CWafflesTX Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Installed with no issues. And now, Pole Position II for the 7800 works perfectly for me. Thanks @Ben from Plaion!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrChickenz Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Not sure if anyone else tried Aardvark. Mine loads and the selection menu works but when you start the game it freezes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+LS650 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 3 hours ago, Senoraf said: Alright so maybe I made a mistake while installing the update but after playing some of my atari 2600 pal game I noticed some emulation error Yep. It's 'beta'... you're essentially agreeing to be a tester when you load it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducko Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 On 12/28/2023 at 4:07 PM, Ben from Plaion said: Thanks to all here at Atari Age for feedback provided on the Atari 2600+. We have a beta update to the Emulation and Dumper chip ready that I've been taking about for a while on the main 2600+ AA thread. I've had lots of offers from people offering to test the update. Up until now its been tested internally with a limited amount of carts, I've sent it out to a few peers tonight who I know have got big collections. Its the breadth of cartridges out there that we internally just dont have easy access to - such a massive amount of carts with all their variations that need checking. So if anyone here on AA wants to give the update a test with their own carts please post your interest in this thread and I will send the files and instructions to you over the next few days. You will need a Windows Laptop/PC to do the update, its not the most elegant process but should be all done in a few minutes. Some details on the update; 2600 Changes Dumper: Fix for Realsports boxing Enable Circus Convoy to boot (Also requires 1.1 Emulator update) Enable CBS Ram Plus cartridge to boot - Omega Race tested (booster grip not tested), Tunnel Runner and Mountain King not tested (Also requires 1.1 Emulator update) Emulator: Change PAL colour palette to z26 PAL / NTSC cartridge auto detect to display at appropiate 50 or 60hz Reversal of Difficulty Switches 7800 Changes Dumper: Support for unknown cartridges (linear and bank switched) Removed clashing NTSC/PAL cartridge entries from known list (now handled as "unknown") Increased maximum cartridge size Increased dumper read timeout (support larger cartridges) Emulator: Fix for swapped controller buttons Pause support via Color/B&W switch (may behave inconsistently depending on cartridge) Significant updates to Pokey sound chip support Support for additional Pokey configurations (@4000, @800, @450, etc.) Yamaha YM2151 sound chip support Support for 7800 expansion module (XM) Updated palettes (contributed by Trebor @ AtariAge) Partial cartridge hash detection (compatibility with dumper) Cartridge probing for Pokey and YM sound chips (compatibility with dumper) Cartridge header database with entries from known carts Improved cartridge header support Compatibility with larger bank switched cartridges Maria double buffered line RAM support Maria background color fix Maria color kill support Maria PAL display area fix Overall improved cycle accuracy (including Maria) Added support for several new opcodes Z flag fix when in decimal mode Multiple memory map fixes RIOT interrupt mirror fix Force PAL mode controller escape sequence What our intention is with this beta update is to receive feedback on whether all of the above works with your cartridges. Development is kind of swift and we will most likely be finding elements from testing that need tweaking, highly likely we'll be releasing further builds till we are satisfied the update can lose its beta status, then we will move onto a subsequent update to address matters that still need resolving still. How to Update Dumper: With Power Switch off on the 2600+ connect the USB lead from the 2600+ to a Windows Laptop/PC. TV TYPE lever in B W Hold down GAME SELECT lever and power on the 2600+, You should hear a windows connection jingle from your Laptop/PC Open AtariDumper1.1.0.2.exe, You should see the status as Detected in green text Press Download and it takes about 5 seconds to flash the dumper chip. The status then goes to red not detected and thats it the dumper chip is updated. How to Update Emulator Part 1: The machine needs to add a driver to your Laptop/PC to talk to the 2600+. You only need to do this once. With Power Switch off on the 2600+ connect the USB lead from the 2600+ to a Windows Laptop/PC. TV TYPE lever in COLOR Hold down GAME RESET lever and power on the 2600+, You should hear a windows connection jingle from your Laptop/PC Goto Device Manager on your PC and click on the Unknown Device. Browse your PC and click on the DriverAssitant_v5.12 (unzipped) and press Open. A confirmation message should pop up showing a successful driver update. Should take you no more then two minutes to do this. Emulator Part 2: Now for the actual emulator firmware update. With Power Switch off on the 2600+ connect the USB lead from the 2600+ to a Windows Laptop/PC. TV TYPE lever in COLOR Hold down GAME RESET lever and power on the 2600+, You should hear a windows connection jingle from your Laptop/PC Open up RKDevTool_Release_v2.74 folder (unzipped) and click on RKDevTool.exe. You should see the application window open and a status message of 'Found one MASKROM device'. Press the tab Upgrade Firmware. Press the Firmware button. Find Update-1225.img and press Open. You should see the IMG prepped in the window. Press Upgrade. The update uploads in about 30 seconds. The whole process should again take about 2 minutes. And thats everything done. Time to plug your carts in! John Hancock has already provided a list of working 7800 homebrews, so unless you just want to play those games for fun