Harmony menu navigation question

[Havok69]

So, I am loving my new Harmony cartridge; I have loaded up all my favorite games, and everything is working flawlessly.

 

One question, or perhaps a feature request - if I know I am going to be playing a paddle game before firing up the 2600, should I be able to navigate through the menu and select the game with the paddle? I can move up and down the menu, but when I press the fire button to select, it only opens the credits, not the folder that I have on the root with all my games in it.

 

(I would just put all the games in the root, but since it is such a small card(8mb), I have to format Fat16, so I am limited to much less than 125 titles, especially since I have long filenames.)

 

Currently what I do is plug in the joystick, select the game and then plug in the paddles. However, I'd really like to just use the paddles to select the game when I get my daily dose of Kaboom!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

That sounds like a bug. What BIOS are you using (incl. TV system)?

[Havok69]

That sounds like a bug. What BIOS are you using (incl. TV system)?

 

I just received my cart yesterday, so it should be 1.3 and NTSC. (I'm at "work" now, but will verify tonight)

[Havok69]

Just checked, and it is 1.03

[+chriswhit]

So, I am loving my new Harmony cartridge; I have loaded up all my favorite games, and everything is working flawlessly.

 

One question, or perhaps a feature request - if I know I am going to be playing a paddle game before firing up the 2600, should I be able to navigate through the menu and select the game with the paddle? I can move up and down the menu, but when I press the fire button to select, it only opens the credits, not the folder that I have on the root with all my games in it.

 

(I would just put all the games in the root, but since it is such a small card(8mb), I have to format Fat16, so I am limited to much less than 125 titles, especially since I have long filenames.)

 

Currently what I do is plug in the joystick, select the game and then plug in the paddles. However, I'd really like to just use the paddles to select the game when I get my daily dose of Kaboom!

 

I have the same issue. I have the sd card that came with the deluxe Harmony which is 2 gb and also am running version 1.3 bios. I do the same thing you do to get around the issue. I think my sd card is formatted to fat32.

[accousticguitar]

I just tried using the paddle controllers and it started flipping from one selection screen to the next over and over. I shut the 2600 off and now when I turn it on all I get is a black screen. Did I kill my Harmony?

[+batari]

I just tried using the paddle controllers and it started flipping from one selection screen to the next over and over. I shut the 2600 off and now when I turn it on all I get is a black screen. Did I kill my Harmony?

If you powered off while loading a game, there is a chance that the BIOS got corrupted. You should try reflashing the BIOS.

[accousticguitar]

I'll have to buy one of those special cables I guess. I'm staying away from paddle games from here on out. It was working fine until I hooked them up.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I'm staying away from paddle games from here on out. It was working fine until I hooked them up.

There shouldn't be any problems resulting from using paddles, so there is no reason to avoid them.

 

Is your Harmony dead with and without paddles attached? If yes, try changing the B/W switch (since there might be one buggy BIOS out there).

[+batari]

I'll have to buy one of those special cables I guess. I'm staying away from paddle games from here on out. It was working fine until I hooked them up.

It's a very common USB cable. If you have a camera, MP3 player, or other USB device, you may already have one. I had at least half a dozen before I even started on the Harmony project, and every new device I buy seems to come with another.

[accousticguitar]

Is your Harmony dead with and without paddles attached? If yes, try changing the B/W switch (since there might be one buggy BIOS out there).

I just tried that with joysticks plugged in. It's a black screen no matter what I do.

 

]It's a very common USB cable. If you have a camera, MP3 player, or other USB device, you may already have one. I had at least half a dozen before I even started on the Harmony project, and every new device I buy seems to come with another.

I checked but I don't have one.

[+chriswhit]

Is your Harmony dead with and without paddles attached? If yes, try changing the B/W switch (since there might be one buggy BIOS out there).

I just tried that with joysticks plugged in. It's a black screen no matter what I do.

 

]It's a very common USB cable. If you have a camera, MP3 player, or other USB device, you may already have one. I had at least half a dozen before I even started on the Harmony project, and every new device I buy seems to come with another.

I checked but I don't have one.

 

If you need that cable still pm me and I'll ship you one for free. Hope you get it working.

[Havok69]

Yay! Just flashed the BIOS to 1.03c and now I can use the paddle controllers to navigate AND select games!

