Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 I believe that, in case of Pitfall II, the cause of most of the graphic changes is SECAM compatibility.Interesting theory. It would explain less color luminosity differences, but not completely wrong PAL colors (e.g. in PAL Pole Position, the curbs are brown ($44). They could easily be red ($64) and still look OK in SECAM). It would be nice to find some clear evidence or first hand information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 Interesting theory. It would explain less color luminosity differences, but not completely wrong PAL colors (e.g. in PAL Pole Position, the curbs are brown ($44). They could easily be red ($64) and still look OK in SECAM). Yeah, the lousy conversion argument still stands. I think the SECAM compatibility is an additional cause that explains some programming choices in some of the Atari and Activision PAL conversions of the early '80s. Later, the 2600 junior and 7800 were available in France in PAL format (or RGB with PAL palette), and support for SECAM was abandoned. It would be nice to find some clear evidence or first hand information. I'd like that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 Why is the boulder behind Quick Claw missing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 (edited) Must be an initialization error. If you run to the next screen and back, the boulder is there. And even you if hack the game and make Harry start left of Quickclaw, he cannot exit to the left. Edited June 7, 2017 by Thomas Jentzsch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted June 13, 2017 Share Posted June 13, 2017 Activision Bridge PAL: Bridge_PAL.bin Only 5 bytes differ from the NTSC "fixed" version. PAL on the left, NTSC on the right:01AD 40 23 overscan TIMER02E5 47 2A vblank TIMER0FD8 64 44 diamonds COLOR0FD9 64 44 hearts COLOR0FDB B2 92 background COLORThe pirate PAL rom (208 in 1 cartridge) that was already dumped, has slightly higher timer values (frames are 316 lines) and keeps the color values of the NTSC versions (which by chance look quite right, anyway). original PAL on the left, pirate PAL on the right:01AD 40 4302E5 47 4A0FD8 64 440FD9 64 440FDB B2 92 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted June 13, 2017 Share Posted June 13, 2017 Many thanks, Alex!I'm glad the cart worked 100%.Will add the ROM right away. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 Thanks to tdp, the Supercharger PAL bios is now dumped: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267146-supercharger-audit/?do=findComment&comment=3796524 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 (edited) Thanks to tdp, the Supercharger PAL bios is now dumped: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267146-supercharger-audit/?do=findComment&comment=3796524 Excellent! I'll add it to the V13 collection. Thanks! Edited July 2, 2017 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 I've updated the first post with Rom's edits. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Stella 5.0 will have the updated v13 info as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Stella 5.0 will have the updated v13 info as well. Excellent. Thanks, Stephena! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted August 10, 2017 Author Share Posted August 10, 2017 Finally River Raid Secam has been dumped! I'm also very happy to see a PAL Bridge dumped. I would love to see Pete Rose's Baseball (PAL) get dumped. If I ever get a copy I think I could do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted August 10, 2017 Share Posted August 10, 2017 Finally River Raid Secam has been dumped! I'm also very happy to see a PAL Bridge dumped. I would love to see Pete Rose's Baseball (PAL) get dumped. If I ever get a copy I think I could do it. The man is back! Glad to hear from you again, Omega! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted August 11, 2017 Author Share Posted August 11, 2017 I think it's important to dump and confirm Robot Tank (HES) and Pitfall II (HES). At least with Robot Tank I suspect there is high possibility the rom was converted from FE to F6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 I think it's important to dump and confirm Robot Tank (HES) and Pitfall II (HES). At least with Robot Tank I suspect there is high possibility the rom was converted from FE to F6. Also, Telesys' Coco Nuts (PAL), Stargunner (PAL) and Gameworld's Airlock (PAL) have high priority. These third party PAL games are still not dumped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted August 11, 2017 Author Share Posted August 11, 2017 Does Turmoil (PAL) really exist? Also is that all of the SECAM carts? Anything else to add to the list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 (edited) Does Turmoil (PAL) really exist? Also is that all of the SECAM carts? Anything else to add to the list? IIRC Marco owns Turmoil (PAL), but I'm not 100% certain about this. Perhaps it's time to remove this one until proof is shown. Yes, all SECAM carts are dumped now, except for X-Man: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-x-man_30521.html But I doubt it's truly SECAM. Edited August 11, 2017 by Rom Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 I would love to see Pete Rose's Baseball (PAL) get dumped. If I ever get a copy I think I could do it. I used to have it, but sold it -- alas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted August 12, 2017 Author Share Posted August 12, 2017 I used to have it, but sold it -- alas! That's too bad. It's not too rare of a cart though so someone should have one. I took a look on eBay and I saw PAL Pete Rose Baseball, Robot Tank, Stargunner, Airlock, and Commando Raid all on there. The problem is they are all too expensive for me to justify buying just to dump. I'm hoping some people got some donors with crappy labels that they don't care about, or someone has them and a dumper. Pete Rose would have been dumped by now, but it is problematic with a 7800 dumper. I think I can do it with my Harmony dumper though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted August 12, 2017 Share Posted August 12, 2017 I mentioned it (and my SuperVision multicarts, also now sold) a while back, but I'm guessing maybe it wasn't possible to dump it at the time. I hope the Harmony dumper works out when you get a copy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted August 12, 2017 Author Share Posted August 12, 2017 I mentioned it (and my SuperVision multicarts, also now sold) a while back, but I'm guessing maybe it wasn't possible to dump it at the time. I hope the Harmony dumper works out when you get a copy! I totally missed that post or it just didn't register with me at the time. At least a few dumps have emerged since I've been away. I thought about taking Birthdaymania off the list, but it sounds like there might be some differences between the released carts and the recovered source. IIRC the color of the screen is at least different. Edit: Found some screenshots. The cartrdidge version has different colors for sure. Cartridge: http://atariage.com/screenshot_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=2805 Rom built from source code: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/204909-birthday-mania-unwrapped/?p=3367880 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted September 23, 2017 Author Share Posted September 23, 2017 Airlock by Gameworld (PAL). I had a very quick look and couldn't determine how much of code has true changes from the NTSC version. That requires disassembly and compare, and I don't have the time right now. Airlock (1983) (Gameworld) (133-004) (PAL).zip The graphics are different. That's all I could tell without disassembly. I couldn't get too far into the game as the controls are bad. Of note the Gameworld cart has DA1002, but the NTSC version by Data Age uses DA1004. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted September 23, 2017 Share Posted September 23, 2017 Wow, quite a difference! Player and mines are much nicer in PAL version and they're animated too. Thanks for the dump! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted September 23, 2017 Share Posted September 23, 2017 Thanks very much for the Airlock dump! I'm pretty fond of the NTSC version so I just spent an hour playing through the easy and hard modes of the PAL version. The graphical upgrade is nice, but there's an annoying bug on the topmost floor: if you jump on the "wrong" animation frame, your character will always hit his head on the ceiling -- you can only make a successful jump if your legs are bent. I was tearing my hair out trying to figure out why some of my jumps weren't working until I realized that the animation frame was the key variable. I haven't tried it on real hardware (and basically can't since I'm in NTSC land), so it's possible that it's an emulator issue. Otherwise, is there any chance that this was the original code (or plan), and the NTSC release of Airlock is actually a version with the animation frames cut to get around this bug? Probably not, but it does make me curious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted September 23, 2017 Share Posted September 23, 2017 The bug of player hitting the ceiling on the topmost floor is present on real hardware too. I disabled the timer to quickly test that: Airlock_PAL_no_timer.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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