Eckhard Stolberg

quote: Originally posted by Russ Perry Jr: in Greek it's "chi" -- though I'm not sure if it's properly pronounced like "k" or like the "ch" in Jewish (as in "l'chaim", the toast) or German (like in "Bach"). I think in Greek "chi" is pronounced similar to the English "she", but with more of a hissing sound. Similar to the "ch" in "Bach", but with the tongue a bit more up. Basically you form your mouth to say the "e" like in "she" and then exhale a bit before you actually say the vowel. (Did anyone really try that? ) And the "Where do you want to go today?" slogan, that you mentioned, always sounded to me like something that William H. Wolf III. would ask Little Red Riding Hood when she was going to the grandmother's house. And we all know how that story ended. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

The VCS only has 128 bytes of RAM. There is no way to remember the state of that many pixels without adding more RAM. Video Life doesn't use bankswitching. It has 2K of ROM at $1800-$1FFF and 1K of RAM at $1000-$17FF. $1000-$13FF is used for reading and $ 1400-$17FF is used for writing. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

There doesn't nessessarily have to be a Gauntlet prototype. The original C64 version of Jinks has a nice SID tune with sampled voices in the intro. The TIA chip in the 7800 isn't really capable of this type of music. Therefore the 7800 version of Jinks uses a little sampled tune for the menu music. Maybe Peter didn't have enough space to fit in a sampled version of the intro tune as well, and thought the Gauntlet samples fittet the game just as well. The 7800 version of Jinks was programmed by US Gold in the UK, which I believe also did the computer versions of Gauntlet. I would habe been no problem to take the samples from one of the Gauntlet version for one of the 8-bit homecomputers, as they all used the same 4-bit volume changing technique to output sampled sounds. But I guess you could just ask Peter Pachla where he got the samples from. I think he is still active in the Vectrex programming scene. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

But it's spelled with only capital Greek letters. I'm sure these guys just started an Atari programming fraternity. So XYPE should probably be read as "chi upsilon rho epsilon". Hmm, XP in Greek would be "chi rho". Wouldn't Americans pronounce that similar to "Cairo"? Now where have I heard that name before? Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

At the moment the best way to test a 7800 game is on a real 7800 console. Dan's emulator is pretty good when it comes to playing already existing games, but I wouldn't use it for developing a new game without trying it out on a real console from time to time too. Also V7800/MESS doesn't support PAL mode yet. I have never seen a NTSC 7800 in real life, so I can't really comment on it's palette. But I think the PAL 7800 might use the same colours as a NTSC console, but accessess them with different colour values. And judging from my PAL 7800, I think that the 7800 palette in MESS is still not quite acurate. I think I mentioned it in an email to you before, but here are the explanations from the backdoor example again: code: ; Differences between the NTSC and PAL 7800 consoles' output: ; NTSC PAL ; 15 15 automatic VBLANK lines ; 25 33 output lines, that can't be seen on many TVs ; 192 228 actual display lines ; 26 32 output lines, that can't be seen on many TVs ; 4 4 automatic VBLANK lines ; ; 262 312 total number of lines per frame ; 243 293 total number of DMA output lines per frame ; 60 50 frames per second ; ; So to make a NTSC game run properly on a PAL console, you can simply ; set up 25 extra blank lines before and after the normal NTSC display. ; Also you would have to adjust anything that is timed by counting the ; number of frames, since PAL consoles do less frames per second than ; NTSC consoles. The following routine detects if it is running on a ; NTSC or a PAL console by counting the number of scanlines per frame, ; so that you can make your game compatible with both TV standards. ; ; This demo displays only white text on a black background. If you ; want to use some real colours you should also note that the colour ; palette for anything but the grey tones is shifted a little between ; the NTSC 7800 and the PAL 7800. Colour values 0x to Fx on a NTSC ; console can be found on the PAL console under the following values: ; NTSC: PAL: ; 0x 0x ; 1x 3x ; 2x 4x ; 3x 5x ; 4x 6x ; 5x 7x ; 6x 8x ; 7x 9x ; 8x Ax ; 9x Bx ; Ax Cx ; Bx Dx ; Cx Ex ; Dx Fx ; Ex 1x ; Fx 2x ; This means that, if you use colour $A8 in a NTSC game for example, you would need to use colour $C8 to get the same output on a PAL 7800. Using the PAL/NTSC detection routine is a good idea. It allows you to setup the colours and the DLL according to the console type the game is running on. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

