False Advertising

[ZackAttack]

I've previously posted about getting a larger game to work on the Harmony Encore and also messaged Batari directly. There has been no reply to either.

 

The website couldn't state it any more clearly that up to 512KB games are supported, but I have yet to find any documentation on how to make such a game or any examples of such games already existing. Does the encore really have support for 512KB homebrews or is this a case of false advertising?

 

 

I'd like to propose some potential remedies to this situation. (ordered by my preference)

 

1. Provide an example 512KB ROM which can be run on the harmony encore.
2. Provide a new firmware release which adds support for 512KB games. This must be done in a timely manner. My opinion is that 6 months or less would be reasonable.
3. Open source the firmware so the community can add support for 512KB games.
4. Provide a partial refund for all harmony encore owners with an amount similar to what it costs to upgrade form a regular harmony to the encore.

 

 

[SignGuy81]

So if I give you a bag and say it will hold 1 million dollars, but you don't know of anywhere to get 1 million dollars, my bag won't hold 1 million dollars?

[CPUWIZ]

I've previously posted about getting a larger game to work on the Harmony Encore and also messaged Batari directly. There has been no reply to either.

 

The website couldn't state it any more clearly that up to 512KB games are supported, but I have yet to find any documentation on how to make such a game or any examples of such games already existing. Does the encore really have support for 512KB homebrews or is this a case of false advertising?

 

harmony512.png

 

I'd like to propose some potential remedies to this situation. (ordered by my preference)

 

1. Provide an example 512KB ROM which can be run on the harmony encore.
2. Provide a new firmware release which adds support for 512KB games. This must be done in a timely manner. My opinion is that 6 months or less would be reasonable.
3. Open source the firmware so the community can add support for 512KB games.
4. Provide a partial refund for all harmony encore owners with an amount similar to what it costs to upgrade form a regular harmony to the encore.

 

 

 

Bad and illogical attitude. If you don't know how to make a 512K ROM work, how do you know it doesn't work?

 

And who are you to speak on behalf of other owners?

 

NOTE: I have nothing to do with the sales of the cart, I just tell it how I see it in this case.

 

EDIT: I forgot, on top of all that, this is not f&*#ing BestBuy or Amazon, it's a hobby.

[ZackAttack]

So if I give you a bag and say it will hold 1 million dollars, but you don't know of anywhere to get 1 million dollars, my bag won't hold 1 million dollars?

 

If you read my post carefully you'll see that myself and others have tested with 3E bank switched ROMs which are larger than 32KB and which work in stella but do not work with the encore. So your analogy is wrong because it implies no one has ever had in their possession 1 million dollars to test with.

 

Bad and illogical attitude. If you don't know how to make a 512K ROM work, how do you know it doesn't work?

 

I don't know that it doesn't work for sure. However, as the other post shows, I'm not the only one that ran into the problem and I was pretty careful about how I tested it. This is a product that is specifically advertised to support it. I think it's quite reasonable that the burden of proof is on the vendor. I provided the same program with multiple ROM sizes to show that 3E games work fine if they are 32KB.

 

And who are you to speak on behalf of other owners?

 

That is certainly not my intention. I simply want an already good product to do everything it was advertised to do when I purchased it.

[SignGuy81]

 

If you read my post carefully you'll see that myself and others have tested with 3E bank switched ROMs which are larger than 32KB and which work in stella but do not work with the encore. So your analogy is wrong because it implies no one has ever had in their possession 1 million dollars to test with.

 

 

 

You must be speaking of another thread which you have linked to so no I did not read that post that you are talking about as I'm too lazy to click a mouse button and just as such too lazy to complain about a 512KB game that doesn't exist not working in a cart that says it will.

 

I've previously posted about getting a larger game to work on the Harmony Encore and also messaged Batari directly. There has been no reply to either.

 

The website couldn't state it any more clearly that up to 512KB games are supported, but I have yet to find any documentation on how to make such a game or any examples of such games already existing. Does the encore really have support for 512KB homebrews or is this a case of false advertising?

