what games have incompatibilities

[yllawwally]

What games have incompatibilities, between different consoles? Such as in Cosmic Ark, on some 2600 machines, the star field is different. I would think it would be any game that uses illegal opcodes. I'm only talking about software. Such as some games don't fit into the 7800, but would work identically as on a 2600.

[+Psionic]

An explanation of TIA incompatibilities and list of games is located here...

 

http://www.2600connection.com/faq/vcs_tia/vcs_tia.html

[shadow460]

River Raid II is incompatible with every light and heavy sixer I've attempted to play it on. I think it's because the six switch consoles are electronically different than the four switch ones.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

River Raid II is incompatible with every light and heavy sixer I've attempted to play it on. I think it's because the six switch consoles are electronically different than the four switch ones.

What happens? Details?

[BigO]

River Raid II is incompatible with every light and heavy sixer I've attempted to play it on. I think it's because the six switch consoles are electronically different than the four switch ones.

Seems to function okay on my heavy sixer, but I'm using my Harmony cart.

[+Omegamatrix]

River Raid II is incompatible with every light and heavy sixer I've attempted to play it on. I think it's because the six switch consoles are electronically different than the four switch ones.

 

Do you have a harmony cart? I'd like to know if this is a function of the cartridge or game rom itself.

[+Psionic]

What happens? Details?

Seems to function okay on my heavy sixer, but I'm using my Harmony cart.

 

I just tried River Raid II (real cartridge) on my light sixer and the game plays just fine but the score digits are messed up. It's hard to capture on film, but it displays a bunch of flickering hexadecimal garbage where the first five zeros should be. As you play the game and score points, the actual score digits seem to display just fine. The problem lies with the blank unused decimal places at the beginning of your score.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

That doesn't sound like a TIA incompatibility, but some problem with the code. I will have a look...

 

Is the Activision copyright displayed correctly?

Edited March 9, 2013 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I just found this link. But I don't think we have both different versions dumped.

[0078265317]

There are a ton of varations including one torn up one on ebay with some plains on the cover.

 

http://www.atariguide.com/0/039b.htm

 

So from that link which one has the trouble with the 6ers. Or is it not on the link??

[+save2600]

It's been a while, but I know the RR2 cart I had would not boot at all or let me play on my light or H6'er. Black screen OR static intro screen frozen.

[0078265317]

Yes good to know but now we need to start narrowing down the version that is causing this.

[+Psionic]

Is the Activision copyright displayed correctly?

 

Yes, but it has the same issue as the game score. The "Activision" logo and "© 1988" display properly, but there is a corrupted hexadecimal digit that flashes directly to the left of it.

[0078265317]

Yes, but it has the same issue as the game score. The "Activision" logo and "© 1988" display properly, but there is a corrupted hexadecimal digit that flashes directly to the left of it.

 

Which version of river raid 2 are you using. Does it match any of these in the link.

 

http://www.atariguide.com/0/039b.htm

[+Psionic]

Which version of river raid 2 are you using. Does it match any of these in the link.

 

http://www.atariguide.com/0/039b.htm

 

It's the first one (black label NTSC version). That site lists a blue label NTSC version, but if that exists I've certainly never seen it.

 

There are a ton of varations including one torn up one on ebay with some plains on the cover.

 

All those other ones shown are PAL and pirate versions.

[+Omegamatrix]

I just found this link. But I don't think we have both different versions dumped.

 

Perhaps there is a second version.

 

Can somebody who owns a River Raid II which shows the same score garble as PingvinBlueJeans cart please try a Harmony, Krokodile, or Cuttle cart on that system and confirm that the rom dump out there is different?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Yes, but it has the same issue as the game score. The "Activision" logo and "© 1988" display properly, but there is a corrupted hexadecimal digit that flashes directly to the left of it.

So the bug is always there where a blank should be displayed. To me that sounds like a corrupted pointer not a TIA problem.

 

But how the pointer gets corrupted could be a TIA problem.

[shadow460]

On mine the radar glitches up and the game crashes. I've swapped the original ICs in my heavy sixer and it still does the same thing. The crash screen looks the same as it would if the RIOT went bad--one thin blue line at one side of the screen and a thin orange line at the other. Everything else plays fine in that console, and RRII plays fine in my 7800 and in the four switch units I've tried it in. I've even tested it in several consoles I've put up for sale and I get the same results.

 

If ya'll want it dumped, I'd be glad to dump it later this evening.

Edited March 10, 2013 by shadow460

[+Omegamatrix]

If ya'll want it dumped, I'd be glad to dump it later this evening.

 

Absolutely! That would really help as we can see if the rom is different. I wondering in the back of my head if they did a different bankswitching for RR II and changed it later on. Seems far fetched, but hey we've seen that before with Space Shuttle, no?

 

It's more like the rom itself. I noticed that not all the ram is initialized upon powerup.

[Rom Hunter]

Omega, please keep me informed if a different, officialy released version truly exists.

 

[shadow460]

I had forgotten about this... I'll try to get that dumped tomorrow evening.

 

It makes sense that something's different with the RAM because when mine crashes, it looks exactly like the RIOT just quit working. It's almost as if the heavy sixer is forcing the buffer chip to initialize instead of initializing the rest of the system memory. I dunno if that makes sense, though, 'cause I couldn't even chicken scratch game code if I tried.

 

For what it's worth, I did swap my RIOT chip with one from a woody. The results were the same even then.

Edited March 11, 2013 by shadow460

[+Omegamatrix]

I'll try to get that dumped tomorrow evening.

 

Sounds good. Also, what problem do you have with it on your consoles? Is it the same problem as PingvinBlueJeans is having with the score?

[shadow460]

My trouble is totally different. I'll have to shoot a photo of what it does.

 

Here's the bin file. Dev OS identified the bankswitching as F6. Surprisingly I was able to dump it and get it to load into an older version of Stella on the first try.

 

Rr2.bin

 

I don't own a Harmony cart. That's something I need to get soon.

Edited March 12, 2013 by shadow460

[+Omegamatrix]

Well that rom is the same as the dump out there, just some differences at the hotspots, but that is to be expected as the 7800 dumper just writes them out as zeros unless you put it into slow read mode. Yeah, it would be interesting if it ran on a Harmony just fine, and it was just the cart that your console didn't like.

 

 

I am curious for your photo!

[shadow460]

I'll have to boot it up again for the photo. Serious, if you've ever seen a bad RIOT, it's the exact same thing. I have another console (not a 2600) that simply will not load certain games either.

 

I actually spent the evening dumping my Fox, Imagic, and Telesys games. When I do buy a Harmony, it's going to be loaded with ROMS from the actual carts I own.

 

Here's the picture. At first the screen rolled really badly but the game didn't crash. Next time I tried to boot it up I got a totally black screen, then I got an all gray screen and finally the RIOT death screen you see here. The console itself works great--I was playing No Escape on it for about an hour earlier.

I grabbed a light sixer out of the closet. The light sixer was built in May 1981. It did the exact same thing my heavy sixer, which is four or five years older, did. The cart itself loads fine in my 7800 or any four switch console. Perhaps Activision revised the cartridge boards. I'm not about to rip mine open and find out unless the label falls off of its own accord.

Edited March 12, 2013 by shadow460