Magic Knight

Wow! Only noticed this thread resurfacing last week. As a 'campaigner' of this project im a little disappointment that i never kept up on developments and late in checking this out. Anyway - a big thank you to @Wrathchild and @jindroush for the work put into this. I glad to say that the remote droid is up and running and has no random rock generation going on. (although he is completely mad and goes on a rampage with no agenda! 😃) Ive play tested around 10 hours worth and its definitely a playable version that's now available - well done guys! Now that the worst is fixed, its clear that the developer(s) had other issues during programming. The bugs left are don't spoil things too much but ive listed what ive noticed: 1. Some of the fence storage facilities state that you have 0 in stock but if you pick up fences the real inventory appears when counting. (it still keeps stock of what you really have but sometimes shows 0 on screen) 2. Sometimes if you pick up seeds from a drop off and go to the seed store and click drop mushrooms off - you get several thousand credits instead (nice to have as its a killer in normal play to get any build up.) 3. Occasionally the game will just freeze up for no reason (luckily i play this in Altirra so i save periodically). 4. Remote droid is known to just vanish out off the game with no reason (not often but hapoens) new droid needed on next shipment. Other than that its a enjoyable spinning plate/management game that keeps you interested. (20k - would take me weeks to get that in a normal game)

I use PCB Way in China. They are brill for recognizing price sensitive prototype orders vs comercial orders. They charge $5 (yes dollars) for 10 boards (plus postage). Above this then they see this as commercial and price goes up a little (but not heavy like uk prices). Board colour choices are red, blue green, yellow white or black. Purple or Matt versions are more expensive as less demand.

post is 10 years old - Wow - talk about a "Blast' From the past

Sorry i should have been more specific - Games in General - Often if you mess up on something whilst playing and want to start it may take a ponderous time to lose lives, or in the case of a sports/timing games can take forever. or even accidental pressing of reset instead of option. (resulting in a reload - tapes taking 20 min on some games made this painful). With loading taking seconds with SD and multi-carts these days its not a biggie but back in the day with tape players to depend on, it made a big difference on occasion. Yes, a warm start would sum up what i think (most) games would benefit from. Can understand non games having their own needs on whether this is required.

Interesting to know if it would be easy enough to code back in the day, so it stays in memory?

This question has had me pondering for a while now, After loading a particular game on a 'Vanilla' Atari when you press RESET it sometimes restarts the game and sometimes its lost from memory and tries to look for a drive. Is there any reason why some games are programmed to have the game still in memory and others are lost if RESET is pressed. (or certain types have no choice in the matter?) Sorry if this has been asked before, tried searching but couldn't see mention of it.

Thanks 😃

Are there gerber folder/files availalble for this?, I didnt spot them on Github

Thanks for the info guys, I'll focus on 2600 titles for this PCB and look at the other for 7800. I was thinking of a DC delay circuit for the over-quick startup inside a real 7800 to let the Pico catch up, if i implement this, ill share when tested. Great support here and I thank you all for this!

Im currently building this up and have noticed there is a difference on pcb revision from the pictures on the github and previous posts. Could someone kindly let me know what resistor value R3 is on this build? (Its from the VBUS leg to the capacitor)

Thanks, i mainly game with 7800 stock titles, but good info to know for the higher end titles done more recently with the extra weight,

Thanks, Ill heed advice and stick to the SC0915 type as recommended earlier in the posts, https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/358-SC0915

How important is the spec of the PICO board in that tthe fimware works with it? (Ram, memory etc). The board below (from Alliexpress) is used on the A8PICO cart and i haven't had an issue in quality. Would the one below also work with the 2600+ card project build?

Now its gone! 😵 Cant get it at moment Not showing up on Amazon searches either (only linkage from Google)

Hi, is it potentially possible to do this with XEX files? Looks like currently it's only CAR or Roms that can be Autorun.(format) Would love to see a single XEX run off the single booter program.

Alas I tried this with several XEX files and just black screen. Anything with CAR was no problem. I too would like XEX files to autorun but they only seem to work with the menu based software. I guess a fix could be done as clearly it's capable of XEX.

Crazy but 7 hours later, it's now up to £63.92

It occured to me that they may be competing with the other platforms of a similar vein for price. For example, the Amiga counterpart is well tempting @ £84 https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-A500-Mini-Electronic-Games/dp/B09BW8N7JZ/ref=pd_sbs_d_sccl_4_7/260-4721771-9045001?pd_rd_w=fePRF&content-id=amzn1.sym.ad51136c-8d04-4e54-9ec5-18cad2a65d61&pf_rd_p=ad51136c-8d04-4e54-9ec5-18cad2a65d61&pf_rd_r=AYTRMQ0A1PSB22M2GNQM&pd_rd_wg=7iZUr&pd_rd_r=377b69cf-d9bb-421e-aaaf-71d78c549a20&pd_rd_i=B09BW8N7JZ&psc=1 Just guessing but could well be a Commodore/ATARI price war happening here (again).

2600+ prices on Amazon UK now looking more like the stock exchange! Might go down again soon :0)

Thanks, a78 works best for me.

For the 7800 rom files, can .A78 format be used or does it have to be bin?

Great to see it reduced on Amazon UK. Now at the (slightly more affordable) price of £91.10 🙂 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atari-2600-Plus-Exclusive-Amazon-co-uk/dp/B0CG9SVRJY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=J5FPWN095R5E&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.0kpoj7-g62KMJZUIK8VaY0KhAmeSwl-tJ9OlyUSWZO_gv7F7Gc9_EpOQYwD7WYAZbAZgpyy1g6PmxPdsvaglYk0cMb3Y_9DGX8w3Nfdbd6xmJmdtqz-lv7sdrQOG4LLpyiBZCTviU_tweWO2LA2qcZsvktuOuSbBGBENuuJAQ-8Hm9wfAEveHgmwP4uz_EO42Nx6qS1iwU6_XLFOGNOFgyGULuugsygbWMjUsEE_6dk.HoNnsarmuClEpPRprlrcUglw0YerKDR-IBvhy5vhPek&dib_tag=se&keywords=atari%2B2600%2B&qid=1709135023&sprefix=atari%2B2600%2B%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-1&th=1

Thanks, makes sense.

Thanks for the quick answer, i'm bit confused, i always thought of the PICO as a storage device (16mb of flash bit etc) that the ATARI just loads in to it own ram? Am i right in that the PICO needs to populate the ram storage with the file as part of its transfer/call-up of the file (so for example a 512k file has to go through the PICO'S ram prior? or somehting like that?

First of all - New to this and i think this project and development has been excellent. Kudos to Electrotrains for this! Ive made a few units with 3D printed shells(and i only need one). Being less than a couple of quid from Ali for the Pico boards and PCB's being less than a fiver from China makes this probably the best bang-for-buck ive seen for A8 modding. Ive a couple of questions 1. Files are only permissable up 128k, is there a way to go above this? (Space harrier and larger files im thinking of...) 2. How is development for the 2600 comming along? (my own wish would be the 7800 version ultimately myself - being a fanboy of this model also ). Great work also from all others on this thread who contribute to the development of this also