+Mitch Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 I built my own 7800 diag joystick plugs. They look identical to the 2600 ones except I wrote 7800 on them. Mitch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pongstroid Posted March 22, 2021 Author Share Posted March 22, 2021 3 hours ago, Propane13 said: Apparently, it's my lucky week at atariage. A lot of former subjects are popping up. Years ago, I disassembled the 7800 Diagnostic cart, and put all of my findings on a webpage that's surprisingly still alive: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~harvey/7800/diag.html The disassembled code reveals that the 7800 diagnostic cart requires 2 special pieces of hardware in its joystick ports to work. They are different from the available 2600 ones, and I have never seen any evidence of the 7800 ones existing / being found. I'm not sure if that has changed over time. The ones listed in this thread "look like" my 2600 ones that I got from Best Electronics back in the day, which do not do what the 7800 needs them to do. If these ones above are indeed 7800 adapters, that would be an exciting find. I would potentially be interested in picking 2 of them if that were the case, as that project was dear to my heart back in the day. I do have a diagram of what adaptor I built myself on that site I listed. I'm not sure of any way to verify if they're 2600 vs. 7800 without the original poster downloading / testing either the 2600/7800 diagnostic cart and testing for themselves, or cracking on open (not recommended). Obviously the resistor I added was just a guess; there are other values that probably work. I think years ago, I asked someone on this site if they would ever make a small run of the 7800-based diagnostic port hardware (it might have even been @cpuwiz). That was ages ago, before people did their own PCB design and 3d printing was available, etc... If these are found to be 2600 adaptors, I'd still be interested in someone making their own limited run, just so I can finish the saga and have something professional-looking to go along with my Diangostic Cart. Happy to dig in and check... somehow. I don't have a diagnostic cart and I don't have a way to burn my own. Could their behavior be discerned by checking the inputs/outputs on the adapter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 1 minute ago, pongstroid said: Happy to dig in and check... somehow. I don't have a diagnostic cart and I don't have a way to burn my own. Could their behavior be discerned by checking the inputs/outputs on the adapter? You can probably check it with a multimeter. You would need to check which pins have continuity with each other and what the resistance values (if any) are between them. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pongstroid Posted March 23, 2021 Author Share Posted March 23, 2021 If anyone is interested in a set of these games, send me a message. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted March 24, 2021 Share Posted March 24, 2021 Robotron 2084 is my favorite game of all time. I want a set of all 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 Carts arrived safely! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 Got mine. I can confirm that the joystick port shorting plugs are not the 7800 version. I think they are the 2600 version but I can't find my 2600 diag cart at the moment. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 So, a quick check of the ROMs and it appears that Robotron is the final version but the rest, including 2600 Alpha Beam, are different. Probably late betas. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 5 hours ago, Mitch said: So, a quick check of the ROMs and it appears that Robotron is the final version but the rest, including 2600 Alpha Beam, are different. Probably late betas. Mitch I'd be interested in seeing those roms if you can release them. Alpha Beam says 5/5 and I believe the final is 5/16, so yes, a very late beta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Pole Position 2 is also the final version. Mitch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhomaios Posted April 10, 2021 Share Posted April 10, 2021 On 3/22/2021 at 10:31 AM, Propane13 said: Apparently, it's my lucky week at atariage. A lot of former subjects are popping up. Years ago, I disassembled the 7800 Diagnostic cart, and put all of my findings on a webpage that's surprisingly still alive: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~harvey/7800/diag.html The disassembled code reveals that the 7800 diagnostic cart requires 2 special pieces of hardware in its joystick ports to work. They are different from the available 2600 ones, and I have never seen any evidence of the 7800 ones existing / being found. I'm not sure if that has changed over time. The ones listed in this thread "look like" my 2600 ones that I got from Best Electronics back in the day, which do not do what the 7800 needs them to do. If these ones above are indeed 7800 adapters, that would be an exciting find. I would potentially be interested in picking 2 of them if that were the case, as that project was dear to my heart back in the day. I do have a diagram of what adaptor I built myself on that site I listed. I'm not sure of any way to verify if they're 2600 vs. 7800 without the original poster downloading / testing either the 2600/7800 diagnostic cart and testing for themselves, or cracking on open (not recommended). Obviously the resistor I added was just a guess; there are other values that probably work. I think years ago, I asked someone on this site if they would ever make a small run of the 7800-based diagnostic port hardware (it might have even been @cpuwiz). That was ages ago, before people did their own PCB design and 3d printing was available, etc... If these are found to be 2600 adaptors, I'd still be