Experimental 2600+ Firmware and Dumper

[shane857]

1 hour ago, DEANJIMMY said:

My Frogger PAL is fine too.

I once had the disappearing frog on the street and on the long trunk but it is fine now.

Have you tested it on level 3 plus? I don't get the disappearing Frog. thou on this level and onwards traffic randomly disappears for me

Sometimes I get killed when there is not any traffic there. I'm on dumper 3 and experimental firmware revision 1.6

[vebxenon]

I've jumped today from Beta 2 (which was very good!) to last Experimental Firmware... and wow! 😃

 

Now finally the 100% of my carts work! Even Pick'N Pile 😊

 

My 7800 carts (and most of the 2600 ones) are PAL. Thank you!!

[DEANJIMMY]

1 hour ago, shane857 said:

Have you tested it on level 3 plus? I don't get the disappearing Frog. thou on this level and onwards traffic randomly disappears for me

Sometimes I get killed when there is not any traffic there. I'm on dumper 3 and experimental firmware revision 1.6

Just played far into level 2... got Froggie 7800, so it is not one of my top games but can try tomorrow level 3...

That would mean if the game speeds up, emulation struggles?

[DEANJIMMY]

1 hour ago, Fred_M said:

 

Just to be sure and I don't want to patronize you, but you do know that a dirty cartridge can not cause flickering? The data on a cartridge is digital, it can be read or it can not be read.

Flickering not, but glitches as a bad dump can store corrupted data.

My Space Instigators PAL had many strange glitches, until I cleaned it 10 times, same with my Medieval cart which still does not dump well all the time and then I get choppy music, crashes, corrupted graphics and some pixel kind of flicker, as they come and go.

 

The Frogger PAL issue with disappearing sprites sounds a bit different though.

Will see if I can play level 3 plus tomorrow night to see the problem.

When the first x load came up with the video driver fix, I remember one game the frog got either invisible on the street or got run over by an invisible car. After I did power off and reseated the cart, I never could dupe it again.

We'll see...

Edited July 16 by DEANJIMMY

[MrChickenz]

3 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

perhaps just a PAL issue for some users.

I see, so this is just amongst PAL’s. 😆

[John Stamos Mullet]

I saw that 2 button cx-78/proline support for Omega Race was added, but it seems like the normal Omega Race rom isn't supported in Harmony as a single rom. Does batari need to make a new config file for that kind of rom?

[raz0red]

19 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

I saw that 2 button cx-78/proline support for Omega Race was added, but it seems like the normal Omega Race rom isn't supported in Harmony as a single rom. Does batari need to make a new config file for that kind of rom?

It works for me, that is how I tested it (via dev mode). 

 

Chris.

[John Stamos Mullet]

1 hour ago, raz0red said:

It works for me, that is how I tested it (via dev mode). 

 

Chris.

Where did you get the rom?

 

also -which bank type does the Harmony software recognize it as?

[MrChickenz]

@raz0red and all involved in getting Omega Race to work with 7800 controllers, Thank You! I’ve played a lot of Omega Race on the Colecovision but never had the booster grip for the 2600. This plays just as good as the Colecovision version if not better because of the controller. It’s very responsive, I think the game pad is the best way to play. This is awesome! Thanks again!

 

You can’t do this on Original hardware! Sorry Atari! I’m playing on the 2600+

 

 

 

[raz0red]

15 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Where did you get the rom?

 

also -which bank type does the Harmony software recognize it as?

FA (CBS Ram Plus)

 

MD5: 9947f1ebabb56fd075a96c6d37351efa

 

Chris.

[Bitsized]

2 minutes ago, MrChickenz said:

@raz0red and all involved in getting Omega Race to work with 7800 controllers, Thank You! I’ve played a lot of Omega Race on the Colecovision but never had the booster grip for the 2600. This plays just as good as the Colecovision version if not better because of the controller. It’s very responsive, I think the game pad is the best way to play. This is awesome! Thanks again!

