2600 cartridge port for pc?

[Blackjack]

I found this snes/genesis cartridge port for use with pc. Does anyone know if any are made for 2600 to pc?

 

I know it would really be unnecessary, just kinda cool to plug old carts into the pc.

Edited September 2, 2010 by Blackjack

[+Gemintronic]

Look deeper into the Interwebs my son.

http://www.retrode.org/plug-in-adapters/

 

The guy who makes these REALLY makes it clear you need fully cleaned carts for it to work. I'm afraid he is right. I mean, squeeky clean time.

Edited September 2, 2010 by theloon

[BigO]

Look deeper into the Interwebs my son.

http://www.retrode.o...ug-in-adapters/

 

The guy who makes these REALLY makes it clear you need fully cleaned carts for it to work. I'm afraid he is right. I mean, squeeky clean time.

"This adapter allows for the insertion of Atari 2600 cartridges in the Retrode’s SNES slot" whereas BlackJack is looking for a "2600 cartridge port for pc".

 

 

[+Gemintronic]

Right. You put the 2600 cart into the adapter that goes into the SNES port and use the Retrode as normal. It works. I have it. Stella with a real cart is strangely awesome!

Edited September 2, 2010 by theloon

[Blackjack]

Ok, that's cool. Thank you.

[Matthias_H]

I might add that support for the plug-in adapters is in a very early stage. Only yesterday, I fixed a rather serious N64/GBA size detection bug, and I'm sure that there must still be lots of open issues for A2600 carts as well. I will try to fix them gradually as I receive more and more user reports.

[Blackjack]

I might add that support for the plug-in adapters is in a very early stage. Only yesterday, I fixed a rather serious N64/GBA size detection bug, and I'm sure that there must still be lots of open issues for A2600 carts as well. I will try to fix them gradually as I receive more and more user reports.

 

 

Well cool. Thanks Matthias.

[Keatah]

Atari 2600 cartridges fit perfectly into the Apple ][+ and //e Expansion Slots. Hmmm...

[roland p]

I wonder if those tings work in real-time or if they just make a copy of the rom and represent that to the emulator.

[goldenegg]

I wonder if those tings work in real-time or if they just make a copy of the rom and represent that to the emulator.

 

 

What do you mean by 'work in real-time'?

 

The Retrode acts like a USB storage device. When you insert a cart, you open up the drive letter associated with the Retrode and it will display the contents of the cart as a ROM file. You can copy the ROM to another drive or simply point your emulator to the ROM.

[+stephena]

I wonder if those tings work in real-time or if they just make a copy of the rom and represent that to the emulator.

I have no idea how this device works, but I do have some knowledge of Stella. If by real-time you mean 'read a byte at a time, as dictated by the current instruction being executed', then Stella has no provision for this. It expects a ROM, and is designed around this concept (the entire address/ROM space is available all at once). And unless Stella has been (very) extensively modified, I expect that the device presents a full ROM only.

[roland p]

What do you mean by 'work in real-time'?

 

I meant 'byte by byte', like Stephena said. This is important because an atari 2600 cartridge can contain all kinds of hardware the emulator isn't aware of.

[+stephena]

What do you mean by 'work in real-time'?

 

I meant 'byte by byte', like Stephena said. This is important because an atari 2600 cartridge can contain all kinds of hardware the emulator isn't aware of.

Yes. that's correct. Reading from the cart a byte at a time just wouldn't work with Stella, since there are timing considerations when dealing with a bankswitched ROM. In fact, I'm not even sure how this works with bankswitching at all. ROM dumpers tend to have difficulty with this, since certain addresses cause banks to switch, and obviously those addresses are different for every different scheme. The cartridge port would somehow have to know that, and work around it.

[Wickeycolumbus]

What do you mean by 'work in real-time'?

 

I meant 'byte by byte', like Stephena said. This is important because an atari 2600 cartridge can contain all kinds of hardware the emulator isn't aware of.

 

From what I gather, the Retrode does not work in this way. From the online FAQ:

 

When you connect a game cartridge with a PC through USB, the game data appears as if it were a USB drive with a ROM file on it.

[nathanallan]

So what I see, is you have to rip the cart to a folder then play the rom in Stella.

 

Alternatively, you could just as easily play it via the cart as if it were a folder on a USB drive.

 

Sounds cool, and it would be really excellent if the retrode could be fitted inside a 5.25" bay. Or heck, if it's too big then two 5.25" bays.

Edited September 4, 2010 by nathanallan

[Matthias_H]

Actually, I've always wondered if this "hybrid" kind of emulation would make sense. I mean, on-cart hardware actually being used by the emulator. Kind of a fascinating idea. Are there any software emus that do this sort of thing? I don't see how this would work with regular de-bank-switched ROM files. The emu would constantly need to write stuff into the ROM file, and the ROM would have to change on its own according to bank switching requests etc. Which obviously doesn't make much sense if the file is, well, just a file. Since the Retrode does not have any memory of its own, it might in principle work. If..., well, if it weren't for the whole mass storage thing. Anything hybrid requires full random R/W access but today's mass storage devices allow sector-level access only (that is, 512 byte blocks for USB).

Edited September 5, 2010 by Matthias_H

[nathanallan]

Actually, I've always wondered if this "hybrid" kind of emulation would make sense. I mean, on-cart hardware actually being used by the emulator. Kind of a fascinating idea. Are there any software emus that do this sort of thing? I don't see how this would work with regular de-bank-switched ROM files. The emu would constantly need to write stuff into the ROM file, and the ROM would have to change on its own according to bank switching requests etc. Which obviously doesn't make much sense if the file is, well, just a file. Since the Retrode does not have any memory of its own, it might in principle work. If..., well, if it weren't for the whole mass storage thing. Anything hybrid requires full random R/W access but today's mass storage devices allow sector-level access only (that is, 512 byte blocks for USB).

This is ringing a bell big time. And it's a Linux bell, though that's about as far as it's going. I bet a small Linux kernel could act just like an emulator to run the rom like hardware (run distro > looks for cart > rips cart to temp file > plays game > forgets cart rom once it is done playing).

 

This is straight from my Linux classes and personal studies of it, while I can't code my way out of a plastic bag (I got paper whipped) someone else can. So there's the idea, someone please run with it.