sega_SHARK Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Another Zanac update. I started actually unplugging carts from my ColecoVision instead of leaving them in all day and night. (Atarimax SD in particular) Since I have actually started unplugging carts after playing them, Zanac hasn't crashed. My cart connector on my CV is probably on the cusp of being loose. In other news, I just figured out that Yori from Tron and Lacy Underalls from Caddyshack are the same actress. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 I received Zanac last week with the rest of my order and have played it on a CV with SGM as well as ADAM without SGM and have not experienced any crashes. As far as the ADAM goes, the game plays perfectly without the SGM hooked-up, but obviously there is no sound since the game uses the SGM's sound chip. Just to be clear, there are only 3 reported ADAM Stand-Alone Memory Consoles that can play SGM required games (no sound if it uses the SGM's sound chip) without the SGM plugged in. I am sure there are probably more of these "special" ADAMs out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 So this is confusing... can anyone confirm there is bug in Zanac? Sounds to me we got a false alarm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 So this is confusing... can anyone confirm there is bug in Zanac? Sounds to me we got a false alarm... I don't know what to tell you. Over 130 games in my collection and Zanac was the only game that crashed. How do you explain what was going on in my video? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 I don't know what to tell you. Over 130 games in my collection and Zanac was the only game that crashed. How do you explain what was going on in my video? Oh boy, ok... Again, please understand I am not the publisher of Zanac, I have no control on a number of things... from manufacturing to support. I am just trying to keep track if there is a problem with the game or not. Again, I have not been contacted by the publisher on the issue, so this is all informal. As for Knightmare, I am still waiting for a status report. But as they say, no news is good news... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 I don't know what to tell you. Over 130 games in my collection and Zanac was the only game that crashed. How do you explain what was going on in my video? Do you have an alternate Colecovision? It could happen your Colecovision has a very special bug in RAM memory or Z80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 Oh boy, ok... Again, please understand I am not the publisher of Zanac, I have no control on a number of things... from manufacturing to support. I am just trying to keep track if there is a problem with the game or not. Not sure why you asked the question then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 Not sure why you asked the question then You’ve got a point there. What I was trying to mean is that I am doing this informally. I am not the publisher, so please don't blame me, because I have no control on QA, manufacturing, etc, and software bug isn't the only way to explain what is going on. Even assuming the problem is software related and I do fix that, nothing would change on the end user side unless the publisher contacts me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 I don't know what to tell you. Over 130 games in my collection and Zanac was the only game that crashed. How do you explain what was going on in my video? I played Zanac for a good period of time on a CV as well an ADAM and did not experience any issues or crashes. However, for the life of me, my AtariMax MaxFlash Cart Dumper will not make a good dump of the cart so that I can play the game with the SD Cart. Possibly a change in the Cartridge PCB was made??? Also, in order for my CV to recognize the new Light Grid Racing game released by CollectorVision, I have to press down on the top of the cartridge after it's already been inserted and system powered on and then press the reset button. Seems to me the contacts on the cart PCB may be the culprit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 seems lot of people having trouble with the lates release... i think the should go back to the old pcb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 seems lot of people having trouble with the lates release... i think the should go back to the old pcb Zanac or Knightmare aren't using one of my PCBs. I have no control on that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 I played Zanac for a good period of time on a CV as well an ADAM and did not experience any issues or crashes. However, for the life of me, my AtariMax MaxFlash Cart Dumper will not make a good dump of the cart so that I can play the game with the SD Cart. Possibly a change in the Cartridge PCB was made??? Thank you for bringing this up NIAD! I've been meaning to state this as well. For the life of me, I cannot get a good dump of Zanac. I even recently (prior to Zanac's release) received a replacement AtariMax USB Cartridge Programmer and CV adapter from Steve earlier this year. All I get from my ROM dumps is a black screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 Thank you for bringing this up NIAD! I've been meaning to state this as well. For the life of me, I cannot get a good dump of Zanac. I even recently (prior to Zanac's release) received a replacement AtariMax USB Cartridge Programmer and CV adapter from Steve earlier this year. All I get from my ROM dumps is a black screen. Now this is all very weird... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grips03 Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 I think a lot of the folks on AA buy the game and then put the original cart back in the box and play using Atarimax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 Weird. Zanac dumped just fine for me... I've also seen no crashes on this or Knightmare (but I admit that I haven't played more than a level or two on Knightmare yet.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted November 25, 2015 Author Share Posted November 25, 2015 I think a lot of the folks on AA buy the game and then put the original cart back in the box and play using Atarimax. I mean, very weird you couldn't copy the game with Atarimax... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 Like TPR I was also successful in dumping Zanac, however I had to play around with pulling the cart slightly out of the AtariMax CV adapter to get it to read properly. Perhaps another indication that the cart PCB contacts are not quite right. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+grips03 Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 I remember a split power trace issue on Intellivision cartridge pcb. Is something like that going on for Coleco cart pcb? Can you post hi-rez photos of both sides of pcb edge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 I think a lot of the folks on AA buy the game and then put the original cart back in the box and play using Atarimax. I mean, very weird you couldn't copy the game with Atarimax... Yes. I believe you both are saying the same thing. I believe many of us make a dump of the game cart, and then enjoy playing the ROM from the AtariMax Ultimate SD. After that, many of us want to preserve the boxed release for collector value. Going back to why it won't dump... It looks like TPR was able to dump it fine, but NIAD and myself are both experiencing the same issue. Perhaps there is a slight caliber change on the pins of said "new PCBs" that doesn't line up easily with either the AtariMax or the CV adapter. This is possible (and likely from what I've experienced), but I would like to know about these new PCBs that chart45 mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 ... NIAD and myself are both experiencing the same issue. After fully inserting the cart into the AtariMax CV adapter, pull it out a little and try dumping again. It took me several attempts to get mine to work. You'll know when you have successful connection and dump when the resulting binary is 128KB (instead of the 1024KB size when it can't properly read the Zanac cart). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 my dump of zanac crash if i change game option... that's weird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 (edited) After fully inserting the cart into the AtariMax CV adapter, pull it out a little and try dumping again. It took me several attempts to get mine to work. You'll know when you have successful connection and dump when the resulting binary is 128KB (instead of the 1024KB size when it can't properly read the Zanac cart). Thanks Ikrananka. I agree. I have had to do this exact measure before with other homebrew carts. Zanac seemed to be quite a stickler though. my dump of zanac crash if i change game option... that's weird This sounds like a bad dump. I've dumped ROMs in the past 3 or 4 times (per cart), then compared the dumps with a hex editor. Several times, I've seen anomalies that don't match up. Edited November 25, 2015 by phattyboombatty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted November 26, 2015 Share Posted November 26, 2015 We probably shouldn't muddy up this Knightmare thread about what we think could be a possible issue or difference in these newer Homebrew Cartridge PCBs, but just so Opcode is clear: Zanac seems to be bug free concerning the software end and the finsihed cartridge sold by CollectorVision works fine in the CV and ADAM. I would venture a guess that the issue that VectorGamer was experiencing was isolated and may be due to a combination of the cartridge connector tension in his CV as well as possibly a difference in the Homebrew Cartrdige PCB used now. It would be interesting to hear if he has another CV system that he could test the Zanac cart out on to see what happens. In my last order received from CollectorVision, I received Bomb Jack and Light Grid Racing. Bomb Jack worked flawlessly in my main CV, ADAM and even dumped on the first try with the MaxFlash Cart. Light Grid Racing was a different story altogether as it would not work on my CV and would either display the all too familiar "Insert Cartrridge" screen or a black screen and system lock-up. I tried it on my ADAM and it worked perfectly so then I pulled another CV out and tried it in there and it would not work. It also took me about 10 times with the MaxFlash Cart to dump it while my ADAM dumped it on the first try. What I eventually stumbled upon to get Light Grid Racing working on both CV systems was that after inserting it normally (like I do with all other carts) and powering on the system, I had to press down on the top of the cartridge and press the reset button on the CV for the game to work. Amazingly after I took pressure off the top of the cart, the game still was working. So my guess is that there might be some quality control issues going on with the manufacturer of these Homebrew Cartridge PCBs that is causing a small number not to be up to standard and therefore cause a bad contact between the card edge of the cart and the cart connector in the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted November 26, 2015 Author Share Posted November 26, 2015 We probably shouldn't muddy up this Knightmare thread about what we think could be a possible issue or difference in these newer Homebrew Cartridge PCBs, but just so Opcode is clear: Zanac seems to be bug free concerning the software end and the finsihed cartridge sold by CollectorVision works fine in the CV and ADAM. I would venture a guess that the issue that VectorGamer was experiencing was isolated and may be due to a combination of the cartridge connector tension in his CV as well as possibly a difference in the Homebrew Cartrdige PCB used now. It would be interesting to hear if he has another CV system that he could test the Zanac cart out on to see what happens. In my last order received from CollectorVision, I received Bomb Jack and Light Grid Racing. Bomb Jack worked flawlessly in my main CV, ADAM and even dumped on the first try with the MaxFlash Cart. Light Grid Racing was a different story altogether as it would not work on my CV and would either display the all too familiar "Insert Cartrridge" screen or a black screen and system lock-up. I tried it on my ADAM and it worked perfectly so then I pulled another CV out and tried it in there and it would not work. It also took me about 10 times with the MaxFlash Cart to dump it while my ADAM dumped it on the first try. What I eventually stumbled upon to get Light Grid Racing working on both CV systems was that after inserting it normally (like I do with all other carts) and powering on the system, I had to press down on the top of the cartridge and press the reset button on the CV for the game to work. Amazingly after I took pressure off the top of the cart, the game still was working. So my guess is that there might be some quality control issues going on with the manufacturer of these Homebrew Cartridge PCBs that is causing a small number not to be up to standard and therefore cause a bad contact between the card edge of the cart and the cart connector in the system. Excellent, thanks for the report NIAD! So I will no longer worry about Zanac. BTW, has anyone here reached the end of Knightmare or Zanac? Just curious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted November 26, 2015 Share Posted November 26, 2015 Excellent, thanks for the report NIAD! So I will no longer worry about Zanac. BTW, has anyone here reached the end of Knightmare or Zanac? Just curious... Been too busy of late following this thread and some others here in the forum to get to the end of Zanac. Time to place a limit on myself re. AtariAge so that I can enjoy playing all these great games more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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