Kaboom on multicart

[Clinkers]

Hi

 

I got a 2600+ for Christmas and a set of paddles also (cant wait to play Kaboom). Prices for carts where I live are extortionate, so I decided to go all out and make my own.

I've no previous experience soldering/hobby electronics, so it's a bit daunting, but after a few hours of nervously waving a soldering iron around, I got it to work!

 

I've just made 4k games carts using the PCBway shared projects circuit boards, but I can't get Kaboom to work at all.

 

I know Kaboom is 2k, but from watching Youtube, I use BINWizard and it doubled the rom to 4k. However, it won't work, I get a flat beep noise and some garbled pixels at the top of the screen.

 

I tried it again with a different (Euro) rom, but had the same result. I have tried filling the blank space with $ff and zero in BINWizard, but when I open them in Stella to test (rather than reburning a whole EEPROM) I get the same issue.

 

Is there a working 4k version of Kaboom I have to use, or am I doing something really stupid?

 

Thanks in advance

[astroguy]

You need to duplicate the ROM such that the first 2K matches the second 2K.  A simple concatenation should do the trick. 

[tmop69]

On 1/23/2024 at 7:40 PM, Clinkers said:

Hi

 

I got a 2600+ for Christmas and a set of paddles also (cant wait to play Kaboom). Prices for carts where I live are extortionate, so I decided to go all out and make my own.

I've no previous experience soldering/hobby electronics, so it's a bit daunting, but after a few hours of nervously waving a soldering iron around, I got it to work!

 

I've just made 4k games carts using the PCBway shared projects circuit boards, but I can't get Kaboom to work at all.

 

I know Kaboom is 2k, but from watching Youtube, I use BINWizard and it doubled the rom to 4k. However, it won't work, I get a flat beep noise and some garbled pixels at the top of the screen.

 

I tried it again with a different (Euro) rom, but had the same result. I have tried filling the blank space with $ff and zero in BINWizard, but when I open them in Stella to test (rather than reburning a whole EEPROM) I get the same issue.

 

Is there a working 4k version of Kaboom I have to use, or am I doing something really stupid?

 

Thanks in advance

 

I can confirm that Kaboom is working on this kind of multicard. As already mentioned, since it's a 2K cart, you need to concatenate two copies of the same cart. Using the Windows cmd shell, for example:

 

copy /B kaboom2k.bin + kaboom2k.bin kaboom4k.bin

 

Note that you need to align the cart perfectly in the 2600+ slot, especially if you aren't using a cart shell. Sometimes it seems correctly inserted, but the games are not working. In such cases, try to just move the cart a little to left or right and try again. Also the 8x8K and the 4x16K multicarts are working fine on the 2600+.

 

 

[mastic_man]

It does work but you need to open the game in a hex editor and then copy all the game code and then paste it where the original code finishes. Save the file and you will then have a 4k working Kaboom. You will need to convert all 2k games this way.

You can download a free hex editor https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/

 

[Ben from Plaion]

@karri I thought of you when I read this thread!

[Clinkers]

Thanks for your help, folks: much appreciated!

 

Quote

On 1/25/2024 at 1:46 PM, astroguy said:

A simple concatenation should do the trick. 

Never heard this word before: every day's a school day!

 

On 1/25/2024 at 3:18 PM, tmop69 said:

Note that you need to align the cart perfectly in the 2600+ slot,

Yeah, that happened first time I tried a cart, but I got them centred and all is good. I'm trying to find somewhere to 3d print some shells for me but had no success so far.

Ballpark, would anyone know roughly how much I should expect to pay? I'm in Ireland, btw.

 

On 1/25/2024 at 4:03 PM, mastic_man said:

You can download a free hex editor https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/

Perfect! Downloaded and copy/pasted the file to itself and the 4k file is now working in Stella.

 

The boys have hijacked the TV so it'll be tomorrow when I get a chance to reburn a new EPROM and try it out on the 2600+

 

Thanks again, everyone!

[mastic_man]

On 1/26/2024 at 8:01 PM, Clinkers said:

Thanks for your help, folks: much appreciated!

 

 

Yeah, that happened first time I tried a cart, but I got them centred and all is good. I'm trying to find somewhere to 3d print some shells for me but had no success so far.

Ballpark, would anyone know roughly how much I should expect to pay? I'm in Ireland, btw.

 

Perfect! Downloaded and copy/pasted the file to itself and the 4k file is now working in Stella.

 

The boys have hijacked the TV so it'll be tomorrow when I get a chance to reburn a new EPROM and try it out on the 2600+

 

Thanks again, everyone!

Glad you got it working