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If you've tried downloading game binaries recently in forum threads (such as .bin files for Atari 2600 games), you may have seen a warning from your web browser that the file is dangerous and contains malware. These warnings are FALSE, and the attachments you're receiving warnings about are not dangerous. Unfortunately, it seems that Firefox and Chrome (and perhaps other browsers) have decided to flag all files with certain file extensions, such as .bin, as being dangerous. Here's an example of this warning in Chrome: And in Firefox: For Chrome and Firefox, you can follow the following instructions to avoid these warnings. IN CHROME: Go to Settings (three dots in top right) then Privacy and Security, then Security, then change your 'Safe Browsing' setting to a lower protection until you can download. IN FIREFOX: Go to Settings (three lines in top right) then Privacy and Security, then scroll down to Security, then uncheck 'Block dangerous downloads'. You can also allow files one by one if you're not comfortable turning that off by clicking on the download icon in the top right (down arrow into bin) and then allowing the file. If you don't want to do this, you can generally override the warning and force the download to complete. Thanks to James at ZeroPage Homebrew for writing up the above instructions. If you have any questions, please comment below. Thank you, ..Al

I've probably been living under a rock as I'd not really noticed the little 2d Pac Man (Puku Puku) games that had been popping up. I saw @ZeroPage Homebrew's lovely 2600 version (Fantastic presentation and playability) and then I saw @CyranoJ Jag version and was equally impressed. Fun little games, switch your brain off and enjoy. I also found a lovely version for the PICO8 byt I thought I'd knock up a quick 7800 version using assets that I already have sitting around (some will be very recognisable). I started this Sunday night and finished it this evening, so probably about 5 or 6 hours spent on it. It's rough around the edges and there are a few glitches. That said, I present "Lola Lines" Help Lola (Bernie's lovely niece) deal with the terrible tank that she's trapped with. Controls Fire to start / restart on gameover. Left and Right to move. If you go off the screen, you appear on the other side. How to Play Collect dots to score. Collect Power Potions for limited ability to kill tanks Avoid Tanks when not powered up Once you have collected 1/2 of the dots a fruit or goodie will appear and move in a random direction. Collect fruit and other goodies for bonus points Scoring For each dot you collect you score = to the current level (so lvl 1 = 1 pt, level 10 = 10 pts etc). If you kill a tank, you get 10x the current level as points If you pick up a fruit / goodie, you get 20x the current level as points. Compatibility Lola-Lines is a 16k ROM, no pokey or anything special. Works on GameDrive7800 (Disable Break to avoid slowdowns). Should work on Dragonfly & Concerto + all the usual emulator options. To-Do Refinements to timing, right now you can be stuck in an unfair position with no way out so timers needs a tweak or 2 10 levels then it goes back to cherries, maybe ill add more and the appropriate bonuses. Let me know if folks have any suggestions. speed ups as you climb the levels Credits SFX from the 7800Basic example library (thanks Mike!) Lola_Lines_Build_16.a78 Lola_lines_build_20.a78

I'm going to receive the pokeymax v4 boards tomorrow and, all being well, get them running over the next week or so. Since the project is now more open than before I'm going to post some details of what needs doing for this here along with progress. Feel free to chime in with comments. Status: i) Boards ordered from PCBWay. http://www.64kib.com/atarixlfpga_svn/trunk/atari_800xl/atari_chips/hardware/pokeymaxv4/2layer030drill/ ii) Parts ordered from Digikey - arrived. https://www.digikey.ch/en/mylists/list/MZC8NOSXG1. I grabbed 5 copies (it's cheaper in volume) and removed four of the FPGAs. I'm planning to transfer and reball some of the FPGAs from my other boards. Also I already have a spare new 10M08 floating around. TODO: a) svn checkout the HDL from http://www.64kib.com/atarixlfpga_svn/trunk/atari_800xl/ b) Modify atari_chips/pokeyv2/ to add the v4 board: Copy the qsf file and correct/add the pin assignments from the schematic. Set up the paddle pins as LVDS. Add a feature to pokeymax.vhd to directly use the fpga io for the keyboard instead of using the io expander chip over i2c. Add a feature to pokeymax.vhd to directly reset the paddle pins Copy the ADC input feature from the sidmax.vhd to pokeymax.vhd, add it to the pokey mixer. Update build.sh adding a v4 board and enabling these features Synthesise the logic by sourcing the quartus settings file then running build.sh with the new configuration. c) Assemble a board bit by bit checking functionality Visual inspection Check for shorts on the power nets Solder on the regulator, its support parts (caps, inductors) and ferrite bead for 3.3v analog. Power the board and check power rail voltages. Solder on the FPGA, FPGA core support parts (Pull ups etc), FPGA jtag support parts. Connect the JTAG, can I see the FPGA? Modify my JTAG boundary scan script to check for any shorts under the FPGA. Solder on the rest of the SMD parts: 5V/3.3v level converter chips, paddle level potential divider, adc coupling cap and dc bias, output op amp and feedback parts, output audio coupling caps Solder on the pin header strips, the audio output header and the io header. Put it into the Atari! Power it on, flash the new core, power off/on and pray! Debug, goto 11.

I had some fun in getting that over to A8. As it contains C64 code running on A8 I did not pay much attention if it overwrites some memory which loaders etc are based... thinking of $0400 where the screen ram is located or $0801... where the C64 code is layed out. ... Plazmoid Atari 800 Interpretation Original C64 Version by Hokuto Force Atari version by Heaven This version runs C64 code in sandbox SID2POKEY by Saint/Zelax SID tune by DRAX Idea was born after Revision 2024 as I really like the C64 original by viti!! Heaven^Desire 2024 plazmoid_1kb_a8.zip

An update is coming soon. A patch list is being written up at the moment.

Thanks for playing the game ! Even in it's raw, demo version Work on the full game is going on well, it's almost 100% done, you'll get a chance to play it soon

Dear friends and users of Rasta Converter, After almost 11 years I am thrilled to announce a new official release or Rasta Converter - Beta 9, available now on GitHub. https://github.com/ilmenit/RastaConverter/releases/tag/Beta9 This update has been made possible thanks to the incredible contributions of our community, particularly the significant efforts of @Sheddy who successfully convinced me to revive this project. This release includes a number of exciting new features and improvements, including: - A fix for the sprite repositioning bug, thanks to the hard work of @Sheddyand @phaeron. - The removal of the dependency on the Allegro 4 library, replaced by the more modern SDL2. This allowed to prepare a 64-bit version of the software for improved performance and memory space. - The use of the LLVM compiler for extra speed and efficiency, thanks to @Sheddy. - The removal of the thread limit for the /threads parameter, allowing for even more parallel processing. - The addition of default auto-save functionality, which will save your work every 100K iterations. - Improved build processes for Linux, thanks to the efforts of @dmsc and @polluks. - An updated help file, courtesy of @snicklin. - Conditional compilation with NO_GUI directive that removes dependency on SDL2 (for developers who want to run RC on GUI-less devices). Thank you for your continued support of Rasta Converter. I hope you enjoy these new features and improvements, and I look forward to hearing your feedback. Please note that the code for this release has undergone a significant rewrite, so it is possible that some bugs may have been introduced. If you encounter any issues while using Rasta Converter Beta 9, please let us know by reporting them on GitHub so we can address them as soon as possible. Enjoy!

Inspired by a recent ZeropageHomebrew stream, today we release "Jumping at Shadows: Moth-Line" for the Atari Jaguar. This will be immediately available for download to patrons on the top tier level. I will publically release it a few weeks down the line. Enjoy!

Wrapping up the maps, added beautiful background art by Szadi. Work on boxart started, soon there will be the first Test ROM of the complete game!

@kiwilove and I worked on this quite some time ago, but it was sidelined for various reasons. We've picked it up again and hope to make something playable from it. Your task is to destroy all the turrets on the dreadnought, collect a hostage and return to the launch bay. This is complicated by a host of different enemies attacking you. Use the joystick to move your ship, left trigger to fire and right trigger to flip direction. If you destroy a dragon, it will be followed by a pickup that you can collect: S = Shield boost P = Protector W = Weapon upgrade The game finishes when your shield is fully depleted. There will be 7 dreadnoughts in total, but I've only sequenced the first 2 so far. ttda_0.1.a78 ttda_0.1.bin

On the contrary, more work is being done on 2600+ related stuff then ever. It all just takes too long.

MS. PAKU PAKU This is based on the Pac-Line and Paku Paku games. You just need to gobble all the dots to get to the next level. The power pellet will let you eat the ghosts, but as the levels increase then the amount of time it lasts will decrease. There are BONUS letters that appear, if you eat all 5 Letters then you get a bonus score and eating the 'S' gives you the power pellet effect to eat ghosts. Some of the ghosts will also eat the BONUS letters before you can get to it. You just need to press any button to change direction. Have Fun! 😃 paku.rom

Guarantied to help against headache: but Asperin might have less side effects. Sometimes the cure is worse than the problem.

We already had this discussion - laboriously and over several years - with the likes of Atari8Warez, whose assertion that the hardware wasn't up to the talk was already comprehensively debunked several times over by the time he got himself banned for harassing me off-site. Multitasking has worked smoothly since 2013 or so, with performance better than anyone expected. The impediments - if I have to list then again for the umpteenth time - are basically lack of time, lack of motivation, and fatigue over the need to constantly defend and justify the system's viability and functionality to people with no real grasp of how it works or why it's perfectly reasonable to run such an OS on an 8-bit machine (if you're happy to code everything in raw assembler, at least).

Well, the next Mainboard IMG and Dumper Chip EXE I received this morning thats going to be the next release. There is some internal testing happening right now and then my hero @raz0red will likely be starting a new thread making the files available.

Found a few more minutes! Popped the level shifters on, not all plain sailing with these small items: A bit of flux and braid and its all good: Careful, these go on two different ways around Couldn't resist popping pins on and putting it in the Atari. No sound circuits yet or paddle supporting parts etc. Result: Atari still boots to basic, keyboard not working, sio not working - see some speed switches only on aspeqt. Not too surprised for the first test, but pleased it boots at least!

Thanks to the generosity of Ianoid, we have a few new Starpath prototypes to share. The first is a new build of Sweat!. This prototype contains a running event that cannot be won (at least I don't think it can) but has the larger graphic for the character. This is similar to the Hurdles version that was found in the possession of Bob Brown back in 2004, although that prototype has not been released to the public as far as I can tell. The second prototype is a late beta for Sword of Saros. The game plays similarly to the final (although I found it harder to avoid the wizard) but the end game is completely different. Instead of opening random doors on level 7 you must instead find the sword in a treasure room and then confront the wizard. Unfortunately there's no winning screen programmed in yet so the game simply resets. Also included is a prototype for Survival Island. This appears to be the same as the first load on the released version, but the tape was oddly missing the other two loads. Perhaps it was some sort of demo? Ianoid also found a copy of Going-Up?? but it turned out to be the same as the previously released demo. In honor of Ianoid releasing all these Starpath games I finally got around to making pages for all the Starpath games (except Party Mix which no prototype has been found for yet). Enjoy! http://www.atariprotos.com/ Going Up.bin Survival Island (8-5-83).bin Sweat! (Beta 4).bin Sword of Saros (8-5-83).bin

Egyptian Pyramid Colors: 41 plus src Atari8man_NTSC_Egyptian Pyramid.xex Atari8man_PAL_Egyptian Pyramid.xex

Medusa 4 Colors: 89 plus src Atari8man_NTSC_Medusa_4.xex Atari8man_Pal_Medusa_4.xex

Name: Canyon Escape Description: You need to escape from you evil enemies travelling through a narrow canyon Instructions: Press any key to start the game Controls during gameplay: Directions to move UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT LEFT/RIGHT BUTTON to fire left/right rocket Avoid or destroy rocks Collect Fuel, current tank level is shown on top right of screen, running out of fuel will cost you one life Additional life bonus appears fom time to time Especially avoid enemy rockets fired from top of screen Your score will be displayed if you reach end of the canyon, score is based on remaning lifes, fuel, collected lifes and fuel as well as number of destroyed rocks CanyonEscape.rom Enjoy! YannAros

I have prepared Work In Progress Demo 2 of Time Wizard Deluxe. The list of changes: Added disappearing ladders and test level with them. Ladders can be activated by pressing buttons or automatically by passing of time. Ladders can be time resist or not. Added French translation prepared by @StaxX28. Added German translation prepared by @pps. Added Italian translation prepared by @Philsan. Added Spanish translation prepared by @Yautja. Redesign of the font in terms of diacritic characters for different languages. Adjustments in language selection screen. Added Mq Workshop logo on splash screen, because the physical release will be done by Mq Workshop. If your language is not included in the game and you whish to have it, please let me know.

Put this little chap on (tinned pads on the pcb with lead free + flux, cleaned up, then simply placed this on and heated it up with hot air): Here we are: Then connected 5V and the usb blaster and ran jtagconfig and ... its on jtag at least: jtagconfig 1) USB-Blaster [1-5.1] 031820DD 10M08SA(.|ES)/10M08SC It lives, to some degree at least!

44 colours Stephen_Snake2.xex

It's alive! I just finished an extensive round of finalizing the programmable logic chips while testing at every possible step. A few logic problems were found and fixed. The 64k of SRAM can be banked into the $4000-$7FFF banking region on the Atari, and the Z-80 chip can be controlled by the Atari. Running some very basic assembly, on the Z-80, shows that the Z-80 is working and can communicate back to the Atari. Unfortunately, I discovered that I forgot to add a single trace. So, these aren't the final boards. Since the original 1090 Z-80 board schematic showed the Atari could generate an interrupt on the Z-80, I figured I'd add the Z-80 /M1 line to one of the PLDs so that should be possible on the next run of boards. (The /M1 line is needed to ensure that an /IRQ doesn't accidentally result in I/O.) Realistically, the Atari probably doesn't need to generate an IRQ on the Z-80, but since the capability appeared to have been planned, why not add it as a feature? This board is greatly improved over the last board. Improvements are: 1. 64k of SRAM, with banking logic, is built onto the board. This reduces the cost and now the Z-80 board only requires a single 1090 card slot. 2. Four programmable logic chips were used to speed development and reduce chip count. At the low end, each programmable chip replaced at least 3 other chips. 3. The Z-80 is now running at almost 7.4 Mhz. Here's a couple pics.....

Medieva Knight Colors: 41 plus src Atari8man_NTSC_Medieva_Knigh.xex Atari8man_PAL_Medieva_Knight.xex

55 colours - 1 Billion iterations Stephen_BluePhoenix.xex

Hello all, Champ Games is happy to announce that the first publicly available ROMs (NTSC and PAL60) for Tutankham Arcade are now available for download at our website! Tutankham Arcade is a port of the arcade game "Tutankham" released in 1982 by Stern/Konami. Tutankham was previously released for the Atari 2600 by Parker Bros. in 1983. Thanks to @Nathan Strum for the amazing graphics and assisting with game design and to Jurgen Oster @Bomberman94 for testing and PAL color validation. Special thanks to James and Darcy over at @ZeroPage Homebrew for taking the time to debuting the game on the ZPH Twitch channel last Friday (full video of the show can be found here). The full versions (both digital ROM and physical cartridge) are planned for release this September. We are searching for an aspiring artist to help with the artwork (Nathan and I will handle the tedious manual text and layout). If interested, please contact me via PM and become part of the Champ Games team! (includes many benefits, too many to list ) Please note that the game does support single joysticks (1, 2 and 3 button configurations) and dual joysticks (like the arcade). Any feedback is appreciated. Have fun! John PS Here are the game instructions with more details (also included in the ROM download):

Phoenix 2001 Diskodex v1.01 Source Code Release from the O.P.A. 1989 Archive Here is another great release, this program was first written by me and Cecil Chin back in 1989 with the manual written by my dad, and was one of my first commercially sold programs, under the "Phoenix 2001" label, which at the time meant that the useful of the software would at least last until year 2001, and in part was a nod to my love for the Space Odyssey, and my brand-new projects I am working on now in the year 2024 will soon be released under the "Phoenix 2061" label, keeping with the trend and usefulness of being valid to use on your TI-99/4a or emulators or future hardware until the year 2061 and for my love of classic Sci-Fi. Enjoy! 🥳 -=(GaryOPA)=- (The above description of Diskodex 2001 was quoted from my website: https://garyopa.com/diskodex/ ) (The large v1.01 release ZIP contains everything, screenshot, manual, disk image, source tree in PC & TIFIlLES formats and the ready to run assembled TI99 E/A #5 binaries) Also available on my GitHub as well: https://github.com/gary99opa/Diskodex2001 * PHOENIX 2001 DISKODEX v1.01 by O.P.A. * * 1989 Source Code Release * By Oasis Pensive Abacutors * Via Gary Bowser (GARYOPA) * Released April 14th, 2024 * Uploaded to ti99.atariage.com * CATLOG-S -> DiskodeX Main Source Assemble File CATLOG-M12 -> DX Catalog/Delete/Update/Disklist! CATLOG-M3A -> DX Setup of Print/Search Catalog CATLOG-M3B -> DX Sorter for Print/Search Catalog CATLOG-M45 -> DX Display Status and System Setup CATLOG-SB1 -> DX Sub-Programs BL,BLWP's (1 of 2) CATLOG-SB2 -> DX Sub-Programs BL,BLWP's (2 of 2) CATLOG-DB1 -> DX Data Blocks (Keep them at End) CATLOG-LOW -> Phoenix 2001 Logo,Chars,Title Data RDSKU-S -> XB Utilities To Display DSK-U v4.1 DISKODEX.pdf Diskodex2001-Source-Files-Only.zip DISKODEX.dsk Diskodex2001_1_01_GARYOPA_04_14_2024.zip

The updated Geneve Infocom interpreter seems to be working properly with the fixes and updates, so I'm releasing v1.2 into the wild. I've named it INF3 to distinguish between the older INF and its 2-gamefile format. This program runs from the Geneve OS's command line. The game file must be a single, "raw" z3 file in DF128 format. For example, if you wish to play one of the newer PunyInform games, download the raw z3 file then convert it from a "PC" file to a TIFILES format file. TI99Dir does this quickly and easily. Notable items: Game file is the single, raw z3 file. Removed game1/game2 support. (Edit: more accurately, I disabled the 2-file support in case there is a need for it later). Disassembled the interpreter program. Validated the z-machine instructions: they match the V1.3 /4a interpreter. The game size limitations have been removed with the change in file format, i.e., larger "Supercart" games now load and run. During startup and restore operations, the entire game file is loaded into memory from the device. The interpreter no longer locks up at the exit dialogue when it encounters a "bad" file or bad internal opcode. The video mode and screen window are set -after- the game is loaded. The default character set is the Geneve OS pattern table. However... The new character set with extended ZSCII characters is available. Press F5 at an input prompt to toggle between default and new sets. The input buffer size is now limited to 75 characters. This fixes problems with games that allow excessive input buffers. The input buffer length was incorrectly being set to one more than the maximum memory space. The input routine now detects NULL characters in the input buffer and replaces them with the SPACE character. NULL buffer initialization was most noticeable in some of the newer releases. The TAB key has been fixed. Pressing it during data entry will reveal the last command/file name. Right-arrow will also reveal the same, one character at a time. Possible, future updates: Visible status bar/line. Some people like it, others don't. The status line uses an MDOS window command so for now, I left it alone. Disk catalog option during save/restore. Who here doesn't dislike needing to exit the game when you forget the restore file's name? Some games do not calculate the $verify bytes; others were modified without recalculating the verification, e.g. a few of The Master's releases. Allow the user to disable the game integrity check I've learned a bit more about the /4a and Geneve interpreters and resolved a few old, outstanding issues. I hope to spend some time with the /4a code later this year. INF3

Andrzej Bogacz's Happy Pacman pallette: Altirra.pal Andrzej_Bogacz_Happy_Pacman.xex

Just wanted to let the community know that we (Atari, Plaion & Retro Games) are seeing and collecting all the reports of issues and questions related to the joystick and passing them on to the product team. We expect it will take some time for that team to come to a full understanding of the situation and any potential resolution(s), but we will come back to the community with their findings. Retro Games is in the engineering seat on this one. Please note, I am not involved in the day-to-day work of the product team, so I am not the right person to engage with specifics. The product team is monitoring this forum for intel, and they may chime in or ask questions. One additional note, the Atari Classic Joystick that was created for the Atari VCS is compatible with THE400Mini. Plugging it in will unlock two additional games that benefit from that Joystick's paddle/twist functionality. (Super Breakout and Castle Crisis) If you have a Classic Joystick at home, you can try that as an alternative. It has fewer buttons, so there will no doubt be some remapping involved. I am not suggesting that this is the long-term solution, or trying to generate additional sales. I am just raising it as a related topic and curious to get some feedback on it from this community.

