Harmony or Harmony Encore for 2600+

[CWafflesTX]

Been reading about the Harmony cart for the 2600.  I have the new 2600+.  I understand that the Harmony cart will work in the 2600+ as long as you only have one rom at a time on the SD card (which I'm fine with).  My question is, is there any real reason for me to get the Harmony Encore over the regular Harmony since I'm only going to be loading one rom at time on the SD?

 

Thanks!

[Android8675]

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Edited December 6, 2023 by Android8675

[Warboss Gegguz]

I'll be the first person to actually answer: either, but they can only be used in Dev mode atm.

Sorry.

[Warboss Gegguz]

On 12/6/2023 at 4:05 PM, Android8675 said:

..

Gotta remember this a console that is meant for broad audiences (especially older people) so it's an innocent question.

I mean, I bought one without knowing about the "single game at a time" thing on the current firmware, so I get it.

[p0rth05]

I just got my Harmony Encore.

 

I download a .bin file in dev mode and all I get is a black screen on my 2600+.

 

I tried several original 4K games.

 

No dice. Any thoughts?

[superchooch]

On 12/19/2023 at 12:24 AM, p0rth05 said:

I just got my Harmony Encore.

 

I download a .bin file in dev mode and all I get is a black screen on my 2600+.

 

I tried several original 4K games.

 

No dice. Any thoughts?

Here is the answer for this issue. You need to replace a file in the arm folder. 

 

 

[MarquisDeSang]

I had the same problem and replacing the 2k4k.arm in the folder did the job.

 

Otherwise I had black screens and loading failed.

[johannesmutlu]

Well am surprised that the harmony cart can work onthe atari 2600+ with 1 rom on it in one certain way,not sure if it also could work on the hyperkin retron 77 since that system is also emulation based (what a dumb decission from atari to go for a FPGA chip instead for their atari 2600 +)

but theres 1 question for wich i just don’t understand how the harmony cart could communicate with the atari 2600 system anyway since the cpu is 6507 risc based,because the chip inside the harmony card is ARM based,so how could the ARM chip communicate with the cpu or TIA chip if those chips are risc based???

if the harmony cart consistsof a 32bit risc chip,it would,ve be understandible in my opinion,

not mention,many 2600 homebrew games do rely on the ARM chip to over push the atari 2600 to it’s ultimate limit,i got my atari 2600 jr and atari 7800 along with a harmony cart wich i won from a bidding action on ebay 1,5 years ago and i am very happy with tthose systems.

 

 

 

 

[+splendidnut]

The CPUs don't directly communicate with one another.  They only pass data back and forth on the cartridge address & data lines.

 

The ARM-based carts use micro-controllers, which are a type of system-on-a-chip.  It's a combination of a CPU, memory and communication ports.  The ARM CPU communicates with the Atari 2600 via listening to the cartridge address bus on one port, looking up the data in it's own memory, and then putting that data on the data bus on another port for the Atari to read.  It also has the ability to read the data bus, if needed.