carlsson Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Yesterday I tried to load M.U.L.E. from my Maxflash cartridge. I tried every possible version I could find, about 6-10 different ATR files and at least 2 XEX files. The XEX files seemed to unpack forever, or it got stuck. The ATR files all loaded the title screen, but when I press Start after selecting number of players and level, the game detects fire button in joystick port #4. If I run a single player game, I can't push the fire button either in port #1 or #2 fast enough. To make it worse, the colour selection also is automatically selected, meaning I can't continue. Now I wonder if this is a known issue with the 130XE, or if my unit has a fault? I saw every single chip is soldered to the board, and since just about all other games that only use 1-2 joysticks seem to work, I might hesitate to do some soldering. Could it be a VIA/PIA chip that has a partial error, causing the game to detect a phantom fire button permanently pushed? I can't recall if I managed to play M.U.L.E. on this computer before, or if I just did on my 800XL that I have traded away. Ideally I'll play it on my 800 with four joysticks, but at least when running from Maxflash all versions require 64K RAM. I haven't looked into BASIC commands how to read the joysticks. Is it possible to read also physically missing joysticks from BASIC? In that way I could determine if there is a problem with the hardware or just the game, but I strongly doubt the latter. (I know there are four joystick adapters, but that is not the matter here) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simius Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 This is quite normal behavior of XL/XE series. TRIG3 line of GTIA is pulled-down by resistor and used for cartridge detection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/documentation/oldkit/chapter8.html#mule Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 I patched a while ago this game so that paddle and stick 3 and 4 are ignored ... That works perfect on xl/xe... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted July 22, 2013 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 Hm, so you're saying that the 1 Mbit cartridge version is the only one known to work from a Maxflash cartridge, at least on XE computers? I will try that one, and kind of understand the technical description on the link Bryan posted. In case everything else fails, at least I can look at the "LP sleeve" for my original M.U.L.E. disk and hope that my misplaced SIO cable will pop up or I'll get a new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simius Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 I patched a while ago this game so that paddle and stick 3 and 4 are ignored ... That works perfect on xl/xe... I patched this game a bit better. Works perfect on xl/xe with 4 multiplexed joysticks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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