Lord of the Dungeon on an Atarimax cart

[+cjherr]

Hi all,

 

I just purchased a new copy of Lord of the Dungeon from CollectorVision, but I would like to put a copy on my Atarimax cart for daily use and tuck the original away. However, the copy doesn't seem to work. I see the Maxflash studio software shows a 24K ROM copy and a 2K RAM copy. I have created both, and placed them in the same directory, but no joy. Is there a naming convention I have to use, or is there something else special that needs to be done? 

 

This is more for convenience than anything, so I'm not going to worry if there's some reason it simply won't work, but if there is something I am missing, I'd appreciate any help given.

 

Thanks!

-Chris

[Swami]

53 minutes ago, cjherr said:

Hi all,

 

I just purchased a new copy of Lord of the Dungeon from CollectorVision, but I would like to put a copy on my Atarimax cart for daily use and tuck the original away. However, the copy doesn't seem to work. I see the Maxflash studio software shows a 24K ROM copy and a 2K RAM copy. I have created both, and placed them in the same directory, but no joy. Is there a naming convention I have to use, or is there something else special that needs to be done? 

 

This is more for convenience than anything, so I'm not going to worry if there's some reason it simply won't work, but if there is something I am missing, I'd appreciate any help given.

 

Thanks!

-Chris

Does this one work (post 17):

 

[Ikrananka]

If you're using the studio software then I'm assuming that means you're using an AtariMax CV 128-in-1 cart.  My understanding is that Lord of the Dungeon will NOT work with the 128-in-1 cart, although I'll freely admit it's been a long time since I used a 128-in-1 cart and I now no longer have one.  However, the AtariMax CV Ultimate SD cart does support Lord of the Dungeon and has onboard NVRAM with automatic save of your game to SD card.  I just tested this with the rom in my post that Swami linked to above and it works perfectly. 

[+cjherr]

I am using the Atarimax CV Ultimate SD cart. I was using the studio software to copy the cart I had purchased to a .rom file. 

 

I tried both the .rom I created and the one from the post and they show the same behavior. Title screen corrupted, when an option selected, instead of various monsters being shown under "The Monsters Awake", a 3x3 matrix of changing numbers instead of the various monsters, no "starting" characters in the tavern, and the characters I create do not show up in the list when I return after creating them. Just an empty list with "New member". 

 

I am playing this on a Phoenix, so that my be contributing, however, the purchased LotD cart appears to work without a hitch.

[Ikrananka]

35 minutes ago, cjherr said:

I am using the Atarimax CV Ultimate SD cart. I was using the studio software to copy the cart I had purchased to a .rom file. 

 

I tried both the .rom I created and the one from the post and they show the same behavior. Title screen corrupted, when an option selected, instead of various monsters being shown under "The Monsters Awake", a 3x3 matrix of changing numbers instead of the various monsters, no "starting" characters in the tavern, and the characters I create do not show up in the list when I return after creating them. Just an empty list with "New member". 

 

I am playing this on a Phoenix, so that my be contributing, however, the purchased LotD cart appears to work without a hitch.

Ah, now I understand.  Unfortunately, LotD does not work on a Phoenix via the SD card or with an AtariMax Ultimate SD.  Currently, the ONLY way to play LotD on a Phoenix is with a dedicated LotD cart with onboard save game RAM.

 

I raised this as an issue with the CV core nearly a year ago: https://github.com/CollectorVision/Phoenix-Colecovision/issues/23

[Swami]

25 minutes ago, Ikrananka said:

Ah, now I understand.  Unfortunately, LotD does not work on a Phoenix via the SD card or with an AtariMax Ultimate SD.  Currently, the ONLY way to play LotD on a Phoenix is with a dedicated LotD cart with onboard save game RAM.

 

I raised this as an issue with the CV core nearly a year ago: https://github.com/CollectorVision/Phoenix-Colecovision/issues/23

That’s weird. A bizarre bank switching method on the LotD cart?

