Cuttle Cart 2 Discussion Thread

[scooby105]

I just got one of these carts a few days ago. Would anyone be able to send me the setup they have on their card?

[slorrin]

This thread is ENORMOUS, and i just can't read it all. I'm sorry.

 

But, i want to know if this cartridge is compatible with the atari 2600 Music Kit, from qotile.net. You know, the dude that made synthcart and cynthcart... he made that atari sequencer (that you edit in text files and compile to an atari rom).

 

I know the 7800 is MOSTLY 2600 compatible, and i was wondering if anyone had used the Cuttle Cart 2 for that particular program.

 

 

My second question, and i'm sure if i spent a couple hours reading this massive thread, i'd find out... but... will the cuttle cart 2 ever be produced again? is it like CC1, just gone for good? or is it merely currently soldout right now?

 

Thanks, sorry for not reading all 30 or so pages of this thread...

[AtariRocks]

My second question, and i'm sure if i spent a couple hours reading this massive thread, i'd find out... but... will the cuttle cart 2 ever be produced again? is it like CC1, just gone for good? or is it merely currently soldout right now?

 

It's sold out permanently. I think Chad is now working on a CC3 for the Intellivision.

[+Mitch]

My second question, and i'm sure if i spent a couple hours reading this massive thread, i'd find out... but... will the cuttle cart 2 ever be produced again? is it like CC1, just gone for good? or is it merely currently soldout right now?

 

It's sold out permanently. I think Chad is now working on a CC3 for the Intellivision.

 

I don't know if I would say it's "permanently" sold out. If there was enough demand I wouldn't be surprised if Chad did another run. Right now though, there is not enough demand.

 

Mitch

[+FujiSkunk]

I don't know if I would say it's "permanently" sold out. If there was enough demand I wouldn't be surprised if Chad did another run. Right now though, there is not enough demand.

 

My understanding is the Cuttle Cart II uses an MMC reader part that is no longer being manufactured, or at least it wasn't at the time of the second production run (he found a stash of old stock).

 

Unless the introduction of RS-MMC cards has given companies incentive to put that part back in production, a third CC2 run is highly unlikely.

 

Of course, a new run could use SD cards instead, but apparently that requires a bit of licensing which would drive the price up even more.

Edited August 27, 2007 by skunkworx

[128bytes]

I don't know if I would say it's "permanently" sold out. If there was enough demand I wouldn't be surprised if Chad did another run. Right now though, there is not enough demand.

 

My understanding is the Cuttle Cart II uses an MMC reader part that is no longer being manufactured, or at least it wasn't at the time of the second production run (he found a stash of old stock).

 

Unless the introduction of RS-MMC cards has given companies incentive to put that part back in production, a third CC2 run is highly unlikely.

 

Of course, a new run could use SD cards instead, but apparently that requires a bit of licensing which would drive the price up even more.

 

Skunkworx - here is Chad Schell's comment from earlier in this thread that you were referring to.

 

I guess I'd ask people what brands of RSMMCs are working for them and stick with them.

 

As for SD cards, sure if I did it again it would use SD cards. But at the time I designed the CC2, SD Cards weren't in wide use and the information on how to initialize them was only available by joining the SD Card association for like $5000.00 (which is a lot considering the number of CC2s being made). These days the info is available on the net, although you still have to dig for it.

 

Chad

 

By the way, my SimpleTech RS-MMC works perfectly. If you own a CC2 and haven't bought one yet, I highly recommend getting one while supplies are still abundant onlline. Here's the 128mb one I have at a whopping $8.05

Edited August 27, 2007 by 128bytes

[mimo]

Do any of the RS-MMC cards work with a CC2 , as in DV Rs-MMC, RS-MMC Mobile?

 

just want to be sure to buy the right one this time, just got a Trancend MMC plus 1GB, and it no workey

[godzillajoe]

Here's a few questions about the CC2 that I have

 

Can you add a header row to the menu?

 

I wanna organize my games by name but also wanna add section like this:

 

SPORTS

Bowling

Boxing

Home Run

 

ARCADE PORTS

Asteroids

Missile Command

Phoenix

 

Maybe below that have games listed by company

 

ATARI

3-D Tic Tac Toe

Air Sea Battle

Backgammon

 

or

 

PROTOS

Elevator Action

Xevious

 

Can something like this be done? I guess I could just make each header row point to a game that doesn't exist right?

