THE!CART... New 128MB FLASH Cartridge

[mega-hz]

I am very excited too!

 

One question: are the carts already programmed with some titles when they are shipped?

Hi,

 

on Bank 11776 (Megacart1024K-Mode) is a little Demo of JAC,

on Bank 16000 (Atarimax 1MB Mode) is a "Ray's Favorite",

on Bank 35 (Standart 8K Mode) is the ATARI 65/130XE Test Tool.

 

 

Wolfram.

[HiassofT]

Unfortunately I have to send out an important warning to all users of TheCart:

 

Please don't use 512k MegaCart images generated with BigBen's/Marcin's Megacart Studio.

 

BigBen recently added code so that these images won't work with The!Cart and also threatened that he might add code that could lead to data loss if these images aren't used with his original MegaCart:

 

Quote from Bernd's posting http://www.abbuc.de/community/forum/viewtopic.php?p=60471#p60471:

Einen Term habe ich noch vergessen, es könnte zu Programmverlusten führen wenn sie nicht auf der Originalhardware laufen, dafür übernehme ich keine Haftung

so long & sorry for this bad news,

 

Hias

[Marius]

Is this something that will be fixed, or is this something we have to deal with?

 

EDIT:

Oh I now read the thread on Abbuc.de

Well ok... good to know... I don't understand the competition... I think almost no one will make money with atari 8bit today, so what a fuzz.

Edited November 28, 2013 by ProWizard

[dragos]

Sound like someone is a super giant douche bag. "Don't use my images on your cart, but I'll use atarimax images". What a double standard asshhat...

[+MrFish]

on Bank 11776 (Megacart1024K-Mode) is a little Demo of JAC,

 

Is this demo available for download anywhere?

[HiassofT]

Is this something that will be fixed, or is this something we have to deal with?

I'm currently working on a fix for this issue to prevent anyone from being harmed by potentially malicious code.

 

The fix requires an update to the CPLD logic. It's the same procedure as updating CPLD logic of Ultimate 1MB, Incognito etc - you need a JTAG cable and Xilinx software, or send your cart back to Wolfram and he'll update it for you.

 

It also requires slight changes to the software, but that's no big deal (at least not for you :-). When the fix is ready just download the new The!Cart Studio version, export your workbook again, flash it and you are done.

 

I'll keep you posted about the progress, I hope I can release the fix soon.

 

so long,

 

Hias

[FULS]

Happy Thanksgiving,

Have any more been shipped. I'm really anxious to recieve mine.

This will be a great product!

 

Doug

[venom4728a]

I have seen some people have received their carts, will we be emailed when our carts are shipped so we know to be on the look out for it ?

 

Robert

[TheMontezuma]

Sound like someone is a super giant douche bag. "Don't use my images on your cart, but I'll use atarimax images". What a double standard asshhat...

 

I wondered who do you mean?

Megacart 4MB carts do not use atarimax images.

[JAC!]

Hi there,

 

The!Cart Studio has seen considerable investment and improvments in the past weeks. All of them are now also described in detail in the documentation. The latest version is available on WUDSN.COM of course. Here the summary of the changes in chronlogical order (therefore some appear multiple times).

 

