52 replies to this topic

[electrotrains]

Hi All,

 

I've attached a little utility I wrote last weekend to convert plain cartridge dumps (ROM or BIN) files into .CAR files.

It's an HTML file, just open it in your browser, then drag and drop the files you want converted.

 

I can't promise it will work on all browsers (it uses a lot of modern browser features), but tested on firefox and chrome.

 

Although Jac wrote a utility to do the same thing (Atari ROM Maker - and I've been using it a *lot* recently while working on my SD-multicart project), its a bit painful for ad-hoc use, so I wanted a more user-friendly way to allow things to be converted to CAR format for the cartridge. Maybe also useful for emulator users too though.

 

Only tested with a few cartridge types so far, so if you find any problems, let me know and I'll fix and update the copy here.

 

Robin

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Attached Files

•  RomToCar.html   7.37KB   992 downloads

Edited by electrotrains, Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:34 PM.

[flashjazzcat]

Very cool!

[Kyle22]

Thanks.  It works  perfectly with Firefox 40 on Windows XP.

[MrFish]

Thanks.  It works perfectly with Firefox 40...

 

Same here on Windows 7 64-bit. I did get an error with Bomb Jack though: "No matching cartridge types for 520k file Bomb Jake.rom".

 

BTW (off topic), "version 40 of Firefox"; what a bunch of utter non-sense...

Edited by MrFish, Fri Aug 14, 2015 7:44 AM.

[electrotrains]

Hi MrFish,

 

I don't think the emulator writers responsible for the CAR file format have allocated a code for this cartridge type yet.

 

Robin

[MrFish]

Yes, I noticed there was no code type when opening in Altirra, it just showed that it was a Corrina, etc.

[MrFish]

In fact it (nor the other Corina cartridge, Yie Another Kung Fu) is yet to fully work in Altirra -- or any other standard emulator that I'm aware of. So far there is just the "special" version of Atari++ that supports Corina.

Here is the thread where the problems in emulation are discussed: Altirra 2.4 Thread: Post 341

Edited by MrFish, Fri Aug 14, 2015 11:47 AM.

[phaeron]

There's no standard procedure for allocating CAR format codes. IIRC, the last batch was from when the guys working on The!Cart asked Atari800 to add them to their list, since that emulator currently has the most comprehensive documentation for the CAR format. It was a bit weird since they were essentially documenting cart formats the emulator didn't support, but at least this way we avoided code conflicts on new cart types. For the same reason, Altirra implements new cartirdge types as .BIN-only at first. Still, it's not ideal for anyone actually implementing a new real cartridge type. :-/

 

If this is an issue for Corina, I can go talk to them and get a new code worked out. Wasn't aware there was much interest in that cartridge type.

 

[Kr0tki]

Specification of the CAR file format has its origins in Atari800, and initially it included only cartridge types supported by this emulator. But it's no longer the case, as Phaeron said above.

It's a fortunate situation that Atari800 is still regarded as the "official" maintainer of the CAR format, as it helps to avoid any conflicts stemming from new format codes appearing in competing projects.

So, if anyone wants to add new cart types to the CAR format, feel free to contact the developers, or me directly, and we will work it out. Although I'd like to ask you to provide a description of each new bankswitching scheme, similar to what's included in DOC/cart.txt

[JAC!]

 

Although Jac wrote a utility to do the same thing (Atari ROM Maker - and I've been using it a *lot* recently while working on my SD-multicart project), its a bit painful for ad-hoc use, so I wanted a more user-friendly way to allow things to be converted to CAR format for the cartridge. Maybe also useful for emulator users too though.

 

In fact for this and the Atari ROM Checker I had originally planned to have it as web enabled version in the form of an Applet or even a server side CGI. But when I realized all the crap resulting from the Applet restrictions imposed in recent years (official signing certificates for $$$), I stopped that path. If I knew a way to offer drag & drop file I/O offered as Java based backend on my web site, I'd love to put my tools in that deployment.

Edited by JAC!, Fri Aug 14, 2015 5:18 PM.

[electrotrains]

Hi JAC!,

 

I think it would be easy enough to do the drag and drop with javascript at the front end, then a java backend on your website doing the actual work.

I did initially think of implementing the utility this way, using your ROM maker as the backend.

 

But modern javascript now has a pretty complete API for manipulating binary data, so in the end it was easier just to do everything on the client on a standalone "web" page. And javascript is not such a bad language - in many ways its replaced C as my go-to language for a quick utility.

 

I remember reading that you plan to add lots of features to ROM maker such as ATR or XEX->CAR. I'm would be glad to help convert this to javascript at some point, if you were interested.

 

Robin

[JAC!]

ATR to CAR is out of question and wasn't actually planned. Too many parameters and options. If you want that it's probably a one time job so AtariMax Studio and The!Cart Studio will do the job. Actually the latter even has a command line interface, so you can already use is via scripts.

