Beiträge von kim_jorgensen

    Because of the worldwide lack of chips, it’s become practically impossible to make new KFF cartridges. However, there’s an Artery chip which is a drop-in replacement for the STM used in the KFF which has pretty good availability.

    How do you quantify the current availability to conclude that the Artery chip would be easier to source?

    I have been using findchips.com and searches on aliexpress.com as an indicator for the current availability, and it seems that it is still possible to get the STM32F405RGT6 although at a much higher price than just a few months ago. However, searches for e.g. AT32F403RGT6 does not yield any results on the two sites. So from where do you get these Artery chips?

    But it would probably require a rewritten firmware, because of the RAM. Are there any plans for this?

    The project is open source so go nuts, if you think that would be a fun project :)

    kim_jorgensen feel free to use the Sidekick128-PRG-loader-skeleton: Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen.

    Thank you :). I had considered making a loader based on the example on Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. which is similar to what you are doing, but without the use of the datasette buffer.
    For the C64, Kung Fu Flash is using the stack area and allows loading into RAM under the I/O space to support large PRGs, but I'm not sure how creative you need to be on the C128.

    Currently KFF has a size limit of 64kB on PRG files. Does anyone know if this is a reasonable limit for C128 PRGs, or does larger PRG files exist 'in the wild'?

    At poweron, wait for IIRC 5 seconds for PHI to arive. If it does, all is well and waiting is aborted. If not, go on - the U2+ has a standalone mode...


    Perhaps such a waiting for PHI2 can be done in the KFF, too.

    There is already a wait loop for a valid PAL or NTSC clock before the KFF starts. However, if a NTSC clock signal or an unstable clock signal that is detected as NTSC is fed to the KFF during power-up then it fails with the PAL firmware.
    How does the U64 PHI2 signal look like during startup? Do you have a capture of this?

    KFF checks the clock frequency before starting emulating a CRT. This is done to prevent the PAL firmware to start on NTSC machine and vica versa.

    If the U64 does not supply a clock with a stable frequency during startup, this could explain the issue.

    Yes, Kung Fu Flash treats reset and power on the same way so this must be something that is caused by the U64.

    If the U64 board does not supply a stable PHI2 clock on the expansion port during power on that could explain issue but as I don't own a U64 this is purely guesswork.

    kim_jorgensen Is it possible to use cartridge emulation (Retro Replay) and _simultaneously_ "insert" a D64 or D81 image for loading programs and saving?

    Squirrel61 is correct, it's either freezer-emulation OR D64/D81 emulation.


    The disk drive emulation is done by emulating an EasyFlash cartridge where the C64 communicates with the KFF via the EF3 USB registers. It may be possible to implement a custom KFF freezer, but not a general solution that would work with all freezers.

    I have a pretty basic question and I can't quite find an answer for it in this thread: is it possible to save the entire memory state of the C64 and resume it later using the KFF? I like to play some games (loaded from either CRT or D64) that take longer than I have to complete in one session, and such a snapshot functionality would be really helpful to resume later.

    No, there is no snapshot feature built-in so as soon as you enter the menu then it is not possible to resume the interrupted program on the C64. This would be cool but requires developing something close to a freezer in KFF.

    For now your best option is what you are trying and that is to rely on emulated freezer cartridges.

    Would it be possible to emulate this cartridge:
    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen.

    with the KFF I always have liked this cartridge which was not very successful on C64.

    It seems quite simple so there is a good chance that it would be possible. Feel free to create a feature request for this on GitHub

    One question. Is there any way to return to the current cartridge once you've pressed the menu button or is the only option to reset?

    You can press RUN/STOP which is similar to pressing the reset button, but I guess that is not what you are asking. There are currently no "freeze" functionality in KFF so it is not possible to resume what you were running before pressing the menu button. That would be a cool and useful addition.