What is "RAM Plus" on CBS Omega Race cartridge?

[rhindlethereddragon]

And how do you get Omega Race to play on the 2600? It seems the joystick don't work?

[ovalbugmann]

And how do you get Omega Race to play on the 2600? It seems the joystick don't work?

 

You need the "Booster Grip" controller that the game was sold with. Or you can do some searching here on AA and make yourself a converter to use with a regular controller. The game requires two buttons to play. Really if you just search Omega Race in the AA 2600 section there several threads all about the game and the controller.

 

I bought the game with controller (CIB) for $25 about 2 years ago on ebay.

 

RAM Plus is the extra chip on the PCB board of the cartridge to increase the amount of RAM available for the game for the VCS to use.

Edited October 30, 2010 by ovalbugmann

[OldAtarian]

And how do you get Omega Race to play on the 2600? It seems the joystick don't work?

 

You need the "Booster Grip" controller that the game was sold with. Or you can do some searching here on AA and make yourself a converter to use with a regular controller. The game requires two buttons to play. Really if you just search Omega Race in the AA 2600 section there several threads all about the game and the controller.

 

I bought the game with controller (CIB) for $25 about 2 years ago on ebay.

 

RAM Plus is the extra chip on the PCB board of the cartridge to increase the amount of RAM available for the game for the VCS to use.

 

Can you play it with a 7800 controller?

[brojamfootball]

 

Can you play it with a 7800 controller?

Nope. Sorry.

[maiki]

I have a feeling there is a hack that allows you to play Omega Race just on a standard joystick... but I'm not 100% sure.

 

edit: apparently Mr. Thomas J. made driving controller hack:

 

http://www.atariage.com/hack_page.html?SystemID=2600&SoftwareHackID=83

Edited October 30, 2010 by maiki

[Nukey Shay]

As mentioned...if you have a Genesis or Master System controller and a means of loading roms, you can use the hack of the game with that. The system is incapable of reading the 2nd button on a 7800 controller (not the Colecovision controller either).

[tz101]

A poster on another forum told me that the CV controller works great for VCS Omega Race. I haven't tried it yet, but will soon.

[OldAtarian]

I'm curious as to why a second button is needed. I read in another thread that one button is thrust and the other is fire. What was wrong with using forward as thrust like in Asteroids? Can the program be hacked to remap the thrust function to the stick forward position? You'd be able to play it with a one button stick then.

Edited October 30, 2010 by OldAtarian

[ls650]

If you search for Omega Race Hack, you will find exactly that: a hacked version that works fine with a regular joystick. I have a copy on my Harmony!

[rhindlethereddragon]

And how do you get Omega Race to play on the 2600? It seems the joystick don't work?

 

 

RAM Plus is the extra chip on the PCB board of the cartridge to increase the amount of RAM available for the game for the VCS to use.

 

I am reading a book about The Atari 2600 called "Racing the Beam". And from what I can tell, the most glaring of the limitations the 2600 was that it could address so little RAM. If this could be remedied right on the cartridge with an extra chip like they did with Omega Race, then I have to wonder why this simply wasn't done more?

 

Are there any other games that supplemented the RAM right on the cartridge?

[Nukey Shay]

I am reading a book about The Atari 2600 called "Racing the Beam". And from what I can tell, the most glaring of the limitations the 2600 was that it could address so little RAM. If this could be remedied right on the cartridge with an extra chip like they did with Omega Race, then I have to wonder why this simply wasn't done more?

Because it would cost more to produce them. Also, the majority of VCS games (especially the early ones) were not very complex to justify the need for more resources.

 

 

Are there any other games that supplemented the RAM right on the cartridge?

Search for Kevin Horton's file "sizes.txt" to see a breakdown.

[Wickeycolumbus]

 

 

I am reading a book about The Atari 2600 called "Racing the Beam". And from what I can tell, the most glaring of the limitations the 2600 was that it could address so little RAM. If this could be remedied right on the cartridge with an extra chip like they did with Omega Race, then I have to wonder why this simply wasn't done more?

 

 

RAM was expensive back then. Extra RAM had limitations as well, most extra RAM schemes have different addresses for reading and writing due to the lack of an R/W line on the cartridge port.

 

Are there any other games that supplemented the RAM right on the cartridge?

 

Yes, several. Atari used the "SARA" chip which contained 128 bytes of extra RAM in many games. CBS used the RAM plus chip (256 bytes) in a couple other games as well. Video Life and MagiCard have 1K of extra RAM, and M Network's Burger Time has a whopping 2K of extra RAM.

Edited October 30, 2010 by Wickeycolumbus