This is a preview of 64drive firmware 3.00, adding 64DD support. The FPGA simulates the ASIC registers, based in large part on Happy's work in MESS. There isn't enough on-board memory to keep the IPL and disk image loaded at the same time, and trying to load the disk info using SD/CF LBAs was fraught with errors. Instead, disk images are placed in cart space and the IPL is read-only, accessed much like save files, for games using the sound and font data. My contribution is a custom bootstrap replacing IPL 2 and 3 in the boot sequence. Just like a cart bootstrap it initializes the system, but also applies disk initialization found only in the DD bootloader. The disk is loaded directly without any IPL code executing. There are some kinks. Writes are not flushed back to SD/CF but are written to cart space, so just like with the Dezaemon DD cart mod you can upload them to PC using USB. Expansion disks can't be run with a cart base, and disk swapping isn't really supported. You can upload a new image via USB, but the eject and disk change flags are not set by the FPGA yet. That would require active monitoring or possibly a trigger, but should be the easiest problem to solve.
It's not an april fools day prank. This has been in development for awhile, or so I assume. I know 64DD support for MESS has been. It's pretty cool!
No, when asked if this was real or fake (http://www.shootersforever.com/forums_message_boards/viewtopic.php?t=6772) zoinkity said: "It's mostly real. There's exactly two (and a half) lies. I've been horrifically busy the last couple weeks and haven't been able to properly release what was done. (or answer any of Sub's emails--totally will do this, really!) It isn't video editing or anything though! It actually is running the games off the 64drive, just not entirely as described. Plus, not joking about this not working on an Everdrive unless it grows a couple pins overnight. There are a couple problems too. I think the Doshins are confusing the PI settings for EPI requests, so data returned is probably inconsistent. It's something no emulator catches since you'd have to know way too much info on the media you're using, and a great way to detect if an emulator is running your code. As an excellent example of this, run the 64drive's menu in any emulator like a normal ROM. It's worth a giggle. I will say the 64drive's menu was hacked (the half). Originally I was going to add an icon and all, but it proved to be a bit too annoying for a throwaway joke. I will be releasing what was seen in the video sometime in the future when everything is perfected. MESS supports 64DD now, and every undead emu project has announced they're looking to incorporate the code. (Undead is not a typo) It isn't terribly complicated, but did need hardware analysis to understand what was going on during block-by-block transfers. Other emulator projects had gotten as far as LBA reads, but the hickup was always sequential I/O." It's disappointing that the Everdrive 64 can't support the 64DD games (well, maybe they can be hacked to do so - and at the same time hopefully they'll be translated into English - Sim City 64 is the big one for me, it looks amazing!) but you never can tell what the future holds!
