Marius Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Hi Jac, Tested some of the features. It works amazingly well. I found one game so far that does run from MultiCart 2MB but not from Multiple Entries (from main menu). So with the SHIFT feature it runs, but not from the main menu. This game is: Captain Gather (CAR included) on my so called 'strategy' games. Asteroids does still not work, and probably related: sometimes the reset-button of the cart does not (after reset) lead back to the menu. repeating that sequence does help. Besides that: it's great. Tested a few other ATR's (like ECKNPLUS WOW!) which also work perfect now. How cool is that? (I guess Double Density is not supported yet, since cropky does not work yet; no problem, just asking whether I'm right it does not work yet). I guess you must be excited too. This is really something new in atari world! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venom4728a Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 (edited) Has any one else tried to run this on an Incognito 800? I am not having any luck, I just get a black screen. I have tested other standard carts and they are working OK. I have tried in Colleen and XL/XE OS, 48k and XL Stock Memory, SIDE Disabled. I have updated all the PBI BIOS/JED/LOADER/SDX Files to the most recent. Other then Incognito THE!CART runs great on my XL and XE with U1MB. Best Regards Robert Edited February 28, 2014 by venom4728a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 There seems to be a difference between the cart logic of the atari 400/800 and the XL/XE series. I believe MyIDE ][ doesn't work on Atari 800 either. Probably same cause. I think incognito does not change this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 There seems to be a difference between the cart logic of the atari 400/800 and the XL/XE series. I believe MyIDE ][ doesn't work on Atari 800 either. Probably same cause. I think incognito does not change this. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/212137-how-to-make-the-myide-ii-work-on-a-atari-800-with-incognito/?p=2750855 This thread talks about getting the AtariMax MyIDE II working with Incognito.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 @reda6: yes that was what I meant. I think there is a chance that is also going on with THE!CART. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Has any one else tried to run this on an Incognito 800? I am not having any luck, I just get a black screen. I have tested other standard carts and they are working OK. I have tried in Colleen and XL/XE OS, 48k and XL Stock Memory, SIDE Disabled. I have updated all the PBI BIOS/JED/LOADER/SDX Files to the most recent. Other then Incognito THE!CART runs great on my XL and XE with U1MB. Best Regards Robert I have been able to run the demo on THE!CART using my Incognito, but that was as far as I could get so far... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 (edited) As for the 800 issue: I'd recommend contacting Jürgen (tf_hh) directly. Hi is deeply involved in The!Cart and it's testing. An according to the other thread he will probably also have the right machine to test with. As for Captain Gather: Found the issues and fixed them. BASIC was not correctly disabled upon the start of the entry and because the program performs a warm start itself, BASIC kicked in when it shouldn't. As for Asteroids: That took me hours and all I found is that the code of the ROM is outmost crap. I works reliably with on OS-A/B system (Oldrunner), but not with an XL OS. The code does weird things that (at best) work incidentally. For example the ZP locations $12/$13/$14 of the real time clock are used to store data/pointer before the VBI is disabled. As consequence it may happen that the VBI kicks in and increments the values right in the middle of the initialization. Also there are race conditions when initializing the DLI, VBI and ANTIC registers which can cause lost updates. A nice example of how code looked before people at Atari had Colleen in mind. Because I was so annoyed by all the time wasted with Asteroids I started working on the "Genre" export/visualization and filter. I think I can get it ready tomorrow. Good night for today. Edited February 28, 2014 by JAC! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venom4728a Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Thank You Jac! You Rock!! Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 As for Captain Gather: Found the issues and fixed them. BASIC was not correctly disabled upon the start of the entry and because the program performs a warm start itself, BASIC kicked in when it shouldn't. Because I was so annoyed by all the time wasted with Asteroids I started working on the "Genre" export/visualization and filter. I think I can get it ready tomorrow. Is there a chance that other games will have benefit of that fix, or will it only apply to Captain Gather? And I wanted to say that I appreciate your work A LOT. I felt really sorry to read it took you so much energy to find out that Asteroidscode is full of sh*t. Indeed: let's concentrate on other things. Thanks anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMontezuma Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Hello Peter, I wondered about your plans for generating (with The!Cart Studio) images for Megacart 4MB carts. Currently it is possible to start a new project and select "Flash Megacart 4MB" as a flash module / cartridge type, however it is not possible to enable menu for that cartridge type. Is that planned? It would be really great Greetings