CuttleCart/Supercharger requesting new load

[krisjohn]

I'm finally getting off my arse and doing some Atari 2600 programming. It's been about 10 years since I last did any assembly, so I'm a little rusty. Despite this, my first project is a multiload menu for the Cuttle Cart (CC) -- to let me pack multiple games into a single audio track so I don't run out of tracks before I run out of space.

 

Basically I can't get the CC to request a new load. I would have thought that;

 

LDA #$08

STA $FA

JMP $F800

 

Would prompt the CC to ask for track 8, but it doesn't. I've emailed Chad and he's pointed me to the makewav manual to make sure that I'm loading the "game" in CC or Supercharger mode, and that has affected what I'm doing in as much as the screen will go blank, but I can't trigger the request for a new load.

 

If someone's already done what I'm proposing, great -- otherwise, has anyone got any tips for multiload stuff?

 

Thanks, Chris J.

[Eckhard Stolberg]

I'm not quite sure what you are up to, and it's a bit difficult to analyze what's wrong with your code without seeing it, but here are some things that you might want to check:

 

If you want to utilize the SC multiload feature, you have to make sure that the CC gets set into SC mode. You can reach that by making your menu binary 8448 bytes large, or by enforcing the Starpath AR type for the transfer.

 

All other loads should also be in SC format. So you should also make them 8448 bytes large, or make sure that the Supercharger is selected as the output device.

 

Before you can access the loading routines in the CC BIOS, you have to enable it first.

On a real SC you should wait about 1000 cycles before you access the BIOS, before you have mapped it in and powered it up, but I'm not sure if that is nessessary for the C as well.

 

I hope this helps you to find your problem.

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg