----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a collection of messages posted on the international UseNet ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Read about a way to make your NTSC Amiga act as a PAL Amiga and vice versa. I have tried it with the 1084 as well and it seems to work fine with demos, games, utilities, etc etc etc .... Say goodbye to NTSC! PAL is nicer! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Article 6330 of comp.sys.amiga.tech: Path: wpi!m2c!husc6!think!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!TAURUS.BITNET!finkel From: finkel@TAURUS.BITNET Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: reboot a PAL machine into NTSC Message-ID: <9002181052.AA03247@virgo.tau.ac.il> Date: 18 Feb 90 10:52:51 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: Lines: 142 Hello everyone, This is a program I wrote last night to reboot a PAL machine into NTSC mode. You must have the new Agnus chip, and Kickstart 1.3 . The program relies on static location of certain Kickstart 1.3 ROM instructions, so it MUST be modified for Kickstart 1.2 . Are there any users of the new Agnus chip users with Kickstart 1.2?? The program has been tested on a PAL A500 with a super Agnus chip, a fully populated A590, Kickstart 1.3 ROM, and a Rev 3 motherboard hacked to contain the super Agnus chip. The program should work as is on 2000's as well, but I didn't test it. Again, it will *not* work with Kickstart 1.2 . The program can be easily modified to reboot an NTSC machine in PAL mode, but I remember reading that the american monitors can't work in PAL mode, while the european monitors can work in both modes. ( This was verified by me ;-) ). I could modify it to be more user-friendly ( find the appropriate address in the Kickstart ROM at run time, etc. ), but I was too lazy to do this ;-) ( actually, I had an exam the next morning so I didn't have too much time improving it ). Since our Usenet connection has been down for the last 3 weeks, any comments should be mailed to me directly, and not posted. Enjoy! >>> CODE IS PROVIDED AS SEPARATE FILE <<< ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEXT MESSAGE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article 6356 of comp.sys.amiga.tech: Path: wpi!m2c!husc6!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!sag4 .ssl.berkeley.edu!johnf From: johnf@sag4.ssl.berkeley.edu (John Flanagan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: reboot a PAL machine into NTSC Summary: And the other way around! Message-ID: <1990Feb20.013713.12554@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 20 Feb 90 01:37:13 GMT References: <9002181052.AA03247@virgo.tau.ac.il> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 44 In article <9002181052.AA03247@virgo.tau.ac.il> writes: >Hello everyone, > >This is a program I wrote last night to reboot a PAL machine into >NTSC mode. You must have the new Agnus chip, and Kickstart 1.3 . >The program relies on static location of certain Kickstart 1.3 >ROM instructions, so it MUST be modified for Kickstart 1.2 . Are there >any users of the new Agnus chip users with Kickstart 1.2?? >[...] >The program can be easily modified to reboot an NTSC machine in PAL >mode, but I remember reading that the american monitors can't work >in PAL mode, while the european monitors can work in both modes. Well, just for completeness, I have NewZapped Udi's NTSCBoot to create PALBoot, which reboots North American Amigas into PAL mode. The American 1084 monitor can handle PAL just fine, apparently, since I'm using it that way right now. This also works fine on LUCAS/FRANCES with the 32-bit Kickstart, as I can attest. The uuencoded binary follows. The source code can be found in Udi's post. I apologize for doing this the ugly way (NewZapping) instead of doing this the proper way (reassembling the source code), but I'm having trouble figuring out Lattice's ASM; I'll have to ask Lattice for some better documentation than comes with their compiler, I guess. Anyway, as Udi warns, you NEED the 1-Meg Agnus and Kickstart 1.3 to use this, and it breaks all the rules. But it works, and is a nifty way to get some extra screen real estate for free! Udi: How about submitting NTSCBoot and PALBoot to Tad Guy? >>> CODE IS PROVIDED AS SEPARATE FILE <<< ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEXT MESSAGE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article 6372 of comp.sys.amiga.tech: Path: wpi!m2c!bu.edu!snorkelwacker!