What am I supposed to do ?

[ATARIPITBULL]

I just received this cart caled "Salt Diagnostic" from "Hozer" and I understand that it has something to do with adjusting the colors of my TV but how do you do it?

 

[moycon]

Do you have any salt?

[StanJr]

Is the salt iodized?

[SeaGtGruff]

I just received this cart caled "Salt Diagnostic" from "Hozer" and I understand that it has something to do with adjusting the colors of my TV but how do you do it?

Have you tried Googling? I never heard of a SALT Diagnostic cartridge before, so I Googled on it, and from the results I got I take it that SALT is short for "Stand ALone Test," and Atari made SALT Diagnostic cartridges for their various 8-bit computers. I'm still wading through the results, and I haven't found a copy of the manual for the 2600 SALT Diagnostic cartridge yet, but it might be intended for use with the Field Service Manual. I suggest you download a copy of the 2600 Field Service Manual, plug in your SALT Diagnostic cartridge and power up your 2600, and see if the SALT Diagnostic screen display closely follows what's in the Field Service Manual.

 

Michael

[SeaGtGruff]

Okay, from what I'm seeing, the SALT Diagnostic cartridge (as Hozer apparently calls it) was put out by Atari as the "CPS 2600TM DIAGNOSTIC TEST CARTRIDGE 2.6" (and possibly other version numbers-- that's just what the label on the one I saw a picture of on Ebay said), also known as "STANDALONE TEST CARTRIDGE 2600/2600A/2600JR/7800" (printed on the label on the back of the plastic bag that the cartridge came in), part number MAO17600 (or perhaps MA017600-- Kevin Horton lists it as MAO in his bankswitching and cartridge sizes document, but it looks like MA0 to me). Atari put out similar cartridges for the 8-bit computers. I haven't seen a picture of one yet, but they're listed as "SALT Diagnostic" cartridges on various web pages (as I said, SALT is short for "StandALone Test"), so I guess that's why Hozer calls the 2600 version a "SALT Diagnostic" cartridge, too.

 

Kevin Horton lists it as being a 2K cartridge, but I have a 4K ROM image, which is listed as "Stand Alone Test Cart (1982) (Atari) [a]." When I run it in Stella, it looks like the pictures shown in the "ATARI 2600/2600 A VCS DOMESTIC (M/N) Field Service Manual FD100133 Rev. 02," which refers to the cartridge as "The 2600 Diagnostic Test Cartridge (version 2.6 DTC)." You have to set the console switches in different positions to display the various screens.

 

Michael

[Wickeycolumbus]

Kevin Horton lists it as being a 2K cartridge, but I have a 4K ROM image, which is listed as "Stand Alone Test Cart (1982) (Atari) [a]."

 

The cartridge is in fact 2K, the image you have is doubled up This should be pointed out to Rom Hunter.

[SeaGtGruff]

Kevin Horton lists it as being a 2K cartridge, but I have a 4K ROM image, which is listed as "Stand Alone Test Cart (1982) (Atari) [a]."

 

The cartridge is in fact 2K, the image you have is doubled up This should be pointed out to Rom Hunter.

Yeah, I figured that was probably the case, because I can't imagine it taking more than 2K for what the program does!

 

Michael

[Omegamatrix]

IIRC it is a 1K rom, but the image is not the same in all the slices. In NTSC ver 2.6 of the diagnostic test cart (2k) each 1k slice is different. Maybe one is an earlier WIP, I don't know. Mitch dumped his cart and we found the current rom of 2.6 (NTSC) in Rom's collection V5 to be a good dump.

 

 

The PAL 2.6 is 4k, and out of that image:

 

;1k slices

slice 1 = slice 4

slice 2 = slice 3

 

So since the order is reversed between both 2k halves, it was kept as a 4k image.

 

 

None of the slices in ver 2.0 (4k) match each other either...

 

 

Edit: I think Michael has an older rom set. Rom already has 2.6 NTSC as a 2K image.

Edited June 19, 2009 by Omegamatrix

[SeaGtGruff]

how do you do it?

The following is adapted from the Field Service Manual:

 

Step 1: Plug in the test cartridge.

 

Step 2: Set all console switches to their "up" positions (tv type = color, left difficulty = a, right difficulty = a).

 

Step 3: Turn on your Atari 2600 VCS.

 

Test 1 -- RAM Test: If you get an initial screen with some sort of diagonal lines on it (see page 3-8 of the Field Service Manual), it means your 2600 has some bad RIOT RAM. If you do *not* get any such screen, then it means the RIOT RAM is okay. If you *do* have bad RAM, you should see about replacing the RIOT chip (6532).

 

Test 2 -- Color Bar Test: With all the console switches in their "up" positions, you should get a screen with horizontal color bars, as shown below. All 16 hues are displayed, in the following order-- 0 (the black background), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 0 (gray), 1, 2, 3, and 0 (black background again)-- although your TV might not display all of the bars at the bottom. The gray bar near the bottom is referred to as the "reference bar" by the Field Service Manual.

