Gidday from Kiwiland. :) This is a great rundown. I've just ordered one of these (and an Electron to go with it haha) and looking forward to having a play. Your video has confirmed that I've made a good choice. :)
Elite is a surprisingly competent implementation even considering the limits of the hardware. My favourite joystick emulated game (I have the Bud interface, where you loaded a programme from tape to map the joystick to keyboard) was Robotron 2084.
Thanks for the video TassieBob. I have had some similar issues to you trying ViewSheet ROM on the Elk with both my GoSDC and my ElkSD64. It drops out to command mode when you try to type in a spreadsheet cell, which means something is wrong. (I actually have original View and ViewSheet cartridges for the Plus 1, which work fine.) My View ROM file does work however when sideloaded, so I must have got the right patched one. It may be the case that as well as needing the right patched ROM, you also need to load them into particular ROM slots. E.g. View and ViewSheet might expect to be in slots that correspond to Plus 1 cartridges? Another thing to be aware of is that some ROMS try to overwrite themselves when sideloaded into RAM, as a copy protection measure; make sure you have a "patched" ROM. I have an ElkSD128 on order, and I'm looking forward to being able to use the extra sideways RAM. I'm living in Adelaide, but I'm a POM and grew up with an Electron in the UK.
I haven't had a chance to revisit the View/ViewSheet thing, but you're absolutely right about ROM's that try and overwrite themselves for copy protection. I'd completely forgotten about that, but I do remember having to write-protect some SWRAM slots on my model-B after loading images for exactly this reason. I can't remember if View/ViewSheet were affected by that, but I can't help thinking they were. Thanks for the pointer!
I wanted to ask you what you're using for getting your video out? I'm just using composite output with my Elks, and I'd like to improve the picture quality if I can, without breaking the bank.
In the latest Electron video I was using an RGB2HDMI unit (basically a Raspberry Pi with a custom CPLD board on top). The RGB2HDMI project is at github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI - I built mine, but you can find people online who sell pre-assembled units.
Great videos 😀 I just got an Electron and strange thing happened. First power on it beeped, the light came on and I saw the boot screen. Then it froze. The subsequent power on I just get white and black horizontal lines. Any ideas what that could be? The forums say might be ULA. I have a scope and the repair manual but not sure what the pinout is on the ULA. The oscillator freq and psu voltage appear OK. I have a scope so can check pins.
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Gidday from Kiwiland. :)
This is a great rundown. I've just ordered one of these (and an Electron to go with it haha) and looking forward to having a play. Your video has confirmed that I've made a good choice. :)
Elite is a surprisingly competent implementation even considering the limits of the hardware. My favourite joystick emulated game (I have the Bud interface, where you loaded a programme from tape to map the joystick to keyboard) was Robotron 2084.
I just bought one, good review. I'm not going to dive back into 8-bit coding again.
Thanks for the video TassieBob. I have had some similar issues to you trying ViewSheet ROM on the Elk with both my GoSDC and my ElkSD64. It drops out to command mode when you try to type in a spreadsheet cell, which means something is wrong. (I actually have original View and ViewSheet cartridges for the Plus 1, which work fine.) My View ROM file does work however when sideloaded, so I must have got the right patched one. It may be the case that as well as needing the right patched ROM, you also need to load them into particular ROM slots. E.g. View and ViewSheet might expect to be in slots that correspond to Plus 1 cartridges? Another thing to be aware of is that some ROMS try to overwrite themselves when sideloaded into RAM, as a copy protection measure; make sure you have a "patched" ROM. I have an ElkSD128 on order, and I'm looking forward to being able to use the extra sideways RAM. I'm living in Adelaide, but I'm a POM and grew up with an Electron in the UK.
I haven't had a chance to revisit the View/ViewSheet thing, but you're absolutely right about ROM's that try and overwrite themselves for copy protection. I'd completely forgotten about that, but I do remember having to write-protect some SWRAM slots on my model-B after loading images for exactly this reason. I can't remember if View/ViewSheet were affected by that, but I can't help thinking they were. Thanks for the pointer!
You probably know by now, but... the game menu, just use the up and down keys to navigate it.
cool vid, Bob. Keep it up!
I wanted to ask you what you're using for getting your video out? I'm just using composite output with my Elks, and I'd like to improve the picture quality if I can, without breaking the bank.
In the latest Electron video I was using an RGB2HDMI unit (basically a Raspberry Pi with a custom CPLD board on top). The RGB2HDMI project is at github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI - I built mine, but you can find people online who sell pre-assembled units.
@@tassiebob Thank you.
Great videos 😀 I just got an Electron and strange thing happened. First power on it beeped, the light came on and I saw the boot screen. Then it froze. The subsequent power on I just get white and black horizontal lines. Any ideas what that could be? The forums say might be ULA. I have a scope and the repair manual but not sure what the pinout is on the ULA. The oscillator freq and psu voltage appear OK. I have a scope so can check pins.
I managed to fix it, was a faulty 4164 DRAM chip😮
salam from java island indonesia