@ Vinnie: Unless you really wanted to use Atari's original development RAM cart, you probably would be better off with using a PC for programming the games than with a ST. The original 7800 docs were available on the net somewhere, but I can't find the site right now. Curt Vendel has the 3600 programming docs in the 7800 section of his site. This is the same text except for the console name. Also you would want the 2600 programming guide, since the controller and sound part were reused from this console in the 7800. I think you can find a copy of it at Nick Bensema's site. You also can get a copy of the DASM assembler there. Some more 7800 programming information and tools as well as the only working 7800 emulator can be found at Dan Boris' site. But to be really sure you should also try out your games on a real 7800. If you don't have one of Atari's original developer carts, you might want to modify one of you 7800 consoles into a development system. Information about this can be found on my site. (I know I really need to update this. ) @ Karolj: You don't need a special tool to generate an A78 header for you game. You just need to define the data with some .byte commands in your source code and ORG it 128 bytes before the start of your normal game data. Then DASM will generate the header for you. For a 48K game it would look like this: code: ORG $3f80 Version equ $01 NoBS equ $00 Pokey equ $01 SuperBS equ $02 SuperRAM equ $04 SuperROM equ $08 SuperB6 equ $10 NoControl equ $00 Joystick equ $01 LightGun equ $02 NTSC equ $00 PAL equ $01 .byte Version .byte "ATARI7800 " .byte "SensoDX alpha version 1 " .byte $00,$00,$C0,$00 .byte $00 .byte NoBS .byte Joystick .byte Joystick .byte NTSC ORG $3fe4 .byte "ACTUAL CART DATA STARTS HERE" ORG $4000 ; game source code starts here Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

There are no garbage lines in the main game screen anymore. Instead the first line of text appears at the bottom of the screen too. Also the colours don't look too nice in PAL yet. In the title screen the garbage lines are still there. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

@ thelen: This might be a problem with your RAM cart. I just tried the Star Fire demo on my Cuttle Cart on a PAL system, and it behaves just like it does under z26. @ AtariDude: As Dan has said, there is no guaranty that a game that works on an emulator will also work on the real system. So it is advisable to do the final round of fine tuning on a real VCS. But if you don't get too fancy with your programming, there usually are only some small things that need to be changed, if any. So you can do most of the testing on an emulator and only post your binary occasionally to the Stella mailing list asking the members to try the program on the real hardware for you. Other homebrew games like Gunfight, Qb or Thrust have been developed this way too. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

quote: Originally posted by Scott Stilphen: Eckhard, the colors in Raiders (NTSC) on Z26 are still a bit off (ex. the Valley of Poision should be orange and green. Instead it is light green and dark green) And just like the last time where you mentioned this I can only shamefully admit that I don't know this game too well. Maybe this time you could give me some instructions on how to get to the screen you are complaining about, or maybe you could post a screenshot, so that I can see the problem for myself. But the transition between orange and green is a bit of a borderline descission. What colour you end up with also depends a bit on how your TV and monitor are tuned, so there might not be much we can do to get the colours right for everyone. Are the colours on your TV and your monitor tuned similarily, or are there other differences in the VCS/z26 palette for example? Maybe you could run my little colour test program on the Cuttle Cart or Supercharger and compare the whole palette to the one in z26? Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

This is something that sometimes confuses me on a real console too. But 'B' means beginner or easy, while 'A' means advanced or hard. And z26 starts with both switches in the easy or 'B' position by default. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

