I guess that vector could change)
Unfortunately I'm not full of hope, I had similar issues with a Z80 and Z80CTC peripherals when trying to hook up the MegaPhoenix sound, and even asked for help that time, and to date (several years later) nobody has looked to my knowledge.
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Re: Haze wip update - ‘Magnet System’
[Re: Haze]
#360066 - 10/29/16 01:49 AM
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Unfortunately even the designers aren't aware of. One of the answers they give me time ago was that Magnet system is based on the same hardware of their Cedar Computer (Also the games were written using these computers).
About Magnet System being marked as 'prototype' in MAME, while I can't confirm if the three games emulated now were released, but the system itself was in fact released.
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Stiletto![Administrator Administrator](//www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/images/adm.gif) |
They're always after me Lucky ROMS!
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Re: Haze wip update - ‘Magnet System’
[Re: dave00]
#360069 - 10/29/16 03:04 AM
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> Unfortunately even the designers aren't aware of. One of the answers they give me > time ago was that Magnet system is based on the same hardware of their Cedar Computer > (Also the games were written using these computers). > > About Magnet System being marked as 'prototype' in MAME, while I can't confirm if the > three games emulated now were released, but the system itself was in fact released.
Cool stuff, dave00, keep up the good work. ![](//www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif)
- Stiletto
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