[Coco] Becker Port patch and win32 build for MESS 0.152s

[Bill Pierce]

Richard,
I also saw the MPI in the cart list. After selecting it, you do a "system reset" there on the same page and then it appears in the "Slot" menu but it doesn't seem to accept any form of input. I think it's an unfinished project. You should be able to select from the available roms or browse for a new rom. In looking at the way the rest of the system works, I think that's were the developer was stumped. Most other options select either from browsing for something or from something internal.. not both in one menu choice.

A good example being the "Slot" menu. You can choose several options but cannot browse the PC for a program pak. I haven't tried this yet from a GUI as no GUI (that Ive found) yet supports your Becker Port fix. I think that has to be done when building a new GUI, not really sure yet. It may inherit the Mess menus from the code built with it, again, not sure. I'm still new to this but the more I look, the more I understand.

As for the MPI, I think the slot "choices" need to be added in the source as they seem to be blank. There may be a way to add both internal and external choices. I haven't looked real close at those sources yet.

I've yet to get the code to compile as I seem to be missing a library or something. I know the website said that the page was an old one and that newer builds needed libraries not listed. I've yet to look into it further. I know that one thing it mentioned was the DX9 libraries and all that's offered is DX8 and this could very well be my problem. I just haven't had the time to go back into it yet.

I'm also going to check into building one of the GUIs for Windows. I like the GUI much better as you have much more control over the system. I know a lot of what I want can be set from the "ini" files, but call me lazy. I like a point and click control panel like the ones found in the better GUIs. Plus, I know little about the Mess settings so it would take more research to know the settings needed in the "ini" files. I have always run Mess from one of the GUIs.

One thing I have noticed that's odd and I don't think it's just your build. I think all newer Mess vesions do it. And that's when I switch to "natural" keyboard mode as opposed to "emulated" (coco layout), the arrow keys cease to work. They work fine in emulated mode but not in natural. I work in C source codes a lot in OS9, so I like to have access to all the "special" keys just as they are mapped to the PC keyboard. Like "[ ] { } / \ " etc. I know these can be access with control key combos on the Coco keyboard but even my real Coco 3 has an AT keyboard so I'm used to working a PC keyboard on my Coco as well.

But again, so far it is all working well except the keyboard thing above. I just switched the VHD images I was using with Vcc over to Mess and it booted right up. I have been running Ultimuse3, MV Canvas, Ed 3.1 (full screen text editor), and the C compiler on a HUGE compiling project. I've also run some of my software projects which make extensive use DriveWire ports and everything seems to run fine.

Thanks again Nice job :-)


Bill Pierce
"Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
 

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-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Goedeken <Richard at fascinationsoftware.com>
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Thu, Mar 27, 2014 1:01 am
Subject: Re: [Coco] Becker Port patch and win32 build for MESS 0.152s


Hi Bill,

I'm sure if you're comfortable with C then it will be easy for you to make the
changes in MESS.

I can see from the source code that MESS also supports the MPI.  I'm not sure
exactly how this works, and how you can select which carts are plugged into
each slot, but there must be some configuration ability.

Richard

On 03/24/2014 11:12 PM, Bill Pierce wrote:
> 
> Richard, I'll look at those sources and see if I feel I can modify them. I
> guess it's time to branch out from OS9 C for a change :-)
> 
> I think my current mingw will work.fine. I think the idea of seperate
> hdbdos loaded machines sounds best. Then the others will be "normal" Cocos
> but have becker port if needed. Also, the cart idea is good, but I like to
> use the orch90 cart for stereo sound on some things. I'll look into it all
> closer tomorrow. I may have a few questions :-)
> 
> 
> Bill Pierce "Today is a good day... I woke up" - Ritchie Havens
> 
> 

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