Bruce Tomlin
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Posts posted by Bruce Tomlin
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Open it up and reseat the socketed chips. No need to remove them, just press them down firmly. This is especially important if you have an early model, because more chips were socketed in the early models.
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Back in the day, 79 or 80, not sure which, was when we got our Atari. And we never called it the "VCS". So we must have just called it the "Atari".
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Or... Atari 400, 800, 1200?
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U1 is LM3909 LED flasher/oscillator (obsolete)Wow, I remember when those were new. They were teh siht back in the day.
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Well, the joystick ports could be used (I've used them for RS-232 myself), but it's kind of hard to play a game with a floppy drive plugged into the joystick ports. And you'd basically need another CPU (or lots of extra latches and decode logic) to control the floppy drive.
It still can't beat the CC2. You can get any modern computer to write an MMC card with the proper USB adapter. Up to at least 256 megs each, not 256K. A 5 1/4" floppy drive is another matter, especially if you don't use a controller chip to read FM/MFM formatting. No way you're gonna get GCR unless you want to drag out an old Apple II to make the disks.
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Argh. Now I see what you were doing. I just haven't found enough good docs on the 6532 yet. (Although I do have some 6530 docs, it's not quite close enough.)
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INTIRQ (or any of the IRQ versions of the timer start registers) is completely useless on the 2600 or 7800, because the IRQ output from the 6532 is not connected to anything. (FWIW, only the 7800 even has the 6502 IRQ line connected, and that only comes from the cartridge slot.)
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Hello,Recently a colleague of mine talked to me about a modification he was planning to make. He said that he was planning to make an adaptor that allowed him to plug a floppy drive into his 7800. He said that he could use the Fox Conn. 3 port on the side to adapt the input off of the floppy.
BZZZZZT!
Not with the side port he ain't. Look at the schematics. That port basically only has video signals, and maybe a couple of CPU signals that aren't in the cartridge slot. The only way to get to the CPU bus without opening the case and soldering directly to the mother board is to make a pass-thru device (like the High Score Cart) that plugs into the cartridge slot.
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Hmmmm... maybe I could use the difficulty switches as shift keys? Looks like I'll have to update my red box demo real soon now. (Even though I really want to get to work on my 7800 project.)
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Yeah... and the first 100 2600 units shipped with a free Cap'n Crunch whistle. :-)I wonder if someone could programme a blue box cart
Oh, and put it in a blue cart too
I already did, with my "red box" demo. It just needs the frequencies changed. I thought that regular DTMF was more important (since blue boxing tones are pretty useless these days), and with DTMF A, B, C, and D, there weren't enough keys left to put the 12 blue box tones anyhow.
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Not that it's hard to find spare 7805 regulators if you have a good junkbox. Check the voltage coming out of it to make sure it's 5 volts. If it's outside of say 4.75 to 5.25, replace it. Especially since you said it looks crispy.
Just for reference, the "M" in 78M05 means "medium power". An "L" means "low power", and 78L05 regulators are usually found in a transistor packaging. I don't know what the power ratings of M and L are, but a regular 7805 is 1 amp. 79xx regulators are for negative voltage regulation (for dual-polarity power supplies).
And it's a power regulator, not a "reducer". It makes sure that the power coming out of it is exactly 5 volts (within some percentage range I don't know), and without any external parts, aside from filter capacitors. A 7805 needs 8-10 volts input to give good regulation.
Definitely it needs to be on a heat sink for any reasonable power draw through it.
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Scrolling is always a issue with the CV, as it doesn't have any hardware scroll capability. But for some games it is possible to create smooth scrolling, if the scenary isn't too complex. Rally-X is such a game.Depending on the game, you could add extra character tiles for scrolled parts of images. In the case of a bunch of right-angle roads with no "scenery", especially if you limit it to one direction, this should be possible.
Mappy scrolling might be possible if you're careful, since it only scrolls horizontally, and mostly consists of horizontal and vertical lines for the background. Scrolling the sprites isn't (IIRC) a problem with CV.
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The story, as I recall, was that one of the Vectrex developers had a bunch of 8" disks full of source code and a CP/M machine. The CP/M machine got stolen.
