• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Torch Triple X c1985.

@kokoboi That is AWESOME! How have you managed that and is it something I could get up and running? :biggrin: My own Torch is now currently broken with a non-working Limpet board.. :(
 
The mouse is not working yet, so I can not test anything further. Your image doesn't work with 1MB of ram, it requires the Limpet board emulation. I'm using Mushashi as a base + AI code agent :)
 
That's great! I don't really know much about PALs/GALs. Would the JEDEC file be directly writeable to a GAL or does it need some translation to be compatible? I have a T48 EEPROM programmer and was wondering whether to order a couple of GALs to see if my Torch would boot with a replacement for IC169 (and no limpet). :unsure:

I'm in the process of generating a full schematic for the Limpet with the possibility of recreating the board itself as I have a suspicion there's an issue somewhere on my original. But it's a lot of work and will take some time (although I'm almost there with the schematic) so being able to try my machine with just the 1mb RAM, so I can check there's no motherboard or other issue, would be much quicker if I could get an IC169. :)
 
With LANCE fully emulated and mouse working, i think the goal has been reached.
1779004422349.png


I have QS2000 chassis , but it misses the QuadX VME board, anyone have it ? or at least its prom dump ?

That's great! I don't really know much about PALs/GALs. Would the JEDEC file be directly writeable to a GAL or does it need some translation to be compatible? I have a T48 EEPROM programmer and was wondering whether to order a couple of GALs to see if my Torch would boot with a replacement for IC169 (and no limpet).
Click to expand...
I didn't succeed with T48, so I've used Elnec's programmer.
 
Last edited:
THAT IS AMAZING!! 😮🫡

Will you be making the code available?

I have QS2000 chassis , but it misses the QuadX VME board, anyone have it ? or at least its prom dump ?
Click to expand...
The only person I can think who may have anything like that would have to be @Witchy as I think he has some old Torch stuff. He is the only other person I know with a potentially complete Triple X. But I can't remember if he said he'd got any Quad items...

I didn't succeed with T48, so I've used Elnec's programmer.
Click to expand...
Yes, I've tried reading other PALs (IC132) using my T48 and they didn't work - they just showed all '1's. 😕 Can the JEDEC file you've recovered be written directly to an equivalent GAL chip? If so, I could try to make my own IC169. 🙂

Absolutely amazing work. 👏
 
Fantastic! I've got it running to the point it needs the keydisk so I need to convert my HFE format keydisk to IMD but that will have to wait until this evening when I finish real world work.

Thank you for this!
 
I got it all up and running fine. I took the liberty of changing the palette to be more like what the default OpenTop palette is (basically black, white, red and green). I struggled a bit with the network but that was down to my errors, and I still have to work out how to handle the floppy drive but it's almost exactly as the original. My own disk image also works fine (as seen in the attached picture).

1779142714194.png

I do have a couple of questions:

Is there any way to correct the aspect ratio of the picture? <- Ignore this one! I figured out a couple of things in SDL and I have it working at a better height and also switchable to full screen.

I noticed that the startup doesn't run through the animation of the Torch logo. On the original, 'Torch' appears followed by a black, red and green stripe appearing from the top of the screen. During this period it's possible to click the 'STOP' icon and carry out some basic management functions. I did wonder if it's just because the emulator is running on a much quicker host machine. Would injecting some mouse input using the command line help with that as it would be good to see if the disk management features work?


It is great to be able to use the Torch system while I wait for mine to get repaired. I am fairly certain that the Limpet board I have is faulty and so I've created a schematic for it and re-created the PCB from that. I'm now waiting for the first batch of boards to arrive...
 
Last edited:
I took the liberty of changing the palette to be more like what the default OpenTop palette is (basically black, white, red and green).
Click to expand...
I had no idea what the original palette looks like, so I've used what I've seen from your original photos in the thread — it looked kind of bluish to me :)

I noticed that the startup doesn't run through the animation of the Torch logo. On the original, 'Torch' appears followed by a black, red and green stripe appearing from the top of the screen. During this period it's possible to click the 'STOP' icon and carry out some basic management functions.
Click to expand...
It does appear for a brief period of time, may be we should slow down the emulation.

1779169611410.png
 
Last edited:
kokoboi said:
I had no idea what the original palette looks like, so I've used what I've seen from your original photos in the thread — it looked kind of bluish to me :)
Click to expand...
The colours actually change a few times during the boot process. 🙂 It starts as all light blue, then changes to dark blue background with light blue text displaying "CARETAKER1.3". Then it changes again to black, white, red, green and blue - I assume Caretaker does a quick pallete change during the animation to allow the fifth colour. Then it changes to the default OpenTop colours which are white, red, dark blue and pale blue.

I actually prefer black, white, red and green for the colours on OpenTop which is why I changed them. 😁

kokoboi said:
It does appear for a brief period of time, may be we should slow down the emulation.
Click to expand...
I don't know if it would be possible to slow down the emulation for the initial boot? Once the animation has completed, Unix starts to boot so it just needs to be slowed to that point and then it can go back to full speed.

Here's a video snippet showing the startup animation. It was taken from the Torch CRT monitor so has some flickering... And a screenshot showing the utilities available at startup. 😁
 

Attachments

I'm fairly certain that the utilities are definitely on the keydisk but I think the animation is in Caretaker as it appears on every boot even if the keydisk isn't inserted. :)
 
I'm fairly certain that the utilities are definitely on the keydisk but I think the animation is in Caretaker as it appears on every boot even if the keydisk isn't inserted.
Click to expand...
The X animation hasn't been shown due to the emulation's speed. Do I need to click the Stop icon in order to get the other menu options?
 
kokoboi said:
The X animation hasn't been shown due to the emulation's speed. Do I need to click the Stop icon in order to get the other menu options?
Click to expand...
Yes. If you click 'STOP' with the key disk inserted it should go to the options shown on the screenshot.

If you click 'STOP without the key disk inserted it asks for the key disk. 😁
 
Crashedfiesta said:
The only person I can think who may have anything like that would have to be @Witchy as I think he has some old Torch stuff. He is the only other person I know with a potentially complete Triple X. But I can't remember if he said he'd got any Quad items...
Click to expand...
No, I just have the machine with no extra rings. I tried to get a Primagraphics ring for it since I worked for them for years but they only had one and wouldn't let it go. Not surprising really, but bah! 🙃
 
I have the 68030 based VME proto board - QuadY

btw the icons on my key disc (probably much earlier revision, since the triplex main board is older too) look ridiculous:
1779211901201.png
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top