Before you go and accquire a larger stack of PAL Sentinel cartridges to modify them into NTSC versions, you might want to get a single copy and check out what board it uses. Mitch's modification requires a special board type that might not have been used for this game. I'm not sure if this board was used in any of the PAL games at all. And for what is wrong with destroying a rare PAL game: As long as the game stays PAL not too many NTSC collectors would want it, which would increase the chances for PAL collectors to find a copy. But then again maybe NTSC collectors would finally stop buying PAL Sentinel carts and PAL 7800 consoles if they had NTSC copies of Sentinel, which would probably be even better for us PAL collectors. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

quote: Originally posted by Atari-Jess: i know it does, it works good on z26 as well, but it has something in its code so it wont show the stupid pal colours, i want the actual cart man! and i dont want it now cause its PAL! Are you saying there is a problem with the colours in the emulators? Stella, PCAE and Stella all allow you to select between NTSC and PAL colours for all games. z26 and Stella should play Fatal Run in PAL colours, and PCAE always defaults to NTSC colours. In PCAE and z26 you can change the palette with a special key. For Stella you need to change the STELLA.PRO file, if you prefer to play Fatal Run in NTSC colours. For z26 you should also use the -5 command line option, as this will allow you to play PAL games with a 50Hz refresh rate, just as they are meant to be. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

John finally was able to take a small break from his Christmas shopping and released a new version of z26. The only change in this version is the automatic type detection for the "Lord of the Rings"-ROM. But if you find the dark DOS screen as frightening as the dark riders in the game, you might want to download a copy from this site. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

I think the ROM of BMX Airmaster that you have, already is the NTSC version. I'm not sure if it came from the TNT or the Atari cart though, or if there is a difference between these versions at all. And while I agree that the HES/TNT PAL version of this game is not that hard to find in some parts of PAL-land, I don't think that the Atari version is much more common over here than in NTSC-land. So you'd have to differentiate between these versions too. As for PAL rarity in general, I think it would be pretty difficult to get an acurate rating for many of the non-common games. The local rarity differs even more than in the USA for some titles, since Europe is splintered up into many different countries. So collectors from different parts of Europe will give you different impressions about cartridge rarity in their area. And the Asian and Australian markets were pretty different from the European one as well. And a US view on PAL ebay might get you a different rarity rating for some games, but not nessessarily a more acurate one than the US view on PAL trades got you. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

quote: Originally posted by Scott Stilphen: Rex Bradford claims the "world record" for the maximum # of sprites on one line - 13 - in Kabobber (the reserves at the bottom of the screen). Do any games show more? Not really a game, but on the Stella list we have created several different demos with 18 sprites in a row, which I think is the maximum you can generate with this trick. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

quote: Originally posted by Thomas Jentzsch: More more information about the various bank-switching type can be found here: http://tripoint.org/kevtris/Projects/kevtr...tris/index.html That link doesn't seem to work anymore. Does anyone know what happened to Kevin Horton's website? Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

quote: Originally posted by Scott Stilphen: Although this game is designed for the Mindlink, and defaults to a paddle/mouse with the latest Z26 revs, it's much easier to play with a joystick IMHO. The mouse/trackball is what we use to emulate the Mindlink controller in z26. Telepathy doesn't default to it. You can play it with the joystick too. It depends on which button you press to start the game after RESET. If you push the joystick button, you can control the game with the joystick, and if you press the mouse button, you can play the game with the simulated Mindlink controller. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

Doesn't Midway still own the Atari name and games for Arcade usage? Maybe Infogrames found a loophole in the contract with Midway that allowed them to release the old Atari games to the Arcade, but couldn't use the Atari name on them. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

I checked the Telegames UK site and only found a game named "Baseball" in the 7800 listing. Considering that "Pete Rose Baseball" was released without the Pete Rose license in PAL format, and that Telegames has the other HES releases listed as well, I'm assuming it's this game and not "Realsports Baseball". Is this what you are referring to, Mitch? The "Asteroids" name in the software listing is pretty stange though. Did they confirm to you that they actually have cartridge versions of this game, or could it be possible that they just mixed the build-in game into the list and accidentally put a seperate price to it? Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