 

XEX though would be fairly straightforward. Do you have any particular use case where one would do it? Again AtariMax has the currently best implementation available.

[electrotrains]

Hi JAC!,

 

My use case was for my Ultimate SD Cart which only supports cartridge images (ROM/CAR) up to 1meg - it would be nice to be able to easy use XEX and ATR files with it. While the AtariMax software (Windows only) works in this case, there's a good argument for an open source implementation, especially in Javascript - since that would be cross platform.

 

I was thinking about trying to do a XEX->ROM conversion in the FPGA firmware, which would allow these files to be used directly. However since I only have a vague idea of how to go about it, a javascript based implementation first seemed to make sense, and would also allow any required parameters to be adjusted.

 

Robin

[billysastard]

just tried this in my browser (srware iron) and after i drag and drop the .rom images it presents me with a very short list of roms (doesn't even get to the end of "A") but clicking on the correct option does absolutely nothing for example 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (1979)(Atari)(US).rom gives 2 options, Standard 8k cartridge (1) and OSS 8 KB cartridge (44) pointing at either changes the pointer to show it's a link but clicking on it does absolutely nothing, right clicking saves an .html file which i believe is just the original page.

Edited by billysastard, Sat Sep 26, 2015 3:56 PM.

[gozar]

You have to download the file, and then load it into the browser. Once you do that, it will work. 

[billysastard]

You have to download the file, and then load it into the browser. Once you do that, it will work. 

sad to report, that's what i did, loaded into the browser from my pc, fed it a bunch of carts and that part worked but the was no way to get the converted file to save out.

 

i bought an old laptop the other day (need a true parallel port so new ones are no good), if i can ever convince it not to bsod every time i try to install the wireless drivers i'll try using a different browser on there and try again. 

Edited by billysastard, Fri Oct 16, 2015 8:21 PM.

[w1k]

hmm, what about ROM2exe/xex ?

[JAC!]

hmm, what about ROM2exe/xex ?

 

That would only work for plain 8k or 16k ROMs, and those are typically already available in some file image format. Check the Homesoft collection.

 

Side note: Inspired by the convenient Drag & Drop here, I've extended the Atari ROM Maker in the same direction.

http://atariage.com/...aker/?p=3581568

[MrFish]

I've been using this utility on a regular basis with no problems. However, yesterday I attempted to convert a Turbo DOS 2.0 image and the appropriate cartridge type was not presented. It should have been Phoenix 8K (39), but I just got what's shown in the attached screenshot. I ended up converting it with Atari800Win PLus instead, which is a little less convenient than your utility. As a side note, I did try it with the newest version of your utility JAC and it worked fine.

 

 

[CharlieChaplin]

How about the opposite - a CAR to ROM conversion tool ?

I have approx. 141 CAR files here, which I would like to have as ROM also.

With Altirra I can convert them into ROM, but afaik only one at a time (no batchfile conversion)... or I am simply to stupid/blind to see how I can convert them all in one go.

[_The Doctor__]

bump car to rom please or do you wish us to use

 

http://www.wudsn.com...s/atarirommaker

 

instead?

Edited by _The Doctor__, Mon Feb 6, 2017 5:57 PM.

[darwinmac]

I just wanted to thank Electrotrains for writing the original Javascript utility. I used it today to convert a few cartridge bin files into the proper cartridge format. It worked great.

 

Bob C

[megarat]

Hey all, I'm sorry if I'm missing something obvious, but I would like to convert my archive to ROM/BIN files to CAR format, and I'm wondering if there is a database somewhere of which cartridges are of which cartridge type.

 

For example, I drag-and-drop an "archon.bin" file on Electrotrains' (excellent) Java-based utility, and it offers over a half-dozen different 32k cartridge types, with one of them offered as a default.  It would be convenient if there were a reference somewhere so I could know exactly which "CAR type" to select.  It would certainly be more efficient than trial and error.

 

Thank you, any help would be appreciated.

[DrVenkman]

Hey all, I'm sorry if I'm missing something obvious, but I would like to convert my archive to ROM/BIN files to CAR format, and I'm wondering if there is a database somewhere of which cartridges are of which cartridge type.

 

For example, I drag-and-drop an "archon.bin" file on Electrotrains' (excellent) Java-based utility, and it offers over a half-dozen different 32k cartridge types, with one of them offered as a default.  It would be convenient if there were a reference somewhere so I could know exactly which "CAR type" to select.  It would certainly be more efficient than trial and error.

 

Thank you, any help would be appreciated.

 

After converting several dozen ROMs to load up my UNO Cart, I found the default usually worked but not always. A few times - especially with those damned different OSS banking schemes! - I had to convert them one way, try the resulting CAR file in Altirra, and then do it again if I guessed wrong. 

[JAC!]

I'm wondering if there is a database somewhere of which cartridges are of which cartridge type.

 

There is one built-into The!Cart Studio. Just create a new project and drop/add all your file on it.

 

http://www.wudsn.com...s/thecartstudio