• New menu entry "Tools/Options" allows selection of the display language of "The!Cart Studio". Possible values are "Automatic", "English", "German".
• New Atari Software version 2013-11-03 included. This version supports delayed autorun for the last used ROM. In additional a newer version of "cartmenu.rom" can be placed manually into the folder where "TheCartStudio.jar" is located. It will be loaded automatically then. Whether the built-in or the external software is used and which version it has is displayed in the "About" dialog.
• New menu entry "Edit/Add User Space Entry" added to defined cartridge menu entries also for those parts of the flash cartridge that are in the user space. The user space is the part of the flash cartridge that is not touched by "The!Cart Studio" but is flashed directly from the Atari. The size of the user space can be specified in the workbook options.
• New Atari Software version 2013-11-30 included. External software is now also found is the name of the "TheCart.jar" was changed manually.
• Default bank for user space entries is now the first bank of the user space.
• Table of contents with links added to help.
• Help content is now displayed with correct small font.
• The window state "normal/maximized" is now also saved and the default window position and size are those that the user has set before maximizing/minimizing the main window.
• The program now also starts and works correctly if the folder path of "TheCartStudio.jar" contains a folder with a name that ends with an exclamation mark "!".
• Cartridge database cleaned up. Additional characters like "+-*/=?" are now allowed in titles. Title suggestions with more than 40 characters from the cartridge database are automatically shortened.
• Existing collections for 128 KB or 1 MB Maxflash cartridges are often only available as "ATR Programming Image" but not as "CAR" cartridge images. Therfore a conversion for Maxflash Studio ATR programming images to "CAR" cartridge images has been added. This way you can even test the collection directly in an emulator.
• Description of supported file formats (CAR/BIN/CAR/ATR/EXE) and their usage added to the online help. This way you can add ATR and EXE files to "The!Cart" by using the existing functions of the free Maxflash Studio which I consider a complement to The!Car Studio.
• 1 MB Atarimax cartridge images are now correctly defaulted to content type "Atarimax 1 MB" instead of "Atarimax 128 KB.
• Section "Printing Workbooks" added to online help. Helpful to see the start banks etc. until the "extended menu" is available.

Thanks to Jürgen et. all for testing. I'm sure there are still "enough" bug in, so feel free to send feedback.

 

And of course I know you are all waiting for the "human compatible menu" - be assured, it's next on the list :-)

[TheMontezuma]

Hi Peter,

 

• Existing collections for 128 KB or 1 MB Maxflash cartridges are often only available as "ATR Programming Image" but not as "CAR" cartridge images. Therfore a conversion for Maxflash Studio ATR programming images to "CAR" cartridge images has been added. This way you can even test the collection directly in an emulator.

 

Should the conversion happen automatically after dropping an AtariMax atr file into the The!Cart window?

This happened with one on my example files (a *.car file was created in the same directory) but nothing happend when I tried the other one (content not recognized was displayed in the worksheet). Then I started the generated *.car file in Altira and the Atari "crashed". Attached are both files. I manually retrieved the ROM files out of them with dd tool according the manual from Hias and they worked fine.

Greets

Marcin

test.zip

Edited December 6, 2013 by TheMontezuma

[JAC!]

>Should the conversion happen automatically after dropping an AtariMax atr file into the The!Cart window?

Yes. But I found based on the test files provided by Charlie Chaplin that there are differences between the ATRs of created by different Maxflash versions. They all have variable length and there's a usage map (like VTOC in DOS, unless they are completely filled) and the map can be at different locations. I've uploaded a fix, so 1 MB should work in most cases now. Tomorrow I'll have a a lot at your and the remaining example. Until now I only hat 4 examples - now I have 40 :-)

Edited December 6, 2013 by JAC!

[Marius]

The ATR that is created by the latest version is not accepted by my Sio2USB (ABBUC-RAF) interface. I get a Error 144 BAD ATR error message.

 

Since I'm on a MAC it is very hard to fix these ATR's all the time with windows and the tool for Sio2USB interface, so could you please fix this, thanks.

[JAC!]

There are 2 ATR Export options. Maybe you chose the the first, which is not for SIO2USB? See http://www.wudsn.com/productions/atari800/thecartstudio/help/TheCartStudio.html#ExportingWorkbooks

 

"Single disk image in ATR format for use with SIO2PC or AspectQT and the "The!Cart" flasher software on the Atari. The ATR file uses large sectors to achieve the maximum transmission speed and to store up to about 512 MB of information (65534 sectors of 8k size) in a single file. The file contains additional information to support incremental flashing to speed up flashing in case only parts of the project have been changed. In addition the file only contains the used sectors. Therefore this export format can also be used to program "The!Cart" cartridges of a size smaller than specified by the flash type, as long as the size does not exceed the physical size of the cartridge.

 

Multiple disk image in ATR format for use with SIO2USB, SIO2SD, SIO2PC or AspectQT and the "The!Cart" flasher software on the Atari. The ATR files uses normal double density sectors to be compatible with SIO2USB, SIO2SD and Atari DOS versions like MyDOS and SpartaDOS. The files contains additional information to support incremental flashing to speed up flashing in case only parts of the project have been changed. In addition the files only contain the used sectors. Therefore this export format can also be used to program "The!Cart" cartridges of a size smaller than specified by the flash type, as long as the size does not exceed the physical size of the cartridge."

 

[Marius]

Ah yes. second option works. I can't do a thing with the ATR. I don't have THE!CART received yet, but I read somewhere (do not know where) that I could try to flash the 4MB cart also with the output of THE!CART studio.

 

Any suggestions? The ATR that comes out of THE!CART studio is not bootable, and the DIR only contains garbage.

 

I have a user defined cart. 512 banks of 8KB. Is that right?

 

Thanks

Prowizard

[npturton]

Can I still get one of these and where from please?

[BillC]

Can I still get one of these and where from please?

Try the link in the the first posting.

[JAC!]

>read somewhere (do not know where) that I could try to flash the 4MB cart also with the output of THE!CART studio.

You can create any 4 MB binary image (BIN/ROM) that way (set menu to "None").

But The!Cart Studio does not include the flasher program required for the 4 MB at the moment.

Edited December 7, 2013 by JAC!

[Marius]

Ah! That makes sense indeed. Thanks for information again JAC!

[Roydea6]

thanks to all involved ... Great project..

[Firedawg]

Received THE!CART this past week and it is a very nice looking cart. I have just recently moved, so still unpacking my gear. Hope to have my new shop set up soon to give the!cart a try.

 

Mike

[Roydea6]

Dang... Most of my SicDumps are 256k and there isn't any mode for a Sic 256k, I did try running as a MegaCart 32k banks Title and song plays but none of the game titles work..

 

Well back to the TheRomGenerator for more 32N1 goodies..

[Marius]

What would happen If you merge two sic 256 files into one 512K file?

 

Big chance it will work...

[JAC!]

A new update for The!Cart Studio has now been released:

 

Features:

• Import of "ATR Programming Images" for "Atarimax 1 MB" and "Atarimax 128 KB" extended. It can now recognize 9 different versions of the Atarimax Maxflash software (2003-11-03,2003-05-29, 2004-08-25, 2005-04-09, 2009-08-15, 2011-10-03, 2012-04-07) with two different extraction algorithms. It was tested against 99 different "ATR Programming Images" and successfully created working "CAR Images" for them.
• New cartridge types "CARTRIDGE_MEGAMAX_2048=MegaMax 2 MB" and "CARTRIDGE_MEGA_4096=Flash MegaCart 4 MB" added to the recognized content types in accordance with the new Atari800 definition. Please note that this is just for completes of the Studio. Only the MegaMax 2 MB can be emualted by the "The!Cart" itself.
• New flash module type "Flash MegaCart 4 MB" added to the "Flash Module" presets in the workbook options. Please note that this is just a preset and no flasher is included.
• New field "Cartridge Type" in the workbook options which allows explicit specification of the cartridge type for user defined flash modules. This cartridge type is used when the workbook is exported as "CAR" cartridge image.

Fixes:

• The size of user space is now automatically rounded to a multiple of the flash block size, i.e to 64 KB for the flash target types "Atarimax 128 KB/ 1 MB" and "Flash MegaCart 4 MB" and to 128 KB for "The!Cart 128 MB".
• The external software in "cartmenu.rom" is now also found if the folder path contains spaces or other special characters.

Im parallel hias has created a new version of the Atari side flasher software which will be released soon and will bring better handling for the initial flashing (incremental initial flashing, ask only for those 16 MB images that will actually be required, ..). It'll be included once the tests are done.

Edited December 10, 2013 by JAC!

[JAC!]

2013-12-12

 

Fixes:

• All relevant Atari characters are now allowed in titles: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789!"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_
• Titles, for example when derived from the file name, are now automatically truncated to the allowed 40 characters.
• Banks assignment problem when using the "Overwrite" option for equally named files fixed. It could cause overlapping bank assignments and corrupted bank display.