+sm3 Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Hi, So, would anyone happen to know how to get the Mac/65 1.02 ROM file listed here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/161828-hooked-on-8-bit-carts/page-13?do=findComment&comment=3036498 on to an Atarimax cartridge without being listed in a menu? I have a Mac/65 1.01 cartridge from Atarimax and was trying to update it to the 1.02 version. He must have used some kind of trick to get it work as the only ROM on the cartridge without the menu that you usually use. I can't seem to get it loaded without appearing in a menu as the first entry. I've asked Steve from Atarimax about it, but he's a little busy it seems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awesp Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 I'm afraid I don't have an answer for sm3, but I find it a very good question and have a similar one myself: I found a cartridge image called 'KONA Megamodul v.5-56' that holds many good games. Once the image is burnt into a cartridge and run on a real Atari, you find that it shows a completely different (and better) menu system than the one created with the 'Maxflash Studio for Windows Multi-Cart Creation Software'. How is this done? Does anyone know what program can be used to create custom menus on Atarimax cartridges? Thanks for any enlightenment regarding this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted February 2, 2015 Share Posted February 2, 2015 Mac-65 should be here http://atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=202 You need to be logged in there to access downloads. The OSS cartridges have to be modified to be able to work on flashcarts, the flashcart uses different banking size and technique. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sm3 Posted February 2, 2015 Author Share Posted February 2, 2015 Mac-65 should be here http://atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=202 You need to be logged in there to access downloads. The OSS cartridges have to be modified to be able to work on flashcarts, the flashcart uses different banking size and technique. Yeah, already have that version (1.01). If you look at the link I listed above, it's for the last released cartridge version of Mac/65, version 1.02. Although thanks for the link, I can always reinstall my 1.01 version as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I'm afraid I don't have an answer for sm3, but I find it a very good question and have a similar one myself: I found a cartridge image called 'KONA Megamodul v.5-56' that holds many good games. Once the image is burnt into a cartridge and run on a real Atari, you find that it shows a completely different (and better) menu system than the one created with the 'Maxflash Studio for Windows Multi-Cart Creation Software'. How is this done? Does anyone know what program can be used to create custom menus on Atarimax cartridges? Thanks for any enlightenment regarding this. He (the guy who make that flashcart) programmed that menu himself. As far as I know, it's not been released, and probably isn't "general purpose" anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awesp Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Thanks, Shawn. I wish he'd publish the instructions on how to write flash cartridges without having to use the Maxflash Studio software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 What exactly do you mean by "write cartridges?" It's just an Atari cartridge, so you can write programs for it like any other Atari cartridge (Space Harrier for one example.) The Maxflash Studio software just automates creating multi-carts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centurion Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 There is a checkbox in the Maxflash Studio that needs to be checked to disable the menu. When it is checked the first item in the menu boots up. Off hand, I can't remember where it's located. Somewhere in the workbook or rom settings. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr-atari Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 You need to patch the OSS-code to match the bank-switching. I did all OSS-cartridges for the MyIDE-][ Not easy and I tried 1.02 but that one I did not get to work. Although I did the same patching as for 1.01 http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1572 You can p.m. me for technical questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awesp Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Thanks Shawn, Centurion and mr-atari for your responses. I didn't know that the menu could be disabled when using the Maxflash Studio software. Also I wasn't aware that the Atarimax cartridges were just like the standard Atari cartridges. BTW, are there any instructions somewhere on how to write programs to a normal Atari cartridge, without using Maxflash Studio? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sm3 Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 You need to patch the OSS-code to match the bank-switching. I did all OSS-cartridges for the MyIDE-][ Not easy and I tried 1.02 but that one I did not get to work. Although I did the same patching as for 1.01 http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1572 You can p.m. me for technical questions. Thanks mr-atari, I was hoping that it was something simple that I was overlooking. I didn't realize it was going to take so much effort. It's probably not worth further consideration since we already have a working version 1.01. Afterall, it's been doing the job for years now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1050 Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 awesp, he didn't say it was just like a regular Atari cartridge, he said it was just an Atari cartridge as only a preface before expressing his confusion over what your question related to. Please ignore the comment made in passing entirely as it wasn't meant as the technical round up that you've taken it for. It's a very special Atari cartridge. It's a FlashRom based super cartridge and they need special programing code to flash them. This info is to be found in the data sheets for the flashrom chip. Search for the chip number and download the datasheet. Read how it's done and write your own programmer and burn into it what you want. I haven't seen any end arounds for avoiding Steve's programs using his carts, sorry. The chip can be removed and programmed with raw data by an entire slew of standard PC based eprom burners that also do Flashroms commonly. Then put it back into the cart and use it. You'll need to know that Steve's cart uses a different banking method than regular supercarts and that means you'll have to back engineer the current cart code to work on Steve's. As mr-atari said - NOT easy. And as he also said, it doesn't always work out even then. As to normal Atari carts, there you will find even more obfuscation at work, they didn't use standard eproms so you can't get there from here with their board without modifying it quite a bit. To avoid that, you'll need to buy (B&C) or build your own eprom boards and THEN you use your PC based eprom burner and knock yourself out. Not sure if the SIC cartridge is any more user friendly or not. But the standard Atari carts used the highest address line (A12) wired to the chip's enable line. One chip was postive enable and the other was negative enable. Both sockets are wired the same so it doesn't matter which chip is on the left or right. You could use a resistor and transistor to emulate a postive enable on one of the negative enable standard eproms after you also re-wire the pins to match the different pins also on those 24 pin, 64Kb custom made 'standard' Atari chips. A standard 64Kb (2764) eprom has 28 pins. All this applies only to two chip Atari boards as well, which is what I interpret as being a 'regular' Atari cartridge - it's actually anything but regular. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awesp Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Thanks 1050. I get it. It means I probably should stick to Maxflash Studio for the time being. Thanks again for clarifying the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 (edited) Since OSS and Atarimax flashcarts both use address bits to select their banks it would seem that you could just rearrange the bank data. The image of the MAC/65 1.02 cart that I have is a 034M type, which means that each of the banks is selected by writing to address $D500 <-- the 0 of 034M, $D503 <-- the 3, and $D504. M represents the bank that is not selectable. It is always available. These are all 4K banks. The selectable ones are available at addresses $Axxx. The fixed bank at address $Bxxx. For convenience I'll refer to the data chunks simply by the bank numbers 0, 3, 4, or by the letter M. If the data of the banks are rearranged into 8K blocks thusly, 0 plus M (0M), 3M and 4M we now have three 8K chunks that will fit into the Atarimax scheme, 8K banks, addresses $A000-$BFFF. Now it's just a matter of fitting the new chunks into an Atarimax flashcart image. The key here is the order of the banks. By putting the banks in the right order the original code will still work. The correct bank gets activated. Chunk 0M is the first bank. The 2nd and 3rd bank, don't care. The 4th bank is chunk 3M. The 5th bank is chunck 4M. For a 1mbit flashcart all remaining banks, don't care. With an 8mbit flashcart there are two versions. The older version homes to bank 127. The newer version homes to bank 0. We mirror chunk 0M into bank 127. This will the image work in either version of the 8mbit cart. All other banks, don't care. Here's the Atarimax ROM images produced by the above method. I don't know MAC/65 well enough to thoroughly test these. They seem to work but I don't know how to use DDT at all. I have a concern about the 1mbit image. The 1mbit cart uses a different sequence to turn off the cart than does the OSS or Atarimax 8mbit carts. Would not being able to turn off MAC/65 be a serious issue? If these images truly work I can clean them up later. All the banks that I indicated as "don't care" have copies of other banks mac65-102-atarimax.zip Edited February 3, 2015 by a8isa1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sm3 Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 ... Here's the Atarimax ROM images produced by the above method. I don't know MAC/65 well enough to thoroughly test these. They seem to work but I don't know how to use DDT at all. I have a concern about the 1mbit image. The 1mbit cart uses a different sequence to turn off the cart than does the OSS or Atarimax 8mbit carts. Would not being able to turn off MAC/65 be a serious issue? If these images truly work I can clean them up later. All the banks that I indicated as "don't care" have copies of other banks Wow, that is fantastic! Let me load it up on a 1 Mbit cart and see how it does. For me, not being able to disable the cart doesn't matter for how I use it. I just insert/remove the cartridge when I'm done. Update: I seem to have misplaced my USB cable that goes to my Atarimax cartridge. I need to get another before I can test it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Wow, that is fantastic! Let me load it up on a 1 Mbit cart and see how it does. For me, not being able to disable the cart doesn't matter for how I use it. I just insert/remove the cartridge when I'm done. Update: I seem to have misplaced my USB cable that goes to my Atarimax cartridge. I need to get another before I can test it. I don't have an Atarimax Studio programmer myself. Here's the test ROMs again plus ATRs for others who also don't have the programmer. mac65-102-atarimax.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Sorry for the confusion... I wasn't sure if you were wanting to write your own program and put it on the flashcart, or just build a multi-cart with existing programs/games. The fancy menus you see people doing are all programmed from scratch by them. As far as writing whatever to a physical cartridge, using Steve's programming software (Studio) is the easiest, baring writing your own (or maybe using the SIC software, I think it's compatible?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 As far as writing whatever to a physical cartridge, using Steve's programming software (Studio) is the easiest, baring writing your own (or maybe using the SIC software, I think it's compatible?) That's a good point -- does anyone know for sure if they are compatible? -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sm3 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 Sorry for the confusion...That's OK. I think part of the confusion of this thread is that two people are asking different questions about the Atarimax cartridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sm3 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 I don't have an Atarimax Studio programmer myself. Here's the test ROMs again plus ATRs for others who also don't have the programmer. Deleted: see below post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sm3 Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 I've successfully programmed a 1 Mbit Maxflash cartridge with the 1 Mbit atr file provided by a8isa1. I've only done some basic testing with it, but it seems to work. DDT as well. I didn't have any luck with the .rom files. After programming the cartridges and trying them out on my 800, I only get the memo pad. Thanks again a8isa1 for your effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr-atari Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Nice work, I forgot you only needed mac 1.02 for one cartridge. I worked on OSS-"files" that can be loaded into emulated ROM with different bank-switching-schemes then atarimax-1mb. So this 034M or other OSS bankschemes can be ported to atarimax, sure. I think (what I remember) only basic-XE uses the cartridge-on/off function to handle the XE-extensions loaded from disk under the ROM's Top job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 Your conversion of BXE for the MyIDE-II is the only one that I ever found that worked with the BXE extensions. It works perfectly! Solution for all these related issues -- get a MyIDE-II cart with MyBios 4.9.B8 and "load it up!" -Larry 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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