Let's write a little thread about the fuckups I made with the #KIM1 #RAMpager.
First, the good news: the board is behaving decently now. I still need to do some heavy testing to hammer it, especially regarding the access to the registers that hold the current read/write pages but, for now, it seems they're fine accessed from the monitor.
Prototypes for the #KIM1 #RAMpager board were delivered, and components too.
Hopefully this week I'll have some free time to start the build. And I'm sure this will end up requiring copious swearing, reprogramming and bodging to get up and running.
The makefile for #MOStermind generates a raw binary, a paper tape image and a prg file you can load via a IEC drive (an SD2IEC in my case).
It's rather fun to see the #KIM1 load and start the game from there.
In other news, I think a first version of the game is ready. It's a real pity I don't own a teletype to try it there (if someone wants to try it, let me know! You need a KIM-1 and at least 2KB of RAM at 0x2000), but it should work there too.
I should probably increase the number of symbols from 4 to 6 just to make it a bit harder. Something for another day though.
Might want to start preparing the repo and leaflet next.
Broadband is down, but my backup is decent enough to allow me to upload this!
I made some progress with #MOStermind, a mastermind port for the #KIM1, using the teletype interface. This was born more or less as a joke with a work colleague.
You can see the current version running under #MAME here (but I have tested it on my KIM-1 clone already.
There's plenty of optimization still to do, but the game is currently fitting in 1342 bytes, including both logic and text.
A few weeks ago I was talking about the #kim1 with a colleague, and he said that a port of mastermind on the machine would have been cool.
We were thinking of doing it via the keypad, but I wanted to experiment with the serial interface, so here I am, playing around with it.
Pity my air conditioning died. And it was installed just a few months ago, had almost no use. Let's see what the tech has to say tomorrow.
Right now, enough programming. I'm melting.
I think I'm almost ready to send the prototype of the RAMpager for the #KIM1 to the fab. Probably going to do that next week, including Mouser order for components. Currently a bit in a pinch with vet expenses.
I changed the circuit that handles the /CE signal for the SRAMs to try avoid parasitic currents from the battery to the GAL22V10. Tried to cut it off using mosfets.
I also added the option of using either a 1N5917 to power the SRAMs if you wish to stay THT or a PMEG2010ER (SMD) that has lower leakage current.
We'll see if I made a mess doing this. I probably have. But you fail and learn I guess...
phew, just got back home.
I have only one hour before I need to depart again for the restaurant (dinner with colleagues today). Enough to do some work on the silkscreen of the #kim1 paged RAM card.
I need to think of a name for it...
Initial routing of the paged RAM board for the #KIM1 is now complete.
The work is not done though, I still need to:
- Tweak the traces
- Prepare zone fills
- Reorganize the silkscreen labels
- Draw instructions for all the switches and jumpers
- Maybe a nice logo for the empty space under the LEDs?
Still, it doesn't look too bad, right?
hkz