x=usr(1536)
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Posts posted by x=usr(1536)
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1 hour ago, Defender_2600 said:
Which emulator is used for the 7800? The 7800 developer and beta tester community would prefer "a7800" emulator to be used. It was forked from Dan's original Mame a7800 driver, and is nearly cycle accurate, allows for mid-scanline graphical changes, has faithful pokey emulation, ym2151 emulation, etc.
"Prosystem 1.3. I was advised to use a7800 and we did try, but I dont beleive it was fully compatible with arm based chips like the Rockchip 3128 we use."
As far as I'm aware, ProSystem is Windows-only, which would be an interesting OS choice for the machine. Have a question in already to (hopefully) clarify that:
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2 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:
- Which emulator is used for the 7800? The 7800 developer and beta tester community would prefer "a7800" emulator to be used. It was forked from Dan's original Mame a7800 driver, and is nearly cycle accurate, allows for mid-scanline graphical changes, has faithful pokey emulation, ym2151 emulation, etc. Prosystem 1.3. I was advised to use a7800 and we did try, but I dont beleive it was fully compatible with arm based chips like the Rockchip 3128 we use.
Out of curiosity, does this mean that the machine is running some flavour of Windows or WINE? To the best of my knowledge, ProSystem is Windows-only.
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4 hours ago, RB5200 said:
No, as long as the mods are done correctly, but since you'll have your solder iron warmed up any way, it would probably be better to just remove it, it would only take a few minutes, (and besides from the looks of it, a child could get hurt on that thing). But if you do leave it there you should at least do something different with the wiring so it will not be pinched under the shielding anymore.
Counterpoint: removing it will render the VCS adapter unusable.
It's probably best to leave well enough alone. Removal also introduces the possibility of causing problems that weren't present in the first place, and installing a UAV remains a possibility either way.
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On 9/20/2023 at 5:48 PM, c1ph3rpunk said:
Opened it up and visually inspected everything, nothing appeared damaged or blown, there are however signs of prior work on the OS ROM, a RAM chip and the parallel port chip (can’t remember the name), there’s obvious flux remaining on the bottom of the board on those chip pins.
What you're seeing may also have been someone's attempt at chasing down cold solder joins. Instead of hitting everything that may have been an issue (and socketing things like the OS ROM in the process), they likely just went after individually-suspect pins.
On 9/20/2023 at 5:48 PM, c1ph3rpunk said:Left the system on, with the volume down, for a while, 30 minutes or so, none of the chips feel abnormally hot, warmest one is the CPU.
The CPU being a bit warmer is pretty much normal.
On 9/20/2023 at 5:48 PM, c1ph3rpunk said:Wondering if these next steps make sense:
1) Pull all socketed chips, de-oxit, check socket pins for continuity and re-seat all of them. Test.
2) If it persists, re-flow/clean all the socket pins that appeared to have work done. Test. I’m debating about just doing that anyways, the old yellow-brown flux mess is annoying me, prudence might force me there anyways.
Yes on both.
This probably won't work, but: if you turn the machine on while holding down OPTION, does it go into the self-test menu or do any other changes take place?
One other possibility is a shot MMU / delay line IC, but I don't want to jump to that just yet.
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On 9/21/2023 at 7:12 PM, JPF997 said:
I'm interested in knowing if there are any games released for Atari 8 bit computer's that rival the quality of legendary title's released for the NES and Master System , you know games like Super Mario Bros, Zelda, Metroid, Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd etc
Bear in mind that the NES saw release in 1983, with the Master System debuting in 1985. The A8 range hit retail in 1979. Comparing the later hardware against the earlier isn't necessarily going to yield an across-the-board comparison - particularly since the A8 range was aimed at a different type of buyer than people in the market for consoles.
On 9/21/2023 at 10:15 PM, famicommander said:Hardware wise the Atari 5200 is pretty much just an Atari 400 PC in a different box.
Ehh... The differences are more significant than that. No PIA on the 5200 so no SIO, a completely different OS ROM, incompatible controllers, an expansion port on the 5200 that isn't replicated on the A8s, etc. Sure, they share SALLY, POKEY, ANTIC, and GTIA, but there's more to it than just recasing a 400.
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10 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:
a serious scrub down with baby wipes yields nice results many time when dealing with yellowing etc. pick a few different brands, the results have surprised many.
Ditto Clorox wipes or similar. Depending on the plastics in use, though, one may work better than the other.
FWIW, it may be worth trying a Magic Eraser on an inconspicuous part of the buttons; they've helped with discoloration on a number of things. You'll want to test each button individually as it's possible that different colours will respond differently to treatment. Just make sure to wash them with dish soap (Dawn recommended) first and gradually work the pressure upwards to see what happens.
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On 9/20/2023 at 9:51 AM, Fred_M said:
AFAIK Altirra is only available for Windows systems.
This is correct. Further to that:
On 9/20/2023 at 9:51 AM, Fred_M said:I am quite sure that you can not buy a Windows system for 99 dollars.
In theory, they could be running Altirra under WINE, or using the Altirra OS ROMs with a different emulator. The latter would be relatively simple; the former not so much.
To my mind, it seems like the smart thing to do would be to use a MAME build with only the drivers needed for the platform. That brings us neatly on to the following:
On 9/20/2023 at 9:51 AM, Fred_M said:When Ballblazer starts you hear the same distorted sound as the libretro 800 core. I am sure this console is using the libretro core.
Entirely possible. They could even be using libretro for the whole thing. If they are, emulation is gonna suck. libretro blows, and for a lot more reasons than just that.
I'll step down off of the libretro soapbox now.
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54 minutes ago, pcrow said:
I haven't implemented write support for any of those three, and I'm not sure if I will.
Just being able to mount the images and extract the files is likely to be 99.9% of what the FS support is used for. There may be some corner cases in favour of write support, but given that those three versions of DOS never saw wide adoption it's probably safe to back-burner that as a feature until a suitably-pressing need arises.
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Nice transitions on the floors, and it's interesting to see each level start without resetting the players' positions. The coin animations are also really fluid. Looking forward to it!
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Option 2 (assuming this is a Linux-based device) would be running Altirra under WINE. This would make sense if A8 emulation is also included since both it and the 5200 could be covered by a single emulator.
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@chriswhit: this is all way off-topic for this thread. If you want to discuss it, great, but please start a new thread for that discussion. Thanks.
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33 minutes ago, chriswhit said:
thats funky cause how do they know its woth a deal if they dont atleast see a game play video.
Since Atari generally acts as the publisher, something along these lines likely happens: a meeting is called between Atari and the third party in which NDAs are signed by both parties. The game is pitched by the third party, possibly with storyboards or early gameplay being shown. Atari then decides if it wants to publish the game or not, and things proceed from there.
Note that this is all notional; I have no idea as to how Atari actually conducts these sorts of things. However, based on my experience, this seems like a reasonable set of assumptions.
33 minutes ago, chriswhit said:a system like your talking about you cant get anywhere cause I could claim to be the best and be the worst and its not possible to negociate fair value for potential as every aspect is unknown.
This is why there's typically a lump sum paid up front, a second lump sum on completion, and royalties after that point. These payments tend to be tied to meeting milestones agreed to by both parties. The ramifications of turning in an unsaleable product and/or one that doesn't resemble the product agreed to by both parties will be specified by contractually-defined penalties.
All of this is common practice in not only the game industry, but also the vast majority of the entertainment industry (of which game development is a part) as a whole. The idea that people just send in games and get a cheque is totally off-base.
32 minutes ago, chriswhit said:it would be rather easy to protect both sides with a website designed to share gameplay videos and be able to send and receive negotiation messages
No. It absolutely wouldn't. Being completely straightforward: this is a terrible idea, and there are many good reasons why the industry as a whole doesn't follow this model.
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12 hours ago, Stephen said:
Definitely the way I would want my daughter, sister, niece, ANY female in my life to not aspire to.
I believe it was Chris Rock who said something to the effect of, "looking down into my newly-born daughter's eyes for the first time, I knew that from this point on in life I had just one responsibility: to keep her off of that stripper pole."
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Bettar advise appeared while I was typing
Deleted.
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2 hours ago, chriswhit said:
has anyone sent a evaluation copy to see what they pay?
It doesn't quite work that way.
