2600 adapter on the 800

[haightc]

There was an adapter for the 5200 that allowed you to play 2600 games. Did anyone ever try to make a version for the atari computer? Is there a reason why you couldn't?

[+kheller2]

For the same reason rear honda disc pads don't fit a front jaguar brake : different hardware.

 

The 2600 adapter for the 5200 WAS a 2600. In fact, you could just supply power the the 2600 Adapter and tap audio/video out and use it as a stand alone 2600.

[Bryan]

You could do the same thing again, but since there's no way to pipe video into the system, you'd pretty much be using the 800 as a power supply.

[+David_P]

Or, write an emulator that executes the cart in real-time - perhaps a custom cart for the 8-bit that includes the emulator and an interface for a 2600 cart. Sounds like a project for the Abbuc contest in 2018...

[+Stephen]

Or, write an emulator that executes the cart in real-time - perhaps a custom cart for the 8-bit that includes the emulator and an interface for a 2600 cart. Sounds like a project for the Abbuc contest in 2018...

Mega emulator in a cart, which writes a framebuffer that Phaeron's 60fps 256 colour video player can playback

[Bryan]

Mega emulator in a cart, which writes a framebuffer that Phaeron's 60fps 256 colour video player can playback

I had actually thought of having a high-speed emulator in a cart that would try to fit each scan line to something the A8 can reproduce (which would probably work 99% of the time). It would be a monster project, though.

[GadgetUK]

Or, write an emulator that executes the cart in real-time - perhaps a custom cart for the 8-bit that includes the emulator and an interface for a 2600 cart. Sounds like a project for the Abbuc contest in 2018...

Or produce a recompiler which takes the 2600 ROM and recompiles it to work on other hardware. I started working on this for the Lynx but got side tracked. In principle, where the CPU is the same (or very similar) its a case of relocated code (in some places), dealing with graphics, sound and IO routines etc (which are the obvious difference between systems). I would think the 2600 to 8bit would be an ideal candidate but that said I am not sure what the memory map of the 8bit looks like as I've never developed for it before. All that said, some dynamically compiled code etc can be a pain to work around. My understanding the 6507 is pretty much a 6502 minus some address lines and possibly the odd instruction difference?

 

 

The general idea is you have somewhere in memory alternate routines which mimick the TIA hardware on the 8bit, and any reference in code to the TIA point to that new code. Interrupts and timing could be an issue but you can work around some of that by adding delays where routines are faster etc. In principle once you get some code that can decompile a 2600 ROM, relocate some code where required and alter jumps accordingly, change calls to 2600 hardware to point to 8bit routines, I suspect a lot of 2600 games could run on the 8bit.

 

The big problem with the Lynx is the reduced screen size which was one reason I gave up. I did get sprites displaying but they just didnt look right due to scaling. An ideal candidate is where the screen is the same or larger than the source system.

[Level42]

Or produce a recompiler which takes the 2600 ROM and recompiles it to work on other hardware. I started working on this for the Lynx but got side tracked.

 

Oh forget the 2600.....do that for A8 on the Lynx !!!! Please ?

 

Loderunner shows that it "can be done" ;)

[doctorclu]

Or produce a recompiler which takes the 2600 ROM and recompiles it to work on other hardware. I started working on this for the Lynx but got side tracked. In principle, where the CPU is the same (or very similar) its a case of relocated code (in some places), dealing with graphics, sound and IO routines etc (which are the obvious difference between systems). I would think the 2600 to 8bit would be an ideal candidate but that said I am not sure what the memory map of the 8bit looks like as I've never developed for it before. All that said, some dynamically compiled code etc can be a pain to work around. My understanding the 6507 is pretty much a 6502 minus some address lines and possibly the odd instruction difference?

 

 

Liking and encouraging this idea next time you get around to it.

[Mr SQL]

Or produce a recompiler which takes the 2600 ROM and recompiles it to work on other hardware. I started working on this for the Lynx but got side tracked. In principle, where the CPU is the same (or very similar) its a case of relocated code (in some places), dealing with graphics, sound and IO routines etc (which are the obvious difference between systems). I would think the 2600 to 8bit would be an ideal candidate but that said I am not sure what the memory map of the 8bit looks like as I've never developed for it before. All that said, some dynamically compiled code etc can be a pain to work around. My understanding the 6507 is pretty much a 6502 minus some address lines and possibly the odd instruction difference?

 

 

The general idea is you have somewhere in memory alternate routines which mimick the TIA hardware on the 8bit, and any reference in code to the TIA point to that new code. Interrupts and timing could be an issue but you can work around some of that by adding delays where routines are faster etc. In principle once you get some code that can decompile a 2600 ROM, relocate some code where required and alter jumps accordingly, change calls to 2600 hardware to point to 8bit routines, I suspect a lot of 2600 games could run on the 8bit.

 

The big problem with the Lynx is the reduced screen size which was one reason I gave up. I did get sprites displaying but they just didnt look right due to scaling. An ideal candidate is where the screen is the same or larger than the source system.

 

Awesome project! I'm working on a similar project, an A8 cross compiler for Flashback BASIC games. Flashback BASIC is already a cross-compiler for SuperCharger BASIC games, but only the memory scheme is abstracted between them.

 

For the A-8 cross-commpiler I'm looking into using CTIA directly and bypassing ANTIC to recreate the soft blitter chip featured in the BASIC RUNTIME since the VCS doesn't have ANTIC.

 

Idea: A similar cross-compiler between A-8 and batari basic games would be really cool to see given the large volume of bB games, that would be a really fun project and much easier than what you are undertaking.

 

I think a pure asm cross-compiler/recompiler is hardest because instead of abstracting a framework you have to abstract all of the hardware whereas the framework already does a nice job of abstracting the hardware, has done most of the work already.

[Level42]

Playing 2600 games on an A8.

 

It's like hooking up a HUGE trailer behind a Maserati......

 

 

But from technological point it would be a fun project

Edited September 25, 2017 by Level42