Stone

After looking in my K-series, it turns out that the 'dash number' is printed on the barcode label on the upper side of the board on the right edge (pad ports down). That K-series doesn't have the A/D convertor populated btw, so it must have only been placed on early versions before it was dropped from the spec. I knew that, I just thought it interesting that they silkscreened the same thing onto the board and then never used it Sticky labels are easier to print, obviously, but surely someone should have thought of this before producing 500,000 PCBs? Stone

There was a seperate development system for C - the Cross Products (i think...) one. See the picture links at the bottom of http://sinister.kewlplace.com/. Stone

There used to be a couple of demos available on Starcat's site for beginners to pick apart and gain basic experience (how the object list works, how to read the pads etc) but I think they may only be on his new dev CD now. Have a look. Also check the original BJL distribution, there's one about a meg in size which contains loads of sample code, with some ready-built demos to play with (the firedemo is nice...). Seems to have been made up on an Atari computer though, so you may not be able to compile some of them. Ah well Have a look around, if not mail me and I'll send you some of my source collection Stone

Please please please be very careful when opening the JagCD (if you decide to do this) so you know exactly how everything was fitted together when you first got it. It took me nearly an hour to get the case shut after I opened it to see if my BIOS was socketed one day and probably wasn't too good for my blood pressure...having just paid £90 for it... Take special care with the little plastic rod that activates the 'door closed' switch on the inside, it's a right bastard to get fitted properly. Then again, maybe I was just being incompetent If you still have problems, you might be lucky if you just get it mostly together. Mine had a 'lump' at the back of the case where one of the clips didn't quite match up, but after a couple of months screwed together it popped back into place Hope that helps Stone

...in the board construction schematic that accompanied the Jag schematic I found yesterday. This would seem to be the last word on which video versions were produced, but I still don't know how many revisions of each video version were released 'into the wild'. Where it says 'Dash number' I'd guess it means a number to follow the silkscreened 'ATARI Jaguar console/ASSY 700020-_ _ _ _ _' on the PCB, maybe they just never filled in the gap Interesting nonetheless. Stone

That would almost certainly be down to a bad cable. If you want a decent one I have enough parts to make a couple more, mail me at [email protected] . If you want to make your own, you should be using braid-shielded 15-core cable (only need 11, but people don't sell this...grrr), with diecast metal backshells and the shielding connected to GND on both sides of the cable. That's what mine are, and they've never failed To check it I uploaded Native 25 times and it didn't fail once Matthias: does your VGA cable work on standard PC monitors? I'd love to stop using a SCART cable, since my TV is unable to face me due to space restrictions...moving around to see it is a right pain, and I'm lazy Thanks. [edit: Referring to your memory viewer, allowing selected portions of viewed memory-space to be dumped to the PC over BJL would be nice too ] Stone

U38 (I think it is) is power regulation (it's right around that burned cap in the lower left, next to the pad ports, iirc). You could order a new one from best (www.best-electronics-ca.com) if it still doesn't work after you swap out the cap. Personally, I'd buy a new one. But then I'd also have checked the power supply polarity first Stone

Glenn Bruner has a slightly more complicated CD bypass BIOS he concocted...apparently he replaced all the CD-checking routines with NOP, recompiled and burned it to a 27C020 How he got the source I have no clue...that man is a veritable mine of useful and cool stuff Stone

I've seen a lot of Jag styles in the last couple of years, so I can confirm some of Tbird's (and others') statements here. I have one K-series Jag and one M-series Jag of my own. The M-series is the one with all my assorted extra goodies bolted onto/cut into it. The K-series has no A/D converter, iirc. There are 2 versions of the custom ASICs I've seen as well, the text on the top is in a different font. No specifics as the one I saw like this wasn't mine The Jags with no RF output are designed for use in France, and were supplied with the Peritel (now known as SCART) cable in the box (not the crap home-made one you got TBird, nice thick molded ones with official Atari connectors). Unmodified, they output PAL-B video at 50Hz. There were 3 other video versions of the Jag, the American 60Hz one, the English PAL one and the European PAL-B one *with* RF modulator. Think that info's in the dev manual. T-skid's info about the UK SCART version is new to me (although Telegames sell SCART-only Jags) and I'd guess this is a PAL-B one (I think the video systems are compatible). That would explain why French Jags had no RF, since they use a video standard (SECAM) that encodes colour information differently to PAL and PAL-B, so using a 'normal' RF output Jag on a French TV would only give you a black and white image. K-series Jags often have a 'hiss' which seems to come from the large power rectification coil (is it L29? memory is failing me) which is located next tot he power circuitry in the lower-right hand corner of the board (cart port upwards and pad ports towards yourself). This has happened to M-series Jag's I've modded before, though. Think that's everything I know Always happy for more info though. Stone

Looking again at that picture of the proto, what is it middle-right on that piccy? Looks suspiciously like an DIP-package LED bargraph...what the hell is that doing there??? Someone dig out some Jag2 proto docs please! Stone

At those prices I'd buy a couple. Or three. Stone

Flashback always reminded me of Blackthorne for the SNES...God I loved that game Flashback on the Jag is very similar to the Genesis version, with revamped (nicer) gfx. You'll also find he's wearing a red shirt under the jacket on this version; on the Genesis the res was to low to be able to tell Stone

You're right as far as the menus are concerned (with a PAL JAG and cart) but it doesn't seem that noticeable in-game...maybe because so much stuff's moving around at once. My immediate thought was that it might be to help improve the 3d effect (by providing greater depth perception). I guess you'd have to ask Jeff though Stone

Having spent some time inside a pc recently, I can add that the edge connector was from a floppy drive cable, not custom as I mentioned. Seemed to fit ok though. Stone

A little clarification on which EPROMs can actually be used... Like Matthias said, there's two Atari - designed cart PCBs which can be used, the 4MB (2x2MB chips) and the 2Mb (4x512KB chips). The 4MB one is designed for the 27C160 (as in the BS carts) which is astonishingly expensive as they aren't used for anything much any more, and are in correspondingly lower production (unless it's been stopped altogether and old stock is all the remains...I'm not sure on this point). Expect to pay around £27 each at Maplin (don't recall the exact price). The 2MB one is slightly more versatile, but you are restricted to chips currently in production, which rules out the Toshiba one (27C4000D?). The 27C040 will work in this board, and the 29C040 Flash chip will if you have one of the jumper-selectable PCBs (the pinout is slightly different). If you have an EPROM burner and a UV lamp to erase them with you could get a good deal off eBay - I got 10x27C040 for about £10 all told, so look around. To find out exactly which chips are supported, go download the Jag Developer's Manual off Starcat's site (http://www.atari-jaguar64.de) - the section you want is called Hardware Reference (I think...it could be in the Technical Reference). Just download it all, it's some interesting shiznit If you want to design your own PCB that's also possible. Just don't expect it to be easy It looked to me from the commercial cart PCBs (which differ from the EPROM ones btw) like the Jag cart port was designed with certain chip pinouts and cart layouts in mind, as all the tracks are pretty much lead straight down to the port which can't be a coincidence Anyway, enough babble from me, go build something interesting Stone

Not true. (at least I don't think so). I've had one of these sent to me before by Nick at 16/32 Systems, and they are of definitely inferior quality. The edge connector is the right size for the Jag (not cut down that I could see) and ran directly onto the ribbon cable (as with the headers on a Stub cable). The SCART plug was a standard one, and the ribbon cable was just rolled up and stuffed into the cable opening and soldered internally. The whole thing was very flimsy, and though the connections pin-to-pin might have been correct, it was utterly unusable due to the complete absence of any sort of shielding (you could just about make out an image through the mess of static, and there was no audible sound). A waste of money, but if you want one he has them for sale on the website (think it's still http://www.1632systems.co.uk) as 'unshielded SCART cables'. Cheaper than the originals, and for good reason: they don't work and don't even make very good paperweights. Maybe one for the completists, but why waste money when ihe's still selling the original item??? Rgs, Stone

In answer to the cart slot thing, it seems a fairly obvious solution has been missed...plug a cart in, then pull it out just enough that it's no longer inserted but just resting on the cart slot. Problem solved. No dust, no cart port wear. No need to dismember any innocent carts as T-bird seems to fond of Stone

You could probably fix the broken plug with a pair of pliers, some superglue and patience (or just buy a new one ). If not, you can buy a mini-switchbox that has a SCART plug on one end and audio/svideo/composite plugs on the other...if you're up to making a female-to-female SCART widget then you'd be sorted (hint: buy 2 PCB-mount female SCART sockets, it's the only way i've found to get them). You can encase the whole thing in Araldite or other resin glue when you've finished it. This would never happen were it not for the frankly shoddy design of mass-produced SCART plugs...the way they 'unfold' without warning and have rattly pins is shocking .Try filling them with hot-glue, that'd help some I suppose. Best of luck! Stone

Hopefully not, because that would SERIOUSLY piss off the lucky people owning the originals or the relatively few copies thereof. Some people have the nasty attitude of 'want' being synonymous with 'get' which should be discouraged as much as possible. Especially if the owners of the originals ever want to sell them and find they're only worth $20 because of the few morally-deficient opportunists. Stone

Well, the only way to do it without the source would be to actually delete the textures. Physically deleting them from the image would make the file shorter, which would mess up all the jumptables, so the only way to do it would be to replace all bits of each texture with a single colour. Maybe the OP has some (tiny?) cache to make it ever-so-slightly faster. I don't think it would tho, as the code remains the same. The best bet would be to find the original versions of the code, cut out the gfx engine, replace it with an older, in-dev one using gouraud shading (or write one! hell, we're being unrealistic, why not?) then recompile and add the universal encryption header. That could work...but it won't, cos we don't have the source Try overclocking your Jag instead, you'll get more reliable results Stone

OK, I'll let the price go for now, but you didn't answer my question Will JUGS DD games be playable on ProtSE? Stone

Yes, that was Lars. He's not marketing one of the bypass solutions though, so he's not doing himself any favours restricting it to one of them (which could certainly be done). Obviously there'd be wider market coverage if it wasn't so, but then T-bird could see it as a way to get more people to buy BSG (not that there are any around...oh, yes, that was the problem). Forcing people to buy BSG to play whatever T-bird's got under wraps would suck, and not just because of the fact that you can't get BSG any more or the fact that it costs twice as much as the other bypass solution (ignoring the B&C cart for not having any save space). That was my point really, I'll shut up now so you can reply Stone

That's some interesting stuff, I've not seen a scan of the MPEG cart (or indeed the JagCD proto) before. Glenn: any idea what goes in the lower-left corner of the board? looks like a DIP4 chip... To Thunderbird's question: it looks like the board says 'Atari JAGCD Daughter Card' but I'm not sure. The last two words are definitely right tho. I was trying to work out how it was affixed to the Alpine, but I guess they just used some cunning hack method (ie lots of wire) soldered to strategic point on the board. Still cool though. Glenn: Any chance of burning a GAL with the prelim driver and populating the blank card you have? Now you know what U2 is supposed to be, I'm sure you can work out U3/4/5 Stone

One question: will games designed to work with JUGS DD work on ProtSE too? Having different, non-compatible standards for someting so minor (compared to the rest of the gaming industry, where it seems to get managed a surprising amount) would really blow. Stone

No lid, no. But my carts don't really get that dusty anyway, since they're under my desk on the printer shelf Stone