What you're suggesting is sending in unsolicited material. In general, that can't be accepted for a number of reasons. To keep it simple, though, without a preexisting contract between Atari and a third party, neither side has any significant legal protection in the event of a dispute over the IP, including ownership and use of concepts.
The usual course of action in cases like these is to return the IP to the sender along with a note explaining the above. It won't even be looked at as soon as what the submission is becomes apparent.
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@Wildstar: Dude... This is not the thread for these discussions. Feel free to start a new thread and migrate things over there, but kindly stop using this thread in lieu of a more appropriate one.
Thank you.
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11 hours ago, Mq. said:
If you have not signed up yet and would like to buy a physical game, you are welcome, we will produce as many copies as needed.
Sign me up
Are 5200 cartridges an option, or will it be A8-only?
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13 hours ago, Piotr D. Kaczorowski said:
For now, it might be cheaper for me to rewrite a piece of this software
Understood, and having had an iMac of that generation (2008-ish), I completely understand why you're topped out at OS X 10.11.
Thing is, most of the rest of the world is on macFUSE by now. And while I have no issues with you wanting to do an osxFUSE build of atrfs, please remember that you are building for an obsolete (and unsupported) target. If it works, great, but you are kind of a corner case on this one
(And FWIW, I feel your pain re: upgrading. I'm typing this on an early 2018 MBP, and the next macOS release will probably be the last one that will support this machine. Not thrilled about being forced into that when this one still does what I need.)
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On 9/13/2023 at 4:05 PM, Piotr D. Kaczorowski said:
atrfs@osxfuse0 on /Users/piotr/Downloads/LiteDOS-SE/atr1 (osxfuse, nodev, nosuid, synchronous, mounted by piotr)
As you can see, I'm using FUSE version 3.10.4 for OSX (FUSE for macOS 3.10.4).
Unfortunately, the mounted directory isn't functioning. I receive an 'Input/Output Error (5)' when I attempt to access it.
Do you have any suggestions on how to resolve this issue?
Hang on a sec - are you using osxfuse or macFUSE? osxfuse has been deprecated for a long, long time, and was replaced by macFUSE.
There were known (in)compatibility issues between them, which may be the cause of what you're seeing here.
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For a FujiNet, it's easy: navigate to the SD card, select 'N' (New), and follow the prompts.
Using a SIDE3 cartridge: navigate to the SD card, hit CTRL-SHIFT-I, and follow the prompts. CTRL-M at this point will also show you the menu, which has a ton more options.
Most emulators can create disk images; check their documentation for specifics.
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20 minutes ago, Wildstar said:
Read the U.S. copyright law. The ROM sites are not protected by fair-use laws unless something changed in the last couple years. Congress never legislated the uploading of copyrighted content on a website for people to download for free or any price without documentable proof of licensing or acquisition of rights the copyright holder, just because the game is old and not available on the market. You have to wait until copyright expires.
Fair Use allows you to take screenshots of game which contains pictorial content that is covered by copyrights in stuff like articles, academic research paper and stuff like that. Once copyright expires then it is public domain.
Although a few countries might have made legislation that allows exactly that but here's the rubbing problem. Even if a ROM website is on a server located in such countries, if a person from say, the U.S., where such sites are illegal.... the ROM site is liable to being sued in U.S. jurisdiction because of the recipient was in the U.S. The ROM site legally is suppose to restrict access to such from country like the U.S.
The ROM site is exporting these ROMs into the US, digitally via internet. Once a ROM site is on the internet then they are potentially required to comply with the laws of every country in the world.
There is some issue inconsistency with copyright laws throughout the countries of the world. Lawyers filing lawsuits against ROM sites will beat up on the ROM sites in courts even questioning on control measures.
ROM sites are not violating just merely because they host rom images. How do they comply? Lawful agreements with copyright holders being the most recognized method.
I am namely talking about the myriad of ROM sites where there was absolutely no permission ever granted for so many of the games because there was no documented permission by the copyright holder. One has to also be careful to not just take permission from original authors because if they sold the rights, the original authors no longer have the rights to license or even declare them into public domain. The authors have to actively own the intellectual property rights in order to declare it into public domain.
