Are AA Store 7800 carts repurposed?

[DracIsBack]

I've always wondered this:

Are the Atariage cartridges repurporsed cartridges from the original 7800 library or did they run new cartridge boards?

[jaybird3rd]

My understanding is that the AA store cartridges still use new boards and repurposed shells.

[+DrVenkman]

I don't know what Al uses specifically but from what I gather, whether an old common cart PCB can be repurposed for a homebrew depends on a few things. For instance, the size of the rom, whether the homebrew uses a POKEY, etc. There are modern 7800 PCBs that are used for some games/carts, however.

[DracIsBack]

I was wondering if they made new PCB boards. For larger homebrews, it would be a necessity I guess? Ie. if Atariage carried a 256K or 512K 7800 game. Since nothing from the day was larger than 144K

[jaybird3rd]

For the AA store, reusing old cartridge boards would surely be more trouble than it would be worth. Cleaning off the old ROMs and modifying the boards for EPROMs is a very labor-intensive process, even with a good rework station. The original boards are also more than 25 years old now, and the supply is not controllable or predictable enough for an operation like the AA store. Acquiring enough of the right kinds of boards for specific games, and boards that are in good enough shape for reuse, would be more expensive and time-consuming than having a new run of custom boards manufactured in bulk. New boards are of much higher quality than the originals (which were pretty shoddy even for the time they were made), and would also allow new features such as larger ROMs.

 

Using new cartridge shells would also be a whole lot easier than accumulating and cleaning up the old ones, for many of the same reasons, but so far the tooling costs have made new shells too cost-prohibitive.

[Jinks]

Look inside the carts.. they all have new boards on the ones I have seen.

[Shawn]

They have all been built on brand new boards for many years. Same goes for the 5200 and 2600 games in the store as well.

[Trebor]

I've always wondered this:

 

Are the Atariage cartridges repurporsed cartridges from the original 7800 library or did they run new cartridge boards?

Some new 7800 PCB's courtesy of CPUWIZ:

 

[DracIsBack]

Are those manufactured and used by AA in their store titles?

[Trebor]

Are those manufactured and used by AA in their store titles?

 

I believe the majority displayed, or a variant of the ones shown, have been used (At least are available) for the store.

 

For instance, the big guy on the top left is the Versaboard utilized for BBCQ; one of its configurations being 144K + POKEY. The one at the bottommost right is a standard board for 48K or less ROM only games.

 

CPUWIZ or Albert would likely be best to provide more specifics though.

[Shawn]

Are those manufactured and used by AA in their store titles?

 

Manufactured for use by the AA store. But these boards to make their way to other hardware and software creators as well. Primary use is for AA releases. As you can see it says CPUWIZ & AtariAge on all of them.

[Mayhem]

The boards are mostly all new... don't know about the shells.

[Andromeda Stardust]

New circuit boards; old shells...

[DracIsBack]

 

one of its configurations being 144K + POKEY.

 

Bentley Bear uses this, no?

[CPUWIZ]

Yes, nothing Atari ever pulled off. That board can do 512K + POKEY as well. All carts sold in the AA store for the 7800 run on my PCB's, we don't recycle old ones, except in the case of Super Circus AA, because there is an easy way to modify Ballblazer boards to run it, without hacks. That doesn't mean all of them run on old boards though, I made configs for other POKEY games for the VersaBoard too, including SCAA.

[Trebor]

Bentley Bear uses this, no?

 

Exactly...

 

... the big guy on the top left is the Versaboard utilized for BBCQ; one of its configurations being 144K + POKEY...

 

[CPUWIZ]

I am thinking of making a new one at some point, with a speech chip or WiFi connectivity. Or both. LOL

 

I also am tinkering with a remote control mod, for all the switches. Did I say that out loud?

 

My new VersaBoard has SIO exposed, as a breakout.

[DracIsBack]

Yes, nothing Atari ever pulled off. That board can do 512K + POKEY as well. All carts sold in the AA store for the 7800 run on my PCB's, we don't recycle old ones, except in the case of Super Circus AA, because there is an easy way to modify Ballblazer boards to run it, without hacks. That doesn't mean all of them run on old boards though, I made configs for other POKEY games for the VersaBoard too, including SCAA.

 

Yeah - I think the closest we got was an unused 512K board that Mitch found. But the Tramiels never wanted to pay for a game that large (to develop or manufacture)