jfmateos

January 28, 2018

Dear Cartoondonkey, I am having a lot of troubles getting mails through my mail server because it is in a shared hosting that has been black listed as spammer.

I have sent you a private message through this forum with another mail address.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

September 14, 2017

Nice Inky, I wish you'll enjoy it a lot.

September 13, 2017

Ok inky, please let me know the result of your test...

I though it could be a cold solder joint in the flash ic :-(

September 12, 2017

Dear inky,

When you insert the card into the burner and connect the burner to your PC, it should be detected as an empty drive with 256kb avialable.

The game.bin file indicates that the burner is not identifying the rewritable card properly.

Does any slot appear as an empty drive?

July 3, 2017

Dear Dauber,

I am working on it.

Regarding your observations:

1) Yes, it is a 256kb device. When you select the 144k position, two 128kb slots are merged to create a single 256 kb slot.

2) Yes, I have this problem too (134k used by nothing).

3) Yes, it is a FAT12 device because it is impossible to create such a small drive with FAT 16 (minimum 4MB).

Will keep working on this.

June 26, 2017

Dear Dauber,

I'm upgrading my mac to sierra at this very moment... will investigate the problem.

Best regards

February 10, 2017

Dear Dauber,

The problem with some MAC OS is that even removing the hidden files using the ditto commands, it creates them again when you copy the rom onto the card.

Could you try a windows file browser, like Freecommander, through wine?

January 4, 2017

Dear crossbow... yours probably can run S9P games, but not 48P.

Dear gandor, yours would require an upgrade to play S9P or 48P.

January 3, 2017

Juan,

I am curious since my cart is a newer cart #56. Is it already capable to do use these new formats?

Yes groundtrooper, your card is S9P/48P-ready ;-)

Enjoy.

January 2, 2017

Dear all,

I have been working to extend the capabilities of the Mateos Atari 7800 rewritable card and burner, and have managed to add 2 new formats:

48P: For 48k games with pokey at $4000; the write operations at $4000-$7FFF are sent to the Pokey, but the read operations are sent to the flash memory.
S9P: For 144k games with pokey at $4000; the write operations at $4000-$7FFF are sent to the Pokey, but the read operations are sent to the flash memory.

Some of your cards can already use these two formats, but unfortunately others will require a two-step update:

Firmware upgrade in the burner.
IC replacement in the rewritable card.

If your system needs to be updated, I will be pleased to do it free of charge (although would appreciate your collaboration with the shipping cost (shipping from Spain costs 6.55€)). If you are interested, please use the contact form of my website:

http://www.vectrex.hackermesh.org/index.php/en/contact

November 2, 2016

Dear groundtrooper,

Sorry for the late reply (I have a health problem ).

I have already studied your dump and I can confirm that the burner is working properly, but there is an odd problem with the card. I will send you another one this week.

Nevertheless I would like to further troubleshoot the problem with that card, so... may i ask you to send it back to me? Of course, I will pay the posting cost.

October 30, 2016

Dear Groundtrooper,

Please, could you try the following to troubleshoot this issue?

Select slot 0 (make sure that the size switch is <144kb), insert the 7800 card into the burner, and connect it to your pc. Ignore the formatting message.
Install Roadkil's Sector Editor (http://www.<span><sp...hp?ProgramID=24)
Run Roadkil's Sector Editor and select File>Export sectors, and export 520 sectors to a file.
Safely eject the burner. Disconect the dumper from your PC usb port.
Please, send me that file (vectrex at hackermesh dot org).

Best regards,

September 28, 2016

No, that is not right.

You should get a file with the same size as the original file minus 128bytes.

Please, could you try with a different browser?

September 27, 2016

Dear syn,

The preloaded roms in slots 0 to A are PAL, and the games on slots B and C are NTSC.

I guess your Windows is still storing "something" in the card because the available free space should be 256kb.

Please, try the following procedures (copied from the faq section of my website):

Windows 8.1/10 automatically saves a system folder in every USB storage device, included the Mateos cartridges, and this folder confuses the MVBD burner disturbing its proper functioning.

There is a workaround explained in this thread of a Microsoft forum: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-hardware/how-do-i-prevent-system-volume-information-files/815b0046-d631-4419-a43e-44083a3733f5?page=2

If you are using the home editions of Windows 8/10, that do not include gpedit, you can use the regedit alternative explained in the second part of this article: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/prevent-system-volume-information-folder-usb

Please, let me know whether this gets 256kb of available space.

September 21, 2016

Dear crosbow,

When you write a >144kb game it takes 2 slot, but not consecutive ones.

