Attack of the PETSCII Robots, Atari 7800

[Trebor]

1 hour ago, Gordon Fecyk said:

Do the SNES adapters also work on the Atari 8-bit systems? Or are these specific to the 7800 console?

The adapters work on the Atari 8-bit, VCS/2600, and other systems as well.

 

"The SNES2Atari is an adapter that allows you to connect an SNES controller to the Atari 7800 console, Atari 2600 console, the Atari 8-bit computer line, and likely many other platforms that have a DB9 joystick port and can use Atari joysticks. Games must be specifically coded to use the SNES controller."

 

See the 8BitDev.org page for SNES2Atari for more details.

[LANC3L0T]

Sega Genesis controllers work fine on the Atari 2600 and 7800.

If you want the use of 2 separate fire buttons on the Atari 7800, the Atari 7800 MEGA Adapter is wonderful.

It is super easy to solder the necessary components - female and male 9-pin ports, 4 resistors, and 2 transistors.  I used 680 ohm resistors, since I lacked the 620 varieties.

Here is the link to PCBWAY if you want to order some: https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Atari_7800_Mega_Drive_adapter.html

 

I ordered a few and was able to add the components (do you best to add an angle on female plug that goes into the Atari 7800).

Here are photos of the PCB, and my final result.

[Gordon Fecyk]

2 hours ago, Trebor said:

The adapters work on the Atari 8-bit, VCS/2600, and other systems as well.

I wonder if the Commodore versions could be adapted to use this instead of the user port adapter then. But for Atari I wonder if Atari Robots was adapted to use this instead of the SNACK adapter. Or maybe this is the SNACK adapter redesigned? I don't know.

[Trebor]

1 hour ago, Gordon Fecyk said:

I wonder if the Commodore versions could be adapted to use this instead of the user port adapter then. But for Atari I wonder if Atari Robots was adapted to use this instead of the SNACK adapter. Or maybe this is the SNACK adapter redesigned? I don't know.

A SNAC adapter takes an original controller and allows it to be connected via USB under a USB SNAC board.

The SNES2Atari adapter takes an original SNES controller and allows it to be used on a DB9 controller port system. 

There is no "Commodore versions".  The SNES2Atari adapter could be seen as a "SNES2DB9" adapter, if that helps. 

[RevEng]

Just now, Trebor said:

A SNAC adapter takes an original controller and allows it to be connected via USB under a USB SNAC board.

Not that Snac adapter, the other Snack adapter.

 

But the answer holds. Snes2Atari is an original design (by @Danjovic) that differs from Snack. Snes2Atari reads the snes buttons serially. Snack feeds the button info to the console via the paddles lines. Snack works great on a platform that has a dedicated AD converter for paddle lines, but not so great on consoles that use caps and charging times to measure paddle position, like the 7800 and 2600.

 

[Gordon Fecyk]

It did look like SNES2ATARI was much simpler than SNACK and the Commodore user port adapter. Seems like SNES2ATARI uses three joystick pins for clock, latch, and data much like the user port adapter does.

 

I wonder if the existing ROBOTS ports could be adapted to use SNES2ATARI instead. Use a SNES controller on a Commodore 16 for instance, even with no user port.

[RevEng]

On 6/5/2023 at 5:14 PM, Gordon Fecyk said:

I wonder if the existing ROBOTS ports could be adapted to use SNES2ATARI instead. Use a SNES controller on a Commodore 16 for instance, even with no user port.

With the disclaimer that I'm not a Commodore guy,...it seems the CIA can set the joystick lines hi or lo, so it seems possible.

[RevEng]

Rumour has it that the full version of this game has an easter egg.

[Trebor]

5 hours ago, RevEng said:

Rumour has it that the full version of this game has an easter egg.

Don't believe it, because:

 

1.  Impossible to fit even more awesomeness into this spectacular title.

2.  Such information needs to come from one of the developers...

 

...see point 1. 

[+mksmith]

On 7/3/2023 at 9:27 PM, Trebor said:

Don't believe it, because:

 

1.  Impossible to fit even more awesomeness into this spectacular title.

2.  Such information needs to come from one of the developers...

 

...see point 1. 

Oh but there is more 😁😁😁

[+Karl G]

1 hour ago, mksmith said:

Oh but there is more 😁😁😁

I don't supposed there is a super-secret 7800-only level to unlock or something? 🙂 

[+SmittyB]

@Karl G, if you dremel off the extra 7800 cart pins and plug it into a VCS you unlock Knight Rider 2600.

[RevEng]

1 hour ago, Karl G said:

I don't supposed there is a super-secret 7800-only level to unlock or something? 🙂 

To manage expectations, no, it's not a new level. I think it's pretty cool, but it's nothing that big.

 

I really wanted to do a new level, and even laid one out roughly...

But in the end, I ran out of space. Maybe I'll finish it some day, as part of a DLC pack.

[+Karl G]

Robot dragons are definitely the worst dragons. 

