2600 Rom Comparisions and Dumps

[Omegamatrix]

About Star Wars - Ewok Adventure:

 

Exactly what did Thomas convert (other than they are 16K)?

 

He changed the bankswitching format from E0 to F6. This made the game compatible with the Krok. Gameplay should be the same.

 

 

PAL Springer needs to be readded to the database as we found the issue was with Z26 not auto detecting the right bankswitching (3F). This rom works fine in Z26 when 3F bankswitching is enabled, as well as in Stella (automatically), and has tested fine on real hardware too. What didn't pass on real hardware is this Sir Lancelot dump which still is in V2:

 

Sir Lancelot (1983) (Xonox - K-Tel Software, Anthony R. Henderson) (99006, 6220).bin

Sir_Lancelot__1983___Xonox___K_Tel_Software__Anthony_R._Henderson___99006__6220_.bin

 

Even when I load it into my Krok I get a warning from the program that it is a flagged bad dump. It doesn't work on real hardware, but does in emulation.

[Rom Hunter]

PAL Springer needs to be readded to the database as we found the issue was with Z26 not auto detecting the right bankswitching (3F). This rom works fine in Z26 when 3F bankswitching is enabled, as well as in Stella (automatically), and has tested fine on real hardware too. What didn't pass on real hardware is this Sir Lancelot dump which still is in V2:

 

Sir Lancelot (1983) (Xonox - K-Tel Software, Anthony R. Henderson) (99006, 6220).bin

Sir_Lancelot__1983___Xonox___K_Tel_Software__Anthony_R._Henderson___99006__6220_.bin

 

Even when I load it into my Krok I get a warning from the program that it is a flagged bad dump. It doesn't work on real hardware, but does in emulation.

That's good enough for me.

 

PAL Springer added.

 

Thanks!

 

[Rom Hunter]

Any more flagged bad dumps in the V2 collection?

 

[Rom Hunter]

This is what is different between the two Air Raiders roms:

 

file 1: Air Raiders (Air Battle) (1982) (M Network, Larry Zwick - INTV) (MT5861).bin
file 2: Air_Raiders__Air_Battle___1982___M_Network__Larry_Zwick___INTV___MT5861___a_.bin

0286	A5	A9
0287	DB	99
028A	E5	EA
028B	E1	EA

 

I don't have time to play it. The manual says that when the left difficulty switch is set to "A" position then it's much harder to get away from enemy shelling. There is no visible clue so you'll have to play this one for a bit, Rom.

Can someone please find out what these differences mean?

 

I don't notice much difference when playing these two:

Air_Raiders__Air_Battle___1982___M_Network__Larry_Zwick___INTV___MT5861___a_.bin

Air_Raiders__Air_Battle___1982___M_Network__Larry_Zwick___INTV___MT5861_.bin

 

[+batari]

This is what is different between the two Air Raiders roms:

 

file 1: Air Raiders (Air Battle) (1982) (M Network, Larry Zwick - INTV) (MT5861).bin
file 2: Air_Raiders__Air_Battle___1982___M_Network__Larry_Zwick___INTV___MT5861___a_.bin

0286	A5	A9
0287	DB	99
028A	E5	EA
028B	E1	EA

 

I don't have time to play it. The manual says that when the left difficulty switch is set to "A" position then it's much harder to get away from enemy shelling. There is no visible clue so you'll have to play this one for a bit, Rom.

Can someone please find out what these differences mean?

 

I don't notice much difference when playing these two:

Air_Raiders__Air_Battle___1982___M_Network__Larry_Zwick___INTV___MT5861___a_.bin

Air_Raiders__Air_Battle___1982___M_Network__Larry_Zwick___INTV___MT5861_.bin

 

EDIT: figured out the details.

 

The first gives you the same ammo as the number of hits when taking off after landing to refuel. The second gives you 99 ammo when taking off after landing to refuel.

Edited April 18, 2008 by batari

[Rom Hunter]

I see.

 

The [a]lternate version is exactly the same as Rotschkar's 2003 hack.

 

Thanks!

 

 

This still leaves us with the following missing alternate ROMs:

 

Air Battle

(original production run): The Difficulty switches were programmed as A for easy and B for hard (opposite for how they were intended to be used). This was reversed in a new production run. The original cartridges were never supposed to be released. Fearing that some might have been accidentally shipped to stores, though, Mattel Electronics operators were informed of the first version just in case somebody got one and called up, confused. It's unknown if any of the original cartridges were released:

http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=19390

 

Bridge

The original version allows you to bid 8 spades, and crashes when you do; later releases fixed this.

 

BurgerTime

2 versions exist! Later production runs added a choice of difficulty levels using the TV Type switch (B/W = easy, COLOR = hard) and fixed this bug: cheese and eggs are tall enough that they can sometimes catch the chef when walking on the plank below him.

 

Ghostbusters (PAL)

The PAL version will crash if you try to enter the headquarters building when it’s flashing. A fixed version was later re-released by HES.

