Kroko

No, the logic chip is a 5V part which causes trouble with the magic ram writing. In addition there is no more free space on the logic chip ...

PM Albert to join the waiting list. Then there is a good chance you can get one soon ...

Try loading the binary on a F6 multicart and start it from the menu. What happens then on your 6-switch ?

It is back, and of course we made sure that Nathan gets the very first cart from the current production run

Hope you didn't speak too soon

Great ! Can you please look on the supplies and tell me the specs. I guess 9V, but I would be interested in the current specs (mA) and what type of console you are using.

Have you also cleaned the Krokodile Cart ? It needs to be cleaned from time to time. You can try what happens if you let the power supply connected to the Krokodile after programming. Then you should no longer have power problems, because then the external Krokodile supply will feed the Krokodile and the other supply will only be powering the Atari (at least almost). Would be interesting to see, if the Krokodile behaves differently if it has its own power-supply connected..

I am working as fast as I can

A difficult question. I don't have a good answer to that. Most people here are hobby designers. Depends on when they have time and if your design is similar to something they have already done. Arbitrary slots consume more internal logic resources and smaller banks need more pins. Not easy to compare. I don't think either of the two methods is especially difficult. The logic chip internals would be more complex (serial EEPROM writing algorithm and control of a bus transceiver and some way of doing a complete page dumb with just one command) It would most likely not fit into a cheap Xilinx device and that means the boards can't be easily produced anymore ... Not to speak of the development time needed for a thing like that. The withs of the latch is only limited by the amount of resources on the Logic Chip. There actually is no limit for one special aspect. Its the complete design that has to fit into the device. That is realistic, if you skip the serial EEPROM idea and keep to standard banked flash-rom together with RAM.

I have not tested the magic writes myself, but supercat is confident that it works. And my feeling is, that I have to try it and see what happens Its nice to know what you need in an ideal world, but I also do need to know what you think is the minimum for your project. There are always some compromises necessary on the 2600 (and you want to be able to pay for it) For example if you would really need the magic writes, then it would be necessary to interface all 8 datalines. This leads to a situation where you have less lines available for your Rom Space, or where you have to live with larger "bank" sizes (> 256 byte). There is only a limited number of I/O lines on the logic chips and it does not make sense to use a device with more than 44 pins for a standalone board (Because that is what I think can be produced by hand) I have to think about that, but my feeling is that this will at least be complicated. If you don't insist on the magic writes, that Rom/Ram size is not a problem In order to copy something to RAM, the bus must be available for the cartridge. That means nothing shall drive the bus, while the cart is working on a memory copy. I am not sure how you would make sure, that the bus is absolutely free for a longer time period ? The alternative is, to disconnect the bus from the VCS while the cart does the copy. But that requires some additional chips which makes it more expensive. And you need a routine that runs in VCS Ram to wait for the copy to finish. Maybe by polling a hotspot ? The question is, what would you be willing to pay for your game and what part of that can be hardware costs. If you come up with a limit, then its much easier to judge if it is realistic or just a dream The memory dump is new. Maybe a CC2 could do things like that, but nothing else I know of (and the price is 200$). The bankswitching itself is not a big problem. To be honest, I would think about using AtariVox or the EPROM sticks. I don't say its not possible to design a device with internal writable eprom, but it may be too expensive.

What do you need and what do you think is a reasonable price for that ? And I need to know how many boards you need.

Post the binary, then I can try it on the Krokodile. Are you using CLEAN START ? I would like to have a look at the startup vectors and the startup code for both banks.

The different console versions came with different power supplies. They were 9V (+ in the middle). But there have been 400mA versions for the 6-switch and 500 mA for the junior IIRC. 9V and 500 mA is the best choice and should work for every console. You also have to take into account that the cartridge you plug into the Atari also needs power. When the console was designed, they didn't think about Pitfall II cartridges which need a little bit more power than a PacMan cart. I would not buy anything below 500 mA. If the supply can handle more current, that does not hurt the console. It is just a bit more expensive. I am running my consoles with a 1000mA supply at 9V and never had trouble with that.

But unfortunately there is not a single free pin on the microcontroller. Even if I found free pins for double usage I don't like how I would have to connect these wires to the controller and how this would become an entirely different device. I am using this method already for some prototypes, but I will not use it with the Krokodile. Also because I don't think it is very likely that 4A50 works stable with a 5V part. The possibility to upgrade the CPLD is nice, but for me it is not reasonable to add it at this stage of the project.

None of the JTAG pins

Yea, I am following your blog about that. The way you are writing RAM sounds promising, in case it really works. But as you might have noticed, the CPLD on the Krokodile is a 5V part which is not good for this kind of RAM writing, or ? The Krokodile itself will not change a lot in the near future. But I am working on a few other things that might be finished 10 years from now . One of the boards I am thinking of, might be able to support your way of RAM writing because a 3V part is used. Maybe I have enough free lines to interface all datalines ....

With Verns help, I have designed a board that acts like this already. But its curretly not more than a prototype. The Krokodile does not follow this strategy. All it does is already on the chip. The CPLD is not reprogrammed. When I designed the Krokodile back in 2003, I didn't even know that this was possible ...

Yes, or at least I think so. The 7800 startup BIOS triggers the multicart game selection hotspot. There is no easy way to fix this. There is a great device available for the 7800 as you know Buy it and support Chad so he can continue to make great stuff in the future. The Krokodile is 2600 only, though it works fine on the 7800 if you use it as standalone cart.

I have not decided yet, if I will change the firmware at all. There have not been any problems with the current version and a change always has some risks. On the other hand, I found a way to include E7 bankswitching in the new revision. I am not sure what to do right now...Something tells me i should let it as it is and something tells me I should support E7 if possible ... Almost all E0 games have been converted to schemes the Krokodile already supports and also the two FE games are converted. So the big holes are still E7, which I could probably close in the next revision, AR and F0. F0 is not worth the effort, because there is just one Rom (which sucks). Supercharger and E0 currently simply don't fit into the logic chip. That is not very likely. Not because I don't want to, but because the space on the logic chip is very limited. If you just need 64K, then you can use EF bankswitching which was already planned for a RPG and the Krokodile supports EF already. If you need Rom together with Ram, you could use the Superchip modes, or if you need lots of RAM, you could still use 3E. Well, it has some limitations, but look at Andrew Davies not Boulder Dash. There you can see what a smart programmer can make out of this scheme. This time I have ordered enough PCBs. Its just a question of time. I have started to build them, but I need a lot a time for each single device, because its all hand work I am always interested in new bankswitching ideas. Please PM me with the details

notBoulderDash http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=69080&hl=

I am working on it. I almost received all parts. Except for the power connector. I hope to get it soon, but I am only a small customer for the producer of this part, and it seems as if I could have to wait a little before they ship the parts ... well, I have enough work with the rest of the parts

if so I think I already tried it and it didn't like it butI 'll try agian. 1006134[/snapback] Kroko's ROM plays just fine on Stella. 1006137[/snapback] If you just start the ROM in an Emulator, it will be treated as F6, which MIGHT make it crash. But together with a 8K board from AtariAge, the ROM has to work. It will behave just like the 8K rom. There can not be any difference if you ask me. So yes, try again

This should work. Its just two times the 8K rom => 16K Super16.BIN

ok, thats sounds like it is long enough ... I would rather like to keep it as simple as possible