interested in someone making their own limited run, just so I can finish the saga and have something professional-looking to go along with my Diangostic Cart. In less than a month, that page is now gone. If you still have that information, I wonder if Al is open to storing the information on AA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pat Brady Posted April 10, 2021 Share Posted April 10, 2021 2 hours ago, Rhomaios said: In less than a month, that page is now gone. If you still have that information, I wonder if Al is open to storing the information on AA. archive.org has it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Propane13 Posted April 10, 2021 Share Posted April 10, 2021 Seems it's back up? Maybe there was Saturday maintenance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhomaios Posted April 10, 2021 Share Posted April 10, 2021 35 minutes ago, Propane13 said: Seems it's back up? Maybe there was Saturday maintenance. Are you seeing it in your cache? Whenever I check it, I get "Sorry! The URL was not found on this server." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Propane13 Posted April 11, 2021 Share Posted April 11, 2021 20 hours ago, Rhomaios said: Are you seeing it in your cache? Whenever I check it, I get "Sorry! The URL was not found on this server." http vs https? When I use https, I get the "Sorry" message. The site is so old I didn't implement https:// at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhomaios Posted April 11, 2021 Share Posted April 11, 2021 1 hour ago, Propane13 said: http vs https? When I use https, I get the "Sorry" message. The site is so old I didn't implement https:// at the time. Ah, that's it! I have a browser extension that forces every site to use https when available. This seems to be the first time a page was broken because of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Since I have been dumping my other Atari Prototypes/pre production carts, I thought I would include the ones I purchased above. I know that Mitch expressed that Robotron and Pole Position are finals, but included them as well as Ms Pac Man and Galaga here. Robotron Pre Release.bin Ms Pac Man Pre Release.bin Pole Position Pre Release.bin Galaga Pre Release.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 I think I looked through these before but I'll check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 8 hours ago, swlovinist said: Since I have been dumping my other Atari Prototypes/pre production carts, I thought I would include the ones I purchased above. I know that Mitch expressed that Robotron and Pole Position are finals, but included them as well as Ms Pac Man and Galaga here. Robotron Pre Release.bin 32 kB · 1 download Ms Pac Man Pre Release.bin 16 kB · 1 download Pole Position Pre Release.bin 32 kB · 1 download Galaga Pre Release.bin 32 kB · 1 download Off the bat: There's a graphical line glitch at the options/selection menu screen for Robotron: 2084. There is a pixel glitch on the lower left hand side of the road/border in Pole Position II. The score font for the number six in Ms. Pac-Man is incorrect/missing a pixel. Nothing different noticed yet with Galaga. For three of the games, the mentioned issues are not present with the final/production/cart release. I'll give a more thorough play-through and examination tomorrow or sometime later this week. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Hmm, I guess I never uploaded mine. It is always possible that different carts have different versions. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 8 hours ago, Trebor said: Nothing different noticed yet with Galaga. Galaga there is a static graphics glitch, smaller than the complete one under Robotron: 2084 options/menu screen, being the size of the 'yellow' portion - one pixel - just like the size of the one seen on the Pole Position II road. It is on the Title screen prior to bringing up the options menu and continues to remain present on the screen. Center bottom third portion of the screen, located where the second letter appears is the difficulty setting (The "O" in NOVICE, the "D" in ADVANCED, the "X" in EXPERT). It could almost be mistaken for a star, but is definitely not one. Below is a collage of all the mentioned graphical issues. Granted, none of them major, but definitely noticeable and absent/fixed from any cartridge release I've seen: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 4 hours ago, Trebor said: Galaga there is a static graphics glitch, smaller than the complete one under Robotron: 2084 options/menu screen, being the size of the 'yellow' portion - one pixel - just like the size of the one seen on the Pole Position II road. It is on the Title screen prior to bringing up the options menu and continues to remain present on the screen. Center bottom third portion of the screen, located where the second letter appears is the difficulty setting (The "O" in NOVICE, the "D" in ADVANCED, the "X" in EXPERT). It could almost be mistaken for a star, but is definitely not one. Below is a collage of all the mentioned graphical issues. Granted, none of them major, but definitely noticeable and absent/fixed from any cartridge release I've seen: I would like to thank you for posting these and you have sharp eyes! Most appreciated. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 I don't recall seeing those on my copies. I need to dig up my dumps and post them. Mitch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 Are those real differences or bad dumps? Those all seem rather strangely similar glitches for a bunch of random prototypes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 mspac7800proto.A78galaga7800proto.A78 Here are mine. Mitch alphabeam2600proto5-5.bin 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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