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A call for testing (Harmony Cart required)


SpiceWare

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[...]

Are these results assuming everyone has cleaned their cartidge port/harmony cart?

[...]

I did clean the Harmony cart and the cartridge port of my 7800 before trying the test rom.

 

I must add that it originally used a mask rom for the bios, but I modified it to use eproms instead because I wanted to try the 7800 DevOS. (It now has the standard PAL bios, but burned on eprom)

Maybe I will try a different brand eprom to see if it makes any difference.

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Demo worked fine in my NTSC 4 switch Woody using both an original Harmony cart and a Harmony Encore.

I don't know if anybody else has tested with the Encore before, Thanks!

 

The RPG demo from the other thread really looks fantastic on a CRT.

And that's with "programmer graphics" - imagine how much better it would look if somebody like Nathan had designed the graphics.
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I tried a few with no failures, all NTSC:

6 sw heavy-ok

6 sw sears heavy-ok

6 sw light-ok (2 units)

6 sw sears light-ok

4 sw -ok (6 units)

4sw vader-ok

sears vid arcade II -ok

Junior large rainbow -ok (2 units)

7800 non port- ok

7800 with dumper bios-ok

5200 with vcs converter -ok

Gemini-ok

 

and a moment of silence, as a heavy 6 was found dead in this testing.......thanks

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I don't know if anybody else has tested with the Encore before, Thanks!

 

And that's with "programmer graphics" - imagine how much better it would look if somebody like Nathan had designed the graphics.

 

Spiceware - My Harmony is an Encore. Sorry I didn't clarify in my original report.

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That's unexpected. Bus stuffing only comes into play to draw the black behind the digits. The digits, sync, etc. are all standard.

 

... :ponder: ...

 

BUS uses a custom bankswitching scheme - the Harmony Cart originally only supported the bankswitching in use from back in the day. Check the version of you Harmony's firmware by selecting the [.] line:

attachicon.gifIMG_8421.jpg

 

then hitting fire:

attachicon.gifIMG_8422.jpg

 

I'm running v1.05 which is when support for custom bankswitching was added.

 

 

 

 

 

Using 1.04.

 

Will see if I can find my cable and then try 1.05!!

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Thank you for all your help, I really appreciate it!

 

Regrettably, ZackAttack has determined the problem with the Juniors is most likely an electrical issue that, if a solution can to be found, would require hardware modifications to the Junior. Al does not wish to sell games that won't run on the Junior, and I don't blame him one bit, so I won't be using BUS for projects destined for the AtariAge store. I'll probably still do things like tinker with the RPG demo, and will make those freely available for use via Harmony Cart and Stella.

 

cd-w and I have been working on a new cartridge format called CDF. CDF is basically DPC+ with improvements we learned by creating BUS. I'll be using it for the Draconian reboot. CDF features:

 

Fast fetch mode

 

5 cycle TIA updates like DPC+

 

32 datastreams

 

double that of DPC+ and BUS. In DPC+ and BUS after drawing the gameplay area I had to reassign the datafetchers to display the score/lives/level/etc, which took a bit of overhead. With 32 datastreams there's enough to go around without having to reassign them midscreen.

 

identical datastreams

 

All datastreams work exactly the same and have an X.Y increment. Harmony/Melody driver code is simpler (smaller) when all datastreams work the same, plus they're more flexible supporting increments such as 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, 0.5, etc. 2.0 is very useful for flicker blind displays like the 128x200 bitmap or the Draconian logo

 

datastreams configured by C(or ARM) code

 

In DPC+ datastreams could only be configured by 6507 code, taking scanlines worth of processing time to do so. In BUS and CDF this is done in C, which is much faster.

 

3 voice music

 

Just like DPC+ and BUS

 

digital sample support

 

like BUS - no need to set aside a 2K of Display Data, which was a major headache in Frantic

 

more efficient driver

 

the driver's smaller, like BUS, so more ROM (2K) and RAM (2K) is available for the game

 

designed for C (or ARM) code

 

most features will require the use of C or ARM code.

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Regrettably, ZackAttack has determined the problem with the Juniors is most likely an electrical issue that, if a solution can to be found, would require hardware modifications to the Junior. Al does not wish to sell games that won't run on the Junior, and I don't blame him one bit, so I won't be using BUS for projects destined for the AtariAge store.

 

Disappointing. Understandable, but disappointing nonetheless. Pesky Juniors.

 

Still, CDF sounds like a very promising alternative.

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I would really like to get one of the Jrs that doesn't work with bus stuffing to do my own testing. I've bought 4 PAL Jrs now and they all work fine! If anyone would like to sell their non-working NTSC Jr (and doesn't mind shipping to the UK) - please let me know!

 

Chris

Edited by cd-w
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I would really like to get one of the Jrs that doesn't work with bus stuffing to do my own testing. I've bought 4 PAL Jrs now and they all work fine! If anyone would like to sell their non-working NTSC Jr (and doesn't mind shipping to the UK) - please let me know!

 

Chris

 

 

You can use mine. It doesn't not work as bad as some of them do though (I think that made sense). Would you want one that didn't work typically, or the worst case?

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The effects achieved in those demos are impressive. Pity about the JRs but there are probably quite a few of them around so I can see why AA would have reservations about selling carts that have problems with them.

Edited by davyK
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