OldGuru

I've received the replacement parts for the 5200 controller from Best Electronics. My question is: How should I replace the black rubber that is located at the bottom of the stick? Thanks, OldGuru.

quote It is Winter Games - Decathlon. I'm also using one of the Compy (can't remember the full name) peices as well. OldGuru.

quote: As you probably have noticed yourself, the files in the SAP archive have been taken from PAL games, where the frame rate is 50 Hz. If you use one of these songs in your game, how do you prevent it from running too fast on your NTSC 5200? This is correct. Basically, I have not done anything to address that issue. The music is just a bit quicker than the original peice but, still it sounds great when coming out of the TV speakers... OldGuru.

Alan and all, Thanks for nice words for Castle Blast. There is still a long way to go before this game is complete... I got some new ideas from Joe Santulli and John Hardie which will make it to the final game... ...and always: feedback is welcome! Thanks, OldGuru.

I've put some info about the extraction of these type of music... The utility I wrote (including its source files) is also available. Goto the bottom of the following page and look for Advanced music: Moderator Edit: Ronens page is located here: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2j83t/

quote Question about the test cart: I tried to implement Jay Tilton's proposal that uses a single 32K EPROM and an AND gate on a modified existing 5200 game... However that did not work for me... What do you use?

Alan, I think that your idea should work. If the only change you make is for the years (20 instead of 19), then you still have to keep the name of the game and the rest starting at the $BFE8 address... To be sure about that, we'll have to take a look at the BIOS disassembled code...

I'm not sure, but I think that to do that there is a need to hack the BIOS since the "19" characters are predefined already... To do that, you'll have to use the disassembled BIOS code, modify these values, compile, burn a new EPROM and replace the one in your console... However, the modified BIOS code (5200.bin) can be used by the emulator and you could see the effect right away... Just my opinion...

DEBRO, quote I'll be glad to put your disassembled code on the web site. I also think that your demo code is a great starting point for any new programmer (specially when it has been confirmed to be working on the real 5200 console). OldGuru.

quote: I always thought "when I get my first game done, I'm going to make it available on the net". We could all combine the efforts and share ownership of such a web site... I admit that my HTML and graphical skills are quite limited... I would not mind combining the effort with anybody who really wants it... quote I'm using Mode D. quote I was planning to release it before April 2002... I'll see... Spare time is very limited now... Thanks, OldGuru.

Well, I tried it and the code compiles just fine. It seems that the .lst file is fine as well... However, the .bin file is 48K in size! That would not be loaded by VSS... Apparently, the .bin file seems to start at $300 (the place I want my variables) and therefore the whole code is shifted in the memory... The code looks like that: ORG $300 v_Variable1 DS.B 1 v_Variable2 DS.B 1 ... ORG $4000 l_StartCode: SEI ... I was wondering whether I miss a directive to the compiler that indicates that location $300 is DATA and $4000 is code... I know that there are special directives to do that for the 6809... Any idea? Thanks, OldGuru.

I'm in the process of putting together a web site dedicated to 5200 programming. The primary goal of this web site is to provide a starting point to new programmers by providing some tutorials and links to existing tools. Moderator Edit: Ronens page is located here: http://members.bellatlantic.net/vze2j83t/

How do you guys use variables in your code? Do you define a variable and assign an address to it? or, do you use DS? I'd like to set up my variables to start at $300 and would like to use DS to allocate the memory for them... How can that be done in DASM? Thanks.

quote No. It has nothing to do with the game's speed. quote The EPROM speed (access time) has nothing to do with the speed the game will be played. The speed number indicates how long, after providing an address, read enable and chip enable will the EPROM proivde the data stored in that address. Now, since the 6502 speed is constant (I think 1.7MHz) you must guarantee that your EPROM access time is no longer than 1/1.7M => 588 nS. Which is the case with most of the available EPROMs today... This is a first order calculation. If you are really concerned, take a look at the 6502 datasheet at the READ cycle timing diagrams. These timing diagrams should provide you with all the timing requirements that the 6502 has in regard to reading data off the processor's bus. quote Correct. 250 nS EPROM works fine (These are the ones I'm using now...)

quote: Did you need any add-ons for the programmer, or is the basic unit ready-to-go? And do you use DOS or Windows? No add-ons are required... just an EPROM earaser... I'm using it in a DOS windows under WIN95SE.

This is the one I'm using for over a year now... works fine for me... I also have the EPROM emulator module for code development...

Moderator Edit: The Atari SAP Music Archive is located here: http://asma.dspaudio.com/main.html If the music that you are looking for is in this archive, there is a good chance to use it in your program...

I've been looking around for a background music for my game... Recently I came accross an archive that has many Atari games (and others) music in SAP format. I wrote a small C program to convert the SAP format to a bin file that after using 6502 disassembler can be included in our ASM files... Well it takes some manual work and time but the results are quite amazing... I put together a demo (that will be used in my game) that can be downloaded and run both on the emulator and the real 5200 console... As I'm working on my new 5200 programming web site, I'll include all the information regarding this matter in it for everybody to use... Moderator Edit: Ronens homepage is located here: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2j83t/

I think it has to do with the VSS itself. It always assume that the code starts at $4000. If you place your code at $8000 and make sure that the jump address (you set at the reset code $BFFD) is correct, it does work on the real console but fails on the VSS emulator. While talking about differences between VSS and a real 5200 console: I've got my keypad code to work on the VSS emulator but it would not work on the real console... have to figure that one out...