phoenixdownita
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Posts posted by phoenixdownita
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Would I be able to use a CF that I prepared for use with MyBIOS (for MyIDE 2)?
It's a 4GB card, with 3 partitions. 1st is FAT32, 2nd APT [empty afaik as I've never run sdx and MyIDE has no other tools for it beside MyNBIOS creation step] and the 3rd is the proprietary MyIDE format. In MyBIOS there's not much that can be set, it's always 50% and 50% for FAT32/Proprietary, if an APT is required then the first 1/2 is divided again so 25% is FAT32, 25% is APT and 50% is proprietary.
I was hoping to use the same CF with SIDE2 and not need to wipe out the current content thru preparation with FDISK (or however it ought to be done)
My main goal is to manage to flash U1MB as I see fit from the related flasher ATR and something tells me that out of the box U1MB and MyIDE2 won't play nice, hence the SIDE2 as the middle man.
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Any chance you can share the flasher?
My U1MB is due to arrive in 2 or 3 weeks and if it has the new flash chip I would need it too.
Given I have a MyIde 2 (external though) what MyIDE OS do you have in the image? I've been told RE would work better for MyIDE2, but in your case probably you put RI, am I right?
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how about the following:
dragon's lair,
bomb jack,
qix,
out run,
daytona usa (in the arcade it was just a blast)
sega rally
virtua fighter
not top 5 but they deserve a mention somewhere.
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I have the MyIDE II by AtariMax. Would it be worth getting a SIDE 2 as well, or should I just order the Ultimate 1MB by itself for my XEGS?
I am in the same boat, just ordered U1MB with SIDE2, I will see if I can get MyIDE 2 to work well enough with U1MB to resell SIDE2 but for now I didn't want to risk to being sent back and forth among the 2 inventors when incompat arise.
There's some hope http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1417 by having R2/RE as one of the OS in U1MB, but I suspect that to get there I will need a SIDE2 to flash U1MB (as I don't have any SIO2xx available to me).
I'm banking on the fact that I can build the required U1MB flash file ATR and flash the U1MB by loading said ATR thru the SIDE2 ..... if it doesn't work I'll be looking for other solutions.
It's kind of a bummer U1MB and MyIDE 2 don't work better together out of the box but we will survive either way..
I do like MyIDE 2 R16 format support, not sure about all the Image/partition management thru MyBIOS, it definitely needs a native window app (rather than the hodge podge of wrapper and cmd line tool).
If U1MB + R2/RE OS make MyIDE2 work I'll be set, I'm not into SDX so for me it is not going to be an issue, if not but I can use SIDE2 for the 4 or 5 ATRs full of images then I'll be happy too .... honestly nothing beats having a FAT32 partition and associated loader just because of the drag and drop on any OS (no need of apps/tools).
I ordered the combo from lotharek, I expect it to arrive in 3 or 4 weeks, he told me that it will be a little trickier to install on XEGS because the MMU and ROM adapters are a little too bulky (the XEGS has the 2 ICs very close) so I expect to have to go up (like double sockets, pin headers or alike) to perform the mod .... time will tell, I managed to socket the 2 ICs thanks to a heat gun, that much I already did
, when I told to lotharek that I was learning to desolder for the U1MB he advised me to renounce as I would have risked to ruin my XEGS, in a way I felt let down, in another way I appreciated the concerns, definitely not for a first timer, but my XEGS costed me only 60US$ shipped so I decided to take the risk. -
Indeed it helps.
Is there a master list of all of them?
I've got mild OCD, and need to ensure I know what's missing
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My apologies if this is already addressed on other topic, just redirect me there in case.
I'm trying to find the 5200 ports, that is games that were different/better on 5200 and someone ported on 800/XL/XE.
Is there a list of those? Even better a place where to grab them, maybe in 1 archive?
I am mainly interested in the handful of them that looked better on 5200 than on their 800 incarnation (moon patrol comes to mind) but I wouldn't mind to get all that is available (and notice the difference: for example I can't tell Vanguard between 8bit and 5200 port but maybe it's just me and either I have the same one under 2 misleading names or the difference is not too evident).
Thanks a lot for any information you may provide.
