atarifan49

I was able to find someone with a working flash cart that was willing to desolder the chip and read it. He had no idea how to read the information or what it meant. He sent it to me and I knew it was exactly what I was looking for when I saw the checksum of the fuse map was $7A53. The sticker from the original GAL chips when I first looked at some broken ones had labels that read "ORL.JED $7A53". I knew the $7A53 represented the checksum of the JEDEC (like in EPROMs). So I figure I could at least use this as a gauge to determine if and when I got the boolean correct. I spent some time off and on looking at the schematic I drew and try and figure out what I could decipher about the operation of the flash cart to develop my own equations. But just wasn't having much success in that area since I didn't have a flash cart anymore to try new chips out in. When I was given this recent file, I was able to run the JEDEC code through a disassembler and recreate a facsimile of the original equations. Using this disassembled code I applied the signal names I determined from the schematic and one by one adjusted them until my compiled version matched the original checksum correctly. My final step this past weekend was to add test vectors so once a chip is burned the programmer can also test it. I do plan on trying the technique I mentioned before to see what I get from doing that and see just how close I can come and try and "hone" the technique. I like to try and attempt this on the PAL chip used in the Catbox to be able to have a replacement for it. Interesting project this has been. Won't say I'm an expert when it comes to programmable logic (I still have a long ways in my education) but I really look forward to learning more once I get to that part of my degree program I'm in. Glenn

Eventually I plan on getting my Jaguar technical pages back up and have it available there. In the mean time, I can email you the info. I can burn a chip for anyone for a small fee. Just need to figure out if I can procure the chips locally. On a side note, here is a bit of interesting trivia about the reason the Flash cart was developed. This came from the designer of the cart: "The name on the label (ORL.PAL) brought back memories. The Flash cartridge was originally developed to allow the jaguar to be connected to a set top box in the Time Warner Full Service Network trial in Orlando Florida, hence the name ORL. Games would be downloaded to the jaguar from a parallel port on the set top box, which, for the trial, was a Silicon Graphics workstation! Crazy days." Now, is that some cool trivia or what? Glenn

Good news to those of you with dead flash carts. The logic for programming the GAL22V10 chip used inside the Jaguar flash cart has been successfully reversed. And using this reversed information, a new JEDEC fuse map file has been developed. I was able to have this tested on a cart that has been dead for quite some time. Spread the word! Glenn [email protected]

Stone, Good review of Caves of Fear. Just to add. Caves of Fear was strictly a technology demonstration of the GameFilm developed for the Jaguar. Main character is a CIA agent name Jack Armstrong. Bad guys are just a bunch of stinking white supremists. The more I played it, the more I enjoyed the story concept and thought it would have made a good game. Of course a properly done version of it would have many more options in the story and have more replay value to it. But I don't think the game would have profited since the FMV game concept was dying out around the time of the Jaguar CD. Digital Pictures definitely milked the life out of the FMV game scene. Don't get me wrong, I love Sewer Shark and Night Trap along with some of the other ones they did. But if they did them on the Jaguar with the cinepak compression they would've looked better. SegaCD compression scheme they used really sucked. Atari did pay about a million dollars to have a movie shot for a full game. That movie was named American Hero (starring Timoty Bottoms - the G.W. Bush looking actor who played in "That's My Bush!"). That movie has a completely different plot than Caves of Fear but with the same character name. Turns out a demo version of it does exist for the Jaguar and it is an NC-17 rated game (nudity and language). Cheers, Glenn

Very glad to see you like it. Good to see the game get in the hands of Jaguar fans then to sit on a floppy disk never to be seen again. Did you get the manual downloaded for it? http://www.intermediadesign.com/junk/barkleymanual.pdf Glenn

You need to read Game Over by David Sheff. This book has a chapter dedicated about the events surrounding what you mention above. There's a revised edition of this book out there. It has a green cover background. The first one has more of a red background. I've seen the book in either a Software Etc, Electronics Boutique, or a Babbages. Can't quite remember exactly. Glenn

Sounds similar to Circuit City's DIVX "pay per view" DVD's. What I'm going to have to pay a fee everytime I want to play a game, I don't think so! Not looking good at all! Glenn

Finally found it. It's their show series called Icons. It's episode # 201. http://www.g4tv.com/html/showinfo.asp?episode_key=549 It's says its playing at 8:30 AM. But thats based on my PST timezone. Glenn

