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Are you going to buy a Harmony cart for the Atari 2600?


The Harmony Cartridge  

262 members have voted

  1. 1. Are you going to buy a Harmony cart?

    • Yes!
      186
    • No.
      11
    • Maybe, if it doesn
      65

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So you're saying batari shouldn't have broached the subject of pre-orders, since it wasn't in the original topic? I think it was a natural evolution, given that lots of people have asked about it.

 

Normally I'd be firmly in your camp and very cautious with my money. However, batari has given a lot to this community without asking for anything, which has given him a lot of credibility and trustworthiness in my eyes.

 

I'd be willing to put some cash to the cause if and when he feels confident enough to take preorders. I'd be glad to feel I was helping out in the development in some small way. I also trust that he'd return any money he collected if he couldn't follow-through for some reason.

 

I'm also comfortable of my pre-order going toward something with ballpark pricing. It's not something new - gamestop takes pre-orders all the time without guaranteeing a final priceing.

Edited by RevEng
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Tentatively, preorders will begin around early fall. Preorders will be filled by the unlimited release before the holidays. The unlimited release will have the lowest price.

 

There may be a limited edition released around early fall. Prices will be higher than the unlimited release. No preorder list is planned for these.

I'm totally looking forward to the day when I can own a Harmony, but your pre-order plan sounds a bit counter-intuitive - People willing to plunk down their cash early have to wait longer to get one?

 

Am I not understanding correctly? or maybe you have some reason for doing this that escapes me?

 

I'd be totally willing to pay a pre-order for the higher priced unit. IMO that would be a win-win, allowing me to secure a high position in the queue. I'm sure I'm not alone in this either.

 

...just my 2 cents, in advance of a pre-order. ;)

If the limited edition is ready in time, it will make its debut at a video game convention. It will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. If I run out, I will pull out the preorder list.
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This thread was just a poll to see what interest there is, nothing to do with pre-order. They aren't even sure they are gong to mass produce this. They shouldn't take money until they make that commitment. Like I said earlier... they don't even have a final design yet. You can't price something until you have a final design.

I can tell you first hand, that Harmony is real and does exactly what batari says, the quality is extremely high, the design is very sound and was chosen to keep that price within reach of, on my accounts, everyone.

 

There is quite a lot of interest in these boards, from developers and end-users a like, and since batari is already getting pre-order questions, this seems like the logical progression. Yes, they are still working on aspects of Harmony, but it does already work.

 

For my game, Harmony is the replacement for a custom PCB and using EPROMs, so I can see a lot of reasons why their board will be mass produced in the future.

 

Just my $0.02.

--Selgus

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I am in for three Harmony's as soon as they are available. I was watching Chimera and WOW was that exciting..........just to fizzle to nothing. Harmony I hope will come to fruition. -----------"Paying customer just waiting to bite."

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  • 2 weeks later...

If a 5200 version is feasible, then we need a version of bB for the 5200 also. :D

 

Harmony works just fine on a 7800.

 

I don't have any intentions of making a 7800-only cart, as there wouldn't be as much challenge in that and it would (with current technology and prices) be too expensive for standalone use.

 

However, a Harmony-5200 is feasible...

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If a 5200 version is feasible, then we need a version of bB for the 5200 also. :D

 

Harmony works just fine on a 7800.

 

I don't have any intentions of making a 7800-only cart, as there wouldn't be as much challenge in that and it would (with current technology and prices) be too expensive for standalone use.

 

However, a Harmony-5200 is feasible...

There is already a 5200 BASIC available here:

 

http://calamari.reverse-dns.net:980/old/co...as/5200bas.html

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I went ahead an submitted this to Hackaday's website. Gave them a bunch of information and a link here. Let's see if they cover it. Maybe if they do you can make an announcement there when it's finished. Heck, if they don't cover it now, maybe you can get it covered there when it's totally done.

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I'm assuming the menu display looks weird because the capture card won't deal with the flicker? I love the yin/yang standby icon. Who did the menu engine?

 

The menu engine is a joint effort between myself (text kernel), Fred Quimby (yin/yang stalling code), and Thomas Jentzch (optimisation and paddle/dc controls). The flicker is barely noticeable on a real TV and looks much better than the screen capture.

 

Chris

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Will Harmony cart really run every Atari 2600 game made? Any compatibility issue?

 

Yes, it should support every cart up to 32K in size, including carts such as Pitfall II (with music), and supercharger games.

 

Chris

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I will take one, $50 is a good deal for being able to play every atari 2600 game made!
I don't think anyone announced pricing, but given all the other Flash Carts are well over $100, I'd be really surprised by $50. Anything 75 or under I will get one for certain, but more than that I'll have to think about it.

 

Watched that youtube video. Is it capable of doing file directories? I don't want to scroll through 500 roms to get to those starting with T!

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I will take one, $50 is a good deal for being able to play every atari 2600 game made!
I don't think anyone announced pricing, but given all the other Flash Carts are well over $100, I'd be really surprised by $50. Anything 75 or under I will get one for certain, but more than that I'll have to think about it.

 

Watched that youtube video. Is it capable of doing file directories? I don't want to scroll through 500 roms to get to those starting with T!

Yes, it does directories.

 

However, I tried an SD card with 7500 entries in the root directory, and traversing them wasn't that bad (you may skip 10 pages, or 100 files, at a time by holding down the button.)

 

Pricing hasn't been officially announced, just suggested (and subject to change.)

 

I'm assuming the menu display looks weird because the capture card won't deal with the flicker?

My capture card only captures every other frame so you're only seeing half of the flicker-blinds.

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I rearranged my computer area recently and now I have my Atari 2600 and a 19 inch color TV near my computer. I'll be able to plug a USB cable directly into the Harmony cartridge for testing my crappy works in progress. That Harmony cartridge will be mostly used for testing, but when I can buy 4 or 5 new Atari 2600 clones that I'm sure somebody will make within the next couple of years, I'll buy Harmony cartridges to use with them so people won't dirty up my game cartridges.

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