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips !daver!intersil!hamilton From: hamilton@intersil.uucp (Fred Hamilton) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: reboot a PAL machine into NTSC Message-ID: <82.25e0fe73@intersil.uucp> Date: 20 Feb 90 08:23:15 GMT References: <9002181052.AA03247@virgo.tau.ac.il> <1990Feb20.013713.12554@agate.berkeley.edu> Organization: Harris Semiconductor, Santa Clara CA Lines: 15 In article <1990Feb20.013713.12554@agate.berkeley.edu>, johnf@sag4.ssl.berkeley.edu (John Flanagan) writes: > > Well, just for completeness, I have NewZapped Udi's NTSCBoot to create > PALBoot, which reboots North American Amigas into PAL mode. The American > 1084 monitor can handle PAL just fine, apparently, since I'm using it that > way right now. This also works fine on LUCAS/FRANCES with the 32-bit > Kickstart, as I can attest. So what magic are you using to put the 1 meg Agnus in your LUCAS/FRANCES based 1000 (or is it a 500)? -- Fred Hamilton Any views, comments, or ideas expressed here Harris Semiconductor are entirely my own. Even good ones. Santa Clara, CA ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEXT MESSAGE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article 6378 of comp.sys.amiga.tech: Path: wpi!m2c!husc6!paperboy!snorkelwacker!apple!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!pikes!bscott From: bscott@pikes.Colorado.EDU (Ben M Scott) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: reboot a PAL machine into NTSC Summary: PAL on US machines! Wow! Keywords: PAL NTSC Amiga resolution cool beans maynerd Message-ID: <3313@pikes.Colorado.EDU> Date: 21 Feb 90 10:10:31 GMT References: <9002181052.AA03247@virgo.tau.ac.il> <1990Feb20.013713.12554@agate.berkeley.edu> <82.25e0fe73@intersil.uucp> <1990Feb21.054255.20904@agate.berkeley.edu> Reply-To: bscott@pikes.Colorado.EDU (Ben M Scott) Organization: University of Colorado, Denver Lines: 18 I just wanted to publicly thank you for this; (and the original author, of course!) it's a great service to the Amiga community. It is wonderful to have higher resolution for FREE (every test I can run says that system speed is the same, and there is no serious extra DMA overhead), but I can't figure out how it works on the 1084 without twiddling knobs! It actually seems to be scanning at a different speed, because I have a VCR hooked up through the composite and I often switch between screens, and in PAL mode there is a much bigger glitch than when switching NTSC to NTSC. How can the 1084 scan PAL with a 60 hz power supply? Kramden SI reports the VBI as 50 hz, AND the Power supply frequency as 50 hz too. Another interesting note: ECSTest reports the Agnus is still in NTSC mode. Of course, this was the same program that spelled it "NTCS", so what do you want to believe? Another question: How did you fit a Frances into a 500? I thought the Lucas required extreme enough measures... and is it really as buggy as I hear? I'm so far able to live with the 3 megs my 590 gives me, but more is always better! . <<<>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEXT MESSAGE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article 6406 of comp.sys.amiga.tech: Path: wpi!m2c!husc6!paperboy!snorkelwacker!apple!agate!stew.ssl. berkeley.edu!johnf From: johnf@stew.ssl.berkeley.edu (John Flanagan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Reboot NTSC machine into PAL (was Re: reboot a PAL machine into NTSC) Summary: Is there a "correct" way to do this? Message-ID: <1990Feb22.234333.25073@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 22 Feb 90 23:43:33 GMT References: <9002181052.AA03247@virgo.tau.ac.il> <1990Feb20.013713.12554@agate.berkeley.edu> <82.25e0fe73@intersil.uucp> <1990Feb21.054255.20904@agate.berkeley.edu> <3313@pikes.Colorado.EDU> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 59 In article <3313@pikes.Colorado.EDU> bscott@pikes.Colorado.EDU (Ben M Scott) writes: >[...] >...I can't figure out >how it works on the 1084 without twiddling knobs! It actually seems to be >scanning at a different speed... >[...] >How can the 1084 scan PAL with a 60 hz power supply? Don't ask me, I'm no monitor jock. I guess the monitor is able to sync up with the PAL refresh rate by luck. It must fall within the tolerances. I don't think the power supply frequency is used for anything to do with the video syncing, though, since I've heard that it is not