Flash cartridges?

[Prab]

Hey all,

 

Pretty new to the jag scene i know there was some flash carts floating around that allowed homebrew games and roms to be played but unsure on where to pick one up! would love to get one, as i plan on only owning up to 20 of the best games for the system but would like to try the rest and some homebrew, any help would be much obliged

 

Prab

[rush6432]

Flash carts (skunk boards) are hard to come by these days. There is a 3rd run that has already had pre-orders taken and there MIGHT be extras (maybe....)

 

The oficial atari flash cartridge can be had as well which goes fro 250-350 usually but are not easy to come by either.

 

Another option is to go with a BJL Modified jaguar to upload homebrew games to the systems Ram and play them.

 

There are also a number of other ways but these are the most common.

[Prab]

yeah a guy on here is selling a bjl modded system, wonder if he would ship to the UK!

[GroovyBee]

If you are handy with a soldering iron there is a BJL install guide here :-

 

http://www.linkovitch.me.uk/jaguar/bjl/about.html

[doctorclu]

Well, aside from that, Protector SE from songbird has the BJL option.

http://songbird-productions.com/protector_se.shtml

 

Or if you have a CD you can burn a CD that loads BJL:

http://www.hillsoftware.com/?page_id=11

For CDRecord:

http://www.hillsoftware.com/files/atari/jaguar/bjlcd_v1_0.zip

For NTI:

http://www.hillsoftware.com/files/atari/jaguar/bjl_image_v1_0.zip

 

 

Pick up that and the BJL adaptor from More Than Games

http://morethangames.a8maestro.com/prodgame/advert-g2.htm

 

And More Than Games even has a rom kit for the Jaguar for BJL.

http://morethangames.a8maestro.com/prodgame/advert-g3.htm

 

The CHEAPEST solution would be More Than Games for the BJL kit and adaptor, though if you have a CD unit already the BJL CD and adaptor will only have you out $15 plus shipping.

 

BJL is a great way to go to try out some games, and I know that Reboot and other ones lately have made it where those are still loadable that way. At some point you'll see some Flash solution (Flash Card or Skunkboard, maybe even an Alpine if you want to shell out those bucks) and you can upgrade at that point. However, BJL is good to have. The Skunkboard CAN load BJL games and programs, but not as good as the BJL itself.

[Jag_Slave]

The guy thats selling the BJL Jags is a good price. For the same price as a regular jaguar, you get pre-installed BJL kit. And it still plays regular games as well. Saves you the time of buying a kit.

[Chuplayer]

The guy thats selling the BJL Jags is a good price. For the same price as a regular jaguar, you get pre-installed BJL kit. And it still plays regular games as well. Saves you the time of buying a kit.

Where is this?

[rush6432]

yeah a guy on here is selling a bjl modded system, wonder if he would ship to the UK!

 

I sure can, however the shipping rates may be a little crazy going from the USA to the UK

[rush6432]

The guy thats selling the BJL Jags is a good price. For the same price as a regular jaguar, you get pre-installed BJL kit. And it still plays regular games as well. Saves you the time of buying a kit.

Where is this?

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/188226-bjl-modified-jaguars-skyhammer-hyperforce/

[+CyranoJ]

The Skunkboard CAN load BJL games and programs, but not as good as the BJL itself.

 

Err.. what? If you don't want the debugger (and let's face it, most people wanting to play the games won't want the debugger) then the Skunkboard is way better than a BJL, just for loading speeds alone (unless you have a crappy USB port!)

 

The Skunkboard also allows writing to ROM space, meaning you can try ROM images, unlike BJL which is only for RAM based programs.

 

Not to mention those two extra USB ports, which, while doing nothing look quite cool

[JagChris]

Hey all,

 

Pretty new to the jag scene i know there was some flash carts floating around that allowed homebrew games and roms to be played but unsure on where to pick one up! would love to get one, as i plan on only owning up to 20 of the best games for the system but would like to try the rest and some homebrew, any help would be much obliged

 

Prab

 

 

Get ahold of the GoatStore and see if they have any more Skunkboards available.

