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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Colour Maximite 2 (CMM2) V7.00.00 release candidates
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Mixtel90 Guru  Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9328 |
So you want a "Save As" function? Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 12172 |
9 November 2026. Compared with 7.00.00RC3, the last version released. The full notes, from 5.07.02, are in Release_Notes_7.00.00.md. https://github.com/UKTailwind/CMM2V1.5/releases/tag/v7.00.00RC4 This is the fifth release candidate of MMBasic 7.00 for the Colour Maximite 2. Unless problems are found in it, it will become 7.00.00. Please report problems on the Back Shed forum. It adds an Atari 8-bit emulator to the programs, lets a program set OPTION PICOMITE for itself alone, gives programs a gamepad's right stick and analogue triggers, and accepts the USB serial bridge on a Generation 1 (the Microbridge). The same firmware file runs on both the Generation 1 and the Generation 2. Before you update Writing the firmware erases the options. Save them first, and load them again afterwards: OPTION DISK SAVE "A:/myoptions" Then write the firmware, and: OPTION DISK LOAD "A:/myoptions" The console runs at 115200 baud until the options are loaded. The library, the variables saved with VAR SAVE and the files on the SD card are kept. Copy the new CMM2_Programs_7.00.00RC4.zip to the card as well: atari800 is new, and the c64 folder was added to RC3's zip on 8 November. What is new • An Atari 8-bit emulator. atari800 7.2.1, the Atari800 development team's emulator, in the folder atari800: the Atari 400 and 800, the XL and XE computers and the 5200 console, at the Atari's own speed in MODE 7, with its own menus (F1) for disks, cartridges, tapes and the machine. AltirraOS and Altirra BASIC, Avery Lee's free replacements for Atari's ROMs, are built in, so it needs nothing else; Atari's own ROMs are used if you put them in its folder. USB gamepads are its joysticks, with a single pad's right stick as the second joystick for twin-stick games, and the mouse can be paddles, an ST or Amiga mouse, a trak-ball, a light pen or a Koala pad. The keys follow OPTION USBKEYBOARD. The App User Guide has a chapter on it. CHDIR "A:/atari800" RUN "atari800.app" • The Commodore 64 emulator, added to RC3's zip on 8 November, is in this zip too: frank-c64, a PAL C64 with its 1541 disk drive, in the folder c64. • zeptoforth 1.17.2, Travis Bemann's release of 9 November, in place of the development version in RC3's zip: its fixed-point exp and expm1 are more accurate, and its own fix for the cursor on leaving zeptoed replaces ours. Its saved Forth systems are new, so copy the whole zeptoforth folder. • OPTION PICOMITE in a program is for that program. At the command prompt the option is saved, as before. Run in a program it now works, where it gave the error "Invalid in a program", and lasts until the program ends: the display changes at once to the PicoMite's MODE 1 (or, with NONE, to the Colour Maximite 2's mode), and when the program ends, with END, an error or Ctrl-C, the saved setting is in force again. So a PicoMite program can start with OPTION PICOMITE HDMI and run the same whether or not the option is saved. It is not saved even if the program saves other options, and OPTION LIST shows the saved setting. • EDIT's mark mode: End pressed twice (or Ctrl-K twice) marks to the end of the program, as it moves there in edit mode. End once still marks to the end of the line. • For programmers: version 16 of the services adds gamepad_axes, which gives a pad's right stick and its analogue L2 and R2 as well as the buttons and the left stick. atari800 uses it for twin-stick games, and works without it on older firmware. Fixed since 7.00.00RC3 • The Generation 1's USB serial bridge (the Microbridge, a programmed PIC) was not accepted as a USB serial device by another Colour Maximite 2: it refuses the request that sets DTR and RTS, and OPEN gave the error "did not accept DTR/RTS". A device that refuses it is now opened without it. An attempt that had failed also left the USB host's set-up unfinished. • EDIT's mark mode drew the top line over the status line after a scroll that left the start of the selection above the screen, and the status line gave the line below the cursor after a scroll. • atari800 (in the zip, not the firmware): any use of a tape crashed the emulated Atari under AltirraOS. atari800 patches the operating system's tape routine at a fixed address, which was wrong for the AltirraOS it ships with; this release's atari800 has it corrected. What behaves differently • OPTION PICOMITE is accepted in a program (it gave "Invalid in a program"). • MM.VER is 7.000054 for RC4. A release will count as 99 in the last two digits, so 7.00.00 will be 7.000099, above every beta and release candidate of the same version. The programs tested On a Generation 2 unless it says otherwise: • atari800: Altirra's own test suite for emulators, Acid800, gives the same result on the Colour Maximite 2 as atari800 on a PC, test for test. BASIC with Altirra's ROMs and with Atari's; a program (.xex), a disk image (.atr), an 8K cartridge (.car) and a 5200 cartridge (Acid5200); a tape saved with CSAVE and loaded back with CLOAD; boot tapes, fast and at real speed. Two USB gamepads, one pad's two sticks in a twin-stick game, and the mouse as paddles. Sound, the keyboard and the menus. • zeptoforth 1.17.2: its 108 double-precision checks, the solar eclipse program's output identical to MMBasic's byte for byte, and the checks of its Colour Maximite 2 words (files, graphics, the documentation and a stress test), all passed. • OPTION PICOMITE set in a program, with the option saved and not saved: MM.DEVICE$ during and after, and OPTION LIST. • gamepad_axes with a DualShock 3 and a DualShock 4. • A Generation 1's Microbridge on a Generation 2's USB socket, with the VT100 terminal at 115200 baud. Known problems • atari800: with its SIO patch off (tapes at real speed), a tape that has a program file after its boot loader stops with a checksum error under AltirraOS; with Atari's own XL operating system it loads. With the SIO patch on, as it starts, both load at once. • The MCP2221A USB to serial bridge (used on some Generation 1 boards) loses characters above 57600 baud on a USB socket, as it has no flow control. The manual says so. The known problems of 7.00.00RC3 remain. The manual The User Manual describes OPTION PICOMITE in a program, and mark mode's End End. Colour_Maximite_2_Loadable_Programs.pdf adds services version 16, and Colour_Maximite_2_App_User_Guide.pdf the Commodore 64 and Atari emulators. Licences atari800 is under the GNU GPL version 2 or later. AltirraOS and Altirra BASIC, built into it, are copyright Avery Lee and may be copied and passed on with their notice. frank-c64 and Frodo are under the GNU GPL version 2 or later, and the C64's ROMs built into it are Commodore's. The licences folder of the zip has them, and its README lists every program's licence. Edited 2026-11-09 22:19 by matherp |
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vegipete Guru Joined: 29/01/2013 Location: CanadaPosts: 1193 |
If you are taking requests, (;-) could you consider the Apple ][, perhaps as done with Applewin on Github? Visit Vegipete's *Mite Library for cool programs. |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 12172 |
If I do apple it would be the apple IIe. It that useful |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 1185 |
...no option for Apple][ without e??? Frank |
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| hhtg1968 Guru Joined: 25/05/2023 Location: GermanyPosts: 317 |
apple IIe would be cool. I have one. |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9328 |
Why that version, Frank? Naaah.... IIGS. ;) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 1185 |
I had an Apple][ Europlus clone in the early '80s. Frank |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9328 |
Ah, I see. Wouldn't you have liked lower case though? ;) . Edited 2026-11-10 04:45 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 1185 |
