Megadisk Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Hello, I finally got my Coleco ADam IDE/CF setup and I'm having issues playing with some of the software included. Does anyone knows if everything on those CF carts is playable and/or are there any known conflicts with any particular titles? For example, while many of the Flashcart roms play just fine, games like "Beamrider" crash. Any help is much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 There were 4 games made by Activision that were recently patched in order to work properly from rom image format on the ADAM. I don’t recall of hand which ones but I think Beamrider is one of them. You can find the patched rom images in the Files section of the Coleco Adam Facebook page or on the Adam Archive (www.adamarchive.org). Also, it would be helpful to know what software setup you have on the CF Cards. Is is MicroFox’ or are they using my vastly updated software setup which can be downloaded here in a thread about the IDE CF Card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megadisk Posted August 1, 2020 Author Share Posted August 1, 2020 2 hours ago, NIAD said: There were 4 games made by Activision that were recently patched in order to work properly from rom image format on the ADAM. I don’t recall of hand which ones but I think Beamrider is one of them. You can find the patched rom images in the Files section of the Coleco Adam Facebook page or on the Adam Archive (www.adamarchive.org). Also, it would be helpful to know what software setup you have on the CF Cards. Is is MicroFox’ or are they using my vastly updated software setup which can be downloaded here in a thread about the IDE CF Card. Thanks for your reply. I'm using MIcrofox's updated software. I also went ahead and downloaded what seems to be your software setup (64M cf images). In both cases, when going into roms and attempting to play "Beamrider" it crashes. This happens in both my Coleco Adam and in another Expansion model 3 unit I have. I'm trying to figure out if its a software issue or if there is something wrong with my IDE card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) It is just an issue with these 4 rom image files. Just download the patched versions and then transfer to the CF Card (replacing the existing Beamrider rom file and the 3 others) to correct the issue. You should read thru my updated docs that are included with my CF Card image files as it will highlight other software incompatibilities and explains why I included rom images that don’t work mainly due to not being able to work from RAM compared to an actual cartridge ROM. Make sure to get Eric Pearson’s Adam Image Manager for easier file manipulation in Windows or use the Adamem SDL or DOS emulator (v1.8x or higher) to add to CF Image files, test and then transfer to actual CF Cards. It’s nice having these options to save all the wear and tear on actual Adam hardware. Edited August 1, 2020 by NIAD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Megadisk... you inspired me to get off my arsh and update the CF Card #2 with the four patched Activision rom images. Attached below if the updated hd_ide2.img file with the working Beamrider, Keystone Kapers, Pitfall! and River Raid rom files. Just download, unzip and use HDDRawCopy (provided by MicroFox with the IDE CF Package) to write it to CF Card #2. How did I update it? I used ADAM Image Manager v1.1.1 by Eric Pearson as well as ADAMem v2.0beta by Geoff Oltmans. In ADAM Image Manager v1.1.1: - made a new 160K disk image - copied the 4 PC rom image files individually to the 160K disk image and gave the new ADAM files the C attribute - tried to block copy the individual rom files on the 160K disk image to the existing block locations on hd_ide2.img file (CF Card #2), but for some reason I could not do so using ADAM Image Manager as both the source and destination came up as ADAM IDE when I choose Block Copy so I had to use ADAMem In ADAMem it boots automatically to the HD Menu program: - USE HD #2 (SmartKEY II) - BOOT FROM HARD DISK (SmartKEY III) - Choose FILEMAN - CTRL-F9 to bring up ADAMem config in order to mount the 160K disk image with good roms in Disk Drive #1 - verify the starting block # and total # of blocks for each rom file on the 160K disk image and the HD_IDE2 image file - block copy the appropriate blocks from the 160K disk image to the HD_IDE2 image file to overwrite each bad rom with the patched rom If you come across anymore rom files that you experience issues with, please let me know and I will take a look. FYI... the patched rom images were necessary because the original game code would not work on an ADAM when loaded into RAM with CopyCart. - hd_ide2 (fixed 4 Activision Roms).zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megadisk Posted August 5, 2020 Author Share Posted August 5, 2020 (edited) Wow I'm speechless.... It works! it really works!.. I don't know what kind of sorcery you pulled there but amazing work! My hat's off to you sir! Now, I'm have this weird issue with the rom "Antartic Adventure". For some reason when played through this setup on the Adam computer, the game loads fine but once the actual gameplay begins, the screen cuts off like if its going into a weird video mode. While in demo mode, the screen comes and goes depending on what part of the demo is playing, but its running in the background the whole time. Any ideas to what might be happening? The thing is, it plays perfectly fine on my Expansion module #3 attached to an AV modded Colecovision system. Edit: I had the Adam setup connected via the Composite video/Audio cable and then switched to the RF modulator, it plays great on RF. The Composite video output signal most be weak. Edited August 5, 2020 by Megadisk added info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Glad to help. No sorcery involved, just follow the steps I listed and you can do it as well. Big thanks to Eric Pearson (IIRC) for patching the rom dumps to work properly from RAM. I have to double check Sector Alpha and Pitstop to verify that they are the final “good” dumps of the cartridges... when I can find the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rietveld Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 thank you . i also just downloaded this new