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Concerto firmware thread


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13 minutes ago, Trebor said:

Try paddles in the first port, it works fine under my setup.

Arkanoid, by design, presumes paddles in first port (P0/Player 1) as the default controller.

Thanks, that worked! For some reason I was thinking paddles went into port 2 like in Super Circus AtariAge. 

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23 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Thanks, that worked! For some reason I was thinking paddles went into port 2 like in Super Circus AtariAge. 

Thanks Robert! The old (2019) version was like that but Mike's awesome controller changes in 7800basic has allowed us to use the left port for all controllers now.

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HELP!!! I am not a computer whiz..... I downloaded both bios, 2600fix and Trebors 7800 ROM PROPack v1_0. I installed them onto my sd card.... This is what happened:

1: Atari logo came on, 2: Concerto logo came on, 3: flashed all these different colors then went to a solid orange/yellow screen....

How do I install all the software? a special way? All I did was copy and pasted... Is there a better/different way?

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1 hour ago, Paul Holbrook said:

HELP!!! I am not a computer whiz..... I downloaded both bios, 2600fix and Trebors 7800 ROM PROPack v1_0. I installed them onto my sd card.... This is what happened:

1: Atari logo came on, 2: Concerto logo came on, 3: flashed all these different colors then went to a solid orange/yellow screen....

How do I install all the software? a special way? All I did was copy and pasted... Is there a better/different way?

  1. Is the SD card formatted as FAT?
  2. Are you using the 0.95 (current) firmware?

If the answer to either of those questions is 'no', take care of those issues before trying to play anything.

 

FWIW, if your firmware is lower than 0.95, you may need to try different SD cards until you find one that Concerto likes.  0.95 fixed a great many SD card compatibility issues.

 

Also, try booting with no SD card inserted and see if you get the 'we're in beta' screen, followed by the 'no SD card inserted' screen.  If you can get that far, Concerto's working and something is likely up with your SD card.

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8 hours ago, Trebor said:

Attached are the 'fixed-fix' ROMs:

Millie And Molly (Demo) (Concerto Fix) (20210129).a78 128.13 kB · 10 downloads Arkanoid (Concerto Fix) (20210129).a78 128.13 kB · 11 downloads

 

Both work now with Concerto under my setup.  In each game though, there is some odd corruption/flickering with the first character in either alpha or/and numeric data in the start of a line for both games.

 

Adding to the above:

 

Both are also working for me as well, and I am seeing the corruption / flickering.  However, I noticed something about it that I'll outline further down.

 

8 hours ago, Trebor said:

 

Arkanoid is missing the "AtariAge" jingle*; however, all other POKEY sounds seem fine.

 

No issues noticed, besides the aforementioned character data issue, for Millie And Molly.

 

*EDIT:  Turned off/on the console loaded Arkanoid up again, and this time it played one piece/voice of the POKEY jingle for the AtariAge logo screen with the rest of the voices/instruments missing.

 

Haven't had any problems with the AtariAge jingle in Arkanoid; it's played every time the game has loaded, and seems to be using all four voices.

 

The only POKEY-related issue I've run across was at the end of level seven in Millie & Molly: after finishing the level, the ending tune played as expected.  However, one voice seemed to not silence itself correctly - it was still buzzing away until the password screen music started up.  Haven't been able to reproduce it on any level after multiple plays, so am calling it a fluke for now.

 

Coming back to the corruption / flickering issue: I've noticed a correlation in both Arkanoid and Millie & Molly when it happens.  It never seems to take place during actual gameplay, so elements such as the score won't be affected.  However, if you're in a part of the game that isn't an active part of gameplay (e.g., Millie & Molly's level password screens, or Arkanoid's opening sequence with the Vaus escaping), the issue happens.

 

In Arkanoid, once the playfield is drawn and the level start music is playing but before the player can control the ship, the same can be seen in the level number text but also in the players' scores.

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10 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:
  1. Is the SD card formatted as FAT?

This is an important note. I couldn't figure out why a larger 64GB card wasn't working on my Concerto, and realized Windows formats partitions >32GB exFAT by default. I had to use a 3rd party utility to reformat as FAT32, then worked fine. Concerto needs FAT16 or FAT32 only.

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On 1/30/2021 at 6:55 PM, x=usr(1536) said:

 

Adding to the above:

 

Both are also working for me as well, and I am seeing the corruption / flickering.  However, I noticed something about it that I'll outline further down.

 

 

Haven't had any problems with the AtariAge jingle in Arkanoid; it's played every time the game has loaded, and seems to be using all four voices.

 

The only POKEY-related issue I've run across was at the end of level seven in Millie & Molly: after finishing the level, the ending tune played as expected.  However, one voice seemed to not silence itself correctly - it was still buzzing away until the password screen music started up.  Haven't been able to reproduce it on any level after multiple plays, so am calling it a fluke for now.

 

Coming back to the corruption / flickering issue: I've noticed a correlation in both Arkanoid and Millie & Molly when it happens.  It never seems to take place during actual gameplay, so elements such as the score won't be affected.  However, if you're in a part of the game that isn't an active part of gameplay (e.g., Millie & Molly's level password screens, or Arkanoid's opening sequence with the Vaus escaping), the issue happens.

 

In Arkanoid, once the playfield is drawn and the level start music is playing but before the player can control the ship, the same can be seen in the level number text but also in the players' scores.

Thanks for testing them out @x=usr(1536)! I'm waiting on a desoldering gun so I can take the pokey out of my Ballblazer cart + my Concerto is not playing well at all with either of my PAL consoles.  Definitely once I get my pokey chip in and as Fred starts progressing with the firmware I'll be giving both a really good test.  I'm going to get a another build with the newly updated pokey engine to Al (changes to the initialisation) and we can get some testing on the CPUwiz's AA versa carts as well for the final release.

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2 hours ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

It's a "middle" model. A1 serial number, no expansion port.

 

2 hours ago, AlecM said:

Interesting, is that on the early or a late models? I have early AT85 with expansion port.

 

On my AT84, I have the same issue with Alien Brigade.   

It's completely hosed up on at least one of my A3 units as well.

Like John Stamos Mullet though, on at least one my A1 machines it works perfectly. 

I also have another A3 unit in which Alien Brigade works fine too.

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3 hours ago, Trebor said:

 

 

On my AT84, I have the same issue with Alien Brigade.   

It's completely hosed up on at least one of my A3 units as well.

Like John Stamos Mullet though, on at least one my A1 machines it works perfectly. 

I also have another A3 unit in which Alien Brigade works fine too.

As noted awhile back, the game seems to load but the animated green alien hand appears but never completes its title screen routine on either my AT84 or my A1 daily driver machines. Hopefully Fred will be able to get to the bottom of things like this eventually. 

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3 hours ago, Trebor said:

It's completely hosed up on at least one of my A3 units as well.

 

I'll confirm this - mine's an A3 85, and Alien Brigade (joystick or light gun) just does not run on it.  Seems to be the same thing everyone else is seeing: the hand comes in from the left and starts to draw the title, but never actually draws anything followed by a reset after 2-5 seconds, at which point the process repeats.

Edited by x=usr(1536)
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I just tested Alien Brigade with my A1 with expansion port, but it keeps resetting before the hand can draw anything.  Choplifter works, but has some garbage at the top of the screen.

 

My A1 is a little bit of an oddball and seems to have a mix of older and newer parts, so I'm not sure if it's good for testing.

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2 hours ago, Tempest said:

I just tested Alien Brigade with my A1 with expansion port, but it keeps resetting before the hand can draw anything.  Choplifter works, but has some garbage at the top of the screen.

 

My A1 is a little bit of an oddball and seems to have a mix of older and newer parts, so I'm not sure if it's good for testing.

My A1 is not exactly representative either.  I removed the timing circuit that got removed on later revisions as well as modifying the clock circuit to match the A3 version.

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2 minutes ago, tep392 said:

My A1 is not exactly representative either.  I removed the timing circuit that got removed on later revisions as well as modifying the clock circuit to match the A3 version.

I'd have to check, but I want to say that Crossbow (sorry I can't do the special character) who did my S-Video mod said that mine didn't have the timing circuit but still worked with 2600 Dark Chambers.

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9 hours ago, Tempest said:

I'd have to check, but I want to say that Crossbow (sorry I can't do the special character) who did my S-Video mod said that mine didn't have the timing circuit but still worked with 2600 Dark Chambers.

I just looked at the pics of your main board. Yours has the extra timing circuit but I disabled it. Your 7800 appears to be an early made '87 unit. It has the expansion port and the second 3904 transistor near the crystal that I usually only find on early '84 made units. So yes yours is a bid odd. But it also has the extra timing circuit which again, I disabled. And you are correct in that even with that circuit disabled, 2600 Dark Chambers still works on yours. Although I would suspect that 2600 Kung Fu Master might not.

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