Ultimate SD cart - another possible run

[santosp]

Do you have any of those beautiful cases left / extra?

 

Unfortunately no. Ordered and routed specific for this version of Ultimate Cartridge.

[McKong]

The carts look great. I'm happy i got on the second list. It would be good to hear from some people on the first list as they receive theirs

[veritas]

so...is it too late to get one?

[Brentarian]

so...is it too late to get one?

 

MacRorie has an Ultimate Cart run going on now: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/256980-ultimate-sd-cart-run-us-source-nov-30-ship-date-25-in-run/?p=3610625

Edited October 13, 2016 by Brentarian

[Brentarian]

I received my Ultimate SD Cart yesterday in the mail. I always feel like a kid at Christmas every time I open the mailbox and something Atari is there. The cart looks fantastic and I won't have to sacrifice a cart shell this time. I bought the "PCB Arrangement" Ult cart months ago from Santosp and totally destroyed an XE cart shell in the process. I ended up modifying a Spinnaker cart shell to fit the PCB and it worked quite well. It is definitely nice this time around to have one fully assembled.

 

Many thanks to Electrotrains for his design, Santosp for constructing, and FJC for his revised BIOS. 😀

[+Stephen]

Man - I wish I got one of the cased models!

[AtariDean]

How does this work, i have siosd2 that i use, tried to run roms from this but they dont load.

Would i be able to download rom images and load them on my 130xe with one of these ultimate carts.

Edited October 15, 2016 by AtariDean

[electrotrains]

How does this work, i have siosd2 that i use, tried to run roms from this but they dont load.

Would i be able to download rom images and load them on my 130xe with one of these ultimate carts.

 

Yes. It emulates pretty much every cartridge type up to 1 megabyte (8mbit) in size, and will also launch XEX files.

It doesn't do disks though - so you'll need to keep your SIO2SD for ATR files.

 

Robin

[AtariDean]

CheeRs , wasn't to sure. Who do I pm to get on the order list

[santosp]

CheeRs , wasn't to sure. Who do I pm to get on the order list

 

Look at the Nr.129 post here.

[tep392]

 

Yes. It emulates pretty much every cartridge type up to 1 megabyte (8mbit) in size, and will also launch XEX files.

It doesn't do disks though - so you'll need to keep your SIO2SD for ATR files.

 

Robin

Does it emulate the 1mbit and 8mbit Atarimax carts?

[gozar]

Does it emulate the 1mbit and 8mbit Atarimax carts?

 

Yes it does.

[tep392]

Those carts allow loading of ATR files, so maybe it's possible to use Maxflash studio to create 1mbit or 8mbit images with ATR's and then run those images and load the ATR. Has anyone tried this? I'm really looking forward to getting my cart when batch 2 is complete.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Those carts allow loading of ATR files, so maybe it's possible to use Maxflash studio to create 1mbit or 8mbit images with ATR's and then run those images and load the ATR. Has anyone tried this? I'm really looking forward to getting my cart when batch 2 is complete.

 

Well,

 

I did not convert an ATR image into a 1MBit or 8MBit ROM file yet, but have downloaded more than one-hundred of these ROM and CAR files at the atarimax forum. Many of the ROM / CAR files do load ATR images, you can hear some floppy-like noise - and all I have tested so far worked fine with the Ultimate Cart.

 

So, in general, the Ultimate Cart cannot load ATR images directly (not yet), but if you use the Maxflash studio and convert ATR images into working maxflash ROM/CAR images, then the Ultimate Cart can load them. (Not all ATR images will work as maxflash ROM/CAR images though.)

[+arcadeshopper]

Woo!

 

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

[Marco Miccoli]

Today in my Home

[santosp]

Hey Marco, just thought Diana Ross here.... upside down

[+Philsan]

 

Yes. It emulates pretty much every cartridge type up to 1 megabyte (8mbit) in size, and will also launch XEX files.

It doesn't do disks though - so you'll need to keep your SIO2SD for ATR files.

 

Robin

Some Max flash cart games save data (new Pac-Man, Summer Games).

Is it possible?

[electrotrains]

Philsan,

 

Theoretically possible given the hardware, yes. But not supported at present.

 

As far as I know, AtariMax has never publicly released the documentation on how to save data to an AtariMax cartridge. However, this is emulated by Altirra (which is open source) so I could base it on that. However, without the nod from AtariMax that he is ok with me doing this, I'm probably not going to add it.

 

A second issue is lack on space in the current firmware. I'd have to really re-organise the current firmware to fit in the extra code to support writes to the SD card.

 

Robin

[1NG]

I have implemented writing to the cart for the Jim Slide Cart (which is final since saturday). I think it is easier than that:

Writing is done like the flash chips documentation. But because of flash chips availibility there are different chips for Atarimax carts over the time.

