Experimental 2600+ Firmware and Dumper

[ForceInfinity]

I don’t suppose fixes for the touchpad are in the making at all?   Would love to play Star Raiders on the 2600+

[MrChickenz]

3 minutes ago, ForceInfinity said:

I don’t suppose fixes for the touchpad are in the making at all?   Would love to play Star Raiders on the 2600+

One of my favorites! That ship may never blastoff again!

[mastic_man]

5 hours ago, MrChickenz said:

One of my favorites! That ship may never blastoff again!

Not sute if this info will help with the touchpad issue but when John from Champ games sent over modified Roms for testing on the 2600+, the quadtari detection and savekey from port 2 had to be disabled or some of the games couldnt be controlled. By default the +'s firmware has something already plugged in to port 2 (albeit emulated) and may not be helping things. 

[raz0red]

3 hours ago, mastic_man said:

Not sute if this info will help with the touchpad issue but when John from Champ games sent over modified Roms for testing on the 2600+, the quadtari detection and savekey from port 2 had to be disabled or some of the games couldnt be controlled. By default the +'s firmware has something already plugged in to port 2 (albeit emulated) and may not be helping things. 

Yes, those issues were discovered during testing and resolved some time ago.

 

All of the Champ Games (demos) have been tested on the 2600+ by forcing the ROMs to be loaded.

 

The issue at this point is the dumper. It currently lacks CDF and DPC+ support.

 

Thanks,

Chris.

Edited March 4 by raz0red

[DEANJIMMY]

14 hours ago, DEANJIMMY said:

I agree to that very much.

 

Some games do not run fine or at all due to the dumper. Sometimes related to the personal cart. E.g. most Medieval Mayham do not dump with latest dumper,  mine does. I am unlucky with Juno first PAL60 from day one but my Crossbow 7800 dumps fine which gives ugly graphics and sound to others.

 

Crazy Brix 7800 (PAL) is an example for failing control selection. Joystick does not work anymore and paddles not supported yet, so autodetection fails. 

 

 

Crazy Brix works with joystick in port 1 but on 1.1r2 or 1.1x you have to make sure to set difficulty switches to A/A.

This was reported before, I just was not aware of it.

On 1.1r1 you do not have to take care about the difficulty switches to play with a joystick.

 

[JetmanUK]

An NTSC Ms Pacman arrived today, it works flawlessly on my old woody (in black and white as it's PAL, obviously), but I just can't get it to work, even after many cleans, on my Plus.

 

A couple of pics of the failed load and one of the cart. Does anyone else have this version, have you tried it on this firmware? 

[MikeM_]

8 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

An NTSC Ms Pacman arrived today, it works flawlessly on my old woody (in black and white as it's PAL, obviously), but I just can't get it to work, even after many cleans, on my Plus.

 

A couple of pics of the failed load and one of the cart. Does anyone else have this version, have you tried it on this firmware? 

Try inserting it only halfway. I’ve found that to work on all of my problematic carts. 
 

essentially, it’s a case where something more than isopropyl is needed. Like deoxit

[John Stamos Mullet]

4 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

An NTSC Ms Pacman arrived today, it works flawlessly on my old woody (in black and white as it's PAL, obviously), but I just can't get it to work, even after many cleans, on my Plus.

 

A couple of pics of the failed load and one of the cart. Does anyone else have this version, have you tried it on this firmware? 

I have an original 1982 Ms. Pac-Man cart like yours, and it works fine in this latest version. Mine has significantly less crud on the label, so I would be that means the contacts are better shape too.

 

Clean it. Again. maybe a tiny bit of fine grade sandpaper, followed by alcohol.

[MrChickenz]

1 hour ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

maybe a tiny bit of fine grade sandpaper

SANDPAPER!😬 I use a tiny bit of brasso! Not sure which is worse but they both get the job done!😆

Edited March 5 by MrChickenz

[JetmanUK]

I've already tried to insert it part way, tilt it slight etc, all the tricks, no luck. The contacts also appear to be super clean, I'll try something more abrasive, but it does work flawlessly in the old woody, every time so I'd guessed that it was a different issue.

 

Thanks for confirming that this version should work, although it could be a variation in cart maybe? As I've I said I'm gonna attack the contacts again, watch this space...

Edited March 5 by JetmanUK

[RevEng]

I wouldn't sandpaper, personally. Erasers are good for cleaning edge contacts - gum art ones first, and if they need it, the rougher pink ones. Brasso is a good one too. Follow any of these up with alcohol.

