Supercharger Roms?

[JDubTheGaymer]

Will there be Super Charger support in the future? I want to play some good old cassette based games.

[SainT]

I’ve got virtually no space free, so supercharger support is very unlikely.

[+CyranoJ]

You guys have hogged his time for far too long with this  Go play with what you have and let us have him back for some Jaguar work for a bit.

[odyssey]

Just buy a used Supercharger online. I was able to locate all the games in mp3 format and loaded them onto an mp3 player. Works like a charm and used Superchargers are not that expensive if you look around.

[+Gemintronic]

I'd rather someone start an actual 7800 cassette adapter (not 2600 only).  Something that would have pre made assets that the cassette based game can call to avoid long load times.

[odyssey]

36 minutes ago, Gemintronic said:

I'd rather someone start an actual 7800 cassette adapter (not 2600 only).  Something that would have pre made assets that the cassette based game can call to avoid long load times.

I mean the games load in about 10 seconds "never timed it" but not sure how short your time is. It's bit quicker in mp3 I can tell you since you don't have to wait for the leader.

Edited May 7 by odyssey

[odyssey]

Works as intended.

 

 

 

Edited May 7 by odyssey

[JDubTheGaymer]

1 hour ago, odyssey said:

Works as intended.

 

 

 

But only with certain models of the 7800. I have a model that doesn’t support the Supercharger. I could still use it in my 2600 but I want roms of the Starpath games that are super expensive. I bought a Harmony flash cart. I’m not worrying about the Game Drive support anymore.

[odyssey]

1 hour ago, JDubTheGaymer said:

But only with certain models of the 7800. I have a model that doesn’t support the Supercharger. I could still use it in my 2600 but I want roms of the Starpath games that are super expensive. I bought a Harmony flash cart. I’m not worrying about the Game Drive support anymore.

I mean I guess I got lucky. May be easier just to search for an older 7800 that is more compatable. Mine has X on the back so not sure seems like it's a final production run model. I could never get any of the superchargers games to work on my Concerto. Never owned a Harmony so can't say for sure. I'm glad it worked for you.

Edited May 8 by odyssey

[+Gemintronic]

7 hours ago, odyssey said:

I mean the games load in about 10 seconds "never timed it" but not sure how short your time is. It's bit quicker in mp3 I can tell you since you don't have to wait for the leader.

 

Yeah, sorry.  Didn't make it clear enough that I was talkin' about loading 7800 games and not 2600.  When you count the increased size of assets (graphics, sounds, etc...) loading is gonna get slower.  In that case you need to get creative.  Generic assets in ROM.  Load the game and or assets into onboard flash, etc..

[+-^CrossBow^-]

On 5/7/2024 at 5:17 PM, odyssey said:

Just buy a used Supercharger online. I was able to locate all the games in mp3 format and loaded them onto an mp3 player. Works like a charm and used Superchargers are not that expensive if you look around.

Curious how you got the Supercharger to actually fit in your 7800? My Supercharger has dust pegs that aren't spring loaded so they don't retract. As a result, i had to remove additional plastic on the cartridge sleeve in order for the cartridge to even sit down all the way to make contact. Does your SC have spring dust pegs on it that retract?

 

[Trebor]

10 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Curious how you got the Supercharger to actually fit in your 7800? My Supercharger has dust pegs that aren't spring loaded so they don't retract. As a result, i had to remove additional plastic on the cartridge sleeve in order for the cartridge to even sit down all the way to make contact. Does your SC have spring dust pegs on it that retract?

Likely they had to do not a thing to the Supercharger or their console. 

 

Several have posted throughout the years of the Supercharger fitting and playing just fine - including some individuals utilizing multiple 7800 consoles without issue.

 

Here are a few examples:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/117221-just-grabbed-a-7800/#comment-1419095

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/74550-fell-in-love-with-the-7800/#comment-912879

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/14673-supercharger-compatibility/#comment-147016

 

Not denying your experience or what was necessary to make it work (fit) for a particular console; however, the need to modify the plastic cartridge sleeve is not an absolute must for all units.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

11 hours ago, Trebor said:

Likely they had to do not a thing to the Supercharger or their console. 

 

Several have posted throughout the years of the Supercharger fitting and playing just fine - including some individuals utilizing multiple 7800 consoles without issue.

 

Here are a few examples:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/117221-just-grabbed-a-7800/#comment-1419095

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/74550-fell-in-love-with-the-7800/#comment-912879

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/14673-supercharger-compatibility/#comment-147016

 

Not denying your experience or what was necessary to make it work (fit) for a particular console; however, the need to modify the plastic cartridge sleeve is not an absolute must for all units.

Trebor I will try and explain this as best I can...since apparently it isn't being made clear. My SC doesn't seem to have retractable dust door pegs on it. As a result, the SC cart bottoms out too quickly on the 7800s I've tried it with. Therefore, there are only two things I can do to allow my SC to work on 7800s:

 

The first is to trim back the dust pegs on the SC cart back about a cm. That would allow them to still open dust doors on actual 2600s but also allow for enough clearance on the 7800 so that it can seat fully into the slot.

