The Atari 2600+ is live for preorders!

[dashv]

46 minutes ago, Dbug said:

I'm a software developer myself, I understand the time it takes to get updates done, tested, validated, etc... obviously ASAP is good, but better late than broken

Speaking of… not sure my 2600+ is arriving today after all. The tracking hasn’t been updated since Tuesday.

 

Thats gotta be some wild weather!

[dashv]

It just updated and now just says “Scheduled Delivery Date: not available”

 

Ah, well. A Steam Deck weekend it is.

[82-T/A]

Mine is en-route, and sitting at the Ybor City Mail Depot... that means I should get it tomorrow late afternoon.

 

Really looking forward to it, but to be honest... I bought the Atari Gamestation Pro the other day from Amazon to tide me over for the suspense... and I like the GSP so much that I'll probably just keep playing the GSP for the time being. But as soon as the mother in law goes home after Thanksgiving, I'm busting out my old 2600 carts.

[+batari]

On 11/15/2023 at 8:30 PM, E. King said:

Can you please try Harmony cart with a single rom and rename the rom "AUTORUN" or "AUTORUN.bin" or "AUTORUN.a26" with the single rom on the root of the sdcard, to see if it auto boots the one game on the Harmony cart? 

I read in this other thread that the Harmony cart has a single game mode that boots directly like a normal cart does.

 

The single image filename was changed from AUTORUN to AUTOROM some time ago, because Windows uses AUTORUN and there was a conflict when using SD cards that had Windows software on them.

 

That being said, I am curious if the 2600+ would work with AUTOROM, or if developer mode (loading files to Harmony with a USB cable) is currently the only way.

[+remowilliams]

12 hours ago, batari said:

That being said, I am curious if the 2600+ would work with AUTOROM, or if developer mode (loading files to Harmony with a USB cable) is currently the only way.

 

Trying autorun with Berzerk the answer is no.

 

[John Stamos Mullet]

Mine will supposedly arrive today, but FedEx tracking still shows it in Springfield, which is like 100 miles from me. 
 

Berzerk arrived this morning via USPS two days early. Score one for the old PO!

[tradyblix]

16 hours ago, batari said:

The single image filename was changed from AUTORUN to AUTOROM some time ago, because Windows uses AUTORUN and there was a conflict when using SD cards that had Windows software on them.

 

That being said, I am curious if the 2600+ would work with AUTOROM, or if developer mode (loading files to Harmony with a USB cable) is currently the only way.

No it doesn't work. Either I get loading game failed, or, one time I got garbled junk on the screen. I was using a 4k cart, Atlantis as test bin. This is expected. 

 

Harmony cart is unusable for anything for me atm on 2600+. 

Edited November 25, 2023 by tradyblix

[+LS650]

1 minute ago, tradyblix said:

Harmony cart is unusable for anything for me atm on 2600+. 

Are you using the development tab in the Harmony loading software to overwrite the Harmony cart's firmware with the ROM?

My understanding is that the ROM dumper can't interpret the Harmony firmware, so merely adding the ROM as an AUTOROM file won't work.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

11 minutes ago, tradyblix said:

No it doesn't work. Either I get loading game failed, or, one time I got garbled junk on the screen. I was using a 4k cart, Atlantis as test bin. This is expected. 

 

Harmony cart is unusable for anything for me atm on 2600+. 

@Ben from Plaion I think multicarts would work if you utilize a switch (e.g. RESET) for starting a manual dump from the "Loading failed" screen. Or even better, the dumper permanently scans the ROM and initiates a new dump when the content changes.

[+batari]

6 minutes ago, ls650 said:

Are you using the development tab in the Harmony loading software to overwrite the Harmony cart's firmware with the ROM?

My understanding is that the ROM dumper can't interpret the Harmony firmware, so merely adding the ROM as an AUTOROM file won't work.

I read that the boot time of the 2600+ was rather slow, so I was curious if an AUTOROM game might be ready by the time the dumping took place.

 

I also read that the device allows hot-swapping, so I wondered if it might detect a "no cart" condition and re-dump.

 

Clearly neither of these are happening, but with some changes, maybe one or both could.

[tradyblix]

34 minutes ago, ls650 said:

Are you using the development tab in the Harmony loading software to overwrite the Harmony cart's firmware with the ROM?

My understanding is that the ROM dumper can't interpret the Harmony firmware, so merely adding the ROM as an AUTOROM file won't work.

I can't do that becasue on 2 machines, one a windows 11 and the other a sonoma (macOS 14) mac, the development tool software, which runs (although it crashes on the mac a fair bit so it has issues on modern macs) is no longer able to detect the harmony cart, even if I try "connect", variations of when I attach cart, etc. The OS sees the cart, but I can't flash it. My above response was simply about if AUTOROM worked. 

 

I haven't tried in years so I have no idea when it stopped working. It could be the cable I'm using as I long ago lost the cable (mini usb is very legacy at this point) that came with the harmony cart. It's also not easy for me to hook up my old light sixer as I no longer have a compatible display to use with it, nor an RF cable. It's almost 2024 what can I say ? that's why I'm in the market for an Atari 2600+ in the first place. 

Of note, running roms on a handheld emulation device is what kept my interest in playing 2600 games alive, as I often play them as quick pick up and play for 5 mins on that device and I thought it would be lovely to play again on a 2600+ on a big TV in living room. To that end I've bought probably a couple hundred bucks in OG carts (getting some solid deals on a few !) in the last few weeks. It's a real pleasure, so I'm not super mad I can't get a multi-cart working. esp when we cannot play many homebrews, anything 8k or above or any fancy champ-games like carts, or melody board carts, anyway. 