[LinkoVitch]

yeah a guy on here is selling a bjl modded system, wonder if he would ship to the UK!

 

Where in the UK are you? if not a million miles away I may be able to help sort you with a BJL mod. If you can get one, get a Skunk, they are magical devices of win. BJL is probably easier (and cheaper) to come by, but you will need a PC with a suitable parallel port and appropriate cable for hooking up to the jag.

[LinkoVitch]

If you are handy with a soldering iron there is a BJL install guide here :-

 

http://www.linkovitc.../bjl/about.html

 

I should probably bother to tidy up those docs and at least correct the horrendous spelling mistakes

[Prab]

well i'm sorting out an ancient win 98pc to play some older games, playing them in xp and 7 is hassle with patches etc so that could be used for parallel port issues, as for where i aim in the UK i am a million miles away in London lol

[doctorclu]

well i'm sorting out an ancient win 98pc to play some older games, playing them in xp and 7 is hassle with patches etc so that could be used for parallel port issues, as for where i aim in the UK i am a million miles away in London lol

 

The flash card is good and sturdy, but it takes a bit to get used to the timing of using the parallel port and when to do what to make it work. Naturally for ease the Skunkboard (with the USB) is the way to go, but that was made 15 years after the Flash card that Atari made.

 

But if you can get a flash card, they are worth it, and that Win98 machine if it has a parallel would be perfect for it. I use a Armada 500 mhz Win98 computer myself.

[+remowilliams]

I wouldn't recommend the Atari flash card for playing of games on a regular basis, it's more of an expensive curio. Hunting down a Skunkboard is what you really want if you're looking to play the Jag ROM image stuff.

 

 

Yes I know that's not what the Skunk was created for, but lets be honest that's what 99.9% of people use them for. That or sitting in a glass case on a shelf looking nice.

[doctorclu]

I wouldn't recommend the Atari flash card for playing of games on a regular basis, it's more of an expensive curio. Hunting down a Skunkboard is what you really want if you're looking to play the Jag ROM image stuff.

 

Skunkboard doesn't load all roms. Raiden is one example.

 

Yes I know that's not what the Skunk was created for, but lets be honest that's what 99.9% of people use them for. That or sitting in a glass case on a shelf looking nice.

 

Well I have used the Skunkboard to playtest for people, and have done some tinkering with the Bubsy rom to understand that better.

 

Other than that, being overseas on business I would not be able to participate in the Jaguar HSC unless I had something like the Skunkboard (since I couldn't drag all my cartridges over seas, nor would I want to.)

 

Do miss my Jaguar CD rom games at the moment though. Want me some Battlemorph and still have some Robinson's Requiem to try out. And my 10 minutes of Soulstar.

[CrazyChris]

I'd be nice to have a USB BJL cable.

[+rdemming]

Skunkboard doesn't load all roms. Raiden is one example.

 

You are right if you mean the NTSC version of Raiden (J9005 700705-001). But the NTSC/PAL version of Raiden (J9005E 700705-002) works perfectly on a Skunk. The "E" version displays more lines on PAL, while the non "E" version has a big black border at the bottom. That the non "E" version is not working with the skunk is because it is assuming a default state for the VI register (as Tursi told at JSII) but that is fixed in the "E" version of Raiden. B&C is selling Raiden carts that were checked to be the "E" version which is where I got mine.

 

 

Robert

[Tursi]

Thanks, Rdemming. I thought we beat that Raiden/beta thing into the ground here already.

 

Making the version of Raiden that doesn't start work on Skunkboard is as simple as a 4-byte patch. Patch its startup to set the default Atari value for the VI register, and bang, it works fine. The broken version of Raiden never sets it, and sits waiting for a vertical blank before displaying the title page.

 

There was a bunch of misinformation spread about file systems and the absent EEPROM which probably contributes to the confusion, but it didn't hold up to examination. It took about 30 minutes to disagnose and fix the problem. I was going to put the change in the Skunkboard BIOS, but it actually caused issues with some homebrew that previously worked, and homebrew is the board's focus, not old ROMs.

 

Definately check with GoatStore if you are interested in the Skunkboard, I'm pretty sure Dan is maintaining a backup list, and you definately should be on it.

[Zerosquare]

I was going to put the change in the Skunkboard BIOS, but it actually caused issues with some homebrew that previously worked, and homebrew is the board's focus, not old ROMs.

Which homebrews are these ? I think their authors would be interested to know about what you found (can't speak for them, but I would consider that to be a bug that should be fixed).

[Tursi]

I was going to put the change in the Skunkboard BIOS, but it actually caused issues with some homebrew that previously worked, and homebrew is the board's focus, not old ROMs.

Which homebrews are these ? I think their authors would be interested to know about what you found (can't speak for them, but I would consider that to be a bug that should be fixed).

 

Don't remember now, I just ran through a few samples that I had at the time. This was,what, a year ago? Two years ago? I didn't investigate at all why they didn't work, either, so my report to said authors would have been "I changed the Skunkboard BIOS to set VI and your program didn't work on it anymore, but I can't give you the different BIOS to test with because I don't want it in the wild and I'm not going to release it anyway". IE: useless input. The programs would probably have had similar issues on BJL or from cart, though.

 

I'd agree that it was a bug, but my drive at the time was to settle the debate. Also I didn't care whether Raiden worked (well, I was curious), I just wanted to prove it had nothing to do with the EEPROM. Such an argument makes no sense since all Atari licensed titles had to work without the EEPROM being functional as part of their release testing.

 

For what it's worth, I don't remember it being any major releases, just little samples. Maybe I'll run through the list again at some point, but I don't think it's really worth putting much time into.

[Zerosquare]

Okay.

[doctorclu]

You are right if you mean the NTSC version of Raiden (J9005 700705-001). But the NTSC/PAL version of Raiden (J9005E 700705-002) works perfectly on a Skunk. The "E" version displays more lines on PAL, while the non "E" version has a big black border at the bottom. That the non "E" version is not working with the skunk is because it is assuming a default state for the VI register (as Tursi told at JSII) but that is fixed in the "E" version of Raiden. B&C is selling Raiden carts that were checked to be the "E" version which is where I got mine.

 

Good tips, I'll see if I can find the NTSC/PAL version somewhere. Thanks!

[+cubanismo]

Necroing this one: I went looking for the J9005E ROM dump or cart today as I wanted to verify I didn't do anything else to break Raiden in my unrelated BIOS changes. Turns out I have the J9005 cartridge, all the ROM dumps I can find seem to be J9005, and all the Raiden carts I can find on eBay are pretty expensive, regardless of variation (Selling for much more than my spare copy went for a few months ago. Jerks ), so I just went and uncommented the relevant work-around line in the skunk BIOS code, built a custom BIOS, and it works fine. Close enough to verified for my purposes.

 

However, it got me thinking, wondering how this could even break anything, given the code still doesn't actually enable the interrupt. I'm wondering if the demos/homebrews/whatever in question were enabling vertical blank interrupts in the wrong order, e.g. turning on the interrupt, then writing their handler, then writing the VI register, or something along those lines, such that with the Raiden hack, they end up triggering some undefined behavior by calling an uninitialized interrupt vector, whereas without the hack, the ordering doesn't matter because the interrupt will never fire given the 0xffff line chosen. I wrote up a BIOS that installs a no-op vblank handler as a placeholder, and also sets the correct VI default for both PAL and NTSC modes like Atari's startup.s code does, and verified this is good enough to keep Raiden booting on both 60Hz and 50Hz modes. @Tursi, given you didn't remember the titles you tested ~10 years ago, I assume there's no chance you remember them now, but if you have any pointers on what to test, I'd love to be able to verify/disprove this theory to see if it resolves the known incompatibilities while letting the more common Raiden ROM work too. Otherwise, I suppose I could always put another set of hashes like the blacklist in to trigger this work-around in a safer way, but I'm not a huge fan of adding more of that cruft. I feel bad enough even dedicating the ~3 more instructions to this my experiment uses.