Pioneer4x4 Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 I am working on a game that so far requires the superchip ram. If I can get it to not require it, great but I doubt it. If it does require the extra ram, what options do I have for putting in in hardware other than a harmony cart? Basically, what carts use superchip that I can cannabalize for the cause? I want to make at least 2 prototypes, even if it all falls through. I have a good eprom burner, so I should be OK if I can hack up some old carts. I found this list with a bit of googling. The only ones I have extras of are Dig Dug and Jr. Pac-Man. Any crime hacking up a Dig Dug? Defender 2 / Stargate Chrystal Castles Dark Chambers Desert Falcon Dig Dug Jr. Pac Man KLAX Millipede Off the Wall Radar Lock Save Mary Secret Quest Shooting Arcade Sprintmaster Super Football Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaGtGruff Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 I am working on a game that so far requires the superchip ram. If I can get it to not require it, great but I doubt it. If it does require the extra ram, what options do I have for putting in in hardware other than a harmony cart? Basically, what carts use superchip that I can cannabalize for the cause? I want to make at least 2 prototypes, even if it all falls through. I have a good eprom burner, so I should be OK if I can hack up some old carts. I found this list with a bit of googling. The only ones I have extras of are Dig Dug and Jr. Pac-Man. Any crime hacking up a Dig Dug? Defender 2 / Stargate Chrystal Castles Dark Chambers Desert Falcon Dig Dug Jr. Pac Man KLAX Millipede Off the Wall Radar Lock Save Mary Secret Quest Shooting Arcade Sprintmaster Super Football It looks like you listed all of them, at least the "old" ones (i.e., non-homebrews). If you don't want to use the Harmony/Melody cart, you could always try CBS RAM+ carts, or MNetwork carts with extra RAM. You might have to modify batari Basic, though, or get someone else to. I did a modification of the older 0.35 version of batari Basic to add E7 MNetwork bankswitching to it, although I haven't upgraded it to version 1.0 yet. But with the Harmony/Melody you should be able to use any of them. Michael 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer4x4 Posted March 27, 2010 Author Share Posted March 27, 2010 If you don't want to use the Harmony/Melody cart, you could always try CBS RAM+ carts, or MNetwork carts with extra RAM. You might have to modify batari Basic, though, or get someone else to. I did a modification of the older 0.35 version of batari Basic to add E7 MNetwork bankswitching to it, although I haven't upgraded it to version 1.0 yet. But with the Harmony/Melody you should be able to use any of them. Michael Do you know which ones those are? I think the CBS are labelled on them with the RAM+ I didn't know MNetwork made them also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaGtGruff Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 If you don't want to use the Harmony/Melody cart, you could always try CBS RAM+ carts, or MNetwork carts with extra RAM. You might have to modify batari Basic, though, or get someone else to. I did a modification of the older 0.35 version of batari Basic to add E7 MNetwork bankswitching to it, although I haven't upgraded it to version 1.0 yet. But with the Harmony/Melody you should be able to use any of them. Michael Do you know which ones those are? I think the CBS are labelled on them with the RAM+ I didn't know MNetwork made them also. The following is adapted from the document on game sizes by Kevin Horton (http://kevtris.org/files/sizes.txt): Atari Superchip (a.k.a. the F8SC, F6SC, and F4SC methods) 8K (F8SC) = 7680 bytes of ROM and 128 bytes of extra RAM 16K (F6SC) = 15360 bytes of ROM and 128 bytes of extra RAM 32K (F4SC) = 30720 bytes of ROM and 128 bytes of extra RAM Memory map: $F000-$F07F = write addresses for the 128 bytes of extra RAM (always present) $F080-$F0FF = read addresses for the 128 bytes of extra RAM (always present) $F100-$FFFF = 3840 bytes of ROM, which is selected from two (F8SC), four (F6SC), or eight (F4SC) 4K ROM banks Bankswitching hotspots: $FFF4 = select the 1st 4K ROM bank in F4SC $FFF5 = select the 2nd 4K ROM bank in F4SC $FFF6 = select the 1st 4K ROM bank in F6SC, or the 3rd 4K ROM bank in F4SC $FFF7 = select the 2nd 4K ROM bank in F6SC, or the 4th 4K ROM bank in F4SC $FFF8 = select the 1st 4K ROM bank in F8SC, or the 3rd 4K ROM bank in F6SC, or the 5th 4K ROM bank in F4SC $FFF9 = select the 2nd 4K ROM bank in F8SC, or the 4th 4K ROM bank in F6SC, or the 6th 4K ROM bank in F4SC $FFFA = select the 7th 4K ROM bank in F4SC $FFFB = select the 8th 4K ROM bank in F4SC Games: Dig Dug Crystal Castles Millipede Stargate Defender II Jr. Pac-Man Desert Falcon Dark Chambers Super Football Sprintmaster Fatal Run Off the Wall Shooting Arcade Secret Quest Radar Lock Save Mary! KLAX CBS RAM+ (a.k.a. the FA method) 12K = 10752 bytes of ROM and 256 bytes of extra RAM Memory map: $F000-$F0FF = write addresses for the 256 bytes of extra RAM (always present) $F100-$F1FF = read addresses for the 256 bytes of extra RAM (always present) $F200-$FFFF = 3584 bytes of ROM, which is selected from three 4K ROM banks Bankswitching hotspots: $FFF8 = select the 1st 4K ROM bank $FFF9 = select the 2nd 4K ROM bank $FFFA = select the 3rd 4K ROM bank Games: None listed? M-Network (a.k.a. the E7 method) 16K = 15360 bytes of ROM and 2048 bytes of extra RAM Memory map: $F000-$F7FF = 2048 bytes of ROM (if one of