Page 1 of 1

n00bROM - Open Source Caetla Alternative

Posted: October 3rd, 2020, 10:59 pm
by LameGuy64
This project's actually been out for quite sometime now, but haven't got around to write a post about it until now. Though the delay was probably a good thing as it's been polished up to its current pristine state since it was first released on Github and on my website.

This is effectively my own spin of a Caetla-like firmware for PAR/GS and Xplorer cartridges that I've started tinkering about sometime around August-September 2019, only more developer oriented as it lacks gaming oriented features such as a memory card manager, audio players and cheats which are likely not going to be implemented as it is beyond the scope of this project.

Anyhow, n00bROM sports the following features:
  • Automatic and manual video standard selection.
  • Chipless CD-R boot; nocash unlock (US/EU consoles only) and easy swap trick with working CD Audio (for JP consoles).
  • Quick boot capability.
  • Uses BIOS CD-ROM boot routine for maximum compatibility.
  • Upload PS-EXEs and binary files over serial using mcomms/liteload protocol, or high speed upload over parallel port with an Xplorer using the included xpsend tool (works with USB and PCIE parallel port adapters provided they support SPP under Linux, requires real parallel port under Windows).
  • Supports pcdrv file serving (Xplorer only).
  • TTY over serial or Xplorer redirection for stdin and stdout.
  • Exception screen for trapping software crashes visually.
  • EEPROM detection and work-in-progress cartridge identification.
  • Built-in flash utility for updating/replacing n00bROM easily.
  • Supports more EEPROMs than Caetla for self-flash operations.
  • Background options: Animated plasma and SMPTE bars.
  • Supports patch binaries for use with homebrew debug monitors.
  • Small ROM size; just under 32KB.
Image
Image
(screenshots are a bit old, I'll get around to updating them eventually)

n00bROM can be found in either my website or my Github repo, the latter of which includes the source code written entirely in MIPS assembly and is pretty much the largest piece of MIPS assembly I've ever written thus far. n00bROM source code is under the Mozilla Public License v2.

Re: n00bROM - Open Source Caetla Alternative

Posted: October 4th, 2020, 11:28 pm
by Squaresoft74
Great work LameGuy64 ! :)
Is there any room for LPT upload speed improvement ?
Currently getting around 45kb/s, which is nice but sadly still far from what nocash kernel/no$psx offers.

Re: n00bROM - Open Source Caetla Alternative

Posted: October 5th, 2020, 11:41 am
by LameGuy64
Haven't really tested parallel port upload speeds very much, though I usually hit ~75KB/s on my workstation running Linux using a CH384 based PCIE serial + parallel port card. Perhaps inpout32's overhead is slowing things down a bit.

Re: n00bROM - Open Source Caetla Alternative

Posted: October 12th, 2020, 12:57 pm
by Shadow
Greatest ROM ever made :mrgreen: