Zerosquare

We're currently looking into this solution.

We never said we wanted the older Atari games to be considered abandonwares. Besides allowing cartridge developers who don't have an Alpine to test their software, and running protos, this JagCF feature is intended to let people run the cartridges they own from a Compact Flash (like similar solutions on other platforms). There's nothing illegal about playing games you own. If someone decides to pirate games using the JagCF, it's their legal and ethical responsability -- we certainly don't support this, and this is not the function of the JagCF.

That depends on how you've connected pins 12 and 13 of your interface internally -- I haven't found the info in your post (maybe I've overlooked it). Anyways, there are two differents things I think you misunderstood : Encoders don't have "left" and "right" outputs - you don't get pulses on one output when turning it clockwise, and on the other when turning it counterclockwise. What they have are two quadrature outputs that need some decoding (this is why there is a special mode for rotary controllers in Tempest 2000). Stone gave a pretty good explanation of it there. The outputs of an encoder are not designed (logically and electrically) to be shared with anything else. As all four possibles states of the outputs are valid (even when the encoder is stationary), you can't wire it in parallel with traditional left/right switches, because it would cause falses presses even if you weren't using it. Conversely, if you pressed a button wired in parallel with an encoder output, it would short-circuit it to ground, and possibly damage the encoder. That's why there is a switch to choose between "normal" and "rotary" modes on the schematic I posted in your other topic. As you noted, the Jaguar joypad uses an X-Y adressing scheme. This means that columns that aren't selected must not disturb the signals of other columns (such as the ones handling the numeric keypad), but your basic encoder doesn't know about that, and sends its signals permanently. The AND gates on the schematic take care of fixing that.

I hope the modifications you made to the encoder are reversible, since you just degraded its performance... Why did you do this ? The "interference" is an electrical incompatibility that isn't fixable with mechanical tinkering -- besides, if I understood the way the encoder is currently connected, you may even damage it in the long term, since pressing buttons short-circuits the outputs.

That would be the case with positive logic, but the Jaguar joypad uses negative logic (selected row(s) are low, and pressed button(s) bring the "common" points down). You could use 3 inverters to reverse the polarity, but NOT(NOT(A) AND NOT(B)) is logically equivalent to A OR B

By the way, you may also need to add a 4.7 kohm resistor tied to +5V on each encoder output ; whether this is necessary depends on your encoder.

Try this : It's a quick sketch and I've not built it, but it should work. Note the switch to choose between regular mode and optical encoder mode (you can't use both at the same time since the encoder signals and the left/right signals will always interfere with each other). ""Left switch" diode" is the diode pin on which the left switch was originally connected.

I've already pointed out that future cartridges releases can be protected if their authors choose to do so. And if Thunderbird and Oppressor are that concerned about people potentially pirating BattleSphere, we'll go as far as including specific protections for this game in the hardware.

Hi Matthias, Thanks a lot for your input. We are particularly interested in what developers such as yourself have to say on this matter.

[TROLL]What, do you think there are NOT enough straight 16-bit ports on the Jag already ? [/TROLL] (not that I want to belittle swapd0's work, or anyone who would actually code an emulator, of course )

We're not doing anything to harm or blackmail the developers. If they request it, we will even provide them with means to detect the JagCF in their software, so they can choose to make their future (non-CF) releases purposefully incompatible. We're not talking about copy-protection for existing games, because it doesn't make much sense - many cartridges have already been dumped, and those that haven't aren't encrypted anyways. So even if someone decided (and had found a way to secure legal rights) to create a copy-protected compilation of existing games, that wouldn't prevent someone else from using the hardware to run the ROM images found on the Net. The copy-protection will basically prevent accessing the Compact Flash contents on anything else that the JagCF. It's reasonably secure, i.e. not something you can defeat with a trivial hack (but of course no system is 100% foolproof). Specific details of the implementation will be disclosed to legitimate developers only.

