Cartridge external power supply

[Atari060]

Hi folks,

 

just a little thought, as I am not owning a highscore cart... *IF* you would power the cart with an external battery, switch the 7800 off and eject the cart, wouldn´t it, if back inserted, start at the same point you have been when ejecting it?

 

If *YES*, then it would be pretty easy to built such a savegame-adaptor.

 

Just a thought.

 

Best regards,

 

Christian

[Rybags]

No.

 

To my knowledge, the HS Cart only has a small amount of memory which is only used to retain high scores for games.

 

Whether the cart is used or not, games always use the 7800's inbuilt RAM as working storage.

 

With today's technology though, it would be totally feasible to build a "Save State Cartridge" for the 7800, but there probably wouldn't be much of a market for it.

[EricBall]

For the majority of games the cartridge only contains ROM so externally powering the cartridge will not maintain the built-in RAM. And even carts with onboard RAM the games still use the built-in RAM. (Having two separate power sources also makes things difficult.)

 

New games could either use the HS Cart or the AtariVox/SaveKey/MemCard.

[Atari060]

For the majority of games the cartridge only contains ROM so externally powering the cartridge will not maintain the built-in RAM. And even carts with onboard RAM the games still use the built-in RAM. (Having two separate power sources also makes things difficult.)

 

New games could either use the HS Cart or the AtariVox/SaveKey/MemCard.

 

New games could also have a built in battery to save games like the latest lynx homebrews have... or am I wrong?

[EricBall]

New games could also have a built in battery to save games like the latest lynx homebrews have... or am I wrong?

Certainly, anything is possilbe given time, money & effort. But why expend any when reasonable alternatives already exist?

[Atari060]

New games could also have a built in battery to save games like the latest lynx homebrews have... or am I wrong?

Certainly, anything is possilbe given time, money & effort. But why expend any when reasonable alternatives already exist?

 

Oh really, DO they exist? I have never seen a highscore cart or anything like this for sale, so this is not an alternative (only for people who already own one).

 

Best regards,

 

Christian

[Richard H.]

I can't understand anyone wanting to use expensive SRAM, battery, battery-holder and switch-over circuitry / IC for high-score saves, when serial EEPROM is so cheap and reliable.

[EricBall]

Oh really, DO they exist? I have never seen a highscore cart or anything like this for sale, so this is not an alternative (only for people who already own one).

Yes, they do. Although the "original" High Score Cartridge is probably too rare to be a truely viable alternative, the AtariVox/SaveKey/MemCard is. (Plus, it doesn't need a battery and is usable on multiple platforms.)