Stella'sGhost Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 Brilliant!!! I'm buying one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efdious Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 OK, I'm new to this (programming/Atari) stuff and I have a few questions on the Krokodile Cartridge. 1) it's re-writable, right? And if so, can you pick and choose what you want to erase via the Commander? Like I said, I'm new to this and I know that my test homebrews will require more than just a patch or 2. I'm talking "back to square one" stuff. 2) can you upload data from the cart to your PC? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 Hello, 1) it's re-writable, right? And if so, can you pick and choose what you want to erase via the Commander? Like I said, I'm new to this and I know that my test homebrews will require more than just a patch or 2. I'm talking "back to square one" stuff. Yes, you can reprogram the Krokodile Cart as many times as you'd like. For instance, you can maintain a set of games you program as a multi-cart, and if you want to swap one game for another (or a newer game), you can do so very easily. Uploading games is very fast, especially if you are just uploading a single game. 2) can you upload data from the cart to your PC? No, but why would you want to do this? ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 Hey Al, what were the results of your 7800 test? J/C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted December 13, 2004 Share Posted December 13, 2004 I'm curious about the 7800 test as well. -S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efdious Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Albert, thanks for the info! 2) can you upload data from the cart to your PC? No, but why would you want to do this? ..Al I was mostly just curious... mostly. -Brady Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroko Posted December 14, 2004 Author Share Posted December 14, 2004 ... mostly. The Krokodile Commander can verify, if your download was successful. It reads the content of the cart and compares it to the currently selected binary. But why would you want to store what you just downloaded ? You don't want to use the Krokodile Cart as a 512K memory stick, right ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
efdious Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 But why would you want to store what you just downloaded ? The "mostly" thing was mostly an "Aliens" reference... mostly. Being somewhat of a dumbass, I tend to do semi-dumb things and I often have to bail myself out of unfavorable situations... like accidently deleting something I just dumped onto the Krokodile. I'll just have to be careful! <---- that emoticon is called "party", but in this situation, it's a dunce-cap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Is there any way to pay a little extra and add space to the cartridge? all the 2k and 4k games on the cartridge would be nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 But why would you want to store what you just downloaded ? The "mostly" thing was mostly an "Aliens" reference... mostly. LOL, I missed that reference the first time around. Being somewhat of a dumbass, I tend to do semi-dumb things and I often have to bail myself out of unfavorable situations... like accidently deleting something I just dumped onto the Krokodile. You shouldn't have to worry too much--pretty much everything you'd download into the Krokodile Cart you'd be able to easily redownload from AtariAge and other sites. And since Atari 2600 binaries are quite small, they are easy to back up elsewhere (CDs, USB thumb drive, other hard drives, floppy disks, etc.) ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroko Posted December 14, 2004 Author Share Posted December 14, 2004 Is there any way to pay a little extra and add space to the cartridge? all the 2k and 4k games on the cartridge would be nice Sorry, the cart is in already in production. It is too late now to make changes to the design. I think 127 games on one multicart image should be ok. And you only need one minute to exchange the complete 512K image with a second multicart image that can hold another 127 games Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted December 15, 2004 Share Posted December 15, 2004 Is there any way to pay a little extra and add space to the cartridge? all the 2k and 4k games on the cartridge would be nice Sorry, the cart is in already in production. It is too late now to make changes to the design. I think 127 games on one multicart image should be ok. And you only need one minute to exchange the complete 512K image with a second multicart image that can hold another 127 games Aww, ok, thats fine. Thanks anyways, that's still one hell of a project though, I'm glad you was able to complete it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Hierophant Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Is the main Flash ROM memory socketed so it can be replaced when it fails. Flash memory will fail after so many burns (roughly 10,000) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Is the main Flash ROM memory socketed so it can be replaced when it fails. Flash memory will fail after so many burns (roughly 10,000) Never thought about that, but it really might become a problem. Maybe the software should be modified, so that it randomly uses the Flash ROM. Else the first bytes mail fail quite soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adams_ale Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I sure hope this doesn't present a problem. I don't want my KK to start breaking as soon as I use it. What would the life of it be then. Has this been a problem with anything else and would it be easy to fix? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adams_ale Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 10,000 sounds like a lot of flashes for memory, but what is quite soon? I'm not sure how that breaks down with saving and re-writing games to the cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Well if you do it once a day every day you would have 27 years of fun before having to worry - By then the CC2 will be $9.95 at Amazon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cschell Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 My guess is that the flash in the KK is good for 100,000 writes. So that's 10 loads per day for 27 straight years. A lot of flash devices in uses these days have these lifespans. It's really not much of a concern. (And from the pictures I would say yes it's socketed.) Chad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adams_ale Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Cool. I couldn't believe that something major like that would really be overlooked. Just wish some people weren't always looking for faults. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEBRO Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Does the KK clear RAM or set any state on the 2600 after power-up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroko Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 ALL chips on the Krokodile Cart are socketed. The flash chip, the chip for the serial communication and RAM can be replaced by anybody. The controller and the logic chip can only be replaced by me, because they have to be programmed ... The Krokodile Cart does not do anything before startup. It starts as if it was the original ROM. So the state of all VCS registers and RAM will not be changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 The Krokodile Cart does not do anything before startup. It starts as if it was the original ROM. So the state of all VCS registers and RAM will not be changed. Except when you use the menu, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroko Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 My guess is that the flash in the KK is good for 100,000 writes. Yes, thats also what I think. The 10000 is the absolute minimum that is guaranteed, but in reality they survive much longer. Even for the developer, who may download quite often (Thomas!) we have invented this incremental download feature, which will only change parts that really need to be changed. This is also a good way to make it survive longer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Even for the developer, who may download quite often (Thomas!) we have invented this incremental download feature, which will only change parts that really need to be changed. This is also a good way to make it survive longer My biggest concern would be, that if fails too late and I cannot find any replacement chips anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroko Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 The Krokodile Cart does not do anything before startup. It starts as if it was the original ROM. So the state of all VCS registers and RAM will not be changed. Except when you use the menu, right? Yes, in a multicart, the RAM is cleared and the game starts from bank 0. Each ROM of type 4K,F8,F6 and F4 can be patched such, that RAM is cleared and that it is started from a fixed bank. When it is patched, the ROM is a multicart with only one game which is selected immediately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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