 

Skeet Shoot

The original PAL releases had a bug that caused the screen to roll.

 

Edited April 18, 2008 by Rom Hunter

[Omegamatrix]

Bridge

The original version allows you to bid 8 spades, and crashes when you do; later releases fixed this.

I suspect this version is the one I dumped and posted earlier. I really have no idea how to play Bridge, and have too much on the plate for a month to try and find out. Any more bad dumps and I definitely will let you know.

 

@Batari thanks for clearing up Air Raiders!

[Rom Hunter]

According to your findings, the bugged version should be this one:

Bridge__1980___Activision__Larry_Kaplan___AX_006_.bin

 

And the fixed version should be this one:

Bridge__2600_Screen_Search_Console___Jone_Yuan_Telephonic_Enterprise_Co_.bin

 

What to do now?

 

I'm not much of a bridger.

 

[Hornpipe2]

Taking a look at Polaris now:

 

Polaris (1983) (Tigervision, Robert H. O'Neil) (7-007) [a].bin

is the first 4k of the Polaris prototype. I don't know if there is another 4k or not in the actual prototype, but it certainly isn't present here - you also can't get past the title screen. Probably have to ask CPUWIZ about it. http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/polaris/21783.htm

Suggest rename to Polaris (1983) (Tigervision, Robert H. O'Neil) (7-007) (Prototype) (4k).bin

 

Polaris (1983) (Tigervision, Robert H. O'Neil) (7-007).bin

is the final released version.

[Rom Hunter]

Many thanks for the correction, Hornpipe2.

 

[Hornpipe2]

I cannot at all figure out what is up with Q-bert's Qubes (1984) (Parker Brothers, Todd Marshall) (PB5550).bin, but it doesn't even boot up when run on Stella. Q-bert's Qubes (1984) (Parker Brothers, Todd Marshall) (PB5550) [a].bin is the working version and matches 100% with what is on Atarimania ( http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...ERSION_ID=16244 )

 

Suggest renaming Q-bert's Qubes (1984) (Parker Brothers, Todd Marshall) (PB5550).bin to Q-bert's Qubes (1984) (Parker Brothers, Todd Marshall) (PB5550) .bin and

Q-bert's Qubes (1984) (Parker Brothers, Todd Marshall) (PB5550) [a].bin to Q-bert's Qubes (1984) (Parker Brothers, Todd Marshall) (PB5550).bin

 

(in other words: marking the original base filename as a ad Dump, and changing the [a]lternate to be the new 'correct' version)

[Omegamatrix]

This is good work Hornpipe2.

 

 

Looks like this one was dumped without E0 bankswitching in mind. It definitely is a bad dump.

[Rom Hunter]

Bad dump removed (no bad dumps in my collection) and good dump renamed.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Something else:

 

Was Rocky & Bullwinkle supposed to be a 4K game or a 16K game?

 

Edited April 20, 2008 by Rom Hunter

[Omegamatrix]

Was Rocky & Bullwinkle supposed to be a 4K game or a 16K game?

 

4k. The rest is supercharger crap.

[Rom Hunter]

Speaking of bad dumps:

 

What about the H.E.R.O. (PAL?) 4K and PAL 16K versions?

 

The 16K versions shows the start-up screen, but then locks up.

 

The 4K version doesn't seem to do anything at all.

 

Edited April 20, 2008 by Rom Hunter

[Omegamatrix]

This 4k is a bad dump. Hero is a 8k game and you are missing half the code.

 

_bad_dump__H.E.R.O.__1984___Activision__John_Van_Ryzin___AZ_036_04___4K_.bin

 

 

Looking at the rest.

[Omegamatrix]

The 16K is a bad dump. I did find when split one the halves matched the [a2] version.

 

So now we are down to 8K of PAL, PAL [a1], PAL [a2]. I'll compare these.

[Rom Hunter]

Both H.E.R.O. bad dumps removed from my collection.

 

BTW: PAL Jawbreaker starts to jump after a few seconds.

 

Can't remember that from the version I owned when I was a kid.

 

Edited April 20, 2008 by Rom Hunter

[Omegamatrix]

		PAL	[a1]	[a2]
0FF8	EA	  EA	  2E
0FF9	FF	  EA	  2E
1FF8	FF	  EA	  EA
1FF9	EA	  EA	  00
1FFD	F0	  F0	  D0
1FFF	F0	  F0	  D0

 

 

I don't know which to use... I'm guessing these differeneces were caused by how they were dumped. It's likely that they are all identical. Thomas? Nukey?

Edited April 20, 2008 by Omegamatrix

[Rom Hunter]

Many thanks for checking, Omega.

 

Appreciate it.