The 2nd option and the one I chose for my personal 7800, was to remove the plastic inside the sleeve that the anchor screws for the cartridge sleeve go into. That plastic sits directly under the slots that the dust pegs on 2600 cartridges go through. As a result, that extra plastic means that the dust pegs either have to be on the shorter side of things, or be spring loaded so they can retract. It is the same reason some Tigervision games won't fit in the 7800. Not due to the tightness of the sleeve, but because the carts dust pegs are too long and bottom out before the PCB can make proper contact with the slot connector inside. So..yeah, I removed that extra plastic.

 

The only issue with doing this, is that my cart sleeve on my personal 7800 now has a bit more movement since the only thing holding it in place is just the snap tabs. So sometimes I have to fiddle with the games a bit to get them to line up and insert other wise the sleeve might be shifted in such a way that the opening is actually on the edge of the slot etc. 

 

So I have to assume that there are SCs out there that have retractable dust pegs that don't have this issue, and some that don't like my own.

 

[odyssey]

On 5/10/2024 at 9:03 AM, -^CrossBow^- said:

Trebor I will try and explain this as best I can...since apparently it isn't being made clear. My SC doesn't seem to have retractable dust door pegs on it. As a result, the SC cart bottoms out too quickly on the 7800s I've tried it with. Therefore, there are only two things I can do to allow my SC to work on 7800s:

 

The first is to trim back the dust pegs on the SC cart back about a cm. That would allow them to still open dust doors on actual 2600s but also allow for enough clearance on the 7800 so that it can seat fully into the slot.

The 2nd option and the one I chose for my personal 7800, was to remove the plastic inside the sleeve that the anchor screws for the cartridge sleeve go into. That plastic sits directly under the slots that the dust pegs on 2600 cartridges go through. As a result, that extra plastic means that the dust pegs either have to be on the shorter side of things, or be spring loaded so they can retract. It is the same reason some Tigervision games won't fit in the 7800. Not due to the tightness of the sleeve, but because the carts dust pegs are too long and bottom out before the PCB can make proper contact with the slot connector inside. So..yeah, I removed that extra plastic.

 

The only issue with doing this, is that my cart sleeve on my personal 7800 now has a bit more movement since the only thing holding it in place is just the snap tabs. So sometimes I have to fiddle with the games a bit to get them to line up and insert other wise the sleeve might be shifted in such a way that the opening is actually on the edge of the slot etc. 

 

So I have to assume that there are SCs out there that have retractable dust pegs that don't have this issue, and some that don't like my own.

 

I was going to respond to this earlier but wasn't sure of the exact issue since I know the simple mod to get Superchargers to work on any 7800 but breaks the 2600 version of Dark Chambers if that matters to you. So now that it's clarified have you thought about having a custom port receiver 3d printed or even a supercharger casing? I've seen online services where you can have a sample done for a reasonable cost of around $20 of course you still need to provide the 3d scan of what you would like printed.

Edited May 13 by odyssey

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Well other solutions have come about including one from 8-bit widgets that should work as it basically is an extension to the cartridge port that should be fine to cover that clearance issue with the dust pegs. In my case, the modification I did can't really be seen unless you shine a light directly into the dust peg openings on the port and can see that it just goes through the main board. Or look at the main board and see that the retaining screws aren't there. The only issue as I stated with what I did is that the sleeve does shift around a bit as there is some play. It won't fall out since it is still clipped to the main board by the tabs, and the top shell on the console will ensure it doesn't ever fall 'up'.

 

[odyssey]

On 5/9/2024 at 10:33 AM, -^CrossBow^- said:

Curious how you got the Supercharger to actually fit in your 7800? My Supercharger has dust pegs that aren't spring loaded so they don't retract. As a result, i had to remove additional plastic on the cartridge sleeve in order for the cartridge to even sit down all the way to make contact. Does your SC have spring dust pegs on it that retract?

 

Not sure but nothing unusual here that would make it not fit. It worked from day one when I ordered my Supercharger off of ebay. Plays every game so far but haven't tried 2600 Dark Chambers so thinking that game won't work since mine is a later production year 7800. My console was modded when purchased so almost sure they did the Supercharger mod but I never got around to check but it does have an A/V mod from the door.

Edited May 13 by odyssey

[+-^CrossBow^-]

They might have modified the sleeve, but I also think it is possible that there are different models of the super charger that have spring retracting pegs. Again, I own tigervision carts that are similar with the pegs being too long and others with spring pegs that retract so they aren't an issue.

 

That aside, I also converted the .bin files back to .wav format (Winamp is good for this btw), and then copied those .wav files to my digital walkman and used it to load them up without issue.

 

[odyssey]

I've been looking for replacement ports since I have one broken tab on my 7800 but doesn't give me any issues but I know I'm on borrowed time. Only reason I'm bringing this up because with the right info anything can be made to work.

 

Something like this. 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3527007

Edited May 13 by odyssey