Here is a quick mockup which shows how a multiple players PacLine game might look like. PacLine x 8 Demo.bin

New version of level editor v1.7 is available: https://gitlab.com/amarok8bit/time-wizard-level-editor The main changes include: - added horizontal portals, - added disappearing ladders, - added long horizontal wall, - added 2 sample levels containing new items mentioned above, - changed folder for storing settings, now it is OS dependent user data folder, - added executable in dmg format for MacOS. Please enjoy and create your great levels... and send them to me if you whish to see them and your nickname in Time Wizard Deluxe

I sometimes feel that way if I post something about one of my projects before its conclusion, because it adds sometimes unwanted pressure to get it done. But on the other hand it does feel good to share, and as you pointed out, get inspiration that drives the project forward in an even better way.

A good friend of mine was visiting family in Texas and brought me these nuggets back to Germany. (The Genesis cart was an accidental buy and only 6$.)

That doesn't come across as a killjoy comment at all. I already remarked on the open-source multitasking kernels that had been ported to the A8 long before I started the UI, let alone the multitasking kernel, and I've yet to see anyone drape a GUI on top of them, and probably for good reason (it may ultimately be a solution looking for a problem). When it comes to priorities, back in 2014, the clear need for better U1MB/SIDE/Incognito firmware far outweighed the GOS in terms of importance (and remember the primary motivation for rewriting the U1MB firmware was initially to provide the GOS with a means of booting from ROM), and as it happens, doing that eventually contributed to my turning my hobby into my self-employed occupation (I wasn't working at all for much of the time when I was working intensely on the GOS, and when I did get a full-time job in IT support - itself partily because of some firmware I had produced - I recall being too tired after work to do any large-scale coding). And - as mentioned previously - work on the SIDE2 and later the SIDE3 loaders took care of FAT drivers on the A8 (R/W in the case of SIDE3, as recently as two years ago, with long filename support, etc), filesystem drivers being one of the more intimidating obstacles to turning the GOS 'demo' into a full operating system. Shortly after I finished the R/W FAT drivers, we sold my parents' house (both of them having died in 2021/22), bought this place, and I expect to have the place fully fixed up by the end of 2024. Coding priorities include the SIDE3 Loader, Ext U1MB/Incognito Lite/Incognito 3 firmware, etc, etc. Will I start dabbling with the GOS project again? More than likely, since I have ready-written filesystem driver code now which didn't exist ten years ago. Regarding the SDX FAT drivers: I completely appreciate and support developers who wish to 'do it themselves', and I heard some gossip that the R/W version of the SDX FATFS.SYS 'exists somewhere', but who knows. I reached out to Trub about a year ago, nevertheless, offering to help add write support if it wasn't already done, but I received no response whatsoever to that offer. I would write a R/W driver myself, but unfortunately - while the SDX developer documentation is absolutely excellent - the chapter on writing filesystem drivers is still missing, so we're at a bit of an impasse there at the moment. Someone from the Americas offered me some kind of financial support scheme back in 2013 or so, but I didn't pursue it since it seemed to me at the time like making a pact with the Devil. Once you accept money (regardless of all the failed Kickstarter projects which exist), you've committed yourself to providing a product of some kind, and that's a considered responsibility, IMO. The amount of time required to complete the GOS - unless invested piecemeal over a couple of years - would be significant enough to affect my day-to-day occupation (whose backlog of work I am still struggling to manage), and if that's neglected for a year while I work full-time on the GOS, I'd risk having no job at all at the end of it. I haven't forgotten the donations I received a decade or more ago in terms of support for the GUI/GOS project, but sending tips to egg someone on to push the project further and formalising a funding scheme in order to ensure a completed project are two entirely different propositions. Couldn't really have put it better myself. It's a valid concern, and definitely something that's in the back of my mind when I wonder whether - for instance - to improve a game loader for which I get paid and which is used by hundreds of SIDE3 owners, or a graphical OS which people would probably tinker with for five minutes (imagine any recent GEOS demo on YouTube, for example), adjusting the font size in the word processor and dragging windows around the screen. And if - as it appears to some - the whole project is just about 'can it be done?', then we already know it can be done, since the GOS 'demo' works, has a ROM file system, and runs multiple processes at the same time on a 128K system, and uses a graphical front-end with proportional fonts. LOL. Reverse psychology sometimes works, I suppose, to inspire people to finish something out of spite or a sense of indignation, but this thread (which I actually have hidden because it's become such a time-drain in its own right; I'm only here because I was quoted) has been such a source of motivation and demotivation in almost equal measure, they pretty much cancel one another out now, and thus become irrelevant. Part of me wishes I had written nothing at all on the forum until the system was complete, but on the other hand, without public discussion, we wouldn't have the cool mouse pointer, nice visuals, efficient window manager, or the multitasking kernel (all of which are - directly or indirectly - a result of community discussion and participation).

In case anyone is interested, I successfully got Prince of Persia running on the 400 mini. I just completed a play-through of the game and I did not experience any comparability issues.

@ilmenit - tiny request. Would it be easy to make the command line parameters be visible in the title bar like with previous versions? I've got in the habit of just snapping an image of my progress window and it lets everyone see what options I used during the conversion. 1st attempt with beta9 - great results! Bald Eagle, 71 colours. Settings were jarvis, strength 3, randomness 0.8, 8192 solutions, gamma 0.7 Stephen_BaldEagle.xex

I finished to clean the code and add comments. I change the code in the Title screen and save 60 octets ^_^ New features : Press joystick button to start game and Reset Attract mode when moving player. I changed parts of the code, so now we can relocate ram addresses automaticaly. Well, more easily anyway. I share the source code. It's far from perfect and need certainly a lot of optimization. ^_^ Time to go working on another game. mazezam.atr mazezam.xex MazezaM_atari400_8ko_src.zip

Finally the cplds arrived, replaced with the new batch and, finally it works... In the previous batch out of 10 xilinx only three worked....

The pre-alpha build of my MK port is available today! I still have a long way to go, but it's getting there. 😁

I received the boards: So, started making it. The 3.3v regulator is a bit small. A bit of flux, tinned the pads, held in place with tweezers and a bit of hot air: This is enough to get 3.3v working. Regulator, two caps and and an inductor. Couple of wires to test it and it worked: Then put on the 2.5v regulator and a decoupling cap because it was next to it: Oh and I also got some jtag adaptors: Also getting there with the pin assignments file, not quite ready to commit yet though.

