+johnnywc Posted February 5, 2002 Share Posted February 5, 2002 Hello everyone - Does anybody know where I can download the NTSC version of Klax? I thought it used to be here on Atari Age but it's not anymore (or at least I can't find it!)... The reason I'm asking is because I had a NTSC Klax cart made and it doesn't work! A title screen comes up that says "KLAX WINNER 100" and a white dot moves from the lower right hand corner of the screen to the center of the screen, but nothing else happens - it's completely unplayable.. ( Tempest - I know you own the actual NTSC Klax prototype - does this actually happen when you turn on the game? What differences have you noticed between the NTSC and PAL versions? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvigor Posted February 5, 2002 Share Posted February 5, 2002 I'll bet it is something like that. I know that I sat up all night once playing that darn game and couldn't get past levels in the late 80's. Perhaps this is the message for clearning level 100. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Stilphen Posted February 5, 2002 Share Posted February 5, 2002 I checked the code for both the PAL and NTSC versions, and "WINNER! 100" is in both. Guess someone will have to play 100 levels to confirm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 5, 2002 Share Posted February 5, 2002 Is that message in my prototype as well? Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahfish Posted February 5, 2002 Share Posted February 5, 2002 damn ... 100 .... i like klax, so i'll give it a try ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted February 6, 2002 Author Share Posted February 6, 2002 Well, for all who care to see here is a picture of my "accomplishment" Seriously though - has anybody else had this problem with the NTSC version of KLAX? I'm running in on a 4-switch model and this is all I get!!! I really want to play this game sometime and actually clear 100 levels legitimately! I'll try it on a 6-switch, 7800, Jr. and a Gemini to see if I get any other results. Any help would be greatly appreciated... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted February 6, 2002 Author Share Posted February 6, 2002 Tempest - Is there anything special I need to do to start a game? Have you tested your prototype on a 4-switch by any chance? Does this game use a joystick (left or right) or paddle? Do the difficulty switches need to be in any special position? Color/BW? I'm just trying to eliminate anything obvious I may be doing wrong. This is what I'm doing: 1) Power off system 2) Insert KLAX cart 3) Power on system 4) KLAX WINNER! 100 appears 5) Reset, Select, Colow/BW, difficulty switches, joystick 1 button and movement, joystick 2 button and movement do not have any effect ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Nope. You don't have to do anything special, you turn on the game and you should see a title screen then press the button to start. That's definetly some kind of special message for beating the game. Very interesting. I guess Steve could only cram 100 levels into the 16K cart. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Klax winner 100? Weird! I don't think the words Winner actually appears in the game itself. Maybe when they made your cart they somehow triggered a hidden easter egg? As for differences in my prototype, they're pretty minor. You can see my page about it here: http://www.msu.edu/user/reicher6/prototype...protos/klax.htm Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Isn't KLAX one of those games that requires the SARA extra RAM chip? The PAL version definately is. Does your homebrew cart contain one of those? Otherwise that might explain, why it doesn't come up correctly. BTW, does anyone know how many levels the arcade version of KLAX has? I think it only has 100 levels too, so the VCS version is probably acurate in this respect. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Yeah Klax required the SARA chip, butI don't think it would work period without one. Strangely enough, I have a Motorodeo proto that should require a SARA chip but works without one. Strange! Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted February 7, 2002 Author Share Posted February 7, 2002 Well, my NTSC Klax woes continue... I asked the person who made the cart to send me the ROM image he used so I could test it in Stella... here is what I got: Is this correct? It looks like the title screen to the PAL version if I'm not mistaken. Tempest - I have visited your web site to look at your pics and I noticed your NTSC Klax has an Atari symbol on the title screen. Is this the only known NTSC prototype out there? Would you happen to have the ROM dumped? If so, could you post it to Atari Age so I could make some comparisons with it? I'm hoping that the erratic behavior I'm seeing is the result of running a PAL cart on an NTSC machine/TV, although I've heard that doing this usually results in a rolling screen and different colors... Thanks everyone again for your suggestions and help... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 7, 2002 Share Posted February 7, 2002 What your seeing is the normal title screen. My prototype is the only one known to exist with the earlier date. There are 9 other NTSC prototypes that Best sold, but they were the same as the PAL version (i.e. the final version). The Atari logo is from the earlier version, they changed it to a Tengen copyright for the final release. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted February 7, 2002 Author Share Posted February 7, 2002 OK - now I got it... the pics on your site are for your NTSC prototype, but not THE final NTSC prototype. The final NTSC prototype is exactly like the released PAL version (feature wise and display wise, I know the ROM will be slightly different) - correct? So it is more likely that the cart I had made does not work correctly than it being a PAL version. Is there any easy way to tell if the ROM I have is PAL or not? And the adventure continues... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 7, 2002 Share Posted February 7, 2002 If the screen rolls when you play then it's in PAL format. Since you were able to take a screen shot of the Winner 100 screen that probably means it's NTSC. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted February 7, 2002 Author Share Posted February 7, 2002 Thanks for the info Tempest - I tried the game on 4 other systems, all with the same results... Does anybody else out there have a home-made NTSC Klax cart that is exhibiting this type of behavior? I'd like to try to determine whether the cart is defective or not so I can get it working!! Thanks again everyone for all your help... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted March 18, 2002 Author Share Posted March 18, 2002 For anyone who wishes to see the phenomenom I described in my first post "live" in an emulator, try to run the PAL or NTSC Klax ROM in PCAE, but change the ROM type to 16K instead of 16K with SuperChip. You will indeed see the WINNER! KLAX 100 message. Well, this puts to rest the issue with the Klax game I had made. The question now is: What is this SARA extra RAM chip I've heard about? Is it something that can be purchased somewhere? What about the schematics of a Klax cart? Are they available? It would be nice to have the NTSC ROM of Klax with the SARA chip in a cart to play on an NTSC machine, but I'm not sure if the effort is worth it... Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 >> Well, this puts to rest the issue with the Klax game I had made. The question now is: What is this SARA extra RAM chip I've heard about? Is it something that can be purchased somewhere? What about the schematics of a Klax cart? Are they available? It would be nice to have the NTSC ROM of Klax with the SARA chip in a cart to play on an NTSC machine, but I'm not sure if the effort is worth it... << The only entity that has managed to make a superchip cart is the one that made the Elevator Action carts and I don't think they are offering the board to the general homebrew community. I recall that someone else came up with a working board design but I can't remember who. Chris Wilkson was working on one for the longest time. It's rather tricky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 The SARA RAM chip is basically a 128 bytes RAM chip with the nessessary decoder logic onboard. They can be found on some other Atari VCS games, like Dig Dug or Defender 2 as well. I think the people who build the Elevator Action carts also took the SARA chips from old games. How you have to wire such a chip to your homebrew board is something you have to figure out on your own though. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapdash Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 Yeah... A bunch of Dig Dugs died so that Elevator Action could live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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