ANY NEW 800 TO 5200 CONVERSIONS IN THE WORKS?

[SINGLE TOOTH]

One was planned for the ColecoVision as well. I'd either not heard or forgot that.

Isn't that basically the ADAM computer?

[Swami]

Isn't that basically the ADAM computer?

Doh. I guess so. Had my brain stuck on keyboard only accesories.

 

They made the behemoth expansion module #3 that plugged into Colecovision expansion slot, but was really everything in the Adam except the cartridge slot, including the "printer as power supply". I thought about getting one as a cheaper, smaller alternative to the whole Adam, but it really only saves you about eight square inches of shelf space.

[ledzep]

I did a joystick mode trak-ball hack some time ago here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247585-crystal-castles-no-trackball-support/?p=3439482

 

That's cool. But I would want (if it's possible) a code change in the game that supports the trak-ball, the way it was added to Tempest last-minute (and was initially not right and someone else solved the problem). From what I remember, what was added to Tempest wasn't that much code. I guess I mention it after reading Wrathchild mention "dis-assemblies". But I suppose that would require that Crystal Castles reacts to analog joystick functionality (faster/slower movement, not constant linear movement like from a digital, 8-way joystick) and now that I think about it I don't know if that's true if Crystal Castles is a straight port from the 8-bit computer line, all that analog joystick/trak-ball code would have to be added and that might grow bigger than 16K or whatever the 5200 stock cart size is.

[SoundGammon]

How about the three Spy Vs. Spys?

[Lynxpro]

 

That's cool. But I would want (if it's possible) a code change in the game that supports the trak-ball, the way it was added to Tempest last-minute (and was initially not right and someone else solved the problem). From what I remember, what was added to Tempest wasn't that much code. I guess I mention it after reading Wrathchild mention "dis-assemblies". But I suppose that would require that Crystal Castles reacts to analog joystick functionality (faster/slower movement, not constant linear movement like from a digital, 8-way joystick) and now that I think about it I don't know if that's true if Crystal Castles is a straight port from the 8-bit computer line, all that analog joystick/trak-ball code would have to be added and that might grow bigger than 16K or whatever the 5200 stock cart size is.

 

If someone can get native Trak-Ball support going into Crystal Castles, then my hat's definitely off to them because some many people claim the kernel is "too busy" to do it and it would cause the CPU to send Bentley Bear through every part of the maze and castle with each spin of the Trak-Ball. This has also been claimed about the 2600 version, but specifically in terms of A8/5200, both versions of the A8 Crystal Castles. There's 2 versions because Atari Corp later had it redone by a different developer for the XE Game System. That's also been another question to ponder, whether the 2nd Crystal Castles truly requires the XE Game System's standard 64K RAM. Nir Dary has said before that with some bank-switching rewrites/mods to the code, every "XE Game System" title supposedly requiring 64K will actually run on 16K RAM systems like the 600XL.

 

On the 2600 front, nobody has announced they'd like to rewrite 2600 Crystal Castles to use a DPC+ chip to handle Bentley Bear tracking and Trak-Ball support. I suspect if it's true the 6502 is the bottleneck on the tightly coded kernels preventing native Trak-Ball support on the A8/5200 platforms, then the code would have to be hacked to have the chip on the AtariMax SD Adapter to pull those duties or a 65816 upgrade would be required; both might speed up the games too much without adding addition code to slow it back down to normal.

[Lynxpro]

 

That's cool. But I would want (if it's possible) a code change in the game that supports the trak-ball, the way it was added to Tempest last-minute (and was initially not right and someone else solved the problem). From what I remember, what was added to Tempest wasn't that much code. I guess I mention it after reading Wrathchild mention "dis-assemblies". But I suppose that would require that Crystal Castles reacts to analog joystick functionality (faster/slower movement, not constant linear movement like from a digital, 8-way joystick) and now that I think about it I don't know if that's true if Crystal Castles is a straight port from the 8-bit computer line, all that analog joystick/trak-ball code would have to be added and that might grow bigger than 16K or whatever the 5200 stock cart size is.

 

Standard 5200 cartridges can do 32K ROMs. I think AtariAge User Bryan - or was it CPUWiz? - created a 700K+ ROM cartridge PCB. Nobody has yet designed a 1MB ROM cartridge PCB - which a conversion of A8 Space Harrier would require - and also no PCBs with on-board RAM or a required "mapper"/logic/glue chip support to make it accessible.

[ledzep]

 

If someone can get native Trak-Ball support going into Crystal Castles, then my hat's definitely off to them because some many people claim the kernel is "too busy" to do it and it would cause the CPU to send Bentley Bear through every part of the maze and castle with each spin of the Trak-Ball. This has also been claimed about the 2600 version, but specifically in terms of A8/5200, both versions of the A8 Crystal Castles. There's 2 versions because Atari Corp later had it redone by a different developer for the XE Game System. That's also been another question to ponder, whether the 2nd Crystal Castles truly requires the XE Game System's standard 64K RAM. Nir Dary has said before that with some bank-switching rewrites/mods to the code, every "XE Game System" title supposedly requiring 64K will actually run on 16K RAM systems like the 600XL.

 

On the 2600 front, nobody has announced they'd like to rewrite 2600 Crystal Castles to use a DPC+ chip to handle Bentley Bear tracking and Trak-Ball support. I suspect if it's true the 6502 is the bottleneck on the tightly coded kernels preventing native Trak-Ball support on the A8/5200 platforms, then the code would have to be hacked to have the chip on the AtariMax SD Adapter to pull those duties or a 65816 upgrade would be required; both might speed up the games too much without adding addition code to slow it back down to normal.

 

I don't doubt what you say is true, it just seems funny to me that Crystal Castles is the game that is too terrible for the trak-ball to be coded for, I would have thought a game like Tempest would be the harder nut to crack, it seems like people work that spinner way harder than Crystal Castles players.

[Lynxpro]

 

I don't doubt what you say is true, it just seems funny to me that Crystal Castles is the game that is too terrible for the trak-ball to be coded for, I would have thought a game like Tempest would be the harder nut to crack, it seems like people work that spinner way harder than Crystal Castles players.

 

I hear ya. Although Bentley Bear's movements are more complicated than your character in Tempest, except in the case of speed. Although I do recall people flinging Bentley Bear around in the arcade by letting the Trak-Ball spin, either out of frustration or just to see what would happen even if sacrificing a quarter to do it...