sd cartridge for 7800?

[Atari_Falcon]

I am waiting for this release for a long time... hope it will be released soon!

[Deteacher]

Ok, I just stocked my Paypal account with a bunch of Ebay sales. I'm sure I have enough in there now to cover the cost of the H2. You can release it for public sale now.

[7800]

So, I haven't really been following this page. Can anyone give me a quick update on this project in the form of YES or NO answers?

 

- Is this any closer to being finished and released?

 

- Once loaded onto an SD card, will all the original 7800 games be playable?

 

- Is it still going to have HOKEY to support games with POKEY sound?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Have the "2% of 7800 consoles don't work with H2" and "firmware update fails with Hokey/Pokey installed" issues been resolved yet?

[tep392]

Has anyone heard from Fred lately? It doesn't look like he's posted anything in a while. I've sent him a few PM's over the last couple weeks and haven't heard anything.

[DBloke]

So this project is kill?

[Andromeda Stardust]

So this project is kill?

Please don't jinx the H2. Batari is presumably work8ng on it.

[Jinks]

Yep the 7800 sure needs one of these..

[CPUWIZ]

So this project is kill?

 

Mine works fine.

[Greg2600]

Personally I have very little hope of ever getting one of these.

[+DrVenkman]

Personally I have very little hope of ever getting one of these.

 

 

I have more hope/faith for this than I do some other long-standing projects. Prototypes have been built and sold and if the bugs are ever ironed out well enough, they will someday hit the AA Store. I hope that days is soon, since the protos were sold almost a year ago now, I guess, but you can't rush genius (Fred), especially when the man has a life and presumably a better-paying real job outside the hobby.

[Greg2600]

My gloom is tied to what sounded like serious hardware issues. Meaning Batari can't proceed without a hardware redesign.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[jeff20]

I peek in every few years to check on this project. While waiting, I managed to finish my 7800 collection. Yay! Still, I wonder about a few things:

 

Did the 2600's Harmony cart cut into homebrew sales somehow? (I have one and still buy homebrews, but does the project pose any threat to 7800 home developers looking to profit on their games?)

Would this likely become another rare and coveted collector's item like the Cuttlecart?

Does waiting for (or rumor of) this project keep other engineers from attempting their own 7800 SD device?

 

I was attacked last time I had questions about the project, so I hope my questions can be received with fair intentions. I'm supportive, I promise!

[SIO2]

IMHO, this device would be very helpful to the homebrew developers and would lead to more homebrew titles being developed and more interest in the 7800 in general.

 

In the absence of this product, I opted to use a DevOS modified 7800 for development. That system relies on a companion PC with a parallel port and is not as convenient to use as we all hope Fred's device will be.

[toiletunes]

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but: Homebrews aren't a real moneymaker. Figure a few bucks per cart, times 100 carts (If you're lucky), it'd be less bother to get a second job at a fast food joint, work a few days, then quit.

Having said that, there are certain homebrews I bought because I loved them on Harmony, there are others I was going to buy but didn't because I tried them on Harmony and didn't enjoy them.

Meanwhile, there is a reprogrammable multicart for the 7800, it can hold up to 16 games a time, and it has a spot for Pokey.

I do have the SD 7800 cart, and while it is awesome, it does not play everything (Dbl Dragon, Rampage, certain homebrews). It could also be my console, who knows?

Hope that helps..

[jeff20]

Meanwhile, there is a reprogrammable multicart for the 7800, it can hold up to 16 games a time, and it has a spot for Pokey.

Can you please say more on this? I have not heard of this cart, and I couldn't find anything on Google about it.

[toiletunes]

Don't know how to post a link from my phone, but search the 7800 forum for 'Mateos,' it should pop up.

[+Trebor]

Can you please say more on this? I have not heard of this cart, and I couldn't find anything on Google about it.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/251570-atari-7800-rewritable-multigame-cartridge/

[Jinks]

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/251570-atari-7800-rewritable-multigame-cartridge/

You need to buy a programmer as well..