[JetmanUK]

13 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

An NTSC Ms Pacman arrived today, it works flawlessly on my old woody (in black and white as it's PAL, obviously), but I just can't get it to work, even after many cleans, on my Plus.

 

A couple of pics of the failed load and one of the cart. Does anyone else have this version, have you tried it on this firmware? 

More cleans, more tilting and pulling back out a little. Nada.

 

Here's some more screenshots in case this is a variation on the cart and needs to be looked at. Again, it works flawlessly on original hardware every single time.

 

I've had fussy carts that I've hard to scrub and scrub and insert in a particular way but this one has had more work put into it than them and still has not had one successful load. I will keep trying and report back, but there's the info up to right now. 

Edited March 5 by JetmanUK

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Does it work in an original console?

[JetmanUK]

55 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Does it work in an original console?

Every single time. 

[Plumbob]

I’m running 1.1.0.9, 1.1x-r2 and I finished testing all 58 of my Atari games (NTSC) just to make sure there are no new regressions on this new firmware version.  Good news, I didn’t find any new issues.

The only two issues that still exist with my carts are:

1. The joystick is not working with Astroblast (but the paddles work great with this game).
2. Hero2 with the purple board is not working (but my other copy with the green board is working!)

Thanks to everyone for their hard work with this!  

 

[Spanner]

IDEA, why not make a log file so you can see if its loading the cartridge properly so send the login output(/dev/ttyFIQ0) to a file, you can use `tee` to do it so it copies what you see on Putty if your connected to the machine that way and then users could send you the log file and you can see in real time what the dumper is doing when it tries to load a cartridge in the slot so you can see it dumping the cart, I do it in PCUAE so if there is a error on someone machine they can sends me the pcuae log file so I can see what PCUAE is doing on there machine and why they are getting a error and I am not.

Just realised you need a USB Stick for this to work, this console is so limited, I think it should of had a USB Port originally, like the CHA did, somethings do not need to be so close to the real thing, it used up to date tech anyway in it, with no log your working blind and then you have to guess why its doing something or why a cart is not working when his log could tell you why.

My Ms Pacman works fine..  Mine is in this video and is PAL.

Here is a picture of mine...
 

Edited March 5 by Spanner

[MrChickenz]

17 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

An NTSC Ms Pacman arrived today, it works flawlessly on my old woody (in black and white as it's PAL, obviously), but I just can't get it to work, even after many cleans, on my Plus.

If that’s NTSC it should be FP:60.00. You show FPS:50.00. I’m running 1.1x-r2 with dumper 1.1.0.2. My copy of Ms Pac-Man works fine. I believe they are working on a new dumper file 1.1.0.10. Hopefully this will correct the remaining issues.

 

Now you got me hooked on playing Ms Pac-Man. 

Edited March 5 by MrChickenz

[JetmanUK]

17 minutes ago, MrChickenz said:

If that’s NTSC it should be FP:60.00. You show FPS:50.00. I’m running 1.1x-r2 with dumper 1.1.0.2. My copy of Ms Pac-Man works fine. I believe they are working on a new dumper file 1.1.0.10. Hopefully this will correct the remaining issues.

I had noticed that too, but I took it that it is because it's not dumped correctly. Note that the first photo of my TV in my previous comment states 55FPS.

To be clear, the cart was sold as an NTSC version, shipped from the USA and when run in my PAL four switch Woody it runs without colour, so yeah it's definitely NTSC.

 

Perhaps I should try to downgrade my dumper to 1.1.0.2 too. Hmmmm

 

EDIT - I'm glad you are playing, it's a great game. I have a PAL cart, which works, actually I haven't tried it on the latest firmware/dumper updates. 

Edited March 5 by JetmanUK

[MrChickenz]

3 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

I had noticed that too, but I took it that it is because it's not dumped correctly. Note that the first photo of my TV in my previous comment states 55FPS.

To be clear, the cart was sold as an NTSC version, shipped from the USA and when run in my PAL four switch Woody it runs without colour, so yeah it's definitely NTSC.

 

Perhaps I should try to downgrade my dumper to 1.1.0.2 too. Hmmmm

I believe it’s the dumper. Try downgrading to 1.1.0.2 see if it works. Robot Tank and Time Pilot won’t work for me with this dumper but they work with 1.1.0.9 for me. Hopefully a new dumper release will correct this!

[JetmanUK]

1 minute ago, MrChickenz said:

I believe it’s the dumper. Try downgrading to 1.1.0.2 see if it works. Robot Tank and Time Pilot won’t work for me with this dumper but they work with 1.1.0.9 for me. Hopefully a new dumper release will correct this!

