Diff between Harmony and Encore?

[+xucaen]

I was curious about the harmony cart, so I went to the web site to read about it. I couldn't find any product description other than on the order screen where you select the product to buy. That's where I saw the name Encore. I read the manual, but there is no mention of an Encore product. What is the difference between the Harmony and the Encore (besides price)?

[+SpiceWare]

Harmony: 32K ROM and 8K RAM

Encore: 512K RAM that's used as ROM or RAM as needed by the game.

 

So the Encore can support larger games than the Harmony.  More info on the Encore in this topic.

[+xucaen]

Thanks for the link! I read this:

 

Quote

it will run fully 100% of Atari 2600 games, old and new

and that to me pretty much sells it.

 

 

[+batari]

3 hours ago, xucaen said:

Thanks for the link! I read this:

 

and that to me pretty much sells it.

 

 

I want to clarify that while it is the goal of Harmony Encore to run 100% of games, old and new, there are some demos and such out there that currently will not run yet (though we are working on that), and it is possible that someone will release a game in the future that will not run.

[+xucaen]

That's ok. ?

Thank you for the clarification. ?

[+batari]

I want to clarify something because someone is upset about the Harmony Encore he purchased. He is worried that he got a regular Harmony by mistake because the programming software does not distinguish between a standard Harmony and a Harmony Encore. So I want to clear something up so this doesn't occur in the future.

 

If you plug your cart into a computer and run the programming software, both Harmony and Harmony Encore will show "32k ROM, 8k RAM" on the screen. This 32k/8k reflects the memory in the microcontroller ONLY. The programming software does NOT show the Harmony Encore's additional 512k RAM chip.

 

The Harmony Encore has 520k total (8k on the microcontroller, plus 512k in the additional RAM chip) but only the 8k on the microcontroller will show on either device in the software.

 

The Concerto will show the same thing in the software, by the way, even though it is clear this device has way more than 32k/8k.

 

The best way to determine if you have a Harmony Encore is to play a game that is 64k or more, such as Zippy the Porcupine.

 

I understand the concern and worry, so if anyone in the future has a similar concern, hopefully this post will help!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Wouldn't it be a good idea to enhance the programming software? So that it displays the cart type and/or the additional RAM.

[+batari]

2 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Wouldn't it be a good idea to enhance the programming software? So that it displays the cart type and/or the additional RAM.

Eventually maybe, though these are not trivial changes. The programming functions (including the chip ID feature that shows the 32k ROM/8k RAM in the microcontroller for Harmony, Harmony Encore or Concerto) are built into the microcontroller on a mask ROM and thus can't be changed.

 

To enhance it would require an entirely new set programming functions written from scratch. So if this is done, these functions will do a lot more than just show the cart type and additional RAM.

[Gilles_B]

On 9/5/2021 at 12:09 AM, batari said:

The best way to determine if you have a Harmony Encore is to play a game that is 64k or more, such as Zippy the Porcupine.

I did that. My, as I found out, definitely NOT Encore Harmony would then not start anymore. It was stuck at the spinning logo. I had to find an old micro USB cable and re-flash the firmware to get it unstuck. So maybe not the _best_ way