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Posted By

Haplo
on 2022-04-03
03:17:05
 Help with bank switching

I've been working on the extended version of my game Tenebra (https://h4plo.itch.io/tenebra) and with the new levels I need more memory. The game is written in assembly by the way.
I'd like to use one of the two areas below:

$8000 ROM BANK LOW (BASIC)
$C000 BASIC expansions

What is the correct way to switch them out and see them as RAM? All the answers I have found on the net have been more confusing than helpful. Thanks.

P.S. Is the whole region of $4000-$7fff available to assembly programs without any bank switching? I have noticed I can use from $4000 to around $6800, but after that my stuff gets corrupted.

Posted By

Haplo
on 2022-04-03
03:24:13
 Re: Help with bank switching

Please ignore the "P.S." bit, it was my mistake. I can see that I can use the whole $4000-$7fff without any issues.

Still any help with switching out the ROM at $8000 will be appreciated.

Posted By

gerliczer
on 2022-04-03
03:28:23
 Re: Help with bank switching

SEI
STA $FF3F ; page out ROM
LDA #ISR.low
STA $FFFE
LDA #ISR.high
STA $FFFF
CLI


You cannot page out part of the ROM area but only the whole memory range.

Posted By

Haplo
on 2022-04-03
03:33:55
 Re: Help with bank switching

Thanks.

I just want to use $8000-$BFFF as RAM. What is the value you are putting in $FF3F? I think the LDA is missing from your snippet.
Also my code is not interrupt driven (SEI at the beginning and no CLI), so thankfully I don't need to worry about setting up the vectors.

Posted By

Haplo
on 2022-04-03
03:42:23
 Re: Help with bank switching

I just found this:

$FF3E:
This so called "shadow register" controls RAM/ROM paging with register $FF3F. Writing an arbitrary value to $FF3E will page in the currently configured ROMs to the upper memory area ($8000..$FFFF).


$FF3F:
This so called "shadow register" controls RAM/ROM paging with register $FF3E. Writing an arbitrary value to $FF3F will page in the RAM to the upper memory area ($8000..$FFFF).


So the actual value written is not important. I'll give it a go now.

Posted By

Haplo
on 2022-04-03
03:49:19
 Re: Help with bank switching

It works, thanks!

Posted By

gerliczer
on 2022-04-03
03:51:28
 Re: Help with bank switching

You should study SVS' excellent Ultimate Map and the source codes available on this site to learn more about the 264 series machines.

Posted By

Haplo
on 2022-04-03
18:08:53
 Re: Help with bank switching

Seems like a very good source, thanks.



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