alex_79

The pictures of the prototype boards (like the one in the first post, or this other one) seem to confirm that, right? They use standard EPROMS (2764 for what can be seen), and other than the mapper chip and SRAM, there doesn't seem to be any extra component to invert the CE signals in there.

Seems like another good reason for @chriswhit to try his cart dumper with the 8 copies of "Burgertime" he bought!

BTW, is that one still not dumped?

After looking at those pictures, I stand corrected. Evidently they also produced boards with standard DIP ICs, and they switched to the COB style later (as a cost saving measure). I guess the only way to find out which type PCB your game uses is to open it! 😄 Yes, there's the "sizes.txt" files quoted by Thomas in a post above, and also the updated Atari 2600 Mappers and Hardware document, both by Kevin Horton. You can also find useful info by looking at the source code of emulators, or by searching the AA forums for a specific scheme.

He's happier now, though... Isn't that what really counts? 😆

Yes, the Supercharger exists in both PAL and NTSC format. The difference is only in the "message" screen in the bios (the one that tells you to play/stop and rewind tape), which is programmed for 50Hz and PAL palette or 60Hz and NTSC palette. Once the game is loaded, the format of the Supercharger doesn't matter anymore, just use games with the same format of your console/TV. E.g. using a NTSC Supercharger with a PAL Atari 2600 results in a PAL60 display, with wrong colors (only during those "message" screens). Most PAL TVs display PAL60 just fine, and in case your doesn't the screen will roll while the bios displays the messages but you'll still be able to load the game successfully. Just load PAL games.

Yes, the Melody board (and therefore the Harmony cart) supports the E7 bankswitching. "Masters Of The Universe" and "Bump 'N' Jump" are the other two released games using it. I'm not aware of any schematic that replicates the E7 banking using off-the-shelf parts, and a schematic of the original board wouldn't be of much use, since it requires a custom chip (the 40 pins one on that proto board) that is not available anywhere. On production games it was actually in the COB (chip on board) style, that is with the chip die directly mounted on the board and then covered with a "blob" of epoxy, so it couldn't be scavenged from existing games and reused either.

I believe the E7 scheme supports 16k max, and I think that's the size of this game. You can barely see "MBM2764" (8k) printed on the "master" eprom, and the "slave" one is 28 pins too, so It's likely 8k as well. The old 7800 DevOS supports M-network E7 type, but I'd bring an eprom programmer as well, just in case. If there's any issue with the cart dumper, just read the two eproms separately in the programmer.

I did convert a test wav (Oystron) to mp3 using lame v 3.100. It works with constant bitrate (-b option) set at 128 or 320 kbps, it doesn't at 64kbps. Using variable bitrate (-V option), it seems to always work with setting from 0 to 3, it sometimes need a few attempts on 4 and doesn't work at all with 5+ values.

Tried it and the generated audio files load without issues in a real Supercharger.

Cool. I'll give it a try with my Supercharger. I like the idea of being able to try non-bankswitched games in Supercharger mode in an emulator. In fact, years ago, I wrote a small utility to "clean up" Supercharger binary files (fix wrong checksums and clear padding data) which also converted regular roms into the corresponding Supercharger binary format, to try them in Stella and see if they would crash in a Supercharger:

I'm not an expert, but it surely doesn't look like a bootleg, with that production sample ceramic package IC for the bankswitching logic and the Mattel PCB. I guess it's this one (although the 1986 date on the eproms seems odd): http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-advanced-dungeons--dragons-tower-of-mystery-cartridge_15999.html

Many 2k and 4k games can be loaded into a supercharger and work fine. Some of them will trigger the bankswitching and crash, and were hacked to workaround the issue:

Just a thought I had, and I don't know if it's worth to open an issue for this so I just post it here: have you considered having automatic snapshot builds for Stella? E.g. dasm has them (you can download the builds for recent commits from the "actions" tab as long as you have a github account and are logged in). I think they could potentially increase feedback, as likely there are people who'd be interested in testing WIP versions, but who don't know how or have no time or interest to set up a development environment to build the app themselves.

The issues with "Extra Terrestrial" are related to RSYNC emulation. It was fixed in Stella 3.8.1. https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/commits/release-3.8.1

Go to "Game properties">"Controllers": you probably have "Swap paddles" selected. These are the default properties for "Warlords" according to internal Stella database, where the mouse controls the first 2 paddles with the two axes: If you deselect "Specific mouse axis" it will only control the first paddle. Paddles are not labeled and not all games use the same one for the first player, that's what the "Swap paddles" option is for. It has been changed to the new format to handle "hard shutdown" which could corrupt the settings: There are many free sqlite editors if you want to manually edit the database without knowing SQL, such as "DB Browser for SQLite".

Are you using a standard Atari joystick or something else? Do paddle games work correctly?

It's not just the resolution, but also the fact that a mechanical encoder has some friction (there must be a minimum force to ensure electrical connection between the contacts), while for a trackball you need the encode to spin freely. Anyway, I don't see a practical and economical way to build a mechanical encoder at home. Mechanical encoders (usually with 20 or 24 steps for revolution) are readily available. Optical encoders can be built at home (and you can easily 3d print the mechanical parts), but of course still require power for the electronics. Soldering one wire to the pcb doesn't take much effort (if one can solder of course), and it's completely reversible. Anyway, the other two solutions that I suggested (the diodes and the dc socket for an external DC adapter) do not require any soldering for the user as they are in the adapter itself. As I explain in the thread at videopac.nl forum, you can even have both at the same time, by wiring the dc connector through an additional diode.

It does on an heavy sixer, as the ports have a raised border that interferes with the "ears" of the metal shield. It's probably fine to leave the shield on the other 2600 versions.

You can if you include a power port in your adapter or if you directly pick the +5V from the O2 board by soldering a wire there. Years ago I made Atari DE-9 adapters for a videopac+ and used a bunch of diodes to provide power to pin 7 without modifying the console (which has detachable joysticks identical to the O2 ones but uses a round 6-pin DIN connector). See reply #3 in this topic: https://videopac.nl/forum/index.php?topic=2330.0 That's a quick "hack" that works for low power devices. It worked for a genesis pad, but I never tried a trackball with it... EDIT: thinking a bit more about it, since the trackball can pull down all the inputs at the same time, the diodes wouldn't work reliably in that case. You need a proper +5V input.

Most probably, your console is a PAL-I model (for UK and Ireland markets), while you're in continental Europe and your CRT is PAL-B/G. Modern digital TVs are usually multistandard. See here: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/271453-heavy-sixer-serial-number-thread/?do=findComment&comment=5188883

Because the encoder inside original Atari driving controllers is mechanic and doesn't use power. It just opens/closes a couple of contacts (between GND and 2 input pins) following a specific sequence (gray code) as you turn the knob.This works fine with the low resolution of the driving controller (only 16 steps for a full 360° turn of the knob). Trackballs works in a similar way, but they have a much higher resolution and use optical encoders (a spoked wheel spinning between an infrared led and a photodiode), plus some logic ICs if they use a different protocol than gray code (or to implement the "joystick emulation" mentioned above). So you need power for the electronics.

You need a "Video Touchpad" plugged into the right port. Without it, the game isn't playable and it just shows the "galactic map", which is the screen you're seing. An Atari Keyboard controller or a Kid's Controller will work too, as they're electrically the same.