Eckhard Stolberg

Speaking of Frogger, I have another strange variation, that isn't on Marco's picture. The game comes in a black Homevision style case, and the label looks like what the offical Parker label would have looked like on a case like this. It even has the 'Weltbekannt duch Monopoly' logo printed on the label, that some German Parker games have as an extra sticker on the normal label. Has anyone else seen this variation, and are there other Parker games in this case? BTW, the gatefold Parker boxes with the cut off top left corner also have the 'Weltbekannt durch Monopoly' logo on them. Were these made specifically for Parker Germany, or were they available elsewhere in the world too? Thanks, Eckhard Stolberg

For Joel: The problem with the pirated games is that different distributors used the same name or the same picture for different games, as Jahfish has just pointed out. Therefore you'd probably have to describe the gameplay a bit in order to allow us to identify your game. For Tempest: I believe that most of the pirated carts were made by Suntek. I opened some of my carts with different cases and labels, and most of them said SUNTEK or SAE on the board. And since a good deal of the carts also has S.S. on the back, I consider that as a sign that these games were made by Suntek too. Games that have the same kind of case and label as the Zellers carts were sold by other companies around the world, for example by Quelle in Germany. The only reason to keep the Zellers games seperately would be that the Zellers carts are probably NTSC versions, while most of the other games are either PAL versions or NTSC versions patched to work on PAL. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

Marco, sentiments like yours were one of the reasons why we chose to use a 7800 console as the basis for our cart reader. The transfer routine can't do anything to your games, that a normal 7800 couldn't do either. And the communication with the PC happens over the joystick port, pretty much like with the keyboard controllers or the Compumate. So, if you have no problem playing your prototypes on the 7800, then there shouldn't be a reason why you wouldn't want to use this console to read out the ROM data. And if you really are that clumsy, it's probably better to make some backup copies of your valuable carts for playing and store the originals in a safe place, where you can't reach them. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

It might or might not be a compatibility test, depending on what version of Robot Tank you have. I believe that Activision changed the three games with the problematical bankswitching method (Decathlon, Robot Tank and Space Shuttle) after the release of the incompatible 7800 consoles. For example my PAL picture label version of Space Shuttle uses Activision's FE bankswitching method, while the ROM on the net uses Atari's F8 bankswitching method. And while my PAL picture label version of Decathlon also uses FE bankswitching, I have a HES rerelease version, that uses Atari's 16K F6 bankswitching. So I think the picture label version of these three games might have trouble with the later models of the 7800, while the text label versions and the HES rereleases might work on any 7800 console. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

Thanks for figuring out the true SECAM colours. I was just guessing the values from the description in the VCS programmers guide. I have changed the code to use your palette now and sent it to John. It might take him a while to release a new version though. BTW, if you have any of the misterious SECAM only games by Activision or CBS and would like z26 to recognize the ROMs automatically, please let me know. Thanks, Eckhard Stolberg

I think this is more of a software problem. On the VCS the games have to syncronize with the TV in every frame. The suggested procedure for this is to turn on the sync signal, don't do anything for exactly three scanlines, and then turn off the sync signal again. In an attempt to squeeze every bit of processing power out of the VCS, some games use these three lines to already set up some things for the next frame. All games mentioned in this thread are offenders in this respect. What might be the problem is that the VCS doesn't have enough power to generate a proper sync signal when too many other chips are in use. Therefore the TV might not be able to syncronize and looses a frame, which results in a jumping picture. At least this theory might explain why different cartridges of the same game would or would not show this problem, as they might be using different ROM chips. I had this problem with several homebrew games when played on my PAL Supercharger. Those games that did anything during the sync period would just not show a stable picture on my TV. Eventually I managed to tune the VHOLD know in such a way, that it would allow my TV to sync to these games as well as to the normal PAL TV broadcast. So it might be possible that tuning the VHOLD on your TV a tiny little bit would cure the problem for you too. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

PocketVCS is a VCS emulator for PocketPC handheld systems. It is based on the Virtual VCS core by Dan Boris. You can find it at pocketvcs.emuunlim.com. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