It was a Clone - I had lowercase letters. I think I could even execute entire commands by pressing a single key... Frank |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 1185 |
A TRS-80 emulator would be a dream come true. I've been looking for one for a long time... Frank |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9328 |
I have a Model 1 Level 2 c/w (60Hz so it wobbles) monitor and expansion interface in the shed. Shall I pop it in the post? ;) I used to use it with 2 floppies and LDOS. I'd rather use an emulator TBH. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 1185 |
Oh yeah, please!!!  Frank |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9328 |
I'll drain the water out of it then and see if I have a matchbox big enough. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 12172 |
10 November 2026. Compared with 7.00.00RC4, the last version released. The full notes, from 5.07.02, are in Release_Notes_7.00.00.md. https://github.com/UKTailwind/CMM2V1.5/releases/tag/v7.00.00RC5 This is the sixth release candidate of MMBasic 7.00 for the Colour Maximite 2. Unless problems are found in it, it will become 7.00.00. Please report problems on the Back Shed forum. It adds two emulators to the programs, an Amiga 500 and an Apple //e. For the Amiga, the firmware gives loadable programs their sound by DMA, a copy without the cache's write-back, and the fast internal memory. MODE 8 now runs at 60Hz. The same firmware file runs on both the Generation 1 and the Generation 2. Before you update Writing the firmware erases the options. Save them first, and load them again afterwards: OPTION DISK SAVE "A:/myoptions" Then write the firmware, and: OPTION DISK LOAD "A:/myoptions" The console runs at 115200 baud until the options are loaded. The library, the variables saved with VAR SAVE and the files on the SD card are kept. Copy the new CMM2_Programs_7.00.00RC5.zip to the card as well: the amiga and apple2 folders are new. What is new • An Amiga 500 emulator (Generation 2), in the folder amiga: pico-amiga, drewpo28's emulator for the RP2350, with Karl Stenerud's Musashi 68000. It is an Amiga 500 with 1MB of memory and its original chipset, a PAL Amiga at its own 50 frames a second in 720 x 576, with its sound; -ntsc gives an NTSC Amiga at 60 frames a second in 640 x 480. The mouse is the Amiga's mouse and USB gamepads its joysticks. F11 brings up a menu of the disks on the card at any time, to boot one, to put it in the drive when a game asks for its next disk, or to put it in DF1, the second drive; it makes blank disks too. What the Amiga writes to a disk goes into its .adf file on the card, as onto a real disk, so saved games and your own work last; a read-only file, or -wp, is a write-protected disk. Ctrl+Alt+Del resets the Amiga. The heaviest demos tried keep up, with the sound on. It needs a Kickstart ROM and disk images of your own: Kickstart is still copyright and does not come with it. If you have no Amiga of your own to take them from, Cloanto's Amiga Forever (www.amigaforever.com) is the legal way to get them, and costs little: its Value Edition has Kickstart 1.3, the Workbench 1.3 disk and over 50 games and demos. Copy Shared\rom\amiga-os-130.rom from its Amiga Files folder to A:/amiga, keeping its name, and the .adf disk images you want, then choose a disk from the menu: CHDIR "A:/amiga" RUN "amiga.app" The App User Guide has a chapter on it, with how to take Amiga Forever's games and demos out of their .rp9 files. • An Apple //e emulator, in the folder apple2: frank-apple, rh1tech's port of Michel Pollet's MII. An enhanced Apple //e with 128K, an 80-column card, two Disk II drives and two hard disks, at the Apple's 60 frames a second in MODE 8, with its screen at full resolution. The Apple's ROMs are built in. The App User Guide has a chapter on it. • MODE 8 is 640 x 480 at 60Hz, the standard VGA timing, where it was 75Hz. Its GETSCANLINE counts to 524. The other modes are unchanged. • For programmers: ◦ Version 17 of the services: video_mode and video_scaled take depth 12, a screen of 4,096 colours as ARGB4444 on