Weird Question About bB And Non-Harmony/Melody Boards

[Peter G]

Suppose I start working on a game, and to give it some more pizzazz, I use the SuperRam kernel for more playfield graphics or the DPC+ kernel to get more sprites. As long as I don't try bankswitching or anything like that, just make a game that is self contained within 4K, can this game simply be burned to a chip and soldered onto an existing 4K board, or will it require a Harmony/Melody board in order to work correctly? Just wondering what I can get away with.

 

Oh, and as long as I'm on the subject, would I be able to convert any of them to .WAV files to try out on my Supercharger?

Edited March 21, 2015 by Peter G

[+Random Terrain]

Have you looked at those sections on the bB page yet?

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#superchipram

The Superchip, also called the SARA chip, provides 128 additional bytes of RAM. Superchip RAM is only used in conjunction with bankswitching.

Since the Superchip is a separate chip, producing standalone cartridges in this format will increase costs slightly. At the moment, one outfit is selling Superchips for $3 each, along with the special boards you need for them. Superchips can also be salvaged from some old games.

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#dpcplus

You don't have to declare set romsize 32k when using the DPC+ kernel as it automatically sets the ROM size to 32k for you. The DPC+ kernel has a 4k graphics bank where your sprite and playfield data automaticaly go. You cannot place your own code in the graphics bank. There's another 4k bank that you cannot use that holds the ARM code. Most of bank 1 is used up, but banks 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are completely free for normal use. So that's 4K bB system, 20K of your basic code, 4K graphics data, and 4K ARM code = 32K binary.

 

The DPC+ kernel goes in bank 1, so there's very little free room there. It's a good idea to put a goto statement in bank 1 to a label in bank 2 and start your code there.

_

[ZackAttack]

Dpc+ offloads some of the work onto the onboard ARM core. You need a harmony cart to test dpc+ games.

[+Gemintronic]

DPC+ requires boards through AtariAge. The only problem I've ever had is with 2k games. One cart maker couldn't make it load properly on his boards.

[+SpiceWare]

The only problem I've ever had is with 2k games. One cart maker couldn't make it load properly on his boards.

 

Is he using a 4K EEPROM? If so the easy fix would be to just double up the 2K game to 4K before sending the file to them.

 

Linux & Mac terminal:

cat 2kgame.bin 2kgame.bin > 4kgame.bin

 

Window's terminal:

copy/b 2kgame.bin+2kgame.bin 4kgame.bin

 

I tested the cat command on my Mac to make a 4K ROM of Collect:

collect4K.bin

 

Note: Stella will recognized doubled up ROMs and identify it as both 2K and 4K:

Edited March 21, 2015 by SpiceWare

[Peter G]

Have you looked at those sections on the bB page yet?

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#superchipram

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#dpcplus

_

 

Sorry, I forgot about that, it just slipped my mind.