File Types Compatible With The Harmony Cart

[atarifan88]

I had a quick question about the file type compatibility with the Harmony Cart. I know it mentions .bin files, but I also have a lot of games with the .a26 extension. Will those work as well? If not, is it as simple as changing their extension to .bin or do I need to find a different source file? Thanks in advance for the help!

[+SpiceWare]

it works just fine with both .a26 and .bin filename extensions.

[atarifan88]

it works just fine with both .a26 and .bin filename extensions.

 

Thank you! Hope to get one of these by Christmas!

[maiki]

And the best thing you don't have to use extensions at all - the Harmony Cartridge will recognize them all (somehow). I have the ROMs all renamed to capital letters without extensions to make the menus as simple and readable as possible.

[AW127]

Some minutes ago i downloaded the homebrew-game "Defend your castle" from the forum and saved it to my laptop. The file-extension of this one is .rom

 

Never seen this before. Until now i only had bin and a26 files and i know, that these file-types work on the Harmony. Now here i read, that the file-extension seems not to matter at all. Is this correct?

 

So i suppose i can let the name be "Defend your castle (PAL).rom" without the need to convert the file in any way?

 

I ask, because i can not try it on the hardware at the moment. My Atari and the Harmony is in my other flat and i will be only there on the next weekend. "Stella" by the way, has no problem with the rom-filetype.

[TheHoboInYourRoom]

It'll probably work, especially since that game is only 4K.

[Trebor]

For Atari 2600 ROMs there is no header information, so *.a26, *.bin, *.rom naming conventions are interchangeable; it will make no difference which naming convention is utilized (in general).

 

However, for any ROMs, especially those above 4K (AKA utilize bankswitching), that Harmony does not recognize properly, there is a list of file extensions that specify exact types:

 

[AW127]

Thanks for the answers. And i can confirm, that the .rom file works, cause i tried it in the meantime.

[maiki]

However, for any ROMs, especially those above 4K (AKA utilize bankswitching), that Harmony does not recognize properly, there is a list of file extensions that specify exact types:

 

HARMONY_CART_TYPES.PNG

 

 

Can you specify which ROMs the Harmony does not recognize? All the ROMs I have launch succesfully and as I said, I don't use any extensions.

[Trebor]

Can you specify which ROMs the Harmony does not recognize? All the ROMs I have launch succesfully and as I said, I don't use any extensions.

 

I have been as fortunate as you and have not encountered any ROMs that were unsuccessfully launched from the Harmony Cart. Nonetheless, the Harmony manual does specify under the FAQ section:

 

 

Furthermore, the section under 'Harmony File Extensions' specifies the following:

 

 

"The Harmony cartridge supports many different types of Atari 2600 software. The type of software is automatically detected when the file is loaded. However, the auto-detection process can sometimes fail, resulting in weird (garbage) being displayed on the screen. The is completely harmless, but can often be avoided by telling the Harmony cartridge explicitly what is the type of the file. In technical terms, the type of the file is the kind of bankswitching that was originally used by the cartridge."

 

Since you and I have not experienced the above, perhaps someone else who has encountered a problem can offer some examples.