 

Thanks!

[BigO]

Is your Harmony dead with and without paddles attached? If yes, try changing the B/W switch (since there might be one buggy BIOS out there).

I just tried that with joysticks plugged in. It's a black screen no matter what I do.

 

]It's a very common USB cable. If you have a camera, MP3 player, or other USB device, you may already have one. I had at least half a dozen before I even started on the Harmony project, and every new device I buy seems to come with another.

I checked but I don't have one.

 

If you need that cable still pm me and I'll ship you one for free. Hope you get it working.

I don't believe it's possible to give better customer service than is being given with the rollout of the Harmony Cartridge.

[accousticguitar]

I don't believe it's possible to give better customer service than is being given with the rollout of the Harmony Cartridge.

Agreed.

[+chriswhit]

I now have an issue with my Harmony with my atari heavy sixer. My menu just scrolls. It does it with or without controllers hooked up. It was working fine till I tried to load a pac-man hack. Could a corrupt rom do something to my Atari. I tried it on 6 other ataris and I don't have the scrolling issue. I tried a different sd card and roms loaded with ten roms that worked on the system before and still the same issue. Wonder if its a problem with my heavy sixer. Has this happened to anyone else? I did shut the system down after waiting 10 minutes for the spinning to stop hoping the game would load. I don't think I corupted anything on the Harmony because this system is the only atari it seems to mess up on. Could I have corupted something in the 2600's bios or cooked something in the system? I'm wondering if the RIOT chip is bad. here's a link to an ongoing discussion about games that will run on one system but not another. http://www.atariage....__fromsearch__1 I'd like to stop the scrolling to finish a list I'm working on and to find out an answer to post 16 in the link.

edit just tried that rom in my other heavy sixer and it ran fine strange.

[cd-w]

I now have an issue with my Harmony with my atari heavy sixer. My menu just scrolls. It does it with or without controllers hooked up. It was working fine till I tried to load a pac-man hack. Could a corrupt rom do something to my Atari. I tried it on 6 other ataris and I don't have the scrolling issue. I tried a different sd card and roms loaded with ten roms that worked on the system before and still the same issue. Wonder if its a problem with my heavy sixer. Has this happened to anyone else? I did shut the system down after waiting 10 minutes for the spinning to stop hoping the game would load. I don't think I corupted anything on the Harmony because this system is the only atari it seems to mess up on. Could I have corupted something in the 2600's bios or cooked something in the system? I'm wondering if the RIOT chip is bad.

 

Do you have any problems with other carts on the system? Check the controller ports to make sure there are no bent, recessed, or touching pins. Otherwise it does sound like your RIOT chip could be bad. I am reasonably sure it wasn't caused by the Harmony cart, and there isn't anything inside the 2600 that can be corrupted.

 

Chris

[+chriswhit]

I now have an issue with my Harmony with my atari heavy sixer. My menu just scrolls. It does it with or without controllers hooked up. It was working fine till I tried to load a pac-man hack. Could a corrupt rom do something to my Atari. I tried it on 6 other ataris and I don't have the scrolling issue. I tried a different sd card and roms loaded with ten roms that worked on the system before and still the same issue. Wonder if its a problem with my heavy sixer. Has this happened to anyone else? I did shut the system down after waiting 10 minutes for the spinning to stop hoping the game would load. I don't think I corupted anything on the Harmony because this system is the only atari it seems to mess up on. Could I have corupted something in the 2600's bios or cooked something in the system? I'm wondering if the RIOT chip is bad.

 

Do you have any problems with other carts on the system? Check the controller ports to make sure there are no bent, recessed, or touching pins. Otherwise it does sound like your RIOT chip could be bad. I am reasonably sure it wasn't caused by the Harmony cart, and there isn't anything inside the 2600 that can be corrupted.

 

Chris

Yes there is a bunch of 2600 games that won't run on it. Most just show a black screen. Especially many home brew games. I tried the rom a few minutes ago in my other heavy sixer and it worked great. I think I have two issues. The RIOT and a recessed pin in port one that I checked after reading this post. I'm going to fix the port right now. Thanks

[cd-w]

It seems that the Harmony is actually rather useful as a 2600 diagnostic cart It pushes the VCS hardware quite hard, so any problems with system (e.g. faulty RIOT chips) are going to show up quickly. This isn't too surprising, as we are dealing with 30+ year old hardware. That said, there is no way that the Harmony can damage the 2600 hardware, so it is perfectly safe to experiment. It is possible for the Harmony BIOS to get corrupted if the power is switched off during loading, but this can be easily fixed by re-flashing the Harmony using the USB cable.

