I saw there was a new release of XEiJ x68000 emulator that has a rom creation tool for making new 1.6 IPL roms for real hardware so i thought i would give it a shot, the new IPL roms have a few nice features such as automatically detecting and setting switch.x sram settings at boot and sram clear function for machines without it. for the cz600c I used two 27c512 eproms and the XVI uses 27c1001. you can read more about it here: https://stdkmd.net/xeij/iplrom16.htm
Do you need to do byte swapping on the image or does the java application do it for you automatically?
I think it exports the images directly - eg for the Expert it dumps out odd and even ROM binaries.
Just a funny question to who already used the IPL ROM on real HW:
I tested the IPL1.6 on an ACE HD with a damaged Messiah, so it had some issue when booting disks but i got a nice "boing" sound at boot and reset, something like the Old Apple Mac.
I replaced the ACE HD MB with a new one, re-inserted the IPL 1.6 ROMs and now it works fine, but there's no more the nice "boing" sound at boot.
So, my question is: is normal the boot sound with IPL1.6 ROM, or it's a sort of "warning" in case the ipl found issue on the X68K? i didn't find any info about it in author's page.
What happens on the emulator? Does it "boing"?
No, no sound in emulator, and i re-mounted the M/B with shorted Messiah, but i get no longer the "boing", so i can't replicate it furthermore.
So, it was a glitch or an error message, but it's a pity since it was very nice! 😅
I have an older IPL 1.6 from 2024 installed in my ACEHD and no 'Boing' sound at bootup.
However, I have the latest 1.6 ROM installed in my Compact and I do get the 'Boing' at bootup.
Quote from: X-Col on January 17, 2026, 04:14:36 AMI have an older IPL 1.6 from 2024 installed in my ACEHD and no 'Boing' sound at bootup.
However, I have the latest 1.6 ROM installed in my Compact and I do get the 'Boing' at bootup.
thank you for confirmation, what's strange is that i used the last version and i had 'Boing' first times, then it stopped. I wonder if there's a way to enable/disable it...
I have no idea, I assumed it was a new feature of the latest ROM.
My Compact works fine so not sure if its an indication that there is an error of some sort.
Here it is booting on my Compact XVI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx6M7A7zSkE
Quote from: X-Col on January 17, 2026, 05:02:23 AMI have no idea, I assumed it was a new feature of the latest ROM.
My Compact works fine so not sure if its an indication that there is an error of some sort.
Here it is booting on my Compact XVI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx6M7A7zSkE
I had same boot screen (and same ROM date, 2025-08-03) but with no sound.. i wonder why it stopped playing on my ACE.
Of course, music and games play fine, so it's only the first "Boing" is missing.
Strange. I have been reading the XEiJ site and can find no mention of it.
I will have to update the ROMs in my ACE and see if the sound plays. I will let you know
Thank you
@X-Col , yes the XEiJ site doesn't mention the "Boing" sound, and i can't get it with XEiJ emulator too.
Keep me informed when you'll test your ACE.
Quote from: aotta on January 17, 2026, 05:15:27 AMThank you @X-Col , yes the XEiJ site doesn't mention the "Boing" sound, and i can't get it with XEiJ emulator too.
Keep me informed when you'll test your ACE.
I cleared the SRAM on the Compact and the 'Boing' sound is now gone.
It seems to confirm that there is some bit in sram driving the sound.. but how to change it?
Or, the boing is something related to a bad sram checksum..
I did a test with XM6 emulator too, and i got the "Boing" only first time i ran it!
After some test with emulator, i found the flag: SRAM location 0x91 (dec 145) should be not 0 to enable "boing" with ipl1.6 rom.
I never programmed on X68000, anyone could help for coding a little tool to write a byte in SRAM?
And, according to this site: https://www.chibiakumas.com/68000/x68000.php , the address is a system flag:
$ed0091 1.b - OPM music during startup (0: OFF -1: ON)
Ok, solved! that's a mini how-to for turning on sound at bootup:
no need of a program, just use the debug tool you'll find on the first disk of C Compiler PRO.
Follow instruction on wiki RAM ISSUE (https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=x68000:sram_issues) and boot from C-Compiler PRO X86k disk.
After answering "N" to the prompt that pops up it should dump you back in HumanOS.
Then type:
db
mes e8e00d 31
mes ed0091 01
mes e8e00d 00
q
And... tada! or, better... Boing! you have startup sound back!
I'm afraid that, after a SRAM clear, the procedure should be re-applied.
And, i've not tested what if the flag is set in a X68K with a standard IPL ROM, but i'm curious about that...
(quick edit: in emulator, no difference with original IPL ROM: startup sound seems working only with IPL1.6)
So is the boing supposed to be on by default? What makes it go away? SRAM clear? Then what enabled it for you before? You didn't run this procedure in the past.
I was changing different motherboard on my ace hd, so the sram had random values at boot (in ACES the battery is in the bottom peripheral board).
At boot, if bios 1.6 find a value different from 0 at SRAM 0x91, it plays startup sound.
At first, i didn't understand why it happened randomly, but now it's clear!
edited:
and, yes, clear ram disable the "Boing"
The tool to change the sound of IPLROM1.6 is in the "MISC" folder of XEiJ.
Here it is:
https://stdkmd.net/xeij/miscfiles.htm#stupsndx (https://stdkmd.net/xeij/miscfiles.htm#stupsndx)
You can turn the sound on/off and change the key code.
To just turn the standard sound on,
n:\stupsnd.x on
To change the key code (from 2 to 127),
n:\stupsnd.x 100
Once set, it will remain valid unless the SRAM is changed or erased.
There are various tools in the "MISC" folder, so give them a try.
Thank you
@68mania , i totally missed that folder! i'll test the utility on real HW asap!!