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Happy New Year... XM shipping this month


Curt Vendel

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In the meantime I'm sending down the components for the Yamaha Insanity section to Perry, I know he's been itching to realworld test out some of his code using the Yamaha, which I gotta say, I'm jazzed about.

 

He had talked about a Dig Dug XM with YM music. I’d buy that in a heartbeat. Of course, first I’d need an XM so hopefully after the preorders get built and sent out, I’ll get a spot in line. :)

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When it comes time you make the big order for the xm pcb's do yourself a favor and have all the population you can installed right at the factory. They charge next to nothing to put logic on boards now a days. The time and money saved going this route is more than worth it. I really hope the fabrication house you use offers this.

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I'm still planning to do Dig Dug with perfect Yamaha sound, but right now I'm working on D2K Jumpman Returns. it requires the XM's extra RAM and POKEY sound and it will utilize the XM high score hardware for saving the score table. I'm converting the arcade code from Z80 to the 7800's 6502, so that this game will be virtually identical. Graphics are all upgraded from what was done with Donkey Kong XM/PK, courtesy of Defender_2600. If there is interest, I will be able to make fully populated carts with RAM/POKEY onboard but they will be quite a bit more expensive.

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I'm still planning to do Dig Dug with perfect Yamaha sound, but right now I'm working on D2K Jumpman Returns. it requires the XM's extra RAM and POKEY sound and it will utilize the XM high score hardware for saving the score table. I'm converting the arcade code from Z80 to the 7800's 6502, so that this game will be virtually identical. Graphics are all upgraded from what was done with Donkey Kong XM/PK, courtesy of Defender_2600. If there is interest, I will be able to make fully populated carts with RAM/POKEY onboard but they will be quite a bit more expensive.

 

But with the XM you will be able to use pcb's to make these that don't need pokey or ram for XM owners. These are the kinda things that will make the XM great to own :grin:

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Definitely will, also it'll far more accurate than by hand.

 

 

When it comes time you make the big order for the xm pcb's do yourself a favor and have all the population you can installed right at the factory. They charge next to nothing to put logic on boards now a days. The time and money saved going this route is more than worth it. I really hope the fabrication house you use offers this.

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But with the XM you will be able to use pcb's to make these that don't need pokey or ram for XM owners. These are the kinda things that will make the XM great to own :grin:

I personally think it would be silly not to invest in an XM and buy the less expensive version, but I'm just trying to be accommodating.

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OKay, so I have gone through all the Activision carts I have, including Pitfall II, Robot Tank and Space Shuttle... all of them are working correctly on my June '84 7800 so no issues with the XM and going though the PLD and Bus divider to the console.
I also tested all of PacManplus' games that I have - Pac Man, Pac Man Plus, Super Pacman, PacMan Collection and I also tested Space Invaders. All homebrews so far are working fine.
Perry is loaning me Donkey Kong XM and Burger Time for testing and I have just tested Ball Blazer now, and it is working fine as well. So compatibility wise, it looks like the XM is acting far more of a passive pass-thru now and it doesn't seem to be causing any issues with the games which is precisely why the rev 3.5 design was done.
I still have to continue more testing and I am hoping to start soldering in the audio subsystem hopefully tonight and then we can see how POKEY is working with things.
In the meantime I'm sending down the components for the Yamaha Insanity section to Perry, I know he's been itching to realworld test out some of his code using the Yamaha, which I gotta say, I'm jazzed about.
Would still love to see somebody do Marble Madness on the 7800... then the Yamaha would really kick some ass in games...

 

 

I want to see someone port the NES version of Gyruss to the Atari 7800, and use the XM. That game has some of most killer tunes ever heard in a 8-bit game.

Edited by Tidus79001
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Where is the Yamaha test? icon_confused.gif icon_biggrinwink.gif

 

If you press U+R, D+L, A+B and hold reset at the test screen then it's automatically downloaded to the XM's internal Flash via WiFi. It works like a charm as long as you have a solid internet connection that isn't using any sort of password protection on your wireless network. If it doesn't work the first time just reset your router.

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I'm sure this will sound like a stupid question, but as one that never installed a POKEY on their Cuttle Cart II, will this open up POKEY audio for me with standard POKEY-enhanced 7800 games via my CCII?

 

Or does a game explicitly have to be programmed with XM module support in order to access the XM's onboard POKEY capabilities?

Edited by Atariboy
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I'm sure this will sound like a stupid question, but as one that never installed a POKEY on their Cuttle Cart II, will this open up POKEY audio for me with standard POKEY-enhanced 7800 games via my CCII?

 

Or does a game explicitly have to be programmed with XM module support in order to access the XM's onboard POKEY capabilities?

 

Interesting question that first one... would be interesting to here. I did put a POKEY on my CC2 (back when they were easier to find!) so never had to worry...

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I'm sure this will sound like a stupid question, but as one that never installed a POKEY on their Cuttle Cart II, will this open up POKEY audio for me with standard POKEY-enhanced 7800 games via my CCII?

 

Or does a game explicitly have to be programmed with XM module support in order to access the XM's onboard POKEY capabilities?

 

"Standard" POKEY, from such games as Commando and Ballblazer, is POKEY sound that starts at address space $4000.

 

"XM module" POKEY is referring to POKEY sound that starts at address space $0450.

 

When a game is explicitly programmed for 'XM module support' POKEY; it is more of a catchphrase often stated for games utilizing address space $0450 for POKEY support. Additionally, address space $4000, instead of POKEY support, may be provisioned for additional game memory (I.E. Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest)

 

Leveraging the POKEY chip inside the XM for address space $4000 (AKA "standard") POKEY support, does not seem to be an impossible task, but would definitely add another layer of logic complexity to the XM BIOS. Some of the trickier parts may be accounting for cartridge releases such as Beef Drop V.E., which looks/writes to POKEY support at both address spaces, and does not contain a POKEY chip.

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[...]Leveraging the POKEY chip inside the XM for address space $4000 (AKA "standard") POKEY support, does not seem to be an impossible task, but would definitely add another layer of logic complexity to the XM BIOS.

Thankfully there's no need. It would take a few minutes to create patched BallBlazer and Commando images that use POKEY@450.

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This is probably beyond the scope of the thread, but I've always been curious why Ballblazer and Command use POKEY at $4000 but the XBOARD and now XM have chosen $0450. Is it to allow more contiguous memory space? Facilitate bankswitching? Both or neither?

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I want to see someone port the NES version of Gyruss to the Atari 7800, and use the XM. That game has some of most killer tunes ever heard in a 8-bit game.

It could use the Pokey and Yamaha simultaneously to recreate that awesome 8-bit arcade rendition of Bach's Toccata in D-Minor:

 

For comparison, the classical organ recital:

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I want to see someone port the NES version of Gyruss to the Atari 7800, and use the XM. That game has some of most killer tunes ever heard in a 8-bit game.

 

 

The NES version is an abomination. No doubt the 7800's MARIA could handle the sprites like the arcade original. Chances are a single YM2151 wouldn't match the arcade original's audio considering Konami packed multiple AY audio chips on the arcade board and used every last one of them to their fullest abilities...

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