Jump to content
IGNORED

sd cartridge for 7800?


metzger130

Recommended Posts

 

The Uno cart has been a hot topic on AtariAge for a very long time. The creator is active on this site. How you missed this IDK.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back to 7800, Saint, I bought yer Lynx SD, I'll buy yer Jaguar SD solution and if you get there I'll buy yer 7800 SD too. But a thought crosses my mind... Now Atgames have made flashbacks with an SD card slot, couldn't they make a 7800 flashback with an SD card slot?

 

If that's too Niche, surely just next years model could take 7800 ROMS on the SD card as well as the 2600 ROMs and use a 7800 emulator as well as Stella. Of course this is all stuff the nuTARI could have done themselves years ago, but hey ho....

 

Any thoughts on Flashback 10 with SD 7800 capability? :-)

 

It won't sell, at least not enough to make any financial sense for AtGames. They've expressed no interest in any Atari platform, just the VCS. At best it would be running an emulator like it's running Stella now, and I can only imagine a litany of compatibility complaints. Most importantly, it's not original hardware!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Assuming official carts work on all systems, this sounds very likely to be ROM speed issues. This is the same sort of behaviour you see putting fast EPROMS into an old revision ST for a TOS upgrades. Dodgy signal integrity causes all sorts of problems when you're using fast (like 60-70ns) EPROMS when the original system had 200ns. Glitches on the address or data bus which were effectively ignored by the slower ROM would actually be honoured with faster ROMS and cause incorrect data to be read.

If it really is the EPROMs responding too fast causing errors, perhaps an rc filter circuit could be used on the inputs of the chips to delay the response time. This rc filter could then be tuned with a trim pot. The trim pot could be exposed to allow user adjustment.

 

A middle range setting that works with most hardware could be used, with instructions on how to "tune" the device to be compatible on troublesome consoles. Especially if too fast or too slow response times produce unique symptoms, then the user will know whether to tune it clockwise or counter.

 

Better yet, if there is any way for the flash cart to detect the response time of the console, it could calibrate itself and make the necessary timing adjustments.

 

There is something these flashcarts do differently because every homebrew or commercial game I have ever tested worked, but I got corruption everytine I attempted to load a rom, with or without a Pokey. The Pokey worked however on mine. Others could load roms without corruption, but pokey was broken. Still others could not boot to menu at all.

 

These issues spanned across all revisions of hardware with seemingly no ryme or reason. Two consoles same moboard revision, one works, one doesn't. Is your 7800 posessed with a voodoo demon that refused to work? Mine was.

 

Leave it to SainT to make a "voodoo proof" 7800 flashcart. Fresh start, no need to build upon the heels of Harmony like Batari did. Which btw Harmony Encore (as well as the Concerto loaded with Harmony firmware) ran flawless. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Assuming official carts work on all systems, this sounds very likely to be ROM speed issues. This is the same sort of behaviour you see putting fast EPROMS into an old revision ST for a TOS upgrades. Dodgy signal integrity causes all sorts of problems when you're using fast (like 60-70ns) EPROMS when the original system had 200ns. Glitches on the address or data bus which were effectively ignored by the slower ROM would actually be honoured with faster ROMS and cause incorrect data to be read.

 

agreed, I stated earlier in this thread I actually had a proof of concept kind of sort of mostly functional over our plant's 4th of july shutdown using SRAM and a 8 bit micro, but I do not have the patience of a SainT :)

 

the whole 7800 is just kind of a junky "glue shit together" design electrically, and even for the era when it was released things like junk on the data bus should not be a thing...but it is and its variable and its ugh

Edited by Osgeld
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I heard some interesting news from someone who's been in contact with Fred in the last week or so - he's apparently still working quietly on the Concerto. The hardware design has changed substantially, I gather, and he expects to have something relatively complete in the next several months.

 

Please, don't everyone suddenly try to bombard him with questions, inquiries and requests, but I thought the news exciting enough to share the hope with the rest of my 7800 fan-friends. :)

Edited by DrVenkman
  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

the whole 7800 is just kind of a junky "glue shit together" design electrically, and even for the era when it was released things like junk on the data bus should not be a thing...but it is and its variable and its ugh

 

The 7800 requires patience, because of that. Ask a couple people that read this thread, how long I've been cooking, what I am cooking. ;)

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

So, my understanding is that SD cart options for the 7800 are either no longer generally available, or hopefully coming sometime down the road. I'm wondering how feasible it is to get one of the ones that are no longer generally available? Do they ever pop up on eBay or the like for less than a mortgage payment?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Karl G said:

So, my understanding is that SD cart options for the 7800 are either no longer generally available, or hopefully coming sometime down the road. I'm wondering how feasible it is to get one of the ones that are no longer generally available? Do they ever pop up on eBay or the like for less than a mortgage payment?

I saw a Cuttle Cart 2 just went for $320 on eBay a few weeks ago.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Karl G said:

I know I'd realistically have to pay well over 50 for a solution available today. I could probably do around 200 if need be, I guess I'll start stalking eBay and see if I get lucky. 

Well, the Harmony Cart was about $100 when I bought it; the AtariMax 5200 cart was $129; the Everdrive for my Genesis was about $75 - $80 if I remember right ... I'll gladly pay in that same range for a working 7800 flash cart solution if/when it becomes available. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, the Harmony Cart was about $100 when I bought it; the AtariMax 5200 cart was $129; the Everdrive for my Genesis was about $75 - $80 if I remember right ... I'll gladly pay in that same range for a working 7800 flash cart solution if/when it becomes available. 


Same here.

Around $100 for myHarmony Encore.
On the 7800 side
$130 for my Concerto
and $107 for my Mateos 16 in 1.

I personally think $100-$150 is a pretty realistic for most flash carts these days. Granted it comes down to dev time and obviously parts and labor.

I would love to have a more robust and versatile 7800 flash cart solution, until then I will cripple by with the ones I have.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...