Can you give us more specific information. Like what time the show is playing and the name they have it listed under. Now I just need to find someone to tape it for me! Thanks, Glenn

Actually there were some demos done that were based on a patent that David Schwartz obtained on an interactive gamefilm technology he developed for Atari. It's what Caves of Fear is based on. The technology expands on the old Sega CD style games where you either choose the correct path or you choose the wrong path (e.g. Sewer Shark, Night Trap). But instead of two choices you could be presented with multiple choices that have different results or paths. The intention was to make interactive FMV games that have more replay value. Caves of Fear was strictly developed as a "proof of concept". Atari paid to have a movie shot titled "American Hero" which stars Timothy Bottoms (have you ever watched "That's My Bush" on Comedy Central; he's the actor who has a very close resemblance to President George W. Bush). The movie is has a NC-17 rating (nudity, sex, language). But you are right, the only two games of that genre that were released were Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. By the time Atari got around to developing such titles, the market for FMV games was dying. People got tired of them quickly. I know I did. They were fun to play at first, but once you completed them not much else to go back for. If you also notice, whatever happen to Digital Pictures? They really only lasted as long as the Sega CD did. I have to admit, I did like Rob Fulop's game ideas in Sewer Shark and Night Trap. At least they didn't die out with Hasbro's game machine they were originally designed for. Glenn

Gunstar's Questions: YES. Correct. Same as Protector SE. Not for saving game information. Only for booting them like Protector SE. Protector SE and BSG both use the large size EEPROM chip (a 8pin IC on the cartridge). Both are cable of 2048 bytes of storage. This larger size EEPROM was selected to support the ability to save game information for future developed games from the existing developer community. This larger EEPROM is not supported by the older games developed by Atari and the 3rd part developers from years back. IS2-CD will not recognize the EEPROM because its trying to look for a memory track cartridge, which Protector SE is not. The Memory Track consists of a 32 pin 128k byte flash ROM chip and boot software that loads the memory track manager during the CD booting process. It's this memory track manager that IS2-CD is looking for. A game has to be specifically written to support the EEPROM in Protector SE and BSG. Glenn

Those are files used with an Alpine development system. The CDBOOT.ROM is just plain binary booting code compiled to run in cartridge area of memory. CDGO.DB is a debugger script file that loads the code and loads the boot track and halts the Jaguar at the beginning of your boot code once loaded. Only useful with an Alpine board. Glenn

I there someone that know Scott Walters, maybe he could release some info about making movies on the Jag. Until now I only heard it was very hard and I didn't find anyone who has managed to make a movie cd that works on the Jag. Any info. Starcat also told me he failed with the CINEPAK player to get something to work... In the top quote, I'm the person who provided Cyberroach that information. My mention of Scott Walters was simply to give credit to him providing me the CDBOOT.ROM and CDGO.DB programs that helped me first boot the Caves of Fear Jaguar Gamefilm demonstration. I'm probably the most knowledgable person regarding the Jaguar Cinepak film generation. I've been meaning to write a paper to try and describe the process that is needed to produce movie files for playback on the Jaguar. It's not a difficult process (once you understand it), but rather laborous with the size of files and getting them back and forth between a Macintosh and PC. See there is only one tool available to make the film files and its written for the Macintosh. And the process does get complicated depending on what format your original film is in (MPEG has been the most difficult to convert so far). Process is basicly this: 1. Get the film into the required Quicktime movie format. - 320 x 200 or smaller screen size - Radius Cinepak compression - PCM audio - no compression (never tried to deal with compressing the audio) - 15 to 24 frames per second - key frame ever 15 to ??? frames (depends on the color depth of your movie; I've used as high a 100 frames, but I don't recommend it) 2. Use the Jaguar Cinepak conversion tool to make a "chunky" format Jaguar film file with an AIFF header. (must go through the process of creating an film, then smooth format, then chunky, then AIFF wrap). 3. Move the file over to a PC and use the MAKETRK.EXE program to turn it into a CD track. 4. Use the player program written by Scott Sanders and burn a CD with that player program as the boot track and all your movie files follow that track on the CD (or you can recompile the program and have it start at whatever session/track you want it to). 5. Use a program like CDRECORD.EXE to make Jaguar compatiable CDs. CDRecord is the only burner program, that I know of, that supports the creation of CDDA tracks using RAW binary data. Every other burner program wants the information in WAV or MP3 format. Must be recored at 44.1kHz, 16bit, stereo (CDDA format; multisession). Now that's just a overview of the process. Lots of stuff in between all that dealing with movie editing and converting to make sure the movie is in the acceptable format for the Jaguar Cinepak conversion tool. For me, I can only capture on my PC and make AVI files (my Mac is too slow to do the proper capture size I need). And since the tool only likes Quicktime, I must break the AVI file apart to create a video track and a audio track and reassemble them using Adobe Premiere (old version 4.0). I just don't have the tools to do this all on my PC (not many programs I see suport the Quicktime format on the PC; plus you have the Big Endian and Little Endian issues to deal with also). I've read some documents out of Atari where they describe some of the stuff they've done. Of course they had access to professional video capturing and editing equipment. They typically had all their movies captured into individual still frames which they used programs like Debablizer to assemble them into a movie file and then sync/combine them with digital audio recordings. And they also used Macintosh PowerPC computers for all their movie generation (Quicktime wasn't supported well on the PC back then). I have tried some PC Mac emulators, but had no luck getting them to work well. If you can get one to run probably like a Quadra 800 or a PowerMac 603e type system under Mac OS 7.5 or 8.0 then you should be good to run the conversion programs. I've have not tried running the Jaguar Cinepak tool on anything above Mac OS 8.0. The original author of the program, Mike Fulton, was surprised it worked under 8.0. And I did ask him, no he no longer has the source code for the Jaguar Cinepak tool so a PC port is just not possible for me to do. Well, I've started a novel here. But I want to make sure you have a clear picture of what you're up against to make Jaguar films. Cheers, Glenn Bruner [email protected]

