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A Present for AtariMax SD Cart Owners from NIAD


NIAD

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...Once you have the screen capture from the emulator (has to be 256x192 which is what MESS makes... CV's native resolution), you have to copy the screenshot (with MESS it will be in PNG format) to the clipboard and then load CVPaint2. In CVPaint2, choose "From Clipboard" and the screenshot will be converted to the proper number of colors and displayed and then you can save the AtariMAX Ultimate SD Cart compatible picture file in *.PC format.

 

Good Luck,

 

Jim

 

Man, that is difficult! But I managed to produce two pretty nifty looking .pc files. One's the logo of my website which turned out stellar. It's really hard to manipulate the colors and have them not bleed into other options in CVPaint. I assume that's because of how colors and graphics are displayed on the ColecoVision. But I managed.

 

I'm going to have to put some time in on this and see what I can really do.

 

Ah, the old Color-Bleeding problem... that's a tough one to work around but with more experience it will become easier to deal with. When I was creating artwork and backgrounds for ADAM games, I used to use the foreground and background to avoid the problem along with some other workarounds like using clip-art or sprites as part of the graphics. You can also map out the entire 256x192 screen to ensure that one color is occupying an 8-pixel area (0-7, 8-15, 16-23, etc.)... you'll see. I'm a little out of practice, but there are some really knowledgeable people on AA to ask for help.

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  • 3 months later...

I got my Ultimate SD cart today. Very cool stuff!

 

I had previously downloaded your (NIAD) file, which, by the way, was an excellently done job.

 

The structure of the folders is nothing like what appears to be required on the card. With the newest firmware, files are separated into BOXES,IMAGES and DOCS. Your files are dumped into single folders per game. Was that an old format? Even with the local directories option turned on in the cart settings it doesn't recognize the files. Only when I separate into respective folders does it seem to work properly.

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I got my Ultimate SD cart today. Very cool stuff!

 

I had previously downloaded your (NIAD) file, which, by the way, was an excellently done job.

 

The structure of the folders is nothing like what appears to be required on the card. With the newest firmware, files are separated into BOXES,IMAGES and DOCS. Your files are dumped into single folders per game. Was that an old format? Even with the local directories option turned on in the cart settings it doesn't recognize the files. Only when I separate into respective folders does it seem to work properly.

I knew about the dedicated folders that Steve/AtariMax setup as defaults, but the way I wanted my cart setup was with all the respective files for a particular game to be contained in one directory. This way I browse to say the Donkey Kong subdirectory and I can view all three pics (boxart, title screen and ingame screen) whereas Steve's setup only links to one picture file. The same holds true for the TEXT files (Manuals, Cheats, Hints, etc), Steve's current setup only links to one TEXT file.

 

It's all a matter of personal preference. The main thing is all those pics and text files are properly converted and/or formatted for you to readily use... you don't have to do all the leg work yourself :D ! If you decide to use the preconfigured means to access the pics and text files, all you have to do is rename the file properly and "cut & paste" then to their proper directory on the SD Card.

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It's all a matter of personal preference. The main thing is all those pics and text files are properly converted and/or formatted for you to readily use... you don't have to do all the leg work yourself :D ! If you decide to use the preconfigured means to access the pics and text files, all you have to do is rename the file properly and "cut & paste" then to their proper directory on the SD Card.

Absolutely! I think you did a wonderful job, and I agree most of the legwork is done! Big thumbs up from me.

 

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something in the config.

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It's all a matter of personal preference. The main thing is all those pics and text files are properly converted and/or formatted for you to readily use... you don't have to do all the leg work yourself :D ! If you decide to use the preconfigured means to access the pics and text files, all you have to do is rename the file properly and "cut & paste" then to their proper directory on the SD Card.

Absolutely! I think you did a wonderful job, and I agree most of the legwork is done! Big thumbs up from me.

 

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something in the config.

BTW, isn't the SD Cart a dream come true! Just hope that the ADAMnet SD Drive will eventually be made available for purchase as well by Derrick (Else).

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BTW, isn't the SD Cart a dream come true! Just hope that the ADAMnet SD Drive will eventually be made available for purchase as well by Derrick (Else).

 

Yes it is! :) I played BeamRider for the first time in 25 years! I hadn't remembered I even had it until I saw a video of it a couple weeks ago, but when I got it up on my TV, it was like riding a bike!

 

Lovin' it! icon_mrgreen.gif

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1. Using Linux scripts, I have reorganized the files in a way that works for me, into their respective folders per the multicart instructions. Everything works except for the box art folder "\coleco\boxes". When I press 7 on the keypad, the art does not show. However, I can navigate to \coleco\boxes and view all the box arts, which means the files are intact.

Anyone got an idea what's up with it?

 

2. NIAD, you put a lot of work into this, and I don't want to steal your thunder. I'd like your permission to provide your work reorganized into the separate folders that the cart is designed to work with. I'd post it in this thread. Is this ok with you?

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1. Using Linux scripts, I have reorganized the files in a way that works for me, into their respective folders per the multicart instructions. Everything works except for the box art folder "\coleco\boxes". When I press 7 on the keypad, the art does not show. However, I can navigate to \coleco\boxes and view all the box arts, which means the files are intact.

Anyone got an idea what's up with it?

 

2. NIAD, you put a lot of work into this, and I don't want to steal your thunder. I'd like your permission to provide your work reorganized into the separate folders that the cart is designed to work with. I'd post it in this thread. Is this ok with you?