 

Edited April 20, 2008 by Rom Hunter

[Omegamatrix]

I just tested all three roms on real hardware and they work. I also flicked the reset switch a few times and there were no problems. The PAL and PAL [a1] version seems to make more sense to me though as $1FFF points back to $F000 at reset. These are also the most similar of the three roms. I really don't know how it all works with the bankswitching etc.. so I'll leave it to the experts to figure it out.

 

 

There was another rom I thought was bad. One of the Space Tunnel roms IIRC. Everytime you started the game your ship is postioned inside of the wall so you immediately die. You just sit there and watch your ships die off one by one. It is physically impossible to even start playing that game so how can it be a good dump? The programmer would surely notice this. All other versions of Space Tunnel start your ship in the middle of the screen.

[Rom Hunter]

There was another rom I thought was bad. One of the Space Tunnel roms IIRC. Everytime you started the game your ship is postioned inside of the wall so you immediately die. You just sit there and watch your ships die off one by one. It is physically impossible to even start playing that game so how can it be a good dump? The programmer would surely notice this. All other versions of Space Tunnel start your ship in the middle of the screen.

You're right.

 

I completely forgot about that one.

 

Here it is:

Space_Tunnel___Weltraum_Tunnel__1982___Bit_Corporation___PG202___PAL___a_.bin

 

And here's the good one:

Space_Tunnel___Weltraum_Tunnel__1982___Bit_Corporation___PG202___PAL_.bin

 

 

And of course the weird PAL Donkey Kongs:

Donkey_Kong__1982___CBS_Electronics__Dan_Kitchen__Garry_Kitchen___4L1700___4L1701__4L1702__4L1802__4L2274___PAL_.bin

Donkey_Kong__1982___CBS_Electronics__Dan_Kitchen__Garry_Kitchen___4L1700___4L1701__4L1702__4L1802__4L2274___PAL___a2_.bin

 

And the strange Night Stalker:

Night_Stalker__AKA_Dark_Cavern___1989___Telegames___PAL___a_.bin

 

Edited April 20, 2008 by Rom Hunter

[Hornpipe2]

Omegamatrix: You saw this list before, right? I want to make sure you don't go chasing overdumps without seeing what's already been identified...

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1446910

 

EDIT: There are three versions of Crystal Castles.

Crystal Castles (1984) (Atari, Michael Kosaka, Peter C. Niday, Robert Vieira) (CX26110).bin

Crystal Castles (1984) (Atari, Michael Kosaka, Peter C. Niday, Robert Vieira) (CX26110) [a].bin

Crystal Castles (1984) (Atari, Michael Kosaka, Peter C. Niday, Robert Vieira) (CX26110) (Prototype).bin

 

First on that list is the real deal.

The second won't let you past the title screen, and is the base version with some changed bytes. Could be a bad dump.

The third is exactly like the first, except all unused bytes in the ROM have been changed from 00 to FF (in other words, probably was read from an EPROM as it is faster to program FF than 00 for unused bytes). Are we sure this is a proto, and if so from where?

 

Interestingly none of these versions fit the description of the Crystal Castles prototype described here: http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/c...astles/1484.htm

Who owns this now? It would be nice to have a real ROM image of it, as I can't find this in your collection.

Edited April 21, 2008 by Hornpipe2

[Omegamatrix]

Omegamatrix: You saw this list before, right? I want to make sure you don't go chasing overdumps without seeing what's already been identified...

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=1446910

 

This is useful. Overdumps are wasteful when both halfs are the same. Usually when both halfs aren't the same it is bit rot or a bad dump.

 

EDIT: There are three versions of Crystal Castles.

Crystal Castles (1984) (Atari, Michael Kosaka, Peter C. Niday, Robert Vieira) (CX26110).bin

Crystal Castles (1984) (Atari, Michael Kosaka, Peter C. Niday, Robert Vieira) (CX26110) [a].bin

Crystal Castles (1984) (Atari, Michael Kosaka, Peter C. Niday, Robert Vieira) (CX26110) (Prototype).bin

 

First on that list is the real deal.

The second won't let you past the title screen, and is the base version with some changed bytes. Could be a bad dump.

The third is exactly like the first, except all unused bytes in the ROM have been changed from 00 to FF (in other words, probably was read from an EPROM as it is faster to program FF than 00 for unused bytes).

 

Does Crystal Castles use the superchip? Is all this ram? I'll take a look.

[Omegamatrix]

It took a lot of digging, but I finally found two Crystal Castle carts and dumped them.

 

both carts 100% match this rom:

Crystal Castles (1984) (Atari, Michael Kosaka, Peter C. Niday, Robert Vieira) (CX26110).bin

Crystal_Castles.bin

 

Notice too that one cart is Atari Corps and the other Atari Inc., but both have the same rom.

 

The [a] rom failed in emulation and on real hardware. It is a bad dump. All you get is the title screen and you can't go anywhere. The prototype worked on real hardware and emulation.

 

 

As a side note Crystal Castles is a Superchip game, so if you load it into your Krok cart make sure it is a stand alone rom, and not part of a multicart. This will make it function properly.