Failing to load 2K/4K games in single-ROM mode

[defrost]

Just got my Harmony Encore, and everything works splendidly out of the envelope except when I run 2K or 4K programs straight from cart ROM via the "Development" tab. That's only 2K and 4K; bankswitched games, at least Atari ones, seem to work perfectly.

 

If I use the appropriate driver, the console behaves as though no cartridge is connected, i.e. black screen on first power-on, strange grey patterns from the TIA when rebooting. If I recklessly load with the F8 driver instead, it... appears to boot 4K games just fine. (I'm assuming it would be bad if the game ever tries to read $1FF9). 2K games in this state usually just show a super-thin, grey, rolling garbage frame with some random noise. Dragster did boot one time, though (???)

I'm on an unmodified 4-switch woody, using the HarmonyCart v1.3 programming tool. Every ROM I've tried is "Finished and Verified correct" after flashing. I double-checked that my 2K4K.arm is valid, straight from the copy in the repository. It seems as though there are some less ancient beta forks of the programming tool floating around (in threads I can't find again), but do they include any driver fixes? Could some other odd factor be causing this? Is it a known issue, even?

As a new developer I want to be absolutely sure my first programs work straight from unpowered state. (Through the loader I already found that a few of my ROMs work fine in Stella but lose sync on my TV!)

Thanks in advance for the support!

[alex_79]

Maybe it's an issue with a chip revision like happens for some CDFJ games, and the 2k4k driver needs to be updated as well? That feature works fine in my two (Standard, not Encore) Harmony carts.

 

In the meanwhile, If the F8 driver works, you can double a 4k rom, that is concatenate two copies of the same bin, or "quadruple" a 2k one and load it with the F8 driver (you might need to manually specify it, as auto-detection might fail).

In that way, even if your game hits the $1ff8/$1ff9 hotspots, it will switch to the other bank containing identical code, and so the program will just continue as if nothing happened.

Edited April 19, 2023 by alex_79

[+batari]

It was reported to me something like 10 years ago and I thought I had found and fixed the problem, but perhaps the older version is still floating around in the Harmony cart software. The problem was that it worked on a standard Harmony cart but not a Harmony Encore. I guess so few use the development mode for 4k games that I never heard anything until now. I did some digging and this might be a fixed version?

 

 

2k4k.arm

[defrost]

That one works, cheers. The one that I got was an obviously older version (only 412 bytes)

 

I figured it did have something to do with the staleness of that program... it looks like it also still comes with the 1.05 version of the NTSC hbios instead of 1.06 (a v1.4 update containing 1.06 was seemingly all set up and committed to the repo but never actually released?)

[cwilkson]

On 4/19/2023 at 6:19 AM, batari said:

It was reported to me something like 10 years ago and I thought I had found and fixed the problem, but perhaps the older version is still floating around in the Harmony cart software. The problem was that it worked on a standard Harmony cart but not a Harmony Encore. I guess so few use the development mode for 4k games that I never heard anything until now. I did some digging and this might be a fixed version?

 

 

2k4k.arm 424 B · 14 downloads

 

2nd data point.  I just purchased a Harmony Encore with this issue.  (Shipped 9/6/23, received 9/11/23)

I downloaded the latest software (HarmonyCart-1.3-win32.exe) and I beat my head against this issue for a couple of days before I found this thread.

 

I can confirm the updated 2k4k.arm file (424 bytes) fixed the issue.

[superchooch]

On 9/14/2023 at 11:58 AM, cwilkson said:

 

2nd data point.  I just purchased a Harmony Encore with this issue.  (Shipped 9/6/23, received 9/11/23)

I downloaded the latest software (HarmonyCart-1.3-win32.exe) and I beat my head against this issue for a couple of days before I found this thread.

 

I can confirm the updated 2k4k.arm file (424 bytes) fixed the issue.

Third datapoint.   The Windows 1.3 software definitely includes the old file.  Just got my Harmony this week and had this same problem. (had the 412 byte file)  Also beat my head against the wall until a google search led me here.  Updated to the new one and all was well.  FYI @batari - Looks like the Windows 1.3 SW linked in Latest Harmony Cart Software thread contains the old file.  

Edited December 28, 2023 by superchooch