Hope so. Will get pesky work out of the way and then give it a go. ✌🏻

[raz0red]

1 hour ago, MrChickenz said:

I believe it’s the dumper. Try downgrading to 1.1.0.2 see if it works. Robot Tank and Time Pilot won’t work for me with this dumper but they work with 1.1.0.9 for me. Hopefully a new dumper release will correct this!

So, if you look, it is being detected as 12k (FA), while it should be 8K (F8).

 

My guess is this is similar to why Juno First and Medieval Mayhem broke for some in newer dumper versions.

 

It is getting a false positive on the 12k (FA) detection that precedes the 8K (F8) check.

 

In other words, I would stop cleaning your cart. 🙂 Hopefully this will get resolved in the dumper.

 

Thanks,

Chris.

Edited March 5 by raz0red

[JetmanUK]

12 minutes ago, raz0red said:

So, if you look, it is being detected as 12k (FA), while it should be 8K (F8).

 

My guess is this is similar to why Juno First and Medieval Mayhem broke for some in newer dumper versions.

 

It is getting a false positive on the 12k (FA) detection that precedes the 8K (F8) check.

 

In other words, I would stop cleaning your cart. 🙂 Hopefully this will get resolved in the dumper.

 

Thanks,

Chris.

Yep, I had noticed the file size too, and that it was only 8K in Stella on my laptop, I am happy to have deduced correctly here! The cart is fine. 🤟🏻

 

My cart, well it may already be in the Guineas Book of Records for shiniest contacts ever. 🤣

Edited March 5 by JetmanUK

[Atari_Warlord]

Just found my Acid Drop cart and it doesn't appear to work on the 2600+.  I believe it is PAL as the screen scrolls on my regular 2600.  I know Thomas did a NTSC conversion, but I don't have a way to test that on the plus.  Using the 1.1.0.9 dumper and the 1.1x-r2 debug file.

 

Edit:  Found my NTSC copy and it works perfectly.  Not sure if it is this cart or all PAL copies.  Does anyone have a PAL version to test? 

[Pac-Man Senior]

On 3/3/2024 at 11:12 PM, raz0red said:

Yes, I am not aware of any issues that are emulator-related at this time other than:

 

• Control selection issues (Paddles vs. Joysticks, etc.).
• Some PAL carts may be running as NTSC (These are easy to resolve if they are reported).

 

Thanks,

Chris.

I'm far away from understanding the technical background of reported problems but a disappearing frog in Frogger or a disappearing ghost in Pac-Man is dumper related in your opinion? I just want to understand a bit more. Why is it so difficult for the 2600+ to emulate/dump a simple 4k cart like Frogger when even a cheapy Flashback X has no problems except latency issues. Perhaps this is the answer to my question: the Flashback doesn't have to dump. It simply eats roms. But what can be so complicated with dumping 4k carts?

[raz0red]

17 minutes ago, Pac-Man Senior said:

I'm far away from understanding the technical background of reported problems but a disappearing frog in Frogger or a disappearing ghost in Pac-Man is dumper related in your opinion? I just want to understand a bit more. Why is it so difficult for the 2600+ to emulate/dump a simple 4k cart like Frogger when even a cheapy Flashback X has no problems except latency issues. Perhaps this is the answer to my question: the Flashback doesn't have to dump. It simply eats roms. But what can be so complicated with dumping 4k carts?

Not sure I completely understand the question.

 

But with the latest experimental firmware there shouldn't be any more disappearing sprite issues (that are inconsistent with real hardware). If you use the debug build, you can see that the frame rate the game is processing at (60 for NTSC) is consistent with the render rate (60 for NTSC). In non-experimental builds the render rate was hitting about 75% which led to disappearing sprites that are inconsistent with actual hardware. If you still believe there are issues with disappearing sprites, please let us know. But, it has been verified by multiple people that the issues they were experiencing in non-experimental builds have been resolved (as is reflected in the FPS being displayed).

 

You also mentioned this previously, so it is important to make sure the disappearing sprites are inconsistent with actual hardware:

Quote

I deleted one issue in the unofficial firmware testing list. Frogger: I noticed that the line the frog is standing on is also flickering and a bit graphically changing on original hardware. I didn't remember but I saw it on my old 4-switch-woody (PAL) with my PAL Frogger Cart.

 

The dumper doesn't have anything to do with disappearing sprites. That was an RA rendering issue based on the 2600+ hardware performance. The dumper issues will lead to cartridges that do not work correctly (either don't run at all, or have significant issues).

 

Chris.

 

 

Edited March 5 by raz0red