5200 Tempest Development Binaries - 3-15-84

[Dutchman2000]

Here are 2 binaries for 5200 Tempest that were made for Atari's Black Box development system, this is what games were tested on during development.  The addresses of the chips on this system were different  then a stock 5200. These work on emulators but elements are missing due to the address differences.  I am hoping that someone with some more expertise could modify these binaries to work on a real 5200. These were found on the Tempest development disks along with the source code dated 3-15-84.  I converted them from DLD files to BIN, using the same tools used at Atari back in the day.  DLD files were compiled and then downloaded to the development system for testing. 

demo.bin temp.bin

[Tempest]

@Kr0tki is this something you can fix?

[Dutchman2000]

In the PAMEQU file, it tells you the different addresses:

 

;	PAM MNEMONICS
;
ANTIC	=	0D400
;
	.IF	NDF,ZZZROM
	; ... FOR 800 BLACKBOX
GTIA	=	0D000
POKEY	=	0D200
	.ENDC

	.IF	DF,ZZZROM
	; ... FOR EPROM OR ROM
GTIA	=	0C000
POKEY	=	0E800
VOTRAX	=	0E000
	.ENDC

 

[Kr0tki]

What was this 800 Black Box system? I understand it was an Atari 800 with some modifications, but finding anything on the web is difficult because of the unrelated "Black Box" hard disk interface. Dit it contain a special OS ROM? Did it support standard 5200 controllers, with their 2nd button and keyboards? The latter would require some rewiring of the GTIA outputs to make them work like on a 5200.

 

On 4/29/2024 at 4:23 AM, Tempest said:

@Kr0tki is this something you can fix?

I guess I could look into it, but it would be much less time wasted If I had access to the source code.

 

On 4/29/2024 at 5:41 AM, Dutchman2000 said:

In the PAMEQU file, it tells you the different addresses:

 

;	PAM MNEMONICS
;
ANTIC	=	0D400
;
	.IF	NDF,ZZZROM
	; ... FOR 800 BLACKBOX
GTIA	=	0D000
POKEY	=	0D200
	.ENDC

	.IF	DF,ZZZROM
	; ... FOR EPROM OR ROM
GTIA	=	0C000
POKEY	=	0E800
VOTRAX	=	0E000
	.ENDC

 

Interesting. Are there any other occurrences of ZZZROM in the sources?

 

Wait a moment, so Atari planned to connect a Votrax to the 5200's expansion port?

[Dutchman2000]

ZZZROM is only mentioned at the beginning of the code, to setup the system:

.TITLE		TEMPEST		BY KEITHEN

		.NLIST LD	;DON'T LIST LISTING DIRECTIVES
		.NLIST BEX	;DON'T LIST ALL .BYTE DATA
		.NLIST MEB	;DON'T LET SEE CODE FROM MACROS
		.LIST		;LIST EVERYTHING (OVERRIDES BALANCED NLISTS)

;ZZZROM	= 1
ONEROM	= 1	;DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM ALWAYS LOOKS LIKE 1 ROM VERSION

 

[Dutchman2000]

From what I understand, the black boxes had the standard OS ROM, used standard controllers and functioned pretty much like a stock 5200 except for the fact that the GTIA and POKEY resided at different addresses. 

 

I'll have to look into the Votrax, I never really noticed it mentioned in there. 

[Kr0tki]

On 5/1/2024 at 2:30 PM, Dutchman2000 said:

the black boxes had the standard OS ROM, used standard controllers and functioned pretty much like a stock 5200

I'm assuming that you mean that it was a standard Atari 800 computer with standard 5200 OS ROM, right?

 

I've made an experiment. Instead of adapting these Tempest ROMs to the standard 5200, I went the other way. I took the 5200 BIOS ROM and prepended it with 8 KB of emptiness, to be able to use it as a 10 KB 400/800 ROM in an emulator. I also replaced all the references to GTIA and ANTIC addresses with the proper values for the 800 computer; otherwise the system would not boot. I used this modified ROM as an OS ROM for the 800 computer, so now I am having a somewhat plausible recreation of the Atari 800 Black Box system 🙂

 

Then I loaded the Tempest ROM from the first post, selecting "Standard 16 KB cartridge" as its type (specifically I did not choose any of the "5200 cartridge" types). And voila! the game booted, with the 5200 splash screen and all.

