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Pioneer4x4

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Posts posted by Pioneer4x4

  2. Posted

    Here's the boxed Spectravideo Planet Patrol which arrived today. No color variations but the copyright year is different. Spectravision has 1982 while this has 1983. This would lead me to believe the Spectravideo versions were a re-release. :ponder: While they even have Spectravideo cast into the housings, Planet Patrol still has Spectravision on the startup screen. Still no suffix letters after number.

    That cart is IDENTICAL to the one I got in the mail today! What are the odds? Mine was loose though, also no "C"

  5. Posted

    So he could simply remove the extensions he doesn't like, no?

    Yes, I just tested it to make sure, and it works fine with no file extension.

    Problem solved! :D

    I was going to ask that,that sounds like a perfect solution to me! And if a certain rom requires an extension for a specific bankswitching, then add it, and it will be displayed.

    I will use flash renamer to remove all the .bin extensions.

     

    Now if I can just get drivesort to work on my Vista PC... Maybe I'll try a card reader in my XP machine.

  7. Posted

    As for another change I would request. Can the file extension not be displayed? I think that detracts more from the menu than the colors.

    But the extension can be used if automatic bankswitch detection fails. I would like to see the extension then.

     

    Maybe it should be hidden except if it a valid bankswitch extension?

    How about this, hidden on main screen, shown when button held for full description?

     

    I think that would be ideal for me, but I have NO IDEA on how it works, or how hard changes are to be implemented, assuming they are possible.

  8. Posted

    I tried it for the first time over the weekend thanks to my Harmony cart arriving Saturday, and only got 4000-5000. I couldn't get in the zone with it, I will definitely add that to my rotation to try more. I just got to level 3 I think where you have to go bottom to top. Then I gave up and played Rabbit Transit instead :)

  10. Posted

    I have been following this thread, and I feel that the color cycling menu detracts in a way the look of the menu. When you pause it , it is worse because some lines stay less readable, and others look great.

     

    Now for 2 disclaimers.

    1) I'm expressing my opinion, and it is only a slight detraction, not enough to hinder, or diminish the harmony cart's menu.

    2) From my other post about Phaser Patrol's grey shield effect not showing up, maybe my TV needs brightened or contrast reduced, and that might make the menu look better.

     

    As for another change I would request. Can the file extension not be displayed? I think that detracts more from the menu than the colors.

  11. Posted

    Has anyone else tried drivesort on a Vista PC? I tried the <Right><Click> Run as administrator also...

     

    Did you try setting the compatibility mode to XP?

     

    Mitch

    Yes I did try that also. I created a shorcut and setup compatablity on it. Oh well...

  12. Posted

    I always wonder why the alphabet isn't good enough for some people :?

     

    Haha, just kidding, that's a great organization method. I never thought of that! I do just alphabetize mine.

    That is what I used to do when I played with emulation, it worked OK, but with HUNDREDS of names, all abbreviated to fit 8.3, it was too aggrevating.

  13. Posted

    I just received my Harmony and was trying out Phasor Patrol. It seemed to play fine (What a great 2600 game, BTW) but there appears to be a graphic/color issue with the shields. If anyone is not familiar with it, when you toggle the Color/BW switch, the shields visually open or close, a very nice effect taking maybe 5 seconds or so. When shields are engaged, the view will be muted grey, not black.

    When playing, there was no difference during normal play (the view was always black) except for the line of pixels on the left edge. If the screen is changing colors (when you are hit by an ememy missle, or warp) the shields show correctly, and if hit when opening or closing, they also will animate. (also you can tell if the shields are up or down by watching the speed that the energy depletes. If you turn off the shields, it will deplete fast until they are fully open, then you will see it slow down)

     

    I was playing on an unmodified 2600 Jr. I can test on a 4 switch if needed. I have 2 x 4 switch, (1 black, 1 wood) a Jr. and a 7800. The 7800 is useless for play without the Color/BW switch, but it might work for testing.

