Add new games to Atari 2600 clone

[Materion]

Hello everybody, I have a question . Is there a chance to somehow add new games to the Atari 2600 clone that dont have cartridge slot by swap games that are on chip for own programmed chip with games ? There is a photo of mainboard of that clone . Its 1200 built-in Atari 2600 clone .



Thanks for any reply .

Edited September 6, 2018 by Materion

[Flojomojo]

I can't see the photo, but if it's an older thing, I doubt you'll be adding games to it without a soldering iron and/or EEPROM programmers and other techery.

 

Best to wait for the next AtGames clone console which is rumored to have an SDcard slot. Or get the portable that's in stores already.

[Materion]

Thanks for reply . Now photo should be visible - yeah I expect that without soldering and EEPROM programming there will be no way to add more games, but I'm asking if there is a way with such things .

[alex_79]

Yes, the 32 pin IC in the middle of the board contains the games. The number of games claimed to be installed in those clone units was often quite optimistic (even counting game variations). Most likely it has 128 or 256 games in it and chanches are that the chip is pin compatible with a 27c040 or 27c080 eprom so you can replace it without modifications. Even if the pinout doesn't match and you need to rewire some signals, there's lot of space inside the case, so it's an easy job.

I have a couple of similar units (like the ones I posted here and here), but those have a working cartridge port in addition to the built-in games. It's the first time I see a clone in a case that resembles the classic 4-switch Atari 2600 but without the cart port. Can you post a picture of the assembled console?

 

Is it PAL or NTSC?

Edited September 7, 2018 by alex_79

[Materion]

Sure - heres the photo .

 

 

 

So, I just can program EEPROM and swap it with original chip, right ? But how to program that EEPROM, meaning just put there binary files ? And how large roms I can put there ?

[Materion]

And yes - its PAL.

[alex_79]

Sure - heres the photo .

Thanks for the photo! So, it has a fake cart port on the case. Weird!

 

I found another picture of the same board in this page:

https://habr.com/post/64695/

 

So, I just can program EEPROM and swap it with original chip, right ? But how to program that EEPROM, meaning just put there binary files ? And how large roms I can put there ?

If it is pin compatible with a 27c040 eprom (and I'm confident that it is, but I can't be sure as I don't have a console with that same board), then you can put 128 games (27c040 eprom is 4Mbits, that is 512kbytes). All games must be 4k in size (you can also use 2k games by doubling them, that is by repeating them twice so they use 4k of space). You must concatenate all the binaries to form a single 512Kb file and then burn it to the eprom.

 

 

 

The Atari on a Chip (the big 48 pins IC) doesn't have analog lines for the controller ports, which means the console doesn't support paddles or keyboard controllers, so do not put games that need those in the eprom.

 

The empty slot near the rom chip is for another rom, to add 32 games 2k each. The switch on the top right of the board should select which one of the rom you want to use, but since the second one wasn't installed in your console, that funcionality might be disabled and you might need to remove some jumpers to reenable it.

 

You could also wire a cart port instead of the second rom and install it on the case (probably it won't fit where the current "fake" one is because it will interfere with the ICs on the board, so you'd have to relocate it somewhere else)

[Materion]

Thanks for reply . Its strange, because I have on that clone for example Vanguard - and its a 8K game, isn't it ?

[alex_79]

That's really strange. There's no circuitry on the board to implement bankswitching (required for games larger than 4k). That means that bankswitching must be incorporated in the rom chip, which is possible, but unlikely, and I'm not aware of any other taiwanese clone console or multicart that does that.
The simple game selection system on those consoles works by incrementing a counter (the small 14 pins IC below the rom) connected to the rom high addresses and this method only works if all the games are the same size. If they managed to implement bankswitching in the rom chip, I would expect most of the games to be 8k to make it worth the effort.

Are you sure that's actually Vanguard and not some other similar looking game?

[Wizzard]

Where can I find suitable EPROM programmer?