Emulating 32in1 cart

[ssj]

I got the 32in1 rom for the 7800 here from AtariAge, but no emulator seems to run it. Is there some special with this rom or is it a bad dump?

This the first 7800 game that I found that can't be run on either Prosystem or MESS. I think the dump in question is a PAL version, but even changing the emulators to PAL doesn't seem to make it work.

Anyone had some success emulating this one?

 

TIA

[jaybird3rd]

The 7800 32-in-1 cartridge is merely a relabeled 2600 32-in-1 cartridge, so all the games in it are 2600 games. 7800 emulators like ProSystem are intended for games that run in 7800 mode, so they generally don't support 2600 software; it would be better to use a dedicated 2600 emulator like Stella for that. Plus, there's really no need to emulate the 32-in-1 as such, since all the games in it can already be emulated individually.

[Wntermute]

Apparently the cartridge had additional hardware to jump to the next game when the system is restarted. Not sure if that could be properly emulated without specifically checking for that particular ROM. But like jaybird said, each of the games are available separately.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Wntermute

[GroovyBee]

There is no 2600 support in the ProSystem so any 2600 ROM image won't work in that emulator. There is more information on the cart in the AA rarity guide here :-

 

http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=1013

[+stephena]

Apparently the cartridge had additional hardware to jump to the next game when the system is restarted. Not sure if that could be properly emulated without specifically checking for that particular ROM. But like jaybird said, each of the games are available separately.

This is emulated in Stella by pressing the Control-r combo (which means 'reload' or power cycle). Using this with normal ROMs simply reloads the ROM, just as if you exited and started it again. But for 32-in-1 cartridges (as well as 2/4/8/16-in-1), a power cycle is what switches between each game, and Stella emulates this as well.

[ssj]

Thanks, I knew it was just a relabeled 2600 cart, but I thought it would have some changes otherwise how would it run on the real 7800 hardware?

Thing is even if I try it on a 2600 emu it doesn't work, anyone had any luck with that? I know there's not much point trying to emulate it, but basically I'm just curious about it and what it has special and my ocd is now pushing me to get it running lol

 

EDIT : stephena, so I can run this one on stella by pressing ctr+r when loading the rom is that it?

Edited October 14, 2011 by ssj

[+stephena]

Thanks, I knew it was just a relabeled 2600 cart, but I thought it would have some changes otherwise how would it run on the real 7800 hardware?

Thing is even if I try it on a 2600 emu it doesn't work, anyone had any luck with that? I know there's not much point trying to emulate it, but basically I'm just curious about it and what it has special and my ocd is now pushing me to get it running lol

 

EDIT : stephena, so I can run this one on stella by pressing ctr+r when loading the rom is that it?

I'm referring to the 32-in-1 ROM specifically for the 2600. In that case, yes, you can use Control-r once the ROM has started up. It starts with the first game, then pressing Control-r cycles to each other game (you'll see a message indicating what's happening).

 

Now, if you mean there's another 32-in-1 ROM on AtariAge specifically for the 7800, then I don't know if that will work in Stella. I'll have to try it out and let you know.

 

EDIT: OK, I just tried the 7800 32-in-1 ROM. When you download it from here, it's in a ZIP file. Stella can open ZIP files, but it currently only goes to the first ROM it finds in the archive, which in this case is game 29. You need to unzip it and use the 64KB ROM. When you do that, the instructions above do indeed work.

[Wntermute]

Thanks, I knew it was just a relabeled 2600 cart, but I thought it would have some changes otherwise how would it run on the real 7800 hardware?

 

99% (or so) of all 2600 games will work on a real 7800. As far as 7800 emulators go, unless it emulates the 2600 as well as 7800, it's not going to work or it's not going to work right. But apparently it works as intended in Stella, which makes sense.

[GroovyBee]

The only combined 2600/7800 is EMU7800 :-

 

http://emu7800.sourceforge.net

 

Its not an emulator I know much about.

[ssj]

Thanks stephena, I'll give that a try tonight had no idea about that feature.

 

I know Emu7800 it's author is a pretty nice guy, that emulator got my interest since it emulates lightgun with mouse for the 7800 which I think is the only emu doing that (am I right?), unfortunately it has some serious timing issues so it doesn't work properly. At least it's a start and hopefully we will see it working fine on some later versions. I'm hoping for it.

[ssj]

Just tried it stephena, worked perfect! Thanks for the info.