precise enough for that. >Another interesting note: ECSTest >reports the Agnus is still in NTSC mode. Of course, this was the same program >that spelled it "NTCS", so what do you want to believe? I've never tried ECSTest, but I've never heard any good things about it either. Now for a question to the net (or Commodore, if they read this message): Is there a right way to do this? I tried to redo this program last night without needing to jump to ROM code, as Udi had done, but ran into the problem he mentions about there being no RAM available after reset. What I had wanted to do was jump to some code in RAM after the reset. Does chip RAM get pulled off the bus somehow after 68000 reset? Also, the 68000 reset instruction seems to cause Agnus to reset itself. Changing Agnus's video mode is easy, but RESETting seems to cause Agnus to re-read J102 and reassert NTSC mode. Is there some other way to restart the system without actually using the 68000 reset instruction, or which would not cause Agnus to reset itself? I realize that there is no absolutely right, supported way to do this kind of thing (BEAMCON0 is not even defined in the standard headers), but I had hoped to do something moderately portable across different Kickstart versions. Of course if this is a Preferences option in 1.4 or something, then I guess the question is kind of moot. I realize that there is a hardware jumper which could be cut to make a PAL/NTSC switch, but then I'd have to power down to change video modes, which would lose the contents of my ram disks. >Another question: How did you fit a Frances into a 500? I thought the Lucas >required extreme enough measures... and is it really as buggy as I hear? If the latest issue of AmigoTimes ever does make it to the newsstands there is supposed to be a picture of my setup in it, so you can see for yourself :-). The answer is that I didn't -- I remounted everything in another case. As far as the bugginess goes: mileage varies, but most people seem to be able to get it working just fine. Takes some tweaking and patience, though. John Flanagan Space Sciences Laboratory johnf@ssl.berkeley.edu University of California (...!ucbvax!soc1.ssl!johnf) Berkeley, CA 94720 Manners Maketh Man. (415) 643-6308 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEXT MESSAGE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article 6375 of comp.sys.amiga.tech: Path: wpi!m2c!bu.edu!snorkelwacker!apple!usc!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!stew.ssl.berkeley.edu!johnf From: johnf@stew.ssl.berkeley.edu (John Flanagan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: reboot a PAL machine into NTSC Summary: Possible work-around found for 1084 interlace fuzzies? Message-ID: <1990Feb21.054255.20904@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 21 Feb 90 05:42:55 GMT References: <9002181052.AA03247@virgo.tau.ac.il> <1990Feb20.013713.12554@agate.berkeley.edu> <82.25e0fe73@intersil.uucp> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 31 In article <82.25e0fe73@intersil.uucp> hamilton@intersil.uucp (Fred Hamilton) writes: >In article <1990Feb20.013713.12554@agate.berkeley.edu>, johnf@sag4.ssl.berkeley.edu (John Flanagan) writes: >> >> Well, just for completeness, I have NewZapped Udi's NTSCBoot to create >> PALBoot, which reboots North American Amigas into PAL mode. The American >> 1084 monitor can handle PAL just fine, apparently, since I'm using it that >> way right now. This also works fine on LUCAS/FRANCES with the 32-bit >> Kickstart, as I can attest. > >So what magic are you using to put the 1 meg Agnus in your LUCAS/FRANCES based >1000 (or is it a 500)? > It is a LUCAS/FRANCES-based 500. Sorry, I did not mean to get anybody's hopes up. By the way, I have noticed that my 1084, which often suffers from the interlace fuzzies, seems to actually prefer PAL mode; I have not seen any trace of the fuzzies in PAL mode. Maybe it prefers the slower scan rate. So while the flickering is a bit worse in PAL mode than in NTSC mode, PAL mode does provide a sharper picture and a bigger screen (I'm getting 704x564 pixels with morerows). Of course, with PAL mode and morerows, you could get a 704x282 non-interlaced screen as well, which might be a reasonable compromise for those who just can't stand the flicker. John Flanagan Space Sciences Laboratory johnf@soc1.ssl.berkeley.edu University of California (...!ucbvax!soc1.ssl!johnf) Berkeley, CA 94720 Manners Maketh Man. (415) 643-6308