vtrucco Posted February 22, 2010 Share Posted February 22, 2010 (edited) Hey, remember me? Atari Jukebox? Well, this weekend I worked on a pause button for the Atari and in my tests is working really great. I wrote a short article in english (or engrish) on my site. Check it out: http://www.victortrucco.com/Atari/AtariPausa/atariPausa_en.asp Edited February 22, 2010 by vtrucco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted February 22, 2010 Share Posted February 22, 2010 That is very cool. Would be great if someone made a nice board and offered this in kit form. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nonner242 Posted February 22, 2010 Share Posted February 22, 2010 That is very cool. Would be great if someone made a nice board and offered this in kit form. ..Al That would be awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted February 22, 2010 Share Posted February 22, 2010 Sweet mod! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tz101 Posted February 22, 2010 Share Posted February 22, 2010 I glanced over the instructions. Is this doable for the average collector with average soldering skills? How much is spent on parts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted February 22, 2010 Share Posted February 22, 2010 That is very cool. Would be great if someone made a nice board and offered this in kit form. ..Al Consider it modified and done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 Be cool to add this to a 7800 and tie the switch to the pause button. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BDW Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 I just shat my pants, for that was so awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 Consider it modified and done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kool kitty89 Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 Wouldn't installing an external switch running to the CPU's halt line work for pausing a game? (or could that result in crashing?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericwierson Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 Great idea. I want one!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer4x4 Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 I just read through your page, and it seems very well documented, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigO Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 Didn't see any reference to this in a quick read of the web page, but I assume the screen would blank while the system is paused. Is that correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer4x4 Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 I thought he said it would be random colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 Great idea and as far as I can tell, excellent execution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 I salute you sir! Finally I will be able to pause the 2600 when my mom wife calls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigO Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 I thought he said it would be random colors. Ah, there it is, at the very end: "Note that the image will get some colorful patterns, but when you turn off the pause, you can play normally again." I suppose it would be much like the random patterns exhibited sometimes when you power on a 2600 with no cartridge or with a cartridge that isn't working right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RecycledGamer Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 Simply awesome. Kudos to you sir! I am definitely trying this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tetrode kink Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 (edited) Wow, that is tremendous! A true milestone in post-modern VCS dev! Only one very minor quibble: You really didn't need to resurrect all those old threads; this thread that you started will surely serve as a memorable marker of your achievement. IMHO, you bumping those old threads was a bit redundant. That said, congratulations! Quite an achievement. -tet Edited February 24, 2010 by tetrode kink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Franzman Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 Wouldn't installing an external switch running to the CPU's halt line work for pausing a game? (or could that result in crashing?) From the page I gather that pausing the machine that way at the wrong instant will cause a crash. The circuit shown gets an input from the board so it waits until just the right time to halt the CPU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 Great that you solved the issue. However, I don't believe it's correct that RDY should not be asserted on write cycles - From what I have read, it is perfectly safe to do so, but what actually happens is the 6507 just won't pause until the writes complete. It's true that the 6507 does not have phi1, but maybe if you only pause on write cycles, maybe the timing isn't strict. Here is my proposal for a poor man's pause switch: connect a switch between pin 3 of the TIA (RDY) and pin 26 of the 6507 (R/W#). On my 4 switch, these pins are right across from one another so it would be really easy to try. Maybe it won't be as reliable but if my theory is correct, it should work reasonably well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 About the page itself, instead of resizing the images using HTML, it would be better to resize the images with your favorite image editing program, then link those smaller images to the larger ones. That way the page would load faster and it wouldn't feel like it's trying to molest my computer. I can actually 'feel' the weight of the pictures when I scroll up and down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 http://hackaday.com/2010/02/23/add-pause-button-to-the-atari-2600/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 (edited) Great that you solved the issue. However, I don't believe it's correct that RDY should not be asserted on write cycles - From what I have read, it is perfectly safe to do so, but what actually happens is the 6507 just won't pause until the writes complete. It's true that the 6507 does not have phi1, but maybe if you only pause on write cycles, maybe the timing isn't strict. Here is my proposal for a poor man's pause switch: connect a switch between pin 3 of the TIA (RDY) and pin 26 of the 6507 (R/W#). On my 4 switch, these pins are right across from one another so it would be really easy to try. Maybe it won't be as reliable but if my theory is correct, it should work reasonably well. I was tired when I posted this and overlooked that R/W# is not an open drain output so you need a diode in there. TIA pin 3 is open drain so no problems here. That is: SW 6507 Pin 26 --|<|--/ --- TIA pin 3 I just tried it myself and it works 99% of the time. Maybe with a debounce capacitor it could work nearly 100%. EDIT: Never mind, on some games it works maybe 80% which is not good enough. Edited February 24, 2010 by batari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigO Posted February 24, 2010 Share Posted February 24, 2010 (edited) Great that you solved the issue. However, I don't believe it's correct that RDY should not be asserted on write cycles - From what I have read, it is perfectly safe to do so, but what actually happens is the 6507 just won't pause until the writes complete. It's true that the 6507 does not have phi1, but maybe if you only pause on write cycles, maybe the timing isn't strict. Here is my proposal for a poor man's pause switch: connect a switch between pin 3 of the TIA (RDY) and pin 26 of the 6507 (R/W#). On my 4 switch, these pins are right across from one another so it would be really easy to try. Maybe it won't be as reliable but if my theory is correct, it should work reasonably well. I was tired when I posted this and overlooked that R/W# is not an open drain output so you need a diode in there. TIA pin 3 is open drain so no problems here. That is: SW 6507 Pin 26 --|<|--/ --- TIA pin 3 I just tried it myself and it works 99% of the time. Maybe with a debounce capacitor it could work nearly 100%. EDIT: Never mind, on some games it works maybe 80% which is not good enough. Tangential request: Would you mind briefly expounding upon the purpose/function of this diode for those of us to whom the term "open drain" has meant only "success with a plunger" for the past 20 or so years? Edited February 24, 2010 by BigO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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