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This sounds a lot like an automated version of what I did for Bad Apple. I just kept on trying different tuning offsets until I found one that sounded good.

Can you please explain further? I thought the largest bankswitching scheme was 3F, with 512KB?

Has anyone made an include file with the VCS constants with a license that permits redistribution, as a replacement for the vcs.h that comes with DASM? I ask because I am planning to release the source code for my Bad Apple demo, and rather than just release a single .asm file with the code for the 2600, I want to provide a complete source code package with a script to encode the video and build everything from scratch. If not, I can create my own file with the necessary constants, though I would rather not do the work twice.

The compression scheme works by deduplicating rows of the frames. At such a low resolution, and in monochrome, there are many rows, both within the same frame, and between frames, that are identical. The rows are stored on the cardtridge sorted in an optimal order for delta compression, and each frame has a list of pointers to the appropriate rows. In the background during offscreen time, the delta-compressed rows are decompressed into the 32KB cartridge RAM, and during onscreen time, the frame's pointers are read to load the contents of the row from RAM into the video registers. I had a version at one point which worked without additional RAM, but due to size constraints it could only fit the entire video at 20 FPS instead of 30.

I have seen FPGA reproductions of the 2600. Here's one that has source code publicly available: https://retromaster.wordpress.com/a2601/

I finally found the time to work on this again, and I finished up the music. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko9ZA50X71s And here is the ROM. Remember to launch it in Stella using 3E bankswitching. BadApple1_0.bin

I finished the 30FPS version this weekend. It also only 414K of ROM, meaning there is going to be plenty of space left over for the music I'm working on. This version decompresses data in the background to the 32K cartridge RAM, so make sure you run it as a 3E ROM. The screen changes between red and green to illustrate when the decompressor is running and not running, respectively, but I'll of course remove that in the final release. Right now, however, the ROM only works in Stella, and not Z26, which has me worried. Can someone with a real 2600 and flashcart try this and report back if it works? I have neither, so the testing would be much appreciated. On another note (pardon the pun), does Stella only check the state of the TIA sound registers once per frame? Because I am trying to update the registers at 36Hz, and the timing of the notes sounds very off. At 30Hz, everything sounds fine, but then the music plays too slow for the video. badapple-7-7-14.bin

I'm figuring out how to do what I used to do with 256K of RAM with only 32K of RAM right now, but this means I am literally using every last bank of ROM. Is there any flash cart that can run a full 512K ROM + 32K RAM?

No, the original video is 30FPS. And I actually just realized adding more vertical resolution might be an issue because I am currently using 3 bytes of RAM per row of vertical resolution that stores the bank and address of where the data for each row is located. 32 rows x 3 = 96 bytes, which gives me just enough space for everything else. In the ROM, it is packed into 2 bytes per row and everything for the frame about to be rendered is unpacked in the VBLANK. I could read the two bytes from ROM and then unpack it on the fly, but I don't think I have time for that in a three scanline kernel. Meanwhile, I'm making progress on a 40x32@30FPS version that should run with only 32K cartridge RAM. It'll all be dependent on how good the compression turns out.

Did you mean to say 15FPS? That would be ideal when the source material is 30FPS. That would be doable. I'm currently doing 6 scanlines per row of pixels, with each scanline loading part of the data for the next row of pixels, but I have just enough time to do it in three scanlines if I wanted to. I prefer higher framerates, however.

I've got a 30FPS version somewhat working now. It is supposed to use a 512K ROM/256K RAM 3E cartridge. It decompresses data into the RAM beforehand, allowing for more efficient compression that would not work on-the-fly. Problem is, Stella seems to be only supporting 32K of cartridge RAM. If you try and run the ROM, it looks like mostly garbage, because data going into the RAM gets overwritten by data that was supposed to go into a later bank. I've got the original version, if anyone does know of an emulator that supports 256K RAM, and I have a shortened version that only needs to decompress to 32K so you can see it work. Make sure to set it manually to a 3E cartridge - Stella does not seem to autodetect it. badapple6-30-14.bin badapple6-30-14short.bin

I've figured out a use for the additional RAM in the 3E cartridges. The problem is, I need to use 256K of it, and Stella seems to be limiting me to only 32K of RAM. Writing 32-255 to $3F just switches me to the respective bank from 0-31. Is there a setting I have to change to enable all 256 banks of RAM?

The other issue apart from tuning is that the beats of the music do not line up with 60Hz. From the TI-84 version, I discovered 32nd notes play at 18Hz. Back then, I had interrupts, so it wasn't a problem. Here though, there still just might be a way, but then I still have to deal with the poor tuning. Mediacrush is a nice service, but it serves a different purpose from YouTube. YouTube, apart from providing hosting, also lets people discover new videos with searching and reccomendations. Mediacrush is more like an image host, but for pictures, audio, and video. You have to link to the content on another site for it to be visible. I use Mediacrush for quickly sharing things with people, while I use YouTube for a final video.

I finally figured out how to record a video. I used Z26, MSI Afterburner, and the Lagarith codec. Still need to figure out how to crop it properly and make sure the on screen display doesn't show up though. What is the generally accepted setup for recording 2600 emulator footage? https://mediacru.sh/2Iz0XX05Es2Q

The Bad Apple video has been made to display on many retro systems, such as the Sega Megadrive, Gameboy Color, NES, Pokemon Mini, and IBM PC. I've also written a version for the TI-84+ SE calculator. I decided to try my hand at making one for the Atari 2600. Features/specs: 3:40 of monochrome video 40x32 resolution at 20FPS 512KiB 3F ROM NTSC Lossless compression - video data fits in under 390KiB as opposed to 685KiB uncompressed. Kernel capable of displaying at 60FPS Unfortunately, there is no sound. The melody to the song has a very wide range, though, so I don't think it would sound good on the 2600's sound hardware anyways. The ROM is attached if you want to try it out. I've only tested it on emulators, so try it on real hardware at your own risk. badapple6-25-14.bin