Spanner Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 (edited) I tried hacking THEA500 carousel, it has all its images in a bin file called the resources.bod file, bod stands for bodypack so like a database file the carousel accesses when it need a image for the theme or the games covers, save states/uae files for the games on the carousel, I tried changing one of it images in the file by inserting a image using HxD and replacing the first game image it loaded, Alien Breed 3D, the carousel did load but only loaded for about 5 second before it crashed, it loaded it boot screen first then the carousel for 1 second so you could see it changed the image, I worked out the carousel would check every image and its size so if the image was different it would just crash the carousel and each image file has a offset so the carousel knows where each file is in the bod file, and used MD5 to check each file, in the end it was to difficult to change the images or any of the files in the bod file because if any of the files where the wrong size or even the right size it would see it as different so it would crash the carousel and its descriptions and languages is in the manhattan or skyline binaries so they are not independent files like in THEC64 Carousel any more, it was not worth the effort in the end, the carousel as well is made up of 3 files too, manhattan, skyline and the resources.bod binaries, Skyline is the first file it loads, it contains its shader file then skyline loads manhattan so RGL made it to awkward to modify. You would have to basically make a new carousel to replace it and it not worth it and especially you can side load your own games anyway via USB, I probably add PCUAE to THE400 Mini when I get it(I have pre ordered it), but it will depend on what Linux it uses, I am hoping it use the same Linux(Buildroot) as THEA500 Mini and not like the Atari2600 Plus because that uses KSM/DRM so can not run PCUAE(ATM) because it relies on fb0 the framebuffer so most of the stuff in it use it, like the dialog menus(Mode Changer, Carousel Changer). Edited February 1 by Spanner 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetboot Jack Posted February 2 Share Posted February 2 On 2/1/2024 at 11:36 AM, Spanner said: Nice - clearly showing the "controller ring" buttons on the UI there! Glad to know it's the A500 Mini that is the basis of The400 Mini - that customisable controller buttons for keyboard mapping will be very useful! sTeVE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overange Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 On 2/1/2024 at 12:46 PM, Spanner said: once we know what executables it can run, I cannot wait to see the Atari community create some interesting software to run on the400. especially one that can access Fujinet services via a usb network device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I wonder if we will be able to connect a USB Floppy Drive to the Mini as they have with TheC64 Mini? But the disk cannot be formatted in modern Windows, apparently. I don't know if anyone has solved that issue, or not. Link, if you haven't seen the video... EDIT: Evidently the floppy formatting issue can be solved with Linux (as well as a Mac). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaberfoX Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I really hope someone with a good bit of hacking knowledge gets one of these in his hands and cracks the carousel format. I've followed @Spanner's exploits and hit the same roadblock, .bod file validation by the carousel. It shouldn't be hard to patch and bypass if you know what you are doing, either recreating or ignoring the checksum using an external program like PCUAE to build your own carousel. This would benefit both A500 and 400 minis assuming they use similar hardware and software, which would make total sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gory-Glory Posted February 9 Share Posted February 9 (edited) Spanner >>> Okey so you tried to hack the carousel on the A500 Mini and it did not work. Sade that it not worked. Hope to see if it is working. Edited February 9 by Gory-Glory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erichenneke Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Does anyone know if the 400mini supports USB adapters, such as the "2600-dapter" (http://www.2600-daptor.com/) to be able to use original Atari and Atari-compatible controllers? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 7 hours ago, erichenneke said: Does anyone know if the 400mini supports USB adapters, such as the "2600-dapter" (http://www.2600-daptor.com/) to be able to use original Atari and Atari-compatible controllers? I have a feeling some of these things aren't going to be known until people have The400 mini in there hands and are able to do some testing. Although, I have seen some questions answered on the company's Facebook page. So, maybe people interested in finding out various details will have to post questions over there. Some questions (like these) may even have already been answered there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonreddick Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Meanwhile, running parallel to this thread (and before I found it), I published a video highlighting THECXSTICK because I hadn't heard a peep about it on YouTube! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean_1970 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 9 hours ago, jonreddick said: Meanwhile, running parallel to this thread (and before I found it), I published a video highlighting THECXSTICK because I hadn't heard a peep about it on YouTube! Nice - the mock-up was very practical as well. I honestly hadn’t considered using it with other devices, but there’s a fair number of classic arcade games (only emulation I normally deal with) that are one or two button this might be fun with 👍. Given the Evercade VS pad doesn’t appear to be HID-compliant (my M1 Mac Mini certainly doesn’t seem to recognise it), I rather doubt it will work there, but I’ll definitely try it 😁 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonreddick Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 11 hours ago, Sean_1970 said: Nice - the mock-up was very practical as well. I honestly hadn’t considered using it with other devices, but there’s a fair number of classic arcade games (only emulation I normally deal with) that are one or two button this might be fun with 👍. Given the Evercade VS pad doesn’t appear to be HID-compliant (my M1 Mac Mini certainly doesn’t seem to recognise it), I rather doubt it will work there, but I’ll definitely try it 😁 I wholeheartedly agree. Using the fire button as a primary and shoulder button as a secondary (power-up, smart bomb, grenade, etc.) might be just what the doctor ordered for a lot of games. 😁 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gory-Glory Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Now it is less than a month until it will be relesed. 😀 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean_1970 Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 2 hours ago, Gory-Glory said: Now it is less than a month until it will be relesed. 😀 I got a message from Amazon that my order of the standalone joystick is delayed until April; not sure if that’s a stock shortage that’s just impacting me or production delay that affects all shipments. The Mini itself is still on schedule and that’s the main thing. I’ve moved my stuff around so there’s a spot next to my 2600+ in front of the powered USB hub it’s going to get power from and I replaced my 5-port HDMI hub with a 7-port one so my 2600+ has a dedicated link and there’s a port available for the mini - hopefully nothing else comes out or I’ll have to put the five port back in service - if only my TV had 10 HDMI ports I’d have no need of hubs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deffroe Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 3 hours ago, Sean_1970 said: I got a message from Amazon that my order of the standalone joystick is delayed until April; Had the same message, 27 April for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gory-Glory Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Sean_1970 >>> Okey so that The Joystick is delayed, I hope that it will arrive to you. 😀 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spanner Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 One thing I would like to see the carousel have is different themes so maybe like 5 themes so you can change the way it looks, you can do it on mobile phones... you can even install new ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabe Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 I've got mine ordered. I never had an Atari 8-bit home computer when I was a kid, but I'm looking forward to getting this, as the games look pretty neat. It should be a lot of fun. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadiATIon Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 (edited) Have I been dreaming? I remember reading that there would be a surprise if you connect the classic vcs800 controller to it? Was I dreaming or not ? Edited March 15 by RadiATIon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Here is my review of the 400 Mini and did my best to cover it 5 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Merritt Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 18 minutes ago, swlovinist said: Here is my review of the 400 Mini and did my best to cover it Thanks for the review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjedavison Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 2 hours ago, swlovinist said: Here is my review of the 400 Mini and did my best to cover it Great review! Thanks for showing the game settings page, I know a lot of people (including me) have been curious about that. I think that addresses the one minor concern I had. Looking forward to getting my own in -- Amazon claims it will arrive this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+LS650 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 GenX Grownup has posted a lengthy (35 mins) review where he goes into quite some detail on setup, configuration, loading games from USB, testing various games, etc. I have to say from watching the video it looks pretty darn good. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THX-1138 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 (edited) 15 minutes ago, LS650 said: GenX Grownup has posted a lengthy (35 mins) review where he goes into quite some detail on setup, configuration, loading games from USB, testing various games, etc. I have to say from watching the video it looks pretty darn good. I think this was a better review and the livestream after was excellent. Edited March 26 by THX-1138 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FifthPlayer Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Have to say the beige USB and video cables are a nice touch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 1 hour ago, FifthPlayer said: Have to say the beige USB and video cables are a nice touch. Yes, but I'm wondering, why not this too? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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