If you write a 144kb game in slot 0, it will take slots 0 and 8.

If you write a 144kb game in slot 1, it will take slots 1 and 9.

If you write a 144kb game in slot 2, it will take slots 2 and A.

If you write a 144kb game in slot 3, it will take slots 3 and B.

...

If you write a 144kb game in slot 7, it will take slots 7 and F.

September 21, 2016

Dear crosbow,

The preloaded roms from slot 0 to A are PAL, and the roms on slots B and C are NTSC.

Probably, your Windows 10 is saving hidden folders/files in the drive. To disable this behaviour you can follow one of the following procedures (copied from the FAQ section of my website vectrex.hackermesh.org):

There is a workaround explained in this thread of a Microsoft forum: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-hardware/how-do-i-prevent-system-volume-information-files/815b0046-d631-4419-a43e-44083a3733f5?page=2

If you are using the home editions of Windows 8/10, that do not include gpedit, you can use the regedit alternative explained in the second part of this article: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/prevent-system-volume-information-folder-usb

Please, let me know whether this solves the issue.

August 31, 2016

Hello to everybody... I am now back from my holidays

Dear grips03,

That error probably means that your MacOS operating system is creating hidden folders in the atari 7800 card.

I have included some information in the FAQ page of my website to solve this issue (pasted below).

Is MVBD compatible with Mac OS?

Yes. Neverthless, Mac OS file system includes additional information (i.e. icon bitmap) in every file, even the rom files stored in your computer. This additional information could be transferred to the rewritable cartridge when you copy the file using the Finder and, as the console cannot understand it, the ROM will not work.

Besides, Mac OS creates hidden folders than can also fool the burner.

To show all the hidden folders in the Finder use the following command:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

To remove hidden folder use the following command:

rm - rf [and drag the folder from the Finder to the terminal window]

Once the burner drive is completely empty, copy only the data of the rom file, without the additional resource information included by Mac OS, using the following ditto sintax in the terminal:

ditto --norsrc --noextattr --noacl --noqtn src_file dst_file

For example:

ditto --norsrc --noextattr --noacl --noqtn "/Volumes/NO NAME/jimmy512.lnx" "/Volumes/Drive_Name"

Please, let me know whether this solves that problem.

July 22, 2016

Dear moonlight, your guess is right: I have made the backpack detachable to better test the cards.

All the pre-burnt roms in slots 0 to 9 are PAL, but slots A and B are NTSC.

July 22, 2016

This is really odd...

There is "something" in your computer that creates a "LIGHTNINGSAND.CFD" subfolder and erases it twice when you eject the card.

You can see it in the following image:

I cannot find helpful information about this subfolder in the web... but it seems that other Norton users are also having problems with this:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-files/corrupt-file-system-volume-information-sandcfd-is/7f1d23a7-123d-4457-867d-fddca59fa281?auth=1

July 21, 2016

Dear Bobbi,

It is very odd: it seems that you are using NORTON antivirus, and this program creates a folder in the atari 7800 card named LIGHTNINGSAND.CFD... as this folder takes some of the rom space in the card, the atari 7800 cannot find the rom header and it defaults to Asteroid.

Please, could you try disabling norton antivirus or with a different computer?

Best regards

July 19, 2016

Dear Bobbi,

Are you using macos?

July 18, 2016

Dear Bobbi... Please, could you try the following?

Select a slot that doesn't work.
Burn on it a 128kb game.
Install Roadkil's Sector Editor (http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=24)
Run Roadkil's Sector Editor and select File>Export sectors, and export 518 sectors to a file.
Please, send me the rom from step 2 and the result of step 4.

July 16, 2016

Dear Walter, this is the information I get of your tracking code from:

http://www.correos.es/ss/Satellite/site/aplicacion-1349167812834-herramientas_y_apps/detalle_app-sidioma=en_GB

There has been some delay with the mailing service here in spain due to summer holidays.

11/07/2016 Pre-registrado

12/07/2016 Accepted

13/07/2016 Dispatch from the point of origin international office

July 7, 2016

Dear all,

The second batch of atari 7800 rewritable cards is ready..

I think I have answered everybody who has contacted me through my web site:

http://www.vectrex.hackermesh.org/index.php/en/mvbd-mvmc-3/faq

Best regards

June 24, 2016

Dear Bobbi,

Yes it seems that there is some problem with my mail... I will try to solve it.

Nevertheless, I received your mail and answered it... please let me know if you don't receive my answer.

Best regards

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