lokidchser Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Just got a supercharger for my 2600, and I need help getting it to play the tapes I got with it. I've hooked it up and turned on the VCS. I get a screen saying to rewind tape and press play. I've rewound the tape and pushed play, and nothing happens. Can anyone with a superchrger help me? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Just got a supercharger for my 2600, and I need help getting it to play the tapes I got with it. I've hooked it up and turned on the VCS. I get a screen saying to rewind tape and press play. I've rewound the tape and pushed play, and nothing happens. Can anyone with a superchrger help me? You must plug the Supercharger's plug into the headphone jack on your casette player, and you must set the player to a reasonable volume level. If it's too quiet, the SuperCharger won't hear anything at all (will keep showing "Rewind Tape / Press Play"). If it's too loud, the SuperCharger will rapidly flash "REWIND TAPE". Adjust the volume about halfway between those thresholds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSA Starfire Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 if you are using a walkman youmay need to use side B of the tape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokidchser Posted August 23, 2007 Author Share Posted August 23, 2007 TRied playing with the volume, as well as flipping the tape, but I still only get the "rewind Tape" and "Press Play" display on the screen, both flashing alternately. Any suggestions? I'm really looking forward to playing these games, but I can't get them to work. Just got a supercharger for my 2600, and I need help getting it to play the tapes I got with it. I've hooked it up and turned on the VCS. I get a screen saying to rewind tape and press play. I've rewound the tape and pushed play, and nothing happens. Can anyone with a superchrger help me? You must plug the Supercharger's plug into the headphone jack on your casette player, and you must set the player to a reasonable volume level. If it's too quiet, the SuperCharger won't hear anything at all (will keep showing "Rewind Tape / Press Play"). If it's too loud, the SuperCharger will rapidly flash "REWIND TAPE". Adjust the volume about halfway between those thresholds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow460 Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 (edited) Well, let's root out a few troubles first. Is there a graphic equalizer on the cassette player? Set it flat, that is, everything to 0, and turn the bass off. Is the player's output stereo or mono? Neither of my Superchargers likes a stereo output--they just won't take it. A stereo to mono adapter from Radio Shack would solve this problem. If you have an older player with a balance control, set it all the way to the left channel. Still not working? Download the ROM files for the cassettes you have. Yes, I did go there, since with those tapes comes a license to use the software. I believe Chad Schell's website has a program called wplaybin that will "play" the ROM files through your PC's speakers. It may also be able to convert them to mp3 format for a portable player. With that player's balance set to left OR the stereo to mono adapter, try again. You can also hook your computer's headphone jack to the Supercharger, just be sure to set the balance. If that works, your tapes are faulty and need to be repaired. Sometimes the brush comes out, sometimes the signal degrades, sometimes they get eaten, etc. If that doesn't work, then something's wrong with the Supercharger. I'd bet in that case, the audio wire is broken. Once you remove the label (it can be removed with a hair dryer), it's easy enough to open the unit and replace the audio line. This time, you can wire in a stereo line to eliminate the need for that adapter. I used Creative Recorder to copy the actual audio from my cassettes to this computer. My 7800 sits right atop the CRT, so when I want to play Starpath games, I just plug the Supercharger in to the headphone jack. I set the balance (depending on the game--some don't have auido in the right channel at all), and I set the volume controls to max on the speakers, then I let it rip. Oh, almost forgot, my Arcadia supercharger's headphone plug doesn't fit too well in any modern headphone jack. I don't use that one very much, though, since I'm trying to keep it in the same condition it was when I played it as a kid. On my Starpath unit, I added said adapter and wrapped it in electrical tape to keep it in place. The adapter has a newer plug, and it fits in every player I've used it with. Edited August 23, 2007 by shadow460 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter_J64bit Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 2600 Supercharger I have one I love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 I have a Supercharger and played Phaser Patrol and Dragon Stomper with it. GReat device. I want to load roms with and use a mp3 player with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldric Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 I have a Supercharger and played Phaser Patrol and Dragon Stomper with it. GReat device. I want to load roms with and use a mp3 player with it! I get one, it's ok with my Ipod but it's a NTSC Supercharger and my ATARI are only PAL so it's sucks.