Derf_Jagged Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Hello! I was curious what exactly happens when you try and play incompatible games (Pitfall, Mountain King, Krazy Shootout, others?) on an 2-port system. I understand you can swap the BIOS out for a 4-port one and it will let you play them, but I want to understand what symptoms you actually see when trying one of these games. Black screen? Glitched graphics? Controllers not working? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 It's like this: It's just done using 1982-era technology. 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rra Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 On 3/22/2024 at 11:16 AM, x=usr(1536) said: It's like this: It's just done using 1982 technology. The Weekly World News always hit the hard stories head on and was 100% truthful all the time! (For non-US readers, this is a joke!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
space_dungeon Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 On 3/22/2024 at 9:04 AM, Derf_Jagged said: Hello! I was curious what exactly happens when you try and play incompatible games (Pitfall, Mountain King, Krazy Shootout, others?) on an 2-port system. I understand you can swap the BIOS out for a 4-port one and it will let you play them, but I want to understand what symptoms you actually see when trying one of these games. Black screen? Glitched graphics? Controllers not working? Thanks! Pitfall, Mountain King, and Krazy Shootout all work on my multi-cart 2 port 5200. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 26 minutes ago, space_dungeon said: Pitfall, Mountain King, and Krazy Shootout all work on my multi-cart 2 port 5200. If a 4-port BIOS is installed or you're using the versions that were fixed to work on the 2-port machines, they'll be fine. On a 2-port BIOS with the original dumps, they'll fail. @Derf_Jagged: To answer your original question properly: it won't harm anything to use them in a 2-port, but they'll be glitchy and/or unplayable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derf_Jagged Posted March 24 Author Share Posted March 24 59 minutes ago, space_dungeon said: Pitfall, Mountain King, and Krazy Shootout all work on my multi-cart 2 port 5200. I believe there was a later official revision that added proper support (i.e. they realized it caused issues with those games so they made a bios revision). 33 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said: If a 4-port BIOS is installed or you're using the versions that were fixed to work on the 2-port machines, they'll be fine. On a 2-port BIOS with the original dumps, they'll fail. @Derf_Jagged: To answer your original question properly: it won't harm anything to use them in a 2-port, but they'll be glitchy and/or unplayable. I appreciate the answer. How does it manifest? Sprites being garbled? Completely scrambled screen? Just looking to add that information to ConsoleMods.org on a troubleshooting page just so it's precise for people looking for an answer of "why does my console do X when playing Pitfall?". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted March 24 Share Posted March 24 1 hour ago, Derf_Jagged said: I appreciate the answer. How does it manifest? Sprites being garbled? Completely scrambled screen? Just looking to add that information to ConsoleMods.org on a troubleshooting page just so it's precise for people looking for an answer of "why does my console do X when playing Pitfall?". Someone with an unmodified 2-port would need to answer that one - mine has the 4-port BIOS in it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 It has been some time since I messed with this but I believe in the case of both Krazy Shootout and Mountain King you just get a black screen. In the case of the Pitfall, I want to say that it does come up but you won't be able to control Pitfall Harry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 I have mountain king and pitfall. Both work on my 2 port I got off eBay. Don't know if it was ever modified. Without opening it is there a way to tell if I have a 2 or 4 port bios? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 9 hours ago, 0078265317 said: I have mountain king and pitfall. Both work on my 2 port I got off eBay. Don't know if it was ever modified. Without opening it is there a way to tell if I have a 2 or 4 port bios? My recollection is that both the Atarimax 128-in-1 and Atarimax SD diagnostics can do this (128-in-1 shown): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 23 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said: My recollection is that both the Atarimax 128-in-1 and Atarimax SD diagnostics can do this (128-in-1 shown): How is this accessed? I've never seen this before? Wait NM I see that is the older 128-1 multicart. I don't think the Ultimate SD has anything like this on it? Or at least, I've never seen an option or anything like this. That is why I had Al create actual diagnostic carts for me for the 1.1 and 2.3 version to use in consoles. BTW... using the PAM diagnostics you can get a pretty good idea. The 1.1 will show that you have revision 1 of the NTSC ROM which, is the 4 port. If it comes up showing as ERROR or unknown, then it is likely a 2 port BIOS. I think the 2.3 diagnostics just show a checksum value and I've never bothered to record that LOL! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 11 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said: I don't think the Ultimate SD has anything like this on it? They have a diagnostic mode that can be accessed by holding down the player 1 fire button while booting the machine. I *think* it's in there, but I don't have access to my 5200 right now to verify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 I don't have any pam carts. Last time I looked on eBay it was very expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 2 hours ago, 0078265317 said: I don't have any pam carts. Last time I looked on eBay it was very expensive. That is why I had Al create some for me to use. But then again, I was willing to spend the money because they do get used a lot for my services. Most folks wouldn't need them or if collecting, they would want actual PAM carts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0078265317 Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 8 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said: That is why I had Al create some for me to use. But then again, I was willing to spend the money because they do get used a lot for my services. Most folks wouldn't need them or if collecting, they would want actual PAM carts. How much was the repo pam carts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 1 minute ago, 0078265317 said: How much was the repo pam carts? I can't recall as I did it as part of a trade towards work I did for him in prepping for PRGE. But you basically just choose the custom cartridge option and specify what ROM you want him to use. I even designed up some quick labels for the 1.1 and 2.3 carts he could use and he did use them on mine. Also, since most of the systems I get don't have the top shells on them when I service them, I requested my carts NOT have the spring loaded dust covers so that I could more easily plug them in for use since the pegs for the dust doors are in fact part of the top shell mold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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