7800 flashcart

[rocketmonkey101]

So is the only solution for 7800 flash carts right now the dev cart? I can't seem to find anything active. Looks like the mateos cart is even dormant. I sent an email and got nothing back.

[+save2600]

Nope, nothing. The 7800 is sorely lacking a flash cart solution.

[+eebuckeye]

I believe Saint will be on it after the Jaguar SD releases! Can't wait for both!

[Jinks]

I have a concerto.. more rare than a cc2..

[rocketmonkey101]

I have a concerto.. more rare than a cc2..

Pretty fancy Jinks. Does anyone know why Schells stopped making the CC2? That seems to have been be a perfect solution. I saw all three Cuttle carts for sale on ebay together for a cool grand. Way outside my price range.

[Lord Thag]

Yeah the lack of a hardware flashcart solution really sucks. I have a 75% finished spiritual sequel to Cosmic Ark done, but I need to be able to test it on hardware to continue developing. I'll buy the first one that becomes available.

[+groundtrooper]

Pretty fancy Jinks. Does anyone know why Schells stopped making the CC2? That seems to have been be a perfect solution. I saw all three Cuttle carts for sale on ebay together for a cool grand. Way outside my price range.

I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading someplace that it was a combination of two things. One he was tired of making them and two there were some critical parts that were no long being produced that were critical to being able to build them. Someone else may have better and more info but when I started getting into the 7800 3 years ago I read a lot here and other places about the different 7800 Flash cart options.

 

I got in early enough to grab a Mateo’s and have lucked into a Concerto that is fairly compatible with my daily driver modded 7800. I count myself very lucky to have both of these options to play things on real hardware.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Heaven/TQA]

Glad I got a Mateo 16-1 cart lend to me to test my code and I have to say that is a good solution for devs. Good, too, is that a7800 seems pretty accurate. Same glitches, same colors like my original a7800.

 

Real hw has some better TIA sound and seems little bit faster but I had expected far worse for this niche console. Atari Lynx emus are far worse.

 

So I can stick to code most time on a7800.

[john_q_atari]

I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading someplace that it was a combination of two things. One he was tired of making them and two there were some critical parts that were no long being produced that were critical to being able to build them. Someone else may have better and more info but when I started getting into the 7800 3 years ago I read a lot here and other places about the different 7800 Flash cart options.

 

It took awhile for his CC2 to sell out:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/258688-cuttle-cart-2-and-schell-electronic/?view=findpost&p=3626602

 

And after that it took 6 years for his CC3 (intellivision flashcart) to sell out. Probably because the parts cost isn't cheap, so the price isn't cheap, so the demand is lower:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/197666-cc3-finally-sold-out/?view=findpost&p=2528912

 

And regarding parts from the man himself:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/123144-my-cuttle-cart-2-died/?view=findpost&p=1498836

 

So with the limited demand for the 7800 and the apparent price sensitivity of the intended audience, if anything gets built it will be a labor of love. I am guessing there is perhaps a 500 user TAM (total addressable market, as in 7800 owners who have both the awareness of atariage or the habit of google search to find 7800 targeted products within the lifetime of the product's planning and production timeline). Not all of them will want a flashcart, and those that do may be price conscious, so perhaps you might sell as many as 50 at $200, 75 at $150, and 100 at $100 (but this is just my guess.) The real datapoints will be total sales of Rikki&Vikki and total sales of the XM.

Edited March 22, 2019 by john_q_atari

[Airshack]

I can only get the Mateos 7800 multi to work with Windows7. Windows10 — no. Something about Win10 writing hidden files to the card whenever you eject it. It’s quirky. I keep a Win7 system around just for the Mateos 7800 Multi. Probably my most labor intensive and least satisfying multi of all. Better than nothing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I can only get the Mateos 7800 multi to work with Windows7. Windows10 — no. Something about Win10 writing hidden files to the card whenever you eject it. It’s quirky. I keep a Win7 system around just for the Mateos 7800 Multi. Probably my most labor intensive and least satisfying multi of all. Better than nothing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

I created a batch file that I run each time before copying over a new rom file to a selected ram bank. The batch file deletes the hidden files off the cart before copying. Also, I've found it works better if you don't go through the safely remove USB part nor eject it. Just unplug it from the PC once the file copy is done.

[Heaven/TQA]

I can only get the Mateos 7800 multi to work with Windows7. Windows10 no. Something about Win10 writing hidden files to the card whenever you eject it. Its quirky. I keep a Win7 system around just for the Mateos 7800 Multi. Probably my most labor intensive and least satisfying multi of all. Better than nothing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Win 10 is writing hidden files to the flash partition when entered Mateo . I run in same issue. You can disable that without registry hacks. So in my case that worked. Prior that I had 64kb free per slot and could not transfer 128k image but with disabling that feature it worked.