Just because the site may be hosted in a country where one can legally host ROMs, they can't legally distribute the ROMs by any means to any recipient within countries where the ROMs would be illegal. Not only is the recipient liable but so is the ROM site and they can file the case either in the country of the ROM site or in the country of the recipient.
The copyright law is a problem. Copyrights, unlike trademark, do not require the game to be continuously available to preserve the rights. A copyright owner can choose to keep something off the market so the games can become rare and increase the value of how much people would pay for limited run re-releases. Illegal copies would flood the market and when the exact game can be downloaded for free, it removes the incentive for many to pay any amount, especially if there is absolutely zero bits difference the legal copy and the illegal copy. It is same binary. That is part of why copyright owners and their lawyers sue people civilly and even criminally.
When it comes to backup copies, you can't legally back your copy in a way to enable distribution of copies derived from the original or a copy of original without permission from the copyright holder. You also may not make a bunch of backup. Usually only one backup copy of any original has been universally accepted in most cases. When you have more than one backup copy, there's a problem. When you give away or sell a copy, you must give or sell the original with that copy and retain no other backup copies at all... except if you legally bought multiple copies of originals and you can have one backup copy for each legal original you bought that you have not given away copies. Legally, you can not sell or give away backup copies without the original copy. Otherwise, you are not venturing into copyright infringement.
If you legally bought 5 copies. Legally, there can be only 5 backup copies. You can replace a backup copy with a new one and reformat the older backup copy. When you give or sell 4 copies... you would need to give or sell 4 originals with four backups leaving you with one original legal copy and one backup. That's the technicality on the matter. If you sell or give away your five copies, you must sell or give away the five originals and the five backup copies or destroy the backup copies by reformatting (or equivalent) the backups and retain no copies and you would have to purchase an original again.
It is not the issue of you actually making a backup copy. However, making a backup copy does not mean you may host the copy in a manner that enables people to download copies from. You need a license (permission) or copyright ownership to do so. If someone made several hundred backup copies, it is more than likely to sell or give away without permission. Courts have ruled on that. While the exact number of backup copies you may make, is not well codified but stems from court cases so one or two might not be an issue. A dozen plus copies or hosting in a manner of public access to downloading copies would be an issue. Sometimes, developers/publishers of the game may state how many backup copies you may have at any one time and stipulate that you may not host any copy of the game anywhere.
If there are technical errors in what I said, then I am in error. OK. However, when it comes to internet hosting of ROMs, you have to comply with the laws of every country and not distribute any illegal goods to any persons in those countries where the roms being downloaded would be an illegal goods. Data transferring game roms from you to another person via computer networking/telecommunication means of any kind is distribution. So if you hosted a rom without copyright holder permission or ownership of the copyrights and I downloaded it, not only I could be sued so can you and because I am in the U.S. they can file in U.S. Federal court... even if you and your site is not in the U.S. This has been done before and still are done.
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1 hour ago, Spanno said:
Following on from the USB Keyboard Controller I hacked together for my Atari 800XL, I've now built this to replace the 800XL (which was making my desk look untidy):
Very cool! A few questions:
1 hour ago, Spanno said:- 512 KiB SRAM (320 KiB is decoded)
Why only decode 320K? I'm guessing that it's using the RAMBO method of adding 256K to the board, but the whole 512K (or more) should be possible unless there's something I'm missing.
1 hour ago, Spanno said:- 32/64 KiB E(E)PROM for the OS and BASIC
Does this arrangement allow for user-selectable OSes?
The lack of a cartridge port and PBI is understandable given the form factor, but are these something that could be possible by way of breakout cables or similar? Echoing everyone else's opinions, they should be there if it's feasible.
Really nifty, and I've been pondering something similar myself. Nice case, BTW
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21 minutes ago, bent_pin said:
@Albert I'd be happy to volunteer a box of vintage goodies to get him back on his feet. They may have a crack or two, but they'll run perfectly. I even have a nice i3 PC that I can toss in for good measure.
Just mentioning it since it may impact hardware selection: IIRC, he's in Germany. 220V and PAL FTW.
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Posted
No, a7800 is multiplatform - I'm running it under macOS. As for whether or not it builds on ARM, I have no idea
1536@lolbox .a7800 % file ./a7800 ./a7800: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64 1536@lolbox .a7800 %