New Atari 2600 +

[Lisboa2k6]

5 hours ago, psiomicron said:

I noticed some Activision games like Laser Blast and H.E.R.O. do not work with F8. Couldn't get Dragon Stomper to work with F4. But Fatal Run did work with F4 but could not get it to work with F4SC. @Lisboa2k6 just confirming you used F4SC for Fatal Run?

Fatal Run F4SC (32K + RAM) utilize the extra 128 bytes cartridge RAM. This is emulated by Stella after the 32K ROM has been dumped into Atari 2600+. I downloaded the game to the Harmony cartridge by using the modified F4.arm scheme from batari as the modified F4SC.arm scheme is not yet provided (and maybe not needed?). I am using Harmony 32K with the latest firmware.

[psiomicron]

17 hours ago, Lisboa2k6 said:

Fatal Run F4SC (32K + RAM) utilize the extra 128 bytes cartridge RAM. This is emulated by Stella after the 32K ROM has been dumped into Atari 2600+. I downloaded the game to the Harmony cartridge by using the modified F4.arm scheme from batari as the modified F4SC.arm scheme is not yet provided (and maybe not needed?). I am using Harmony 32K with the latest firmware.

Ok cool, yea the modified F4 worked for me as well, thought I missed something.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

While the Harmony now works with the 2600+, it still does not with my R77. Did anyone have more success?

 

@batari Do you think this can be fixed too?

[Warboss Gegguz]

5 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

While the Harmony now works with the 2600+, it still does not with my R77. Did anyone have more success?

 

@batari Do you think this can be fixed too?

I mean, you can run games directly off an SD card using a R77, so there's not much point in using a Harmony cart on it.

I always assumed that's part of why getting Harmony carts working on a ROM dumper was never much of a priority until the 2600+. Because if you were using an FPGA system or Retron there'd be no point in getting a flash cart.

Not that I'm saying it can't/shouldn't be fixed, just that it was never really a priority.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

56 minutes ago, Warboss Gegguz said:

I mean, you can run games directly off an SD card using a R77, so there's not much point in using a Harmony cart on it.

Fully agreed. I just wondered about the differences. If @batari knew how to fix the 2600+ even without having access to it, maybe he knows for the R77 too.

56 minutes ago, Warboss Gegguz said:

I always assumed that's part of why getting Harmony carts working on a ROM dumper was never much of a priority until the 2600+.

Right.

[Warboss Gegguz]

8 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Fully agreed. I just wondered about the differences. If @batari knew how to fix the 2600+ even without having access to it, maybe he knows for the R77 too.

I will say it's interesting that the new custom arms still don't work on an R77, but from what I can find on Stella's site the R77 effectively has it's own custom build of Stella specifically for it whereas the 2600+ is just Stella running in a minimalist Linux environment (according to the hacking/teardown threads).

In other words, while they are both rom dumpers using Stella, there are intricacies in the software that make them distinct.

That's just me spitballing though. I'm more familiar with the hardware end of things than software/firmware

[Warboss Gegguz]

Also I don't have a Retron so I'm not entirely certain of it's intricacies.

Prior to buying a 2600+ for my dad I mainly just used Stella, MAME, or the compilations on Windows and Switch to play Atari games since I know the community, Code Mystics, and DE know what they're doing.

Super active and versed in the emulation scene for Windows, Android, and modded consoles, but dedicated hardware is a bit new to me. Kind of makes me glad the 2600+ uses Stella honestly, because at least I know how that works, even if it's set to operate as a rom-dump rather than it's typical GUI.

[Warboss Gegguz]

As an update, I was able to play any bankswitched roms using the same trick everyone else described (ie just using F4 instead of F4SC, etc.)

And with that, both Pac-Man 8K and DK VCS ran perfectly on the 2600+, which is noteworthy because I swear people said those (and a lot of homebrew) were incompatible.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

3 hours ago, Warboss Gegguz said:

And with that, both Pac-Man 8K and DK VCS ran perfectly on the 2600+, which is noteworthy because I swear people said those (and a lot of homebrew) were incompatible.

Incompatible with what? The 2600+ in general? 

[Warboss Gegguz]

9 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Incompatible with what? The 2600+ in general? 

Yes.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

4 minutes ago, Warboss Gegguz said:

Yes.

No.

[Warboss Gegguz]

17 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

No.

I've just heard a lot of people say homebrew in general is runs terrible (to the point people gave me suggestions for alternatives to those 2 games).

So it shocked me a bit when both ran perfectly, along with bigger official stuff like the Lunar Lander demake or Radar Lock.

 

Either way it was awesome to see my Dad's reaction, so this is a positive comment, lol.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Warboss Gegguz

[zephyern]

Using One Game Per SD Card On the 2600+?

 

Questions:

1. Is this possible, with different firmware?

2. If so, is the firmware open source somewhere such that we could try to hack it?

 

Context:
Instead of flashing a single game to the Harmony, could we put a single game on an SD card, then just swap SD cards to switch games?

 

I understand that in order for Harmony to work on the 2600+, we need to flash it in developer mode with a single game.

 

While it works great, it obviously isn’t ideal as it requires reflashing each time you want to switch games.

 

Wondering if it may be possible to adjust the firmware such that Harmony serves up a single game from an SD card - such that we could just switch SD cards to switch games?

 

While needing to switch SD cards per game isn’t ideal, it’s significantly better than needing to reflash.

 

Just an idea. Any insight appreciated. Thanks!