 

You can’t do this on Original hardware! Sorry Atari! I’m playing on the 2600+

 

 

 

I concur with the above sentiments. This game is ⛹️ baller! I’m firing off doubles like the NBA on a Saturday. Tho, I’m flying without a net and wishing’ for the swish in’. OMG, a Race is on! 
 

there are game taht I have recently filed under “NAF” New Adult Favorites, cuz I didn’t play them as a kid and this is one of them. Thank you @raz0red et al, for waving your Wizardry and making this former brick come to life again. 
 

I have played Atari…TODAY!

[stvd2024]

If updating my 2600+, do I just download the most up to date files?
I don't have to update to a certain version 1st, then update again etc.

Thanks.

[Trebor]

8 minutes ago, stvd2024 said:

If updating my 2600+, do I just download the most up to date files?
I don't have to update to a certain version 1st, then update again etc.

Thanks.

Just the most up to date files is necessary.

Grab the download with the latest files and install instructions from the below linked post:

 

[stvd2024]

3 minutes ago, Trebor said:

Just the most up to date files is necessary.

Grab the download with the latest files and install instructions from the below linked post:

 

Does it matter if I go standard or debug? I'm just going to play my carts.

[MrChickenz]

OMEGA RACE - TWO PLAYER 

I thought this should be mentioned so there is no confusion with it being a Firmware issue. When playing a two player game. Two player mode can be played with one or two 7800 controllers. 
 

Select game 2

Right Difficulty set to B : Use same controller. (Left Port)

Right Difficulty set to A : Use two controllers. (Left Port Player 1 Right Port Player 2)

 

 

Edited July 17 by MrChickenz

[+Fred_M]

3 hours ago, stvd2024 said:

Does it matter if I go standard or debug? I'm just going to play my carts.

No, it does not matter. They are the same, the debug version shows some information of the inserted cartridge on screen, the normal version does not. The debug information is helpfull to the developers of the emulator (Stella).

[tradyblix]

3 hours ago, stvd2024 said:

Does it matter if I go standard or debug? I'm just going to play my carts.

You just want the standard version if you are just playing. Otherwise you will have text on your screen at all times which is not what you want. So in that regard, it does matter. 

[+Philsan]

I add that on my TV, debug version's text causes image to shift a bit to the right, therefore games are not centered.

[Dionoid]

5 hours ago, Fred_M said:

The debug information is helpfull to the developers of the emulator (Stella).

Not exactly: the debug info is helpful to the developers of the Atari 2600+ firmware and the dumper software; the Stella developers are not part of this.

[DEANJIMMY]

On 7/16/2024 at 10:03 PM, shane857 said:

Have you tested it on level 3 plus? I don't get the disappearing Frog. thou on this level and onwards traffic randomly disappears for me

Sometimes I get killed when there is not any traffic there. I'm on dumper 3 and experimental firmware revision 1.6

Ok, I am too stupid to survive level 3 but I did not see any issues, will try later again to reach level 4😅

 

BUT then I powered down the console.

I really powered it down, not just switched it off. Later I came back and switched it on with the cartridge still in place (runing fine before) and I got my glitches for a second time in my life🤗

 

In the vid you see the almost disappearing tree trunks?

If this happens from the beginning, later some trunks disappear, the frog is almost invisible after changing the color due to fun with the female frog, the frog disappears in some rows on the street, some cars on the street disappear, frogs and crocodiles in the top row flicker like hell, the whole game feels wrong and gets worse with every level/speed up.

 

I switched off, reseated the cart and problems were gone...

 

So very rarely I get the problem when I power on with the cart seated and others maybe after playing a while. Never saw it after a hot swap.

It's like somethig is getting out of sync.

The debug info did not look different when the problem happened.

Edited July 17 by DEANJIMMY

[DEANJIMMY]

36 minutes ago, DEANJIMMY said:

Ok, I am too stupid to survive level 3 but I did not see any issues, will try later again to reach level 4😅

 

BUT then I powered down the console.

