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Concerto SD-card multicart ordering info


batari

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1 hour ago, nick3092 said:

Looks like Fred has more ready to go. I reserved a copy on 12/13. Just got my order link over night.

 

Now I need to remember where I put that pokey I bought like 4 years ago...

I placed my pre-order on 12/31.  I know Fred is working crazy hard to meet demand.  It's nice to hear that the line is moving.  :)

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Yes, some of the 12/14 reservations have been invited to order, so anyone ordering on that date is close.

 

If anyone placed a reservation before 12/14 and has not received an email, please let me know. There are a couple of people who have paid the reservation and been invited some time ago but not yet placed an order, so if I don't hear from them soon I will try other means of contact.

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@batari -  I've been checking your online shop every other day or so hoping to see reservations open back up.  Will you be posting back to this thread when that happens or is there a better way to sign up for notifications as to when that will happen?  

 

I've looked through this thread and didn't see that mentioned, but I do apologize if I missed it.

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7 hours ago, HatNJ said:

sent PM to you @batari

Thanks, as some other than you have been contacted and have not ordered, which suggests that the mail went to spam and gone unnoticed, or it was blocked altogether by the recipient's mail server. In the next few days I am going to do a full audit of that and try to figure out another way of contacting the people who have fallen through the cracks.

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On 1/30/2021 at 10:05 AM, eightbitwhit said:

@batari -  I've been checking your online shop every other day or so hoping to see reservations open back up.  Will you be posting back to this thread when that happens or is there a better way to sign up for notifications as to when that will happen?  

 

I've looked through this thread and didn't see that mentioned, but I do apologize if I missed it.

I'm trying to get caught up with things before I open reservations back up. Maybe at the end of the week I will allow some more.

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Thanks for the update, @batari

 

I went through and checked my email's spam folder, just in case I might have missed anything.  I always forget to check there.  Fortunately, I didn't miss anything from you.  

 

The way I see it, we've waited for so long for something like this...what's another week/month?  Thanks for all you do for the community.  You are certainly appreciated!  :)

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16 hours ago, Deteacher said:

Thanks for the update, @batari

 

I went through and checked my email's spam folder, just in case I might have missed anything.  I always forget to check there.  Fortunately, I didn't miss anything from you.  

 

The way I see it, we've waited for so long for something like this...what's another week/month?  Thanks for all you do for the community.  You are certainly appreciated!  :)

I've been checking all my folders too, just to make sure I don't miss the email. I am eagerly waiting my chance to buy this cart!!! I got my 7800 AV mod done just to be ready for this, and have my Pokey ready to go! 

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On 12/11/2020 at 4:54 PM, batari said:

For those who aren't aware, Concerto is an advanced microcontroller-based SD-card flashcart with an onscreen menu, that is designed to support all of the original Atari 7800 titles and all original Atari 2600 titles, plus most of the modern homebrew titles and demos. It supports POKEY sound (POKEY chip not included) and other sound sources are on the drawing board (see below). Concerto is reverse-compatible with Harmony Encore so it plays all 2600 games that work on Encore, including the newer DPC+, CDFJ and other ARM-based games, and you can even load the Harmony Encore firmware on it and it will function exactly like one.

 

The Concerto has a total of 520k of RAM, 32k of parallel flash and 2MB of serial flash. Currently games up to 144k are supported, and work is being done to support the larger games.

 

SD cards can be FAT or FAT32 formatted, up to 32GB in size. Setting up the Concerto is easy: just put your A78 files or Atari 2600 games on the SD card, plug into the Concerto and go.

 

The onscreen menu display is 40 characters wide, but can display long filenames up to 240 characters as well. There is no hard limit to how many levels deep you can go with subdirectories. It supports up to 10,000 entries in a directory, and though currently the files aren't sorted, I am working on automatic sorting alphabetically.

 

The firmware is still in development, so you are expected to keep up on firmware updates for the latest features and bug fixes.

 

How to order Concerto:

 

Until now, I have been putting up small batches but they have been selling out quickly, to the chagrin of many.


I don't like preorder lists, but also don't want full payment up front. Lists are not a meaningful indicator of how many carts I would need to build as people sign up for lists then never follow through. And, full payment up front comes with higher expectations. So I think a better answer is to create a reservation system.

 

I will still release carts with the current lottery system, but if you miss out, don't fret. I am going to allow people to reserve a Concerto with a deposit. The $10 deposit is 100% refundable for any reason, and at any time, just ask. If you go on to purchase a Concerto through the reservation system, the $10 is also a down payment and will be used toward the cost.

 

There are a limited number of reservation slots. I will only allow as many reservations as I feel I can accommodate in about 30 days. I won't publicly display who made a reservation, but if you do make a reservation, I will let you know what your place in line is, and try to make an educated guess of how long it will be until you are invited to buy.

 

The $10 also does two more things:

 

1. It also locks in the sale price of $89, even if the regular price goes back up to $99, as I intend to return to the regular price once the preproduction carts are sold out and Concerto goes into general production.

 

2. An additional benefit from being a reservation holder is you will get the first shot at two new products I am working on:

 

One, a power adapter for the 7800. This allows you to use a bog-standard 12v PSU, *either* tip polarity, or even AC output. There will be 2.5mm and 2.1mm versions available, or with both plugs in one. Plug your PSU into the adapter, and the adapter into the 7800 with the included pigtail. The adapter itself is small: it is roughly the length of an SD card, but about half the width. It is designed to provide up to 1.5A of clean, filtered 9V power to your 7800, with quality brand-name components, so you don't have to worry about poor regulation, overvoltage or anything else you might find by using the direct output from a questionable PSU. Although it's designed for the common 12v power supplies, it should work with around 10v-24v, so you can use an adapter you probably already have. The expected price of this board will be $10 to Concerto owners. (This adapter is ready to order, actually, but I just need to find a source for the Atari 7800 connector housing. The ones I have found do not fit snugly enough, so I am still searching.)

 

Two, HOKEY! HOKEY is a POKEY replacement chip, if you aren't aware. Unlike other POKEY replacements, HOKEY is microcontroller-based, which allows for flexibility that is hard to match with a standard hardware approach. So, HOKEY will not necessarily just be a POKEY chip.

 

Once the basic POKEY is validated on the new design, I will begin work on an enhanced HOKEY and attempt to tackle Bupchip, plus an emulator author wants to adapt HOKEY to emulate the YM2151 chip and digital sample playback with PCM output once the basic driver is working, so that homebrew boards will have a reliable source of high quality sound chips without having to locate old chips or use expensive replacements. HOKEY is expected to start at $10. Although HOKEY is being designed specifically with the Atari 7800 homebrew market in mind, you can also use one on a Concerto.

 

The reservation system should go live shortly, and another batch of Concertos will be released for sale as well!

 

* The order page is here: https://erstwhile-technologies-7800.square.site/

 

If Concerto is sold out, there is a link on the product page to reserve a Concerto from an upcoming batch.

Need to add PayPal for reservations and Cart perchases as this is the most used payment method..

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25 minutes ago, JATO said:

Need to add PayPal for reservations and Cart perchases as this is the most used payment method..

Credit cards outnumber active Paypal accounts by a long shot. 375 million credit card accounts in the USA alone... there may be about 300 million Paypal accounts globally.

 

There's way better consumer protection through a credit card than Paypal...

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