Atari POP kiosk ROM patch request

[mwalden]

Hello,

 

Back in the day, I had many occasions to checkout the Atari POPs at various stores. I would see what new games had been made available since my last visit. Of course I would play some games too. One aspect to playing games on the POPs, which is forever burned into my mind, is seeing the throbbing Atari logo that was produced by the POP's inbuilt ROM. I was a bit mesmerized by all of the pretty colors. I don't believe that I had seen any Atari VCS games that displayed so many colors (e.g. Swordquest: Earthworld, Turmoil, etc.) prior to seeing that POP logo for the first time. (Which brings up another question: which game was the first to display the scrolling full color palette? Was it the Atari POP ROM?) The closest thing was the chalice in Adventure.

 

So, after all these years (22+) of remembering that logo, it would be nice to see it again. Back in the summer of 2007 I had thought that my wish was granted by the following AtariAge post.

 

http://AtariAge.com/forums/index.php?showt...sk#entry1337771

 

Sadly, the closest I can get to seeing that logo is one brief frame once every thirty seconds when executing that ROM in an emulator. No color cycling/scrolling to be enjoyed there.

 

Apparently the program is looking to some status registers to see the state of the three unique buttons on the POP (POP Start, 1's Select, and 10's Select) and falsely detecting the POP Start (or maybe something else) causing the logo to be bypassed, and the "ENTER GAME NUMBER" screen appears.

 

I had assumed that I was not the only one who would like to see this logo again, and that it would lead to someone patching the POP's ROM. But I guess I was wrong. No one has patched the ROM yet.

 

So, here is my request, actually five requests, in order of increasing difficulty:

 

 

1. Make a patched POP ROM that simply acts like a demo, it just displays the throbbing Atari logo.

 

2. Make a patched POP ROM that allows some user interaction by mapping the POP Start, 1's Select, and 10's Select to the left joystick's Forward, Right, and Left, respectively. All operational behavior should remain the same with the exception of pressing POP Start leading back to the logo screen since there are no game ROMs to execute.

 

3. Make a patched POP ROM like the one above (2) but actually integrate some (two or more) other game ROMs into it producing an Atari POP multicart ROM. Also, modify the game number limiter to match the actual number of games.

 

As a result of doing 2 and 3 above, please consider publishing the technical details of what is in the POP to allow for the following to be done:

 

4. Update (an) emulator(s) (Z26, Stella, etc.) to support the original unmodified POP ROM. The emulator(s) should have a specifiable file that contains a list of ROM files (up to 47) that will be launched as per the user selected game number. This will provide an authentic Atari POP user experience.

 

5. The same as above (4) but modify the POP ROM to allow for up to the maximum number possible with the virtual select lines available and only two digits on screen (99?). Also, make the same patch as in 2 above, allowing the left joystick to select and launch a game rather than requiring the user to use the special three POP buttons.

 

 

Most importantly, I want item number 1. If you can do more of the above items, great!

 

Since the POP ROM is only 2K and there are some really knowledgeable programmers out there, this all should be relatively simple to do.

 

Please consider taking the time to address the items I have listed above. This will add another small piece(s) to the retro Atari gaming scene.

 

Thanks in advance,

Michael Walden

[Impaler_26]

Which Emulator are you using? I just tried the rom in Stella 2.6, works fine for me.

[mwalden]

Which Emulator are you using? I just tried the rom in Stella 2.6, works fine for me.

 

D'oh! But cool indeed!

 

I was using ...

 

z26 2.13 (the latest)

http://www.whimsey.com/z26/

 

... since the computer it is running on is really slow. z26 is a bit faster than Stella due to it's being written mostly in assembly language.

 

Thanks for the Stella tip. Though, everything in my earlier post basically stands. Stella has no control over the operation of the POP ROM. Also, the POP ROM program still goes through it's different attract mode screens (to prevent screen burn) and it still would be cool if the logo could be made to always stay on screen without switching to the other attract screens. Actually, I had even wanted that to be the case when watching the real machine in operation so many years ago.

 

Lastly, I think it would be especially cool to see an Atari POP multicart ROM. (Hint )

 

Thanks again,

Michael

[Godzilla]

is there a rom for that imagic pop that had an onscreen menu iirc?

[mwalden]

is there a rom for that imagic pop that had an onscreen menu iirc?

 

Yes, there is a ROM floating out on the net somewhere. But, there is no on screen menu. There was an LED readout (two digits, I believe) which you would set, via two buttons on the kiosk, to match the position of the cartridge end label behind a clear plastic window that had numbers printed on it. The Imagic kiosk ROM did produce an image that said something like "try out all your favorite manufacturer's games" and it did display some of Imagic's competitor's logos!?

 

Someone will probably provide a link after seeing these messages.

 

Michael

[Impaler_26]

Which Emulator are you using? I just tried the rom in Stella 2.6, works fine for me.

 

D'oh! But cool indeed!

 

I was using ...

