david.winter Posted December 28, 2002 Share Posted December 28, 2002 When/if you release the ROM someday, a look into the code might help to answer some questions. I'm thinking about releasing the ROM under certain conditions, for example once a number of cartridges will be sold. But why did they had to change the graphics? They kept the complete gameplay and the cube, just displaying it in 2D. But you could still see that it was a three dimensional cube you are playing with. Strange! I really have no idea. I wish we knew why they changed the game display. Hm... Are there any problems with the user interface in the 3D version? Or maybe somebody else already had bought the right for a 3D version? I did not notice any problem so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.winter Posted December 28, 2002 Share Posted December 28, 2002 Just wondering since you're in France. Is the game in NTSC or PAL (or SECAM?) I got the game from a US seller, so it's in NTSC. I know the colors change between NTSC and non-NTSC games, but I don't know if they also change between PAL and SECAM. Both PAL and SECAM use 625-line pictures at 50Hz, opposed to 525 at 60Hz in NTSC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 David, If you play the Rubik's Cube ROM in z26, you can press ALT-9 to switch to a special video mode, that displays the number of scanlines per frame. If this number is at about 262, then the game is NTSC. If the number is at about 312, then the game is PAL. Atari never did special SECAM versions of their games. For some time they chose the shades of grey in the BW mode to give good colours in SECAM. But after the crash they seem to have given up on this practice. The only real SECAM games might some titles from Activision with a little "S" sticker on the label. But so far no-one has dumped a ROM for such a cart, so we couldn't verify this. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.winter Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 The emulator says 262 scanlines so it's NTSC. I have quite a lot of these 'S' cartridges (small S sticker on the backside of the cart, not on the label). I also have several P cartridges (little P letter right to the game reference). I don't know whether the ROM differs from NTSC to PAL/SECAM. If I could build myself a 2600 reader where I can plug any cart and have it dumped, I would quickly come up with a number of dumps. I also have programmed a small program that checks duplicate files in two directories, so I could dump all my carts and launch the program to automtically delete dumps same than the NTSC versions. If you know a reliable cartridge reader I'd build one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 You could use this method to do it ... http://www.atarihq.com/danb/files/7800dev.zip I have a couple of 7800 motherboards and data-link cables available but they are NTSC units. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.winter Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 Unless I'm wrong, this will only allow me to program a 7800. I need some schematics to build a 2600 ROM reader. Best would be a cheap reliable design that plugs to the parallel port and directly dumps any 2600 cart to your PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 Uh, no this modification allows you to dump both 2600 and 7800 games as well as upload them. The connection is from joystick port 2 to your PC's parallel port. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.winter Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 Are you sure about this ? The web page says Development framework to get you started developing Atari 7800 programs and the ZIP file doesn't contain any doc about the cable pinouts, nor the program that runs on the 2600/7800 and dumps a ROM. To dump on a 2600/7800, you need some sort of piggy-back cartridge containing the dumper program, and you would plug your game over it. That's the only way I see to dump a ROM on a real 2600. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 Here, download this PDF from my website and read it. http://www.cpuwiz.com/images/DEVKIT.PDF I have 3 of these modified units and have dumped many 2600 carts with them. This is the correct link, sorry about that. http://buerger.metropolis.de/estolberg/tools/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 The link that CPUWHIZ is looking for is the one to my site. In the tools section you can find the 7800 devkit, which contains a new BIOS for the 7800. With this BIOS, you can read out almost any 2600 and 7800 cart that can physically fit into the 7800 cartridge slot. A PAL 7800 is usually a lot easier to modify than the NTSC version described in the documentation, since the BIOS usually already is socketed in this console. So to be able to dump your 2600 games, you probably only need to burn an EPROM with the new BIOS, move a small solder jumper on the PAL 7800 board, and solder a parallel port connector to an old Atari joystick wire. If you have a PAL 7800 like this, please feel free to contact me via email for the details. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 The link that CPUWHIZ is looking for is the one to my site. Buahh, people keep calling me CPUPEE, that's not nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.winter Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 Since I'm in France I only have PAL (Secam) 7800s. I even have a spare one but I need to know if the bios is socketed. Else, I'll have fun cutting the chip off and removing the pins one by one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 30, 2002 Share Posted December 30, 2002 David, it would be interesting to see, how much code is identical between the 2D and the 3D version. If have written a simple DOS programm called CloneSpy that compares binaries and returns how equal they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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