Are you going to buy a Harmony cart for the Atari 2600?

[accousticguitar]

I hope they limit it to 1 per person at first so we all can get one.

[Atariboy]

Change 1 of those no answers to a yes, I voted when I first opened the thread before reading through it to find out what it is...

[mos6507]

I dunno. It looks like this one fits fine, and regular sized SD cards are cheaper and less difficult to lose.

 

If I had a choice, in this application I'd pick regular SD.

 

In Chimera we had limited board real estate, even with a 4-layer board, since so much was packed together, especially with the peripheral ports on either side. By using MicroSD we could squeeze it on one side and not interfere with the endlabel. MicroSD really isn't that much of a premium anymore, especially for the small capacity sizes you'd need for 2600 games. The bad thing about microSD is that it is fragile. The sleeve hardware is so teeny and thin compared to SD. The metal is about the same thickness as a disposable razorblade. This would have worked with it well fitted in the case, but on the proto boards there was so much wiggle room that I wound up wrecking one slot mechanism with all the flexing.

Edited July 27, 2009 by mos6507

[Glenn Jupp]

May I have one, please?

 

I thought I had voted yes for the Harmony cart a while ago. Turns out I misremembered Chimaera for Harmony.

[chupathingy]

Hahaha, when I first started watching this thread, the no count was up to 5. About 15 or so Yes votes later, and no is up to 6.

 

I think I speak for all of Atariage when I say DO WANT!

[deksar]

I hope they limit it to 1 per person at first so we all can get one.

 

Good idea.

[+batari]

I hope they limit it to 1 per person at first so we all can get one.

 

Good idea.

There is no need to limit Harmony sales after it goes into production. Currently we are talking about what I originally thought were absurd quantities. There should be enough so everyone can have one, or two or three (though I would probably discourage orders of 5 or more unless there was a legitimate purpose, like a college course where they teach 2600 programming...)

 

I will say that for the pre-production runs, it is a good idea to limit sales of those because most of you won't get a Harmony until production.

[Greg2600]

Production by the end of the year? Sounds good, and I'm moving more Yes as time goes on. Any inkling as to the label design yet? Can I offer my suggestion that it resembles the classic Atari black/picture logo? I could live with the silver also.

[Atariboy]

Hahaha, when I first started watching this thread, the no count was up to 5. About 15 or so Yes votes later, and no is up to 6.

 

I think I speak for all of Atariage when I say DO WANT!

 

Read my reply, it was a mistake because I stupidly voted no before reading the thread and discovering what it was. I thought it was some audio device for the 2600 like that AtariVox thing when I had just saw the name in the title. There's only been 5 real no votes.

Edited July 29, 2009 by Atariboy

[StarshipUK]

This sounds fantastic. Is it possible to Pre-Order one? It would be great to get one before Retrovision next year, to use there (rather than taking a massive box of carts with me!)

[scottz29]

Count me in for a couple...

Any new updates??

[chupathingy]

Hahaha, when I first started watching this thread, the no count was up to 5. About 15 or so Yes votes later, and no is up to 6.

 

I think I speak for all of Atariage when I say DO WANT!

 

Read my reply, it was a mistake because I stupidly voted no before reading the thread and discovering what it was. I thought it was some audio device for the 2600 like that AtariVox thing when I had just saw the name in the title. There's only been 5 real no votes.

 

 

Still, the fact of the matter is that WE WANT THIS. No matter how old the system gets, it will always have a fan base.

[yuppicide]

That's a good idea. I don't think you need Atari's permission to make a clone, would you?

 

Imagine a clone that runs cartridges, has all the modern hookups for tv like he said, maybe an SD slot, etc.

 

28 say yes so far. I wonder how high the number will go? 100? 500? 10,000?

 

After the Harmony cartridge is available, I hope somebody starts working on an Atari 2600 clone that uses cartridges. I'd love to buy 4 or more new Atari 2600 clones where the parts inside aren't ancient and the sound won't die on you a month after you buy it. I hope it will come with modern hookups and they find a way to let you have all joysticks and paddles plugged in at the same time. Maybe it could have a switch that you can flick that lets you switch between joysticks and paddles (two ports for joysticks and two ports for paddles with no plugging and unplugging necessary unless you need to plug in a special controller for certain games).

[yuppicide]

I use CCCP and it plays everything I throw at it. Just Google it.

 

I will have videos of the cartridge running on my YouTube page hopefully soon.. my video capture card should be better quality. I'll pop my homebrew and Atari2600land's and put it up. I need to pick up a cheap 2600 first.

 

Here is a zip file with proper avi extension.

 

Do you have an idea as to which codec is used, I can't seem to get this video to play at all.

[Spector]

No doubt I missed it earlier in this thread, but can someone tell me how you change from one game to another on the harmony cart? Do you switch the Atari off and on again, or is there a reset button on the cart taking you back to the index like there is with the Atarimax flash cart series?

