"Dragonfly" my version of the Atari 7800 SD cartridge

[+chriswhit]

I know this is a long shot but any chance this is available still? I saw a different thread about the pokey max and I can definitely get those. I’d even buy the info to build one. Be nice to just buy one even if it’s pricy. 

[Lord_of_Sipan]

4 hours ago, chriswhit said:

I know this is a long shot but any chance this is available still? I saw a different thread about the pokey max and I can definitely get those. I’d even buy the info to build one. Be nice to just buy one even if it’s pricy. 

It is not currently for sale. Currently the only sd cart is the Concerto although the 7800gd is going to be available very soon.

[+chriswhit]

7800 gd? I’m a little behind on this new stuff as my house burned in 2018 and I just getting back into things. Gonna be dev modding a 7800 sometime this week. The Dragonfly is the closest thing to the xm expansion module there is. I’d do give 5-$600 for one lol. I guess that will teach me not to stop doing something I love just cause of a major loss. If none of that happened I’d have known before and bought then. The 7800gd is something I gotta learn about before it’s too late. Thanks. Oh I ordered the concerto 5-6 days ago. Was actually shocked to see it had been finished as it seemed like a pipe dream. My harmony is all that was left of my pre fire collection and found it last week in my shop so I bought a heavy sixer and 2 7800’s and a lot of rarity 8-9 carts over the past week. Thanks for the info. Gonna search the 7800gd now

[Shaggy the Atarian]

I was wanting to grab the digital version of EXO and decided to make sure it would work on my DF cart, but the latest release candidate - as well as two older versions of the game - just display garbled colored lines. I've updated the DF to 1.09 and get the same result. I also discovered that most of the title screen for Tower Toppler does the same thing, but if I run it with the original cart, it looks just fine. I would guess that means it's something with my DF cart but not sure. Thoughts?

 

 

[Eagle]

Check DF settings, maybe ram is disabled(?)

Edited July 8, 2023 by Eagle

[Shaggy the Atarian]

13 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Check DF settings, maybe ram is disabled(?)

Derp on my part, that worked! Thanks!

[+-^CrossBow^-]

34 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Derp on my part, that worked! Thanks!

I just leave the RAM enabled at all times on my DF along with the POKEY and YM because it doesn't hurt to leave it all enabled since that way games can look for and work properly when they call for it.

 

[Shaggy the Atarian]

2 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I just leave the RAM enabled at all times on my DF along with the POKEY and YM because it doesn't hurt to leave it all enabled since that way games can look for and work properly when they call for it.

 

I had no idea that it had been deactivated in the first place ...although it's only been recently that I've been getting into using my DF again. Thanks!

[+chriswhit]

Was curious if there was a support thread or a troubleshooting info page. Bought a dragonfly with all the upgrades from a member that didn’t wanna deal with finding a power supply and it just seems only have audio but no video or white zigzag lines on some. Some of the 2600 files have video. None of the 7800s do. I only have 5 7800 carts but they all work. Is it possible it doesn’t like my slowly failing plasma screen tv? It’s a ntsc system with no mods at all. The only other 7800 I have is a dev mod and thinking not compatible cause you have to be powered on and then click launch game or dump and it dumps a bin. The cart came from Georgia so I’d think it would be ntsc also. Where do I post questions I guess. Thanks

[+-^CrossBow^-]

11 minutes ago, chriswhit said:

Was curious if there was a support thread or a troubleshooting info page. Bought a dragonfly with all the upgrades from a member that didn’t wanna deal with finding a power supply and it just seems only have audio but no video or white zigzag lines on some. Some of the 2600 files have video. None of the 7800s do. I only have 5 7800 carts but they all work. Is it possible it doesn’t like my slowly failing plasma screen tv? It’s a ntsc system with no mods at all. The only other 7800 I have is a dev mod and thinking not compatible cause you have to be powered on and then click launch game or dump and it dumps a bin. The cart came from Georgia so I’d think it would be ntsc also. Where do I post questions I guess. Thanks

Well..first of all the DF cart does NOT run any 2600 games because the cart itself always comes up as a 7800 cartridge to the system. So the 7800 will only ever stay in 7800 mode. Therefore only 7800 roms will work.

 

The DF cart will only with roms that have the .A78 extension as the DF requires the header information in those extensions to tell it how to load up the game to mimic the cartridge functions. The dragon fly doesn't have anything to do with video since the DF cart just appears to be a 7800 game cartridge to the 7800 when powered on.

 

Just to make sure you are using the DF cart properly...

 

The DF is plugged into the 7800 with the smaller power cord. The DF then requires a separate 9v output only PSU with center tip positive to power the DF cart. 

Insert the DF cart while powered off into the console.

Turn on the DF cart and then use the buttons to select the 7800 game or program you are trying to run and press the rightmost button (used as Enter), usually twice as the first press shows you the header title info for the game (If it was typed into the header), and the second press is to actually begin loading the game code into the DF carts temp RAM.

The DF cart will shortly then tell you to power on the console, do so at that time.

The 7800 should then boot up as normal but will load up the game or program you previously specified.

 

And that's it really. You can use the buttons while the DF is running a game to see specifics like the size of the file, NTSC/PAL, if it uses Pokey and at what address, RAM enabled etc. The other Left most button is used to back out of the game you have selected and allow you to browse your CD card for another game or program and then use the right most button again to load the new game or program into the DFs memory. When you do this, the DF will cut off power to the 7800 and then instruct you to power the console back on again once everything is loaded and ready to go.

 

If you only power the console on/off but do NOT power off the DF cart after loading a game or program, then as long as the DF is left turned on and inserted into the console, it will always come up with the last game or program it had loaded immediately when you power on the console. Once you turn the DF cart off, that information is wiped since again it is only temporarily stored in the active flash of the DF.