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2600 Bankswitch Conversions


Thomas Jentzsch

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since you're invincible when Player 1 is disabled (alt-X in Z26--don't know about Stella).

The shortcuts for disabling players/missiles/playfields in Stella are the same as in z26 (Alt-z to Alt-n), plus Alt-. to disable all TIA objects, and Alt-/ to enable all TIA objects.

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  • 1 month later...
Is it possible to do the Tigervision games?

Yes, but nobody has bothered, perhaps because the CC/CC2/Kroko cart will run them, and the logic for building a 3F cart reportedly requires only a single TTL chip (74173, IIRC.)

Greetings,

 

Is it possible to convert Starpath games?

 

Thanks!

1007582[/snapback]

It may be possible to convert some of them, but I think this would be very difficult to do - it would probably requre a detailed disassembly first. Plus, they would need to be converted to another scheme that offered RAM on a cart, like Superchip or 3E (more likely this).

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Plus, they would need to be converted to another scheme that offered RAM on a cart, like Superchip or 3E (more likely this).

1007595[/snapback]

 

All of the standards for putting RAM on carts, other than the SuperCharger or my own 4A50, severely limit the about of RAM that is accessible at once. The SuperCharger makes 4K available (out of 6K) and 4A50 makes 3.75K available (out of 32K). M network makes 1.25K available (out of 2K), 3E makes 1K available (out of 32K+), CBS makes 256 bytes available (256 total), and Superchip makes 128 bytes available (128 total).

 

Porting SuperCharger games to any of those platforms will thus be very difficult unless the games in question actually use very little RAM.

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  • 3 months later...

Does anyone know if the problem with the Mr. Do's Castle conversion was ever corrected? If so, does anyone have the bin?

 

Well, honestly, I don't know how to play this game, so I haven't tested it properly.  I would appreciate it if someone who actually knows the game will tell me if it plays properly (that is, I hear there's supposed to be 4 levels but I can't figure out level 1!)  If itdoes indeed play correctly, I'll do the PAL version too.

854718[/snapback]

 

The game does not play properly on level 2. Note screenshots. One of them is the 'normal' version of the game. The other is yours. Note that the ladder placement appears different, though the game allows the player to climb the ladder at its "proper" spot.

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I know that this is going to sound pretty dumb, but without the answer, I can't understand much of this thread.

 

What is "bankswitching", and what conversions are you guys talking about?

 

At first, I thought perhaps you were talking about PAL to NTSC, but I think that I'm wrong, since most of the titles were already released for NTSC.

 

I'd appreciate any insight into the topic you're discussing. :D

 

Thanks,

Steve

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The Atari can only see 4K of ROM. Many games are bigger than 4K. Each 4K is referred to as a bank. An 8K game would have banks 1 and bank 2. A 16K game would have bank 1, 2, 3 and 4.

 

Another way to look at it is the cartridge is a "book" that the Atari can read, and that it can only see one page at a time. Each page can hold 4K of program code. A book with 1 page is a 4K game, a book with 8 pages is a 32K game.

 

Different companies came up with different ways to tell the cartridge to switch banks, or "turn the page".

 

The Krok Cart supports a number of these methods, but not all of them. A bankswitch conversion is changing the method of bankswitching from one format to another so it can be played on the Krok Cart (or other similiar device).

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The Atari can only see 4K of ROM. Many games are bigger than 4K. Each 4K is referred to as a bank. An 8K game would have banks 1 and bank 2. A 16K game would have bank 1, 2, 3 and 4.

 

Another way to look at it is the cartridge is a "book" that the Atari can read, and that it can only see one page at a time. Each page can hold 4K of program code. A book with 1 page is a 4K game, a book with 8 pages is a 32K game.

 

Different companies came up with different ways to tell the cartridge to switch banks, or "turn the page".

 

The Krok Cart supports a number of these methods, but not all of them. A bankswitch conversion is changing the method of bankswitching from one format to another so it can be played on the Krok Cart (or other similiar device).

 

Thank you very much for that explanation. Easy to understand even for the technically challenged like me! :D

 

One question:

 

If you have the normal cart, what do you need the Krok cart for? I'm not completely sure what the Krot cart is for, perhaps that would help... :?

 

Thanks again.

Steve

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These games are getting old, I've had a few from my collection die already.

 

Another thing you can do is load multiple cartridges at once and the Krok Com will give you a menu to choose which game to play. Quicker than looking thru a few hunderd games.

 

I also use mine for development or trying out games other people are writing. You can see these games in the homebrew forum. My game is Medieval Mayhem which is an updated version of Warlords.

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Well, honestly, I don't know how to play this game, so I haven't tested it properly.  I would appreciate it if someone who actually knows the game will tell me if it plays properly (that is, I hear there's supposed to be 4 levels but I can't figure out level 1!)  If itdoes indeed play correctly, I'll do the PAL version too.

