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Pursuit of the Pink Panther ROM Released!!


Dutchman2000

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It took a long time, but here it is finally.  Ever since I found it in the archive this summer I've been trying to find a way to get this ROM available.  After many failed attempts we finally have it!!

 

Special thanks to Thomas Jentzsch for all of his help in getting this done.  This works in the latest version of Stella which should be available soon after you read this.  

 

After many years I can say it's about time this cat was let out of the bag!!

Pursuit of the Pink Panther.bin

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24 minutes ago, Karl G said:

What is the version number of Stella that is or will be compatible? It's not working for me on Stella 6.0.2 MacOS.

 

 

Screen Shot 2019-10-11 at 7.51.21 PM.png

It actually works on any Stella since about 4.0 or so, but the very latest version (6.0.2) has information in the ROM properties database for it.

 

From the screen above, it looks like you have some debugger option enabled.  Try disabling them and test the ROM again.  I personally tested this on all systems before release, and it shouldn't be giving that type of error.

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7 minutes ago, stephena said:

From the screen above, it looks like you have some debugger option enabled.  Try disabling them and test the ROM again. 

 

You are correct. I can play it if I switch to player settings instead of developer settings.

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Developer mode is for testing all the hardware issues that could happen with a fresh started VCS, while the Player mode sets every register and memory address to zero if I'm correct. I will be at home in hours and I'm gonna both test this with Harmony and UNO cart. (my Harmony is alive again after 1,5 years).

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3 hours ago, classicgamer74 said:

And they said it couldn't be done!  All I had to see was Thomas Jentzsch's name attached and that explained it all. Great job!!

Thanks for the compliments. With today's knowledge and equipment, it wasn't all that hard anymore.

 

This is how you do it:

  1. Put a SaveKey (or AtariVox) into the right port of your Atari 2600
  2. Start a cart (e.g. Harmony) with my RAM based dumper program (especially tailored to the PP bankswitching) loaded
  3. Hot swap the cart with the PP cart (since my program is running in RAM, it will continue to work)
  4. Press fire (this dumps the ROM onto the SaveKey)
  5. Attach a 2600-daptor II flashed with the AtariVox firmware to your Windows PC
  6. Attach the SaveKey to the 2600-daptor
  7. Use the EEPROM utility from the same page to download the SaveKey content onto your computer
  8. Finally convert the downloaded data into a working ROM
  9. Release! :)

So no rocket science. With the right, currently easily available hard- and software everybody can dump a cart. And for the other steps I can help.

Edited by Thomas Jentzsch
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8 hours ago, Karl G said:

 

You are correct. I can play it if I switch to player settings instead of developer settings.

In particular, the option "random startup bank" must be deselected to make it work.

 

5 hours ago, MemberAtarian said:

Developer mode is for testing all the hardware issues that could happen with a fresh started VCS, while the Player mode sets every register and memory address to zero if I'm correct. I will be at home in hours and I'm gonna both test this with Harmony and UNO cart. (my Harmony is alive again after 1,5 years).

Harmony and Unocart don't currently support the bankswitching scheme for this game. You have to wait for a firmware update. In case of the Harmony cart, drivers for "custom" bankswitching schemes can also be added to the binary file itself, without changing the firmware.

 

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26 minutes ago, alex_79 said:

In case of the Harmony cart, drivers for "custom" bankswitching schemes can also be added to the binary file itself, without changing the firmware.

AFAIK the details are not documented anywhere (or are they?), so I have to leave that up to someone else.

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11 hours ago, SS said:

The repro carts that were sold were on Melody boards so will this work on a Harmony Encore?

So there must exist an unreleased driver for the special bankswitching of PP already. But it is not part of the current BIOS. If it gets released, the PP ROM can be adapted to work on both Harmonys.

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