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I have a question, is it me or the Atari 800 version of Gyruss messes up the music?
Just take your time (say 1 min) on the very first stage and the music looses the foreground melody and just loops on the background beat.
As soon as you get to stage 2 then the foreground melody resumes, this time it takes a little longer (2/3 mins) before hitting the same situation in which only the background beat is left.
I can only play on XEGS but I've been told that it is the same on 600XL/800XL/1200XL, I'm not sure it behaves any different on true 400/800.
Anyone can try and report?
I distinctly remember that the C64 does not have the issue, the music does not looses voices if it takes a little longer to clear the stage.
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It looks like in line with what I have, when I connect to a CRT I can tell you the ghosting subsides a lot, so I thought it may have to do also with the LCD TV I am using.
BTW, another way to try could be to put back R1 and R2 AND use a small capacitor in front of the whole mod on the composite signal. Ideally something like 47uF.
What the R1+R2 do is a voltage splitter attempting to keep the transistor working close to the ideal point. That is important for small signals, to achieve maximum amplification. But because we're taking the signal from the emitter it is always going to be Vbase - 0.7 [the voltage drop between B and E in a transistor is pretty much a constant]. For AC signals that can go negative it is important to bias the base up [with the splitter] and to keep it there you filter the DC component on the input signal by a small capacitor that doesn't filter out too much of the AC signal.
So if you want to do more experimenting you could try it.
Finally most composite outputs are AC coupled only, so normally there's a 220uF capacitor in series to the resistor, at the output, you could try that too. Modern TVs do not seem to care too much if you forget the out cap, but it may help your case. Again I have not tried it myself but if you have the time and energy it's worth a try.
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so any suggestions to improve the ghosting effect? should i change some resistors (in other threads I read about replacing the R3 75 ohm resistor of the amplifier with a 47 ohm one)?
I would suggest you take away R1 and R2 from the mod, and then R3 instead of going to GND you connect it to the RCA center pin.
So you end up with the transistor having the composite signal in base [without any other components], having +5V on the collector, and out of the emitter a 75/100 ohm resistor that IS your composite video output.
Tell us if it helps. Also you may need a different transistor but I doubt it.
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Sorry I thought it was the same program.
My apologies I will bug Steve over at AtariMax for the feature request.
Peace.
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Thanks for the link but that is beside the point.
There are whole collections of atr that use Kboot format, it would be nice if the FAT32loader would fix them on the fly or allow an override option [maybe pressing K on the keyboard] to load them anyway zeroing all missing pages, whichever is easier to implement.
I am trying to avoid having to use a PC except for drag and drop if possible.
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I suspect Atari got some faulty ROM chips and the 150 ohm resistor in line with +5v was the fix. Sounds like you got one that was missed in testing.
Mitch
Can you confirm the 150 ohm value?
I can replace my fix although I doubt 150 vs 330 is such a big difference, I just want to have it run as per spec.
Anyway I suspect it also depends on the 7800, I bought the game used and the owner swears playing with it way past level 1, also type1 cards may not have any fix at all, some of them didn't even have the capacitor [which again in many cases is not strictly required].
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Hi, new here. Just bought a MyIDE2 and like it.
I mostly use it with FAT32Loader as it is way easier to use, just drag and drop
.I'd like to ask if it is possible to support KBOOT ATR files? FAT32Loader complains that those ATRs are not correct, which is right as they are truncated, but would it be possible to force the loading anyway considering all the missing blocks as zero?
If this is not the right forum please feel free to point me in the right direction.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
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I can tell you that composite is allright depending on the TV, I also simplified the mod:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/127926-easier-7800-composite-video-mod/?p=2814181
[the signal does look soft, but it's composite and not SVideo so it is kind of expected]
It is literally 1 Transistor (2222 or 3904 are both fine), 1 Resistor for the video [100 Ohm] and nothing else, still need to remove R3 and R5 and still need to perform the audio mix (I used a 10K and it worked).
I recently tried Ballblazer and the Pokey volume seems fine to me, only Commando has both [Pokey + TIA] so I am not sure if 10K works for that game and given its cost I am not sure when/if I will ever try.