 

 

 

 

So I should have looked at the link you provided for the proof but then see the above statement where you aren't so sure so you are asking?

[toiletunes]

[Shawn]

Please provide a download to your 512kb game that you have programmed and we can go from there.

[RevEng]

[...]Provide a partial refund for all harmony encore owners with an amount similar to what it costs to upgrade form a regular harmony to the encore.[...]

And who are you to speak on behalf of other owners? [...]

That is certainly not my intention.[...]

Kinda sounds like you were advocating refunds for all encore owners. That would speaking on their behalf.

 

If you go into batari's posting history, you'll see that he's likely hit a helluva dark patch in real life. Cut him some slack on the PM timing. As WIZ said, "it's a hobby".

 

By all means, if you're unhappy then ask batari for a refund. By all means, complain if you don't get one in a timely fashion. But this attempt to convince others the product is defective, in the absence of any such proof, isn't worthy of you.

 

Maybe the 512K support is for some format other than 3E, like supercharger. Maybe it does have 512k 3E support, but it has a bug or different implementation because he HAD NO TEST ROMS.

 

I'm pretty sure batari will respond to your request, given time. In any case, I don't think you'll find any other pitchforks to join you with demands he hand over his source code, or provide solutions on your timeline. I hope not, anyway.

[ZackAttack]

Please provide a download to your 512kb game that you have programmed and we can go from there.

It's attached to the other post that I linked in the original post. Omegamatrix was nice enough to make another 3E test rom, which is also attached in that topic, but neither of us have had a chance to test the harmony with his yet.

Here's a direct link to the test ROMs.

3E_tests.zip

 

 

Maybe the 512K support is for some format other than 3E, like supercharger.

 

Thanks. I'll look into making another 512KB test program with the Arcadia Supercharger bank switch type and report back the result.

[Shawn]

 

It's attached to the other post that I linked in the original post. Omegamatrix was nice enough to make another 3E test rom, which is also attached in that topic, but neither of us have had a chance to test the harmony with his yet.

Here's a direct link to the test ROMs.

 

 

 

Thanks. I'll look into making another 512KB test program with the Arcadia Supercharger bank switch type and report back the result.

 

 

Nope, not a test rom that Jeff made, I want to see 512k of well used code that you have personally programmed. I wanna see 512k applied in your glorious application for which you are stricken from using on your harmony cart. One of such importance that it justifies needing a refund on the hardware. A program so amazing that you can speak on behalf of everyone else who ever bought a Harmony Encore. It has to be this way because no one is able to utilize this gift which you have given the 2600. This must be so as you personally can't get 512k working with what you have jam packed programmed and God damn it that is what you paid for! With such a deal breaking set of instructions for the Atari 2600 going to waste that even though no other Harmony owners have even heard of your masterpiece, they should clearly be compensated financially.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

What's the currently working limit?

[alex_79]

Thanks. I'll look into making another 512KB test program with the Arcadia Supercharger bank switch type and report back the result.

You can find a simple test for supercharger multiloads here.

[ZackAttack]

It's pretty obvious at this point that I've done a terrible job at communicating in my first post. Please allow my to clarify some things.

 

The term false advertising is used in a technical sense. If it turns out that this is a case of false advertising, I'm sure it was the result of an honest mistake and would never suspect anyone related to the harmony product of intentionally misleading customers. There's actually a more specific term which is used when it was intentional, but I'll refrain from using it here to avoid having it associated with the harmony product.

 

I have no idea if the user batari is managed by a single person or multiple people involved with the product. I only mentioned that I messaged batari directly to make others aware that I tried the official support channel before posting to the forum.

 

I have recommended this product to others on the forum in the past and will continue you to do so after making them aware of this minor potential limitation.

 

I thought I should offer some possible solutions since I was reporting what I perceive as a problem. I never meant for this to be taken as a list of demands. After reading some of the replies I now see how this is speaking on behalf of others. Sorry about that. If and when I get permission to edit that post I will remove this portion of the post to make things right.

Edited March 4, 2018 by ZackAttack

[+LS650]

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Edited March 4, 2018 by ls650