How do you check out your homebrews on a real VCS?

[Steril707]

It seems there are no easy solutions for getting your stuff onto the real thing..i read about the Krok and Cuttle carts, but they seem to be sold out.

 

Do you burn an eprom everytime you want to see if your code works on a real VCS?

[raindog]

While Superchargers aren't as common as they once were, they're still cheap and available. They were the only mass-produced homebrew-friendly RAM cart ever made for the VCS. You should try that, at least for your 4k (or Supercharger) projects, until the next hobbyist decides to make a couple hundred awesome RAM carts and then discontinue them.

[BigO]

I second the Supercharger approach. I haven't gotten far enough to call mine a game yet, but I just had to see it on a real TV.

 

I'm working on a sort of a RAM cart. My plan is to use the model of a simple parallel port EPROM programmer to write to a battery backed RAM chip. I also want to modify a console to allow all of the switches to be run by a PC via parallel, serial, USB, whatever then incorporate the RAM game storage into the package.

 

I've actually spent more time thinking about and tinkering with a "real" hardware development environment than I have on writing my game.

[raindog]

The hardware needs more time than a homebrew project, so don't feel too bad.

[Pixelboy]

I wonder if classics (Atarimax) ever considered making an Atari 2600 USB cart...

[BigO]

A Supercharger for sale:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...=110370&hl=

 

(not mine)

[Uzumaki]

Or you could order a 4k and if needed, 8k, 16k, and 32k PCB from AA store and built it with socket then get an eprom burner to burn an image. Messy but cheaper and can handle wider variety of games that Supercharger can't handle.

[vdub_bobby]

If you are developing (unless you are supercat ) you don't really need to do any testing on real hardware. z26 is accurate enough. For testing specific things (like 7800 detection, AVox code, etc.) you can ask here on the forums, there are plenty of folks here with the hardware who will gladly test that kind of stuff for you. And, of course, when you are done you can have a cart made by Al, either a one-off cart or he can put it in the store.

 

That said, it is nice to do some testing on the real thing. Just not necessary.

Edited July 18, 2007 by vdub_bobby

[mos6507]

If you are developing (unless you are supercat ) you don't really need to do any testing on real hardware. z26 is accurate enough. For testing specific things (like 7800 detection, AVox code, etc.) you can ask here on the forums, there are plenty of folks here with the hardware who will gladly test that kind of stuff for you. And, of course, when you are done you can have a cart made by Al, either a one-off cart or he can put it in the store.

 

That said, it is nice to do some testing on the real thing. Just not necessary.

 

If one were planning to make carts to sell on AA, I would not go all the way to EPROM without being able to test it on the real thing. You just never know what could turn up.

[+batari]

Just not necessary.

Are you sure?

[Zach]

If you are developing (unless you are supercat ) you don't really need to do any testing on real hardware. z26 is accurate enough. For testing specific things (like 7800 detection, AVox code, etc.) you can ask here on the forums, there are plenty of folks here with the hardware who will gladly test that kind of stuff for you. And, of course, when you are done you can have a cart made by Al, either a one-off cart or he can put it in the store.

 

That said, it is nice to do some testing on the real thing. Just not necessary.

Well said, Bob. I would just add that z26 is accurate enough as long as you know not to write to any HMxx registers too early in the scanline. I learned that the hard way.

[vdub_bobby]

Just not necessary.

Are you sure?

Oh shut up.

[+Random Terrain]

If we will really be able to load our favorite games into the Flashback 2 Portable, couldn't it also be used to test homebrew games? If I get around to making my own games, I'd like to use it to test or just play my own games for the fun of it.

[tjb]

You can also use one of the Cuttle Carts (1 or 2) or the Krocodile cart to test homebrews if you can still find one.

 

tjb

[Lord Helmet]

If we will really be able to load our favorite games into the Flashback 2 Portable, couldn't it also be used to test homebrew games?

 

That's actually a pretty good idea. These are hopefully going to be readilly available, and affordable.

[mos6507]

If we will really be able to load our favorite games into the Flashback 2 Portable, couldn't it also be used to test homebrew games? If I get around to making my own games, I'd like to use it to test or just play my own games for the fun of it.

 

Only if FB2 portable is absolutely verified as 100% Atari compatible. The existing FB2 is not.

[Bruce Tomlin]

If one were planning to make carts to sell on AA, I would not go all the way to EPROM without being able to test it on the real thing. You just never know what could turn up.

A Cuttle Cart is probably a reasonable test, but I wouldn't go final until building at least one EPROM prototype and testing that first.

[BigO]

If we will really be able to load our favorite games into the Flashback 2 Portable, couldn't it also be used to test homebrew games? If I get around to making my own games, I'd like to use it to test or just play my own games for the fun of it.

 

Only if FB2 portable is absolutely verified as 100% Atari compatible. The existing FB2 is not.

 

As long as the FB2p platform only introduces restrictions (things that don't work on the FB2p but do work on the 2600) and doesn't introduce things that will work on the FB2p but not on the 2600, and your game doesn't rely on either end of the incompatibilities, it seems like the FB2p would be useful enough. Of course, I say this having decided that I was going to, but haven't yet modified one of my existing FB2's to work as part of my development platform.

[Steril707]

So, there is no easily accessible USB-Flash etc solution available it seems..

 

Oh how spoilt us Vectrexians are with the VecFlash, that Richard H. gave us.

 

[Steril707]

On the Supercharger: i have read up somewhere that you cannot run all Atari games on the SC...Are there any restrictions on coding with this?

 

and, 6kb are not the world these days with average homebrew sizes of 16k..

 

Seems the way to go for me at the moment though, paying 250 euros for a cuttle cart to develop on a system that costs me 10 euro is a little bit weird.

 

hmm... Hope i can upload some nice little bin with my last steps through the curious world of VCS Assembly here in a few days...

[Richard H.]

If you can hang on a while, I'm re-doing the multi-console adapter for the VecFlash. It's not in the same league as the Cuttle / Kroco carts, but it will allow you to run 2K/4K/8K/16K/32K 2600 / 7800 and Colecovision, Atari 8-bit, 5200 games.

 

It works in conjunction with the AA dev boards.