ApolloBoy Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 I did some testing earlier today to figure out the memory requirements for all the XEGS carts (except for Donkey Kong and Eastern Front 1941 which are rereleases), and I think this is a pretty definitive list. Let me know if there any inaccuracies. Ace of Aces - 64K Airball - 64K Archon - 48K Ballblazer - 48K Barnyard Blaster - 48K Battlezone - 48K Blue Max - 48K Bug Hunt - 48K Choplifter - 64K Crime Buster - 48K Crossbow - 48K Crystal Castles - 64K Dark Chambers - 64K David's Midnight Magic - 64K Desert Falcon - 48K Fight Night - 48K Flight Simulator II - 64K (this actually produces an error message when run on a 400 or 800) Food Fight - 64K GATO - 48K (I think; I don't know how to play it so I'm not sure if there are any glitches when playing it on a 48K system) Hardball - 64K Into the Eagle's Nest - 64K Karateka - 64K Lode Runner - 48K Mario Bros. - 64K Necromancer - 16K (I was pretty surprised by this one) One-on-One Basketball - 48K Rescue on Fractalus - 48K Star Raiders II - 16K Summer Games - 64K Thunderfox - 48K 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted December 16, 2008 Author Share Posted December 16, 2008 Some updates here; I pulled out one of the 16K RAM cards in my 800 to do some more testing, and so far three of the above carts will work on a 32K machine: -Bug Hunt -Crossbow -Thunderfox Those are the only ones I could test, though. I would check some more through emulation, but Atari800MacX doesn't emulate a 32K system, and I only own a few XE carts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Nice work and great list. I will pass this on. Necromancer suprised me too. I just bought it NIB. I thought Crime Buster was 64k..thanks for all the corrections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 I did some testing earlier today to figure out the memory requirements for all the XEGS carts (except for Donkey Kong and Eastern Front 1941 which are rereleases), and I think this is a pretty definitive list. Let me know if there any inaccuracies. Hardball - 64K Mario Bros. - 64K Hardball and Mario Bros seem to run alright with 48K in Altirra. I didn't test all the ones you have listed as 64K, just six or seven of them, so there could be more. I did test all the ones you have listed as 48K, and none of them would run with 32K in Altirra. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloBoy Posted February 15, 2014 Author Share Posted February 15, 2014 Hardball and Mario Bros seem to run alright with 48K in Altirra. I didn't test all the ones you have listed as 64K, just six or seven of them, so there could be more.I don't know about Hardball as I don't have it, but I know that Mario Bros. refuses to boot on a 48K system. I have an 800 and an actual cart and I just get a blank screen. I did test all the ones you have listed as 48K, and none of them would run with 32K in Altirra.The three games I pointed out in my last post work fine with 32K on an actual system (used my old 800 with one of the memory cards pulled out). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 (edited) Might as well add the XE prototypes too, since they can still be purchased: [Note: These were just tested in Altirra as well.] Bruce Lee - 64K Commando - 64K Deflektor - 48K Jinks - 64K Tower Toppler - 48K Xenophobe - 64K Edited February 15, 2014 by MrFish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 The three games I pointed out in my last post work fine with 32K on an actual system (used my old 800 with one of the memory cards pulled out). Sorry, I meant all the ones you said you weren't able to test because Atari800MacX didn't support 32K. I didn't test the ones you listed as 32K, assuming you must have them right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 ...but I know that Mario Bros. refuses to boot on a 48K system. I have an 800 and an actual cart and I just get a blank screen. Hmmmm... I thought I remembered having run that on my 48K 800 before, hence the reason why I tested it first. I could be wrong though, and now I have no way to test on real hardware because I don't have an 800 anymore. Strange that Altirra would run it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S0nic Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 is this total list for 600xl or there is more games on cartriges? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 (edited) This is just a list for grey and blue carts released at the time of the XE line of computers as seen here: XE Cartridges There are hundreds more carts for the 8-bit systems in general, of which the vast majority require no more than 16K. Edited October 14, 2015 by MrFish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Just upgrade your 600xl to 64k. It's easy, and takes about 15 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister-VCS Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 I did some testing earlier today to figure out the memory requirements for all the XEGS carts (except for Donkey Kong and Eastern Front 1941 which are rereleases), and I think this is a pretty definitive list. Let me know if there any inaccuracies. Ace of Aces - 64K Airball - 64K Archon - 48K Ballblazer - 48K Barnyard Blaster - 48K Battlezone - 48K Blue Max - 48K Bug Hunt - 48K Choplifter - 64K Crime Buster - 48K Crossbow - 48K Crystal Castles - 64K Dark Chambers - 64K David's Midnight Magic - 64K Desert Falcon - 48K Fight Night - 48K Flight Simulator II - 64K (this actually produces an error message when run on a 400 or 800) Food Fight - 64K GATO - 48K (I think; I don't know how to play it so I'm not sure if there are any glitches when playing it on a 48K system) Hardball - 64K Into the Eagle's Nest - 64K Karateka - 64K Lode Runner - 48K Mario Bros. - 64K Necromancer - 16K (I was pretty surprised by this one) One-on-One Basketball - 48K Rescue on Fractalus - 48K Star Raiders II - 16K Summer Games - 64K Thunderfox - 48K My new Blue Max cartridge doesn't work on my 600 XL - the manual says "requires XE or XL computer" - thank you Atari CORP.! Does the tape-version work on a 600 XL? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 My new Blue Max cartridge doesn't work on my 600 XL - the manual says "requires XE or XL computer" - thank you Atari CORP.! Does the tape-version work on a 600 XL? Upgrade your 600xl to 64k, If I recall the tape version is 32k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister-VCS Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 from the back of the box: "Also plays on all XE and XL computer systems" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 I guess they failed to add (conveniently) that you need an upgraded 600XL. So it does play on it, you just need to have a 1064 attached -- or some other upgrade if you choose. Easy machine to upgrade though. So don't cry too hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CannibalCat Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Testing compatibility in the emulators is bogus, some of them will work under OS-B 48K emulation, but in reality do not work on real hardware... one to point out which is listed above as 48K is Lode Runner, which does not work on a 48K 800 (same black screen as Mario Bros, which also does not work). I think someone needs to modify this list based on real world testing and not emulation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johannesmutlu Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 (edited) Yeah it search me why those game lists and compatibility of games with those atari 8bit systems just become a mix bag of a mess, not mention the fact that there are 2 versions of certain games like donkeykong and DK jr etc,,, (1 for the atari 400 and 1 for the atari xe or they require a ram upgrade or a certain AOS to make them work on a atari 400 or 800) why couldn’t there be just a crystall clear list of individual games for each system for systems wich require an upgrade to make them work??? and why didn’t atari just made a mario bros game for the atari 400 and sell that version as a atari xe game as well LATER ON,why coming up later with mario bros for the atari xe instead and render it to be incompatible with the atari 400??? because both sellers,reviewers and buyers will get confused because of this, what atari could,ve done was design later games with both the atari 400 and atari xe in mind or they should,ve also aside from donkeykong & donkeykong jr etc,,, also come with 2 versions of mario bros for both the atari 400 and atari xe to get around that,but sadly they just didn’t, my point being is that i bought both the atari 400 and mariobros among other games and believing that those games should work on it including mario bros ,but no becsuse of it’s different AOS,limited ram and probably limited colorpallet (trough i still do assume that donkeykong,dk jr,pacman,popeye among other games i bought should work on my stock atari 400 right???) , well anyway if a homebrewer did made a version of mario bros wich also works on a stock atari 400,i would definitely appreciate that,(whether the xe or 5200 port of it) and lastly,if we want a game to run on a 8kB atari 400 but still want to make it 64KB in size,we might could use a bankswitching chip inside the cartride to swap data in & out that 8kB ram by splitting and designing that 64KB rom into sections of 8KB,so imagine a 64kB rom of mario bros for the stock atari 400 with this technic in mind,would be really great😁 Edited October 14, 2023 by johannesmutlu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilheim Posted October 14, 2023 Share Posted October 14, 2023 I read the list, and afaik I’m almost sure that archon, Blue Max and Karateka can run with 32k ram. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+David_P Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 14 hours ago, Wilheim said: I read the list, and afaik I’m almost sure that archon, Blue Max and Karateka can run with 32k ram. "Standard" configurations are 16K / 48K / 64K; the number of in the wild 32K machines is small. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+kheller2 Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 I’m confused by this thread. Are we really asking why Atari Corp. in the late 80s didn’t make a game for a system released in the late 70s by Atari Inc? And on top of that why it doesn’t work with the minimum RAM configuration of the 400? Remember Atari Inc did release a 48K upgrade for the 400. So let’s be a little clear here what we are asking for. For a moment I’m thinking why Commodore didn’t release C128 games for the VIC20. 🙃 anyway, I understand the confusion and some frustration of why someone buying a base 400 might be upset that a XEGS branded cart doesn’t work. But then again, I also don’t. or are we griping about the list not being clear enough, yet the packaging the game came with was. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 Yep. One day someone wants us to test programs on A8 computers with 8k, 24k, 40k RAM. In the C64 camp no-one ever asks if a certain program will work with 16k, 32k, 48k RAM. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johannesmutlu Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 1 hour ago, kheller2 said: I’m confused by this thread. Are we really asking why Atari Corp. in the late 80s didn’t make a game for a system released in the late 70s by Atari Inc? And on top of that why it doesn’t work with the minimum RAM configuration of the 400? Remember Atari Inc did release a 48K upgrade for the 400. So let’s be a little clear here what we are asking for. For a moment I’m thinking why Commodore didn’t release C128 games for the VIC20. 🙃 anyway, I understand the confusion and some frustration of why someone buying a base 400 might be upset that a XEGS branded cart doesn’t work. But then again, I also don’t. or are we griping about the list not being clear enough, yet the packaging the game came with was. Well it is very simple why i was claiming about the atari 400 being incompatible with xegs games,that’s because both hardware systems are the same and also the type of cartride are exactly the same,the only difference is that the atari xe does have a different AOS system and extra ram ,the vic20 is a very different system,different cartride port and it’s video and audio chips are different compared to the C128,and it also only has 5KB of ram,that’s why the C128 is incompatible with vic20 games and vice versa,BUT i do understand what you mean off course, yes i know that the atari 400 is upgradible with a 48 ram card but the question is ,does it really per se require soldering stuff or can it work straight with it by simply plug in inside the machine??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 All upgrades for the Atari 400 are done using a sledge hammer. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+kheller2 Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 Yes, any RAM upgrade beyond 16(32?)k requires soldering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 23 minutes ago, kheller2 said: Yes, any RAM upgrade beyond 16(32?)k requires soldering. I picked up one of Jurgen's 48/52Kb cards. I haven't installed it in my 400 yet, but I was thinking it was just a plug-in install? From your comment I'm assuming that's not the case? I really need to pull that thing out and get it installed. I guess that'll be a good winter project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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