Kid Grid -- .CAR Version

[glurk]

This one was a pain in the neck to do, for some reasons....  Anyway, it's now an 8K cartridge, when I "think" it originally came out on tape and disk only.  Also, I think the original versions had to be reloaded(!) to get back to the title screen where you can set the options, and this version you can just hit reset to do that.

 

Tested on my real 800, and in Altirra for XE/XL.  I think it's all good.  Does XL/XE even have a warm reset?  This catches both warm and cold, I think.

 

Incidentally, I mostly do these versions for fun, and also I have the "Ultimate Cart" which seems to run .CAR files much better than .XEX files.  That's been my experience, anyway...  Plus, I just like cartridges, even "virtual" ones.  Kid Grid.car

[Wrathchild]

Two issues:

This can triggers a cart insert/removal lockup on XL OS's during the vblank as you are writing into GINTLK.

When you hit reset the game init code is run again, so the high score is being wiped.

 

(Another one where I porting this to the 5200, in 2010, and made an A8 version that runs from the ROM area in order to check the code doesn't write there).

[FULS]

Thank you for doing these. Rom Images do load more consistent from multi-carts.

Wrathchild is correct on this one. My XL locks-up on this image. Works good on 800.

 

[glurk]

Ok, it's good to know about this.  I like the feedback, good or bad.  I've never owned an XE/XL system, so I can't test on a real one.  _IF_ I find one cheaply somehow, flea market, etc., I'll be sure to pick one up, but they are so expensive on eBay and elsewhere...  No money for that, it's just a hobby.

 

That said, I don't want to intentionally post anything that's broken.  That GINTLK thing is something I've never dealt with before, I can just use memory willy-nilly on the 800.  And as I said, I'm doing these mostly to get things working (for me) on my "Ultimate Cart." 

 

I'll try to keep those XE/XL issues in mind, but without one to test on, it's kind of difficult.  I'll try harder from now on.

[Bobo Cujo]

I've also noticed that the Ultimate cart isn't consistent about loading .xex files on the Atari 800.

It works fine on XL/XEs pretty consistently.

 

I'm guessing this has to do with 400/800s somehow not being able to use $8000-BFFF because the hardware isn't there to allow cartridge disabling (CCNTL/$D500-D5FF)?

("Mapping the Atari memory map" is unclear on whether this works differently on 400/800s)

[Wrathchild]

Not really, an executable needs a bootstrap loader loaded into the Atari's memory first and then control is transferred to that and so it copies the data from the cartridge's internal memory to the Atari's memory using the headers in the executable file which describe where the code is to be loaded and where it ends, along with handling multiple sections.

 

So conflicts arise where the executable you have chosen overlaps the area of the bootstrap code. Most executables will 'play nice' and for others it is best to search the AA forum as it might have been fixed already, find alternatives on sites like Fandal, AtariOnlinePL and try those or report them on AA and people can take a look. Topics on this already will also show you how compression tools can be used to relocate the executable to load higher in memory and so avoid the conflict.