(more) M.e.s.s. Help Needed

[TelcoLou]

How can I get them to run? I have a bunch of .dsk files, and the instructions state to make the disc file "disc 1" and then run "dsk1.menu"

After mounting the image in floppy drive 1, I typed in this command in the Basic prompt, but got an error msg.

Thanks.

 

[remowilliams]

You need the Extended Basic cart inserted to do that kind of stuff.

The built in basic has no disk commands. And it sucks too. :lol:

 

[TelcoLou]

You need the Extended Basic cart inserted to do that kind of stuff.

The built in basic has no disk commands. And it sucks too. :lol:

​

I understand. Thanks but now I seem to have run into yet another wall. The virtual keyboard won't type the " character ... :lol:

 

[remowilliams]

It's OK its not MESS - its the weird TI keyboard. control-P is what you're looking for. Though if the keyboard mode is in "Partial" hitting P will pause MESS :lol:

 

[TelcoLou]

It's OK its not MESS - its the weird TI keyboard. control-P is what you're looking for. Though if the keyboard mode is in "Partial" hitting P will pause MESS :lol:

​

It's been a looooong time :lol:

"Alt" + P worked for me BTW ... now getting " I/O ERROR 00"

Thanks again man, you're a huge help ... getting closer :lol:

 

[remowilliams]

Try changing the floppy disk controller type under the "Dip Switches" menu.

Depending on the disk type and size you're using that may be the ticket.

I do remember having some issues with 90K disk images when the controller wasn't set to Texas Instruments SD. IIRC anyway

 

[telengard]

It's OK its not MESS - its the weird TI keyboard. control-P is what you're looking for. Though if the keyboard mode is in "Partial" hitting P will pause MESS :lol:

​

Hehe, I was going to do the last release w/ a TI style keyboard for the TI but I got hung up on the Coco one. Some of the keys which are normally shifted on a PC keyboard (and probably most other ones) are not shifted on the Coco so I needed a way to do an implicit shift. The way mess is setup it's not that easy. Just simulating a keypress is a lot more than I expected it would be. Long story short, you need to keep the "key" pressed long enough for the emulated system to see it and I had to do it in such a way that I didn't slow down the emulation.

TelcoLou, here is a map of the TI keyboard relating it to a PC keyboard (and thus the virtual one):

http://pytheas.club.fr/english/TI99_MESS.html

BTW I'm going to do a release at the end of the week. After searching for a while I found a version of SDL that has fixed the vol down button mapping and timer issues.

I will also be trying out the new version of the HW accelerated SDL since the scaling code I have is sooooo slow. I'm hoping it will speed up the a2 and coco2/3 drivers since even on my linux host, with the scaling they peg the CPU.

~telengard

 

[remowilliams]

BTW I'm going to do a release at the end of the week. After searching for a while I found a version of SDL that has fixed the vol down button mapping and timer issues.

~telengard

​

Looking forward to the next release, and some Apple II love when it (hopefully) arrives

And telengard - since I had my original TI99 out of the archives today - these pics are for you B) :lol:

 

[telengard]

BTW I'm going to do a release at the end of the week. After searching for a while I found a version of SDL that has fixed the vol down button mapping and timer issues.

~telengard

​

Looking forward to the next release, and some Apple II love when it (hopefully) arrives

And telengard - since I had my original TI99 out of the archives today - these pics are for you B) :lol:

​

HOLY SMOKES!!! :blink: :blink: :blink:

Caldor! That's where I played with the TI99/4A when I was a little kid. That is totally AWESOME, thanks for sharing!

I own 3 now and 2 of them are brand new. None have a cool price tag like that on it though. <_<
I do have a TI book however that has a nice old-school K-mart tag on it, circa 1982.

~telengard

 

[Tex-Hogger]

Try changing the floppy disk controller type under the "Dip Switches" menu.

Depending on the disk type and size you're using that may be the ticket.

