Harmony Stock + Questions

[slackerwithin]

Hello,

 

Do you think the Harmony Cart will be availble this December? I would like to buy a few for X-mas gifts. I am just afraid of stock running out and being out of luck. I would rather not pay now just to have them sit here. I tried to E-mail, but could not find an address. Are there any known games that just will not work with a Harmony Cart? Anyway, Thanks so much to everyone who created this. I really appreciate it.

[+batari]

Hello,

 

Do you think the Harmony Cart will be availble this December? I would like to buy a few for X-mas gifts. I am just afraid of stock running out and being out of luck. I would rather not pay now just to have them sit here. I tried to E-mail, but could not find an address. Are there any known games that just will not work with a Harmony Cart? Anyway, Thanks so much to everyone who created this. I really appreciate it.

I think the probability is low of selling out by then.

 

As for the other question, all original games should work with it, except for the obscure PAL title, Megaboy. Also, all publicly available homebrews work with it (that I am aware of.)

[slackerwithin]

Thanks so much for the reply and for making these. I have had my eye on one for awhile. My only problem now is if I should wait for the 7800 cart with 2600 capability. I am not sure where you are with the production of these. I would be willing to put down a deposit on one, but I am pretty sure that is not an option right now. If I did purchase one now would,it be possible to upgrade the Harmony cart with 7800 features in the future??? Thanks so much. I appreciate your effort and time.

[+batari]

Harmony 2 and Harmony use different boards and different chips, so you can't upgrade an original Harmony use 7800 features.

 

Harmony 2 is still very early it its development cycle and proceeding slowly. The Harmony team has been very busy with real life things and unable to work on it very much lately. Don't count on it being available by Xmas.

[A.J. Franzman]

Are there any known games that just will not work with a Harmony Cart?

all original games should work with it, except for the obscure PAL title, Megaboy. Also, all publicly available homebrews work with it (that I am aware of.)

I have 8 binary files so far that are too big -- the original Megaboy, plus two bankswitch conversions of it; the 32 in 1 Atari PAL cartridge, as well as the prototype 32 in 1 console ROM (I haven't yet compared these two to see if they're the same); the Supergames 8 in 1 Atari prototype; Andrew Davie's Fu Kung! 2 Dancing Babies demo; and John Payson's Ruby Runner demo.

 

A couple of BIOS revisions ago, I couldn't get most of the image demos to work (Greeting Carts, et al) but I haven't tried them with the latest BIOS yet.

 

Also, the original copy-protected Edtris binary (which is supposed to work on an EPROM in real hardware, but fail on emulators) is available in internetland, and it doesn't work on the Harmony either. However, if you can find the original, you should also be able to find the cracked version that does work.

Edited September 10, 2010 by A.J. Franzman

[Cliff Friedel]

Harmony 2 and Harmony use different boards and different chips, so you can't upgrade an original Harmony use 7800 features.

 

Harmony 2 is still very early it its development cycle and proceeding slowly. The Harmony team has been very busy with real life things and unable to work on it very much lately. Don't count on it being available by Xmas.

 

You will definitely have an order from me once Harmony 2 does come out. The quality of the first cart has been great and it has been incredibly useful while writing homebrews. Definitely worth the cash, whatever the cost.

[+batari]

Are there any known games that just will not work with a Harmony Cart?

all original games should work with it, except for the obscure PAL title, Megaboy. Also, all publicly available homebrews work with it (that I am aware of.)

I have 8 binary files so far that are too big -- the original Megaboy, plus two bankswitch conversions of it; the 32 in 1 Atari PAL cartridge, as well as the prototype 32 in 1 console ROM (I haven't yet compared these two to see if they're the same); the Supergames 8 in 1 Atari prototype; Andrew Davie's Fu Kung! 2 Dancing Babies demo; and John Payson's Ruby Runner demo.

 

A couple of BIOS revisions ago, I couldn't get most of the image demos to work (Greeting Carts, et al) but I haven't tried them with the latest BIOS yet.

 

Also, the original copy-protected Edtris binary (which is supposed to work on an EPROM in real hardware, but fail on emulators) is available in internetland, and it doesn't work on the Harmony either. However, if you can find the original, you should also be able to find the cracked version that does work.

Technically, you are correct. I should have said that all legacy games work on Harmony except Megaboy, which is true. And, although the 32-in-1 binaries themselves won't run, the individual games on them will all work.

 

There are certainly some modern demos that will not work due to their size (32k is the size limit) but there aren't many. As for Andrew Davie's 32k image demos, BIOS 1.05 should support those now.

 

I was not aware that Edtris didn't work - if someone can link me to that, I can investigate.

 

One more thing I will add is that the third load of Survival Island does not work on the current Harmony BIOS, but this has been fixed on my end and will be a part of the next BIOS release.

[+batari]

Also, the original copy-protected Edtris binary (which is supposed to work on an EPROM in real hardware, but fail on emulators) is available in internetland, and it doesn't work on the Harmony either. However, if you can find the original, you should also be able to find the cracked version that does work.

I found a version of Edtris that fails on emulators, and investigated. The failure occurs when a checksum routine obtains the wrong value. However, there is nothing special about the way this checksum routine is written that should allow it to work on EPROMs but not emulators or Harmony.

 

I don't know much about the history of this game, but I did hear that each cart was "signed" such that if dumped and disseminated, the binary could be traced back to a single person. If this signature were removed, the binary could not be traced but it would fail the checksum on anything, not just emulators. I think this is what I have, and possibly what you have as well. If true, we're back to 100% of publicly available, non-demo homebrew binaries that work on Harmony.

[slackerwithin]

Thanks again. I am going to go with the Harmony as it is. I realized that I still want to use my 2600 to play 2600 games so it will be perfect. Deal with the 7800 version when the time comes. I don't think I will have a problem with games not working. I really want to use it to play the games I like and most are pretty common. Thanks so much. Are there any stores in the NYC area that carry these on your behalf? Just figured I would ask.

[A.J. Franzman]

OK batari, I understand what you're saying and appreciate the correction. I've investigated and found that I have four different Edtris binaries: the 1994 beta with no title screen and no audio, and three variations of the 1995 released version with the title screen. One of the 1995 variants displays serial number 0233 and works (one of the owners of #0233 is a bad boy!) Another of the 1995 variants displays no serial number and freezes at the title screen. The final 1995 variant displays no serial number, but works. I'm guessing that the latter two are an attempted (failed) serial-erasure crack, and a successful serial-erasure crack. I wonder if either or both of them are based on #0233, or a completely different original binary. PM me for more details if you wish.

Edited September 11, 2010 by A.J. Franzman