What gets me mad about the Dreamcast is that Sega never added light gun support to Silent Scope! Perfect game for a light gun and they didn't add it! What's with that? Have to admit that Confidential Mission plays very well with a light gun. Glenn

You should try and do something else on the ST's parallel port and make sure it's working. The sound chip in the ST mainly drives the parallel port (YM2149 PSG made by Yamaha, Atari PN C025983). The busy signal is handled by the MFP chip (Motorola 68901, Atari PN C025984). If you have problems using the parallel port for something else, then the most likely fault is the sound chip is bad, since most of the signals come from that chip. If you happen to have access to a Star NX-1000 dot matrix printer, it has a nice hex dump mode. What you can do is create a file filled with hex bytes like, 00, 01, 02, 04, 08, 10 , 20, 40, 80, AA, 55, FF, etc. You can use the dip switches to set the printer in this hex dump mode and send the contents of the file to the printer. Then using the hex dump see if you can see if the data is getting through correctly. This method is a poor mans method of testing a parallel port. But should be able to tell you if you have some bad bits on the parallel port. The chips mentioned above are still available from B&C (www.myatari.net) or Best Electronics. Good luck. Glenn

U38 is a MC34163 (Step-Up/Down/Inverting Switching Regulator). Best Electronics has it listed on their web site for $9.95. http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/custom-i.htm It's towards the bottom in their Misc section. There is also LM78L05ACH (REG1) that is listed on the schematic that provides power for the Audio circuit. Might check that also because it gets fed unregulated power from the power switch. Good luck! Glenn

I think on the Jaguar the undesputed champion to showing the power of the system is Battlesphere (either one). Shows how good game design and development utilized the Jaguar's chipset correctly. By that I mean not using the 68000, programming the code in modules and orchestrating all the processors correctly. But that goes with the luxary of having time to develop the game properly. A lot small developers and Atari didn't have that luxary. I always thought Tempest 2000 really shined (and I still do). But was surprised to hear that John Matheison was disappointed it didn't really push the Jaguar. I wonder what he was envisioning when he was developing the chipset? Oh and lets not forget to mention what Atari Games showed what the Jaguar chipset (designed correctly hardware wise) was capable of. Area 51, Max Force, and Area 51 Site 4 are just awesome! That's my 2 cents for this discussion. Glenn

Heads up to all. B&C has had some problems with their email servers since Dec 1st. If you made any inquiries or order requests since then, they probably didn't get the email. Email addresses affected: [email protected] and [email protected] They ask me to get the word out that emails can be sent to [email protected] until they get the mail servers back up. They're sorry if this has caused any inconvience to anyone trying to place an order. You can visit their website at: http://www.myatari.com. Glenn