I do remember having some issues with 90K disk images when the controller wasn't set to Texas Instruments SD. IIRC anyway

​

There is a bug in MESS with the older versions of the the (V9T9) .dsk images. I had to on my system create a new disk imgage with imgtool and then mout the new .dsk in drive 2, and the original in drive 1 and the copy the files from the old to the new disks. The new disk image is a 360k disk, (1440 on the TI). I got TOD to work with it, so now I can save my files to the "new" format. But I have found one prob. that MESS has that it will not format a disk with a Disk Manager (DM) such as DSKU.

I did all this on my PC then moved the files to the SD card to use in my GP2X. It works ok so far. but with the bugs in MESS I hope someone can get the disk access fixed.

Enjoy!!!

TEX-HOGGER

 

[luteijn]

You need the Extended Basic cart inserted to do that kind of stuff.

The built in basic has no disk commands.  And it sucks too.  :lol:

​

exbas had 'run "dsk1.filename"',
in tibas you could still use the disks, just not run directly; try 'OLD "DSK1.filename"' and after it's loaded, 'RUN' the program.

IIRC, tibas is sometimes needed for the little bit of extra memory you get, and the extra characters available.

another IIRC: 'DSK1.LOAD' is what gets run on exbas start, so it often has the menu. disk catalog 'CALL CAT("DSK1.")' (may not need the dot)

P.

 

[Tex-Hogger]

You need the Extended Basic cart inserted to do that kind of stuff.

The built in basic has no disk commands. And it sucks too. :lol:

​

Mount the FWEB501.dsk in drive 1 and any version extended Basic as the carts and when you select EXB the Funnel Web program will start. It has a program callled diskreview that can handle all disk functions.

If you mount any of the Disk Manager carts you can do the same thing. DM II is the original that came with the TI Disk System, but I would recomend using Disk Utilities v4.2 it supports more drives.

Also in Exteneded Basic II there is a command CALL DIR(x) where x is the drive number (1, 2, etc.) or you can put the disk number in quoutes like "DSK1." and it will give you the dir of the disk that is mounted in the drive. CALL DIR also works in EXB 2.5 and RXB.

I would have to agree the built in Basic does suck, but if you can get RXB 2001 or EXB 2.5 running then you will have a very powerful and fast version of Basic that will do alot of fun things.

Enjoy!!!!

Tex-Hogger

 

[remowilliams]

I would have to agree the built in Basic does suck, but if you can get RXB 2001 or EXB 2.5 running then you will have a very powerful and fast version of Basic that will do alot of fun things.

​

I should have written has no useful disk commands :lol:

Definitely agree about EXB. It was a powerful basic that you could actually make fun games in, and was soooooo far ahead of the built in crap basic. Huge difference. B)

 

[TelcoLou]

Thank you all for your help with this.

I actually had EXB, but never got a Floppy drive (too much $$ for a 10/11 year old kid) so all this is 'new' stuff to play with for me

Edit: JOY!! Tex-Hogger, you made my day!! FWEB501.dsk does the job brilliantly ... this will certainly help kill the dead time at work Many, many thanks again.

 

[Tex-Hogger]

Thank you all for your help with this.

I actually had EXB, but never got a Floppy drive (too much $$ for a 10/11 year old kid) so all this is 'new' stuff to play with for me

Edit: JOY!! Tex-Hogger, you made my day!! FWEB501.dsk does the job brilliantly ... this will certainly help kill the dead time at work Many, many thanks again.


Not a prob!! I grew up with the TI as a kid back in the early 80s and still have my original system, PEB etc. I also have been collecting a few parts and pieces here and there. When I fond V9T9 I was sold on emulation. Now with MESS I can do almost eveything I use to back when I was a kid. If anyone has any questions about the TI-99 I may be able to help, but there is a great online users group on Yahoo that has many good people that can answer all most any question. Also there is a great FTP site that has a larg amout of data for the TI.

Now if we can get the Geneve 9640 working on the GP2X I would be truly impressed.

Enjoy!!!

Tex-Hogger