[Defender_2600]

5 hours ago, RevEng said:

To manage expectations, no, it's not a new level. I think it's pretty cool, but it's nothing that big.

 

I really wanted to do a new level, and even laid one out roughly...

But in the end, I ran out of space. Maybe I'll finish it some day, as part of a DLC pack.

 

 

 

[smesgr]

I'm now a proud owner of both the Atari 800 and 7800 copy of Petscii robot. I would like to dump my cartridge to use the game on the go. With the header provided by the demo i get sound and working game but the ASCII symbols seems to be off. I also tried to overdump with an 512kB dump with the same result.

What could be wrong?

 

 

[Trebor]

12 hours ago, smesgr said:

I'm now a proud owner of both the Atari 800 and 7800 copy of Petscii robot. I would like to dump my cartridge to use the game on the go. With the header provided by the demo i get sound and working game but the ASCII symbols seems to be off. I also tried to overdump with an 512kB dump with the same result.

What could be wrong?

 

 

I believe there should be no difference in the header.

Ensure the header is properly configured as follows:

Utilizing 7800 header is typically easiest and best for this purpose.

[smesgr]

@Trebor: thanks for the help. I did indeed setup the header like this:

    embedded game name : My Game                         
    rom size           : 262144
    cart format (v3)   : supergame bankset hram@4000 pokey@800 
    cart format (v4)   : supergame bankset hram@4000 pokey@800 
    controllers        : snes1 7800joy2 
    peripherals        : none 
    tv format          : NTSC

the sha1 of my plain rom file is: e00cddc2ff67883b3190d4a911e25c833ae1c4ea. Maybe the AtariMax or the software has an issue. The game itself works fine on both my PAL and NTSC 7800 (which is awesome ) thus the cartridge itself should be fine.

[Trebor]

5 hours ago, smesgr said:

@Trebor: thanks for the help. I did indeed setup the header like this:

    embedded game name : My Game                         
    rom size           : 262144
    cart format (v3)   : supergame bankset hram@4000 pokey@800 
    cart format (v4)   : supergame bankset hram@4000 pokey@800 
    controllers        : snes1 7800joy2 
    peripherals        : none 
    tv format          : NTSC

the sha1 of my plain rom file is: e00cddc2ff67883b3190d4a911e25c833ae1c4ea. Maybe the AtariMax or the software has an issue. The game itself works fine on both my PAL and NTSC 7800 (which is awesome ) thus the cartridge itself should be fine.

Regarding the AtariMax, I was under the impression it is not for the 7800, but 8bit-5200 only (ColecoVision too - I own that one).

[smesgr]

the AtariMax is capable of dumping 7800 cartridges. I have dumped my (small) collection of 7800 games with it. Except of my PAL Crossbow never had issues, but the game also has issues on the original hardware so very likely a malfunctional cartridge.

For now AtariMax can of course do Atari 8-bit-computers - which was the main purpose. Additionally with adapters 2600, 5200, 7800, Intellivision, Collecovision, Vectrex, Odyssey² & Arcadia 2001. Even through i have only used 8bit, 2600 & 7800 until now. There are no doubt more capable dumpers for those systems out there.

 

I have tested a7800. The demo is working, my dump sadly not. Could you please compare your working sha1 against mine? It would help me out alot if i know if my issue is with a bad dump or with my configuration.

Edited December 16, 2023 by smesgr

[Trebor]

2 hours ago, smesgr said:

I have tested a7800. The demo is working, my dump sadly not. Could you please compare your working sha1 against mine? It would help me out alot if i know if my issue is with a bad dump or with my configuration.

It's a bad dump.

[Albert]

Can we maybe not publicly talk about how to dump the game for which the cartridge binary has not been publicly released?  Much less doing so in the very thread about the game?

 

Thank you, 

 

 ..Al

[Trebor]

6 hours ago, Albert said:

Can we maybe not publicly talk about how to dump the game for which the cartridge binary has not been publicly released?  Much less doing so in the very thread about the game?

 

Thank you, 

 

 ..Al

@smesgrAl beat me to the punch, as I was about to follow-up that details respecting a full version dump has not been posted publicly, or provided for purchase by the developers.  What you do privately is certainly your business though.

 

Moreover, it is a waste of time currently, as the AtariMax does not support the bankset scheme. 

 

When the AtariMax was first mentioned, I thought it was in reference to the Ultimate SD line of flashcarts (Which I have for the ColecoVision).  I did not realize that was the name of the actual dumper.

[RevEng]

On 7/3/2023 at 2:27 AM, RevEng said:

Rumour has it that the full version of this game has an easter egg.

Sure does...

(see below for spoiler)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

On 7/3/2023 at 2:27 AM, RevEng said:

Turn the console on with RESET held down, to upload a virus to the robot homeworld mainframe.

Up to you to figure out the two game changes this results in.

 

 

 

[bikeguychicago]

@RevEng Is there a possibility for a release of the game on the Atari VCS? I would think that the Modern Controller for the system would be more than capable of providing the necessary input needed for the game.