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 (edited) I have a Supercharger and played Phaser Patrol and Dragon Stomper with it. GReat device. I want to load roms with and use a mp3 player with it! I get one, it's ok with my Ipod but it's a NTSC Supercharger and my ATARI are only PAL so it's sucks.... I have an old Nomad 2 that I'm thinking of using. I mean a Nomad with 64 mb sucks as a Mp3 player, but should be MORE than enough for a 2600 collection (if my cuttle cart 2 tells me anything.) Hey, how easy is the upgrade to the Supercharger? How is it to convert roms to mp3?? Edited August 23, 2007 by doctorclu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 (edited) I get one, it's ok with my Ipod but it's a NTSC Supercharger and my ATARI are only PAL so it's sucks.... Once a game is loaded, the format of the supercharger (PAL or NTSC) doesn't matter anymore. I use my NTSC supercharger with PAL consoles to load PAL games and it works perfectly. The only difference with a PAL supercharger is that the load screen (the starfield with "REWIND TAPE","PRESS PLAY" and "STOP TAPE" flashing text) is displayed at 60 Hz (and maybe with different sequence of colors in the flashing text). Most European TV handle 60Hz without problem. Just use PAL roms/tapes with your supercharger. Edited August 23, 2007 by alex_79 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 I have an old Nomad 2 that I'm thinking of using. I mean a Nomad with 64 mb sucks as a Mp3 player, but should be MORE than enough for a 2600 collection (if my cuttle cart 2 tells me anything.) Hey, how easy is the upgrade to the Supercharger? How is it to convert roms to mp3?? You can use makewav to create .wav audio file from a rom. Then convert it to mp3 (search the web for "mp3 encoder" if you don't have a proper software already). You can only load the arcadia/starpath games and a few homebrews ("Oystron", for example) into an original supercharger. You can modify it to be able to load all 2kb and 4kb games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSA Starfire Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 Anyone know where I can download the audio tracks or Mp3's for the games, I have a near full original collection of Arcadia/Starpath games but would like to save wear on the tapes, the makewav thing seems to be for windows PC's and I have a Mac. Be nice just to put them all on a CD. Thanks, Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow460 Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 Anyone know where I can download the audio tracks or Mp3's for the games, I have a near full original collection of Arcadia/Starpath games but would like to save wear on the tapes, the makewav thing seems to be for windows PC's and I have a Mac. Be nice just to put them all on a CD. Thanks, Chris I'd offer to help with mine, but they are all NTSC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSA Starfire Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 Anyone know where I can download the audio tracks or Mp3's for the games, I have a near full original collection of Arcadia/Starpath games but would like to save wear on the tapes, the makewav thing seems to be for windows PC's and I have a Mac. Be nice just to put them all on a CD. Thanks, Chris I'd offer to help with mine, but they are all NTSC. All my 'charger games are NTSC, got them in trades with folks here on Atariage, they play fine over here, even the colours are good on most. If you could help much appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 There's a mac version of makewav on the mactari website Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSA Starfire Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 There's a mac version of makewav on the mactari website I only have OSX, can't use OS9 on the Intel Mac mini & my old Os9 iMac is very dead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 I try to stay out of these Supercharger threads in the hopes that someone will come through and make the obligatory plug for the CD but since that hasn't happened and the thread has already devolved into requests for the raw BIN files or reconstructing BINs from tapes, I'm stepping into the breach yet again. Go here and click "hobbies" http://webpages.charter.net/hozervideo/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldric Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 (edited) I get one, it's ok with my Ipod but it's a NTSC Supercharger and my ATARI are only PAL so it's sucks.... Once a game is loaded, the format of the supercharger (PAL or NTSC) doesn't matter anymore. I use my NTSC supercharger with PAL consoles to load PAL games and it works perfectly. The only difference with a PAL supercharger is that the load screen (the starfield with "REWIND TAPE","PRESS PLAY" and "STOP TAPE" flashing text) is displayed at 60 Hz (and maybe with different sequence of colors in the flashing text). Most European TV handle 60Hz without problem. Just use PAL roms/tapes with your supercharger. So : NTSC SC + PAL ROM + PAL console = OK NTSC SC + NTSC ROM + PAL console = KO I have to try again. How to check if a .bin is PAL or NTSC (if no information about) ? Edited August 27, 2007 by oldric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSA Starfire Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 I get one, it's ok with my Ipod but it's a NTSC Supercharger and my ATARI are only PAL so it's sucks.... Once a game is loaded, the format of the supercharger (PAL or NTSC) doesn't matter anymore. I use my NTSC supercharger with PAL consoles to load PAL games and it works perfectly. The only difference with a PAL supercharger is that the load screen (the starfield with "REWIND TAPE","PRESS PLAY" and "STOP TAPE" flashing text) is displayed at 60 Hz (and maybe with different sequence of colors in the flashing text). Most European TV handle 60Hz without problem. Just use PAL roms/tapes with your supercharger. So : NTSC SC + PAL ROM + PAL console = OK NTSC SC + NTSC ROM + PAL console = KO I have to try again. How to check if a .bin is PAL or NTSC (if no information about) ? I use a NTSC 'charger, tapes on a PAL console and TV and it's fine, some of the colours are off is all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 So :NTSC SC + PAL ROM + PAL console = OK NTSC SC + NTSC ROM + PAL console = KO I have to try again. How to check if a .bin is PAL or NTSC (if no information about) ? Since 60Hz refresh is supported by european TVs, the only difference in playing NTSC games on PAL consoles are the wrong colors. Some games looks good even with the different palette (Space games, for example), while others are really bad (red sky and sea, blue trees, etc.). When you play a rom, the emulators autodetect the format, so they always have right colors, but you can "force" the format of the emulated console to see if a rom is PAL or NTSC. In STELLA, use CTRL+F to change the format. In Z26 use the key next to "0" on you keyboard (According to the manual it should be "-", but this refers to US keyboard layout and may be different in your country. I use " ' " on my italian keyboard). If you set the emulator to PAL and the colors are wrong, then the rom is NTSC. A better method for identifying the format is by checking the scanline count. (refer to the manual to see how to do this on your emulator) Here there's a complete list of PAL games for the supercharger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokidchser Posted August 28, 2007 Author Share Posted August 28, 2007 Since my thread got hijacked... Do I have to wait for the tape to stop before the game can begin? Or should the game start once I've presssed play? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 The Supercharger tells you PRESS PLAY. You press play on your cassette deck or CD player or media player program. The bars display shows load progress. When the game is loaded, it tells you STOP TAPE. With a cassette player you press stop, otherwise it doesn't matter much. The game will initialize on its own after a brief pause on the STOP TAPE screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted August 28, 2007 Share Posted August 28, 2007 (edited) I'd suggest hooking up a pair of headphones to your cassette player, and seeing if the SuperCharger tape is making noise. If it's not, something is either wrong with the tape, or your cassette player may have a bad headphone jack. Also, the SuperCharger plug is bigger than most modern headphone jacks, so it may take a little effort to make it go all the way in. What kind of cassette player are you using? As mentioned earlier, it could be that the cable going to the SuperCharger is bad. But to test it, you'd have to disassemble the SuperCharger, and use a multimeter on it. Edited August 28, 2007 by Nathan Strum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Anyone getting a flashing green & black screen on their supercharger? That's all I'm getting. Using a Colecovision + Atari expansion module. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Edge connector not making contact? Supposedly, you need to remove the cover of the expansion module so the SC has enough room to plug in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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