SeanRiddle

I thought I had posted the source to my menu program, but I hadn't, so I just added it to http://members.cox.net/seanandalicia/chanfinfo.html. In it is some code I stole from the Football cart to play songs. It only works well on System II hardware (or MESS). In System I it sounds pretty harsh. The cart 17 disassembly shows how to make the 3 built-in beeps. Sean

Bryan- It's not super-fast, but some of the games are pretty snappy. If you've only used the old MESS emulator, it was running too slow until a few months ago. Now it seems to be pretty close to actual speed. I don't think there's any way to detect vertical blank. Just plotting points on the screen requires jumping through some hoops for timing reasons. Check out the Tetris and Lights Out code on my page. Sean

Yes indeed. I found your page while looking for Video Whizball information and was shocked to see your discovery. Everyone thought that Warren Robinett did it first so you've helped to rewrite video game history. Here's the thread that discusses your find:http://atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59087 Actually I posted info in a thread earlier this year (April) about much of this: http://atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44963#596297 Well, the Channel F demo cart is copyrighted 1977, but it wasn't a game, and it wasn't for sale. Video Whiz Ball is copyrighted 1978; wasn't Adventure also 1978? So which was first? Also, there were a whole lot more Adventure carts sold than Video Whiz Ball! Fredric Blaholtz (the supreme Channel F collector) wrote the author of Video Whiz Ball and Alien Invasion a couple of times. Brad ReidSelth responded with some information: Video Whizball was written for Fairchild. The game idea was the result of a contest- the winner got a color TV. Alien Invasion was written in 1981 for Zircon. Brad says that he hid the egg code as data statements within graphics tables to avoid detection. The programmers knew that hidden things were being put into games at Atari and Activision (he did not mention Adventure), and his superiors told the Fairchild programmers not to do that. He didn't know about the egg in the demo cart, but he knew the programmer. So unless he is misremembering, it sounds like his egg in Video Whiz Ball came after the Adventure egg. But possibly VWB was released before Adventure? I'm not up on my Atari history, but Activision wasn't created until '79, right? That's after VWB was released, so I think he must be confusing some of the timeline (it was over 20 years ago!) Sean

OK, here's a page with links to a bunch of info: http://members.cox.net/seanandalicia/chanfinfo.html Kevin- I know one guy who is thinking about programming an FPGA to replace the 3853. I considered it, but it seemed too tough for me. I think I could do it with a small FPGA and a PIC microcontroller, or maybe just a big PIC. NovaXpress- so are you saying that the Easter egg in the demo cart predates any other known egg? That's pretty cool! Sean

Kevin- The 3850 has two 8-bit ports built-in, so to make things fit into a 40-pin package, there is no address bus. The 3851 PSU is more than just ROM- it takes 5 signals from the CPU and generates its own internal address bus. The 3853 static memory interface (I typoed in my last message) takes those 5 signals and creates an address bus for you. So you either need a 3853 or a functional equivalent in a cart. Those 5 signals allow for 32 different states, some of which change the address bus, and others that don't, so it's pretty complicated to make your own. I hacked an existing cart that has the 3853 and uses standard ROM and RAM. Some other, more common, carts also have a 3853, but it is just the die bonded to a printed circuit board, so it would be tough to work with. Bruce also has makerom.c on his site, which converts the Intel hex format into straight binary. I will gather the documentation together and put it on a web site. Check out my website for some info if you haven't already: http://members.cox.net/seanriddle/chanf.html. Channel F systems and carts sell pretty well on ebay. I'm not sure if new carts would sell, but probably a few. It is fun to write a new program for a long-dead platform. Do you call that anachrogramming? Sean

Hi- David Galloway asked me to check out this thread. Pretty cool! A few months ago I only knew about 4 other people who were interested in the Channel F system. I created a multigame cart for the system by hacking a Schach (chess) cart. That cart has the dynamic memory interface that creates a real address bus. I had to patch the Maze game since that cart had a 2102 SRAM, and you can't put in your own words in Hangman since I didn't patch that one, but all the other known carts work. I built a cart dumper using a PIC microprocessor and sent it to a couple of guys to dump their hard-to-find carts. I originally wrote my multigame code by hand-patching Demo Cart 1. There's an F8 disassembler in MESS, and I'd hex edit the binary then disassemble it to make sure I did it right. Someone sent me an F8 assembler, but I can't distribute it. That's what I used to write Lights Out, then to rewrite the multigame code. I've got a ton of documentation on the 3850 CPU, 3851 PSU (program storage unit), 3853 dynamic memory interface, as well as the F8 system itself. I've disassembled a bunch of the games, and found 3 easter eggs. What's the goal here? To create an entire system from scratch, or just create some carts? It really isn't too tough to write code when you have an assembler; you just have to think a little oddly. The Channel F doesn't have any RAM that you can read; you have to use the F8's 64 scratchpad registers, which are a little wacky to access. Sean