[Warboss Gegguz]

On 12/10/2023 at 11:52 PM, zephyern said:

Using One Game Per SD Card On the 2600+?

 

Questions:

1. Is this possible, with different firmware?

2. If so, is the firmware open source somewhere such that we could try to hack it?

 

Context:
Instead of flashing a single game to the Harmony, could we put a single game on an SD card, then just swap SD cards to switch games?

 

I understand that in order for Harmony to work on the 2600+, we need to flash it in developer mode with a single game.

 

While it works great, it obviously isn’t ideal as it requires reflashing each time you want to switch games.

 

Wondering if it may be possible to adjust the firmware such that Harmony serves up a single game from an SD card - such that we could just switch SD cards to switch games?

 

While needing to switch SD cards per game isn’t ideal, it’s significantly better than needing to reflash.

 

Just an idea. Any insight appreciated. Thanks!

The dev mode downloads the game directly into the cart's internal RAM, not the SD card.

[ChrisKewl]

Will the fixes for the 2600+ also work on the Concerto for 2600 games? Thanks!

[JetmanUK]

Hi everyone. I have zero experience of using the Harmony cart, tried to follow this 🤣 Is it now fully functional as a single game cart on the 2600 Plus? Will a hardware revision be coming? I'm thinking about buying one, it would mostly be used a Plus, but I have an old woody too. 

 

Thanks 

[psiomicron]

28 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

Hi everyone. I have zero experience of using the Harmony cart, tried to follow this 🤣 Is it now fully functional as a single game cart on the 2600 Plus? Will a hardware revision be coming? I'm thinking about buying one, it would mostly be used a Plus, but I have an old woody too. 

 

Thanks 

Yes it works with most games if you flash the cart for one rom. On the old woody you can use the cart to have multiple games all on one SD card.

[Dionoid]

On 11/30/2023 at 10:58 PM, batari said:

Because these were easy, I quickly did F6 and F4. Note that for F4, not all games will work (because the Harmony memory is 32k and the game is 32k, some compression is used to fit the game and the code, and some games are just too compact to compress adequately.)

 

Does the 2600+ support SARA games yet? If not, I won't try modifying the SARA schemes yet.

 

I also plan to post some test files for (hopefully) supporting AUTOROM games.

F6.arm 424 B · 45 downloads F4.arm 672 B · 41 downloads

Thanks Fred, this helps a lot in testing out games for the Atari 2600+.

[+Lewis2907]

Does anyone know if someone made a """Simple Video""" on how to get the Harmony Cart to work on the 2600+? Reason I bought both and some other stuff to make Sega style controllers work to test and play the Homebrew I have been tinker with in Batari Basic.

 

I have been trying on and off to get the Harmony Cart to work with just one game and no luck so far.

 

Thanks if anyone can help.

[MarquisDeSang]

Just received my Harmony Encore and flashing 1 single game at a time does not work with the 2600+.

The game load for a 4 sec then black screen.

I tested DonkeyKong, Asteroid, Pitfall and HERO, none of them work.

 

I don't know what else to do.

Edited January 27 by MarquisDeSang

[MarquisDeSang]

Found the solution here 

 

[Arno]

I ordered a Harmony for my 2600+

Can´t wait to try it out.

But I'm still waiting on my tracking number

[+Lewis2907]

3 hours ago, MarquisDeSang said:

Found the solution here 

 

Thanks that worked to get the ROM's I have to work. Now on to the homebrews I made in Bb to see if I can get them to work. 

[odyssey]

OK I've read through much of these threads. I've been playing around with my new 2600+ after the most recent beta update. So far all my 7800 carts work as well as my 2600 ones. I finally got my recently ordered concerto to load up a single rom with the updated arm file. I tried a simple game like pitfall that I got from a rom pack on this site and it works flawlessly.

 

Although with all this success I have seemed to overlook one thing. Since I flashed the rom in dev mode now I'm under the impression that overrites the original multicart firmware. Well I guess that's no big deal since I'm using it in single cart mode but as I have no way to reverting back to multicart mode as it seems you need an original console to boot up the firmware menu. I guess I'm stuck with it in single cart mode since this can't be done with a 2600+. Im guessing I would need to get an original console to do this. I'm just wondering if my thinking is right unless there is another method to update the firmware without an original console Im unaware of. I'm am concerned about future updates for my concerto now with my current dilemma.

Edited January 31 by odyssey

[+batari]

3 hours ago, odyssey said:

OK I've read through much of these threads. I've been playing around with my new 2600+ after the most recent beta update. So far all my 7800 carts work as well as my 2600 ones. I finally got my recently ordered concerto to load up a single rom with the updated arm file. I tried a simple game like pitfall that I got from a rom pack on this site and it works flawlessly.

 

Although with all this success I have seemed to overlook one thing. Since I flashed the rom in dev mode now I'm under the impression that overrites the original multicart firmware. Well I guess that's no big deal since I'm using it in single cart mode but as I have no way to reverting back to multicart mode as it seems you need an original console to boot up the firmware menu. I guess I'm stuck with it in single cart mode since this can't be done with a 2600+. Im guessing I would need to get an original console to do this. I'm just wondering if my thinking is right unless there is another method to update the firmware without an original console Im unaware of. I'm am concerned about future updates for my concerto now with my current dilemma.

I'm aware of this issue, so I am working on a solution that allows you to update firmware through the USB cable without needing a console. When I get something working, I will post it to the Harmony forum (and other places.)