 

https://superuser.com/questions/1199823/how-to-prevent-creation-of-system-volume-information-folder-in-windows-10-for

Edited March 23, 2019 by Heaven/TQA

[+SmittyB]

This is the contents of the batch file I use. It switches to the l: drive which is what my Mateos cart mounts as, lists the directory so I can be 100% sure I'm looking at the cart, then it asks if I want to delete the hidden directory and if I do it'll copy over whatever file I dragged onto the batch file.

l:
DIR /A
RMDIR /S "system volume information"
XCOPY "%~f1" "l:" 

In my experience the ROM will never be correct without using the 'safely remove device' option successfully first try. If the folder is open and I try to 'safely remove device' then even if I close the window and retry the ROM will fail to work. Also in the past people have reported problems which they resolved by using a different USB cable.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Yeap here is my batch file as well only mine mounts as E: in my system.

 

@Echo Off

e:

RMDIR /S /Q "system volume information"

@Echo On

And yes if I use the "Safely remove...it does remove it safely. But then the rom usually gives me vertical bars or some other crap. My guess is that Windows 10 is still writing the hidden data or some portion of it when I disconnect it using the Safe remove option. Yanking it once it has copied over and I can verify that by opening it up and seeing the file there has worked far better for me. Each computer is different so what works for one may very well require to be different on others. Also the registry hack that has been listed as NEVER worked for me at all. The hidden system volume file still gets written no matter what! Hence why I created the batch file to remove it before I copy over the data.

[Airshack]

Fair to say the Mateos 7800 solution is a giant A$$ pain compared to AtariMax cards for other systems such as the 5200? I’d say so.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Heaven/TQA]

Compared to A8 solutions... yes... but at least it works.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Fair to say the Mateos 7800 solution is a giant A$$ pain compared to AtariMax cards for other systems such as the 5200? I’d say so.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

It is really only a pita when using it with anything newer than windows7 honestly. If you use win7 or XP even then the Mateos is simple to use. Just plug it into your computers USB port and it shows up as a removable drive. You can open it and it will show the rom.bin file that you copied to it and you can delete it and copy back..etc. No issues. I think starting with Win8 and above, is when windows started to create hidden files into the flash carts flash banks. Because of this the hidden files eat up the space preventing you from easily copying over the files, but because they are hidden, you don't normally see this to know what is going on. Even when you setup your folder options to view hidden files...etc you can see it but it won't just delete out. So yes..it is a pain on windows10 especially to use but to be fair, Windows 10 wasn't out when the Mateos was originally released. Although Win10 was released like a year later if I remember. I actually keep an old WinXP netbook nearby to load up my Mateos much easier.

[+DrVenkman]

But since the creator has gone radio-silent it’s a non-starter for anyone who doesn’t yet have one.

 

Fingers crossed SainT can come through.

[+Stephen]

Yeah the lack of a hardware flashcart solution really sucks. I have a 75% finished spiritual sequel to Cosmic Ark done, but I need to be able to test it on hardware to continue developing. I'll buy the first one that becomes available.

Interesting - Cosmic Ark is still one of my fave 2600 games.

[Lord Thag]

Interesting - Cosmic Ark is still one of my fave 2600 games.

Yeah, same, hence the sequel. I just need a way to test it on actual hardware to continue development.

 

It's a several screen kinda deal. First screen is a higher res version of the mothership first level of the original, only with the ships from Atlantis added making attack runs in addition to the meteors. Gets pretty hectic. Second screen is you piloting your lander through an asteroid swarm picking up escape pods from all the destroyed Atlantean arks. Third level is a collection screens with floating islands, survivors to rescue and defense bases firing at you, where you have to contend with gravity and inertia. A 4th planned (but not programmed) screen will have you piloting the lander through a cave system, and finally a boss battle with the gorgon flagship.

[+save2600]

Yeah, same, hence the sequel. I just need a way to test it on actual hardware to continue development.

It's a several screen kinda deal. First screen is a higher res version of the mothership first level of the original, only with the ships from Atlantis added making attack runs in addition to the meteors. Gets pretty hectic. Second screen is you piloting your lander through an asteroid swarm picking up escape pods from all the destroyed Atlantean arks. Third level is a collection screens with floating islands, survivors to rescue and defense bases firing at you, where you have to contend with gravity and inertia. A 4th planned (but not programmed) screen will have you piloting the lander through a cave system, and finally a boss battle with the gorgon flagship.

 

Yes, please!

[Lord Thag]

Here are some screen shots of what I have so far. Early days yet, still some placeholder graphics etc.

Just waiting on a hardware dev solution.

[PacManPlus]

That looks freakin' awesome.

[Lord Thag]

That looks freakin' awesome.

Thanks! I'm hoping it will be. First time trying something like this on a retro console, though I've done some programming in the past on the side.

 

Once I get a way to test it on hardware, I'll get back to working on it.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Here are some screen shots of what I have so far. Early days yet, still some placeholder graphics etc.

 

Just waiting on a hardware dev solution.

 

 

Tells me I don't have Permission when I try and click on those to view them up close?