[+cjherr]

38 minutes ago, Ikrananka said:

Ah, now I understand.  Unfortunately, LotD does not work on a Phoenix via the SD card or with an AtariMax Ultimate SD.  Currently, the ONLY way to play LotD on a Phoenix is with a dedicated LotD cart with onboard save game RAM.

 

I raised this as an issue with the CV core nearly a year ago: https://github.com/CollectorVision/Phoenix-Colecovision/issues/23

Perfect. That's what I was looking for. I have no problem playing on the cart, the multicart was for convenience, nothing more. Maybe someday I can move over to it. Thanks much for your answer.

[Ikrananka]

37 minutes ago, Swami said:

That’s weird. A bizarre bank switching method on the LotD cart?

No, it has a separate save game memory chip.  In the original cart design this was achieved using battery backed RAM.  Later designs did away with the battery and use NVRAM instead.

[Ikrananka]

33 minutes ago, cjherr said:

Perfect. That's what I was looking for. I have no problem playing on the cart, the multicart was for convenience, nothing more. Maybe someday I can move over to it. Thanks much for your answer.

Glad to be of help.

[Swami]

6 hours ago, Ikrananka said:

No, it has a separate save game memory chip.  In the original cart design this was achieved using battery backed RAM.  Later designs did away with the battery and use NVRAM instead.

I tried about six different versions I had on the Atarimax Ultimate on the Phoenix. Some would actually have the graphics good and seem to play, except none of the new characters you create would show up to be in your party when you go back to the Tavern there are no characters and when you leave the Tavern and choose a town option greater than 1 (go back to the Tavern), it just says "group is empty". So, you are stuck there.

 

I didn't think much ahead, so the long similar names run off the screen. Maybe I'll shorten them to see what's what over the next few days.

[Ikrananka]

9 hours ago, Swami said:

I tried about six different versions I had on the Atarimax Ultimate on the Phoenix. Some would actually have the graphics good and seem to play, except none of the new characters you create would show up to be in your party when you go back to the Tavern there are no characters and when you leave the Tavern and choose a town option greater than 1 (go back to the Tavern), it just says "group is empty". So, you are stuck there.

 

I didn't think much ahead, so the long similar names run off the screen. Maybe I'll shorten them to see what's what over the next few days.

Without the save game RAM present, the game will always corrupt itself at some point.

[NIAD]

I seem to recall having to update the firmware of the AtariMax Ultimate SD MultiCart in order for LoD to run and save game data correctly. This would have been shortly after the AtariMax was released circa 2010/2011.

 

You also have to use the correct rom dump with the AtariMax which I think is the 24K version. Sorry, it’s been a while and I’m not in front of my system to verify.

 

I’m not sure if CoolCV supports LoD and it’s save game format, but BlueMSX does by changing the cartridge configuration.

[Swami]

42 minutes ago, NIAD said:

I seem to recall having to update the firmware of the AtariMax Ultimate SD MultiCart in order for LoD to run and save game data correctly. This would have been shortly after the AtariMax was released circa 2010/2011.

 

You also have to use the correct rom dump with the AtariMax which I think is the 24K version. Sorry, it’s been a while and I’m not in front of my system to verify.

 

I’m not sure if CoolCV supports LoD and it’s save game format, but BlueMSX does by changing the cartridge configuration.

There are like six different roms. Some may ultimately be duplicates, but for me in CoolCV, some work perfect and others have scrambled graphics/text. 

[Ikrananka]

19 minutes ago, Swami said:

There are like six different roms. Some may ultimately be duplicates, but for me in CoolCV, some work perfect and others have scrambled graphics/text. 

You'll likely find that some of those roms are identical but with different names.  I can assure you that the 24k rom that you linked to in post #2 is a fully working rom and is identical to the rom that CollectorVision used in their boxed release of the game.

 

Yes, the game works perfectly in CoolCV with the added advantage that you can save a snapshot of the game at any time, even in the middle of a dungeon.