juice2839 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 (edited) I would. I think my newly restored ADAM is pretty cool. I'm wanting to get farther in my understanding of the ADAM and its computing capabilities. I'm curious… is there particular engineering that is made to the SGM in order for it to work on the ADAM? Are you considering cutting that out of the design? The only thing the Adam uses on the SGM is the AY-3-8910 and bank switched 8K. Actually my bad. On the adam I got from chart, Kings Valley shows everything good except the PSG so it's not even using the banked 8k.. This Adam should work with just a AY-3-8910 hooked up too. At least for kings valley. With my Speech Game Module if it's an adam it disables all the 24k board ram (on the speech game Module) but you can still bank switch the 8k ram if you wanted. Not sure how Opcodes SGM does it. One other note - I have not seen any game that uses the 8k bank memory. I just put it in as Nanochess self test checked for it. I would bet that the Opcode SGM probably just disables the 8k bank switch along with the 24k if it's an Adam, but again maybe he will chime in. Edited February 1, 2016 by juice2839 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice2839 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 I just tested this coleco again that I got from Chart with Nanchess SGM test rom and it indeed passes everything except the sound. Do these special ones pass the sound test with Nanochess test software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice2839 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Niad are you positive Kings Valley works? If you hold down the * when it boots does it pass the PSG at the beginning? A while back, chart45 posted about a Stand-Alone ADAM Memory console he owned that could play all SGM required games (Thexder, King's Valley, etc... not talking about the ADAM Super Game conversions or other games that are enhanced by the presence of the SGM) without a SGM plugged into the side Expansion Port. Suffice it to say that a lot of us were skeptical until he posted pics and then a video. So yesterday I received a Memory Console that I won on eBay (it's minty) and in my testing, I have found that this Memory Console will play all the SGM required games (sans sound as the SGM sound chip is used) as well. They include: - King's Valley - Thexder - Rollerball - Goonies - Galaga - TwinBee Using Nanochess' SGM Test Utility rom image with NO SGM plugged in, I get the following results which I don't even remember now if they are the same with a SGM plugged into the ADAM: DETECTED: Coleco ADAM Base 24K RAM Ok Lower 8K RAM Ok Failure in the Sound Chip ...... (because the SGM is not plugged in) I'll be taking the system apart to compare with my other ADAM system that can only play the games listed above if and only if the SGM is attached. I doubt there will be anything physically different between the two that will be obvious, but it's a start. So if you have been waiting for an SGM for a while, you can always try picking up an ADAM and ask the seller if it will play all SGM required games. Be prepared to get some weird response though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Is there a test rom I can use to see if my Adam is one of these 'super Adams'? I don't have a SGM game to test with, but I do have an SD cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice2839 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Is there a test rom I can use to see if my Adam is one of these 'super Adams'? I don't have a SGM game to test with, but I do have an SD cart. Nanochess test.bin works pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Niad are you positive Kings Valley works? If you hold down the * when it boots does it pass the PSG at the beginning? You know what's funny about this, is that King's Valley worked for me the first time I booted it today. However the second time, I received the "SGM Required!" screen. When I pressed Reset, it bypassed this SGM Required screen, and was back to normal. Must be a latency issue with the extra RAM detection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice2839 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 You know what's funny about this, is that King's Valley worked for me the first time I booted it today. However the second time, I received the "SGM Required!" screen. When I pressed Reset, it bypassed this SGM Required screen, and was back to normal. Must be a latency issue with the extra RAM detection. this is without a SGM installed? If so can you boot it a couple times with the * key pressed and see if the kings valley diagnostic passes the PSG sometimes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice2839 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 (edited) I took a couple of pictures of this Adam playing Galaga with no SGM installed.. Are we saying that not all Adams can do this? obviously it has no sound, but plays fine otherwise. Edited February 1, 2016 by juice2839 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 ok i test galaga on both my adam and it work so galaga should work on any adam without sound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice2839 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 ok i test galaga on both my adam and it work so galaga should work on any adam without sound What games besides Kings Valley won't play on your not special Adam? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 all games play with the original cart and with the atarimax sd... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice2839 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 all games play with the original cart and with the atarimax sd... \On your regular adam? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 no on the special one... the normal one can play galaga probably all adam can do it why ???? probably the software only check for 24k of ram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 (edited) ok this is from thexder diag test on my special adam... on this unit game start but no sound this is the same game on my normal adam the game dont work and sgm require msg appear you see on the special adam the diag test show the psg ok but not on the normal adam Edited February 1, 2016 by chart45 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice2839 Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 AHH finally I see... I think I know what's happening. The software checks for the PSG by looking poking around and looking at the AY-3-8910 registers. For some reason the special adams happen to give the result the software is looking for. I'll have to look at the Nanochess code to see exactly how he is testing for the AY-3-8910 then we can determine why some adams work and some don't.. But it comes down to a false positive from the special adams for the presence of the PSG. Technically all the SGM games will run on any Adam as far as I can tell as long as you either disabled the PSG test or hooked up a PSG to it. ok this is from thexder diag test on my special adam... on this unit game start but no soundthis is the same game on my normal adam the game dont work and sgm require msg appearyou see on the special adam the diag test show the psg ok but not on the normal adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I wondered if the ADAM memory starts up dirty, meaning the RAM starts up unknown state. This could give the value what the software is looking for when it poke at that memory address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice2839 Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I wondered if the ADAM memory starts up dirty, meaning the RAM starts up unknown state. This could give the value what the software is looking for when it poke at that memory address. The PSG is connected to a port address and not a memory address so something in the special adam may have something already assigned to that same port address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 My Adam will play Galaga but not Kings Valley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted February 2, 2016 Author Share Posted February 2, 2016 no on the special one... the normal one can play galaga probably all adam can do it why ???? probably the software only check for 24k of ramif I remember correctly, Galaga does not require the extra RAM provided by the SGM or a "Super Adam"... it only uses/requires the AY sound chip in the SGM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 if I remember correctly, Galaga does not require the extra RAM provided by the SGM or a "Super Adam"... it only uses/requires the AY sound chip in the SGM. I can confirm this. Dumping Galaga yielded only a 32k standard file, so it falls into a slightly different category of Super Game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opcode Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 if I remember correctly, Galaga does not require the extra RAM provided by the SGM or a "Super Adam"... it only uses/requires the AY sound chip in the SGM. I am pretty it does require the extra RAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 I can confirm this. Dumping Galaga yielded only a 32k standard file, so it falls into a slightly different category of Super Game. That means nothing, phatty. A 32K cartridge can still require more than 1K of RAM. In fact, I'd be surprised if Galaga uses only 1K of RAM, since it's an MSX port, and MSX computers had 8K of basic RAM as minimum standard (or was it 4K? I'm too lazy to check). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 That means nothing, phatty. A 32K cartridge can still require more than 1K of RAM. In fact, I'd be surprised if Galaga uses only 1K of RAM, since it's an MSX port, and MSX computers had 8K of basic RAM as minimum standard (or was it 4K? I'm too lazy to check). MSX standard it is 8k minimum. But i think the MSX Version of Galaga is itself a port of the SG1000 version (may be with some enhancement)... and the SG1000 version uses 1k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Guys, who here has had there ADAM modded for sound so it can work properly with the SGM and is this documented somewhere so I can fix it. I tapped my rca plug to the original sound output at the 5 pin din. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Guys, who here has had there ADAM modded for sound so it can work properly with the SGM and is this documented somewhere so I can fix it. I tapped my rca plug to the original sound output at the 5 pin din. take your sound from the c88 its near the rf box 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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