 

Anyone doing something like this?

 

Also, if anyone has a CC2 set up with EVERY NTSC game, I'd love to get a copy of your menu.txt file! Not even asking for the roms.

 

Been thinking of doing that myself but figure why reinvent the wheel

 

Also, what is the life expectancy of the CC2? I never unplug mine so I hope that cuts down on wear and tear.

[AtariRocks]

Here's a few questions about the CC2 that I have

 

Can you add a header row to the menu?

 

I wanna organize my games by name but also wanna add section like this:

 

SPORTS

Bowling

Boxing

Home Run

 

ARCADE PORTS

Asteroids

Missile Command

Phoenix

 

Maybe below that have games listed by company

 

ATARI

3-D Tic Tac Toe

Air Sea Battle

Backgammon

 

or

 

PROTOS

Elevator Action

Xevious

 

Can something like this be done? I guess I could just make each header row point to a game that doesn't exist right?

 

Each line in the menu has to have the proper syntax whether that game actually works or not and you can't have blank lines.

 

You can have menus within menus though.

 

CC2 FAQ

 

I'm pretty sure that page has some menus to download.

[Phantom]

None of the Hacks I have will load. I tried updating my cart today and only non hacks and homebrews didnt take. is there something special I need to do that unlike the normal loading of ROMs? I totally deleted what I had previously and made an entire new menu of games. It kept saying "not recognized" on quite a few and Im asuuming its the hacks. It was flying by when it said that so i couldnt make out individual games when it was finalizing but when i tested it, i had more games than previous but all hacks seem to be missing. Any help pretty please as this has wasted most of my free time that was supposed to be time spent playing not screwing around with this but i wanted to try these new games so Pretty please, any help is greatly appeciated. thanks

[+Mitch]

None of the Hacks I have will load. I tried updating my cart today and only non hacks and homebrews didnt take. is there something special I need to do that unlike the normal loading of ROMs? I totally deleted what I had previously and made an entire new menu of games. It kept saying "not recognized" on quite a few and Im asuuming its the hacks. It was flying by when it said that so i couldnt make out individual games when it was finalizing but when i tested it, i had more games than previous but all hacks seem to be missing. Any help pretty please as this has wasted most of my free time that was supposed to be time spent playing not screwing around with this but i wanted to try these new games so Pretty please, any help is greatly appeciated. thanks

 

Yes, it sounds like you need an updated ROMDB file. I need to update mine again, if I do then I'll post it. Maybe someone else has one that they can post though.

 

Mitch

[Phantom]

None of the Hacks I have will load. I tried updating my cart today and only non hacks and homebrews didnt take. is there something special I need to do that unlike the normal loading of ROMs? I totally deleted what I had previously and made an entire new menu of games. It kept saying "not recognized" on quite a few and Im asuuming its the hacks. It was flying by when it said that so i couldnt make out individual games when it was finalizing but when i tested it, i had more games than previous but all hacks seem to be missing. Any help pretty please as this has wasted most of my free time that was supposed to be time spent playing not screwing around with this but i wanted to try these new games so Pretty please, any help is greatly appeciated. thanks

 

Yes, it sounds like you need an updated ROMDB file. I need to update mine again, if I do then I'll post it. Maybe someone else has one that they can post though.

 

Mitch

Thanks whatever it is. Can it be had by going to Chads site? I found the Menu Generator there today when i accidentally deleted it from my PC. Even if I found what looked like it, thats something id want to be sure about because Im not all that PC inclined, just a lil more knoledgeable than the avg Id say. Trial and error sually works but this took for ever to fgure out which is why I asked here so thank you so much for the help and please anyone that can tell me where to get one of these updates, please let me know. And thanks again Mitch.

 

PS?> Ive seen people posting their menus throughout this topic. You cant just use someone else menus right? You still do need the roms right? and they need to be in synch somehow I would imagine. You cant get it in synch just by adding someones menu you already have all the Roms for in the games folder of the CC2, or can you? Im just curious why they seem to suggest they can be used for that or maybe I read them wrong? i read so much today looking for a fix for these Hacks Im a bit dizzy still. I have some time to play this weekend so maybe I can figure this out before its over. Also i have over 500 games on a 32 RSMMC. Could it be Im just out of space? I heard there should be plenty of room on it before i bought it and I have a 256 unopened that I bought cheap. So I could go with the newer pne if theres a possibilty I should. Anyhow, thanks for all the help. We have some good peeps here at AA that always help and I just wanted to acknowledge that. take care

[supercat]

and they need to be in synch somehow I would imagine.