image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rietveld Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 On 8/3/2020 at 4:45 PM, NIAD said: Megadisk... you inspired me to get off my arsh and update the CF Card #2 with the four patched Activision rom images. Attached below if the updated hd_ide2.img file with the working Beamrider, Keystone Kapers, Pitfall! and River Raid rom files. Just download, unzip and use HDDRawCopy (provided by MicroFox with the IDE CF Package) to write it to CF Card #2. How did I update it? I used ADAM Image Manager v1.1.1 by Eric Pearson as well as ADAMem v2.0beta by Geoff Oltmans. In ADAM Image Manager v1.1.1: - made a new 160K disk image - copied the 4 PC rom image files individually to the 160K disk image and gave the new ADAM files the C attribute - tried to block copy the individual rom files on the 160K disk image to the existing block locations on hd_ide2.img file (CF Card #2), but for some reason I could not do so using ADAM Image Manager as both the source and destination came up as ADAM IDE when I choose Block Copy so I had to use ADAMem In ADAMem it boots automatically to the HD Menu program: - USE HD #2 (SmartKEY II) - BOOT FROM HARD DISK (SmartKEY III) - Choose FILEMAN - CTRL-F9 to bring up ADAMem config in order to mount the 160K disk image with good roms in Disk Drive #1 - verify the starting block # and total # of blocks for each rom file on the 160K disk image and the HD_IDE2 image file - block copy the appropriate blocks from the 160K disk image to the HD_IDE2 image file to overwrite each bad rom with the patched rom If you come across anymore rom files that you experience issues with, please let me know and I will take a look. FYI... the patched rom images were necessary because the original game code would not work on an ADAM when loaded into RAM with CopyCart. - hd_ide2 (fixed 4 Activision Roms).zip 6.15 MB · 12 downloads it looks like you also added more games to the image unless i am seeing it wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 1 hour ago, rietveld said: it looks like you also added more games to the image unless i am seeing it wrong No, just the four Activision rom updates. The last major update that I posted in the IDE CF Card thread was back in 2015 iirc and was version 2 as far as I listed in the doc/rtf file. It’s been a long time mainly because of the release of SD Drive solutions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rietveld Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 (edited) 35 minutes ago, NIAD said: No, just the four Activision rom updates. The last major update that I posted in the IDE CF Card thread was back in 2015 iirc and was version 2 as far as I listed in the doc/rtf file. It’s been a long time mainly because of the release of SD Drive solutions. i must have a really old vesion of it then because my card 2 is much different i can post a copy of it here later for you to compare if you want Edited August 6, 2020 by rietveld Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 4 hours ago, rietveld said: i must have a really old vesion of it then because my card 2 is much different i can post a copy of it here later for you to compare if you want No need. Either you have the original setup provided by MicroFox or Ver. 1 of mine. I made a lot of additions to Ver. 2 and I will label the Activision rom update as Ver. 2.1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 8, 2020 Share Posted August 8, 2020 Decided to tackle some further rom image updates on CF Card #02: - Correct rom dump size of Meteoric Shower (8K not 16K) - Final version and correct rom dump size of Sector Alpha released by Ikrananka (20K not 24K) - Bug free version of Pitstop Attached is version 2.2 of my CF Card #02. Just use HDDRawCopy to write the hd_ide.img file back to your CF Card. hd_ide2 (v2.2 - Pitstop, Meteoric, Sector).zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megadisk Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 On 8/8/2020 at 12:13 AM, NIAD said: Decided to tackle some further rom image updates on CF Card #02: - Correct rom dump size of Meteoric Shower (8K not 16K) - Final version and correct rom dump size of Sector Alpha released by Ikrananka (20K not 24K) - Bug free version of Pitstop Attached is version 2.2 of my CF Card #02. Just use HDDRawCopy to write the hd_ide.img file back to your CF Card. hd_ide2 (v2.2 - Pitstop, Meteoric, Sector).zip 6.14 MB · 6 downloads Awesome! Excuse my ignorance, are those new patched roms on this CF Card #2? I can't seem to find them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 2 hours ago, Megadisk said: Awesome! Excuse my ignorance, are those new patched roms on this CF Card #2? I can't seem to find them. Yes. I just replaced the mentioned rom image files that were already of CF Card #2 (ie. Hard Disk 2 as listed in the HD Menu program) Meteoric Shower is on volume #1 while Pitstop And Sector Alpha are on volume #2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megadisk Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 3 minutes ago, NIAD said: Yes. I just replaced the mentioned rom image files that were already of CF Card #2 (ie. Hard Disk 2 as listed in the HD Menu program) Meteoric Shower is on volume #1 while Pitstop And Sector Alpha are on volume #2. Hmmm interesting. I also must have an older version because my CF card #2 doesn't have those roms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 Post #166 contains info and download links (hope they still work) for my CF Card images files and includes a very details documentation file (in WordPad RTF format). It’s a lengthy thread but well worth reading thru in it’s entirety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rietveld Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 1 hour ago, NIAD said: Post #166 contains info and download links (hope they still work) for my CF Card images files and includes a very details documentation file (in WordPad RTF format). It’s a lengthy thread but well worth reading thru in it’s entirety. do you hav e a link to your original , or micro fox's, single cf card image. i would like to run a single physical ide drive on my second adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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