 

z26 2.13 (the latest)

http://www.whimsey.com/z26/

 

... since the computer it is running on is really slow. z26 is a bit faster than Stella due to it's being written mostly in assembly language.

 

Thanks for the Stella tip. Though, everything in my earlier post basically stands. Stella has no control over the operation of the POP ROM. Also, the POP ROM program still goes through it's different attract mode screens (to prevent screen burn) and it still would be cool if the logo could be made to always stay on screen without switching to the other attract screens. Actually, I had even wanted that to be the case when watching the real machine in operation so many years ago.

 

Lastly, I think it would be especially cool to see an Atari POP multicart ROM. (Hint )

 

Thanks again,

Michael

Yep, it didn't work as it should in z26 for me too and it would be really nice to have a multicart rom of this.

 

Until someone makes this happen you might enjoy the little demo i attached...

Atari_Logo_Playfield_Demo__2001___Hozer_Video_Games__Eric_Ball_.bin

[Godzilla]

looks like it was just company logos

 

http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=15741

 

still that'd be pretty rad to hack into a multicart containing the entire imagic catalog

[Godzilla]

oooh, more kewl info http://www.cheeptech.com/kiosk/kiosk.html

 

wonder if this parker one had a rom... http://www.atarimania.com/zoom_frame.php?T...amp;NUM_IMAGE=0

Edited October 22, 2008 by Godzilla

[mwalden]

Which Emulator are you using? I just tried the rom in Stella 2.6, works fine for me.

 

D'oh! But cool indeed!

 

I was using ...

 

z26 2.13 (the latest)

http://www.whimsey.com/z26/

 

... since the computer it is running on is really slow. z26 is a bit faster than Stella due to it's being written mostly in assembly language.

 

Thanks for the Stella tip. Though, everything in my earlier post basically stands. Stella has no control over the operation of the POP ROM. Also, the POP ROM program still goes through it's different attract mode screens (to prevent screen burn) and it still would be cool if the logo could be made to always stay on screen without switching to the other attract screens. Actually, I had even wanted that to be the case when watching the real machine in operation so many years ago.

 

Lastly, I think it would be especially cool to see an Atari POP multicart ROM. (Hint )

 

Thanks again,

Michael

Yep, it didn't work as it should in z26 for me too and it would be really nice to have a multicart rom of this.

 

Until someone makes this happen you might enjoy the little demo i attached...

 

Wow! that is BIG. The colors move down in that demo, the Atari POP goes up. Interesting. Still, nothing can beat the nostalgic memories that the original one elicits.

 

Michael

[mwalden]

looks like it was just company logos

 

http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=15741

 

still that'd be pretty rad to hack into a multicart containing the entire imagic catalog

 

Yep, logos.

 

I like your idea about making an all Imagic multicart. The only problem is that someone would have to add a two digit number display and input routine to the Imagic selector ROM. A bit more work than on the Atari ROM. Sadly, I am not the one to do it.

 

Just wait and see if anyone else takes on the task.

 

Michael

[mwalden]

oooh, more kewl info http://www.cheeptech.com/kiosk/kiosk.html

 

wonder if this parker one had a rom... http://www.atarimania.com/zoom_frame.php?T...amp;NUM_IMAGE=0

 

Thanks for the links. After all these years, I never saw or heard of a Parker Brothers point of sale kiosk, until now.

 

Michael

[+Nathan Strum]

oooh, more kewl info http://www.cheeptech.com/kiosk/kiosk.html

That one's mine. But what's interesting is, the manufacturers mine displays:

 

Are different from the screen captures at AtariMania:

 

So I wonder... which is newer?

[mwalden]

oooh, more kewl info http://www.cheeptech.com/kiosk/kiosk.html

That one's mine. But what's interesting is, the manufacturers mine displays:

 

Are different from the screen captures at AtariMania:

 

So I wonder... which is newer?

 

It is hard to say which is newer. Your version omits Activision, an earlier company, and Coleco, a somewhat later company in the Atari game market. If I had to guess, I would say that your ROM is the earlier one. I say that only because the other version has a more crammed appearance. It's as if they were saying "can't we just add a few more logos?" I don't envision them removing logos and spreading the existing ones out and making them more detailed. But, that's just me.

 

What ever your version is, older or newer, I think that you should consider dumping it. It would be interesting to do a comparison of your ROM to the one out in the wild to see if it is purely a graphical change or a functional change too.

 

It is interesting that, as far as I know, no one had mentioned multiple versions of the Imagic kiosk hardware and/or firmware.

 

Also, if you were to share your ROM, it might find it's way into an Imagic multicart as suggested by Godzilla in post #7.

 

Michael

[+Nathan Strum]

I don't currently have the means to dump it, but maybe someday.

[Godzilla]

wow thats awesome, i never knew there were different imagic roms. neat how not only does it have fewer logos but someone took the time to re-program the graphics. the less=logos ones look a lot better.

 

(aside: I love imagic, still one of my all-time fave devs.)

Edited October 23, 2008 by Godzilla