I'm more interested in receiving feedback for games he didnt test and anything else of note. Bear in mind this is a beta and the purpose of offering this out on Atari Age is because of the breadth of cartridges out there that we internally just dont have easy access to - such a massive amount of carts with all their variations. I'm confident that this update will please, but some things may not work still and others havent been looked at like video touch pad, driver controller support as well as 2600 homebrew, a few odd carts and that one tricky official release Pitfall II. But we will as soon as the 1.1 is locked. Thanks Ben AtariDumper1.1.0.2.exe 5.26 MB · 93 downloads update-1225.img 68.85 MB · 63 downloads DriverAssitant_v5.12.zip 9.4 MB · 55 downloads RKDevTool_Release_v2.74.zip 2.44 MB · 55 downloads Great Job Ben! You and your team are kick-ass! Now fix those driving controllers…:) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickyb83 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 I installed the Beta 1.1 update last night - i previously had 6 PAL Atari 7800 games which did not work at launch (Choplifter, Crossbow, Food Fight, Joust, Ms Pac-man & Xevious) I'm happy to report that all 6 of these games are now working following the beta update. Thank you 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickyb83 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 @Ben from Plaion - are there any plans to add compatibility for Sega Genesis/Megadrive controllers? - apparently sega master system controllers do work with the 2600+ but mega drive/genesis controllers do not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody2000 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 I have some obscure carts coming soon from eBay that I bought I already installed 1.1 but once they come in I will clean and test them as they're from companies that may not be as easy to find the carts for spectra vision cbs etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KainXavier Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 6 hours ago, MrChickenz said: Not sure if anyone else tried Aardvark. Mine loads and the selection menu works but when you start the game it freezes. This also happens on the v1.0 firmware. I don't think Sara / Superchip cartridges are supported yet. (Or maybe it's that particular combination?) Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForceInfinity Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 (edited) 32 minutes ago, KainXavier said: This also happens on the v1.0 firmware. I don't think Sara / Superchip cartridges are supported yet. (Or maybe it's that particular combination?) Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong. Sara is supported since if I'm not mistaken that the Sara chip is there for Dig Dug and I believe Stargate at the very least. I think out of a list of these games, the only one that I'm aware of that doesn't work is Super Football (this list came from another forum thread here: Crystal Castles Dark Chambers Defender II Desert Falcon Dig Dug Fatal Run Jr. Pac-Man KLAX Millipede Off the Wall Radar Lock Secret Quest Sprintmaster Stargate Super Football Edited January 4 by ForceInfinity 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 (edited) 20 minutes ago, ForceInfinity said: Sara is supported since if I'm not mistaken that the Sara chip is there for Dig Dug and I believe Stargate at the very least. I think out of a list of these games, the only one that I'm aware of that doesn't work is Super Football (this list came from another forum thread here: Crystal Castles Dark Chambers Defender II Desert Falcon Dig Dug Fatal Run Jr. Pac-Man KLAX Millipede Off the Wall Radar Lock Secret Quest Sprintmaster Stargate Super Football If e.g. F8 is supported by the dumper, then F8SC is automatically supported too. The reason is, that Stella has to detect the bankswitching anyway. Only the dump has to be complete. In case of SC RAM, this is identified if the data in the RAM area is identical for all banks. If Aardvark freezes like described above, this means the SC RAM is not detected by Stella. Which means, the RAM is dumped differently (per bank) by the dumper. The only explanation I have is, that the Aardvark hardware used for bankswitching is different (modern). Else all SC RAM based games should fail. @Ben from Plaion Can you find out how the dumper result looks like for Aardvark (and PM me)? @Albert Should be able to provide you with a cart for testing. If the modern hardware is the problem, then all homebrews using the same hardware and SC RAM will face the same problem. BTW: Aardvark works via Harmony single load. Maybe @batari has an idea here? After all, AFAIK the cart is using similar hardware. Edited January 4 by Thomas Jentzsch 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: If e.g. F8 is supported by the dumper, then F8SC is automatically supported too. The reason is, that Stella has to detect the bankswitching anyway. Only the dump has to be complete. In case of SC RAM, this is identified if the data in the RAM area is identical for all banks. If Aardvark freezes like described above, this means the SC RAM is not detected by Stella. Which means, the RAM is dumped differently (per bank) by the dumper. The only explanation I have is, that the Aardvark hardware used for bankswitching is different (modern). Else all SC RAM based games should fail. @Ben from Plaion Can you find out how the dumper result looks like for Aardvark (and PM me)? @Albert Should be able to provide you with a cart for testing. If the modern hardware is the problem, then all homebrews using the same hardware and SC RAM will face the same problem. BTW: Aardvark works via Harmony single load. Maybe @batari has an idea here? After all, AFAIK the cart is using similar hardware. ok, will do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 5 hours ago, Mickyb83 said: @Ben from Plaion - are there any plans to add compatibility for Sega Genesis/Megadrive controllers? - apparently sega master system controllers do work with the 2600+ but mega drive/genesis controllers do not To get Genesis/Megadrive controllers on 2600+ it needs to have an adapter to re-route the contacts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Turner Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Hi there - please add me to the list of testers. I have a ton of 2600 and 7800 carts. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 4 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: If Aardvark freezes like described above, this means the SC RAM is not detected by Stella. Which means, the RAM is dumped differently (per bank) by the dumper. The only explanation I have is, that the Aardvark hardware used for bankswitching is different (modern). Else all SC RAM based games should fail. Just tested my copy of Aarvark and can confirm the failure identified by @MrChickenz. I can however confirm that Venetian Blinds works 100%.😉 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zwiggelino Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 (edited) Hi, it`s great to be a new part of this forum! Thanks for the hard work to make this update possible! I tested some games, like: - Midnight Magic = works - Mouse Trap = works - Super Baseball = works - Smurf = works - Double Dunk = works 25% (sometimes ist starts and sometimes it shows "Loading Game Failed" an i had a lot of grafical artifacts. And wenn it starts, i can`t move. It´s only possible to use "game select, and that`s it ) could it be a broken cartridge? thanx Edited January 4 by Zwiggelino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetmanUK Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 I've noticed a new bug in this firmware. Occasionally the 'Loading' message does not appear, the 'Loading game failed' error message stays on the screen instead, but then the game loads anyway, never actually informing you of 'Loading'. It caught me out a few times, reseating cartridges that have previously worked flawlessly, but then after getting to the console too slowly once I quickly learnt that it was an intermittent bug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrChickenz Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 4 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said: To get Genesis/Megadrive controllers on 2600+ it needs to have an adapter to re-route the contacts. My genesis controllers work great with the 2600+ beta firmware with the Seagull 78 Edladdin Adapter! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrShep Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Discovered -- to great joy this morning -- that although we're an all-apple household these days, a 15-year old windows laptop that I had lurking in a cupboard was capable of successfully running the flashing software(!) Tried a few cartridges, one of which is the PAL (I presume) release of Demons to Diamonds, which had issues. Periodically the player's laser would go completely invisible for a few shots. I could hear the sounds, and see enemies exploding, but there was no on-screen laser. I tried the game on a couple of different displays (both had the problem), and then put the cart back in an original 2600 as a sanity check, where it ran fine. I did notice that when running on original hardware, the player's laser only seems to be appear on every second scan, whereas the beam on the 2600+ is a solid block (photos added for comparison)... so I'm guessing it's some kind of frame sync issue? (FWIW ... I've never tried to play this one on my 2600+ prior to flashing it!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2LTIME6100 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 The MEGA7800 works great too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happytoe Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 (edited) Looks like Super Circus Atari boots now but still doesn't work with Paddles. It seems like the default is JOY. when you select PADL it then tries to detect the paddle but doesn't see it. =When I start a game with PADL selected, it doesnt get detected Edited January 4 by Happytoe missing info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 On 12/31/2023 at 9:08 AM, raz0red said: hold both buttons down and pull down on the joystick simultaneously. If you hold these (buttons + joystick down) for 5 seconds, you should see the game reset into PAL mode. By “both buttons” do you mean Select and Reset? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody2000 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 (edited) Deadly Duck by 20th century fox fails to load every time so far just got it In the mail from eBay today as well as Taz and wizard of wor by cbs Taz works fine still have to try wizard of wor both were cleaned extensively with isopropyl and a qtip prior to inserting into the console Edited January 4 by Cody2000 left out info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Essential Worker2020 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 (edited) 7800 Controller not fully compatible. (Works fine on my OG 7800) Rampage for the 7800 does not load right.. (works on OG 7800) Edited January 4 by Essential Worker2020 clarified my post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody2000 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 (edited) Wizard of Wor By CBS Loads but will not detect any sort of inputs the game is basically unplayable EDIT: nevermind it does work and play I just had the game select set to player 2 😕 Edited January 4 by Cody2000 game is working Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shane857 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Tested all these PAL games on firmware 1.0 all work no problem. Issues on 1.1 tho... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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