Cupcakus

NOW I'll trade you my commons sleep :-) So Air-Sea Battle and Video Pinball for those sound good :-)

I just went to http://www.pixelspast.com/ and looked at there close up PCB's for the EPROM parts. I just followed the traces and got it figured out. Might help you.

Microsoft is Broadband only! So there will most definetly be enough kits to go around. This is great that the other consoles are suffering with online play, because XBox live is fantastic and we're going to see a lot of people converting. Woo Hoo! :-)

The GBA is the best portable unit ever made. It is dark however, it's only major flaw. Wormlights are about $10 and help quite a bit, I suggest getting those with the units. As for games, the console is specifically designed for the younger crowd. While there are some games for older folks, it mainly stays younger. There are some real gems for the system. My suggestions for games would be Yoshi's Island and the new Spyro game. Both are easy enough for kids and a lot of fun.

When the 2600 on a chip comes out, expect a lot of cool Atari products to follow.

This is exactly why I posted the "schematic" here, if you or anyone else notice something I missed, speak up so I can fix it :-) I will not be offended! :-)

Ahhh :-) Now I remember... Back in the day when I learned this, the book told me it was required to reduce RF interference, which is required by law in Part 15 of the FCC yadda yadda. And scince I never gave a hoot about the FCC's concerns with my home projects I just avoided them. I have studied the Datasheets quite a bit for all the IC's I use, and I don't remember seeing any cap mentioned, but nonetheless, I will put a bypass cap on all IC's in this circuit and on the main power line. I remember reading that a .1uF cap was all that was necessary, however you suggest 10uF? Quite a difference... You're the expert, what do you think?

I am in no way a master at this craft. I have no professional training in these matters, so if things are not apparent, I will miss them. :-) Why would I need a bypass cap? The other proto is working without it, but maybe that is why my results are not always reliable. Where does it go? And what is it's function?

I just got a horrible feeling I'm doing addressing wrong.... Does the Atari address the PROM in reverse? Example The processor fetches the instruction at $001, is A0=1 or is A11=1 Does addressing start from the highest address pin back to zero, or from the first address pin to the highest? I thought I knew, but I'm having second thoughts.

I am using a 28C256 EEPROM. The Atmel version of that EEPROM has 32 bits of additional space for placing EEPROM identification information into it. I thought I might be able to use that for something, but it turns out I won't be able to. 12v was required to perform I/O on that section of the EEPROM. Only 5v 50mA is required to write the chip normally. Unless I'm reading the Datasheet incorrectly, the Write pin on this EEPROM has to be dropped LOW and held for at least 100ns and then brought back up. The address is latched as it goes down, and the data is latched as it comes up. The Write pin (Pin 1) on an EPP Parallel port handles this operation perfectly. 120us times are required if I was doing a page write to the chip. However, I am only writing the chip one byte at a time so this is not necessary. It runs under Windows, a special device driver is required for NT based windows OS's (NT,2000,XP)

Why? :-) This thing is too complicated as it is :-)

I guess what I'm fishing for is an "I Like", or "I dislike" the idea of using the Atari console power adapter. :-)

Thank you all for your input in the previous thread. I have addressed some of your concerns with this new prototype. I have designed and checked it, however I have not constructed it to see if it works. It should work fine however. "Should" being the key word :-) #1. There was a concern about the Atari having to be near the computer for this to work. A power supply option was presented. I was concerned about the price increase in this product if everyone needed a power supply too. So I tried the battery route... it wasn't practicle as I expected. I ended up with this solution. The flash cart will use the standard Atari 9v 500mA adapter! :-) We all have at least one of these, if not more. They are inexpensive if you want a spare, and you are not required to buy one with the cart, as you should already have one. #2. EPP support, this wasn't stated in the previous post but the current proto uses SPP parallel, which is slow and is now producing unreliable results. #3. I was also able to dramatically simplify the design of the circuit by not including any I/O chips for the Parallel port, and using just simple counting IC's for programming the chip. Below is an image of the digram I made up for the new revision. The bottom 24 holes will be connected to where the 2732 pins would be on an ordinary homebrew 2600 PCB. While this is a finished EEPROM programmer, it is not a flash cart yet. I still have to complete the bankswitching stuff, and connect the 2600 PCB to the whole thing. The Atari shouldn't even know it's not talking to a 2732, if all goes well. By seperating this circuit from the cart PCB, I've bought myself a little more room inside the cart.

Unfortunetly an AC power supply will not work. The output has to be DC for this to work. However I have solved the power supply solution! Check my new post on the flash cart subject.

I could tell you how many shoes it is, but then I'd have to kill you. Or at least Pop-N-Wiz on you.

Yeah I never considered using this cart for 32k, but scince the EEPROM is big enough... might as well figure it out. So F4 support it is... working on that as we type...

Oh and incase anyone is wondering, the vibrating joysticks are in production as well, however again, no games support this yet but mine so the same developer statement goes out again. If you want to create a game with vibration support I can sell these units now.

Are you kidding :-) The best price I could find til you posted this was about $8.50. That's much better. @Smada Thanks for remembering! The 4 player multitap, which I have affectionetley named "The XTreme 2600 Four Player Tap" (I will probably not keep that, just had to call it something) is completed and in production. To keep these things dirt cheap I will be constructing them by hand, so production is going to take a while. They will not be available for sale until my game comes out in May. If you are a 2600 programmer (or I suppose anything with the same port layout as a 2600 port will work) and want to work on a four player game that utilizes the multitap, PM me and I'll sell one to you now, but it won't do you much good until then as no games support it yet obviously.

One thing at a time :-) If there is still a demand for this mid next year when all of my other Atari projects are complete, I will create a flash multi cart.

Trying to find a super cheap place to buy the chips. Anyone know where I can find EEPROM's online? 28C256 specifically?

It's only Mega NTSC if you use the special gold plated, anti-static, super uber, flexured, switching cable.

Combat

*****FOR EVERYONE****** My last guess on this was ~$50, it's looking like more now. I'm going to have to design a custom casing for this, as I don't think it's going to fit in a standard Atari case. I'll keep you posted, and I'll rework the circuit to see if I can get in some more space. And let the history books show that I was the one that made Marble Craze available to the masses :-)

*****FOR THE NOT SO TECHNICALLY MINDED****** :-) I hope I didn't offend anyone :-) If this becomes available to the public, here is how you will use it. Plug cable into your computer, you may have to unplug your printer for this, so swaping may be necissary. Plug the other end of the cable into the cart. Plug an AC adapter into the wall Plug the AC adapter connector into the cart Run software in your computer. Choose ROM file to write, Click write Remove all plugs and insert into Atari. Easier than a VCR :-) You will have to configure your port to bi-directional if it is not already, but most newer computers set this as default.

Thanks chad :-)