Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

SpiceWare

+AtariAge Subscriber
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    16,912

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    10

Posts posted by SpiceWare

  2. Posted

    I cut it out but think I'll wait to glue it together.

     

    One thing that you might want to do is add something like the * Honda used for my car that show what sections to not cut. The areas around the base of the Atari are slightly confusing.

  5. Posted

    That's awesome. Too bad its on a military base and i have no car so i couldn't really let you on base to visit for a little bit...

    900904[/snapback]

    Oh well. Probably won't have much free time this trip anyway - setting up my grandparents and aunt & uncle with PowerMac G3s. They're older systems(300 MHz) but more than adequate to connect to the internet and run Skype so they can talk for free with my parents, who currently reside in Mexico.

  8. Posted · Edited by SpiceWare

    The helper chip was called the Display Processor Chip. I found an interview of David Crane at Good Deal Games. He has this to say about the DPC:

    MT> As well as software, you have contributed to many hardware breakthroughs including the designs of two integrated circuits used in video games. Please tell us about the Display Processor Chip (DPC) and your innovative method of bank selecting. ...

     

    DC> My background is in hardware design. I found hardware work to be a welcome change from thousands of hours of programming and that led to the designs you mentioned. I would have to go into a highly technical explanation to delve into those two chip designs, but their intention was to try to extend the life of the 2600 even further. The hope was that the machine's capabilities could be expanded by putting extra hardware into the cartridge. The DPC chip added more graphic capability as well as 3 channel music (plus drum), and made Pitfall II possible. Unfortunately, the 2600 business died before any other games could take advantage of that technology.

     

    Edit - corrected DCP to DPC

  9. Posted · Edited by SpiceWare

    For Pitfall II you might want to add this to the "Did You Know" section.

     

    David Crane designed a custom chip, the Display Processor Chip(DPC), that made Pitfall II's advanced graphics and audio possible. The DPC was designed to be used in other games, but the video game crash occured before it could be utilized again. He received a patent(# 4644495) for it.

     

    In an interview with Good Deal Games, David Crane has this to say about the DPC:

    MT> As well as software, you have contributed to many hardware breakthroughs including the designs of two integrated circuits used in video games. Please tell us about the Display Processor Chip (DPC) and your innovative method of bank selecting. ...

     

    DC> My background is in hardware design. I found hardware work to be a welcome change from thousands of hours of programming and that led to the designs you mentioned. I would have to go into a highly technical explanation to delve into those two chip designs, but their intention was to try to extend the life of the 2600 even further. The hope was that the machine's capabilities could be expanded by putting extra hardware into the cartridge. The DPC chip added more graphic capability as well as 3 channel music (plus drum), and made Pitfall II possible. Unfortunately, the 2600 business died before any other games could take advantage of that technology.

     

    Edit - corrected DCP to DPC

  10. Posted

    It wasn't a pokey chip. It was a custom chip designed by David Crane that helped with the graphics and the sound. They had planned to use it for other games but the crash happened before they could.

     

    patent 4644495

    An improved video memory system includes a program memory, a display data memory, and a plurality of data fetchers. The data fetchers are used to indirectly address the display data in the display data memory. The data fetchers are programmed during vertical blanking so that selected display data is fetched at selected vertical display positions. During each scan line each data fetcher is "read" by: (1) decrementing a counter in the data fetcher; (2) comparing the counter value against preselected top and bottom values; and (3) using the counter value to indirectly address display data that is to be displayed on the current scan line if the counter value is between the top and bottom values. This relieves the host computer of having to keep track of the current vertical display position, thereby freeing it to use the saved computer cycles to produce more interesting viedo games with more complex display graphics. In addition there are provided data fetchers that can be programmed to periodically issue signals usable either for drawing a line with a predefined slope or modulating the amplitude of a sound generator.

  13. Posted

    It was quite fun. I'd tried it when got my Supercharger a couple years ago, but not enough to get into it. Will definitely continue to play it now

     

    Good job khryssun and xeex! I got tied up paying bills last night. Had time for a couple games afterward but was to tired to do well at that point(couldn't even break 60K) :(

  21. Posted

    I'm using 128bit AACs without any problem.

     

    I initially made CDs using CD burner software under OS/2. The software required the WAVs to already be in the CD(16bit stereo 44khz) format so I used

     

    makewav -k2 -ts game.bin

     

    the -k2 makes a 44khz stereo file

    the -ts makes the file for the supercharger (default makes it for the cuttle cart)

  23. Posted

    Do they need to be in .wav format, or can you use mp3, aac, or wma?

    894246[/snapback]

    You can use any of them, though if you go too low in quality the Supercharge won't load the games. I'll lookup my notes tonight when I get home.

  24. Posted

    Works great. I used to use it all the time for 2K, 4K and SuperCharger games. I only use it now for the Supercharger games as I got a Krok Cart.

     

    I've got notes somewhere on what settings to use. I'll add another reply when I find them.

  25. Posted

    I use mine with my iPod.

     

    You'll want to check out makewav which can turn 2K & 4K ROMs into Supercharger audio files. About half the games will work, the others will accidently trigger the supercharger to bankswitch and they'll crash at that point.

     

    You may also want to check out the harware hack that will modify the supercharger to work with all 2K and 4K ROMs.

AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...