sd cartridge for 7800?

[RevEng]

If you try and use a 7800 .bin you get a message that says it will try to load and run it but if it doesn't work try a .A78 file. The files I was trying on it were 7800 .bins and they did not work.

 

It's best to use A78 files. The possible cart hardware for the 7800 can vary widely, and Concerto can't be expected to guess right in every case. When emulators work with .bin files, they more or less have the same info that would be present in the A78 header in their internal database.

 

Cuttle Cart 2 works (only) with bins, but you must supply the hardware format the game uses yourself. The normal Concerto way - loading A78 files - is preferable.

[78001987]

Is there a proper .a78 romset that has been verified to have the correct info in the headers? I see several games that load as "super game + ROM" that actually have pokey as well, and no pokey sound plays because the header is obviously wrong.

[78001987]

Too late to edit my previous post but... is there a tool to edit the .a78 headers? (other than hex editing?)

[RevEng]

The 7800AsmDevKit has a utility called "7800header". It's a command-line utility, but you can drag an a78 or bin onto it in Widows and use the listed commands to set or unset the different hardware options in the A78 header.

[Everett1954]

I agree with 78001987, it would be nice if we had a verified romset with the correct headers.

It would be great test with the same standards.

 

I take it everyone is using firmware .91 also?

 

78001987, you had some problems with your Pokey also. Did it act like mine where it prevented games from loading or something else?

[78001987]

I agree with 78001987, it would be nice if we had a verified romset with the correct headers.

It would be great test with the same standards.

 

I take it everyone is using firmware .91 also?

 

78001987, you had some problems with your Pokey also. Did it act like mine where it prevented games from loading or something else?

the reliability of the concerto with POKEY installed is scattered, at best. Smaller games 32k and 16k, seem to load fine, but most of the Supergame carts experienced a range of problems:

 

Ninja Golf would have major graphical corruption on the title screen, and be unplayable, in-game.

Motor Psycho, Fatal Run, Mean 18 all were unplayable and would either not load, or crash after the title screen.

One-On-One would crash after the title screen.

Double Dragon would crash after the title screen.

Rampage was hit or miss. Most of the time it would crash/be corrupted on the title screen.

Beef Drop would show a skewed gameplay screen, and be unplayable.

Pac-MAn Collection pokey would have a skewed board and be unplayable.

 

 

Most other games would play ok most of the time, but startup/menu crashes and crashes after selecting the games was every other try.

 

All of those games work 100% without pokey installed.

[78001987]

Also - I discovered that some of the older WIP/RC versions of B*nQ that exist in the thread for it's progress DO work on Concerto, just not the final release demo. Which is fine, as I fully support people buying the final release version instead, anyway.

[78001987]

So, some more concerto info for batari to work on...

 

It appears in 2600 mode, concerto has problems processing difficulty A/B switch position. When playing Barnstorming last night (Christmas tradition, one of the first Atari games I ever played on my Coleco Gemini I got for Christmas Day in 1983) concerto ignores difficulty switch position and always puts the game in "A" or more difficult mode. Playing the same rom on my Harmony, and from the actual Barnstorming cart - difficulty switch position is played correctly in "B" mode.

[Jinks]

I have found that armour attack 2 never works with the concerto.

[78001987]

The 7800AsmDevKit has a utility called "7800header". It's a command-line utility, but you can drag an a78 or bin onto it in Widows and use the listed commands to set or unset the different hardware options in the A78 header.

So after using this, it appears both of the latest public posted roms of BBCQ and DKXM have their headers set to [email protected] Supergame [email protected]

 

Which seems like a mistake - can it really have pokey & rom at 4000 on real hardware?

[RevEng]

can it really have pokey & rom at 4000 on real hardware?

It's a bit of a contradiction on the face of it, but apparently some homebrew cart hardware uses the cart read/write signal to switch access between ROM (read) and POKEY (write).

 

I think batari may be able to support this with a firmware update, but I imagine it's low on the priority list right now.

[Andromeda Stardust]

no, this config does not work on real hw. Prosystem emulates this by fetching reads from rom and sending writes to pokey. You absolutely cannot support this in hw without massive bus conflicts...

[Andromeda Stardust]

nevermind My Post. What reveng said. it seem like bad logic thogh. I guess that explain why pokey not detect in superchip games though.

[tep392]

The posted DKXM demo was intended for use in emulation. Prosystem only supports POKEY at $4000 so I set the flag in the header to enable it. I think I also have it writing to $450 for the XM support in MESS. There was a "Prosystem only" version posted that is only intended for Prosystem. I use the inaccurate memory emulation to run the HighScorCart BIOS and RAM.

 

You could disable the POKEY @$4000 flag in the header and see it that allows it to run on the SD cart. But the code will still be writing to $4000. The hardware shouldn't allow that to happen. If it is, then that might be the problem with that game.

[Andromeda Stardust]

what address do the cart version of bentley use for Pk?

[tep392]

I'm working on a version of DKXM with all access to [email protected] removed and hopefully the correct a78 header settings. PM sent to RevEng and Batari.

[78001987]

I'm working on a version of DKXM with all access to [email protected] removed and hopefully the correct a78 header settings. PM sent to RevEng.

Cool!

[funknflow5200]

yes please share that when complete!

[+Trebor]

The attached ROM has been confirmed to contain proper header and actual device access addressing for Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest (I.E. Banking Scheme=SuperGame, [email protected], [email protected]).

 

Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest (20161228).a78

[funknflow5200]

i'll test this on the concerto tonight and see what happens! thanks.

[tep392]

RevEng helped me with the header and found a bug in the demo. Give this one a try.

 

dkxm_demo_concerto.a78

[78001987]

No go on both.

 

BBCQ game plays, but still no sound.

 

DKXM just goes to white screen, nothing.

[funknflow5200]

I generally have really good compatibility with my concerto and I get the same result. I would LOVE to get pokey audio with these games!

[gambler172]

Bentley works on mine

DK not

[tep392]

I posted a new version in my previous post. Hopefully this one will actually run.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/230751-sd-cartridge-for-7800/page-45?do=findComment&comment=3659261