I really powered it down, not just switched it off. Later I came back and switched it on with the cartridge still in place (runing fine before) and I got my glitches for a second time in my life🤗

 

In the vid you see the almost disappearing tree trunks?

If this happens from the beginning, later some trunks disappear, the frog is almost invisible after changing the color due to fun with the female frog, the frog disappears in some rows on the street, some cars on the street disappear, frogs and crocodiles in the top row flicker like hell, the whole game feels wrong and gets worse with every level/speed up.

 

I switched off, reseated the cart and problems were gone...

 

So very rarely I get the problem when I power on with the cart seated and others maybe after playing a while. Never saw it after a hot swap.

It's like somethig is getting out of sync.

The debug info did not look different when the problem happened.

 

And I've got another X Files story about Flicker aka Frogger PAL: The cart warms up🙄

Cleaning the once clean cart again brought a lot of dirt to surface, probably because of the heat at the connector. The cart smell a bit and was quite warm. 

Never noticed something like this on the plus before🤔

 

Edit: Empire Strikes Back PAL gets a little bit warm too (not hot), so maybe normal for Parker PAL carts...

 

 

Edited July 17 by DEANJIMMY

[John Stamos Mullet]

21 hours ago, MrChickenz said:

@raz0red and all involved in getting Omega Race to work with 7800 controllers, Thank You! I’ve played a lot of Omega Race on the Colecovision but never had the booster grip for the 2600. This plays just as good as the Colecovision version if not better because of the controller. It’s very responsive, I think the game pad is the best way to play. This is awesome! Thanks again!

 

You can’t do this on Original hardware! Sorry Atari! I’m playing on the 2600+

 

 

 

*technically this isn’t true.

 

there are hacks of Omega Race that do run on original 2600 hardware that can use a Genesis controller for the same function.

[Trebor]

12 hours ago, stvd2024 said:

Does it matter if I go standard or debug? I'm just going to play my carts.

Yes, it matters.  If the instructions are followed, the standard version is installed.

 

Additionally, the Notes section of the instructions refer to the debug version:

Quote

There is an alternative ‘debug’ version of the firmware.  This is for assisting with testing and informational purposes, which details MD5 checksum and ROM size data.  It is included in the archive in a separate 'Debug' folder, but not required to be installed.

To be clear, standard is the default instructed installation A.K.A. just want to play cartridges.

The debug version is for assisting with testing and information purposes which details MD5 and ROM size details.

[Alex_813]

I updated the FW and dumper and tried Omega Race with the Booster Grip. It only partially works. The Thrust button is working 100%. The Fire button however is intermittent. No real timing or anything. Sometimes it fires one shot, sometimes 2 in a row, sometimes none at all.

 

Edit:

I see what's going on here. Looks like the button is working backwards. If I hold it down, nothing happens, but as soon as I let go, it fires a shot.

 

Edit 2:

Booster grip seems to only respond with the CH40+. I just tried 2 original CX40 controllers, and no Fire function at all.

Edited July 18 by Alex_813
New info

[John Stamos Mullet]

On 7/16/2024 at 8:46 PM, raz0red said:

FA (CBS Ram Plus)

 

MD5: 9947f1ebabb56fd075a96c6d37351efa

 

Chris.

Thanks, chris,

 

Still can't get Omega Race running on the 2600+ from Harmony, even with the latest 2.0 Beta Harmony Beta software. It runs fine as a single rom/Dev mode on my real 7800, but the 2600+ never loads it up, and very quickly jumps from Loading Game... to "No Game Detected". So can't get the debug info either.

 

Weird.

 

anybody else run into this?

 

It's entirely possible (read: likely) that I f'ed something up here. Is there a specific version of the Harmony firmware that plays nicer with the HArmony? I have the original harmony, not the encore, with the full size SD slot and the mini-Usb connector. Currently I'm on HBios106 that came with the latest software version.

Edited July 18 by John Stamos Mullet