A 7800 Melody Cart?

[Jaynz]

Some of the discussion of the XM got me wonering what would be involved in making the 7800 version of the Melody cart? ( http://www.atariage.com/store/index.php?l=page_view&p=atariage_melody ) Homebrews and repros are still cannibalizing existing 7800 carts and that's going to be less an less feasible as time goes on. Also, there's a demand for POKEY on nearly every 7800 game, which seems like it would make more sense if there was a 'standard' 7800 homebrew cart for people to develop for...

 

So... what really would be involved in making a 7800 Melody (particularly when compared to 2600)? Is there any way we could make this happen?

[alex_79]

Quoting batari from the H2 thread:

Melody 2 didn't pencil out as the parts are too expensive. Maybe in a few years, MCUs with enough memory will be cheap enough, but not today.

That post is 2 years old by now, anyway...

 

As for cannibalizing 7800 carts, I think that homebrews sold on AA use new boards, only the shells (and pokey, when needed) are recycled. Newly produced 2600/7800 shells could be available in the near future which will improve things

Edited November 8, 2012 by alex_79

[mimo]

You can buy pcbs that can run up to 48k ROMs, but until there is a source for new cart shells you are going to have to gut a common cart anyways

[tep392]

At a minimum, we need new bank switched boards. The 48k board is too limiting. I think there was an AA member developing one some time ago, but I don't think it was completed. I suggested a bank switched board project to Curt Vendel and he seemed interested. Maybe after the XM is complete.

[+Mitch]

Yes, there was a bankswitched board completed by Bruce Tomlin. It was used in the original MIA repro run. I believe he sold out of the boards and has never had a second run done. http://xi6.com/a78/mini-ultra/index.html It does not support on cart RAM or POKEY though.

 

Mitch

[Jaynz]

You can buy pcbs that can run up to 48k ROMs, but until there is a source for new cart shells you are going to have to gut a common cart anyways

 

Well, physically, how different is a 2600 shell's innards (of which there are still legion out there) from a 7800 shell? (I've never cracked open a 7800 shell to look inside). Could a 7800 Harmony cart be made to work within a 2600 cart shell?

Edited November 8, 2012 by Jaynz

[+Mitch]

Well, physically, how different is a 2600 shell's innards (of which there are still legion out there) from a 7800 shell? (I've never cracked opon a 7800 shell to look inside). Could a 7800 Harmony cart be made to work within a 2600 cart shell?

 

The later 2600 games cart shells are identical to the 7800 cart shells. The early 2600 games not so much.

 

Mitch

[Jaynz]

So, I would be looking for a lot of the 'open bottom' silver and red 2600 carts, then? Reds would be problematic in cost, but I'm pretty sure scoring silvers on the cheap wouldn't exactly be difficult. Hell, ET would stock us up on that front alone... The real limit would actually be a board with the rewritable ROM (oxymoron alert!) , 256K RAM, and POKEY. And of all that, POKEY (or an emulated chip) seems to be the issue?

[Marc Oberhäuser]

I would support the creation of a enhanced 7800 cartridge board with RAM and POKEY (or Pokey emu) with money.