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Definitely going to do a full voltage test on the board before I install the ICs.

Yeah it's better, it's also a 16bit release. I was thinking just 8bit and comparisons are easy enough to find. NES has a few less colors than the SMS one and a slight knock down on the graphics, more like some background details again over coloring too, but that's about it. It has the stages most intact, the mechanics are there, the warps are there, end boss fights including the whale eating you (vs just appearing inside it) and other nice touched were left in place. You can also continue your game and gain lives. The SMS one though that's more colorful, more details present, and depending on taste of audio nicer too (nes/sms toss up) but the game has a good bit of cut content, made it overall harder, and took out all extra lives and no continues so it's 3 chances and go back to stage 1 again sucka!

Yeah - there was absolutely no way those 2 caps would fit. I did insert both before soldering, and there was about a quarter inch of "overlap". Both caps would have been at an angle, or damaged if I forced them in place. Not a big deal, I just wanted to mention it in case you were going to do a large order of parts. My OCD will probably get the best of me, and I will order smaller caps but for now, this will suffice.

You can always pause the game (F9) with the debugger enabled and have a look at the display list and DINDEX ($57). But remember there is no fixed resolution, what is on screen in most games is highly likely a mix of character/graphics modes. So pausing may not show you the entire picture (excuse the pun ) , this is one aspect of the Atari that sets apart from most other computer of the day. The screenshot I posted earlier uses a dynamic display list which changes every vertical blank, so depends when you pause it

@Thomas Jentzsch, you refer to the titles I posted? You or anyone can mess with these titles more. Or I probably will too if there is some direction. I just went with the restrictions as I understood them, 32x23 and two colors, and with my own priority of keeping Paddlefield one continuous word somehow. Color variations I think do make a difference, including how readable some designs are. I didn't spend much time with colors and don't know how the variable works in the game. Here is the blue one in black and white: For me the second one, with the cascading lines under A, E and E is real slick. But maybe too slick, like an action movie logo or something, perhaps misleading or distracting from the game. It might be less so with different lower contrast colors. The last one with straight blocks instead of the cascading lines I think also is more neutral appearance, not so flashy. Looking like a barcode or like a checkerboard, like in the first one or in the blue one, desirable or undesirable, I don't know. It is hectic and interesting. Barcode has some meaning or symbolism. The blue one as posted is also a different letter spacing that I don't necessarily prefer, but reverting would change the checker pattern, for good or bad. I can't remember if there was a reason for that design being the one where the letter spacing changed. In my thought process, having to choose, I end up on the red one, although I would definitely try different colors. It is not my favorite to look at, and I wonder how it functions for other people, but I think it side steps some issues very effectively - Guy I showed some designs to was inclined to read the A as i, PiDDLEFIELD instead of PADDLEFIELD, which is incredibly annoying to me. Also the D D L, three letters in a row all same color and spacing annoys me but almost has to be that way in order to read. But with the full screen repeating the title over and over makes the whole image look like an endless texture, with fairly even distributed contrast and also looking like an optical illusion that requires brief effort to decipher. I think that's interesting and interactive, still looks good, and hides or mitigates the A/i problem and the big fat DDL problem. It's not so difficult to read that people wouldn't get it, especially already knowing and seeing the title printed on the cart label. Eyes aren't quick enough to see and decide on "i" instead of "A" and the constant distraction of the busy design prohibits it I think. And the DDL's blend into each other and into the spaces between somehow and look less big and fat. First, the player is going to see and be like "what is that?". Quickly they will decide, "it must be something, there is deliberate variety and repetition, a pattern". Then I think they will recognize the E's and shortly after that the whole word. And they will recognize it is kind of a sharp image and legible representation after all, "PADDLEFIELD, PADDLEFIELD, PADDLEFIELD". Maybe the "i problem" isn't that critical but it was something I worried about and lead to that design. I don't want people reading or saying Piddlefield. It's embarrassing and really pisses me off. I can hear some guy never letting me forget it. I wonder if you could do something dynamic and echoing the menu selection that people like? One idea is a bar moves across screen on paddle input and highlights one letter at a time. Makes the same clicking noise as menu selections, and screen doesn't advance until you spell out PADDLEFIELD. Well it would help narrow down these designs. Here's another paddle controlled title idea: I guess that could be done with most of the designs but would take more than a few minutes for me to show. Another idea, the full screen red pattern design, or something similar, is moving up and down and paddle turns stabilize it - like TV V-hold adjuster. And player has to kind of focus it before advancing. Here's a different letter spacing, no spaces and every letter alternates color, and different checker pattern for comparison:

OP is like "you've seen the posts... I'm not gonna attempt to read that nonsense and try to figure it out"

Hi Guys. Are SRAM and CPU interchangeable between NTSC console and Pal Concole ? As I understand the STIC for sure is not interchangeable between PAL and NTSC

For those using the Docker image is there a documented procedure to upgrading or do I need to redploy and configure it again?

Running this one any longer would not have resulted in improvements. The final 100 million iterations only resulted in the normal distance changing by the thousandths. This was using 8192 solutions as well. I was surprised to get this one to turn out at all, without making some pretty drastic changes to the source image.

But what kind of resolution are these games running at ? I was also thinking of games you can directly compare to other 8 bit machines. Like Druid for example. It seems like a rather simple game graphics wise, yet the A8 and C64 versions look nothing alike. I understand the different capabilities in sprite generation but trees and background grass should be identical in the two machines. Zybex also. It is clear that Zybex on the A8 is using one color with many shade values (luminocities?) whilst the C64 uses different colors. Also the C64 seems to be in higher res. Does Altirra show you the native resolution the game is running on at any given moment somehow?

