Gurner Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hi Rab, Just went to dig it out for you and realised it's only a PAL 50. I must have gotten confused – playing both on the Harmony cart, as the player sprite in Millipede looks more vertically compressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFL Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hey Davy and bataais, if you're interested in getting back into this would you consider some of these hacks? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/154984-hack-project-thread-galaxian-arcade-double-dragon-xenophobe-etc/ I know I've asked loads of times in this thread (and you were even kind enough to convert Galaxian Arcade a while ago) but some of them are so lovely it would be great to play them 'properly' on a real machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hi mate... No problem. Thanks for looking though I appreciate it ;0). I am an over 45 year Atari player from way back in the day and have been recently enjoying these Pal 60 Rom Conversions with the extra speed etc. I appreciate all the hard work of people like Davy and Bataais to make this possible for us PAL gamers out there ;0).Im in Fife,Scotland and loved my Atari (still do!) I have my original 2600 Jnr and about 70 Carts but also play through the excellent Stella emulator. Great fun!!! Cheers again pal Rab ;0) Fife Scotland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bataais Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hello again PAL gamers, Just made a quick conversion of Centipede. Not yet tested on the original 2600. But should work. Let me know. Enjoy. Centipede_PAL60.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hi bataais mate... Wow..thats great and very kind of you..its almost tea time here in Scotland lol (main evening meal!) so after that im going to try this out..great!!! ;0) I realise that not everyone has the time to spare to do this but there are a few other carts that id love to see Pal 60 conversions of: Mr.Do Gorf Frogger Star Wars The Arcade Game Star Wars Empire Strikes Back + Death Star Battles (return of the Jedi?) Enduro Phoenix Gyruss Frostbite Thanks again for all your hard work mate..loving these new challenges from the enhanced speed and full screen...;0) Rab Fife Scotland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hi Bataais... Couldn't wait!!! lol.. just played it and its excellent and worked great on Stella!!! What a blast to play; it is full screen and speeded up slightly, more of a challenge!! Plus I saw colours I dont remember seeing before!! ;0) Thanks again Rab Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bataais Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 (edited) Rab, if you play a PAL60 rom in Stella, don't forget to change the Display-Format in Game Properties to PAL60. Auto-Detect will play the rom as it were on a NTSC console - all wrong colors. I did convert Enduro some time ago - here's the post: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/193459-pal60-roms/?p=2814449 ;D Edited May 13, 2014 by bataais Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hi bataais.. Ahhh...never knew that!! I wondered why some of my games on Stella had different colours to how I remembered them on my PAL Atari 2600 Jnr. Makes sense now!!! Just been playing Pal-60 Enduro thanks to you mate..quite superb!!!! ;0) All the best... Rab ;0) Fife Scotland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 I have a hankering to do Circus which I reckon won't take long (Breakout took about 10mins!) - then I will have a look at Millipede. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bataais Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 PAL60 really only make sense on the real Atari 2600. On Stella you can play all the original NTSC roms for best results. Rab, I chose to convert Gyruss from your list, I think that will be the last for the moment. Gyruss_PAL60.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 (edited) In Stella you can quickly switch to PAL using one of the control keys - ctrl-F I think cycles through NTSC, PAL and SECAM. I use that in Stella to switch between the NTSC and PAL schemes to see if my PAL60 ROMs colours are right and are ready for testing on the Harmony. I can't take credit for Galaxian....whoever did the hack had switches in the code to create a PAL60 version - all I did was use them to assemble a PAL60 bin file. Up until now a lot of PAL60 games have been created by Nukey Shay - but he tends to do them as he changes games so that they run in the Starpath Supercharger. So any game that runs on the Starpath without any mod , or isn't compatible because of size in all likelihood won't have been PAL60'd yet. Go to my homepage at www.davykelly.com to see the PAL60's I've done. If people don't mind I will add links to other ROMS in this thread on that page so people can easily locate them. Edited May 13, 2014 by davyK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bataais Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 davyK, I would certainly like to have a webpage with all the collected PAL60 roms. I only ask to include the convertor's name to give some credit for the voluntary work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 (edited) Absolutely....would provide full credit and a link to this thread (or any other thread here that is relevant such as the Supercharger one) Edited May 13, 2014 by davyK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 (edited) hmmmmm... Millipede is a 16K game and the version of Distella I have only seems to be able to handle games up to 4K....is that the case? Have found another thread here that says I have to split the bin up into 4K chunks....that still the case? EDIT: this is "non trivial" to say the least. Have used the splitfile utility to create 4 x 4K chunks but there seems to be an art to creating a Distella config file for bankswitching games..... This could take a while... Edited May 13, 2014 by davyK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 No probs, thanks again bataais and also big thanks to Davy...just downloaded and played loads of Pal 60 games and really enjoying them ;0) Rab Fife Scotland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 (edited) The Stella debugger is a marvel - only noticed it tracks which bank you are in. I'm going to have start Stella up in debug mode to see what happens at startup because when I go into it after startup it is in bank 3 - so there has been things happening before I can go into debug mode that I need to understand - basically I need to see where the bank switches are and then figure out which parts of each bank are code and config Distella with that info....am I on the right track with this? Think I need to hit the documentation and get the addressing and ORG declares etc right in my head before tackling this ....I have read up on bank switching and I THINK I know what's happening - basically accessing special addresses load different banks in but the program counter remains as-is so you continue on in the new bank from just after the LDA or STA instruction that forced the bank switch? This is mental gymnastics at first glance but I guess you get used to it after a while - but it requires clever positioning of code to ensure contiguous execution paths across banks. Breaks in executable code in any one bank might end being used to store data so I can see how Distella would have problems. Edited May 13, 2014 by davyK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted May 13, 2014 Author Share Posted May 13, 2014 (edited) Checked out Circus Atari before starting to look at Millipede - Circus seems to have got some PAL love - it feels pretty close speed wise and the score digits are bigger in the PAL version so the devs must have decided to use the extra scanlines and adjust it for speed. Not worth bothering with a PAL60 version I'm guessing. Edited May 13, 2014 by davyK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 If you want a disassembly of Millipede (NTSC), then here's one I did a long time ago. I don't remember how much I got done, but it compiles just fine. Millipede(re).zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurner Posted May 14, 2014 Share Posted May 14, 2014 I just tested both Centipede and Gyruss on real hardware (Vader 2600) via Harmony cart. Both work perfectly – thanks very much!! Far out, Centipede is a completely different beast at full speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted May 14, 2014 Author Share Posted May 14, 2014 (edited) If you want a disassembly of Millipede (NTSC), then here's one I did a long time ago. I don't remember how much I got done, but it compiles just fine. Millipede(re).zip Great stuff. Thanks.....will see if I can get a PAL60 version going later today. Edited May 14, 2014 by davyK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bataais Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 Here it is: Millipede_PAL60. I've only changed 2 bytes in the PAL rom. Millipede_PAL60.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 Hi bataais... Great!! thanks for this mate... Rab Fife Scotland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaytanic Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 Super sweet, great work! I have a noob question. Wont my PAL console run NTSC ROMs off the Harmony card even tho my TV support 60hz? Are some games running at the same speed on both PAL and NTSC consoles? Sorry to hijack the thread but it suddenly striked me when i beat a US friends highscore on Space Invaders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurner Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Here it is: Millipede_PAL60. I've only changed 2 bytes in the PAL rom. Nice! Thanks very much! I'll be playing this a lot over the next month! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurner Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Super sweet, great work! I have a noob question. Wont my PAL console run NTSC ROMs off the Harmony card even tho my TV support 60hz? Are some games running at the same speed on both PAL and NTSC consoles? Sorry to hijack the thread but it suddenly striked me when i beat a US friends highscore on Space Invaders. NTSC ROMs will work on a PAL 2600, but: - Wrong colours will be displayed - Speed will be correct (good) PAL ROMs (Usually 50Hz) - Correct colours - Slower speed by approx. 17% than the original NTSC versions - Vertically squashed screen, compared to "taller" NTSC screen PAL 60 ROMS: - Correct colours - Full speed - Full screen height This is why PAL 60 conversions rock! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.