Hi 'hap',
thanks to you and Berger for this new engine!

I had a problem porting back the Premiere to my version 0.220 with 'memory_share_creator'.
I've solved (?) it with a similar method that I've already used for some Saitek engines long time ago:

1) changed
m_nvram(*this, "nvram", 0x10000, ENDIANNESS_BIG),
to
m_nvram(*this, "nvram"),

2) changed
memory_share_creator< u16 > m_nvram;
to
required_device m_nvram;
and
std::unique_ptr< u16[] > m_nvram_data;

3) changed
m_rombank->configure_entries(0, 2, memregion("maincpu")->base(), 0x20000);
m_nvrambank->configure_entries(0, 2, m_nvram, 0x8000);
to
m_rombank->configure_entries(0, 2, memregion("maincpu")->base(), 0x20000);
m_nvram_data = make_unique_clear< u16[] >(0x10000);
save_pointer(NAME(m_nvram_data), 0x10000);
m_nvram->set_base(m_nvram_data.get(), 0x10000);
m_nvrambank->configure_entries(0, 2, m_nvram, 0x8000);

With these changes the compilation is ok and also the Premiere seems to be working correctly, but to be sure that there are no hidden errors or side-effects, I'm better asking for your 'ok'.

I'm not sure about the type 'u16', but I guess it's correct because of BIG endianness?
but I guess it's correct because of BIG endianness?
And also I'm not sure if the values 0x10000 are correct in the 3 lines with 'm_nvram_data'?

Regards,
Franz

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I think that will work fine, except the make_unique_clear is twice as large there, the param is number of indexes, not number of bytes.

"u16" is "uint16_t", aka "unsigned short", 16-bit variable.

Unfortunately it doesn't work with u8 - but also with u16 there's a problem:
I guess either 0x10000 is wrong (it creates a 64kB nvram file!), or some other changes must be made.
Since this Premiere has both a "nvram" and "nvrambank", it's definitely too difficult for me to solve this problem.

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64KB is correct, there is no problem.
No, don't change unique_ptr to u8, NVRAM is 16-bit.

Well, I've changed it back to u16, but it's still not working.
There's nothing saved in nvram at all (all bytes are always 0xff), and MessUI crashes sometimes when I start the Premiere engine, sometimes when I close the engine.

Are all 3 values 0x10000 in my previous posting really correct?
Or could it have to do something with "rs232" or "usart" that you've added in your new driver? Maybe these devices didn't work correctly in MAME 0.220?

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Elite Premiere should work fine without the USART.

m_nvrambank->configure_entries(0, 2, m_nvram, 0x8000);
I noticed a bug. Change to:
m_nvrambank->configure_entries(0, 2, m_nvram_data, 0x8000);

Hallo Franz,
nur mal zur Info: Die echte Premiere speichert auch nix ... weder der Fidelity Teil, noch der Vancouver ... obwohl sie es laut Handbuch sollen können und sogar eine Speicherbatterie im Gerät ist ...

Gruß,
Sascha

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Well, with this change the compiler gives an error

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I don't know, try other things, like m_nvram_data.get() or &m_nvram_data.get() or (void*)m_nvram_data, etc.

@Mythbuster are you sure the battery wasn't dead? Or something broke?
The PCB has two 32KB CMOS RAM chips, a battery, and a Dallas DS1210. And in MAME, I can see it writing to it.
I haven't tried saving whole games.

None of these methods compile - I give up ...

Edit: I've made the same changes long time ago in the saitek_stratos driver, and there it worked with m_nvram_data.get().
Maybe the problem for the Prestige is, that it uses ENDIANNESS_BIG?

Thanks,
Franz

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