Omnimon Cartridge

[Atari8bitCarts]

I have just recently acquired a cartridge marked Omnimon right slot 8K.

Everything I can find is regarding the chip replacement for the 800 or 800XL, inside the machine.

 

When I opened the cart the EPROM was not covered.

 

Has anyone heard of a cart version?

And how would it work, I've tried the hot keys, etc. in the Ominmon manual...

 

Thanx.

[Mclaneinc]

Select + Start / Option + Start are the hot keys.

 

Must be a hack as Omnimon was one of my most treasured purchases on my newly acquired credit card back then and it definitely didn't plug in to a cart slot

 

Would be interested to get a dump of the rom and see what it really is...

[1050]

Never heard of a cart version before this thread, I suppose it's possible somebody bent just so could disassemble the original to source and then make it live in the cart slot by assembling it to do so. It should have been made to go at power up though. When it doesn't, it makes me think that perhaps it's waiting for access to D5xx region to activate the super cartridge. It certainly has enough support logic to be one. No idea if it's an address store or a data store as it could be either that turns it on. Even both is possible. Of course right slot is 800 only.

 

POKE 54528,0 would be the same as LDA #0, STA $D500 and this might turn it on? Typically d508 is as high as you need to go but as to the data stored there - who knows? A dump would tell this part much faster. So it won't be dumped by normal means when you can't get it to turn on, you'll have to pull the eprom and have it read outright is the quick cheat.

 

I don't recognize the cartridge board and making one is not so easy, whom ever did this was pretty seriously bent on doing it to some purpose. Lack of a sticker just tells us the guy knew his stuff, it does no harm inside the case to not have a cover on the window. It takes a week of direct sunlight to compromise the data and three months under office fluorescents to do the same damage. Taken as whole it's very hard to say what it is other than interesting, thanks for the look.

[Atari8bitCarts]

I'm trying to dump it so let me know if this works...

omnimonCart.bin

[AtariGeezer]

Looks like an OSS Cart:

http://www.atarimax.com/jindroush.atari.org/acarts.html

http://www.atarimax.com/jindroush.atari.org/data/acarts/pcb_oss2bp.jpg

http://www.atarimax.com/jindroush.atari.org/data/acarts/pcb_oss2t.jpg

 

That dump contains all FF's, Do you have an Atarimax MaxFlash cart to try dumping?

[Atari8bitCarts]

I can, I used AtariMax as a right slot 8kb cartridge.

I might need to pull the EPROM and copy it....

 

I'll try dumping as OSS cart if I udnerstand you.

[Atari8bitCarts]

try this.

omnimonCartOSS8.bin

[AtariGeezer]

That has 4k of actual data, try the OSS 16k Type A and OSS 16k Type B...

[Atari8bitCarts]

here they are. strange to dump as OSS and 16A-B.

omnimonCartOSS16A.bin

omnimonCartOSS16B.bin

[AtariGeezer]

Okay, I'm seeing (3) 4k images in the dumps that are identical. But the code needs to be copied to $C000 in order to work...

[+Larry]

Okay, I'm seeing (3) 4k images in the dumps that are identical. But the code needs to be copied to $C000 in order to work...

 

So you would use this with an XL/XE, and copy the actual data to ram under rom? Can you use a right cartridge in an XL/XE? I would think you could. OR -- I wonder if this was hacked to use with something like a Mosaic 64 board for the 800? Maybe access it ala Monkey Wrench -- X=USR(32768)?

 

-Larry

[Rybags]

A right slot OS monitor would be of highly questionable value (as a tool, not collector value).

 

First up, tight integration into the OS is the hallmark of a good ML monitor so cartridge sits in a poor second place there.

But probably even more importantly, right cart Rom stomps a big hole in the memory map so $8000-$9FFF would be unavailable. And the OS would see a 32K machine and configure as such.

 

There does seem to be some logic going on with the board though, so if it was say, a switchable/bankable cart that just put some hooks into the system and only switched on the Rom again if required, that would elevate it almost to the point of an OS resident monitor.

[AtariGeezer]

 

So you would use this with an XL/XE, and copy the actual data to ram under rom? Can you use a right cartridge in an XL/XE? I would think you could. OR -- I wonder if this was hacked to use with something like a Mosaic 64 board for the 800? Maybe access it ala Monkey Wrench -- X=USR(32768)?

 

-Larry

This is the 1984 version of OmniMonL that would run on a 800 in the $C000 to $CFFF area. Best use would be in the Newell Ramrod MMOS Board.

But, it should work as you say with an XL/XE, and copy the actual data to ram under rom.

 

I made a xex of it yesterday to load in an emulator's extended 52k RAM using the 800 OSB selection and it ran shortly under Atari800Win, but not in Altirra...

[+Larry]

A right slot OS monitor would be of highly questionable value (as a tool, not collector value).

(snip...)

 

Hi Gary-

Yes, I'm sure it would be very limited, but a clever hack, nonetheless. Might work OK for use with BASIC?

-Larry

[Atari8bitCarts]

I haven't had any time to really look at the cart but I thought that it was a replacement for the chip/board repalcement and would at as it did, hot key to menu?

Hot keys don't work.

After turning on the 800 the speaker lets out, what sounds like, a thud/click. But a black screen.

I haven't tried it in an 800xl since the cart is marked right slot.

 

I see in the manual fo rthe Omnimon upgrade that there are basic and machine calls to invoke it.

 

Ideas?

 

I would find it beneficial if it worked from the right slot and behaved as the card appears to behave for utility tools. Especially if you can place a cart in the left and use tools on it.

 

Thanx for helping to try to solve the mystery.