Marcin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 (edited) The!Cart Studio version 2013-03-02 released I first had to fix my Atari so I could test this and I decided to first also get the help menu done (now that there are so many controls). First version of filtering via genres is now working in the extended menu. Use joystick or cursor left and right to step through the genres. Visualization of the selected genre is not yet how want it to be, but it works. HELP key now displays a built-in help menu that explains all controls. Initialization error in direct start for MegaCart's inner menu entries fixed (DLI vectors, BASIC not off after warm start). Some cartridges like for example Asteroids have the property that pressing the RESET button on The!Cart sometimes brings you to the extended menu by incident. This the case simply because they use the same memory area and pressing the button swaps the code. This can lead to garbage on the screen and a non working menu. Now the menu detects that the RESET button of The!Cart is still pressed during initialization (which is normally not the case). It then performs a cold start to ensure proper initialization, once the button is released. Keyboard definitions are now included directly in the extended menu, so it works correctly if an with "OldRunner" OS is active. TAB - Toggle the details display of the selected entry between readable and technical information. Left: Welcome message & genres, right: help screen >Is there a chance that other games will have benefit of that fix, or will it only apply to Captain Gather? The direct start now behaves correctly when RESET/warm start occurs, before it was simply wrong, no matter which game. You may have ended up BASIC or hang.>I felt really sorry to read it took you so much energy to find out that Asteroids In fact I like fixing things and normally it's not that much effort - except sometimes :-) >Currently it is possible to start a new project and select "Flash Megacart 4MB" as a flash module / cartridge type, however it is not possible to enable menu for that cartridge type. Is that planned? It would be really great Currently the extended menu builds heavily on the core provided by HIAS for the The!Cart. Opposed to the other modules the 4MB Cart would have enough space for everything, but with at most about 240 entries in theory (and probably about <<100 in reality if you used ATRs), the search function is probably not too essential. Currently I really want to get the studio and the menu "done" to the extended all essential features are in there. Then I'll focus on the topics that have been postponed for too long now (Revision is getting close!). But you know I've also ordered a 4MB cart and once it arrives motivation will probably rise again :-) Edited March 2, 2014 by JAC! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 @Jac! Great great great! I'm going to try it soon. I do not want to bug you with atr-files that do not work, because I don't know whether that will help you or it won't help you. Perhaps this topic is also not the right place to put stuff that does not work. So let me know what your idea is. Do you want me to post everything, or should I start a private conversation with you, or should I wait some time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 (edited) The!Cart Studio version 2014-03-18 released Minor change that may have huge impact. ATR loader now correctly sets "DSTATS=1", making it more compatible with some disks, e.g. Mule Multijoy Edition Edited March 19, 2014 by JAC! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FULS Posted April 12, 2014 Share Posted April 12, 2014 The!Cart is so much fun with your software. Thanks JAC! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 Thanks FULS, positive feedback from happy customer is always cheering me up.The!Cart Studio version 2014-04-03 releasedRAM is now cleared before starting inner entries from AtariMax or MegaCart compilations. This will fix artifacts in programs that rely on this, for example Spy's Demise. Don't wonder about the version date, it's been done and under test since then. Prowizard mentioned that direct start has some sound issues still with Spy's Demise, but I cannot hear/find any. But that does not neccessarily have to mean something as I'm > $28 year and, well, once have release a demo with 15 kHz BEEEEEEP in it without knowing ... I just didn't hear it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 Hi Jac! Recorded the sound. Curious, why it does not happen on your equipment. First 10 seconds: you hear very clear a sliding tone (from low to high) through the song. That is Spy's Demise started from main menu (where it belongs to MegaCart collection) Second 20 seconds: that is Spy's Demise started with SHIFT (and then started from the MegaCart menu) ... no problem with song. Greetz! M. p.s. there is something weird with INTRO Flop Magazine 56 too. When it is started from main menu the player/missiles go wrong on the left side of the intro. When started with SHIFT pressed from MegaCart menu, no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Is there a chance that the people of THE!CART would let stantosp (Panos from Greece) do a production run of The!Cart? His enclosure of 4MB MegaCart is really superb. He did a wonderful job on the MegaCart production run, and since The!Cart is one of the most exciting and powerful projects for Atari 8bit, ever... I think it deserves a good looking, firm and reliable enclosure + pcb. I hope there can be done something like that. I have had extremely good experience with Panos, and I think he is a real good choice of doing this job. To be continued? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebiguy Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Newer ones start at bank 0, older ones at 127. But my question rather was if the menu in the screen shot is an original Maxflash menu or not. I do have some roms with that menu above, but they do not contain any indication who created the menu. The menu is mine. If is created using the program I uploaded in AtariMax forum many years ago. It is called MakeMenu (not very original). If you need more information or sources to understand what it does, please PM me. The inital goal of the menu was to rewrite Steven menu so the AtariMax cartridges could work on SECAM computers. By the way, I am trying to use your studio and I have some problem with all I/O functions. I mean that it runs well. I can add files,... but when I try to save or export, nothing happens. I am using a JRE 6. Do you have any idea ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 Today I found something VERY strange. My Atari 400 PAL (16K) can handle the cart, although the menu is all disturbed, it is still functional. (It makes sense since the menu uses more memory) and the simple menu does work too. But now it comes. On my Atari 800 PAL (48K) the cart doesn't do a thing. Only black screen. It's the same cart, and both OS B machines. I'm planning to upgrade my Atari 400 to 48K ... but I want to know: will The!Cart work properly on 48K? (I can imagine I lose certain features like ATR compatibility) Is there a reason why The!Cart does work on my 16K 400, and refuses to work on my 48K 800? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grevle Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 im having some trouble with the Multiple Entries when programming The Cart, im able to program The Cart when using multiple entry setting, The menu will show AtariMAx entries in the main list but when i try starting one of the Atarimax entries in the main list it starts some other program and not the one i choosed, so as a example lets say i choose a game in the menu it will start some other game. This is only for Atarimax multiple entries. Starting any other program or game is normal. If i program The Cart with the single entries option then it works normal by entering the Atarimax Image and choosing a entry within this menu. Any idea whats wrong ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 @GentleBaron: There are many (>10) versions of the AtariMax Menu and The!Cart Studio has specific routines for each of them. Maybe your AtariMax compilation uses and yet unknown/different one. Please PM the AtariMax, then I can have a look. @On my Atari 800 PAL (48K) the cart doesn't do a thing. Only black screen. 16k are out of the question of course. Putting a 128 MB cart into a 16k machine is simply unfair :-) Testing in Altirra with OS B , 48k works fine. So this is probably rather HW related, maybe hias/mega_hz can comment on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 @GentleBaron: There are many (>10) versions of the AtariMax Menu and The!Cart Studio has specific routines for each of them. Maybe your AtariMax compilation uses and yet unknown/different one. Please PM the AtariMax, then I can have a look. @On my Atari 800 PAL (48K) the cart doesn't do a thing. Only black screen. 16k are out of the question of course. Putting a 128 MB cart into a 16k machine is simply unfair :-) Testing in Altirra with OS B , 48k works fine. So this is probably rather HW related, maybe hias/mega_hz can comment on this. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/212137-how-to-make-the-myide-ii-work-on-a-atari-800-with-incognito/?do=findComment&comment=2750855 Tried this fix just 5 minutes ago, and it seems to work great now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grevle Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 Im using a XEGS 64k with The Cart, About the multiple entries setting when using maxflash images with the cart,i still have the problem with the selector starting the wrong software, Anyone that makes this work , What maxflash studio, and what programmer (Aspeqt or ape) and settings to make the multiple entries work properly ? if theres over 10 versions of the Atarimax menu , How do i know what version i making ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 (edited) Note: The "10 versions" refers to previous/historce versions of Maxflash Studio & loader. The programmer/settings have no influence here.. The issue with wrong started entry can be reproduced now with the lasted version So that's simply a bug on my side, I'l look into. Besides that I've re-worked/refactored the whole code and adapted it so it'll work properly on Java 1.6 and not require Java 1.7. This is particularly interesting for the Mac OS X folks, who still have Java 1.6 by default. So if there are any volunteers for testing, I'd be happy to hear. Edited June 5, 2014 by JAC! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grevle Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 (edited) Thanks for looking into it, I made a fresh maxflash image with the latest Maxflash studio (2.5), flashed with Aspeqt and still the problem was there when using the multiple entry setting. When using single entries everythings work normal so using The Cart is very nice. Love the fact that The Cart can play all the XE Titles on a 64k Atari. Edited June 5, 2014 by GentleBaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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