Conan for A8PicoCart

[medjai]

Hey everyone,

 

I recently acquired a new Atari 800XL and A8PicoCart.

It's been amazing to experience Atari's nostalgia once again.

However, I'm encountering an issue with one game - Conan! 

 

I have a CAR file (262KB), but the A8PicoCart cannot load it.

Does anyone have a working version of Conan for A8Pico? I would appreciate it.

[Beeblebrox]

35 minutes ago, medjai said:

Hey everyone,

 

I recently acquired a new Atari 800XL and A8PicoCart.

It's been amazing to experience Atari's nostalgia once again.

However, I'm encountering an issue with one game - Conan! 

 

I have a CAR file (262KB), but the A8PicoCart cannot load it.

Does anyone have a working version of Conan for A8Pico? I would appreciate it.

Hi. So the stock Atari 800XL you have is 64K, and the A8pico cart doesn't have much onboard ram to mount cartridge files larger than a certain size I believe. I don't know enough about the specs, but it is a cheaper multicart, so won't have some of the excellent features the likes of more expensive carts like SIDE3, AVG/SUBAVG or Ultimate cart's offer. (With the latter you can mount up to 1MB CAR files).

 

You could try one of the ATR files here but I think it's too large for A8pico and you 64k machine:

https://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=katalog&sub=C&tg=Conan#Conan

 

Remember, where game needs BASIC disabled, hold down the option key whilst selecting a game to load from the menu.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 08:20 PM by Beeblebrox

[woj]

A8PicoCart works with maximum 128KB carts, this is because the Pico has only 256KB of RAM and some of it needs to be left for the firmware operation. (And carts can't be run directly from FLASH, some of us have tried it, no one got it to work so far, hence the need to copy it to RAM first.)

[xrbrevin]

all my conan cart files are 256k

is there an .xex version?

Edited Sunday at 08:27 PM by xrbrevin

[Peri Noid]

Try one of these: https://atarionline.pl/v01/index.php?ct=kazip&sub=C&title=+Conan#kaz_772ead98567336028d941b5bf3fd576b

[medjai]

Thank you all for your messages!

 

@Beeblebrox I tried ATR files with and without the option key. I got stuck on the blue title screen.

@xrbrevin Do you have any *.ROM files for Conan? I would love to try.

@Peri Noid Unfortunately, these files didn't work. The XEX files didn't work, even on the Atari800MacX software for Mac.

 

Also, all Conan ATR files are two-sided. If it would work, I don't know how to flip the disk!

IMG_9099.HEIC

[Rybags]

The ATR in itself only represents a single disk side.  Emulators will often have a pulldown option and/or hotkey to flip disk/change side.

I'm fairly sure for that to work the filenames have to adhere to a certain format.

In the case they don't you should be able to just manually mount the other side image when prompted.

[+Philsan]

There's a Conan single disk (180 KB).

 

I will post it later when I'm back home but I think it's available in the forum.

 

Found it:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/325242-the-dallas-quest-cartridge-conversion/?do=findComment&comment=4913549

[_The Doctor__]

1 hour ago, Philsan said:

There's a Conan single disk (180 KB).

 

I will post it later when I'm back home but I think it's available in the forum.

 

Found it:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/325242-the-dallas-quest-cartridge-conversion/?do=findComment&comment=4913549

picocart 128 limit, could try and hope dead space gets cut...then there is the possibility that picoloader eats part of the 64k....

Edited 22 hours ago by _The Doctor__

[medjai]

@Philsan

Same! I got stuck on the blue title screen. I think I have to find the proper XEX or ROM version.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Hmmm, wild guess here...  does Conan require 64k to run ?

 

1) Regarding ATR: The A8PicoCart uses a soft-OS to boot ATR images (and this soft-OS uses RAM under the OS), so only 48k programs will work, 64k programs will NOT.

 

2) Regarding CAR/XEX: The A8PicoCart has a 128k limit... so CAR/XEX files that are larger will not work.

 

No limits? Use AVG/SUB carts with cables or SIDE 1/2/3 in combo with U1MB.

 

 

 

[Rybags]

Conan works with 48K.

 

OK - did a breakpoint test.  Conan nicely disables Basic on XL but the problem is it does so by storing $FF into PORTB.  So that will break any attempt to use a Ram-based OS.

Edited 21 hours ago by Rybags

[medjai]

This means I can't play Conan on A8PicoCart.

I should use another SD card device. Am I right? @Rybags

 

Or I will wait for someone to create an XEX/CAR file.

For instance, I have Goonies.car (131KB), and it is working well.

    

[xrbrevin]

for what its worth heres all the cart versions i found. maybe theres an exception among them hehe

 

 

Conan - Switchable XEGS2.rom Conan - MaxFlash bank 0.bin Conan.car Conan [Switchable XEGS].rom

[manterola]

If there is a xex version, without many segments, it can be transformed to a .CAR with Williams banking scheme relatively easy.

Check this out:

 

I have converted a couple already.

[Beeblebrox]

14 hours ago, medjai said:

This means I can't play Conan on A8PicoCart.

I should use another SD card device. Am I right?

Unless you have a multicart such as Side3, AVG, SubAVG or Ultimate cart, which can mount up to 1MB CAR images, I think you'll have to wait and see if someone can create a CAR image as suggested.

 

You won't be able to use any SD SIO based device, (such as SDrive max, SIO2PC USB or SIO2SD), as these are essentially SIO based drive emulators as aside these not having their own RAM, they  do not support mounting CAR images). They only support XEX, ATX and ATR images.

[Rybags]

Possibly the ATR could be patched to remove the PORTA modification - but unknown if it would do any good.