classics Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Pre-ordering starts today for my Flash Multi-Cart/Disk-Cart/Homebrewing Cartridge, with shipment of orders by 08/11. The cartridge is professionally produced, with open-source software and extensive documentation. Limited edition pricing is $29.99 per cartridge, with a shipping discount for buying five. After 8/11 the price will increase to $34.99. For complete product information and the order form go to: http://www.atarimax.com/ or directly to the MaxFlash cartridge page at: http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/documentation/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetboot Jack Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Cool!!! I've ordered mine!!!! sTeVE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oesii Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Looks neat. For $30, I'll give this a try Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+rdemming Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 Hi Steven, The cartridge seems a great product to me. Just a few questions: Is the bankswitch method used compatible with the XE cartridges? In other words, can I flash an image of for example "Desert Falcon" into the cartridge without modification? Currently you sell the cart with a 1 Mbyte flash chip. Can I replace it with a 8 Mbyte flash chip myself at a later time or does the 8Mbyte version use a different PCB. Regards, Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 4, 2003 Author Share Posted August 4, 2003 Hi Steven, The cartridge seems a great product to me. Just a few questions: Is the bankswitch method used compatible with the XE cartridges? In other words, can I flash an image of for example "Desert Falcon" into the cartridge without modification? Currently you sell the cart with a 1 Mbyte flash chip. Can I replace it with a 8 Mbyte flash chip myself at a later time or does the 8Mbyte version use a different PCB. Regards, Robert The bank-switch method is not compatible with XE mega-carts. If you have a file version of Desert Falcon you can compile it into a multicart with whatever other games will fit in the remaining space. For example Bounty Bob uses a bizzare banking scheme for the actual cartridge rom, but you can easily make a BBSB multicart using the file version. If you really wanted a cart with just one game you could use the multi-cart packer and just pack the one game in there and leave the rest blank. The 8mbit cart uses a different PCB and a larger PLD and to allow banking and reprogramming the whole thing so you cant go from 1mb to 8mb just by changing the chips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted August 4, 2003 Share Posted August 4, 2003 So I ahve a bunch of things in .exe format (for Emulators) - I could load a bunch of these on the cart and run them without issue on my XE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 4, 2003 Author Share Posted August 4, 2003 So I ahve a bunch of things in .exe format (for Emulators) - I could load a bunch of these on the cart and run them without issue on my XE? Yes thats exactly what the -EXEPACKER option of the multi-cart builder does. It takes all the EXE games, or utilities as the case may be, strips and fixes them, then places them in a flash cart compatible image. If any of the games require a translator, for example Shamus or Demon Attack, you just specify the -OSB switch when building the cartridge image and the script will insert a built-in translator into the cartridge. All the work of building the appropriate menu, game unpacker, etc are handled by the build script. If theres anything you want to really hyper-customize the whole thing is open-source so your free to tinker with it and share images, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 5, 2003 Author Share Posted August 5, 2003 A little over 1/3 are sold/reserved. Still plenty left though I'll be setting up a forum where flash cart images can be shared, etc. I'll post a link to that as soon as its ready, hopefully some time today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauntman Posted August 5, 2003 Share Posted August 5, 2003 On the order site, you mention that card-media cartridges are currently in beta... can you expand on this a bit? Would these be cartridges that take smart media (or compaq media, or whatever the favorite flavour of the month is) cards that can be programmed on the PC? What would the estimated cost and timeframe be for one of these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted August 6, 2003 Share Posted August 6, 2003 Although I have an SIO2PC I just couldn't pass one of these suckers up.. I was tempted to get two, but I think I'll wait for the versions "in testing". But I wanted to show there is an interest in this type of thing, rather than waiting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 6, 2003 Author Share Posted August 6, 2003 On the order site, you mention that card-media cartridges are currently in beta... can you expand on this a bit? Would these be cartridges that take smart media (or compaq media, or whatever the favorite flavour of the month is) cards that can be programmed on the PC? What would the estimated cost and timeframe be for one of these? Right now there are both working CF and MMC prototypes. Im leaning toward producing the MMC at the moment since the cards are smaller and there are less pins to work with. CF cards seem to have a lot more quirks from brand to brand than the MMC cards I've tested as well. I dont like to make vaporware promises or engage in pre-release hype so I wont speak to the time frame at the moment. The price for a MMC cartridge (Cuttle II) for the 7800 is $200. They are not cheap item to produce in small quantities because of all the components required, but I'm hoping to bring the price down to about half that or less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 On the order site, you mention that card-media cartridges are currently in beta... can you expand on this a bit? Would these be cartridges that take smart media (or compaq media, or whatever the favorite flavour of the month is) cards that can be programmed on the PC? What would the estimated cost and timeframe be for one of these? Right now there are both working CF and MMC prototypes. Im leaning toward producing the MMC at the moment since the cards are smaller and there are less pins to work with. CF cards seem to have a lot more quirks from brand to brand than the MMC cards I've tested as well. I