BY ALL MEANS, POST AWAY!! I'll probably even grab it in case I ever decide to change how I have mine laid out. :D

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I've reformatted NIAD's files to work with the intended file structure of the SD MultiCart.

/Boxes - Contains box art images. (Note here that for some reason I have not been able to view these images by pressing 7 on the keypad. Hopefully others will have better luck.)

/Images - Contains ingame images

/Titles - Contains game title screens. (Note here that these are not accessible via the number pad like the other images with the current firmware. You must view them by navigating to the Titles directory and viewing from there.)

/Manuals - Contains game manuals

 

Folders should be copied to the /coleco directory of the SD card. From this point all you need to do is add your cart roms to the SD card and you should be able to access the above box art, ingame and manuals.

 

AtariMax UltimateSD Cart Pics & Docs (Modified to match MultiCart).zip

 

Good luck, and happy gaming!

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I've barely started loading up my SD multicart (still using the USB cart), but I'm envisioning multiple methods of gaining access to each game. The directory tree might look something like this:

 

alphabetical

- 0-9

- A-G

- H-O

- P-Z

date

- eighties

- homebrew

rating

- awesome

- good

- okay

- crappy

demo

 

For instance, Antarctic Adventure would be in the "A-G" folder, the eighties folder, and either the awesome or good folder. I'd put non-playable demos and the like in a completely separate folder, likely just once.

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I've barely started loading up my SD multicart (still using the USB cart), but I'm envisioning multiple methods of gaining access to each game. The directory tree might look something like this:

 

alphabetical

- 0-9

- A-G

- H-O

- P-Z

date

- eighties

- homebrew

rating

- awesome

- good

- okay

- crappy

demo

 

For instance, Antarctic Adventure would be in the "A-G" folder, the eighties folder, and either the awesome or good folder. I'd put non-playable demos and the like in a completely separate folder, likely just once.

You'll be amazed at how fast you can fill-up the included 32Mb SD Card... think I have just under 2Mb free on mine!

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I've barely started loading up my SD multicart (still using the USB cart), but I'm envisioning multiple methods of gaining access to each game. The directory tree might look something like this:

 

alphabetical

- 0-9

- A-G

- H-O

- P-Z

date

- eighties

- homebrew

rating

- awesome

- good

- okay

- crappy

demo

 

For instance, Antarctic Adventure would be in the "A-G" folder, the eighties folder, and either the awesome or good folder. I'd put non-playable demos and the like in a completely separate folder, likely just once.

You'll be amazed at how fast you can fill-up the included 32Mb SD Card... think I have just under 2Mb free on mine!

I believe it. Easy enough to swap out, at least.

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You'll be amazed at how fast you can fill-up the included 32Mb SD Card... think I have just under 2Mb free on mine!

 

Then you'll be jealous to know that my cart came with 128MB SD. :P

Son-of-a-&^%&^, oh well, I'll just have to swap out the 256Mb SD Card in my camera and replace with the 32mB SD that I got with the cart... so there! At least until the wifey notices that the camera won't store as many pics. :roll:

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You'll be amazed at how fast you can fill-up the included 32Mb SD Card... think I have just under 2Mb free on mine!

 

Then you'll be jealous to know that my cart came with 128MB SD. :P

Son-of-a-&^%&^, oh well, I'll just have to swap out the 256Mb SD Card in my camera and replace with the 32mB SD that I got with the cart... so there! At least until the wifey notices that the camera won't store as many pics. :roll:

 

 

Then you just tell her I don't know something must be wrong with the card and let her know that you will buy a new one for her so she does not have to suffer anymore. ;)

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I've barely started loading up my SD multicart (still using the USB cart), but I'm envisioning multiple methods of gaining access to each game. The directory tree might look something like this:

 

alphabetical

- 0-9

- A-G

- H-O

- P-Z

date

- eighties

- homebrew

rating

- awesome

- good

- okay

- crappy

demo

 

For instance, Antarctic Adventure would be in the "A-G" folder, the eighties folder, and either the awesome or good folder. I'd put non-playable demos and the like in a completely separate folder, likely just once.

That would be pretty complicated to keep up with. I'm just breaking mine down so ...

- 0-9

- A-D

- E-H

- I-L

- M-O

- P-R

- S

- T-V

- W-Z

- Homebrews

- Favorites

 

Basically, I'll give the roms a once-over, and toss the ones I want to play most in the Favorites folder so that they'll be easier toaccess. I don't care about dates when I'm playing, and I'm not going to spend the extra time to try to analyze and categorize each for their play quality.

 

Also, notice the hyphen (-) at the beginning of each directory? As long as you set the directory sort to "quick", they'll be listed at the top. :)

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  • 9 years later...

To answer this ancient question, @classics released a firmware/menu fix which allows 7 to pick up the box art. 

On 1/7/2011 at 10:32 AM, SlowCoder said:

I've reformatted NIAD's files to work with the intended file structure of the SD MultiCart.

/Boxes - Contains box art images. (Note here that for some reason I have not been able to view these images by pressing 7 on the keypad. Hopefully others will have better luck.)

 

Thank you to @NIAD, @retroillucid, and @SlowCoder for the "old" work on these, as I finally got around to using them.  Just need to rename my rom files to match the naming scheme you guys had.  Obviously there's been quite a bit of homebrew and prototypes released since 2010-2011, has anyone added to this archive?  I posted in another thread I can't even get CV Paint to work to do so myself. 

 

PS: Has anyone done box art for the 5200 Ultimate SD?

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