Harmony Cartridge games not compatible with unocar

[makinavaja]

Hi

Recently I've purchased an UnoCart flashcart, mainly to play new games created for atari2600

But, I've discovered that there are quite a few games that are only  compatible with HarmonyCart.

Is  there any reason about it? I believed that most of the atari2600 cartridges were quite simple and load all the games could be easy.

Is impossible for unoCart to load those games? (for example, boom!)

 

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

 

[+splendidnut]

35 minutes ago, makinavaja said:

Is  there any reason about it? I believed that most of the atari2600 cartridges were quite simple and load all the games could be easy.

Is impossible for unoCart to load those games? (for example, boom!)

Some newer homebrew games take advantage of the ARM technology utilized in these multi-carts.  Games which use the Harmony Cart ARM-based bankswitching schemes (DPC+, CDFJ) like 'Boom!' will not run on the UnoCart (and PlusCart).  This is due to the fact that the UnoCart and PlusCart both use a different microcontroller which is not quite compatible with the microcontroller used in the Harmony Cart.

[makinavaja]

Thanks for the info!

[makinavaja]

Hi again

38 minutes ago, splendidnut said:

Some newer homebrew games take advantage of the ARM technology utilized in these multi-carts.  Games which use the Harmony Cart ARM-based bankswitching schemes (DPC+, CDFJ) like 'Boom!' will not run on the UnoCart (and PlusCart).  This is due to the fact that the UnoCart and PlusCart both use a different microcontroller which is not quite compatible with the microcontroller used in the Harmony Cart.

Then, if developer modify the source code, It could be compatible, isn't it? I mean, that ARM-based micro controller for bankswitcing isn't something you can't replace with other hw. isn't it?

I mean, I already purchased one cartridge and don't like the idea of purchasing a second one.

[+splendidnut]

26 minutes ago, makinavaja said:

Then, if developer modify the source code, It could be compatible, isn't it? I mean, that ARM-based micro controller for bankswitcing isn't something you can't replace with other hw. isn't it?

I mean, I already purchased one cartridge and don't like the idea of purchasing a second one.

The main problem is that there really is no DPC+ / CDFJ driver available that runs on the UnoCart / PlusCart.  There's partially support for DPC+ but it's the only enough for the game Chaotic Grill to run.  (Disclaimer: I programmed Chaotic Grill, and it was done in such a way that it doesn't need full DPC+ support).

 

So, you'd have to talk to the developers of those carts.  OR, bite the bullet and purchase a Harmony Cart for running those games.  The good thing about the 2600 is that the multicarts are about half the cost of multicarts for any other system.