These boards came near the end of the 7800's production life. I suppose it was just cheaper to use RAM chips in the small packaging and put them on a riser board, than it was to use RAM chips in the normal packaging or to design a new board. BTW, your BIOS chip is probably a normal ROM instead of an EPROM, which means that you'd have to move a jumper to turn your PAL 7800 into a dev system. In the lower right corner of the board are some resistors. Among them are the jumpers W5 and W6. One of them should be empty while the other is bridged with a resistor like component that only has a black ring. To make the PAL 7800 work with an EPROM BIOS chip, W6 has to be open and W5 must be closed. If this isn't the case, you have to solder out the black ring component from W6 and put it into W5. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

SECAM is another format for encoding colour information into a TV signal. It's mainly used in France. The 2600 programmer's guide mentions that SECAM VCSs take PAL software, but only interpret the eight possible luminance values as different colours. They have the Colour/BW switch hardwired to BW, so that PAL games can identify a SECAM console and chose colours with appropriate luminance values. If any PAL VCS games actually make use of this I don't know. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

I supose you are referring to our 2600/7800 development system, which requires you to modify your 7800 console. The latest version of the software and the instructions can be found at buerger.metropolis.de/estolberg/. But since you are posting from Australia, you probably have a PAL 7800. Modifying the PAL console is much simpler than modifying a NTSC console, but the instructions for doing this aren't currently included in the devkit file. Feel free to e-mail me, if you really want to build such a device of your own. But if you only want to have some of your PAL 7800 games dumped, it might be easier to send them to someone who already has a cart dumper. There surely is someone in Australia who can help you out. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

Yes, I think we really should update the documentation sometime. BTW, a good deal of the PAL 7800s have most of their ICs socketed. They also were designed to work with the BIOS on an EPROM right from the start. If your PAL 7800 comes with a normal ROM, you just have to move one of those resistor like jumpers and it would take an EPROM instead. I think you meant that you got the first version of the devkit from one of John's sites, right? Anyway, the second version can be found on my site atbuerger.metropolis.de/estolberg/ But it could use an update too. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

I haven't done this modification myself since I own a PAL console, but maybe I can help you anyway. In step 5 it should read "Solder down pins 1, 7 and 14. Now bend up pin 8." DEVOS02.BIN should be burned into the last 4K of an 8K, 16K or 32K EPROM. What's in the lower parts of this chip doesn't matter at all. Remember to follow step 4 of the instructions if you are using a 4K EPROM chip. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

quote: Originally posted by Tempest: That could be the problem. I actually got it hooked up but the cords going to the joystick ports were very tight (they bearly reach) and I didn't want to break the wires. How did you hook it up to your system? Are the PAL 7800's shaped differently? No, I think PAL 7800 are shaped exactly like NTSC ones. But if you carefully route the left cable by the left side of the cart and the right cable by the right side of the cart, you should be able to reach the controller ports with the plugs. You could also try to open up your 7800 and operate the Compumate on the bare board. I tried that when I was trying to figure out what the problem with the RUN command was, just to be sure it wasn't the cables. BTW the 16K figure is for the size of the Compumate ROM, which holds the BASIC interpreter, the paint program and the music editor. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

quote: Originally posted by Tempest: I haven't tried BMX Airmaster but I'll give it a shot when I get home. All of the above games worked fine on my 7800. I ended up searching for one of those early model 7800's that play everything (except the Compumate as I just found out). I guess I can't get rid of my 2600 afterall. Tempest Speaking of your Compumate: I saw your message on the Digital Press message board and tried to reply, but their system seemed to be down at that time. If your Compumate isn't working at all in your 7800, it might be because you haven't connected the cart or the keyboard properly. The Compumate constantly checks for it's keyboard, and if it doesn't find one, it goes into a dead loop and only displays a blank screen. If your Compumate is working, but the BASIC RUN command always gives you an error message, that's because of a programming bug in the Compumate BASIC. This strangely enough doesn't have an effect on a 2600, but on my PAL 7800 I can't get any BASIC programs to work. BTW, the RAM in the Compumate is only 2K big. And of this 256 bytes get used for the text display in BASIC mode, so that you only have 1.75K for your own program. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg