Richard H.

Hmm...it might make a nice keyring if I put a hole on one corner of the PCB

BTW are POKEY dev boards available yet ?

5 channels, 1 output pin (mono)

Yes

Here's a pic of the MemCard -

www.vectrex.biz/WarGames.mp3

I'm looking forward very much to playing it !

Correct, I wanted to make the unit as simple and generic as possible Of course and a 100nF cap It's small (28mm x 15mm) could be smaller with surface mount, but you really need something to grab hold of when pulling it out the port. I'm just trying to find DB9 sockets without the mounting flanges (they must exit somewhere)

AAMOI how come cart number 6 was left after you'd sold the first batch?

96

Alex, I'm way ahead of you on this - I have them made already, just waiting for the prototype boards to come back for testing. Also, I think I've got around the 2 player problem (because it plugs into the second port). I can't see why the memory card can't be inserted on power-up and then removed when the settings / scores have been downloaded, then inserted again to store new high scores. A message on screen saying 'insert mem card now' or something, where as you'll just swap joystick for card. I can't see how this could hurt the console - what do you think ?

Yes, and on this version the invaders speak too

Alex, you do know you could probably be giving away about $500

36

I'm 100% sure now Just took a sega extension to bits, and there's NO shielding in them what-so-ever

Here's another MP3 of me playing about with the AtariVox's 5 channel synth (singing bit in the middle is pre-sets) - www.vectrex.biz/AtariVox_sounds2.mp3 I think I mean tremolo (I'm new to all this music stuff)

Bob, I just read your stella post about being able to read the EEPROM from the interface after MGD had written to it etc, and just realised what the problem is. It's your cable. It's either too long or not sheilded enough (12C comms are picky). It works with the interface because the AtariVox is plugged directly into the unit (like the new cased AV). Try a PC serial cable instead of the sega extension.

I'd test it, but I don't have my console at the moment (a friend took it on holiday ), but have you tried replacing the EEPROM (it's in a socket) ? To test if it's bad, hook up the PC interface, write a 32K file to it and then verify it back. If it is bad, 24LC256 serial EEPROM's are available in pretty much any electronic store (for about $2).

I've been working on a couple of sound progs myself, nothing fancy though VoxPlay1 - uses the pre-set sounds VoxPlay2 - uses the 5 channel synth (not finished yet) If you put some offset values into the other channels, it produces a quite nice doppler like effect. Both are for use with the AtariVox and PC interface, and use serial port com1 VoxPlay1_2.zip

I've just put together this compilation of AtariVox speech / sounds. It'll give you a better idea of it's flexibility - www.vectrex.biz/AtariVox_sounds.mp3

Feel free to make something better / cheaper

I suppose a game which makes any use of it, whether it be the EEPROM, sound, or both. Talking of EEPROM, I'm thinking of making just a mem-save unit without the SpeakJet for folks who only want this feature. 256 No - that's why I setup this page - memory allocation table

That's a good idea - perhaps Albert could organise a competition of some sort to design one.

You need the PC interface, it's MUCH easier to work on sounds / speech with it

Not quite yet. I was all set to send the final PCB design to Albert, when I noticed the volume control was anti-clockwise increase instead of clockwise increase So I've re-done the layout and had 5 PCB's made to confirm (which'll be back early next week). I'll be keeping one of them and sending the other 4 to Albert, so you should be able to get one in this version. As a stroke of good luck I'd socketted all the chips on the first batch of boards, so it'll be an easy job for Albert to transfer them to the Stella case version PCB.