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I know it's an old tread but I found a Type 1 Robotron that wouldn't work past wave 1 on my 7800, according to the following:
Type 1: Standard ROM cart. PCB CO24926-xxx
Type 2: Standard ROM with resistor in series with +5V. PCB CO24926-xxx...
Centipede - Type 1 - C30048-001A
...Joust - Type 2 - C300049-006A
Robotron - Type 2 - C300049-009A-01Robotron should have been Type 2 but mine was a Type 1 cart, to fix it I added a 330 Ohm resistor series on the +5V on the chip (pin 28) and it started working like a charm.
I do not know if 330 Ohm is the "correct" amount used in Type 2, I tried 1K Ohm and it wouldn't work, with 330 Ohm it started working and I could play to my heart's content so I haven't tried going any lower.
Not sure why full 5V doesn't work unless it could be out of spec and as such you need to reduce it a little. If the ROM is using 1mA the 330OHM resistor only lowers the voltage by 0.33V, if it is 2mA by 0.66 and so on. So it also acts as a current limiter but I am unsure what is the effect they were after.
Anyway I found one type1 game that should have been type 2 and that would not work on my 7800 past initial loading [not sure why it would even work for the first wave].
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Well according to Trebor above it may not help at all and given those pots are supposed to be touched very rarely I'll probably have to let it as it is and stomach the green.
I can't really change the hue on my TV either as I have many consoled connected to the same AV input thru a mechanical switch box and to fix the 7800 I will mess all the rest.
Oh well, at least I know it's "expected" ... it is the first console to be doing so ... I also have an XEGS and that one does not seem to have the issue with the green.
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What type of display are you viewing your 7800 on...Is it a CRT or LCD/LED/Plasma?
The Atari 7800 brown/tan/yellow-ish colors for Joust as well as games like Commando will appear too greenish on modern displays.
Example here:
If you only have a modern flat panel display to play your 7800 on, you will need to adjust the tint/hue (Typically 'counter-clockwise', 'negative', 'to the left') at least partially, if not fully, to come closer to how the colors should/would appear on a CRT.
It's an LCD, I will give it a shot on a small CRT I kept around to make sure there it looks fine there as a starting point.
When you say "adjust the tint/hue" do you mean from the TV controls or is there a pot on the motherboard of the 7800 that I can tweak?
I'd like to do it at the source so I won't have to mess up with my TV settings every time I connect the 7800.
[thanks for the link to that post, it seems temperature is also a factor .... how is that possible? Is Maria sensible internally to temperature changes? If it is due to outside components it should be possible to replace all of them with much precise ones these days for pretty cheap and with better temperature characteristic]
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I performed the composite mod to my 7800. I bought it used and the RF never worked.
While playing Joust I noticed the platform to be more greenish than I remember. I checked the 800/XE version and there they are more yellow.
is there anything that can be done to "fix" the greenish hue that appears to be a little overdone?
Mine looks exactly like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKAzDIMOKy0 ... see how green the platforms are?
I was expecting something more like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2q2X1XIQsg (the 800/XL port) in terms of coloring, also playing with an emulator rendered the platform much closer to the 800/XL than my actual 7800.
Any info/help greatly appreciated.
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I just recently got into Atari 800 retrogaming.
I bought an MyIDE2 and I am satisfied with its support for R16 and roms/bin.
A little less with XEX and ATR.
I'm running in issues with those whether they are ATR mounted thru MyBIOS [i am talking about the 4 disk images.zip you can find here on this site which are all picodos, they kind of work but here and there there are bizarre non working stuff .... I believe caused by the soft nature of the BIOS] and FAT32Loader [but it states that if ATR writes then you're out of luck and those give me many issues as well as quite some XEX, but some work too].
I am considering buying SIO2SD as well, hoping to get better results.
Anyone can point me to real world comparisons? List of known issues?
It seems like to really enjoy SIO2SD you really need U1M as well, but I am not too interested in installing that, also I read it's kind of slow compared to flash.
Also it is possible I am using MyIDE2 the wrong way so any pointer there greatly appreciated.... maybe it is necessary to have MyBIOSR2 (as opposed to F2) to get higher compatibility ... dunno.
Please feel free to close this topic and point me to relevant material if already discussed.
