MattG/Snyper2099 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 So I wasn't even aware that this was released on a cartridge until recently and I was curious if anyone knows who programmed it or what company released it? Can't find it in any rarity guides or any other mention of this cart. mulecart8bit.bmp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Me neither... doesn't look like a homebrew. Every chance it might be a light rework much like was done with some of the Lucasfilm games and other XE carts in that the ROM is just used like a virtual disk drive and the game loads into RAM. Is this a cart you physically have? Might be interesting to see a dump of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookt Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 (edited) I'm pretty sure that's just a flashcart with a repro label. I remember seeing that exact image a number of years ago can't remember on which site though. EDIT: Yeah thought so - look about half way down this page. Edited February 2, 2011 by spookt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 (edited) I'm pretty sure that's just a flashcart with a repro label. I remember seeing that exact image a number of years ago can't remember on which site though. EDIT: Yeah thought so - look about half way down this page. Yep, I made that, its a 1mbit flashcart reproduction with the MULE image I published in the forum. There is a complete tutorial in the old flash cartridge development kit that steps through the whole process of making this into a cart, for those interested in the details. http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/documentation/oldkit/chapter8.html The really old ones required 64k. I reworked the MULE image after that so it would run on 48k machines too. Of course you can update the cart by just flashing the current image to it. Steve Edited February 2, 2011 by classics 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Steve, Is yours the same version that was made available on here (AtariAge) a few years ago? I remember buying one, it is boxed up somewhere keeping a 1200XL company but I can't remember who did the cart run. Mine has a white label I think (trying hard to remember). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 (edited) Steve, Is yours the same version that was made available on here (AtariAge) a few years ago? I remember buying one, it is boxed up somewhere keeping a 1200XL company but I can't remember who did the cart run. Mine has a white label I think (trying hard to remember). Good question, if its an 8-bit cart and it has a different label, it may have been made by someone else. All the ones I made look like the picture above, though I made a couple with the clear cases too. If you can post a picture of it, that would probably clear up any question. Steve Edited February 2, 2011 by classics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Steve, Is yours the same version that was made available on here (AtariAge) a few years ago? I remember buying one, it is boxed up somewhere keeping a 1200XL company but I can't remember who did the cart run. Mine has a white label I think (trying hard to remember). Good question, if its an 8-bit cart and it has a different label, it may have been made by someone else. All the ones I made look like the picture above, though I made a couple with the clear cases too. If you can post a picture of it, that would probably clear up any question. Steve Thanks Steve, looks like it would have been made by someone else. Maybe someone will own up and confess to doing it I'm guessing this would have been at least 5 to 6 years ago. I might have a pic somewhere, problem is I think the 1200XL in question is in storage so I can't get to it without getting on a plane. If I find a pic I'll post it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattG/Snyper2099 Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 Thanks for all the info guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Oberhäuser Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 The first who made a Mule cart was Sunmark IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI7800fan Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I noticed that atari-sales.com sells mule on cart. I have seen it there today. it is 29.95 and requires 64K of ram. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qix_maniac Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 (edited) I'm pretty sure that's just a flashcart with a repro label. I remember seeing that exact image a number of years ago can't remember on which site though. EDIT: Yeah thought so - look about half way down this page. Nice detective work! I dunno, I collect cartridges but reproductions don't inspire me to buy them. I would like to see however a Montezuma cartridge in a parker brothers case saw a prototype on ebay about 14 months ago and it went for about $300! Edited February 3, 2011 by qix_maniac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 (edited) I noticed that atari-sales.com sells mule on cart. I have seen it there today. it is 29.95 and requires 64K of ram. That will be an Atarimax flashcart running the image that Steve provided (I'm 99% sure anyway.) Speaking of this site... KJmann, are you selling my work on Ultima II and Ultima III for the flashcart? To be fair, it's mostly Steve's work, I only did the work of finding the disk routines, patching them to save to flash, etc... Not that it's a big problem or anything, just curious. I see Gauntlet as well. The only Gauntlet Atarimax image I know of is Wrathchild's (and his Maxflash images are much more professional than the ones I did... meaning more work), is he aware of that? I doubt he cares one way or another either, but you never know. I also did Temple of Apshai, but never really "finished" it. I could probably make it into an 8Mb cartridge pretty easily though... I was running out of room on the 1mb cartridge, or at least needed to find some free space in ram to temporarily stick 20 sectors or so for saved characters. Edited February 3, 2011 by Shawn Jefferson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kjmann Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I noticed that atari-sales.com sells mule on cart. I have seen it there today. it is 29.95 and requires 64K of ram. That will be an Atarimax flashcart running the image that Steve provided (I'm 99% sure anyway.) No it's not. =) Steve's image has a couple of glitches. 1 - when you catch the whumpus the game will lock up. 2 - the store does not show the MULE's for sale. The Mule Shop always looks empty. Our version doesn't have these problems. The only down side to ours, is that it won't run on 48k. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 There's that 1%. I stand corrected! I noticed that atari-sales.com sells mule on cart. I have seen it there today. it is 29.95 and requires 64K of ram. That will be an Atarimax flashcart running the image that Steve provided (I'm 99% sure anyway.) No it's not. =) Steve's image has a couple of glitches. 1 - when you catch the whumpus the game will lock up. 2 - the store does not show the MULE's for sale. The Mule Shop always looks empty. Our version doesn't have these problems. The only down side to ours, is that it won't run on 48k. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kjmann Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 There's that 1%. I stand corrected! LOL =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I started a FlashCart version of Mule once, but like many things.... perhaps I'll have another go to get it working in less memory Shawn, I've discussed the other carts with Kjmann before and they're jobs by other people so wasn't worried. Also I do the odd programming fix up myself for him from time to time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI7800fan Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 (edited) There's that 1%. I stand corrected! LOL =) Mentioning atarimax carts, do all the games from atari-sales.com come on the atarimax carts or is it only the bigger ones, do you use recycled atari carts for the other games. Just wondering never bought from your website before, do I need to do anything to my system to run the Atarimax carts or do they work just a normal cart. though I defiantly want Tempest love the music, listen to it when I am studying at college, once I get the money.Can't wait for Space Harrier to come out. Sometimes I wonder if the XEGS would have work better then the 7800,nothing against it I love mine, but I am amazed at what people can get out of the computers.Guess I shouldn't be surprised though same designer went on the make the Amiga. What do you guys think of Space harrier. Edited February 3, 2011 by ATARI7800fan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kjmann Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Mentioning atarimax carts, do all the games from atari-sales.com come on the atarimax carts or is it only the bigger ones, do you use recycled atari carts for the other games. Just wondering never bought from your website before, do I need to do anything to my system to run the Atarimax carts or do they work just a normal cart. though I defiantly want Tempest love the music, listen to it when I am studying at college, once I get the money.Can't wait for Space Harrier to come out. Sometimes I wonder if the XEGS would have work better then the 7800,nothing against it I love mine, but I am amazed at what people can get out of the computers.Guess I shouldn't be surprised though same designer went on the make the Amiga. What do you guys think of Space harrier. We use a special Edition of the Atarimax carts. both sizes. we don't like destroying games to make other games. Blasphemy! =) All our games fit just fine into all the 8-bit systems. you don't need to do anything. just plug in the cart and go. We are looking forward to space harrier as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 (edited) I started a FlashCart version of Mule once, but like many things.... perhaps I'll have another go to get it working in less memory Nah, just do Seven Cities of Gold. I did a quick conversion of Lords of Conquest I think too, using the Maxflash system, should be somewhere on the Atarimax forums. Doesn't save to flash though. Edited February 4, 2011 by Shawn Jefferson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Problem there is 7CoG is 2-sided so probably ~ 170K worth which means 1 Meg cart. IIRC that's a 64K blocksize for flash writes, so the game could end up running slower once loaded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 (edited) Problem there is 7CoG is 2-sided so probably ~ 170K worth which means 1 Meg cart. IIRC that's a 64K blocksize for flash writes, so the game could end up running slower once loaded. Yes, it could be hard to do, that's why I suggested Mark do it. If he can't do it, it probably can't be done. It's 64k for erase, but writing you can write as much (or as little) as you want. The erase time may cause slowdown of the in-game experience though... I don't know how SCOG works. I know that saving/loading in Ultima II and Ultima III isn't that bad on flashcart, much faster than disk, but it isn't writing to the disk at all times either, only when you save or enter a town. Edited February 4, 2011 by Shawn Jefferson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 IIRC, my plan was to use the 8Mbit cart but with a 4Mbit (512KB) Am29F040 as usual for the game code and something like a SST29EE010 for the second chip (128KB) and hence this could be driven similar to a disk drive due to the ability to erase a 128-byte flash 'sector'. This is required because the game creates a whole world map by writing to the other disk. Of course I need to experiment with the theory on a real cart first but do have a few such chips in the attic to try it on. Then I'd need to make a variant cartridge model in either Atari800WinPLus, Atari++ or Altirra to simulate/support the new chip, but that should be straight-forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Regarding 7CoG on cart, what about Corina cartridge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 (edited) I've personally not had cause to use that model yet as I've found MaxFlash and Switchable XEGS to be fine for my needs. If the EEPROM on Corina was only 8K then probably not enough for 7CoG as the map data is large, plus again you'd need a small sector flash capability. Edited February 4, 2011 by Wrathchild Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 I'm pretty sure that's just a flashcart with a repro label. I remember seeing that exact image a number of years ago can't remember on which site though. EDIT: Yeah thought so - look about half way down this page. Nice detective work! I dunno, I collect cartridges but reproductions don't inspire me to buy them. I would like to see however a Montezuma cartridge in a parker brothers case saw a prototype on ebay about 14 months ago and it went for about $300! Well, guess who was the man that once supplied sunmark with all these nice carts (ROMS and schematics) ?!? It was Nir Dary from Israel. When I was still studying at the university (in the 90`s) I had regular e-mail contact to him. And err, I got several selfmade carts from Nir, including Pooyan, Montezuma`s Revenge (on a Parker Bros. cart shell!), Vanguard and several other carts. Some of Nir`s selfmade carts also made its way to Video61 afaik... -Andreas Koch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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