[CV ROM Update Project - Commercial Releases - v2.1 (Updated 13-Oct-2021)]

Ikrananka, will brazilian Colecovision ROMs be added to your collection?

[Dumping the brazilian Splice carts]

After a while, finally we got more three Splice carts dumped by Alexandre Casella. They are Dong Junior (Donkey Kong Jr.), Duende (Smurf) and Ratoeira (Mouse Trap). Because of technical limitations, only Ratoeira was translated to Portuguese, while the other two remained in English with only the initial screen translated.

ratoeira-splicevision.7z duende-splicevision.7z dong_jr-splicevision.7z

[ColEm Emulator for Windows, Android, and Linux]

That works. But, while is easy do to so in Windows, placing the Splicevision or the Onyx BIOS in ColEm directory using Android isn't. That is why a out-of-the-box support with the BIOSes included, just like the original Colecovision BIOS is already packed with ColEm, would be much better.

[ColEm Emulator for Windows, Android, and Linux]

It is possible to add an option in ColEm to use the Splicevision or Microdigital Onyx BIOS instead of the Colecovision one? That would be nice for preserving those pieces of hardware for being lost forever. ?

[Atari 2600 PAL-M unique palette]

Hi folks.

 

I was testing a few games in my Unocart using a Dactari (brazilian Atari 2600 clone by Sayfi) and noticed that the colors are different from what we see in NTSC consoles and Stella. Some games are pretty close (Keystone Kapers, Grand Prix), others are very different (Pitfall, Pitfall II).

 

Is there a way to reproduce the PAL-M palette in Stella? I know it isn't the way developers wanted the games to be, but that's how a lot of people over South America played them.

[Dumping the brazilian Splice carts]

New dump surfaced: the Splicevision BIOS. Made by Victor Trucco in 2007, was since then forgotten somehow.

placa1_bios.7z

[Dumping the brazilian Splice carts]

Folks at Datassette.org just released a ROM of Spy Hunter dumped from a Coleco Mania cart. It's another case of a game that couldn't be translated, just like Zaxxon.

 

Spy Hunter (1985) (Atari Mania).col

[Dumping the brazilian Splice carts]

Inside the Spitfire cart. Very proto-ish, handmade solder points in the ROMs.

[Dumping the brazilian Splice carts]

42 minutes ago, Ikrananka said:

Thanks for the info.  Do you know if the SpliceVision used a custom/hacked BIOS with Portuguese text?

Yes, just like Microdigital Onyx the Splicevision used a translated version of the Colecovision BIOS. Side-by-side, the Splice one is much more closer to the original than Microdigital's version.

[Dumping the brazilian Splice carts]

Now releasing the Jaxxon ROM. Unfortunately only the initial screen is translated.

jaxxon (splice vision).col

[Dumping the brazilian Splice carts]

2 hours ago, Ikrananka said:

Thanks for dumping this.  Very interesting.  A binary comparison of Spitfire and Looping shows that the only changes made for Spitfire are the various pieces of translated text shown in the screenshots.  Otherwise the binaries are identical.  It would seem that changing the blue game selection screen was too difficult for Splice to hack as this is still shown in English.

 

Is the game select screen part of the BIOS?

The game select screen is generated by the BIOS itself. Using the Microdigital Onyx BIOS everything appears in Portuguese.

[Dumping the brazilian Splice carts]

A few screenshots (using the Onyx BIOS)

[Dumping the brazilian Splice carts]

Hi everyone.

 

I've just got the Spitfire (Looping) and Jaxxon (Zaxxon) carts in my collection few days ago and noticed that no one ever dumped any cart made by Splice. So, I sent them to Alexandre Casella, a repro expert, and now, almost 40 years after Splice released those carts, we dumped them successfully.

 

In this post I'm releasing the Spitfire ROM. Jaxxon will follow shortly. Enjoy!

spitfire (splice vision).col

[European Atari 2600 Jr. - Need some help with its color system]

Hi pcrock, thanks for the reply.

 

My european Atari Jr. got a UM6526P1 8850S chip. However, modifying it to NTSC will change the palette and make the console behave just like our brazilian Ataris, right? If that is true, it will defeat the whole purpose of using an european Atari. There is a handful of games that are only released in Europe or their 50 Hz counterparts are much more cheaper than the 60 Hz ones. That is the main reason I've got this console, to play european games.

 

I don't get it, PAL-B and PAL-N are the same color TV system. The difference between them lies only in the color subcarrier frequency while using composite video. That is why TVs in South America often detect european PAL as PAL-N and, as a consequence of that, they fail to retrieve any color from the signal. It should be easy to convert a PAL-B console to the PAL-N system, but I still had no luck trying to do it. ☹️

[European Atari 2600 Jr. - Need some help with its color system]

Hi folks, I am new at AtariAge.

 

Months ago, I've got an AV-modded european Atari 2600 Jr. (Rev. F board) in a great condition for cheap. However, here at my country (Brazil), PAL-B compatible TV sets are rare to find. The closest color system that is supported by most TVs is PAL-N (PAL variation used in Argentina and a few more countries in South America).

 

I tried to replace the 4.433618 MHz XTAL with a 3.582056 MHz one, but that gave me no colors in any PAL-N compatible set. Also tried to replace the 3.546894 MHz one with a second 3.582056 MHz XTAL, but still gave me nothing but B&W picture.

 

Is there something I can do to make this console output PAL-N? Both systems are 50 Hz and have the same resolution, so it should work somehow.

 

Thanks a lot!