Swami Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Ok, I know what is going on. The .BIN for carts requires the $4000 area in a different place than the .A78 file. In the .BIN, $4000-$7FFF needs to be at the end. For .A78, the $4000-$7FFF area needs to be at the beginning. So his cart is a little different in that it requires the .A78 bank order, but with the header stripped. We can't use the straight .BIN for this. I can't try this myself, as I can't get my cart to work, but try this one. BTW, I apologize for derailing this thread. For anything other than Dauber's request for opinions about the cart, please - let's start another thread. It works perfectly on the Mateos. Thanks PMP, Tep392 and everyone. Mystery solved. I thinks that's good for Mateos, programmers and Dauber, although it's mostly me who did any derailing, so apologies for that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 I think the Mateos Cart is fantastic. I have the following POKEY ROMS loaded now and they all work perfectly: DK PK DK XM BBCQ SuperCircus AA (3 versions, as some have paddle and some have joystick, one may have both) Froggie Pac Man Collection Pac Man Arcade Beef Drop BallBlazer Commando I may add the POKEY/ improved graphics hack of Double Dragon as well. This is the only cart being sold now for 7800 roms, which makes it invaluable to 7800 gamers and ROM testing on real hardware. Even though I have DKPK, BBCQ, Ballblazer and Commando on original cart, its nice to have them on a multicart as well. I use my previous laptop that still has Windows XP to strip .a78 files and load ROMS and it works great for this. The cheapest 7800 cart I could find was a baseball one, so I made a cart out of that with the cutaway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trz34 Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 Does anyone know if these Mateos carts are still being produced? I sent a request quote from the vectrex.hackermesh site but havent heard back... Just curious if any has had any recent experience in obtaining one of these carts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SmittyB Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 (edited) trz34, when I ordered one with burner and burner case last September I got a reply in 6 days. Edited June 23, 2018 by SmittyB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 I ordered one recently and didnt hear back for about a week. Juan got back to me and was very nice. He let me know that hed be shipping in a few days. It has now been well over one month and I have not gotten a reply after sending two emails. I trust Juan, based on past experience and his delivery. I take it he is on vacation or dealing with something, as we all do. Just hope to hear from him soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dauber Posted June 23, 2018 Author Share Posted June 23, 2018 I just got the Vectrex rewritable a week ago. That took a long time to arrive. It's the fourth multicart I've gotten from Juan, too. (Two 7800 carts for myself, and another for a friend) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 I sent Juan a PM almost a month ago. I'm guessing he doesn't check his AA account that often. I'd like to purchase a 2nd cart so I can turn my 1st one into a POKEY multi-cart. Guess I'll try his website next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gambler172 Posted June 23, 2018 Share Posted June 23, 2018 Matteos cart is great and it is a cheap solution.... Most 7800 gamrs work with it. A must have for every gamer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InactiveX Posted June 24, 2018 Share Posted June 24, 2018 I ordered one recently and didnt hear back for about a week. Juan got back to me and was very nice. He let me know that hed be shipping in a few days. It has now been well over one month and I have not gotten a reply after sending two emails. I trust Juan, based on past experience and his delivery. I take it he is on vacation or dealing with something, as we all do. Just hope to hear from him soon! I've been trying to buy a Matteos card too. I've had one reply from Juan and nothing more (in the last fortnight). I sent a couple of follow-up emails - I'll leave it alone now until he's ready/not busy. Hope you're OK Juan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonie Posted June 26, 2018 Share Posted June 26, 2018 Just sent one myself. Hope I can get one. Missed this completely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airshack Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 As a Mac user, I can DEFINITIVELY say it works on a Mac. There are some extra steps you have to do, especially if you're using Sierra or higher, but it works. You have to remove some extraneous stuff the OS adds when it copies files to USB devices. I'd really appreciate the details here regarding OSX High Sierra. "There are some extra steps you have to do..." ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dauber Posted June 27, 2018 Author Share Posted June 27, 2018 @Airshack - here ya go! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airshack Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 (edited) My Mateos A7800 Multi just arrived in the form of a birthday gift. I followed every instruction on www.vectrex.hackermesh.org regarding the A7800 Multi-cart model. Damn it! Can't get anything to work? A few files were supposedly pre-loaded? Ace of Aces loaded twice now nothing.... A few of the 16 selections load to the ATARI logo screen...then the screen scrambles. I've been extremely careful with the card and burner due to Sean's 7800 Homebrew Podcast stories of fried cards. I've labeled the XXXX and OOO sides of the burner. Negative working on OSX High Sierra AND Windows 10. Setting up my Windows 7 system to try some more. So far a BIG pain in the ass. Are the .bin files just the .A78 with the headers removed? Juan's site suggests using an editor to remove the headers. Anyone know how to do this? My PC/Mac systems DO recognize the Multi as a blank drive...everything else is a BIG FAIL. Edited June 27, 2018 by Airshack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 My Mateos A7800 Multi just arrived in the form of a birthday gift. I followed every instruction on www.vectrex.hackermesh.org regarding the A7800 Multi-cart model. Damn it! Can't get anything to work? A few files were supposedly pre-loaded? Ace of Aces loaded twice now nothing.... A few of the 16 selections load to the ATARI logo screen...then the screen scrambles. I've been extremely careful with the card and burner due to Sean's 7800 Homebrew Podcast stories of fried cards. I've labeled the XXXX and OOO sides of the burner. Negative working on OSX High Sierra AND Windows 10. Setting up my Windows 7 system to try some more. So far a BIG pain in the ass. Are the .bin files just the .A78 with the headers removed? Juan's site suggests using an editor to remove the headers. Anyone know how to do this? My PC/Mac systems DO recognize the Multi as a blank drive...everything else is a BIG FAIL. Some of the Bin files here aren't correct either as they do have hearder info in them for the emulators to know what to do. To strip the headers you need to use the web based tool on Juan's actual website located here: http://www.vectrex.hackermesh.org/a7800converter/ My only concern is future thinking in that the only place or tool i know of to remove the headers on the .bin files is through Juan's website. I think I have all of mine done that I would want loaded up at this point. Also once you strip the header off, you have to rename the .bin with the proper .ext on it to specify what kind of bankswitching it uses and I believe those .ext have to be in CAPs on the letters. It still works easier than some others I've messed with in the past. Windows10 does work, but requires doing some old school batch files in command prompt mode to get the slots to clear up properly to use them. XP is actually the best OS on Wintel stuff to use for the Mateos cart. I actually have an old Acer Aspire netbook I can use for this as it is XP based and just works to dump the files to the cart back and forth. The burner is also picky on USB cables. I use a short, thick, high quality USB cable for mine and haven't had any issues with it. But I do get the scrambled screen condition you mentioned when the rom doesn't get copied over correctly or doesn't have the correct extension on the file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airshack Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 I suppose my main problem regarding stripping headers is the converter (on Mateos site) is returning a file with the size Zero (0) K? Does not seem to be working for me? As for manually stripping headers from A78 files...unfortunately I do not understand what that entails, or how to go about doing it. Wishing I had a link to such Mateos-Ready files. Why each and every user has to do this seems silly. Damn! I just want to have some 7800 fun. :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIO2 Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 (edited) My only concern is future thinking in that the only place or tool i know of to remove the headers on the .bin files is through Juan's website. On Windows PC you can strip the header with the Hex editor HxD. Edited June 27, 2018 by SIO2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIO2 Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 PMP - you should tell Juan your Mateos cart doesn't work. The first one I received didn't work. I told him and he replaced it for me. Very good service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 PMP - you should tell Juan your Mateos cart doesn't work. The first one I received didn't work. I told him and he replaced it for me. Very good service. I believe PMP has done that and not sure he has gotten a response from Juan about it yet? The online website should NOT be returning 0 byte sized files. They should basically be the same size they started off at. Is there something online on where to modify the headers manually through hexediting? I actually have HxD loaded up as I use is nearly daily to "unlock" customer accounts on their POS systems by modifying main system files. So I'm not a stranger on how to use it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 As provided previously (but 100 days have past since the last download so the link expired), the (new) below link archive contains every retail ROM release for the system, separated by video region, in proper format for the Mateos cart... http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=06503136082954599580 Also as before, just click on the following found on the page from the above link: As SIO2 mentioned, there is no need to be concerned about removing a header from a ROM file, it is a relatively easy process with available tools such as the aforementioned HxD, or my personal favorite, Frhed. It's easy to identify how much data needs to be 'chopped off' as every header clearly states where the header ends and the data begins: In the above Dig Dug header (*.a78) ROM file, the highlighted area is what would be removed and then the remaining data saved as a plain (*.bin) ROM file. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airshack Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 As provided previously (but since 100 days have past since the last download the link expired), the (new) below link archive contains every retail ROM release for the system, separated by video region, in proper format for the Mateos cart... http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=06503136082954599580 Also as before, just click on the following found on the page from the above link: post-18-0-66879200-1472608341.png As SIO2 mentioned, there is no need to be concerned about removing a header from a ROM file, it is a relatively easy process with available tools such as the aforementioned HxD, or my personal favorite, Frhed. It's easy to identify how much data needs to be 'chopped off' as every header clearly states where the header ends and the data begins: Capture.PNG In the above Dig Dug header (*.a78) ROM file, the highlighted area is what would be removed and then the remaining data saved as a plain (*.bin) ROM file. THANK YOU TREBOR! Not only the Holy Grail Mateos-Ready link I was looking for but the details I've needed to remove headers in the future. The Frhed graphic you've provided is GOLD! Again -- THANK YOU! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airshack Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 I believe PMP has done that and not sure he has gotten a response from Juan about it yet? The online website should NOT be returning 0 byte sized files. They should basically be the same size they started off at. Is there something online on where to modify the headers manually through hexediting? I actually have HxD loaded up as I use is nearly daily to "unlock" customer accounts on their POS systems by modifying main system files. So I'm not a stranger on how to use it. Great News: It's finally working! No return to Juan required. I used the files provided by Trebor's link above. Files then transferred using a Windows 7 PC. Thanks for all the help guys. Someday I'll get things going on the Mac & Win10 but for now I'm glad I have that Win7 system in the closet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 Great News: It's finally working! No return to Juan required. I used the files provided by Trebor's link above. Files then transferred using a Windows 7 PC. Thanks for all the help guys. Someday I'll get things going on the Mac & Win10 but for now I'm glad I have that Win7 system in the closet. Welcome to the club! Your gonna love the cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hwrd Posted August 25, 2018 Share Posted August 25, 2018 Hi, Has anyone heard from Juan Mateos in the past few months? I made an order in May, he said he would ship after school was over, and I have no heard back on inquiries since. Thanks in advance. Hwrd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted August 25, 2018 Share Posted August 25, 2018 I have been in contact with Juan recently, as I ordered a multi-cart back in May or June. It seems to have gotten lost in the international mail stream. Send him a PM; he has been pretty responsive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hwrd Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 My carts arrived! I will PM Juan a "thank you". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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