dont like to make vaporware promises or engage in pre-release hype so I wont speak to the time frame at the moment. The price for a MMC cartridge (Cuttle II) for the 7800 is $200. They are not cheap item to produce in small quantities because of all the components required, but I'm hoping to bring the price down to about half that or less. Runs and orders another one... Lol... I think I'll wait to see what you come up with. I'm sure this one will keep me plenty busy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 FWIW most XE games can be found in disk/binary form, and in some causes more playable (can anyone say Karateka?). Or was that the 7800 version that was hosed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Smeghead Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 Y'know, what with the CGE coming up soon, I was gonna wait to make this purchase... But MAN, the very idea of my OWN unique MultiCart is just too much to pass up! I hadda do it! Besides, I found $40 on my walk home from work today. It was just begging to become an AtariMax flash cart. Generally speaking, how many games can I expect to fit into this cart? Is it the size of the actual file that makes the difference, or is it the memory that it takes up? Y'know, a game that uses 64k of memory vs a 16k game, does that matter? I'm a bit naive, so please forgive me. Thanks for putting out such a unique and useful product! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 7, 2003 Author Share Posted August 7, 2003 Generally speaking, how many games can I expect to fit into this cart? Is it the size of the actual file that makes the difference, or is it the memory that it takes up? Y'know, a game that uses 64k of memory vs a 16k game, does that matter? Well with the 1Mb cart, if you make a disk-cart, that is, convert a disk game like say Zork I to cartridge, it takes up the whole cartridge. If you make a multi-cart out of exe files, it depends on how large the EXE files are, not how much memory they require. Some games are pretty large, like Archon II, which is a rip of the disk version, thats 40k or so. A lot of the games you might put on a multicart are themselves just file rips of ROM cartridges, so most are just 8K or 16K exe files, some smaller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheddy Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 Cool! Are you intending to offer larger cards at some point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted August 8, 2003 Share Posted August 8, 2003 It'll be worth it just for the ability to read multi-disk games and the built in translator functionality. Some games are more of a hassle to get going than others even with an SIO2PC card. Plus if I'm currently hitting a handful of games hard I don't have to worry about keeping myself confined to the same room as the PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 8, 2003 Author Share Posted August 8, 2003 Cool! Are you intending to offer larger cards at some point? Yes the 8mb flash cart is already in the hands of the beta testers. There is a movie on the web site of a 8mb multicart menu... it really holds a lot of games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analmux Posted August 8, 2003 Share Posted August 8, 2003 I don't have a creditcard. Can I pay in another way? And, how much will it cost in euro's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 9, 2003 Author Share Posted August 9, 2003 I don't have a creditcard. Can I pay in another way? And, how much will it cost in euro's? Yes e-mail me at classics@atarimax.com and I will send you payment instructions privately. Cost for one would end up being somewhere around 31 euros with shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIeric Posted August 9, 2003 Share Posted August 9, 2003 ordered mine yesterday!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 10, 2003 Author Share Posted August 10, 2003 Shipping update. The first few orders went out Thursday, but the majority of the carts will all ship together as promised on Monday afternoon. I've also setup the forum and posted a few disk-cart images. The URL is: http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 11, 2003 Author Share Posted August 11, 2003 All the pre-orders for the 1Mb cart placed by Sunday evening were shipped early this morning. Thanks to everyone who is helped make the pre-sale a success by taking a chance on a new product. I'll be posting some more disk-cart images and a few multi-cart images in the forum as time allows at http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/forum/ Feel free to stop by and get some images to test your cartridge with and to share any images or source code changes you have made yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analmux Posted August 11, 2003 Share Posted August 11, 2003 I have some technical questions about the Flashcard. I assume the EEPROM (or whatever) is located at the usual cartridge locations $8000-$9FFF for bank 0 and $A000-$BFFF for bank 1. Is it possible to turn bank 0 (or bank 1) off, when only one bank is loaded, so that you can use more RAM? (f.e. atari basic on the ATARI 800). In other words, is it possible to install the ROM as left- or right cartridge only? And, how do you select a bank? (with 1 MB you can choose out of 128 blocks of 8 kB). I know $D5xx is reserved for cartridge control. Is it even possible to choose different blocks (of 8 kB) for both bank 0 and 1, and not just two consecutive blocks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted August 11, 2003 Author Share Posted August 11, 2003 I have some technical questions about the Flashcard. I assume the EEPROM (or whatever) is located at the usual cartridge locations $8000-$9FFF for bank 0 and $A000-$BFFF for bank 1. The control layout for the 1mb cartridge is: D500 thru D50F: Cartridge on @ A000-BFFF, banks 0..15 (16 banks total) D510: Cartridge off, you access RAM normally. There is no ability in the 1mb cartridge to use the 8000-9FFF region. The final 8mb cartridge will have a flexable layout. And, how do you select a bank? (with 1 MB you can choose out of 128 blocks of 8 kB). I know $D5xx is reserved for cartridge control. Flash and ROM are rated in mega-bits not mega-bytes. A '1 meg' rom cartridge has 16 banks of 8k, a 8mb cartridge has 128 banks of 8k. For example a Spartados X cart is a 512kb cartridge, it has 8 banks of 8k controlled from D5E0 - D5E7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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