Argon & 7800 (new emulator for Android/Amazon/Chromebook/Pi)

[+bhall408]

As a bit of a holiday treat, we've just released a public beta version of Argon with preliminary Atari 7800 support (POKEY, but not yet XM/YM)

 

(This is in addition to the existing support for Atari 2600, Atari Lynx, Coleco, Intellivision and Vectrex)

 

The sound is in simulated stereo, which sounds awesome in games (such as T:ME Salvo) that have groovy title screen music (shot attached below).

If you are a developer and have games you've done that you'd like us to add to the free play section, PM me!

 

Later on when we're out of beta, there will be a premium/subscriber section, for licensed and enhanced games (homebrew/indie games that take advantage of our extra APIs). That is still in progress/TBD, but we expect to start doing that in a few months, and will keep folks posted on that.

 

You can download the public beta (for Android phone/tablet/TV as well as Chromebook now, Amazon and Raspberry Pi 4/Pi400 versions soon/available on request) at www.playargon.com

 

Some self-help links on how to set up bluetooth game controllers, keyboard mapping, loading up your own library on device or via Google Drive, and other topics can be found at support.markspace.com

 

We'd appreciate feedback!

 

Happy Holidays

The Argon Team...

 

  

[+ls650]

I gave this a try on my Chromebook today.  I played a handful of different ROMs and all seemed to emulate well.

[+bhall408]

Heads up - we switched to a7800 as the core, are wrapping up internal testing, and the next update we post to Google Play will have it.

 

The most noticeable improvement will be the POKEY support from a7800 (E.X.O. music and the "Have you played Atari today" jingle sounds much better now!).

 

This will also allows us some other cool things, such as the ability to support twin-stick mode in T:ME Salvo, and adds support for all the latest bank-switching formats.

 

[Eagle]

3 minutes ago, bhall408 said:

and adds support for all the latest bank-switching formats.

for my cart as well? 

[+bhall408]

1 minute ago, Eagle said:

for my cart as well? 

If you point me to an .a78 file that uses it, I can give it a try and report back.

[Eagle]

57 minutes ago, bhall408 said:

If you point me to an .a78 file that uses it, I can give it a try and report back.

So probably no

all documentation  here and bin files

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/315966-my-experiments-with-atari-7800/?do=findComment&comment=5085360

 

Quote

The 32kB cartridge address area was divided into 8 banks of 4kB each (banks 0-7). Four of them are constant, four are variable. They occupy the initial area of the EPROM memory.
The rest of the 512kB EPROM memory is also divided into 4kB banks (banks 8-127).

Banks: 2- $Axxx, 4- $Cxxx, 6- $Exxx (I will call them banks A, C and E) can be independently changed within the 0-63 bank, that is 256kB. To change the bank, write its number down to the starting address of the bank.
Example: writing $1F to the address $A000 will cause bank A to be replaced with bank 31. From now on, any reference to the address $Axxx will read the data from bank 31.
Banks A, C and E can be set to reverse the reading of data. This is controlled by the last two bits of the bank change data (D6-D7).

00 - normal reading - D = 76543210
01 - 160A mode - D = 10325476
10 - 160B mode - D = 54761032
11 - 320B & 320D mode - D = 01234567

Selecting the 01, 10 and 11 modes also causes that the bank is read from the back (the A0-A7 address lines are negated).

Bank 5- $Dxxx (bank D) can be independently changed in the range of bank 0-127, that is 512kB. It is not possible to change the data reading order.
Using 256kB EPROM instead of 512kB will cause bank D to be changed in the range of banks 0-63.

-------------------------------------------------------------

The cartridge offers 2 banks of RAM, 16kB each, with the possibility of disconnecting the A8 and A9 lines (so-called EXRAM/A8 and EXRAM/A9).
RAM is available at $4000-$7FFF.
RAM control is possible by writing to the address $FFFF.

D0- bankswitch RAM
D1- EXRAM / A8
D2- EXRAM / A9

D0 = 0 - the first 16k bank
D0 = 1 - the second 16k bank
D1, D2 = 0 - RAM is working normally
D1 = 1 - line A8 bypassed (state 0)
D2 = 1 - line A9 bypassed (state 0)
D1, D2 = 1 - lines A8 and A9 are bypassed (states 0)

Once set, the RAM mode will be active until set to $FFFF again

*****COVOX*************************************************************

--------------------------------------------------------------
The cartridge offers 1 Covox channel controlled by the address $0430.

*****SN76489AN********************************************************

----------------------------------------------------------------- 
The cartridge can generate sound from the SN76489AN chip driven by the address $043F.
Due to the specificity of the SV chip, which generates an incidental sound right after switching the power on, the audio output from this chip is disconnected by an electronic key. It is turned on automatically after the address $043F is referenced for the first time. Muting the chip must be controlled by the developer.

 

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Eagle

[+bhall408]

44 minutes ago, Eagle said:

for my cart as well? 

As far as I can tell, a7800 doesn't support your cart, so no. As one quick example, COVOX support...

 

a7800 source is at https://github.com/7800-devtools/a7800

 

The cart looks fantastic - are there any shipping games that support it yet? (I'm assuming not yet)

[John Stamos Mullet]

So where can I get this for Rapsberry Pi? I'd like to replace the aged out version of Prosystem on my Retropie setup.

[+bhall408]

12 hours ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

So where can I get this for Rapsberry Pi? I'd like to replace the aged out version of Prosystem on my Retropie setup.

The most flexible option is to make an SD card with Android TV as the OS, and then install Argon from Play Store - that way you get the benefit of auto-updates of Argon, and also get to use your Pi as an Android TV box as a bonus

 

See https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-android-tv-lineageos/

[John Stamos Mullet]

14 hours ago, bhall408 said:

The most flexible option is to make an SD card with Android TV as the OS, and then install Argon from Play Store - that way you get the benefit of auto-updates of Argon, and also get to use your Pi as an Android TV box as a bonus

 

See https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-android-tv-lineageos/

No thanks. I like my Retropie setup as it is, and already have a Apple TV box connected to the same TV. It took me years to curate the emus and roms on it just how I like it. The only thing lacking is the prosystem version is old, but it’s the only 7800 emu Retroarch has. I just wanted to build it from source and add it to my Retropie rig. 

Edited July 23, 2022 by John Stamos Mullet