|  Tools - Krill's Loader | |
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| | Notes | This is the current development version, considered to be stable for some more years now. It comes with no strings attached.
This loader features, among other things:
- asynchronous 2-bits+ATN and 2-bits+resend (experimental) transfer protocols, which allow for arbitrary interruptions (IRQs, sprites, badlines), in this version with only 1 drive on the bus
- native support for 1541, 1541-C, 1541-II, 1570, 1571, 1571CR, 1581, CMD FD
- works with exotic drives implementing the necessary KERNAL I/O calls, e.g. IDE64, MMC64, netload, VICE without true drive emulation
- PAL/NTSC compatible
- loads uncompressed files
- loads compressed files, supports Exomizer, Pucrunch, Doynamite, ByteBoozer, Taboo LevelCrush
- max. loading speed is 4.0 kB/s for uncompressed files (4+1 revolutions per track) on 1541
- combined loading+decompression speed is usually around 8.5 kB/s using Doynamite
- in-memory decompression of files
- loads via directory (2-16 filename characters) or track/sector
- loads to $D000-$DFFF
- easy and glitchless VIC bank switching while loading
- any values written to $DD00 allowed when loader is idle
- polled loading and non-blocking loading using CIA timer NMIs
- progress indication interface
- customizable in functionality and size, needs <$0100 bytes for basic loading uncompressed functionality after installation
- C64 and C16 targets
Some planned features for future versions:
- speed improvements
- protocol overhaul for SD2IEC support
- more than 1 drive on the bus
- web-based build service
- 1551 support (C16 only)
- file-exists call
- real documentation
- custom drive-code API for uploading own routines to the drive CPU
- streaming
- saving functionality using the custom drive-code API
- CMD HD support
- IFFL loading
- dynamic linkage for easy loader swapping and updating with more recent existing binary releases |
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Copyright © Plus/4 World Team, 2001-2024 |