 

The CC2's menu will display the contents of the menu file. Selecting a game from the menu file will cause the system to try to load the ROM, banking, and startup files specified therein. If a game exists in the menu file but the files don't exist, it will show up in the menu but won't play. If the files exist but aren't listed in the menu, the game won't appear on the menu.

 

BTW, is there a convenient way in XP to eject a media card? Having to go to "my computer" and use the right-click menu for the drive is a pain.

Edited October 6, 2007 by supercat

[Phantom]

and they need to be in synch somehow I would imagine.

 

The CC2's menu will display the contents of the menu file. Selecting a game from the menu file will cause the system to try to load the ROM, banking, and startup files specified therein. If a game exists in the menu file but the files don't exist, it will show up in the menu but won't play. If the files exist but aren't listed in the menu, the game won't appear on the menu.

 

BTW, is there a convenient way in XP to eject a media card? Having to go to "my computer" and use the right-click menu for the drive is a pain.

Thanks for the info & help.

So In short, if someone has a menu that has the games listed I cant seem to load, I can use anyones Menu and it will play whatever game matches it has so to speak? since the ROMS are in my Games folder on the CC2, all it needs is the correct menu to play them? Or does it still need special "Banking & Startup files" that I am missing somehow? No synchronicity is needed? Especially for the Hacks?

Thank You

[supercat]

So In short, if someone has a menu that has the games listed I cant seem to load, I can use anyones Menu and it will play whatever game matches it has so to speak? since the ROMS are in my Games folder on the CC2, all it needs is the correct menu to play them? Or does it still need special "Banking & Startup files" that I am missing somehow? No synchronicity is needed? Especially for the Hacks?

 

Although Chad provides some tools for working with menu files, I usually just edit them directly using a binary editor. You could actually use a text editor if you were careful, though everything would probably be on one line (see note below). Each game is 64 bytes:

• 40 bytes for the displayed title (I've not played with the whole ASCII set; I think codes 0-127 match the PC character set; upper characters are not useful)
  
• 8 bytes for the ROM file name, blank-padded (cartridge will load "\games\*.bin")
  
• 8 bytes for bank file name, blank-padded (cartridge will load "\banking\*.bin")
  
• 8 bytes for startup file name, blank-padded (cartridge will load "\startup\*.bin")
  

I'm not 100% positive, but I believe if you want to view the manual, it will use the first of the filenames to load "\manuals\*.txt".

 

The easiest way to use a text editor, if you didn't mind your game titles starting with two goofy characters, would be to start the text file with a blank line, and then list games one per line with 38 characters of title, and then the file names indicated. Lines must be padded out to exactly 62 characters (the CRLF adds two bytes at the beginning) and the file should not end with a blank line. Note that some text editors may strip trailing blanks. That could cause difficulties.

 

If you want to use such a text editor, you could have the first line contain 38 characters of the game name (ensuring the last character isn't blank if necessary). The next line should contain 24 bytes of info for the first game plus 38 characters of the next game name. Continue in this way until the last line which will just have the 24 bytes of game info for the previous game.

 

BTW, I've toyed with the idea of writing a program to do a directory of "GAMES" and add to the MENU.CC2 file any files that aren't already listed there (making some sort of guess about banking scheme).

Edited October 6, 2007 by supercat

[HammR25]

BTW, is there a convenient way in XP to eject a media card? Having to go to "my computer" and use the right-click menu for the drive is a pain.

 

Go to your taskbar and click on the thing I circled in the picture:

 

[HammR25]

Here's my 7800 menu

7800.zip

[HammR25]

Making menus is rather easy using the cc2menu.exe file Chad included....unless of course you own a Mac.

 

 

 

Menu Name = whatever you want to show up in the menu when you start your 7800

Rom File Name = The 8 character name of the rom without the .bin extension

Rom Type = One of several. Usually it includes the rom file size. The one highlighted uses the high score cart and is 32K so it uses HSC_32K

Bios needed to run rom = THere are several different bios. That particular hack uses the high score cart bios so it just has HSC in there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They can also be made with the java files from this website.