I'll have to reply on behalf of SCPCD since he isn't available at the moment, and is a little shy about communicating in English much anyways Of course I can't read his mind, but he's been a friend of mine for several years, and we had discussions about this project many times before. First thing (which we may have not stressed enough) : the JagCF project has been created to add new features to the Jaguar console. SCPCD did this because he's a Jag enthusiast (he's been hacking the hardware since 2001 or so). Things like the support of ROM images weren't even considered initially, since the goal was to allow the development of new, more powerful software. Which brings us to the second point : it's not only about Compact Flash. The JagCF also features much more RAM, an improved and reliable networking, streamed audio, support for PS/2 keyboards and mice, and many other things (and the most important one has not been "officially" announced yet) that developers can use to create more impressive games on the Jaguar. Third and last point : we're definitely not doing this for the money (come on, if we wanted to do that, we'd only make a few and then sell them to the highest bidders on eBay ). SCPCD told us [the folks at Jagware] before that he didn't care if only five units were sold, as long as interested developers could get it. And we don't plan on making huge benefices on the sales, either. Of course, adding the support for ROM images will widen the target audience, but we're not trying to benefit from piracy. If we had a possibility to deter pirates without compromising features for legitimate owners, we would do it. GT Turbo posted a related poll here on AA, so if you want to express your opinion, go ahead. Unfortunately, no matter which route we go, it's bound to be disappointing for some people...

Basically, we have no way of making sure that you actually own the cartridges from which the images come from. It's a matter of trust ; your point is valid, and that's the reason why the feature wasn't planned at first. But there are also some developers and legitimate owners among the people who requested it, and we feel it'd be a pity to add restrictions because of the wrongdoing of others.

I think I recall reading somewhere that the WAD format was different from the PC version's.

ROM images will be supported (we were against it at first, but a lot of people have requested this functionality). Note that we do not condone piracy - this is done to allow backing-up several cartridges on a CF, testing non-BJL compatible betas, etc. For new CF-based developments, there is also a distinct, facultative copy-prevention feature. The choice is up to the developer.

The only patents they still hold today relate to long filenames support, which is non-essential for the JagCF.

The PAL model can be modified in the same way to run at 50 or 60 Hz. Nevertheless, in both cases, only the display frequency is modified, the color standard (NTSC or PAL) isn't (it would require more extensive modifications). I don't know much about games, but although they were supposed to play the same in 50 and 60 Hz, some of them don't (for example, they are faster in 60 Hz). Anyway, a search in this forum will turn up many related topics.

Hi backinjag. I'm a secondary developer on the JagCF project, and the main one for the Catnip Cable project. In theory, yes. But I can think of several reasons that make this possibility very unlikely. The JagCF's Compact Flash cartridges will use a FAT16 filesystem (native format for MS-DOS and Windows) which is supported on MacOS X (AFAIK), so if you can connect a CF reader/writer to your Mac, there shouldn't be any problem. However, you also need the Catnip Cable to keep the JagCF up-to-date. I'm currently working on making the software Mac-compatible (which is not easy since I don't own any Mac hardware). Although it seems promising, I can't guarantee anything yet.

Check out this page on JustClaws' Jagu-Sounds site.

No problem

If you use Winamp, press Ctrl+P, select Plug-ins > Output, note which one is currently selected, then select Nullsoft Disk Writer plugin. Click Configure to choose the directory you want the output files to be created in, and to set other options. From then, any file you play in Winamp (not just MODs) will be converted to a WAV file instead of being played by your sound card (don't forget to set the output plugin back to the old one when you're done). You can then convert the WAV files to MP3 with whatever software you like. You can also use a module player which has the ability to create WAV files, such as ModPlug Player.

The Catnip Cable will be required to update the JagCF.

Do you mean on the PC side or on the Jaguar side ? No change is needed on the Jag -- the current BJL ROM, BJL CD, and Protector:SE cartridge can be used. On PC, you'll have to use the uploader I posted in the BJL API thread (I've not released the Catnip Cable version yet, but I've made one, and it works fine -- the uploading problems only occur with the parallel-cable version).

Did you vote on the poll ? We are not taking nominative preorders at the moment, so if you're interested, just vote (it is easier to track than posts... of course, if you already did so, and just wanted to show your support, it's all right ).

I've added more detailed info here.