Reset Harmony without Power Switch?

[Murph74]

Hi guys, googled and searched forums, and either I missed it, I'm searching for the wrong thing, or it's not been said...

 

But is there a way to reset the harmony from the joystick? Like a joystick pattern or something? Love the Harmony, but at 35, it's just not as 'natural' to sit in arm's reach of the Atari as it was when I was 10.

 

Thanks, and sorry if I missed the answer elsewhere!

[+batari]

Hi guys, googled and searched forums, and either I missed it, I'm searching for the wrong thing, or it's not been said...

 

But is there a way to reset the harmony from the joystick? Like a joystick pattern or something? Love the Harmony, but at 35, it's just not as 'natural' to sit in arm's reach of the Atari as it was when I was 10.

 

Thanks, and sorry if I missed the answer elsewhere!

This is one of those things that is theoretically possible but probably wouldn't work that well if implemented. Since there are only 4 directions and a button, you'd need a complicated pattern to ensure it never happened by accident, but with a complicated pattern, it would be a pain to do all the time.

 

I'd recommend a hardware mod that brings a reset switch to the joystick (something Atari should have done in the first place) or put the console on the floor and operate it with your toes

[Ethaniel]

or put the console on the floor and operate it with your toes

ahhhhahaahaa i have done that! LOL

anyway i think you a mod that brings a reset function of the power switch... that should be fairly easy with a normal close switch. but you will have to use a larger wire because the atari joystick only has 6 wires we need 7 (or is it 8? ). can we use the same ground wire?

[Murph74]

Any chance of a modded BIOS that we could use by choice for that functionality? Not sure how complicated it would be to implement, but I'd risk something like a BUTTON+U-U-D-D-L-L-R-R to reset the system on the Harmony from any joystick game if possible.

 

Of course, if it's not worth the undertaking, I understand that too. I certainly wouldn't expect it in an 'Official' release for the Harmony on the off chance someone accidentally activated it.

 

Thanks!

[+SpiceWare]

Unless I'm mistaken, the Harmony cannot access joystick readings w/out help from the 6507, and no existing game is set up to do so.

[A.J. Franzman]

I think you're right, Darrell -- the only way for a controller pattern to be picked up by the Harmony would be for both the Harmony BIOS and the game binary to be modified. IMO, too complicated and not worth it. It might be worthwhile to have a momentary "reset" button on the end of the Harmony cart, to save console power switch wear-and-tear (though this wouldn't solve the need for the console to be in arm's reach). Maybe in the next revision, after Batari turns a profit...

Edited April 30, 2010 by A.J. Franzman

[+batari]

Unless I'm mistaken, the Harmony cannot access joystick readings w/out help from the 6507, and no existing game is set up to do so.

I have had some success having Harmony covertly insert instructions right after the first write to VSYNC every frame without affecting the running game. You would of course need to record and restore registers and PC, and it wouldn't work with all games, but some of this is indeed possible.

Edited April 30, 2010 by batari

[+SpiceWare]

I have had some success having Harmony covertly insert instructions right after the first write to VSYNC every frame without affecting the running game. You would of course need to record and restore registers and PC, and it wouldn't work with all games, but some of this is indeed possible.

Clever! My games might have issues with it, I do a lot during the 3 vertical sync scan lines, this is what occurs during the 1st scan line in Medieval Mayhem.

VerticalBlankGameCode
       lda #$82
       sta WSYNC
       sta VSYNC             ; 3    start vertical sync, D1=1
       sta VBLANK            ; 3  6 start vertical blank and dump paddles to ground
       lda #$2C              ; 2  8 set timer for end of Vertical Blank
       sta TIM64T            ; 4 12
       bit GameOptions
       bmi SetAIPSdemogame
       lda #<AIPS            ; 2 14
       sta MaxMoveAmount     ; 3 17
       lda #>AIPS            ; 2 19
       sta MaxMoveAmount+1   ; 3 22
       lda GameOptions       ; 3 25
       and #001100        ; 2 27 get speed, 0-3
       lsr                   ; 2 29
       lsr                   ; 2 31
       clc                   ; 2 33
       adc FireBallsInPlay   ; 3 36
       ldx FireBallsInPlay   ; 3 39
       beq Times16           ; 2 41 3 42   if no fireballs then don't subtract
       sec                   ; 2 43
       sbc #1                ; 2 45
Times16
       asl                   ; 2 47
       asl                   ; 2 49
       asl                   ; 2 51
       asl                   ; 2 53
       clc                   ; 2 55
       adc MaxMoveAmount     ; 3 58
       sta MaxMoveAmount     ; 4 62
       bne .sync    
SetAIPSdemogame        
       lda #<AIDEMO          ; 2 14
       sta MaxMoveAmount     ; 3 17
       lda #>AIDEMO          ; 2 19
       sta MaxMoveAmount+1   ; 3 22 
.sync
       sta WSYNC         ; 1st line of vertical sync

[potatohead]

Seems to me, brute force might work just fine:

 

http://reversemonster.org/tag/the-clapper/

 

THE CLAPPER!!

[Havok69]

Seems to me, brute force might work just fine:

 

http://reversemonste...ag/the-clapper/

 

THE CLAPPER!!

 

Well there's your solution! I always get a kick out of seeing that old lady at the end turn off the lights; she looks pissed.

[Murph74]

Sounds silly, but the Clapper idea kind of inspired me. I bought a remote light switch with a Key Fob-- works like a champ for only $12 at the local Ace Hardware!

[supercat]

I have had some success having Harmony covertly insert instructions right after the first write to VSYNC every frame without affecting the running game. You would of course need to record and restore registers and PC, and it wouldn't work with all games, but some of this is indeed possible.

 

Would it be possible to have the harmony watch for accesses to SWCHA where bits 4-5 were both clear, which are followed by another access from cart space? I would guess that most carts read joysticks from code running within cart space; the access following the SWCHA read would always be an instruction fetch, so there should be no problem inserting a BRK and having the Harmony code take over. The only necessary controller mod would be to add a "reset" button connected to joystick up. To reset to the main menu, push that reset button while pulling the controller down.

 

Note that some games, especially those using the keypad controller, would not work with this approach, so there should be a way to disable the function on a per-game basis. Otherwise, it would seem a good combination of minimal hardware mod and no game mod.

[+batari]

The problem there is that apparently, up+down can be triggered by a normal CX-40 by pushing the stick inward. The other issue is the scheme would need to be added to every bankswitch scheme and it wouldn't work with some (while this is possible, some features just aren't important enough to justify all that effort.)

 

Personally, I think Murph74 found an ideal solution - I'm thinking of getting one of those myself.

[+SpiceWare]

I have most of my house set up with INSTEON switches and remotes. My Atari's not on it as its power switch is quite accessible, but I did put the C= 1084S on an appliance module.

 

Was visiting a friend last weekend who is also set up with INSTEON switches, he's running Indigo Touch on his iPad - it shows the house floorplan with all the lights. Touch any light to toggle its state.