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=8scb5...0nnrp1.deja.com
This is the only reference I was able to find, which implies that the disks may have been acquired by a collector with a less than friendly attitude.
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I'm just glad to hear that the source got rescued. Somebody still needs to rescue all that Vectrex source code that's on 8" disks.
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I thought the 2600 only used channels 3 and 4. Did you even TRY your TV on a channel other than 2?
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Y'know, when you do open a Tigervision cart, you can go in there and flip the prong assembly around so the long side goes inside the cart. Then it works just fine with the 7800. But that's if you don't mind breaking the label to get at the screws.
Anyhow, the first thing to do is try another console or three and see if it works better. Your cartridge slot may need cleaning too! I've taken apart those slot cleaning carts for NES, and cut them down to 2600 size. They're a piece of plastic with something like a very thick version of Scotch Magic Tape wrapped over the end. They really work, though you might have to clean the cleaner a few times for a really dirty console slot.
The one tricky cart I had was a Bump n Jump. Some piece of plastic in the back had broken, so it couldn't be forced into the slot. I simply took it apart, stuffed a rolled up piece of receipt paper in the back of it, and it worked fine.
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He he he. Yea, your right. That's what happens when your tired. Although it really doesn't matter because it's just a preliminear design that probably doesn't work anyways. Plus you'd have to build it.Yep, it seems to be missing a few things... like the boot ROM. I've always said the ROM was unnecessary for an emulator, but forcing the user to manually flip a switch is going a bit too far. It also seems to be lacking the INPTCTRL latch, in favor of the mode switch.
It looks suspiciously leaner than the final design used in the 7800, so it must have been based on an earlier version of the 7800 design. The resolution of that picture is a bit too low to see everything that's going on.
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You should also know that with one exception, the 2600 adapter is incompatible with the 4-port 5200. As far as I know, only one 4-port board revision was compatible without needing modifications.
Did anyone ever find any info on what those modifications were?
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Meteorites and Chase the Chuckwagon, a buck each or so (I think CtCW was bundled with a random cart for a total of $2) at the same thrift store, about two years apart. And the Atari Video Cube in a box of carts that a co-worker gave me for free. Next would be the find with Crazy Climber and Spy Hunter for $2 each that I had to wait for two weeks until they were put out for sale.
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Considering that the 7800 uses a resistor ladder network, I don't see why luma 14 and 15 should be the same. This sounds like either a problem with the emulator or how it interacted with your video drivers or with the way your screen capture was made.
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I think the name sounds silly in a David Letterman sort of way. You know, like when he says "Here, have a ham." I find it to be a somewhat amusing name.
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2600 adapters are rated for lower amps because they use less power. Lots more chips on the 7800. At the very least you've got Maria, two RAM chips, and a ROM sucking up power. Extra headroom was probably added for the possiblity of hooking up external devices (and carts with more chips, RAM, Pokey, bigger ROMs), which is why the beefier power supply spec.
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- Its got a cartridge slot underneath the controller! Yes. Beleive it or not, you can plug an NES cartridge underneath the controller and play. You'll look goofy but its an option.You sure that's an NES slot? All the ones I've seen have a Famicom slot.
I hear people complaining about them going bad all the time. I don't care as long as there's a cartridge I can stick in the Famicom slot of my Tri-Star adapter.
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thanks, that gives me peace of mind . i also read about using a sega genesis adapter . but that is 9 vdc 1.2 amps. i know that excess amperages will definetly pop some capacitors so i have stayed away from that option for nowNope, that's just the CAPACITY of the power supply. If the console wants to use less, it uses less. It's going over the rating of the transformer that's the problem, because the transformer could overheat and start a fire, or the diodes in the wall wart could burn out.
The voltage does matter somewhat, since the 7805 reglulator chip works best in the 8-10 volt range. Any higher and it's going to run hot. Any lower, and it won't filter out ripple very well. But whatever you do, don't hook up an AC power supply or a DC power supply with reversed polarity.
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Where's my John Cougar [Melencamp] 2600 game?!?!?!!!!
"Just a little ditty... about Jack and Dia-ane..."