alex_79

You can check (and change) the mapping by selecting "Options" and then "Input...". Consider that if your keyboard uses a layout other than the US one, the actual key might not match what is displayed in the settings/docs. The default key to open the debugger is the first one in the second row (below "ESC"), which, for example, is "backslash" ("\") on my Italian keyboard.

On screen menus are overrated. A game select matrix is all you need!

I think that the best solution is to print (or have someone print for you) one of the 3d shells posted in the thread linked by @Al_Nafuur above. They're designed to be easily opened without damage if you need to access the usb port. You typically only need the usb port to program the board the first time. Subsequent upgrades are made over WIFI (or using the SD card). Anyway, by looking at the pictures, the hole you cut in the standard shell to fit those adapters, seems large enough to allow plugging a standard cable in the recessed port. If not, just enlarge it a little bit more. Not the prettiest thing, but functional. There isn't any OTG support currently, nor any indication of it being worked on, so I wouldn't worry about it. You can go back to it later if needed.

I don't think the timer method can be used to reliably identify a console: the results on the same machine seem to change on subsequent tests (so either the 2600 clock, the arm one, or both can drift a little), and the values range on different machines can overlap. https://forums.atariage.com/topic/263219-ntsc-vs-pal-detection/ I believe fingerprinting a specific 2600 machine is not possible. Maybe you could use a sort of security dongle to plug into a controller port when you start a game as a way to identify an user. To be honest, I'm not a fan of something like that.

http://kevtris.org/files/sizes.txt

I'd try a different sd card first, just to rule out that as the source of your issue. What size is your card? According to the manual, the Harmony supports SD or SDHC up to 32Gb.

Just one last thing. This is wrong: You should learn some basics about microprocessor systems and memory interfacing, and what a bus is.

Ok. Probably I'm just weird, but that doesn't make sense to me. To each their own, I guess. You can just use the eprom directly, since you need an eprom programmer and an eraser anyway. The eprom emulator makes it faster to test the code, but it is not indispensable, especially if you're not writing the software from scratch. You should first learn a bit about how to use a z80 assembler and see if you can compile z80 source code. The listing in the article might need to be adjusted depending on what assembler you're using, and without at least a little bit of knowledge about the z80 assembly language, it will be almost impossible to fix the eventual (and probable!) mistakes you can make while typing or caused by the OCR process. And the article might contain typos too... With a z80 simulator, for example... Anyway, you should first concentrate on having a source that you can actually compile into a binary file. The fact that it compiles doesn't guarantee that there aren't errors, but if it doesn't you have no binary to burn into the eprom, and in that case any hardware you build is just a doorstop. Nothing. That's actually a very good reason. I was just wondering if you were looking for some particular feature that the AGR doesn't provide, such as "record gameplay and play video" that you mentioned at the beginning of this thread. I haven't. As I said, I'd like to do it someday. I was just expressing some concerns about how you're approaching this project, that's it. I have nothing else to add about this subject.

In your first post you showed some severe misconceptions about what the Atari Game Recorder is, and later admitted you didn't actually read those articles. Did you take some time to study them in detail after that? I ask because I find quite odd that you think you need an eprom emulator (which might be of use, but not fundamental. And it's actually what the AGR is, so that you could use that instead of the AGR, to play the games in your Atari 2600!), but you have no clue how to get "the PDF text" (aka the source code in Z80 assembly) to "what comes next" (the binary to burn to the eprom). That's really something you need to figure out before you start buying parts. Why do you want to build the AGR in the first place?

That makes sense. The fact that the eprom was soldered, with even the shield installed, makes me think it's the final version. During development they would likely have used a board with a socket.

Is that the only screen? Does it react to a joystick (e.g. fast tapping the fire button, or moving the stick) or console switches?

Intersting. The board is a standard Atari one, modified to accept a 2732 eprom (there should be jumpers, cut traces and an inverter on the other side). Also the eprom is soldered and not socketed. Quite odd for a prototype, I think. It reminds me the description of some of the proposed software for the "puffer", in particular the "Exercise-To-Your-Par" one mentioned in the "puffer ideas" memo:

This old post confirms that's not unusual. It should work just fine, as long as the output level of the audio device is compatible with the Supercharger. Just plug the male end in the headphone jack of the audio device you want to use (e.g. mp3 player) and the supercharger cable into the "tip" (black) socket. Leave the "ring" one unconnected. Plugging directly the Supercharger mono plug into a stereo jack shorts the right channel to ground. Most devices are designed to handle that, but some might not and could be damaged in the long run. That adapter avoids the (potential) issue. With my Supercharger I always use an adapter I built that is electrically the same thing, just without the red "ring" socket: a stereo male plug connected to a mono female socket by a short piece of cable: only the tip and sleeve (ground) are connected between the two, while the plug's ring is left unconnected.