Edited November 25, 2023 by tradyblix

[+karri]

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

@Ben from Plaion I think multicarts would work if you utilize a switch (e.g. RESET) for starting a manual dump from the "Loading failed" screen. Or even better, the dumper permanently scans the ROM and initiates a new dump when the content changes.

I can assure you that the dumper is scanning the cart continuosly whenever the content changes. Just flip any dip switch without removing the cart and the dumper aborts the game and goes to the next one.

 

I can also just toggle games in my multicart. It does not matter if the game is failed or working. The dumper goes to the next one and changes content.

 

A bad game emits a single $ea. A good game emits a stream with a cart.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 minutes ago, karri said:

I can assure you that the dumper is scanning the cart continuosly whenever the content changes.

Then, why does AUTOROM not work? Hm...  

[+karri]

2 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Then, why does AUTOROM not work? Hm...  

If the "Game failed" pops up immediately then the dumper has decided that the game is not ok. You may need the JTAG socket for the MCU and a debugger to find out why. There is no status data from the MCU dumper. Just yes/no.

[Blinky]

I can confirm the dumper scans continiously. It takes about 4 seconds for a scan cycle to complete.

 

I don't know the scan algoritm but I can imagine there being a syncing problem. The autorom is not available (instantly) when the dumper starts scanning the cart so it may first have scanned part of 'no cart data' and then at some point sees the autorom resulting in a corrupt rom.

[+remowilliams]

When I tested autorun with Berzerk I simply got a failed load, no 'Game Failed'

 

Leaving the 2600+ on and popping the Harmony out after that - the 2600+ is crashed.  Inserting another cart does nothing.

 

 

[Blinky]

I have not read all the previous post so I might have missed it but does the same happen when you have the cart inserted and then power on? It takes long for the 2600+ to boot so I would think the harmony cart should have prepped the autorom ready by then.

[+karri]

8 minutes ago, Blinky said:

I can confirm the dumper scans continiously. It takes about 4 seconds for a scan cycle to complete.

 

I don't know the scan algoritm but I can imagine there being a syncing problem. The autorom is not available (instantly) when the dumper starts scanning the cart so it may first have scanned part of 'no cart data' and then at some point sees the autorom resulting in a corrupt rom.

There is several real world applications where things appear, disappear, appear. And you still want a stable detection. You should use hysteresis in this case like:

- read part of cart

- if it has changed. Wait 20 ms. read the same part of cart again. compare. if the content is identical the cart has changed. Otherwise it was a glitch.

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Looks the same as Berzerk when using River Raid. And R77 doesn't even start loading.

 

I suppose loading the ROM takes too long and is not finished when the dumper starts its work.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Thomas Jentzsch]

3 minutes ago, Blinky said:

I have not read all the previous post so I might have missed it but does the same happen when you have the cart inserted and then power on? It takes long for the 2600+ to boot so I would think the harmony cart should have prepped the autorom ready by then.

Makes no difference. Maybe the cart gets powered later on?

[E. King]

20 hours ago, batari said:

The single image filename was changed from AUTORUN to AUTOROM some time ago, because Windows uses AUTORUN and there was a conflict when using SD cards that had Windows software on them.

 

That being said, I am curious if the 2600+ would work with AUTOROM, or if developer mode (loading files to Harmony with a USB cable) is currently the only way.

As far as I know it only works with the software developer single game mode directly on the Harmony internal memory.  Nobody has made it work with using the SD card yet as far as I know.

[tradyblix]

1 hour ago, remowilliams said:

When I tested autorun with Berzerk I simply got a failed load, no 'Game Failed'

 

Leaving the 2600+ on and popping the Harmony out after that - the 2600+ is crashed.  Inserting another cart does nothing.

 

 

Yes, I have had this happen with it. So it read something. Other times, the majority of time, it just does Game loading failed and gets stuck

[atwwong]

I know you're all busy discussing Harmony and multi-carts.

 

Has anyone tried out the good old Krokodile Cartridge? Would the results be the same?

Edited November 26, 2023 by atwwong
Added Krokodile link from AtariAge page.

[Zap1982]

7 hours ago, atwwong said:

I know you're all busy discussing Harmony and multi-carts.

 

Has anyone tried out the good old Krokodile Cartridge? Would the results be the same?

I'm still wondering if plus cart (+) works. I feel bad for not answering it myself  as I have that and the 2600+ but I am opening mine on Christmas Day. A huge part of me thinks it won't work but part of me wonders since it's essentially a wifi cart that links up to an online server, so would the 2600+ 'rom dumping' enable it to go online or would it not be able to use whatever is inside the cart to do it.

[Ben from Plaion]

Just to let you know what we are looking at for the first update to the 2600+ software

7800 emulation upgrade 

7800 dumper upgrade to fix reported PAL cart errors and enable homebrew

2600 PAL colour palette change to z26

2600 dumper upgrade to fix Realsports Boxing, Circus Convoy, CBS RAM Plus and M-Network games

2600 difficulty switch reversal

2600/7800 auto detect cart region for 50/60hz display

 

Maybe elements within these points we run into difficulties, maybe more fixes are added, at this moment in time I just need to become bit clearer on whats acheivable and in what timeframe.

 

I'll be posting here with more details on these points and giving an indication of when a update will be available in the next few weeks.