So as the developer of ColecoDS, I decided to support all 'cousin' systems to the Colecovision in the one emulation package due to how similar it all is. The differences come down mainly to memory/IO maps, the amount of memory, the SN vs AY sound chips and possibly the use of a CTC chip for more sophisticated handling of timing/interrupts (vs the CV just tying VDP to the non-maskable interrupt... some developers curse this) ColecoDS currently supports these very similar systems: Colecovision with 1K of mirrored RAM and optional Super Game Module for an additional 32K of memory (similar to the lower-half of the ADAM memory map) and the AY sound chip for easier MSX ports. The upper 32K is used for carts and bigger carts can use various banking techniques to page in more ROM as needed (the venerable MegaCart being the most popular which allows for a 16K fixed bank and a 16K variable bank... the more sophisticated Super Game Cart allows for 8K banking that makes it a bit easier to port MSX1 games that use an 8K mapper). Coleco ADAM with 64K base memory (and no RAM mirrors) and up to 16MB of Expanded Memory (though I think above about 1 or possibly 2MB it kinda gets pointless). Things are generally memory mapped in 32K chunks (upper and lower memory). Can run in Colecovision mode with the standard CV bios (though the RAM is not mirrored and that will cause compatibility issues with a very small number of games). Super games in DDP (tape) could be up to 256K in size and standard disks were 160K (though most hobbyists would modify or upgrade to a 320K disk or larger) - with the clever AdamNet handling allowing for DMA transfers of data without a heavy load on the Z80 so new stages for games could load while you play. Sega SG-1000 and SC-3000 are hugely similar to the CV with just some changes to the IO and memory map. The SC-3000 adds more memory and a keyboard to provide some entry level computer support. Some 3rd party expanders map RAM in various places for bootleg MSX ports to the SG-1000. Many of the early homebrews for the CV came from the SG-1000 game pool. Sord M5 is likewise similar to our CV but adds a CTC (counter-timer-chip) used for cassette and sound timing. Most software was supplied on carts. Apploon and Up Up Balloon are both great original games that would be right at home on the Colecovision but most developers don't look to the Sord for inspiration (and maybe the CTC handling is not easy to untangle for the Colecovision which lacks it). MSX1 is more versatile than the CV with memory mapping in 16K chunks (vs 32K of the CV/ADAM) and even that can be further chunked into 8K segments by various MSX cart mappers. Of all the cousin systems, this one is the most widely supported by the hobby community with tons of new homebrews coming every year... many of the new CV games are ports of MSX classics. Uses the AY sound chip which is very similar to the venerable SN chip with wider dynamic range and uses simple waveform envelopes to produce some great effects - this AY chip is provided on the CV by the Super Game Module. Some of the best MSX1 games utilize an off-board sound processor known as the Konami SCC which is hard to replicate exactly (though Opcode comes close) on the CV even with the Super Game Module. Most games come on carts but there is also tons of cassette and disk based software for the MSX1. Standard disks are 720K. Spectravideo SVI is very close to MSX1 (vs the Colecovision) and was the basis for the MSX1 standard - but retains the 32K memory map of the CV. Cassette based loader (only a half-dozen or so carts are known to exist). Sadly most everything on the SVI was either a back-port from MSX or the games got released on MSX compatible systems so this system just doesn't have the exclusives to make it stand out. Casio PV-2000 is very similar to the Colecovision but uses memory mapped VDP access vs IO Mapping and also has interrupt driven keyboard handling. Hanimex Pencil II is mostly a gaming console with a chicklet keyboard tacked-on for various flavors of BASIC carts. Only a few carts are dumped though a few dozen others are known to exist. Tatung Einstein has a faster (4MHz) processor and ample use of CTC timer handling. Disk based system and uses the same SN chip as the Colecovision. This was the system of choice for many Z80 developers back in the mid-80s to write and test games as it was really well built and came with 64K standard memory and a reliable 3" disk drive (200K formatted) and had virtually the entire CPU bus accessible on the back (via something they called the "Tatung Pipe"). Memotech MTX also uses the CTC timer and is a cassette based system. Uses the same SN chip as the Colecovision. Creativision uses the same VDP and sound chip but is built around the 6502 CPU vs the Z80 in all the systems above. It's like the Atari and Colecovision had an illegitimate child that neither wants to claim on their taxes. It's got a unique set of controllers that remind me of the Intellivision and when you hook them up side-by-side, it makes for a makeshift A-Z keyboard.

No, I've just been working on some stuff that just isn't ready to release yet.

We don’t mind being patient. Take the time that you need to do a quality job. It’s just hard waiting without knowing. Once the firmware is finalized, I would like to suggest that Atari/Plaion reach out to all of the current 2600+ customers to let them know that an update is available. The fact that Atari/Plaion is supporting the 2600+ ecosystem and that you are actively involved with the community is I think what will eventually set you apart from any competition. Keep up the great work!

Life doesn't work like that, you need to stop thinking that way, it's not healthy.

I got the prototypes in. I have put one together and the system detects it with no issues. I will be testing SCSI disk functionality over the weekend extensively. Crossing my fingers and toes..

Ok, I now have USB transfers of 4MB ROM's working reliably. I *think* it's resource contention on the microcontroller, I had an inkling it might be this as this was actually one of the problems with WTR. As there's lots of DMA activity going on between the memory card and Jaguar, somehow some of the clocks were being missed from the memory card causing data loss. In this case I think similar weirdness is happening between the USB and Jag DMA channels, although you have no control over the USB DMA priority, so I've just opted to make sure the USB and Jag DMA channels aren't active at the same time. The actual data coming in from the USB was always correct as I CRC'd and displayed it on every read (USB actually has CRC checking as part of it), so the data going to the Jag was somehow being dropped or corrupted due to contention. The result -- it's now working solidly with 4MB ROM's, where it really just would not work at all for me.

Not an Atari, but still proud about it, and for 5 euros... First time typing in a computer, it was in one just like this little Sinclair (minus de RAM expansion).