IIRC it worked fine for me. Are you sure you are using the NTSC version of this game? And did you try to force the bankswitching type to 3F (Tigervision 8K)? New ROMs get released all the time, so the type autodetect routine in your version of the Cuttle Cart player might not know the game you are using yet. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

Actually none of the NTSC games really works on the PAL 7800. The PAL 7800 operates only at 50 Hz, has a shifted palette and outputs more scanline per frame than the NTSC 7800. So the best that you could get is a game that is running too slow with bad colours and a big black bar at the bottom of the screen. But if the game does some timing dependant tricks on the screen, it would probably just crash. Also since the PAL 7800 tries to output more scanlines, it would generate graphics out of the data after the screen data for the NTSC resolution. This might accidentally result in an extra line interrupt or in a graphic mode change, which could also result in the game being unplayable. As for which games at least don't crash, I might try to find that out with my NTSC collection. For the PAL release list I mostly agree with Mitch, but I have yet to see some prove for the existance of Robotron and RealSports Baseball. Does anyone here have these games in PAL format? BTW Mitch, Some weeks ago I tried to email you about the 7800 PAL games, but never got a reply. Did my message somehow get lost, or did you just not have the time to answer yet? Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

This is correct. The PAL 7800 has compatibility isues with certain Activision games as well. Just like with the NTSC 7800 you can fix this by removing a certain capacitor from the 7800. But then you might get problems with some of Atari's 2600 games. Personally I haven't had any problems after the modification, but others have reported difficulties getting some of the Superchip-RAM games to work. And it's also true that Activision must have changed the problematical games to a different bankswitching format. I have a HES copy of PAL Decathlon which works nicely on my 7800, because it has been changed to Atari's 16K bankswitching format. Also the NTSC ROM for Space Shuttle clearly uses Atari's 8K bankswitching format, while my PAL copy doesn't work on my 7800, because it uses Activision's own 8K bankswitching format. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

@Simon The colour chart is based on the colour values that we use in z26. John and I tried the best we could with the PAL palette, but eventually lost interest, since we know we would never be able to get the colours exactly right. When someone on the Stella list complained about PAL palette in z26 recently, I replied that we gladly would accept a better one from anyone who is less colour-blind than me. So Simon as you can see, sometimes it's an advantage to be a member of the Stella list, even if it's just for understanding some stupid jokes over here. @Manuel BTW, did you change the background colour in PAL Gunfight before you sent the binary to Randy, as I suggested? Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

About StarSoft: A little more information about how the name StarSoft came to be can be found in the StarSoft section of GameReset. As for what S.S. stands for, my guess would be something like "Suntek Software". Some time ago I opened up some of my pirate games with crappy labels. They were from different distributors (Quelle, Goliath, Rainbow Vision etc.) and came in different type of cases (with and without the S.S. initials, long and short cases etc.). Most of them had boards in them that said either Suntek or SAE on them. The SAE boards as well as the nameless boards were very very similar to some of the Suntek boards. Some of my other pirate games that I didn't open, and that are from even different distributors in different cases, display the name Suntek on the screen. The only games that didn't fit in are the ones in the BitCorp cases. But IIRC all of those had BitCorp part numbers in the cases, even if they didn't come with a BitCorp label. So even though there might have been others, I'd say that the vast majority of pirated VCS games came from only two companies: Suntek and BitCorp. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

Polylux läuft auch in der ARD. Ich glaube in der Nacht von Freitag auf Samstag kommt immer die Wiederholung. Wenn's dich interressiert, schau mal in die Fernsehzeitung. Der Beitrag in der Sendung ist glaube ich der gleiche wie auf der Webseite, allerdings in einem etwas größeren Format. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg