Unicorns season: Prince of Persia for the A8!

[rensoup]

21 minutes ago, MrFish said:

I got this error when starting my first game today, using the Atarimax cart. It went away after moving beyond the first screen.

? 

 

wow...

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 minute ago, leech said:

I use my trusty Epyx 500xj, does great diagonals   Waiting for my Super Combo stick to show up, hoping that's equally as good!

I was actually using my 500xj originally but it doesn't seem to register the upper left diagonal as well as the right so I was playing it with my larger joystick controller. Oh well, I guess I just have to get 'gud' right LOL!

 

[leech]

2 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I was actually using my 500xj originally but it doesn't seem to register the upper left diagonal as well as the right so I was playing it with my larger joystick controller. Oh well, I guess I just have to get 'gud' right LOL!

 

That is absolutely hilarious, as I was playing Dark Chambers the other night with mine (it's the SMS version with two buttons and an auto fire, which unfortunately doesn't actually work as a two button controller for the 7800) and it also was having issues with going upper left!  After using it for a while it started working better.  I'm just guessing there was some gunk inside that needed to be knocked loose, as I haven't used the controller in a while.

[+Philsan]

7 hours ago, rensoup said:

Random question: a 64KB version would require to leave most of the game uncompressed on a cart, which would double the ROM space requirements(512KB). Is ROM cost very different depending on the size ?

 

AtariMax Maxflash 1MB cartridge cost $20 (if you buy 5, perhaps less if you buy more) and allows saves.

Moreover this format is supported by multicarts.

Atari Blast! and Space Harrier (and Pac-Man Arcade 2012 because of high score saving) use it.

[Wilheim]

7 hours ago, rensoup said:

Random question: a 64KB version would require to leave most of the game uncompressed on a cart, which would double the ROM space requirements(512KB). Is ROM cost very different depending on the size ?

Quite nothing. I use 1024kbytes eproms and no problem with that.

on the other hand, This week I’m gonna build a prototype for the flashsram cartridge. Maybe it would be useful to make unrolled code inside the sram and add some more features this way, such as pm masking on the thin bars.

[ndary]

8 hours ago, rensoup said:

so all these chips have the same physical size, no matter what capacity ?

 

it would be cool if the top of the cart could be shaped like one of these (except 6a!) ?

 

 

 

 "so all these chips have the same physical size, no matter what capacity ?"

 

yes, that's the form factor design of the EPROM's they are all 32pins, the smaller ones just have 'unused pins' while when you grow with a larger ROM these pins are used.

 

 "it would be cool if the top of the cart could be shaped like one of these (except 6a!) ?"

yes, that's can ben done but it will also require to modify the Cartridge Shell case so the 'shape' will it nicely inside.

 

[carlsson]

Cartridge shell variant 7B most certainly should belong to Prince of McDonalds?

[Fred_M]

11 hours ago, rensoup said:

Carts are expensive!

 

From these pictures, it doesn't look like the PCBs can be shrunk very much (for a custom cart shape) ?

 

 

It depends on how you look at it. The cost price of the cartridge I made is about 5 euros each. That are my costs for the materials only. Like others say, the difference in price of a larger Eprom is minimal. The shape of the PCB you see is the standard Atari cartridge shape. This shape fits perfectly in a brown or grey cartridge shell. Modifying the shape can be done, but that means that someone has to design a fitting shell for it...  

 

I don't want to start a new discussion  everyone has his or hers preferences, but I would prefer a cartridge without the intro... ?

 

[StickJock]

4 hours ago, Fred_M said:

This shape fits perfectly in a brown or grey cartridge shell. Modifying the shape can be done, but that means that someone has to design a fitting shell for it...  

I assumed that he meant a modified case/shell shape, not a modified board shape.  So, a standard cart board, but put inside a fancy cart case.

 

Maybe one of the reservoir tip cases?  (If you did do a custom board shape, you could put a pulsing LED in the tip!)

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by StickJock

[pseudografx]

4 hours ago, StickJock said:

I assumed that he meant a modified case/shell shape, not a modified board shape.  So, a standard cart board, but put inside a fancy cart case.

 

Maybe one of the reservoir tip cases?  (If you did do a custom board shape, you could put a pulsing LED in the tip!)

 

Remember that the cart still has to fit in various slots, including the 400/800 so outer dimensions must not exceed the standard size. In such case, it might be necessary to design a new PCB to fit in an oddly-shaped case.

Edited November 8, 2021 by pseudografx

[+DrVenkman]

2 hours ago, pseudografx said:

Remember that the cart still has to fit in various slots, including the 400/800

That constraint has never meant much to the European XE-centric folks who have designed so many of the recent mass-storage cartridge-based devices of recent years: SIDE1/2/3, AVGCart, etc. all just seem to assume or presume that everyone will naturally just plug the device into the back.

[rensoup]

21 hours ago, Mr Robot said:

Well FWIW here's a stab at XL and XEGS boxart

XL packaging used to be ok but the XE stuff didn't age so well, both were definitely past the golden years...

[rensoup]

18 hours ago, Wilheim said:

Quite nothing. I use 1024kbytes eproms and no problem with that.

on the other hand, This week I’m gonna build a prototype for the flashsram cartridge. Maybe it would be useful to make unrolled code inside the sram and add some more features this way, such as pm masking on the thin bars.

There's no need for RAM for that, it can be stored in ROM.

[rensoup]

15 hours ago, ndary said:

 

 "it would be cool if the top of the cart could be shaped like one of these (except 6a!) ?"

yes, that's can ben done but it will also require to modify the Cartridge Shell case so the 'shape' will it nicely inside.

 

I assume you meant the PCB ?

 

9 hours ago, StickJock said:

I assumed that he meant a modified case/shell shape, not a modified board shape.  So, a standard cart board, but put inside a fancy cart case.

 

Maybe one of the reservoir tip cases?  (If you did do a custom board shape, you could put a pulsing LED in the tip!)

 

I do mean a modded case but with a smaller size than the regular rectangle shape, the new shape would have to fit inside the regular one, so that would indeed require a modded PCB but it looks like things are pretty packed already...

 

I thought about a LED too but only if it had a meaning and was part of the sticker design!

4 hours ago, pseudografx said:

Remember that the cart still has to fit in various slots, including the 400/800 so outer dimensions must not exceed the standard size. In such case, it might be necessary to design a new PCB to fit in an oddly-shaped case.

yeah I figured there would be an issue with the 400/800, so a PCB redesign would be needed... 

 

The more interesting shapes would be 3C and 4C (but that wouldn't leave much space for the PCB) and I'm not sure they're even doable physically.

6C would probably be the least intrusive one, not as interesting but could be cool with the appropriate sticker 

 

[rensoup]

14 hours ago, Fred_M said:

It depends on how you look at it. The cost price of the cartridge I made is about 5 euros each. That are my costs for the materials only. Like others say, the difference in price of a larger Eprom is minimal. The shape of the PCB you see is the standard Atari cartridge shape.

Did you make your own design or is it based on one of those mentioned ?

[Fred_M]

9 hours ago, rensoup said:

Did you make your own design or is it based on one of those mentioned ?

It is a "normal" XL or XE cartridge.

[8BIT 1337]

On 11/8/2021 at 1:27 AM, Philsan said:

AtariMax Maxflash 1MB cartridge cost $20 (if you buy 5, perhaps less if you buy more) and allows saves.

Wait, what?  I put PoP on an 8MB cartridge (my 1MB cart currently has SpartaDOS X on it), but I didn't know this.

 

How can you save using the cart?  I looked at the documentation and didn't see anything that led me to believe I could do that.  I'd love to know how to do that though, even if it means losing SpartaDOS X for now.

[tep392]

35 minutes ago, 8BIT 1337 said:

Wait, what?  I put PoP on an 8MB cartridge (my 1MB cart currently has SpartaDOS X on it), but I didn't know this.

 

How can you save using the cart?  I looked at the documentation and didn't see anything that led me to believe I could do that.  I'd love to know how to do that though, even if it means losing SpartaDOS X for now.

It won't fit on a 1Mbit cart.  The 8Mbit version is required.  @Philsan wrote 1MB, with uppercase B,  so maybe he was referring to the 8Mbit cart? I checked the Atarimax site yesterday and it was on sale at 5 for $99.  

[Sleepy]

I testet it with a 1Mbit MaxFlash; it doesn´t work. It can't work either, because a 1Mbit cart has 1024 Mbit / 8 = 128 kByte memory. But the game needs at least 256 k (see post #1). So you need a 8 Mbit MaxFlash.

 

Sleepy

Edited November 9, 2021 by Sleepy

[8BIT 1337]

47 minutes ago, tep392 said:

It won't fit on a 1Mbit cart.  The 8Mbit version is required.  @Philsan wrote 1MB, with uppercase B,  so maybe he was referring to the 8Mbit cart? I checked the Atarimax site yesterday and it was on sale at 5 for $99.  

Yeah ok, but my question still stands:  can I save to the cart somehow? 

 

I already own them, I just saw something about save states or something I thought was that and I'm wondering how that works.

 

It's fantastic on cart, it just loads up so fast.

Edited November 9, 2021 by 8BIT 1337

[+Philsan]

Yes, I was referring to 8mbit (1Mb) cart not to 1mbit (128Kb) one.

 

Moreover, I was talking about a future 64KB version that, like Atari Blast! and Space Harrier could take advantage of a lot of free space, not the current 128Kb version.

 

And no, Prince of Persia doesn't save, AtariMax MaxFlash cartridges allow savings.

Pac-Man Arcade (as written) and Space Harrier save high scores.

 

I don't think savings would be very important for a game like PoP, they would be only something nice to have.

[8BIT 1337]

3 hours ago, Philsan said:

I don't think savings would be very important for a game like PoP, they would be only something nice to have.

I would *love* not to have to redo the first two levels if I didn't have to.  So I disagree it's not important

[+ZuluGula]

@Mq makes cartridges compatible with MaxFlash that supports saves.  

 

[+Philsan]

1 hour ago, 8BIT 1337 said:

I would *love* not to have to redo the first two levels if I didn't have to.  So I disagree it's not important

I completely agree with you, but that could be achieved with level passwords.

[Mq.]

1 hour ago, ZuluGula said:

@Mq makes cartridges compatible with MaxFlash that supports saves.  

 

Yes, but I never produced them for massive distribution of empty cartridges. To be fair, there is original Maxflash still on sale. I was designing my own cartridge compatible with maxflash for publishing my own and my friends games (FloB is first of them). On the prototyping stage, I had a few fully working carts on the HASL pcbs, and it is one of them on picture attached by ZuluGula.
At present I produce professional pcbs with golden plated connector, but it is for publishing purposes only (like a FloB). And currently I'm preparing for publish a next games, so I have a lot work with it.