Atari Trac Mar cart

[gambler172]

Hi Guys

is there any imformation about the Trac Mar cartridge for the 7800?

Greetings Walter

[+Trebor]

The Trac-Mar (A 32K RAM cart) dumper tool is used in conjunction with a 7800 console having a Dev O/S installed and utilized to dump cartridges for the 2600 and 7800.

 

There was a project from about a dozen or so years ago with 2600 PAL games in which the Trac-Mar helped to have them converted to NTSC. Having the 7800's Dev O/S, RAM, and built-in backwards compatibility makes it a more friendly environment for that sort of task, versus trying to drive it from the 2600.

 

For historical/reference purposes, here's an archive explaining the development system and cart dumping process, running the software and respective hardware (pics) in more details: DEVSYS.ZIP

[gambler172]

Hi Trevor

 

Will look at this.

Greetings Walter

[+Trebor]

Hi Trevor

 

Will look at this.

Greetings Walter

 

The previously posted attachment is really just for historical reference of what was originally utilized. Eckhard has a revised version of that particular setup hosted here which includes a 48K cart instead of a 32K one (See "Atari VCS 7800 development system (second release)" section).

 

Developers wanting to test their (WIP) games on actual console hardware - as the cart dumping aspect is not needed by the vast majority nowadays - have more convenient options in recent times.

[gambler172]

And who had the idea with the

Trac Mar?

[+Trebor]

And who had the idea with the

Trac Mar?

 

The naming/label of the (32K) RAM cart that was utilized. probably came from either John Saeger or (more likely) Eckhard Stolberg.

It has been ~15 years, my recollection shouldn't be quoted as absolute truth.

 

EDIT: Correction...The name may have came from Lee Krueger and encompasses the entire development setup, per his post here:

"The 7800 Dev kit (Trac-Mar as I call it)."

[Shawn]

Trac Mar backwards is RAM CART. If this is in referance to the auction on ebay, don't buy it as it's not worth it.

[gambler172]

So the Trac Mar is only one of the many dev carts

Graham Percy made?

[+Mitch]

So the Trac Mar is only one of the many dev carts

Graham Percy made?

 

This was before Graham started working on it.

The only one that I know of that called it Trac Mar was Lee. It's just the first rev of the DevOS system RAM cart. Whether this is Lee's copy or one he made, I don't know. You could probably message him and find out. He had the picture on his website for quite a while. Someone else could have built their own and printed their own label off using Lee's design.

 

Mitch

[+Trebor]

Trac Mar backwards is RAM CART. If this is in referance to the auction on ebay, don't buy it as it's not worth it.

 

 

This was before Graham started working on it.

The only one that I know of that called it Trac Mar was Lee. It's just the first rev of the DevOS system RAM cart. Whether this is Lee's copy or one he made, I don't know. You could probably message him and find out. He had the picture on his website for quite a while. Someone else could have built their own and printed their own label off using Lee's design.

 

Mitch

 

Either points in bold can't be emphasized enough.

 

As mentioned earlier, there are more convenient options - and a heck of a lot cheaper - especially compared to that current eBay auction ... to say the least about cloning such a dev setup is not very hard to do at all.

 

It is too easy to 'fake' something like that to risk buying into an auction of that nature. However, if it is 'authentic' and can be validated - to each their own. Personally, the value behind spending several hundreds of dollars into purchasing a homebrew development setup, especially in light of the aforementioned, is hard to justify.

 

For the collector, an original/'authorized' Atari (ST) dev system environment can be better seen spending that kind of money on.

Then again, that can be replicated as well.

[gambler172]

Hi Trebor

thanks for info.

I never planned to buy this Tac Mar from ebay.

And i also own an ST Dev set

Complete with manual and disks

Edited January 3, 2016 by gambler172