So you have to adress the two (!) chips of 512KB on the cart like in the documentation of the manufacturer of the flash chips.

Since the chips ar nearly all the same (except for some minor details like erasing block size),

 

Implementing a write is not Atarimax specific. It is done like in the flash documentation of the manufacturer.

Basically the chip listens to the adresses and values, that are written to itself. If they form a specific code, then it is activates writing, erasing etc.

A wait is necessary after each write and reading of the status result. It may happen, that writes to the chip fail.

 

I got that Information from the The!cart team, especially hias. And I have downloaded the documentation for the actual used flash chips from the manufacturer.

 

Writing from MADS Assembler looks like this:

; copy a byte into the flash at adress (source) to (dest)
; dest within A000-BFFF. 
; source outside A000-BF00.
; Bank select in X    
WriteByteSST39SF040
	ldy #0
        jsr SigWriteCommand 	; Send Command for writing a byte
	lda $D500,x
        lda (source),y
	sta (dest),y
	jsr WriteData		; Write to flash via DQ7 algorithm
	bne WriteError1
	lda #0
writeError1
	rts



; DQ7 polling algorithm
WriteData 
	lda (dest),Y
	and #$80		; Highest bit
        sta AtariMaxBit7
WriteDoneLoop
	lda (dest),Y
        eor AtariMaxBit7
        bpl WriteOK		; done if bit 7 is inverted
        and #$20		; check Bit 5
        beq WriteDoneLoop
        lda (dest),Y
        eor AtariMaxBit7
        bpl WriteOK
        jsr SetReadMode		; error accured!
        lda #$FF		
        rts

WriteOK lda #$00
        rts

SetReadMode
	ldx #5
	jsr Wait
	lda AtariMaxModuleType
	bne @+
        ModulePokeA $80000,$F0	; write $F0 to any memory location ($80000 means second chip only!)
	rts
@	jsr SigIntroCommand	; write common signature intro
        ModulePokeA $85555,$F0	;
	lda $d500		; set bank (for reading ID etc)
	rts 
	
; send common signature intro
SigIntroCommand
	lda AtariMaxModuleType
	bne @+
	ModulePokeA $80555,$AA
	ModulePokeA $802AA,$55
	rts
@	ModulePokeA $85555,$AA
	ModulePokeA $82AAA,$55
	rts

SigWriteCommand
	jsr SigIntroCommand
	lda AtariMaxModuleType
	bne @+
	ModulePokeA $80555,$A0
	rts
	ModulePokeA $85555,$A0
	rts

Wait	ldy #0	; wait X times 5 us
@	dey	
	bne @-	
	dex	
	bne @-
	rts 	

	.macro ModulePokeZP
; ModulePoke $5555, a
; ModulePoke :1
	cmp $D500+(:1/$2000)                          ; 8k = $2000 "high" as banks access  
	sta $A000+(:1)-((:1/$2000)*$2000)             ; 8k low as store
	.endm

	.macro ModulePoke
; ModulePoke $5555, constant
; ModulePoke :1 :2
	ldx $D500+(:1/$2000)    		      ; 8k = $2000 "high" as banks access  
	ldx #:2
	stx $A000+(:1)-((:1/$2000)*$2000)             ; 8k low as store
	.endm

	.macro ModulePokeA
; ModulePoke $5555, constant
; ModulePoke :1 :2
	lda $D500+(:1/$2000)    		      ; 8k = $2000 "high" as banks access  
	lda #:2
	sta $A000+(:1)-((:1/$2000)*$2000)             ; 8k low as store
	.endm

The documentation for the used chips is all over the internet.

http://www.metatech.com.hk/datasheet/sst/standard_mem_pdf/398-39SF040-03-DS.pdf

Similar other chips are there too.

 

If you put in write support, then Jim Slide+ can save to the cart. This means, that playing adventure mode a second time on another day can be continued. Jim Slide also has support for erasing the saved data - Not the game of course :-). And BTW: Altirras emulation works perfectly, it even asks to save if the cart has changed (because Jim Slide+ had saved data)

 

And I would like to have one cart of these!

[santosp]

Update!!

FPGA's loaded today and expected to arrive here in 2 days. So it's time for this second batch also to complete!

[santosp]

One more and I think the last update!

All cartridges from second and last batch are ready for shipping. Members have already informed to proceed with rest of payments on their PayPal mails.

 

Thank you all!

[martinez]

Got it! Just received a new cartridge from the 2nd batch

Haven't tested it yet. For now I can just say, it's a cute little piece of hardware

Thank you santosp,
Are you in the mood to elaborate some Turbo Freezers now

[jimvodka]

mine just came in the mail today....

 

thanks Santosp!!!!!

[tep392]

Tracking says mine is waiting for me at home. Wish I could sneak out early.