+Gemintronic Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 @Eckhard Stolberg: Why didn't you go the Starpath SuperCharger route? Loading games like a modem from a sound source? You could have saved millions of cassettes from the landfill! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 It may be possible to upgrade the parallel interface to USB with one of the new USB-to-FIFO bridge chips (here is a development module for one such chip). This would allow a more modern implementation of 7800CTRL on the PC side to use the same protocol, only through USB instead of through the parallel port. I started working on a Java-based replacement for 7800CTRL using the RXTX library, but I've long since lost the code.I have a version of 7800CTRL, that uses one of those FTDI USB to 5V serial cables. Since it's library allows you to access all pins directly, I was able to implement the old protocol with it. But since the protocol transfers one bit at a time, and driver calls are slow on Windows, this version only works at a speed that is unusable for 7800 development. I only get 60 bytes per second instead of 6000 bytes per second on the old DOS parallel port version. So changing the BIOS to serial transfer might still be necessary. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 @Eckhard Stolberg: Why didn't you go the Starpath SuperCharger route? Loading games like a modem from a sound source? You could have saved millions of cassettes from the landfill! Like I said, DevOS started out as a cartridge reader. And at supercharger audio speed it would have had to be silent for about 30 minutes while I recorded the 7800 beeping out the binary into a microphone. That's just not possible in our house. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickeycolumbus Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 I have some serial transfer routines halfway done. I know I always say I'll finish them every time this topic comes up and then never do that, but that is mainly because of all the 2600 dumping routines. Most of them run in the 128 byte RIOT RAM. For some of them space is tight and timing is difficult, so changing the transfer routine to serial might not be possible. That's why I usually give up pretty quickly. If the change is just for the RAMONA RAM cart BIOS, I might be able to finish them this time. Really. I don't know if you've seen this: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/78065-how-to-dump-your-fb2-games/ It has serial transmitting routines for dumping on a 2600 at several different baud rates (running from RIOT RAM). Source is included, may be a good reference to look at... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 well, I had one and used it to dump some homebrews, but I was never proficient enough to make the dev cart. when I got a new pc with no serial port I sold it. I could easily build another, but I would need a cart and a more current method of data transfer, USB, Bluetooth! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 well, I had one and used it to dump some homebrews, but I was never proficient enough to make the dev cart. when I got a new pc with no serial port I sold it. I could easily build another, but I would need a cart and a more current method of data transfer, USB, Bluetooth! dx.com has some cheap arduinos and even bluetooth add ons. http://dx.com/s/arduino Instead of dumping carts maybe a bluetooth devcart is in order Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timdu Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I have one for sale on my web site. http://www.2600connection.com/features/atari7800/atari7800.html Please send me a private message if you have any questions. $100 plus $20 for shipping in the USA. Will ship internationally but will need to figure out shipping. Will accept paypal. thank you Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Does a DevOS modded system still require some sort of RAM cart? So, even if I do get a modded system there's a matter of finding one of those? UPDATE: Confirmed. You need to build a RAM cart of some sort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Too bad you couldn't load it into the XBoard's 128K since nobody's supporting it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 I don't think people understand how the XBoard RAM works, it just maps in at $4000 with only 16K visible. There is nothing magic about it, it's just bankswitched RAM. Same with the XM, you could do this on a cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Was the reason for this poll ever explained? If there's going to be a run of RAM carts then I might pick up the ready to go system from timdu. If not I'll go with the 7800 harmony whenever that comes out. Spend more money but get my games tested on real hardware sooner.. Spend a little less and discover bugs late in the development cycle. hmmn.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted February 8, 2014 Author Share Posted February 8, 2014 I think you missed a post. 48K RAM cart from $4000-$FFFF... http://atariage.com/forums/topic/221692-poll-who-has-a-7800-modded-with-eckhards-devos/?p=2922962 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I think you missed a post. 48K RAM cart from $4000-$FFFF... http://atariage.com/forums/topic/221692-poll-who-has-a-7800-modded-with-eckhards-devos/?p=2922962 I'm missing far more than that my friend. Thank you for putting up with me! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Whoaa, this my friends, is the upper limit. $0400-$040F POKEY $0500-$057F RAM (128 bytes) $0600-$07FF RAM (512 bytes) $0800-$1800 RAM (4K) $3000-$3FFF RAM (4K) $4000-$FFFF RAM (48K) 56.6K total! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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