Can the Flashback 2 work with Harmony software hack/update

[barnieg]

There is quite a long thread regarding an Atari 2600 clone been crowded funded and imho I think it would need some form of harmony support.

 

At the moment the Flashback 2/2+ which contain the 2600 on a chip and for that matter a lot of the FPGA clones out there don't emulate "illegal instructions" that are used particularly with many new homebrews.

 

Would it be possible to have a modified version of the Harmony software that emulates the missing illegal instructions? Alternatively how hard would it be to modify the flashback 2 core to give full compatibility?

 

 

Finally is the "Flashback" name tied to the current owners of Atari?

[alex_79]

I don't think that would be possible because the Harmony doesn't execute the game code: the 2600 does. The Harmony just presents (or read if simulating a cart with ram) data/code on the data bus of the cart port in response to the address set by the console on the address bus. The arm on the Harmony can simulate the behaviour of different cartridge hardware (different sizes and bankswitch schemes, additional ram, etc.), but only the 6502 processor inside the console can access the VCS hardware. So if a clone is not 100% accurate because of the lack of some instructions in the 6502 core or some difference in the TIA or other VCS hardware, I think there's nothing the harmony or any other external peripheral can do to fix it.

[barnieg]

Goes back to my thinking that a clone would be better with a real 6502 variant.