Yes I did I wish Bruce would put it out on CD-rom so we can use it a CD-bypass and cut the price but any way! Game is great with all the B-Ball games the J64 has this one of the best :wink: The game cannot be put on CD. It's written to run from cartridge. Plus its a 4MB size game which really adds to the cost. Believe me, if it was a CD based game it would've come in that format. Glenn

TBird, Thanks for confirming that. I was beginning to doubt the truth behind that story. Do you think the raspberry sound was probably used as a seed value for generating the keys? Glenn

Tbird is right. The private key for the cartridge and private key for the CD have yet to be found. To get more detail about the header, its basicly works like this. The header is 8k in size on cartridge (resides in the $800000 - $801FFF region of memory). This header is encrypted using RSA encryption using 518bit keys (512 bits = 64 bytes + 6 bits for added measure). When decrypted, this header is a program that is run by the DSP to do a MD5 message digest of the cartridge (similar to running a checksum). At the end of this message digest is where the final check is done on whether to allow the cartridge to run or not (looking for the $03D0DEAD value). Only the right cartridge code and header pair will produce that final value (hence why every cart has its own header). It gets more complicated with the CD. Same basic process but instead the last track on the CD contains the RSA encrypted program and hash table of the CD. This one is larger (approximately 153k in size). The CD boot ROM obviously has a header of its own since the CD unit is seen as a cartridge to the Jag. When the CD boot ROM takes control, it spins the CD, verifies that a CD is in the drive, reads to TOC, looks for the last track, and reads the last track. If the track decrypts correctly, then it proceeds to authenticating the CD. It does three random block samplings of the CD checking blocks of data against the hash table. One of those blocks is from the boot track and the other two from other parts of the CD. And ss far as I know this is done from the second session on (first session, session 0, is not checked). The discussion about the WAV file is going way off course. I know I've been mentioning about it in the past about Leonard supposably blowing a raspberry into a microphone and Atari using that to make a key from. I really don't know how they made the key. They could've done something like that to use it as "seed value" to generate the actual keys. They could've done a lots things. All I know is its a mystery on how they generated the keys. Glenn

Recently got in contact with Scott Evans of www.safestuff.com. He has a interesting website where's he's been sharing pictures and info about some of the various Atari Games prototype arcade machines he has. He mentioned this about the prototype Co-Jag game called Freeze: I wonder who this company is and when/where this game will appear? Glenn

This is suprising since in 1982 he wrote one of the greatest books on Atari 8-bit programming, De-Re-Atari. Not to mention that in 1981 he wrote Eastern Front, arguably one of the best Atari 8-bit games. Dan Rightly so. But remember, Chris was only one of numerous other authors for De Re Atari. You think Chris is looking back and regretting about not being part of that royality payment? Scott S., your comment above was dead on. HSW is just sharing the stories of his and fellow 2600 programmers experience at Atari. Yes, HSW likes the claim of fame. But I think he deserves it. And if his antics cause more of the classic game programmers to come out and speak up, then even better! Chris is welcome to do his version of Once Upon Atari... That's my two cents... Glenn

Just the age old matter of programming: you fix one bug and create 10 more. I think he's doing a fantastic job considering the task he's up against! I tried it on my P4 1.5GHz last night (AVP and PT 0.3). It felt like it played slightly faster than the Jaguar version. Man, it would be great to play AVP with the speed of Doom! Flashback also played faster with the new Blitter routine. Animations were playing about 1.5 times their speed. I acutally think not having the cart boot sequence is great. I hate having to wait for that. I hope the MAME developers release the Co-Jag enabled version of MAME soon. Really looking forward to trying that out. Anyone have any insight to when that will be? Glenn

Yep, the full spec version that was described in the Tech Ref manual has probably never saw the light of day, but a developer board did get produced. Here's a link to some info about the COBWEB developer board: http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/jaguar/jag2.html That's what John Mathieson did when he sent me the Jaguar Tech Ref manual for the Jaguar One. He reprinted the manual, probably from Word, into a PDF document on 29 Feb 00 (leap day!). He did the same here, he reprinted the manual from his master copy of the specs document to a PDF on 26 Oct 02. Regards, Glenn