Miner 2049er question

[flicky]

I just sold someone a Miner 2049er cart. I had tested it and it worked fine on my 800XL machine. However the buyer has just told me that it doesn't work on their Atari 400 - just the title screen appears, then it crashes. All their other Atari 8-bit cartridges apparently work OK.

 

Does anyone know if Miner 2049er works on 400 machines? Could the problem here be a lack of memory?

 

Thanks

Jon

[Tempest]

Miner 2049er and BBSB work fine on the Atari 400. I grew up playing Miner of my 400 for years. Anything that plays on a 5200 will play on the Atari 400 since they're 99% the same (minus the keyboard of course). The problem is probably dirty connectors on his cartridge port. Tell him to clean them and try again.

 

Tempest

[Goochman]

Doesnt Miner 2049'er require 48K?

 

Running on a 5200 doesnt equate to running on a 400 since the memory structure on the 5200 was different.

[Tempest]

Doesnt Miner 2049'er require 48K?

 

Nope. 16K. BBSB was actually a 40K ROM, but it was achived through bankswitching so it also worked on the Atari 400 with 16K.

 

 

Running on a 5200 doesnt equate to running on a 400 since the memory structure on the 5200 was different

 

I beg to differ. The structure of the Atari 400 and the 5200 are very similar. Converting games form the 400 to the 5200 is quite trivial, you mostly have to account for the lack of a keyboard and the new joystick/keypad inputs. There are very few signals that are actually different (mostly just missing on the 5200), and of course there's the startup screen.

 

Tempest

[Goochman]

The 5200 had 32K cart addressing therefore could potentially run games that couldnt work on a standard 16K 400 - 98% the same but a few differences.

[Callipygous]

Does anyone know if Miner 2049er works on 400 machines? Could the problem here be a lack of memory?

 

It should work on any 16K Atari 8-bit. The early 400s had only 8k, IIRC. Since all the other carts work, though, it seems safe to assume that his 400 has 16K of good memory Its possible that he has only the early carts which are 8K or less. Seems unlikely.

 

Try the cleaning as mentioned (isopropyl alcohol). Also, move the cart slight up from the bottom of the slot. Sometime a cart sits too far down to make the proper contact. Another thing, (don't laugh) make sure the cart is facing the right way! I've messed up this way myself. I think Miner has the little slots, though, so it won't reverse like some cart cases.