the 2K ROM banks is selected), which is selected from seven 2K ROM banks $F000-$F3FF = write addresses for 1024 bytes of the extra RAM (if the 1K RAM bank is selected) $F400-$F7FF = read addresses for 1024 bytes of the extra RAM (if the 1K RAM bank is selected) $F800-$F9FF = write addresses for 256 bytes of the extra RAM (always present), which is selected from four 256-byte RAM banks $FA00-$FBFF = read addresses for 256 bytes of the extra RAM (always present), which is selected from four 256-byte RAM banks $FC00-$FFFF = 1024 bytes of ROM (always present) Bankswitching hotspots: $FFE0 = select the 1st 2K ROM bank $FFE1 = select the 2nd 2K ROM bank $FFE2 = select the 3rd 2K ROM bank $FFE3 = select the 4th 2K ROM bank $FFE4 = select the 5th 2K ROM bank $FFE5 = select the 6th 2K ROM bank $FFE6 = select the 7th 2K ROM bank $FFE7 = select the 2K RAM bank $FFE8 = select the 1st 256-byte RAM bank $FFE9 = select the 2nd 256-byte RAM bank $FFEA = select the 3rd 256-byte RAM bank $FFEB = select the 4th 256-byte RAM bank Games: Burgertime Although not mentioned in Kevin Horton's document, there are other bankswitching methods that can have extra RAM: 4A50 (64K ROM and 32K RAM) - from supercat (not in production yet, but the Stella emulator can run 4A50 cart images) CV (2K ROM and 1K RAM) - from Commavid (not a bankswitching method per se, since there are no banks to switch) EFSC (64K ROM and ? RAM) - developed for the unfnished Home Runner game 3F (512K ROM and ? RAM) - an expansion of the Tigervision format? Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 (edited) CPUWIZ made Superchip (AKA SARA) boards. You can't easily hack up an old PCB, you would also have to add the bankswitching hardware (which is handled inside the mask ROM of the old games). I suppose you could wire up a 4K EPROM and have 4K with the superchip though. E7 or CBS would be harder to make a cartridge of without the Harmony/Melody. Edited March 27, 2010 by Wickeycolumbus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer4x4 Posted March 27, 2010 Author Share Posted March 27, 2010 CPUWIZ made Superchip (AKA SARA) boards. You can't easily hack up an old PCB, you would also have to add the bankswitching hardware (which is handled inside the mask ROM of the old games). I suppose you could wire up a 4K EPROM and have 4K with the superchip though. E7 or CBS would be harder to make a cartridge of without the Harmony/Melody. Thanks, I guess I need to look at those boards. As for 4K with superchip Batari Basic will not allow 4K with superchip will it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 CPUWIZ made Superchip (AKA SARA) boards. You can't easily hack up an old PCB, you would also have to add the bankswitching hardware (which is handled inside the mask ROM of the old games). I suppose you could wire up a 4K EPROM and have 4K with the superchip though. E7 or CBS would be harder to make a cartridge of without the Harmony/Melody. Thanks, I guess I need to look at those boards. As for 4K with superchip Batari Basic will not allow 4K with superchip will it? I'm not sure about bB, but I don't believe any emulators support 4K with superchip. You'd have to double up the ROM and use the F8SC setting for emulator testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 I once went through Stella testing every bankswitched rom from Superchip roms. This is what I found: 8k Defender II - NTSC, PAL (aka Stargate) note Defender II and Stargate have different roms... Stargate - NTSC, PAL (aka Defender II) Elevator Action - NTSC prototype 16k Crack'ed - NTSC prototype Crystal Castles - NTSC, PAL Dark Chambers - NTSC, PAL Desert Falcon - NTSC, PAL Dig Dug - NTSC, PAL Jr. Pac-Man - NTSC, PAL Klax - NTSC prototype, PAL released Millipede - NTSC, PAL Off the Wall - NTSC, PAL Radar Lock - NTSC, PAL Save Mary! - NTSC, PAL (both late prototypes are superchip) Secret Quest - NTSC, PAL Shooting Arcade - NTSC, PAL (both are prototypes) Sprint Master - NTSC, PAL Super Football - NTSC, PAL 32k Fatal Run - NTSC prototype, PAL released Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+batari Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 CPUWIZ made Superchip (AKA SARA) boards. You can't easily hack up an old PCB, you would also have to add the bankswitching hardware (which is handled inside the mask ROM of the old games). I suppose you could wire up a 4K EPROM and have 4K with the superchip though. E7 or CBS would be harder to make a cartridge of without the Harmony/Melody. Thanks, I guess I need to look at those boards. As for 4K with superchip Batari Basic will not allow 4K with superchip will it? Do you want to do your own soldering and harvest your own Superchips from old games? If so, you can ask CPUWIZ if he will sell you some boards. Otherwise, Albert can build your Superchip games with Melody boards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer4x4 Posted March 27, 2010 Author Share Posted March 27, 2010 Do you want to do your own soldering and harvest your own Superchips from old games? If so, you can ask CPUWIZ if he will sell you some boards. Otherwise, Albert can build your Superchip games with Melody boards. I want to make sure it works first, I'm fine with soldering and should be OK burning a rom. I guess I'll have to wait until I get that far. What I'm working on will require 2 Ataris and I only have 1 Harmony, and 2 Superchargers. If I could make it work in 4k with no extra ram, I'm set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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