F3 Tigervision. Differences between this and Atari Age F4 board

[Atari Charles]

I was hoping soemone here could explain this to me in detail:

 

What are the actual differences between the F3 Tigervison boards and ROM(RAM) and the F4 Atari Age Boards and RAM(ROM)?

 

Programs that will work on an F3 board won't work on a F4 board. Why?

 

Do F3 boards use the same type of ram as the F4 boards?

 

Is there an easy was to convert a program written for F3 format to work on an F4 board?

 

Are F3 boards being made today or are there on F4 boards being made? Why did Atari Age choose the F4 format?

 

Hopefully someone here can answer these questions.

[+batari]

I was hoping soemone here could explain this to me in detail:

 

What are the actual differences between the F3 Tigervison boards and ROM(RAM) and the F4 Atari Age Boards and RAM(ROM)?

 

Programs that will work on an F3 board won't work on a F4 board. Why?

It's 3F, actually. The differences are size of the cart, size of the banks, and the location and access method of the hotspot(s):

- 3F is 8k, and F4 is 32k

- 3F uses 2k banks, while F4 uses 4k banks

- 3F senses the value written to $3F to determine the 2k bank in cart ROM that maps to the lower 2k of the 2600's ROM addresses with the upper 2k of 2600's ROM addresses are fixed and always pointing to the last 2k bank in the cart ROM, while F4 switches to one of 8 4k banks in cart ROM depending on its respective hotspot located at address xFF4-xFFB.

Do F3 boards use the same type of ram as the F4 boards?

Neither have RAM.

Is there an easy was to convert a program written for F3 format to work on an F4 board?

They can be converted, but it's not particularly easy.

Are F3 boards being made today or are there on F4 boards being made? Why did Atari Age choose the F4 format?

No 3F boards are being made that I know of, but making one is not terribly difficult. You only need an EPROM chip and a single 74173 logic chip. Someone did once make a 3E board, which is compatible with 3F, but that would probably be overkill (IIRC, the board was 32k RAM/32k ROM or thereabouts.)

[Atari Charles]

Who was the person who made the 3E Board? I am good with 32K as I need this amount of memory.

 

So if you could please post or pm me the person who made the 3E(3F compatable board)?

[Kroko]

Who was the person who made the 3E Board? I am good with 32K as I need this amount of memory.

 

So if you could please post or pm me the person who made the 3E(3F compatable board)?

 

I made the 3E board for Andrew Davies "notBD"

[vdub_bobby]

Who was the person who made the 3E Board? I am good with 32K as I need this amount of memory.

 

So if you could please post or pm me the person who made the 3E(3F compatable board)?

 

I made the 3E board for Andrew Davies "notBD"

Speaking of weird boards, didn't you (or someone?) design a 64K board for the Homestar Runner RPG? How did that work, and what's the possibility of that ever being used for another homebrew game? E.g., one I might write.

[Albert]

Speaking of weird boards, didn't you (or someone?) design a 64K board for the Homestar Runner RPG? How did that work, and what's the possibility of that ever being used for another homebrew game? E.g., one I might write.

 

..Al

[vdub_bobby]

Speaking of weird boards, didn't you (or someone?) design a 64K board for the Homestar Runner RPG? How did that work, and what's the possibility of that ever being used for another homebrew game? E.g., one I might write.

 

..Al

What was the bankswitching scheme for that beast?

[Kroko]

Speaking of weird boards, didn't you (or someone?) design a 64K board for the Homestar Runner RPG? How did that work, and what's the possibility of that ever being used for another homebrew game? E.g., one I might write.

 

..Al

What was the bankswitching scheme for that beast?

 

It is called EF: $FFE0 to $FFEF select the 16 4K banks

[Albert]

What was the bankswitching scheme for that beast?

I don't remember, I'll have to go digging through emails to figure that out.

 

..Al

[vdub_bobby]

What was the bankswitching scheme for that beast?

I don't remember, I'll have to go digging through emails to figure that out.

 

..Al

Looks like Armin beat ya to it.

[+batari]

what's the possibility of that ever being used for another homebrew game? E.g., one I might write.

Me too. I have one game on the back burner because 32k isn't enough.

Edited March 8, 2007 by batari

[djmips]

Can we have one that is even more bigger? Like why not a 1024 K jobbie?

[+batari]

Can we have one that is even more bigger? Like why not a 1024 K jobbie?

There's no technical reason why we couldn't have 1024k. I can't imagine how I'd use that much space, though.

[gambler172]

Hi Charles

please try to contact me.I could not reach you.I have good news for you.

greetings Walter

[SeaGtGruff]

Can we have one that is even more bigger? Like why not a 1024 K jobbie?

There's no technical reason why we couldn't have 1024k. I can't imagine how I'd use that much space, though.

The 4A50 bankswitching method has 128K ROM and 32K RAM. That sounds like a huge amount, but I am tinkering with an idea for an adventure RPG, and was trying to calculate how many screens (data only) could be fit into 128K, and it wasn't as many as I'd hoped/expected. It's amazing how quickly a game can gobble up ROM!

 

Michael

[djmips]

Can we have one that is even more bigger? Like why not a 1024 K jobbie?

There's no technical reason why we couldn't have 1024k. I can't imagine how I'd use that much space, though.

 

For the video cut scenes.

[Atari Charles]

We have figured a few things out regarding this technology and regarding an anticipated cart technology that utilizes this format