    I just tried this, and the shields are very dark on my TV, but visible. It could be that your TV just displays those dark grays as black.

    Hmm, I'll take another look and maybe brighten up the TV. Everything else looked great as I remembered. I hooked it up to my 27" in my bedroom, I didn't bother trying on the 2 HD's, and my 36" tube is pushing 200lbs, so I didn't feel like moving it! I hope that is all it is, just the TV or an adjustment on brightness or contrast. I thought it was maybe a pallette issue, and it grabbing the wrong color.

  14. Posted

    Has the Rom Hunter collection been tested? If so, and they all work, we could forget about other ROM collections and just use those. (Too bad the background color makes the text too hard to read on that Atarimania page.)

    I test each new release from RomHunter in Stella, checking for compatibility and integrating the ROM info into the internal database. If someone wanted to perform similar checks for Harmony, it could benefit both projects (by potentially pointing out errors from both sides).

    I just went through them searching by company (All the major ones) and I first assumed that the ones with the tilde "~" were the original ones, but some companies (Froggo) do not have a tilda listed.

     

    Can you explain "test" actual gameplay, or just firing them up?

  15. Posted

    Sounds like you're starting from roms from different sources. If you don't have the rom pack from atarimania.com, I think it's the best place to start for the official releases, and has all the extra info in the filename that you can delete or keep as you like. Plus, you can easily filter and delete all the PAL titles, and keep only original releases that have a special character at the end (I think it was [!]). I wouldn't think of starting from any other set. There was the hacks/homebrews collection set available for awhile, but that's been basically recalled I believe, due to having unauthorized stuff in it, but I started from that for my hacks/homebrews also.

    I'll take a look for that set. I was only using AtariAge as a source.

  16. Posted

    I did mine similarly, without the distinction between owned and not owned. Also, I left on some additional info from the AtariMania roms collection, like year, alt names, programmer, etc, because if you hold down the fire button, you can view the entire filename to see all that extra info. Additionally, within each manufacturer's folder, I made a folder called "Paddle Games" to keep those separate. Same thing for Keyboard controller games and so on.

     

    My Hacks are in a totally separate folder, as are my Homebrews. And within Homebrews, I have a FINAL folder and a WIP folder to keep those separate.

     

    Worked for me.

    I saw some of the Atari brand roms from AtariAge had the (1978) in the name, I removed them, since I didn't have that for all.

    I like the idea of grouping by controller also, nice idea! I think I will do that.

    I have just over 200 unique titles, hard to tell since some are unique, but dupes (Atari renames, and Sears crossovers)! Plus Party Mix is 3 seperate games.

  17. Posted · Edited by Pioneer4x4

    I just received my Harmony and was trying out Phasor Patrol. It seemed to play fine (What a great 2600 game, BTW) but there appears to be a graphic/color issue with the shields. If anyone is not familiar with it, when you toggle the Color/BW switch, the shields visually open or close, a very nice effect taking maybe 5 seconds or so. When shields are engaged, the view will be muted grey, not black.

    When playing, there was no difference during normal play (the view was always black) except for the line of pixels on the left edge. If the screen is changing colors (when you are hit by an ememy missle, or warp) the shields show correctly, and if hit when opening or closing, they also will animate. (also you can tell if the shields are up or down by watching the speed that the energy depletes. If you turn off the shields, it will deplete fast until they are fully open, then you will see it slow down)

     

    I was playing on an unmodified 2600 Jr. I can test on a 4 switch if needed. I have 2 x 4 switch, (1 black, 1 wood) a Jr. and a 7800. The 7800 is useless for play without the Color/BW switch, but it might work for testing.

  18. Posted

    I organized my SD card with 2 folders in the root

    Carts Owned

    Wish List

     

    and under each one, I am putting subfolders of the manufacturer. I did all of my carts (210 seperate .bin files) and it is a whopping 1.5 MB of data and 7MB of disk space!

    I renamed EVERY .bin file to match the cart (or tape ;)) title as much as possible. I downloaded most from AtariAge.com except for the ones not found there.

     

    Here is my Carts Owned\Starpath folder

     

    Communist Mutants From Space.bin

    Dragonstomper.bin

    Escape from the Mindmaster.bin

    Fireball.bin

    Frogger, The Official.bin

    Killer Satellites.bin

    Party Mix - Bop a Buggy.bin

    Party Mix - Down on the Line & Handcar.bin

    Party Mix - Tug of War & Wizard's Keep.bin

    Phasor Patrol.bin

    Rabbit Transit.bin

    Suicide Mission.bin

    Survival Island.bin

    Sword of Saros.bin

     

    To rename and organize 212 .bins took me a couple hours, but it is extremely nice to open up a folder as if you were "Going into the Activision box" and seeing this

    Barnstorming.bin

    Beamrider.bin

    Boxing.bin

    Bridge.bin

    Checkers.bin

    Chopper Command.bin

    Cosmic Commuter.bin

    Decathlon.bin

    Dolphin.bin

    Dragster.bin

    Enduro.bin

    Fishing Derby.bin

    Freeway.bin

    Grand Prix.bin

    H.E.R.O.bin

    Ice Hockey.bin

    Kaboom!.bin

    Keystone Capers.bin

    Laser Blast.bin

    Mega Mania.bin

    Pitfall II Lost Caverns.bin

    Pitfall!.bin

    Plaque Attack.bin

    Pressure Cooker.bin

    River Raid.bin

    Robot Tank.bin

    Seaquest.bin

    Skiing.bin

    Sky Jinks.bin

    Space Shuttle.bin

    Spider Fighter.bin

    Stampede.bin

    Starmaster.bin

    Tennis.bin

     

    Plus I feel keeping them seperate of what is owned/wishlist makes playing an owned cart more satisfying.

    I will probably add another folder for "Homebrew/Prototypes"

    I put these 3 in the Carts Owned, since they were included on the Stella Gets a New Brain CD which had permission to distribute them, so I consider them as "Owned" I have the other 10 Starpath Cassettes.

    Atari\Polo.bin

    Starpath\Survival Island.bin

    Starpath\Sword of Saros.bin

     

    Also, the folder directories come up in less than a second on the Harmony. I am extremely impressed!

  19. Posted

    I feel like a dolt, but I'm missing that one, unless I need to think "Way Back", but actually, I DO HAVE THEM on my OLD COMPUTER!!!. I have the original "Stella Gets a New Brain" CD with them also, and cutbin, and added them... I can't test until tomorrow now though. Feel free to PM me if I am missing something!

    I found my 8¼K bins, and did the copy /B load1.bin+load2.bin loadall.bin. and it worked great. I only tested Escape from the Mindmaster to maze 4, and the transition from mase 2 to maze 3 was instantaneous (I think that is where the second load kicks in).

  21. Posted

    No real need to, since you can download the complete versions immediately using the old computer ;)

     

     

    /too-obvious hint

    I feel like a dolt, but I'm missing that one, unless I need to think "Way Back", but actually, I DO HAVE THEM on my OLD COMPUTER!!!. I have the original "Stella Gets a New Brain" CD with them also, and cutbin, and added them... I can't test until tomorrow now though. Feel free to PM me if I am missing something!

  23. Posted

    Yes, there are a lot of multiload games broken into single parts floating around, which are only useful for the actual Supercharger, Cuttle Cart or Cuttle Cart 2, apparently (I am somewhat relieved to hear that Stella needs the combined binaries as well, so I don't feel too bad for not supporting the games broken into single parts.)

     

    Anyway, when using the combined binaries, the multiloads will load automatically and instantly.

     

    Just a note: I've tested most multiload games and they work fine, but the third load of Survival Island currently doesn't work. I know the problem but haven't solved it yet.

    Are these available anywhere? If I combine them myself, should I combine the 6K or the 8.25K bins?

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