 

Of course, the controller incompatibilities immediately come into play: the console expects paddle inputs instead of standard joystick, and to simulate pressing the 5200 keypad keys, one needs to press multiple keys on the keyboard simultaneously. So to simulate the 5200 joystick:

- Directions: use paddles

- Bottom fire: press Fire on joystick

- Top fire: press Shift and Break

- Start: press F and H

- Pause: press = and V

- Reset: press Inverse Video and R

- 1: press 2 and 1

- 2: press Esc and 5

- 3: press 3 and 6

- 4: press X and Z

- 5: press Backspace and 8

- 6: press 0 and 7

- 7: press W and Q

- 8: press Tab and T

- 9: press P and U

- *: press / and Inverse Video

- 0: press F2 and K

- #: press . and N

 

With that in mind, I've checked both Tempest ROMs. "temp.bin" appears to be an early demo with invinciblity and very limited enemies programmed in. "demo.bin" is more advanced, but still the variety of enemies is limited and there is invincibility.

 

Attached is the modified 5200 BIOS ROM for use as a 400/800 OS, if anyone wants to test the game themselves.

Atari 5200 rev1 black box.rom

Edited May 20 by Kr0tki

[Tempest]

14 minutes ago, Kr0tki said:

I'm assuming that you mean that it was a standard Atari 800 computer with standard 5200 OS ROM, right?

 

I've made an experiment. Instead of adapting these Tempest ROMs to the standard 5200, I went the other way. I took the 5200 BIOS ROM and prepended it with 8 KB of emptiness, to be able to use it as a 10 KB 400/800 ROM in an emulator. I also replaced all the references to GTIA and ANTIC addresses with the proper values for the 800 computer; otherwise the system would not boot. I used this modified ROM as an OS ROM for the 800 computer, so now I am having a somewhat plausible recreation of the Atari 800 Black Box system 🙂

Do you think these roms are the same as the two known ones?

 

http://www.atariprotos.com/5200/software/tempest/tempest.htm

[Kr0tki]

temp.bin seems identical to the 3-15-84 prototype - there are Pulsar enemies only, no collision detection, cannot destroy enemies, no automatic level progression.

 

demo.bin is different than either prototype:

- There is collision detection - the player can shoot Flippers.

- Flippers can kill the player, although except for a short pause while the kill sound is being played there is no other effect, no loss of life, and the game resumes immediately.

- There is a second type of enemies, I guess the Fuseballs, that move slowly up the lane, and disappear when reach its end. They cannot be shot and do not harm the player.

- The game advances to the next level after a certain amount of Flippers is killed - the automatic level skip is disabled.

- The "keypad playes sounds" easter egg is disabled.

[Kr0tki]

On 5/1/2024 at 2:30 PM, Dutchman2000 said:

From what I understand, the black boxes had the standard OS ROM, used standard controllers and functioned pretty much like a stock 5200 except for the fact that the GTIA and POKEY resided at different addresses.

So based on my experiment, I believe this Atari 800 Black Box system must have been slightly more modified in order to function like a stock 5200:

- It must have contained a 5200 BIOS in order to boot 5200 ROMs, but modified to support the standard GTIA and POKEY's addresses.

- It must have contained some additional interface to connect a 5200 joystick to the 800's joystick port, specifically to paddle inputs.

- I doubt its users would accept the requirement to press random pairs of keys in order to simulate the 5200 keys, so either the system's keyboard was rewired, or the 5200 joystick was interfaced to the 800's keyboard connector on the mainboard (in addition to being connected to the joystick port).

- Either the system only supported keypad on Joystick 1, or had additional hardware modifications around GTIA and console keys to support all four keypads.

- It would need some hardware changes to support cartridges larger than 16 KB.

 

BTW. As of now, the only emulator that emulates pressing of multiple keys simultaneously is Altirra, so beware.

 

EDIT: I have binary-compared temp.bin and the 3-15-84 prototype, and the only differences are in addressing of the ROM, GTIA and POKEY. So these two versions are indeed functionally indentical.

Edited May 21 by Kr0tki

[Tempest]

It sounds like the DEMO rom is very close to the CES demo.  Maybe a week or two after?

 

@Dutchman2000 was there any kind of date on the the demo.bin file?

[Dutchman2000]

3 hours ago, Tempest said:

It sounds like the DEMO rom is very close to the CES demo.  Maybe a week or two after?

 

@Dutchman2000 was there any kind of date on the the demo.bin file?

Nope, date on the file is 3-15-84 which is when the file was written to the disk.