How to save to Easyflash

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Could you give a very detailed step-by-step explanation of how to save data from an Easyflash and reload it? I read the manual and other forum threads about it, and still am very confused.

    Generally this works in two steps:


    * First you use whatever "save" feature the software running on the Easyflash has - this updates the Easyflash contents in the emulated flash ROM (which is RAM on the chameleon). With a real Easyflash this would be the only thing that is needed.


    * Now if you want to permanently save, you need to make a copy of the Easyflash image in the Chameleon RAM to SD Card. Enter the Chameleon Menu, then the Filebrowser. In the Filebrowser navigate into the folder where you want to save. Use the "F4". Select "save ROM" and enter the Filename you want to use. Now select the cartridge slot you have previously mounted Easyflash too (usually 4), and it will save the image.


    * The new image is now a 1MB raw easyflash image. To load it back, you'll have to first configure cartridge slot 3 or 4 to type "Easyflash", and then load that saved file into the respective slot. Alternatively you can first load the original .crt file (which configures the slot and cartridge type), go back to Menu and load the saved .rom into the same slot.

    It's not working for me. I save the image, configure Easyflash, and try to reload it, and it just boots to the C64 screen.


    I have to say, this user interface leaves a lot to be desired. Easyflash has become a popular way to play C64 games on real hardware. Why can't you just write a CRT file so I don't have to go through these hoops to configure the cartridge slot? That's what the Ultimate II+ does. And the menu to set "easyflash" mode for the cartridge port is very annoying and fiddly if you don't have an Easyflash CRT file ready to load.


    Also, why can't you detect that the RAM has been changed and have a popup that asks if you want to write it to disk like you do with disk images? Surely it's easy to set a flag when cartridge RAM is written. That would make the UI consistent and mostly self-explanatory.

    To be honest - those are all good questions and i don't remember why things were implemented like they are (that was long ago). You are also the first to bring this up (at least i don't remember another case). Perhaps certain limitations in the menu software (of which a lot were lifted in the meantime) were the reason - or perhaps even the lack of Easyflash things that would actually "save" (this has also changed a lot in the past few years, as you say).


    I'll have a look

    OK so, i had to spend some time on debugging cc65 itself, the menu started to behave really funny after a recompile :) Hopefully back to normal now....


    So, can you name some EF release that would let me test "save to cartridge" and then "reload from cartridge" quickly? Preferably without having to play some game in order to beat a high score :)

    I just wanted to chime in to say that the hassle of figuring this out (due to my ignorance how cartridges work on the Chameleon) and subsequently working with this also slightly annoys me and I would be grateful if this is somehow easier to work with.


    The game I'm currently playing with this approach is Lykia. You can also not overwrite a "save"/ROM which leads to a long list of saves...


    A game that maybe is an option to test with is Boxy Moxy. It's available on itch.io for free, although you might want to donate something or state that what you are using the game for if you decide not to donate. You only have to play the first level to see if it saves.

    yes, it's a bit cluncky that you have to save the ROM to a new file every time. Then when you want to load that ROM you first have to load the original image then load the saved ROM.


    Would have been much nicer if it worked more like with D64s. Where you could save to the original ROM file without the need to create a new ROM save file. I believe 1541 Ultimate II + and KungFu Flash works like this. But maybe there is some hardware limitations in the TC64 preventing this as an option?

    It's not a hardware limitation, but you can't reduce the size of the saved file either, because otherwise you'd have to compare the whole image against the original, making it slow and even slower to load/save. The approach of creating a whole new crt is by far the most straight-forward, and with the size of SD cards these days, there's no real need to reduce save-size IMO.


    Jens

    Last time i checked 1541U worked pretty much the same as Chameleon - except it does indeed create a .crt file (but also creates a new file). One problem is indeed checking for "unused" areas in the .crt (a typical EF .crt file omits the unused blocks) - i'll have to experiment with that and see how slow it is... I'm on it :) Still working on some cc65 related things, so i can use the latest compiler (which eg includes some optimizations on 32bit operations - which might speed up the filesystem a bit)

    i have posted a test build here - please test.


    This one implements the first half - you can save a .crt file when easyflash is mounted, the image omits empty (filled with 0xff) blocks, and it allows to overwrite existing files.


    Please test if this works as expected.


    Will look if i can make the process more automatic than this (like with d64), but that is more involved...

    Thanks so much for this! And sorry for the slow reply. I had to move my computers around and haven't had a chance to set everything up again. I will try this as soon as I get a chance.

    Quote

    Will look if i can make the process more automatic than this (like with d64), but that is more involved...

    It's working (i think) - will test a bit myself. and post another build, tomorrow


    Having some game that needs a bit less interaction than this boxy moxy thing would be nice though :)

    Quote from Tobias

    It's working (i think) - will test a bit myself. and post another build, tomorrow


    Having some game that needs a bit less interaction than this boxy moxy thing would be nice though :)

    Looking forward to this. Pirates! easyflash, you can save in any town/harbor. Maniac Mansion easyflash, you can save when you want. And Soul Force easyflash has automatic saving after each level

    Please give it some beating and try to break it - there were changes in the rom and crt loaders and savers - so there is a chance i made a mistake (hopefully not :=P) somewhere and there are weird side effect :) Especially using slot #3 isnt well tested, i guess (but also side effects with slot #1 and #2)