Rex Dart Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 So I was scanning through Best's site, checking cart prices, and I ran across their Euro OS mod again. Has anybody bothered with this? Does it get you anything other than built-in Asteroids? Their description on the site reads: Atari Engineering released two versions of the Atari 7800 Operating System chips. The US version has the known 7800 boot up screen with the Atari Logo / color bars and delay before the inserted Atari 7800 game cartridge screen appears. The Euro 7800 OS chip / 7800 Euro Consoles have a build in Atari 7800 Asteroids game (turn on your 7800 with no game cartridge inserted and Asteroids would be the default game) and will instantly start any 7800 game when a 7800 game cartridge was installed. Both versions of the Atari 7800 OS chips both instantly start up all 2600 Game Cartridges. Is that all there is to it? Seems pretty neat, but if there's more to it, I'd love to hear what. And to anybody who's installed the thing, does it seem that it could possibly be piggybacked with the original chip so that you could select which OS you want with a switch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Us PAL people have had it from the start . PAL carts don't have a signature (due to export restrictions at the time) so games start quicker. Other than the built in asteroids you aren't missing anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Personally, I like the startup Atari splash screen. It's only there for a bit and never sat there wishing my games would boot faster. lol Built-in Asteroids... meh. Now if it were an exclusive built-in game you normally couldn't get on a commercially released cart, that would make more sense. Not a crappy maze game though like the SMS had. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Oberhäuser Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Well, a free game is better than no game... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Dart Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 Hmm... with the Euro OS, what do you get when you insert a cart that doesn't make proper contact? Would you still get the horrible scrambled picture & audio, or would it boot up Asteroids? Or does it just depend on which pins make contact? I'd rather see Asteroids than a/v garble when I put in a bad cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Hmm... with the Euro OS, what do you get when you insert a cart that doesn't make proper contact? Would you still get the horrible scrambled picture & audio, or would it boot up Asteroids? Or does it just depend on which pins make contact? I'd rather see Asteroids than a/v garble when I put in a bad cart. it depends if it thinks its a 2600 game, a 7800 game or nothing. If it thinks its nothing you'll get asteroids. There are a couple of bytes in the ROM image that are checked to determine a good 7800 image. If they aren't as expected it hangs (or appears to - I haven't investigated it very far). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Laird Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Whenever I put a dirty cart in my 7800 or one that dosn't make contact properly it goes straight to Asteroids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Dart Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 Awesome! So maybe this thing would be worthwhile for me after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I bought the mod kit before xmas, I really should get my arse into gear and do some modding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Dart Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 I'd love to hear your results. And you're in the UK? Now I'm curious as to why you bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 maybe several answers to that question: 1- I am a bit mad 2- I wanted to play Robotron 3- I had a CC2, and it seemed a good idea to make full use of it 4- I am a bit mad Dug out the old girl today, as my French RGB 7800 will only now play 2600 games in B+W:( , found the OS mod and A/V mod, soldering iron etc. When the wife/kids go to bed it my time to play Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Fitted the Best A/V mod, Euro OS and a Rainbow fading LED tonight. The A/V mod works brilliantly in 7800 mode, and is actually a better picture than the *bit domain and LHE mods on my TV, that is not to say that there is anything wrong with those mods, but here in PAL land even though TV's state that they can deal with an NTSC signal results vary wildly. in 2600 mode there is some banding, and the image is not so sharp, but way better than RF in any case. The OS mod is fairly straight forward, but the instructions are a little confusing (or maybe I am doing this too late in the day) Anyhow, Asteroids works great. As previously mentioned, if a cart is dirty or does not make contact correctly you will either get dumped to Asteroids or get coloured bands/noise. The Rainbow LED looks great, but is a tad too bright. I thought I would miss the Fuji splash screen, but it is actually nice to go straight into a game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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