 

Chris

[Monk]

I don't believe it's possible to give better customer service than is being given with the rollout of the Harmony Cartridge.

 

That is true! Customer service with Harmony Cart has been excellent, patient, informative and wise. Also I'd like to point out that it has been very 'human', not cold, like nowadays is so common. People should be treated like people and not machines.

 

Also I am amazed at the great lenghts for example mr. Batari has gone to ensure that I have a good and functional Harmony Cart with no problems. Can't remember when I would have ever been given this great service!

 

Great service, great cart!

 

- Monk

 

p.s. Oh by the way - is there any way to properly alphabetize the Harmony Cart directories? They are in such weird order that it's kinda difficult to navigate. I was thinking of just deleting everything from the SD card and recopying it all and never touching it again (I mean, never adding or deleting anything after that)..

 

Do you think it would work, or do I need to reformat the SD card? Or is there some program that would do this sort of thing? Someone mentioned 'drivesort', but I have no idea what that is. Thanks.

[cd-w]

I don't believe it's possible to give better customer service than is being given with the rollout of the Harmony Cartridge.

 

That is true! Customer service with Harmony Cart has been excellent, patient, informative and wise. Also I'd like to point out that it has been very 'human', not cold, like nowadays is so common. People should be treated like people and not machines.

 

Also I am amazed at the great lenghts for example mr. Batari has gone to ensure that I have a good and functional Harmony Cart with no problems. Can't remember when I would have ever been given this great service!

 

Great service, great cart!

 

- Monk

 

p.s. Oh by the way - is there any way to properly alphabetize the Harmony Cart directories? They are in such weird order that it's kinda difficult to navigate. I was thinking of just deleting everything from the SD card and recopying it all and never touching it again (I mean, never adding or deleting anything after that)..

 

Do you think it would work, or do I need to reformat the SD card? Or is there some program that would do this sort of thing? Someone mentioned 'drivesort', but I have no idea what that is. Thanks.

 

Use DriveSort (or similar). Or copy the files onto your PC, format the card, then copy them back again.

 

Chris

[Monk]

Use DriveSort (or similar). Or copy the files onto your PC, format the card, then copy them back again.

 

Thanks! Yes, I actually did this but forgot to come here and tell that it sorted it great, now everything is properly alphabetized - makes the usability of Harmony Cart again one step greater!

 

I mean, I used Drivesort - what a handy tool! I recommend it to everyone who's having the same problem of not having the filenames alphabetized properly.

 

- Monk

[A.J. Franzman]

Use DriveSort (or similar).

 

Does anyone know of such a program that, in addition to alphabetical or other order, allows a user to manually put the files into any any arbitrary order? ... And works under Windows 98???

[A.J. Franzman]

Yes there is a bunch of 2600 games that won't run on it. Most just show a black screen. Especially many home brew games. I tried the rom a few minutes ago in my other heavy sixer and it worked great. I think I have two issues. The RIOT and a recessed pin in port one that I checked after reading this post. I'm going to fix the port right now. Thanks

You can verify your bad RIOT by putting only one ROM image on an SD card in your Harmony, the one for Diagnostic Cartridge 2.6 [<Diagnostic Test Cartridge 2.6 (1982) (Atari) (MA017600) ~.bin> in Rom Hunter's collection], put all console switches up, and try it. If you get a screen with a large X or diagonal stripe or zigzag pattern on a black background, the RIOT or one of its connections is bad. If you get a screen with horizontal rainbow stripes, the RAM in the RIOT is OK (there may still be issues with reading the controller ports, but that's not the problem you described, and you need special test plugs to test that part of the RIOT with this ROM).

Edited February 24, 2010 by A.J. Franzman

[devwebcl]

Perhaps a dummy question, but is there a way to know the version of the BIOS in the 2600 ?

 

I just see the title "haymony" and different directories of the filesystem as homebrews, drivers, etc.

 

Devwebcl