854718[/snapback]

 

The game does not play properly on level 2. Note screenshots. One of them is the 'normal' version of the game. The other is yours. Note that the ladder placement appears different, though the game allows the player to climb the ladder at its "proper" spot.

 

 

Does anyone know if the problem with the Mr. Do's Castle conversion was ever corrected? If so, does anyone have the bin?

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  • 5 months later...
And these have not:

...

Lord of the Rings

...

:idea: This one is finished and waiting on my HD until Marc recovers.

 

Was the conversion for Lord of the Rings ever posted? I can't seem to find it. If you have it, can you please post it again.

 

Also, I know Decathlon was converted from FE, does anyone know if Thwocker or Tomarc the Barbarian were done?

 

Thanks!

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And these have not:

...

Lord of the Rings

...

:idea: This one is finished and waiting on my HD until Marc recovers.

 

Was the conversion for Lord of the Rings ever posted? I can't seem to find it. If you have it, can you please post it again.

 

Also, I know Decathlon was converted from FE, does anyone know if Thwocker or Tomarc the Barbarian were done?

 

Thanks!

 

Tomarc is fine as is :? As for LOTR it's not posted nor will it be.

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And these have not:

...

Lord of the Rings

...

:idea: This one is finished and waiting on my HD until Marc recovers.

 

Was the conversion for Lord of the Rings ever posted? I can't seem to find it. If you have it, can you please post it again.

 

Also, I know Decathlon was converted from FE, does anyone know if Thwocker or Tomarc the Barbarian were done?

 

Thanks!

 

Tomarc is fine as is :? As for LOTR it's not posted nor will it be.

 

The Krokodile Cart doesn't support FE, so Tomarc will not work with it.

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I am pretty sure Tomarc is F8. :ponder:

 

My Krok shows it as FE. Where did you get your ROM? I think I have the one from here. Unfortunately, Kevin Horton doesn't list it in his paper about cart sizes and bankswitching.

The stella.pro file must be incorrect on this one. The one I have shows FE in stella.pro, but the game doesn't work correctly in Stella unless you change the properties of the game from FE to F8.

 

As for Thwocker, I looked at it long enough to determine that it would be a very difficult conversion (requires a kernel rewrite) so I didn't feel like messing with it.

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As for Thwocker, I looked at it long enough to determine that it would be a very difficult conversion (requires a kernel rewrite) so I didn't feel like messing with it.

Interesting. Did you have to do a kernel rewrite for Decathlon? You mentioned it was a tough conversion, but I wasn't thinking that tough.

 

So if no one wants to convert Thwocker (perfectly understandable), has anyone ever tried to make an FE board?

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As for Thwocker, I looked at it long enough to determine that it would be a very difficult conversion (requires a kernel rewrite) so I didn't feel like messing with it.

Interesting. Did you have to do a kernel rewrite for Decathlon? You mentioned it was a tough conversion, but I wasn't thinking that tough.

Decathlon had quite a few mid-kernel bankswitches. Each bankswitch required additional cycles that had to be made up to keep things working properly. I can't remember what I did now, but I had to redo portions of it so the kernel timing was correct.

 

When I first looked at Thwocker, I think I must have been taking drugs when I thought it would be hard. I looked again tonight and it looked easy this time - so easy, I got something working in no time... Well, maybe, I don't know how to play so it's seen very little testing.

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I am pretty sure Tomarc is F8. :ponder:

 

My Krok shows it as FE. Where did you get your ROM? I think I have the one from here. Unfortunately, Kevin Horton doesn't list it in his paper about cart sizes and bankswitching.

The stella.pro file must be incorrect on this one. The one I have shows FE in stella.pro, but the game doesn't work correctly in Stella unless you change the properties of the game from FE to F8.

Confirmed, and fixed in CVS. You don't actually have to specify any type; the autodetection works fine, detecting it as F8.

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I am pretty sure Tomarc is F8. :ponder:

 

My Krok shows it as FE. Where did you get your ROM? I think I have the one from here. Unfortunately, Kevin Horton doesn't list it in his paper about cart sizes and bankswitching.

The stella.pro file must be incorrect on this one. The one I have shows FE in stella.pro, but the game doesn't work correctly in Stella unless you change the properties of the game from FE to F8.

Confirmed, and fixed in CVS. You don't actually have to specify any type; the autodetection works fine, detecting it as F8.

 

So, are we saying the Krok Cart database mistakenly has it listed as FE, instead of F8?

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So, are we saying the Krok Cart database mistakenly has it listed as FE, instead of F8?

Since the database is relying on the Stella.pro file, this is almost for sure.

 

Yes, the database is based on the stella.pro file. You can update it to the correct value on the database tab of the Krokodile Commander or import a valid .pro file which contains the correct bs mode.

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