Moo Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 That type of hack would require taking away one of the buttons reserved for system functions. I don't know which one you would want to sacrifice, but I don't remember anyone ever hacking the systems OS before. If they had somone probably would have fixed the sound in the Genesis portable by now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted November 28, 2016 Author Share Posted November 28, 2016 That type of hack would require taking away one of the buttons reserved for system functions. I don't know which one you would want to sacrifice, but I don't remember anyone ever hacking the systems OS before. If they had somone probably would have fixed the sound in the Genesis portable by now. There are a few Atari 2600 games that use the BW/Color and difficulty switches for unusual functions. Secret Quest, Space Shuttle, Starmaster, and Super Cobra come to mind. Also, they all start with the letter S. I would think it would be possible to map the Defender II buttons to the switches on the console, but I have no idea how difficult it would be. Secret Quest Status Screen You can look at the status screen any time during the game by pushing the [TV Type] switch on the 2600 console up and down. To return to the game screen, push the [TV Type] switch up and down again. On the Atari 7800 switch between the game and status screens by pressing [Pause]. Space Shuttle Flight Manual I. Important Note about your Flight Deck Console Game System Flight Deck Console Power On/Off Internal Power Color/B&W Primary Engines Left Diff. Backup Engines Right Diff. Cargo Doors/Landing Gear Game Select Status Game Reset Activate Countdown Starmaster 6. Select game level as follows: a. Move color/black-and-white switch to call up Galactic Chart (see illustration next page). [Note: StarMaster by ACTIVISION is designed to be played on color television sets only.] Super Cobra "PAUSE" BUTTON -------------- If, at any time during the game, you wish to "freeze" the action and your score on screen, press the TV TYPE switch from "COLOR" to "B-W." When you are ready to play again, simply reset the switch to "COLOR." 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted November 28, 2016 Share Posted November 28, 2016 There are a few Atari 2600 games that use the BW/Color and difficulty switches for unusual functions. Secret Quest, Space Shuttle, Starmaster, and Super Cobra come to mind. Also, they all start with the letter S. I would think it would be possible to map the Defender II buttons to the switches on the console, but I have no idea how difficult it would be. Secret Quest Space Shuttle Starmaster Super Cobra Nice work! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asaki Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 I mentioned this in another thread, Outlaw does have a few single-player games on it. I think the manual calls them "target shooting" or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 I was wondering if someone has tried the following games yet? Berzerk Voice Enhanced DK VCS* Frantic* Incoming Rally X Real Sports Basketball Scramble* Space Raid* Space Rocks* * Doubt these games will play but wondered just in case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradhig1 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Did Haunted Adventure Trilogy work on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atwwong Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Did Haunted Adventure Trilogy work on it? Yes, see the compatibility list here, but Game 7 (Haunted Adventure 3) loads first, and pressing select brings it to Game 1, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 (edited) I was wondering if someone has tried the following games yet? Berzerk Voice Enhanced DK VCS* Frantic* Incoming Rally X Real Sports Basketball Scramble* Space Raid* Space Rocks* * Doubt these games will play but wondered just in case Tested some of these this morning and... Don't work: Berzerk Voice Enhanced Frantic Rally X Scramble Space Rocks Real Sports Basketball is included with the unit (duh)! Works: Incoming Space Raid (to my surprise!) Edited November 30, 2016 by atarifan88 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Good news for those that really want to play Berzerk! I found a way to make the original ROM work. When you first start the game you have your back to the wall, just shoot backwards and then you will be able to shoot in all directions after that. This is only the first level this happens and you are not getting shot at so no harm no foul. I haven't played this extensively, but now you can change the list to working, but flawed. Glad this one has a workaround after all! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everett1954 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 How do you select built in games versus your games on SD card? Picking my portable up shortly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 How do you select built in games versus your games on SD card? Picking my portable up shortly. When you turn the unit on just scroll left one and you are on the SD card option. Press the fire button and it will bring up the list of games on the SD card. Real simple! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradhig1 Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Merlin's wall works just no way to rotate the screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asaki Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 (edited) Whoops, wrong thread. *deleted* Edited December 1, 2016 by Asaki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZillaRUSH Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 Sorry for being a noob...the "Game" file worked on my portable...tried adding games to it...no luck. How do I add addtl games? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted December 1, 2016 Author Share Posted December 1, 2016 Sorry for being a noob...the "Game" file worked on my portable...tried adding games to it...no luck. How do I add addtl games? Thanks! Just drag them in. They MUST be formatted with initial capital, lowercase everything else. I'm putting a new batch in the top of this thread if you want to try that. NO SPACEINVADERS.BIN YES Spaceinvaders.bin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillLoguidice Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 Sorry for being a noob...the "Game" file worked on my portable...tried adding games to it...no luck. How do I add addtl games? Thanks! You mean Game folder, right? Game folder in the root of the formatted SD card and place your ROMs (.bin format) in that folder. For testing purposes, you can download the Space Invaders ROM from here on AtariAge and rename it with just the first letter capitalized and everything else lowercase. Barring that, you can just download and use the known working Game folder referenced earlier in this thread and place that on your SD card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 One question I haven't seen the answer to: What is the limit to the number of characters in the game name the system can handle? Is it seven characters like in the days of DOS? If there is no limit, does anyone know the character limit the SD card screen will show? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted December 1, 2016 Author Share Posted December 1, 2016 One question I haven't seen the answer to: What is the limit to the number of characters in the game name the system can handle? Is it seven characters like in the days of DOS? If there is no limit, does anyone know the character limit the SD card screen will show? I don't think there's a limit to the number of the characters you can use, and it's certainly not seven like in DOS. The screen is only so wide, so more than ten is going to get cut off. Everything is shown in uppercase even if you format it in the only way the system will accept, e.g., Romname.bin BTW I updated the folder'o'ROMs on the first post if you want to pull down a large set of known working things, including homebrews curated by DoctorClu and all the known non-workers pulled out. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 I don't think there's a limit to the number of the characters you can use, and it's certainly not seven like in DOS. The screen is only so wide, so more than ten is going to get cut off. Everything is shown in uppercase even if you format it in the only way the system will accept, e.g., Romname.bin BTW I updated the folder'o'ROMs on the first post if you want to pull down a large set of known working things, including homebrews curated by DoctorClu and all the known non-workers pulled out. Did you leave Berserk in there? The reason I ask is I found a workaround to get the bullets to fire. I posted this fix in the compatability thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted December 1, 2016 Share Posted December 1, 2016 One thing I noticed on my Rom list that's displayed on the portable, I deleted my old folder with all the roms, then started fresh making a new Game folder and copied all the roms to it. When the list comes up, everything is in alphabetical order except it puts Zaxxon first. Does anyone have a similar issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted December 1, 2016 Author Share Posted December 1, 2016 Did you leave Berserk in there? The reason I ask is I found a workaround to get the bullets to fire. I posted this fix in the compatability thread. Nope but you can put it back. :-)Bunny Berzerk is in there though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moo Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 One thing I noticed on my Rom list that's displayed on the portable, I deleted my old folder with all the roms, then started fresh making a new Game folder and copied all the roms to it. When the list comes up, everything is in alphabetical order except it puts Zaxxon first. Does anyone have a similar issue? I dunno, but sega retro claims there is a tool to fix rom order: http://segaretro.org/Arcade_Ultimate#Using_an_SD_card Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 I dunno, but sega retro claims there is a tool to fix rom order: http://segaretro.org/Arcade_Ultimate#Using_an_SD_card Thanks! I do not see a link for the tool "folder sort." Unless someone has the utility to share here, I'll try to do something else. Actually, I think all I have to do is delete the Zaxxon rom, plug the SD card back into the portable so it sees it's not there anymore. Then I'll put the rom back into the Game folder on the card and plug it back into the portable and hopefully it will get put at the end of the list. On a separate note, I was reading about assigning images to roms on the SD card so they come up on the screen. Has anyone tried using Screen Gopher or MDB Edit to do this for the Atari? Wondering if it will work. I may try this and see... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moo Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 I made a thread in this forum section where I posted a MDB but I couldn't test it myself cause I don't have this console. It's not worth the effort unless you have a small collection or find a way to automate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asaki Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 Actually, I think all I have to do is delete the Zaxxon rom, plug the SD card back into the portable so it sees it's not there anymore. Then I'll put the rom back into the Game folder on the card and plug it back into the portable and hopefully it will get put at the end of the list. You can skip that second step. Like most devices, the AFP sorts files based on their creation date, so just deleting it and pasting a new one (which will have a newer date) will automatically send the game to the end of the list. That's how the file sorting programs work, they just edit all of the dates for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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