Concerto firmware thread

[+groundtrooper]

10 hours ago, Stephen said:

Legend has it, you can just cut those pesky extra pins off, and problem solved!

 

[Tempest]

I haven't been following this thread, any update on the new firmware?   Any sort of ETA?

[+batari]

On 3/14/2022 at 5:56 AM, Tempest said:

I haven't been following this thread, any update on the new firmware?   Any sort of ETA?

There may be an interim firmware coming in the next month or so, but as for a major update, that will be a few months more. I am developing an upgrade module for Concerto that provides more memory plus support for games that it currently does not support (such as EXO and Rikki and Vikki) and as that will require firmware support, the major firmware update will be in conjunction with that.

[Tempest]

Sounds good.  Thanks.

[+mksmith]

On 3/17/2022 at 5:38 AM, batari said:

There may be an interim firmware coming in the next month or so, but as for a major update, that will be a few months more. I am developing an upgrade module for Concerto that provides more memory plus support for games that it currently does not support (such as EXO and Rikki and Vikki) and as that will require firmware support, the major firmware update will be in conjunction with that.

Great thanks Fred ?

[Greg2600]

On 3/16/2022 at 2:38 PM, batari said:

There may be an interim firmware coming in the next month or so, but as for a major update, that will be a few months more. I am developing an upgrade module for Concerto that provides more memory plus support for games that it currently does not support (such as EXO and Rikki and Vikki) and as that will require firmware support, the major firmware update will be in conjunction with that.

[takaaki]

Hello.

I have got concerto cart.

I load space invader for 2600. It hunged.

I powered on again. Flashing continued.

I tried these.

download "eeloader_ntsc.bin" to cart by harmony programming tool

download "hbios_concerto_0.93.2600fix.bin" to sd card

 

And then I tried power on, 7800 showed flashing and "this is work-in progress" and press botton.

7800 couldnt show menu.

 

Should I do anything ?

 

takaaki

 

 

 

[takaaki]

I used "hbios_concerto_0.95_SDcardfix.bin".

7800 booted successfully.

takaaki

[Jfcatari]

I just picked up a Concerto cart with firmware .094 loaded on it.  The unit works great on my 7800.  All of the games I tried from the 2600 and 7800 loaded up fine except for Pitfall 2 from the 2600.  I get a rainbow of colors across the screen.

 

Has anyone else had problems with Pitfall 2 loading from the Concerto cart?

 

I do have an original Pokey chip installed into the Concerto.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Jfcatari

[Trebor]

On 4/5/2022 at 10:10 PM, Jfcatari said:

Has anyone else had problems with Pitfall 2 loading from the Concerto cart?

Pitfall II, which utilizes the DPC chip, is not supported under Concerto at this time.

Additionally, support for ARM-based 2600 games, DPC+ and CDFJ, has not been implemented yet.

[Jfcatari]

Thanks for the info!

Using the 7800 with the original Harmony cart, Pitfall 2 does load and run correctly.  

 

I will have to wait for the next firmware update on the Concerto.

 

 

[+darryl1970]

@batari question about the Concerto updates: Will the firmware update allow the game to detect if a POKEY (or replacement) chip is installed?

 

I am trying to decide whether to leave POKEY detection in the final Penta game.

 

Thanks,

 

Darryl

[Trebor]

On 4/6/2022 at 8:53 AM, Jfcatari said:

Thanks for the info!

You're welcome.

On 4/6/2022 at 8:53 AM, Jfcatari said:

Using the 7800 with the original Harmony cart, Pitfall 2 does load and run correctly.  

Expected, as the DPC chip is supported under Harmony.

On 4/6/2022 at 8:53 AM, Jfcatari said:

I will have to wait for the next firmware update on the Concerto.

Indeed.

[Trebor]

17 hours ago, darryl1970 said:

@batari question about the Concerto updates: Will the firmware update allow the game to detect if a POKEY (or replacement) chip is installed?

 

I am trying to decide whether to leave POKEY detection in the final Penta game.

Froggie is a POKEY detection title that works perfectly.  It detects the POKEY chip I have installed in the Concerto and plays POKEY back perfectly.

 

Unless there's a regression surrounding the POKEY detection programming code and how Concerto interacts with it when the new firmware is made public, it should work fine.

[RevEng]

6 hours ago, Trebor said:

Froggie is a POKEY detection title that works perfectly.  It detects the POKEY chip I have installed in the Concerto and plays POKEY back perfectly.

 

Unless there's a regression surrounding the POKEY detection programming code and how Concerto interacts with it when the new firmware is made public, it should work fine.

There's a distinction to be made between pokey@4000 and pokey@450 here. The former is read/write in Concerto, but the latter is presently write-only in Concerto, which means auto-detection isn't an option.

[Jinks]

No one ever answered my question from 6 months ago so I will ask again as this thread seems alive lately. 

I have one of the first concertos. Should I upgrade the firmware? Does it work on that model? Where is the latest update? Where is the instructions on how to update?  Been probably 5 or more years and I forgot everything.

Help is appreciated thanks in advance. 

 

Having all this info in the first post of this thread such as firmware update download, reflash instructions, which versions of which carts are can be flashed etc. would be very helpful. 

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Jinks

[Resto Ron]

2 hours ago, Jinks said:

Having all this info in the first post of this thread such as firmware update download, reflash instructions, which versions of which carts are can be flashed etc. would be very helpful. 

 

 

 

I agree completely!! The way it is now a person has the search through a huge amount of info and even then may not find accurate information. In one spot no matter how long the thread gets seems by far the most logical and helpful. For the instructions I got tired of looking through the 33 pages and went to Fred's web page and downloaded the manual.

          RR

[Jinks]

2 hours ago, Resto Ron said:

I agree completely!! The way it is now a person has the search through a huge amount of info and even then may not find accurate information. In one spot no matter how long the thread gets seems by far the most logical and helpful. For the instructions I got tired of looking through the 33 pages and went to Fred's web page and downloaded the manual.

          RR

Or just google everything. I read the first 15 pages. Talks about version .95. Mine does the lock up on the menu I think I have .91 or something like that. I think I learnt that drivers are different for purple boards which I have and I think it can be updated. Will look for Fred's website on google. 

 

Ok I googled and can only find a order page for the cart. 

Could you post a link for the website that has directions and the firmware downloads? That would be very helpful! Thanks. 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Jinks

[Resto Ron]

Ok, I read in a post somewhere in these 33 pages that update instructions are the same for the Harmony and the Concerto (this would be good info to have on the permanent Info/download page as well). I ran into the same issue as you did and could not find a "Support" page for the Concerto so I went to the Harmony page and got the manual from there. Link below is where I got the manual from. As far as the firmware download itself I have had to do what you and countless others have and look over this thread. In my search, once I realized there is no structure for a pinned download post, I went to the last page and worked backwards using Ctrl + F and searched each page for "Firmware" or "95" (can't remember which) until I got a hit and since I started at the end first it had to be the most recent one.

   Since your situation is different and specific you might get the best results sending a PM to Fred (Batari) directly. I am not sure about pre-production units.

       Good luck.

                    RR

 

https://harmony.atariage.com/Site/Support.html

 

[Trebor]

21 hours ago, Jinks said:

Or just google everything. I read the first 15 pages. Talks about version .95. Mine does the lock up on the menu I think I have .91 or something like that. I think I learnt that drivers are different for purple boards which I have and I think it can be updated. Will look for Fred's website on google. 

 

Ok I googled and can only find a order page for the cart. 

Could you post a link for the website that has directions and the firmware downloads? That would be very helpful! Thanks. 

See the post from @batari here, which has been placed in the below spoiler below for convenience. 

 

 

Here is version 0.95 of the firmware.

Changes:
- Fixed inability to read some SD cards. Menu now loads with cards that previously didn't work.
- Fixed freezes that some experienced when navigating the menu.
- SD card clock slowed down for compatibility with very old cards, with minimal change to game loading speed.
- Reworked joystick handing code.
- Improved error handling/display.
- Improved boot reliability.

This version needs a new bootloader, so currently it can't be updated through the menu if you are running 0.94 or below. Use the Harmony programming software here:

Linux 64-bit: https://github.com/sa666666/harmonycart/releases/download/release-1.3/harmonycart_1.3-1_amd64.deb
OSX: https://github.com/sa666666/harmonycart/releases/download/release-1.3/HarmonyCart-1.3-macosx.dmg
Windows: https://github.com/sa666666/harmonycart/releases/download/release-1.3/HarmonyCart-1.3-win32.exe

Plug in Concerto with your micro-USB cable, then start the software. If the cart isn't detected, you may need to install drivers. Generally, your OS will automatically find and install drivers, but if you need them, the purple PCB (older) Concertos use the FTDI drivers and green PCB (newer) Concertos use CH341 drivers, both of which are mentioned earlier in this thread and there should be links to download them.

Depending on when you bought your cart, you may need to remove the POKEY chip so the software can properly communicate. There is also a newer beta version of the Harmony programming software if you are having issues.

In the software, go to the EEPROM loader section and select the included eeloader_NTSC.bin (or similar) file, and click "download EEPROM." Make sure the download goes to 100%, and fully completes (text on the bottom of the window should indicate a successful download.) If it doesn't, you can retry.

Copy the file attached to this post to the root directory of your SD card. Make sure there are no other files starting with "hbios" on the card, or it may load that one instead.

Insert the card into Concerto and boot. It will boot into Harmony mode and update the firmware, and when it completes, it will show a success screen and ask you to press a button to continue. Instead of pressing a button, you should reboot the 7800. Now your new BIOS is installed, and you can do future updates through the menu.

If you install, please report your results with SD cards that previously did not boot, and of course the menu freezes.
hbios_concerto_0.95_SDcardfix.bin333 kB · 215 downloads

 

If the OS does not automatically install the drivers when the Concerto is plugged in with a micro-USB cable, leverage the following links:

 

-Green PCB (newer) Concertos use CH341 drivers  (Downloads are also posted here by batari).

-Purple PCB (older) Concertos use the FTDI drivers.

 

As mentioned in the above spoiler, if you are having issues with the Harmony programming software, there is a newer version (2.0 beta 2), located here:

 

Linux

Mac OS X

Windows 64-bit

 

After installing the Harmony programming software, a reboot may be necessary for the cart to be recognized.

 

If the eeloader_NTSC.bin file is missing, download it from this post or directly here. 

 

The latest firmware, after the 0.95 SD Card fix from the above post in the spoiler, can be obtained under this post or directly here.  When using Concerto with the latest firmware (hbios_concerto_0.95noflash.bin), it will state 0.94a at the top.

[Eagle]

21 hours ago, RevEng said:

There's a distinction to be made between pokey@4000 and pokey@450 here. The former is read/write in Concerto, but the latter is presently write-only in Concerto, which means auto-detection isn't an option.

What about RND? Not supported? 

[RevEng]

35 minutes ago, Eagle said:

What about RND? Not supported? 

Not presently, no. I don't know if the planned hardware upgrades will affect this or not.

[Eagle]

My recent game port using heavily RND

And now Concerto stabbing me in the back

Game is almost finished ?

[RevEng]

Based on the public conversation around pokey@800, I think once support for that is added to Concerto it might be read/write, so hopefully that's an easy fix. ?

 

(or you could throw in an LFSR)

[+Yurkie]

The Concerto Bible