Harmony Cart 5200?

[classics]

Looks fantastic, Steve. I can't wait for this.

 

Allan

 

I'll try to post a movie of the current state of the menu software in the next couple days.

 

It's pretty much ready for beta testing at this point.

 

The boot code, firmware and menu software have all been written. All of the rom types are recognized and can be loaded from the menu and the bios bypass for Atari titles is working. The text reader is working and the on-screen configuration menu works the same as the Colecovision version.

 

Right now I'd say the hardware just needs testing on more 5200 systems before I'd consider it 100% stable.

 

Other things left to be addressed are:

 

Screenshots: you can't really display a screenshot of a game on the 5200 like you can on the Colecovision. With the 8-bit most of the display magic is done programatically with sprites, DLIs and VBI code. Static screenshots would just look like parts of the screen backgrounds for most games. I'll have to take a look at what current 8-bit graphics tools are outputting to see what might work.

 

Porting an 8-bit file based application to use as example code for the cpu interface routines. Something like AMS player would probably be a good example and do well to show off the 5200s sound capabilities.

 

Steve

[RangerG]

Excellent - I love my Colecovision SD Ultimate and my Classics 5200 flashcart. So, when will the flood of us selling the older carts start :-).

[Greg2600]

More Device Specs

• Supports all currently active cartridge formats, including BBSB, and Mega-Cart games (MULE).
• New 512KB Hybrid Bank Switching mode allowing new games/applications full Read/Write access to 512KB of RAM. Even the largest 8-bit computer games can now be ported to the 5200.

 

Holy S! BBSB Finally!!!! Time to sell my current AM 5200 flash cart? 8-bit stuff sounds great too.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Greg2600