Yes I know, I have copies of his tapes as well.......

Hopefully final update coming: I have been able to do successful preliminary tests on the latest production ready pcbs. I want to do a few more intensive tests over the next day or two, but severe weather is moving in and I have to shut down my electronics. I plan to have a final proof of function Youtube video posted as well in the next day or so. Corrected gerbers, schematic and BOM should be up late Monday if all goes well.

Gary’s talked about this issue before. Here’s an interview from 2019 (jump to ~11:57 mark) where he discusses the topic.

Yeah, that seems reasonable. I would love to see a deconstruction or disassembly deep dive of the level... like I suspect it picks one of 2 or 3 patterns. i wonder if the repeating space is like a square or more like a circle, fundamentally (sort of like I'm still in awe of how 2600 Battlezone tracks even the offscreen world...

The main trick IIRC with it is you need to get a high voltage pulse on sync into the sync/reset line. I don't think the circuit is documented, only the concept... The datasheet I have backs up my memory -- you have to drive the RESET pin above 9V (Recommended is listed as 10-12V) for external sync. Which means you need to extract sync from the previous VDP's composite output (rated as 1.85-2.1V), raise it cleanly, and juggle it with the console reset line. Honestly the 9928's approach of just signaling an external video switch seems easier. That said, when I played with the video input line many, many years ago, I actually just cut the reset line (with the intent of figuring it out later) and fed in composite video from a VCR. Everything /worked/ technically, switching, overlay, but it was useless without the sync of course... When the 9918A was in charge, there was slight bleed-through from the VCR, out of sync of course. The balancing circuit would probably solve that. When I switched on external video from the VDP register, the VCR input took over sync and was stable, but without sync pulses, the VDP was now out of sync. It was clearly superimposed, though! Radio Electronics did an article on making a titler out of a 9918 and using the video overlay feature, so in theory all the needed information and circuitry are in there. I've saved the article all these decades out of interest of seeing it someday. Their job was a little more complex since they needed to take a slightly incompatible external video signal, but stacking VDPs you should be able to assume they are starting pretty damn close. (edit: All these years I've been sharing the wrong issues - turns out R-E did video titlers /twice/. The first was just for generating text screens. The SECOND was the TI-based overlay one. BUT... my brain remembered wrong (and young me in 1985 probably misunderstood)... it does use the 9928 and externally switches the video, it does not use the internal mixer. BUT, it still needs to generate that SYNC pulse, so there is still valuable info in here. Also, my archived scans are terrible quality...) Radio-Electronics-1985-11.pdf Radio-Electronics-1985-12.pdf Radio-Electronics-1986-01.pdf Radio-Electronics-1986-03.pdf

Get that Atari hardware back Yes just a feature of the game, you can sometimes kick one back up and dash across for the other but sometimes you are stuffed first tables PinHead Player Score Points 1st McKong 134,270 12 2nd therealbountybob 76,070 11 3rd AtariSphinx 24,090 10 4th Sikor 11,640 9 5th devwebcl 9,570 8 6th carlsson 7,675 7 7th littleman jack 5,570 6 8th Goochman 2,775 5 The R7 McKong Poll is open: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/365551-hsc21-round-7-poll/

I just flashed up my latest build of 4 devkit's with 1.3! Thanks! I will be posting Atari Fujinet devkits and Sdrive Maxes on Ebay shortly. PM me if you want to work with me directly on a unit.

All the games work for me on Stella. I hope some other players have some suggestions for you.

A new firmware update is available from https://fujinet.online/download v1.3.0 2024-04-26 601c3f1af833f345695f4940bf816942fd2efdce All Platforms TCP Support in TNFS Ability to mount from SMB and FTP hosts in CONFIG Option to select alternate CONFIG disk from WebUI Option to reset Fujinet from WebUI CONFIG bug fixes Atari set status bits according to disk geometry faster fujinet bootup for 400/800 (external power or START/RESET keys not required to boot CONFIG) PC-Link support Apple 2 support 40 track DSK images for disk2 mode fix crash when disk mount fails fix web mount list faster fujinet bootup Use FujiNet lib for CONFIG Please do not respond to this thread. If you have an issue, start a new post in the FujiNet subforum, open an issue on the github tracker or ask for assistance in Discord chat.

My strategy for the tower tops is to continually steer in one direction, usually to the right. So when the round starts, I'll take out the first few towers directly in front of me, and then I'll begin steering toward the right. I'll continue shooting any towers that appear, while always going rightward the whole time. Unless my shots miss a tower or two, I will encounter enough towers using that method to get the bonus for clearing all towers.

Round 7 Poll This poll features McKong's selection of games: Late scores welcome for Rounds 1 to 6 (still open) Pick as many as you like before voting. Henry's House https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=2050 Yoomp! https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=5648 The Great Escape https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=7239 Blinky's Scary School https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=1509 RGB https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=7075 Hobgoblin https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=5902 The Last Ninja 2 https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=5257 Robix https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=173 Desmond's Dungeon https://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=1746

Would be nice. I could be wrong, but would most likely have to replace the start app altogether. Someone implementing a replacement gui may want to utilize the space and graphics regions in an altogether different manner, especially for those that already have experience and existing code to work with.

Jed Margolin worked in coin op and his info came from VAX tapes as well.

According to this site, the game was released in August 1982 - https://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-history-1982.html#donkey_kong It was even released earlier but had to be recalled because carts didn't work on the 6 switch models. So they had plenty of time to have the cartridge on the market and could have gone with 8K and a few more months of development.