No, but I noticed that the tape deck had the Dolby NR set..., so I redid the recordings. I cleaned the heads, moved the deck near my PC so I don't have to use a 3 m long cable and this time I recorded them as stereo (the tape deck I'm using is stereo). I got something odd: I would expect the tape to be in mono and so to get the same audio on both channels, but instead side A seems to actually be in stereo, with audio only on the left channel! I confirmed that by listening to the tape with a pair of headphones. Side B is mono (so same audio on both channels when played on the stereo deck). This is the only original Supercharger tape I have, so I don't know if this is a common thing. Phaser_Patrol_stereo.zip I reduced slightly the volume when recording Side B compared to A as otherwise it was clipping. Apart from that, I didn't change any settings and didn't apply any filter.

Hmm, no. The Atari Game Recorder is a rom emulator that connects to the Atari through the cartridge port. It can dump cartridges (only 4k if you use the diagram and software provided in those articles) into the onboard ram and save/load the dumps to/from tape.

The Cuttle Cart has a single hardwired cord which ends with a 3.5mm plug, just like the Supercharger.

The Atari Game Recorder was something I really wanted to build when I first rediscovered the Atari 2600 and joined AtariAge. I still have a bunch of Z80 cpus and 2kx8 ram chips I bought on ebay at the time for that purpose, and I OCR'ed the scans of the source code from the article, as the rom file wasn't available at the time (I don't know if it is now). I didn't go further as I later got a supercharger and then an eprom programmer with built in rom emulator (based on a z80, just like the AGR, btw) that I used to try homebrews and my programming attempts on real hardware. And finally the Harmony cart came out... I'd still like to build one, anyway.

I recorded my original Phaser Patrol (NTSC) tape: Phaser_Patrol.zip I tested loading the wav into my Supercharger, and at least the first loads on each side work, as well as the "Suicide Mission" preview demo at the end of side A (they also work in Gopher2600). The second loads on both sides don't work for me, maybe due to aging tape, or I need to use shorter cables, clean the tape deck heads, use a better soundcard or change the recording settings.... Hope it helps.

I agree. You can tell by looking at increased the blank space above and below the image: they converted it to PAL from the NTSC version by increasing the scanline count (and so reducing the framerate to 50Hz), but they didn't adjust the colors. Typical of these bootleg carts.

The Internet is full of people questioning about everything. Doesn't mean you need to pay attention to them...

Stella currently doesn't fully emulate the Supercharger hardware: it can run the games in binary form, but doesn't need the original bios and doesn't emulate the cassette interface at all: it just copies the data from the binary file to the appropriate portion of the emulated Supercharger RAM when it needs to. Gopher2600 emulates the Supercharger audio interface: https://github.com/JetSetIlly/Gopher2600-Docs/wiki/Supercharger

That's to setup the preset channels that you access with the front big numbered dial: you choose a position on the dial, then the green button sets the band (VHFI-VHFIII-UHF), the two black ones marked "sintonia" are used to scan the frequency, and the red button is to save it. Older European TV sets usually had a removable panel with a bank of trimmers and switches, one for each of the presets (like the one in this thread)

It's a TV, from the (now closed) italian "MIVAR" manufacturer. It has 16 presets to store TV channels.😄 https://vintagelectronicsmuseum.blogspot.com/p/il-mivar-12bn4v-e-un-televisore.html

I just tried turning on again this old B&W 12" CRT (from the mid '80s) that has been sitting in a closet for a few years and only does 50Hz too, and I thought the PAL 50 Amoeba Jump was perfect for this test! It brings back memories, as when I got my 2600 as a kid, I was rarely allowed to play on the living room color TV, and I mostly played in the kitchen, on a valve B&W set from the '60s, which was already over 20 years old at the time. (I remember that when switched on it only displayed a single bright dot in the middle of the screen, then the image slowly enlarged horizontally and vertically as it warmed up!)

You can find the image of the entire CD on the Internet Archive Check also: Atari 2600 Mappers and Hardware document Cuttle Cart I manual Supercharger Schematic