one layer, each pixel 0x0RGB as an Amiga's colour registers hold them. ◦ Version 18: dma2d_copy_nc, a DMA2D copy that does not write its source back from the cache first, for a second copy of the same rows. ◦ The sound stream (audio_start) now goes to the DACs by DMA, with no interrupt for each sample: in the Amiga emulator the sound's cost fell from 0.75ms a frame to 0.15. Programs need no change. ◦ build.py's new options --axi and --itcm put a program's hottest code and data in the processor's AXI RAM and in the ITCM above the firmware's code (0xA000 to 0xFFFF), on a Generation 2. The firmware keeps that ITCM free from this version on. What behaves differently • MODE 8 runs at 60Hz, not 75Hz. A program that times itself by the frame (with the frame interrupt of MODE, or GETSCANLINE) runs at 60 frames a second in MODE 8. • MM.VER is 7.000055 for RC5. The programs tested On a Generation 2 unless it says otherwise: • amiga: ◦ Mental Hangover (Scoopex) and Arte (Sanity), the heaviest demos tried, at 50 frames a second all through with the sound on. ◦ The Workbench 1.3 desktop with the mouse and keyboard. ◦ Games from Amiga Forever, each for a minute: Arkanoid, Aunt Arctic Adventure, Blasteroids, Datastorm, Exile, Gotcha, Lethal Xcess, Obsession Pinball, Pac-Mania, Rage, Statix, Toobin and Zoom! load and run at 50 frames a second. X-Balls and Logic load slowly through AmigaDOS, and had not finished in that minute. Tie Break shows only a black screen (not looked into yet). ◦ Demos: 242 (Virtual Dreams and Fairlight) at 50 frames a second; D.O.S. (Andromeda) falls just short in a few places, at worst 21.9ms for a 20ms frame. ◦ The keyboard, the mouse and a gamepad by hand, in Workbench and in games, and the disk menu. ◦ AmigaBASIC, from a Workbench 1.3 Extras disk in DF1, running its Demo program. ◦ Saving: a blank disk made from the menu and put in DF1; AmigaDOS wrote a file and a folder to it, and the .adf file, copied from the card to a PC, has them. With -wp the Amiga reported the disk write-protected, and the file was unchanged. ◦ Its picture's checksum, taken every 500 frames through 8,000 frames of Arte, is the same on this firmware as on the development version it was measured on. • apple2: on a Generation 1 with this firmware, Applesoft and hi-res graphics, with the Apple at its full speed (1,023kHz); before, on 7.00.00RC4, lo-res, mixed, 80 columns and double hi-res (a2audit's video tests find their colours right), the disk menu and a Disk II boot. • The sound by DMA on a Generation 1: Doom's timed demo with its music and effects at 38.4 frames a second, as before; the DACs given back to MMBasic after a program (PLAY TONE), on both generations. • MODE 8 on a Generation 1: 800 x 525 at 25.2MHz, 60.03Hz, and GETSCANLINE up to 524. • Every other program in the zip is unchanged: rebuilt with this version's tools, they are the same files. Known problems • amiga: ◦ It runs on a Generation 2 only. ◦ Interlaced screens show every other line. ◦ The chipset does not report collisions between sprites and the playfield, which a few games use. ◦ Titles made for later Amigas (the A1200 and A4000) and those on hard disk images do not run. ◦ Tie Break, from Amiga Forever, shows only a black screen. • apple2: it has been tried on a Generation 1 only, and through the serial console: its sound, a USB keyboard, a gamepad, saving to a disk and the hard disks have not been tried yet. The known problems of 7.00.00RC4 remain. The manual The User Manual gives MODE 8's new timing. Colour_Maximite_2_Loadable_Programs.pdf adds services versions 17 and 18, the sound by DMA, and --axi and --itcm, and Colour_Maximite_2_App_User_Guide.pdf the Amiga and Apple //e emulators. Licences pico-amiga is under the GNU GPL version 3, and Musashi under the MIT licence. frank-apple and MII are under the MIT licence, and the Apple's ROMs built into them are Apple's. No Amiga software comes with the emulator. The licences folder of the zip has them, and its README lists every program's licence. Edited 2026-11-11 01:25 by matherp |
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