 

Step 4: Adjust the color pot on your 2600 so the colors immediately above and below the reference bar (hues 15 and 1) "are within one shade of each other." But the 64 dollar question is, what does *that* mean? Some people interpret it to mean that you should try to get hue 1 and hue 15 as close to each other as possible, but that would mean you'd really have only 15 hues instead of 16, since hues 1 and 15 would be identical. I think it means you should try to get hue 15 so it falls somewhere between hue 1 and hue 2 (i.e., if the difference from one hue to the next is "one shade," then "within one shade" may mean "less than one full shade"-- which gives you 15 unique hues, with hue 15 being a brownish-golden tint-- although the exact meaning is subject to debate, and on some Ataris hue 15 looks like it's more of a greenish tint than an orangish tint).

 

 

Step 5: Flip the tv type switch to b-w. The screen should change to some horizontal bars of gray shades (see below).

 

Test 3 -- Gray Bar Test: All 8 luminances of hue 0 are shown, from darkest to lightest. The Field Service Manual doesn't say what you're supposed to do to "fix" any problems, but presumably if you don't get all 8 luminances as expected, then you need to replace the TIA chip or something like that.

 

 

Step 6: Remove the blue shorting plugs. (? I take it these were provided with the diagnostic field kit.)

 

Step 7: Flip the tv type switch back to color, then flip the left difficulty switch to b. The screen should change to a funky matrix of orange (or "pink"), blue, and green bars that flashes once every second (see below).

 

Test 4 -- Diagnostic Matrix Test: With the blue shorting plugs removed, the screen should appear as shown (I think.) Since I can't remove or insert the shorting plugs in Stella, I can't say for sure what the screen should look like!

 

 

Step 8: Insert the blue shorting plugs. The screen should change slightly, as shown in the Field Service Manual.

 

Step 9: Press the game select switch. The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 10: Press the game reset switch. The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 11: (The next several steps aren't actually mentioned in the Field Service Manual!) Push the left joystick "up." The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 12: Push the left joystick "down." The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 13: Push the left joystick "left." The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 14: Push the left joystick "right." The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 15: Push the left joystick's trigger button. I presume the screen should change, but nothing happens in Stella, maybe related to the fact that I can't insert or remove the shorting plugs? The Field Service Manual shows that the left joystick trigger is indicated by orange (or "pink") bars on the top row, in the center.

 

Step 16: Push the right joystick "up." The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 17: Push the right joystick "down." The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 18: Push the right joystick "left." The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 19: Push the right joystick "right." The screen should change as shown.

 

 

Step 20: Push the right joystick's trigger button. I presume the screen should change, but again, nothing happens in Stella, maybe related to the fact that I can't insert or remove the shorting plugs? The Field Service Manual shows that the right joystick trigger is indicated by an orange (or "pink") bar on the top row, in the center (between the two bars for the left joystick trigger).

 

Step 21: Flip the left difficulty switch back to a, then flip the right difficulty switch to b. The screen should start flashing between two different displays, as shown below.

 

Test 5 -- Audio Tones Test: As the screen flashes between the two displays, two tones should be played in sync with the flashing screens-- a higher tone (with the two-bars screen) and a lower tone (with the one-bar screen).

 

 

 

Michael

[SeaGtGruff]

Edit: I think Michael has an older rom set. Rom already has 2.6 NTSC as a 2K image.

Okay, I'll replace it with the one from version 5. Thanks!

 

Michael

[Godzilla]

Any 2600 lover worth his salt would already know all about this and exactly how to use it and what it does.

[HFK]

Is that label already falling off? Looks like it was stuck right over whatever was left of the old label, coming right out the bottom.

[ATARIPITBULL]

Any 2600 lover worth his salt would already know all about this and exactly how to use it and what it does.

 

 

What's that son ? are you saying that I don't love Atari 2600? You must have been drinking before you posted what you said. Don't question my love of atari EVER!!!!!! I'm pretty sure I was playing 2600 games way before you picked up a controller.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Any 2600 lover worth his salt would already know all about this and exactly how to use it and what it does.

 

 

What's that son ? are you saying that I don't love Atari 2600? You must have been drinking before you posted what you said. Don't question my love of atari EVER!!!!!! I'm pretty sure I was playing 2600 games way before you picked up a controller.

 

Well, you and I obviously have less SALT than others, or our SALT is a cheaper store brand, versus other people's more expensive name brand SALT. Anyway, I figured it might be nice to have color pictures of the screens, to complement the black-and-white pictures in the Field Service Manual. Me likes pretty colors! "Ooooh, kuhhhhlurrrssss!" [insert Homer drooling sounds here.]

 

Michael