7800.txt

[Phantom]

Ok so Im still a lil confused. if I downloaded say one of the menus above of others, and my folder has the games as well and they are instyalled now altoether on my cc2, it will find those games and match them with the menu or no? See Im still unclear how I get these hacks to recognize. They are there, they just arent available in my menu. I have some of Salem frosts Roms to I wanted to play, same thing, the Roms are loaded, but they arent in the menu. So it beats me and I just waste hours when i try to get it to work. I want to try someones menu on mine but Im afarid I could somehow mess it up that way. BTW, If our CC2 breaks down the road, is it possible to get fixed. of course I would pay for that to be done if need be. Heres hoping it never does. Anyhow, thanks to all that have posted but Im not as adept at this stuff. I can make it all up and it works fine since i have 500+ games on there, but the hacks just arent complying. If someone could make a download with all of the Roms in there with all the proper files so they work and I could just download that onto my CC2 thru a zip files or something, id pay for that as well but the hacks would have to work for sure. If anyone gets something together like that for themselves even and wants a few bucks to send me their zip file, Im all game. Te Entire Library would be nice with even the PAL versions of games that never made NTSC. Now theres a goal! LOL, Thanks, Ant

[Phantom]

Making menus is rather easy using the cc2menu.exe file Chad included....unless of course you own a Mac.

 

 

 

Menu Name = whatever you want to show up in the menu when you start your 7800

Rom File Name = The 8 character name of the rom without the .bin extension

Rom Type = One of several. Usually it includes the rom file size. The one highlighted uses the high score cart and is 32K so it uses HSC_32K

Bios needed to run rom = THere are several different bios. That particular hack uses the high score cart bios so it just has HSC in there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They can also be made with the java files from this website.

 

BTW, thanks for this, this is interesting and should eventually help me understand it all better. So the hacks that arent recognized in my menu... is it because they have none or the wrong Bios? Ok, Im scaring myself because i dont know what the ell I just said. Thanks though

Edited October 16, 2007 by Phantom

[HammR25]

To troubleshoot I would:

 

1. Check to make sure I have that homebrew/hack in my games folder on my MMC.

2. Check to make sure the name of that homebrew matches what is in the menu.txt file exactly (to make sure single click on the file name and copy it then paste it into your menu entry)

3. right click on the rom and click properties to see what size the file is.

4. Make sure the rom type has the same file size in it.

5. If it still has the correct file size in it and still doesn't work I'd find another entry in the menu file that had the same file size but other different letters. (say for example instead of HSC_32K I'd change it to 7800_32K).

6. Make sure I have the correct bios for the rom type. if it's 7800_32K I'd make sure it was using the 78BIOS. If the rom type is HSC_32K then I'd have to make sure the BIOS is HSC.....etc.

 

Lastly, make sure you tab between entries on a menu line or you'll get errors when creating the .CC2 menu file.

 

edit:

One more thing. If a game is a hack of some other game it's most likely going to use the same rom type and bios as the game it was hacked from. I'd say the exception to this rule would probably be Pacman Collection as I assume it's a larger file size than the original but I'd have to check.

Edited October 17, 2007 by HammR25

[mimo]

Pac man collection is HSC_32K

The only thing that I would add is to make sure the .bin is in the game file, and not the a78

[Phantom]

I would pay someone to give me a zip file with every game on it....

all ROM hacks from AA and every 2600/7800 bin/ROM that is in existance.

 

Anyone have done this already and hw much if so? PM me.

Im good with PC but i cant figure this Hack Stuff out at all and evertime I make a new cc2 folder and update with more games, i still have about a 1/3 of the games left off and then tonight after trying 4 hours to figure out what i was doing wrong, I somehow got Mr roboto on my cc2, and all that comes up is a blank black screen! UGH!!!

I wanted to try this and possibly buy it. Im gettin combat rock regardless because i like the artwork on the label but i would still like to try these games. The ROMS available so I assume that is ok to do? But I cant figure it out. i'll keep trying Im sure but if someones already done it, then please let me know and what you want in return? Im just tired of wasting the lil time I have that i could be playing. If Im paying for it, I want an as complete an NTSC zip file as possible. i eve have some hacks that can be added that you maynot be able to find. Maybe Id have better luck with the hacks on my Krok? These multi carts really make me feel dumb sometimes. Cheers

[Phantom]

Pac man collection is HSC_32K

The only thing that I would add is to make sure the .bin is in the game file, and not the a78

What is these .78 and then another version next to it? Im always confused by this. Anyone?

[HammR25]

The A78 file is for emulators. the CC2 uses bin files.