[+batari]

No doubt I missed it earlier in this thread, but can someone tell me how you change from one game to another on the harmony cart? Do you switch the Atari off and on again, or is there a reset button on the cart taking you back to the index like there is with the Atarimax flash cart series?

Right now you power-cycle. The Atarimax is not for the 2600, right? I assume it's not because there is practically no way a switch could work on a conventional 2600 multicart as there is no interrupt line on the CPU (much less the cart slot.)

 

The Harmony could actually get around the interrupt thing, however, but it won't have a button on the cart.

 

I thought I would mention that on Harmony it would be theoretically possible to run the menu from a game based on a combination of console switches and/or controller fiddling without needing a power cycle. The question is how desirable would that be, and if such code could fit in the BIOS.

[Spector]

No doubt I missed it earlier in this thread, but can someone tell me how you change from one game to another on the harmony cart? Do you switch the Atari off and on again, or is there a reset button on the cart taking you back to the index like there is with the Atarimax flash cart series?

Right now you power-cycle. The Atarimax is not for the 2600, right? I assume it's not because there is practically no way a switch could work on a conventional 2600 multicart as there is no interrupt line on the CPU (much less the cart slot.)

 

The Harmony could actually get around the interrupt thing, however, but it won't have a button on the cart.

 

I thought I would mention that on Harmony it would be theoretically possible to run the menu from a game based on a combination of console switches and/or controller fiddling without needing a power cycle. The question is how desirable would that be, and if such code could fit in the BIOS.

I think it would be desireable because it would reduce overuse of the power on/off switch when flicking through games, but then again, the Atari is not the Colecovision - its switches are more durable.

[devwebcl]

Yeah, I want one too

[MegaManFan]

Put me down as "want one at a reasonable price."

 

Has there been a Harmony website set up, with links to work in progress, YouTube demonstrations and whatnot?

[potatohead]

You are looking at it!

 

Videos exist in the thread. Feature / function discussion is here, and that's the state of the project at this time.

 

Current work is compatibility testing and working the bugs out of the newer revision board mentioned a few posts above.

 

The core functions, running a game with data fed by the CPU, implementing custom hardware like solutions, menu, controller I/O for the menu, single game design and such are done and known good. The thing works as advertised, now it's just about really applying the polish to the result for the greatest usability and least failures.

 

All of that is condensed from the thread text above.

 

I think the power cycle is perfectly acceptable, btw.

Edited August 11, 2009 by potatohead

[sloth713]

No doubt I missed it earlier in this thread, but can someone tell me how you change from one game to another on the harmony cart? Do you switch the Atari off and on again, or is there a reset button on the cart taking you back to the index like there is with the Atarimax flash cart series?

Right now you power-cycle. The Atarimax is not for the 2600, right? I assume it's not because there is practically no way a switch could work on a conventional 2600 multicart as there is no interrupt line on the CPU (much less the cart slot.)

 

The Harmony could actually get around the interrupt thing, however, but it won't have a button on the cart.

 

I thought I would mention that on Harmony it would be theoretically possible to run the menu from a game based on a combination of console switches and/or controller fiddling without needing a power cycle. The question is how desirable would that be, and if such code could fit in the BIOS.

I think it would be desireable because it would reduce overuse of the power on/off switch when flicking through games, but then again, the Atari is not the Colecovision - its switches are more durable.

 

 

I also agree that not having to turn off and on the system to change game would be greatly desirable.

 

Batari might I humbly suggest that the way to get back to the Harmony cart menu should be to press both the Game Select and Game Reset switches on the console at the same time. If technically feasible I believe this would be the simplest and most intuitive control scheme for switching to another game.

[Zoyx]

If ordering is complete... ummm... did I get on the order list? Very confused on how this working now.

 

A good summary page would be great idea. Paging through this thread and trying to decide what is factual or not, doesn't work.

[RevEng]

The ordering isn't complete. It hasn't begun from what I can see.

 

Regarding tricky game-resets, I think on/off is most intuitive. Its the first step in switching regular carts, it's how multicarts generally work, it's how flashback 2 works.

 

Trading the wear-and-tear workload to multiple switches insted of one doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[+batari]

The ordering isn't complete. It hasn't begun from what I can see.

 

Regarding tricky game-resets, I think on/off is most intuitive. Its the first step in switching regular carts, it's how multicarts generally work, it's how flashback 2 works.

 

Trading the wear-and-tear workload to multiple switches insted of one doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Good point. I was thinking only of technical feasibility (I have figured out a way to do savestates with console switches) so I thought it could apply to restarting the menu. But practically speaking, you are right. Power cycles are better.

[BigO]

If powering off via the toggle switch is an issue at all for someone, it would be easy enough to add a push button switch to interrupt the supply power instead of having to flip the toggle switch.

 

I'd probably build mine in, but an add-on could be done without a console modification. Electrically and mechanically, it would be dead simple and cheap to build. Installation would be a non-event.