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Atari 2600 Video Test v. 1.0 (Open source)


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I made this simple program as a demonstration of assembly programming for the Atari 2600 and to be able to test the homebrew cartridges and the EEPROM programmer I developed.
It allows you to perform a test to adjust the settings of the TV screen, colors and alignment, using the video screens that can be selected with the "Select" and "Reset" buttons. 
Believing that it will be useful for the Atari homebrew community, I decided to publish it as an "Open source" project under the MIT license.

 

I hope I wrote in understandable English. Sorry it's not my native language. 

 

This is the link to the project: https://github.com/DrVector-000/A2600-Video-Test

VideoTest 1.02 PAL.bin

 

Version 1.03:

          - Added test card with grid

VideoTest 1.03 PAL.bin

 

Version 1.04:

          - Added TV multi-system support

VideoTest 1.04 NTSC.bin VideoTest 1.04 PAL.bin

 

Version 1.05:

          - Added gray bars for luminance calibration

 

VideoTest 1.05 NTSC.bin VideoTest 1.05 PAL.bin

Edited by DrVector
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4 hours ago, DrVector said:

I made this simple program as a demonstration of assembly programming for the Atari 2600 and to be able to test the homebrew cartridges and the EEPROM programmer I developed.
It allows you to perform a test to adjust the settings of the TV screen, colors and alignment, using the video screens that can be selected with the "Select" and "Reset" buttons. 
Believing that it will be useful for the Atari homebrew community, I decided to publish it as an "Open source" project under the MIT license.

 

I like the authentic look of the color/grayscale test cards. One thing I think is missing is a test for what's sometimes referred to as "blacker-than-black".

 

Some games (very rarely) turn VBLANK on in order to display black on the screen. However, this is usually blacker than the black that is output when a colour register is set to $00. Moreover, some HDMI TVs don't like VBLANK being set in this way.

 

I only know of two games that do this. One is "D.K. VCS" a homebrew version of Donkey Kong https://forums.atariage.com/topic/206497-dk-vcs/

 

And the other is Custer's Revenge.

 

This is what they might look like on a badly tuned TV or a HDMI TV that produces "blacker-than-black". (You might not see it, depending on how your monitor is tuned)

 

image.thumb.png.2d33fb5f4e49708c046a9e028e30e40b.png

 

 

image.thumb.png.69ac8ae39918498127be311639d06afd.png

 

On Custer's Revenge the black bar between the play area and the score bar is formed by VBLANK. But it's very difficult to tell in this case because it extends the entire width of the screen. But even so, it's there and it might confuse a HDMI TV

 

What I'd like to see is the black area at the bottom be split into "black" (ie. background of $00) and VBLANK black.

 

crt_single_VideoTest1.02PAL_20240123_163053.thumb.jpg.041719af56ddcada9c353f00f7169092.jpg

 

And similar on the grayscale test card.

 

 

But well done with what you've achieved so far and thank-you for releasing the source code.

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7 hours ago, DrVector said:

Version 1.04:

          - Added TV multi-system support

 

Thank you so much for adding an NTSC build, this is extremely helpful!

 

I was wondering if you could add in the bottom right two bars, black and grey, into the Test Card screen? More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_card#Technical_details

 

- James

 

image.thumb.png.664623b0ce7bfed8e9387d6378211f54.png

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