My setup is a stock NTSC XEGS [i got it shipped for around 50US$ so I couldn't resist] with a MyIDE2 bought like 2 weeks ago and 4GB CF.
I obviously managed to create the FAT32 partition, and also some SO drives and "images". My current setup is that D1 is the DISK1 of the picodos images collection floating around this site and so on with D2 to D4. My D5 is instead the self created MyDOS [thru recovery].
I managed to also flash up a couple of "images" [gyruss seemingly doesn't work (probably my fault), pitfall 2 has no issues] thru the use of myidetool on windows [command line as the UI is kindof messed up on win8].
I am not sure I want to fiddle with the flashed part [FAT32Loader apparently now allows flashing so I wont need the cart flasher] as I am scared I'll mess it up for good.
If anyone has a decent selection of best atari games in a Fat32/ATR16MB that works on MyIDE2 that he/she can share that would be good too.
I really only have an interest into playing a few of the old titles, mostly the ROM based one, that is why I really appreciated the R16 files available here I wish there were more but then again it takes dedication to make them [i believe only 3 or 4 titles from XEGS cart exclusive are amiss].
And last but not least yes I came from a console flashcart world where all games are ROM so it is just a matter of "mapping" and the various flash cart producer have been quite good these days to make available around 99% of the SW libraries ... there's always going to be one or 2 games that just play dirty.
Thanks for any help you may provide.
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OK, replaced the 47 ohm with a 100 ohm and the signal is better, not so hot anymore and now the colors are fine on the LCD.
So the mod is as follows:
Connect collector of 2222 to +5V, connect base to composite signal, connect emitter to 100 ohm resistor (probably 82 or 75 will work too) and the other end of the resistor to the center of the RCA connector. Connect ground to the RCA rim.
[obviously the mod still requires to cut all the RF pins from the connector and to remove R3 and R5 to stop audio interference].
All of the signals for video [+5V, GND, and composite] are right there on the RF connector, I soldered the transistor directly on the pins as +5 and composite are adjacent.
Not sure how the quality fares with the other mods, but it is simple and it works reasonably well.
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I simplified the mod even further.
Basically I used the 2222 in simple emitter follower without biasing the input.
Connect collector of 2222 to +5V, connect base to composite, connect emitter to 47 ohm resistor and that to the center of the RCA connector.
[obviously this still requires to cut the RF pin and to remove R3 and R5].
The results are pretty good on an old CRT, but on my LCD it is too bright with a very faint ghosting/bleeding, I will try a higher resistor on the emitter to see if it fixes it, maybe a 68 or 75 or even 100 could just work. If that doesn't work I will try the 47K on R11 to simply tone it down at the source.
To summarize the mod is the same without the 2.2K and 3.3K resistors on the base, without any resistor from emitter to ground, but with a resistor from the emitter to the RCA. [i found this kind of mod all over for all console types when buffering luma signals, I just tried it on my 7800 and it worked].
Also for now my audio has a 10K and it sounds OK, I guess in this condition the POKEY would be too low, but given there are only 2 or 3 games with it I may never find out ... I do have a set of resistors coming my way so I'll probably replace it with the suggested 47K once I receive them.
Anyway thought of sharing this as it makes the mod simpler. After all the 2222 is used as a simple voltage buffer and the biasing of the base does not look like it solves any particular problem. I am pretty sure it works the same with a 3904, all my luma buffers used the 3904 it just so happened I had a 2222 around.
On a side note, on my first attempt I did not remove R3 and R5 and on the CRT it made no difference, but on the LCD I could see the audio noise all over. I wonder why Atari decided to premix the signals rather than doing it on the RF modulator itself?
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Yurkie's 7800 Controller Ball-mod, thumbs up.
in Atari 7800
Posted
Not to bust your business but I'd like DIY, can I venture that you have found a safe way to strip out the original plastic stick (it's already using a metal rod inside) and either cut it short or if it is already short screw/glue a ball handle on it?
Again not trying to ruin your business I'd just like to try it myself, the long stick is a killer it ends up making the user put too much strain on the holding hand.
I also have a couple of CX78 and the button placement sucks, they are more usable that the std NTSC sticks but a far cry from a genesis pad (which I use for 2600 games and with my XEGS)