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Alexandre_Taito

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Posts posted by Alexandre_Taito

  1. Posted

    My 2 cents:

     

    First of all, we all must think about marketability. Atari 2600 VCS was/is a HUGE PLANETARIAN SUCESS. You can find clones, spinoffs, legal-royalted-versions and like in any dirty place of the world. Ditto for cartridges and accessories. So the popularity of the Flashback 1/2 is immediate - it can sell by tons anywhere in the world. I know of at least 20 (!) people inside my (short) circle of friendship, that already ordered one OR MORE FB2 for them here from Brazil.

     

    So we must think - How much known is for the common american and for the rest of the world, the 8 bit line and the 5200/7800?

     

    In my humble opinion, I'd love to se an A8 computer or like as the FB3. But I must put my feed on the ground and think that if Atari does something, it must be sold at milions, Atari cannot fall back to the same error of the last-generation Atari - "if you have been thru hell, and came back, is because you loved it!"

     

    Why create a product that will not have stellar sellings in USA and outside? There are easier options, all of them cheaper and more marketable. One of them being a REAL 2600 portable, with a cheap LCD (an integrated controller can do wonders) and all the bells and whistles a product like this must have. If people buy the GP32 for atari playing, why not the PortableFlashBack3?

     

    But, IF I were Curt, I'd create a system like this:

    - Nice case, remembering old atari products

    - No keyboard, you can always use a PS/2 or USB one

    - Mouse: Ditto.

    - External connectors (or internal ones, to get cheaper) for everything you can imagine

    - SD ROM/Flash media, to have some security and be CHEAP

    - OPEN core, OPEN schematics, CLOSED legal license (not to create copies)

    - Re-loadable emulation core to a special ASIC/FPGA, which can run almost anything

     

    I'll explain better this part:

    The FB2 is a redrawing of the original 2600 circuits into an FPGA, and later to an ASIC. Ok, but what about an ASIC that would have a kind of "unencrypting feature" or like, that would be needed to run the complete core.

     

    Or better, it could hold inside "system modules" like the TIA and like, and accept external VHDL code to connect them and emulate other systems. So everything from Pong video board up to XEGS games could be run, and homebrew hardware/software development would be great.

     

    Of course, the best ones on hardware development could be attracted to Atari, as Curt was, to develop the FB4.

     

    This is a very interesting propositon, and I think that THIS is the right way to go - a completely reconfigurable videogame, that could run code from most Atari / arcades games from the past, could accept SD ROM cards with recorded games / reconfiguration code / vhdl code - so Atari could keep developing and keep cashing on selling games and reconfiguration code, and accept user changes thru a very specialized compiler or common VHDL code. Since most of the VHDL "fat" code is inside the ASIC chip, you couldn't create a copy of it in an FPGA and sell.

     

    Curt, what about that? Feel free to take this propositon to Atari management :)

     

    Greetings from Brazil,

    Alexandre

    www.tabajara-labs.com.br

  4. Posted

    It's just a Famiclone, isn't it?  Nothing really exciting to dissect.... ironically, the Flashback 2, which will be much more worthy of dissection, is going to be something we're less willing to sacrifice ;)

    900277[/snapback]

     

    Don't need to sacrifice, I only want to see the guts ;) Of course, I'm curious, and I still cannot have one, buaaaaa :(

  7. Posted

    Curt, sorry to asking such a dumb question since the answer seems to be clear, but a clear answer would help not to harm some hardware :o) You said the 2600 chip is 3.3V supplied. But are all the inputs 5V tolerant? Can I just supply 5V for the cartridge (so all the data/adress lines will be at 5V) and for the stick inputs (so I'll have no troubles with the trackball units and like)???

     

    Thanks, and congratulations for a great work!

    Alexandre, from Brazil

  9. Posted

    Hi all, greetings from Brazil!

    I got a 4-switch 5200 (pretty rare around here) and no colours onto an NTSC TV. I opened the game to see, much amazed, that the main NTSC subcarrier crystal (3.59545MHz) has been changed to one of 3.575611MHz (PAL-M, brazilian system subcarrier). "Easy enough" I though. There was an OLD method of making NTSC equipment appear "more or less normal colours" onto a Brazilian television just changing the subcarrier crystal (this mod was called "N-Linha" in portuguese, which translates to "N-Line"). So I changed the crystal back to 3.579545 and, to my amaze, the frequency became 3.578something.

     

    I'm unable to trace the error on the oscilator circuit. Any tips? I want to play pacman in colour!!! :)

     

    Greetz,

    Alexandre Souza

    748735[/snapback]

     

    The problem was with the crystal. Put the darn crystal from another 5200 and it is working right now. Thanks everyone.

  11. Posted

     

    Quoted and added so you can just click and load. Also, had two atari1.jpg and there is a atari2.jpg so changed the link.

     

    Anyway, looks good. Something you are creating or reproducing?

     

    Corey

    851560[/snapback]

     

    These are the multicarts I created. Dunno if I can sell them here, so I'm not advertising yet...

  12. Posted

    Hi Alexandre... I was aware of that, problem is, despite the blank screen, pause is not working at all. When I turn it off to continue the game, I discover it wasn't paused and I just lost a life...

    851482[/snapback]

     

    You may try change that 74'00 on the left of the board. Or you can send me the game to fix, if I win that (expensive!!! AAAAAHHHH) 7800 you are selling today :D. Send everything togheter and I fix it for you at no charge.

  14. Posted

    Interesting... so you can't do this to a normal atari, unless you replace the 6507 with a 6502. If you replace the chip, would the atari take it right away? or would you have to make some jumpers for it to work right?

    and how do you drive the rdy signal low? you mean grounding it? I'm sorry, I enjoy electronics a lot but I'm still a newbie at it...

    851440[/snapback]

     

    Dunno about the 6507 -> 6502 change. The Dynavision is ready to have the main CPU changed, but never saw that in other ataris. Of course, I can take a look on that. Pulling the signal low, in this case, you should use a SPDT switch (just like the onyx), disconnect it from the circuit and pull down to GND thru a 1K resistor.

     

    Hope that helps!

  15. Posted

    Seems we need a mini-FAQ on the waiting for the Atari Flashback 2. Seems that it will have a "know footprint on the board", so to have it, it must have a "know-sized hole on top of that", else the "know footprint on board" would have no use :)

     

    Time to gather information to feed the hurries :D

     

    Greetz from Brazil,

    AS, crazy to put my screwdriver into the new toy :D

  16. Posted

    Keilbaca showed me the path, and here it is:

    Tombrazil, your Onyx is working ok, the pause function in Onyx blanks the screen since the pause on without blanking the luma components would just show garbage on screen.

     

    Keilbaca, the RDY pin cannot be activated anytime. Reading the 6507/6502 datasheet, it says "this input signal allow the user to halt the processor on all cycles EXCEPT WRITE CYCLES. A negative transition to the low state, DURING OR COINCIDENT WITH PHASE ONE (o 1)will halt the microprocessor with the output adress lines reflecting the current adress line fetched. ..."

     

    Note the Onyx uses a 6502...Maybe because the 6507 DOES NOT GIVES YOU THE o 1 CLOCK PHASE, but just the o 2!!! So you cannot determine the right time for the RDY signal be driven low.

     

    If you pay attention to the photos, you will see that you have a 74'00 (NAND gate) and the pin 1 is connected to pin 3 of the 6502 which is...o1 clock phase output!!! :oD So Onyx must allow the RDY signal to go down ONLY when o1 phase is "in".

     

    So, there is the onyx mystery, that is how the pause circuit seems to work.

     

    Greetings from Brazil, Alexandre

  18. Posted

    On a related note, I saw that one and asked myself, "Why the hell did that sell?!"  Sure, it's a heavy sixer with first-year joysticks, paddles and AC, plus four first-year gatefolds, and it's all in good shape -- but criminy.  I'd have thought $150 tops.  $245?  It doesn't even have the hex discs, nor is it even boxed...

    848158[/snapback]

     

    Hmm, sorry, but what are those hex discs I don't know? :)

  19. Posted

    As long as it has some method of wiring up a cartridge port, it should be possible to hardwire a multicart EPROM into it without the limitations of having to fit the thing into a cartridge or cartridge slot, or much of any size restrictions.  Just drop in a proto board with a few chips on it.

     

    You can be sure there is a board with two 27C160's and a FPGA into my desk, just waiting for the new toy :o)

  23. Posted

    Opa, eu tambem sou Brasileiro!!! Moro em Vila Velha - ES e tenho "meia duzia" de coisas legais...

     

    Atari 2600

    Atari 5200

    (ainda quero um 7800, buááá)

    Intellivision

    Colecovision

    Odyssey

     

    E mais uma meia duzia de computadores e coisas legais...Se alguem tiver um 5200, ainda to atras do adaptador de cartuchos atari.

     

    Ah, eu tenho multicart para o 5200 pra venda, e em breve para todos eles (menos o 2600)

     

    Abraços!

  24. Posted

    I'd love to get a box of broken controls, I need some atari parts for modding my things here :) As an example, a paddle from 2600 and a broken joystick from my 5200 would become a nice paddle to be used on the 5200, just like the gart prototype :D PLAY SUPER BREAKOUT WITH THAT D4MM3D JOYSTICK SUCKS A LOT!!! I had to make a paddle from scratch for me. These are a bit hard-to-find nowadays in Brazil

     

    Grrrrrrr...why have I sold my heavy sixer...

  25. Posted

    Hi all, greetings from Brazil!

    I got a 4-switch 5200 (pretty rare around here) and no colours onto an NTSC TV. I opened the game to see, much amazed, that the main NTSC subcarrier crystal (3.59545MHz) has been changed to one of 3.575611MHz (PAL-M, brazilian system subcarrier). "Easy enough" I though. There was an OLD method of making NTSC equipment appear "more or less normal colours" onto a Brazilian television just changing the subcarrier crystal (this mod was called "N-Linha" in portuguese, which translates to "N-Line"). So I changed the crystal back to 3.579545 and, to my amaze, the frequency became 3.578something.

     

    I'm unable to trace the error on the oscilator circuit. Any tips? I want to play pacman in colour!!! :)

     

    Greetz,

    Alexandre Souza

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