I seen this as a programmers thing as the average idoit(myself) wants to drag and drop files to a sd and plug in a multicart. This needs different filenames etc. and I would probably screw it up.

I never got why nobody shares there roms on a single file for everything. Seems rom collecting is as secretive as cart colllecting.

[jeff20]

I think I'll have to go with this multigame. Thanks for pointing it out to me!

[Andromeda Stardust]

I have more hope/faith for this than I do some other long-standing projects. Prototypes have been built and sold and if the bugs are ever ironed out well enough, they will someday hit the AA Store. I hope that days is soon, since the protos were sold almost a year ago now, I guess, but you can't rush genius (Fred), especially when the man has a life and presumably a better-paying real job outside the hobby.

Quite frankly I don't understand it either. Presumably a tiny minority of non-compliant 7800 consoles is stopping this from getting release. I wasn't able to attend PRGE halfway across the country last year to buy one so I missed out. I assumed it was coming to AA shop or the Harmony page shortly thereafter but silence.......

[Jinks]

Quite frankly I don't understand it either. Presumably a tiny minority of non-compliant 7800 consoles is stopping this from getting release. I wasn't able to attend PRGE halfway across the country last year to buy one so I missed out. I assumed it was coming to AA shop or the Harmony page shortly thereafter but silence.......

If prge was close I would go every year.

It will come and probably be sold on the harmony page.

[SIO2]

Perhaps I am off base here but is there a chance that the problem is with the 7800 power system?

 

I have a 7800 I have been working on that did not load any carts. I replaced the voltage regulator and then it would play 2600 atari production carts but not 7800 carts. So I replaced the regulator again with a more robust regulator and now it plays 2600 carts, eprom carts, harmony cart and most 7800 games fine but not Ball Blazer. The Ball Blazer cart is clean as is the cart port and the Ball Blazer cart works on other 7800 units I have when those units are powered by the same power supply (wall wart) as the machine that does not work with Ball Blazer.

 

It would be an interesting experiment if Fred has a 7800 that fails to load from his cart if he replaced the voltage regulator of that unit with a more robust voltage regulator of good quality just to see if that cures the problem for that unit.

Edited September 4, 2016 by SIO2

[Andromeda Stardust]

Perhaps I am off base here but is there a chance that the problem is with the 7800 power system?

 

I have a 7800 I have been working on that did not load any carts. I replaced the voltage regulator and then it would play 2600 atari production carts but not 7800 carts. So I replaced the regulator again with a more robust regulator and now it plays 2600 carts, eprom carts, harmony cart and most 7800 games fine but not Ball Blazer. The Ball Blazer cart is clean as is the cart port and the Ball Blazer cart works on other 7800 units I have when those units are powered by the same power supply (wall wart) as the machine that does not work with Ball Blazer.

 

It would be an interesting experiment if Fred has a 7800 that fails to load from his cart if he replaced the voltage regulator of that unit with a more robust voltage regulator of good quality just to see if that cures the problem for that unit.

Perhaps bumping the voltage slightly to say 5.25V or even 5.5V (limit for 10% safety tolerance) on a 7800 could kick non-compliant parts into working, if it's a voltage issue? A slight voltage bump would also decrease the rise and fall times on logic chips without causing excessive heating of the parts. If the EPROMs are responding too quickly, then the decreased rise and fall time of the logic in the 6502 and Maria may cure the issue.

[Lynxpro]

 

 

I have more hope/faith for this than I do some other long-standing projects. Prototypes have been built and sold and if the bugs are ever ironed out well enough, they will someday hit the AA Store. I hope that days is soon, since the protos were sold almost a year ago now, I guess, but you can't rush genius (Fred), especially when the man has a life and presumably a better-paying real job outside the hobby.

 

 

Protos were sold at last year's Portland Retro Gaming Expo. It's almost time for this year's Expo. Maybe he'll sell some there again next month...