The 7800GD (New 7800 Flash Cartridge?)

[SainT]

2 hours ago, MegaManFan said:

I did try using the RGB out on the cart with a Genesis model two AV cable to see if that helped... but I got no picture at ALL (jumpy or otherwise) so I went back to using the AV mod.

Is that an rgb Genesis 2 cable? Composite cables will not work. I’ve had several people try and use composite…

[Ouzy]

Has anyone managed to get the Covox demos to play any sound. I've tried with both my Pal 7800s and there is no sound. I tried the Elysium (covox music demo) and others with covox included in the header but there is no sound at all. I have attached a video of Elysium as an example. I dont really know anything about covox or what it does but what are others getting from these demos. The demo is on the most recent Trebor download. Sorry for any camera shake but I don't have any direct capture equipment. Just worried now that something has broken on the cart. 

[SainT]

Does any external sound work? I.e. POKEY / YM2151? That seems to be the right file, so it shouldn't be related to any header issues.

 

And how are you connecting to the TV? Via the console or via the AV out port on the cart?

 

Some AV mods just connect the internal TIA output, in which case you wouldn't hear ANY external audio. However if other external audio is working, but not COVOX, that is odd.

 

I've just tested the Elysium demo (exact same file as yours) on my PAL machine and that's working through both internal and external audio.

 

The other more unlikely option is you've somehow turned down the volume on the COVOX audio. Go to the global audio settings by pressing SELECT on the console (or START on a Mega7800 connected megadrive pad) then to AUDIO VOLUME and check COVOX is turned up.

[Ouzy]

14 minutes ago, SainT said:

Does any external sound work? I.e. POKEY / YM2151? That seems to be the right file, so it shouldn't be related to any header issues.

 

And how are you connecting to the TV? Via the console or via the AV out port on the cart?

 

Some AV mods just connect the internal TIA output, in which case you wouldn't hear ANY external audio. However if other external audio is working, but not COVOX, that is odd.

 

I've just tested the Elysium demo (exact same file as yours) on my PAL machine and that's working through both internal and external audio.

 

The other more unlikely option is you've somehow turned down the volume on the COVOX audio. Go to the global audio settings by pressing SELECT on the console (or START on a Mega7800 connected megadrive pad) then to AUDIO VOLUME and check COVOX is turned up.

HI Saint. I have the two 7800s, one was AV modded and you went thru with me on twitter about the resistors as it was directly fed so I reinstalled the resistors and a RF 7800 that is  not modded at all. The same results occur on both consoles. Pokey, TIA and YM music all work just fine except that weird volume issue on Rikki and Vikki that I highlighted the other day. 

All of the volumes are set up on Max, both global and on running the file. 

 

Ps. Sorry I feel like I'm a pia with these issues. 

Edited July 30, 2023 by Ouzy

[SainT]

2 minutes ago, Ouzy said:

HI Saint. I have the two 7800s, one was AV modded and you went thru with me on twitter about the resistors as it was directly fed so I reinstalled the resistors and a RF 7800 that is  not modded at all. The same results occur on both consoles. Pokey, TIA and YM music all work just fine except that weird volume issue on Rikki and Vikki that I highlighted the other day. 

All of the volumes are set up on Max, both global and on running the file. 

I have no idea on this one currently, then. There is no reason why COVOX audio would not work but all other audio is, it all comes from the same source. The only thing that would stop this working is if the header bit was not set, but I can see in yours it is. I’ll try grabbing the rom set again later and double checking I don’t have an older version. However you’re not missing out on anything other than some mediocre quality sampled audio playback.

 

I’ll have a look into this one, but given it’s working ok on my machine, I’m not sure.

 

I’d appreciate if anyone else reading this could give these demos a try and let me know if you have any issues.

[SainT]

Ahh! No! I was wrong. I was testing on my dev cart, just tested on a release firmware cart and PAL COVOX is silent. I may have inadvertently done a build without COVOX enabled on PAL and put that out as the release build. I'll investigate.

 

And no problem with reporting issues, I want people to report issues! I can't fix them unless you do... 😄

 

Or at least figure out what's causing them if it's not me.

 

Edit: I've just confirmed it's internal audio only for this issue, both PAL and NTSC. AV OUT audio is fine.

 

I've found the problem, just sorting, firmware shortly.

Edited July 30, 2023 by SainT

[Trebor]

29 minutes ago, SainT said:

I've found the problem, just sorting, firmware shortly.

Humble 2 cents, @SainT

Create a pinned firmware thread in the 7800 GameDrive Support area.

[SainT]

26 minutes ago, Trebor said:

Humble 2 cents, @SainT

Create a pinned firmware thread in the 7800 GameDrive Support area.

There's no such thing with my carts really, you scan the QR code or follow the link directly from the console.

 

Unless you mean release notes?

 

But then they are all displayed when you scan the QR / follow the link.

[Trebor]

6 minutes ago, SainT said:

There's no such thing with my carts really, you scan the QR code or follow the link directly from the console.

Unless you mean release notes?

But then they are all displayed when you scan the QR / follow the link.

More what is highlighted in bold.

Perhaps instead of calling it a "firmware" thread, a "News/Updates" thread to help individuals stay aware of the firmware revision(s).

In case people are 'out of the loop' or forget to scan/check the QR code for updates. 

 

After all, we do currently have updates to threads, and even a dedicated thread, where a few people were oblivious to the final sale of certain titles from the AA store.

[SainT]

Gotcha. As I don't have a way to notify people currently via the website, this does make sense.

[SainT]

Done and done!  @Ouzy @Trebor

 

 

 

[Ouzy]

Thanks @SainT. Downloaded and updated and all is working fine, no problems at all. I now hear Covox.. 

Perfect timing too right after Grand Prix 🙂

[SainT]

Awesome! 😄

[MegaManFan]

New day, new oddness. I downloaded the latest firmware update, attempted to go to the game break menu to disable it in-game so Pac-Man Collection would work properly, and the option was garbled. I can't turn it off even if I want to now, and the video still "jumps" in PMC when certain sound effects play.

 

 

[SainT]

Great, I appear to have broken the disable break option. 🙄

 

I don't have the time to look into what's going on with this, and I'm not likely to until next week now. I've had a few weird issues with text randomly getting messed up, so I need to figure out what's going on there.

 

In the meantime I've taken the firmware update down. People will have to put up with not having COVOX on the internal cart audio for a little longer. 😄

Edited July 30, 2023 by SainT

[KrunchyTC]

I had to reduce my TV's brightness from 60/100 which is where I usually have it, down to 30/100 for games on the GD to have a normal level of brightness.

[+Muddyfunster]

37 minutes ago, KrunchyTC said:

I had to reduce my TV's brightness from 60/100 which is where I usually have it, down to 30/100 for games on the GD to have a normal level of brightness.

Have you tried just changing the colour profile on the GD from the menu ?

 

[KrunchyTC]

20 minutes ago, Muddyfunster said:

Have you tried just changing the colour profile on the GD from the menu ?

 

Only the color temp, there is no other option that I saw. The color is perfect otherwise.

Edited July 30, 2023 by KrunchyTC

[Greg2600]

Got the cart the other day, played around with it today.  The addition of the Yamaha emulation is incredible, easily my favorite part.  Can't believe what I was missing before, the 1942 game sounds so great.

 

One question, will exFAT ever be supported?

[SainT]

7 hours ago, Greg2600 said:

One question, will exFAT ever be supported?

Probably not.

[MegaManFan]

Since @SainT has updated the firmware, I've released an updated video!

 

I was also able to use the game breaks easily for the first time thanks to the Mega 7800 (and to @Albert who sold me one).

[Lamprey]

I hope I didn't miss this, but out of curiosity is there a descriptipon of what the 7800GD does as far as using real hardwere vs emulation? It appear to be emulating the sound and video, but is it emulating more than that? I know that emulation can have a negative connotation, but I'm not trying to be negative, just curious about how much real hardware is being ussed versus what's running on the cartrige. I guess I find it fascinating all the things the cartridge appears to be doing!

 

Additionally, if you are not using he AV output on the cartidge does audio (pokey or YM) sound play via the standard output (RF)?

 

Thanks!

Edited August 9, 2023 by Lamprey

[Trebor]

1 hour ago, Lamprey said:

I hope I didn't miss this, but out of curiosity is there a descriptipon of what the 7800GD does as far as using real hardwere vs emulation? It appear to be emulating the sound and video, but is it emulating more than that? I know that emulation can have a negative connotation, but I'm not trying to be negative, just curious about how much real hardware is being ussed versus what's running on the cartrige. I guess I find it fascinating all the things the cartridge appears to be doing!

Sound chips are an FPGA implementation.  Everything else is managed by the original console hardware.

 

When utilizing the a/v out of 7800GD, an FPGA implementation of MARIA graphics runs in tandem with the console's MARIA chip and provides video via the 7800GD a/v port.  It does not have any impact to the video output being produced through the console's original MARIA chip and RF.

1 hour ago, Lamprey said:

Additionally, if you are not using he AV output on the cartidge does audio (pokey or YM) sound play via the standard output (RF)?

Yes, all audio will play through standard RF or console a/v mods.

 

Audio produce by a cartridge passes through the console's cartridge audio line, by console design, whether that originates with the 7800GD or any other cartridge (I.E. Commando, Ballblazer).  Audio being passed to the cartridge audio line by 7800GD is also sent to the 7800GD's a/v out.

[Lamprey]

Cool stuff. Thanks for the explaination Trebor!

[SainT]

10 hours ago, Lamprey said:

It appear to be emulating the sound and video, but is it emulating more than that?

I tend to use the term "emulation" to mean software doing things hardware does, so to me it's not emulation, but a hardware re-creation. However the definition is a bit malleable. 

 

As Trebor mentioned the audio and video are hardware re-creations either by myself or others which run in tandem with the console hardware. The key point here is that everything is in tandem, I have had some people think that everything is run on the cartridge and the console is somehow doing nothing. This is entirely false, the console is operating completely normally, there is just additional functionality added on top.