Great Hierophant Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 If I were to design a Flash Cart, I would design it with the following in mind: A USB connection, 12 Mbps 4 Megabytes of Flash ROM (for storing games) 32 Kilobytes of RAM (for games that utilize extra RAM) 4 Kilobytes of ROM (for the menu program) 8 Kilobytes of Flash ROM (for game information) Support for the Following Bankswitching Schemes: 00 = 2K/4K Non-bankswitched 01 = CommaVid 2K + 1K of RAM 02 = Arcadia/Starpath Supercharger 6K 03 = Atari 8K F8 + 128 bytes of RAM 04 = Activision 8K FE 05 = Tigervision 8K 3F 06 = Parker Bros 8K E0 07 = UA Limited 8K 08 = CBS RAM+ 12K FA + 256 bytes of RAM 09 = Atari 16K F6 + 128 bytes of RAM 0A = M-Network 16K E7 + 2K of RAM 0B = Atari 32K F4 + 128 bytes of RAM 0C = Megaboy 64K F0 0D = Homestar Runner 64K EF 0E = Extended Tigervision 512K 3E + 32K of RAM Now, that list of bankswtiching should cover everything important except for Pitfall II. A socket should be provided for those brave enough to destroy a Pitfall II cartridge for its chip (0F.) 4 Megabytes of Flash ROM is about the maximum amount that is available on parallel 5V chips. If you take one good copy of every released game (NTSC or PAL but not both) plus a dump of every playable homebrew and prototype, you will be running up against this limit. The 32KB of S-RAM should be sufficient for any bankswitching format. ROM is needed to hold the basic code to display the menu. I have suggested EEPROM to hold the game names and the bankswitching type in the following format: Each game can use 14 letters, characters or blank spaces. The 15th byte stores the game's size in 2K increments. (Supports games up to 512K in size) From there the menu program can deduce the beginning of each game in the 4MB Flash ROM. The 16th byte is used to store the bankswitching format. At 8K of Flash ROM that equals 512 entries. Each screen would list 32 games, for a maximum of 16 screens. With Joysticks, up and down will move in the current page, left and right will move between pages and the button starts the game. For paddles, the first will move in the current page, the second between pages and either button will start the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari_aaron Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 My addition I would like to see a flash cart that also loads games from a tape players, so can collect and play starpath games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindfield Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 My additionI would like to see a flash cart that also loads games from a tape players, so can collect and play starpath games. Starpath load segments are already available in ROM format, so they could be included in the list of ROMs. I'd also add the capacity for save states. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 No ROM please, it's better to use flash for the menu etc. too. Then you can update that part too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroko Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 And how much are you willing to pay for that ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 And how much are you willing to pay for that ? $59.95 via QVC shopping network! Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 $59.95 via QVC shopping network! Ok, but then Bluetooth instead of USB please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artlover Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 I personaly don't understand the need for a pitfall chip. It can be emulated just fine. Why can't that emulation be made into emulation-on-a-chip like a Pic or Microcontroller, or even if it needs to be an entire daughterboard with a more readily avaialble sound generator and interface. Legality issues aside, I'm sure it could be physicaly done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroko Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 I personaly don't understand the need for a pitfall chip. It can be emulated just fine. Why can't that emulation be made into emulation-on-a-chip like a Pic or Microcontroller, or even if it needs to be an entire daughterboard with a more readily avaialble sound generator and interface. Legality issues aside, I'm sure it could be physicaly done. Is there a technical description available anywhere ? All I know is, that there is a cool sound chip on Pitfall II. But are there any specifications available where one could see what it does (exactly) ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted January 9, 2005 Share Posted January 9, 2005 Is there a technical description available anywhere ? All I know is, that there is a cool sound chip on Pitfall II. But are there any specifications available where one could see what it does (exactly) ? Yes, David Crane's actual patent is available in PDF form from the US patent office. I can't find the link at the moment though. Besides the sample generators for the three sound voices, the DPC also has 2K of ROM with graphics data, that can be read through several pointers. These pointers have auto-increment and auto bounds-checking. So in theory it's possible to recreate the DPC for a multicart. But the chip is so complex that you would need a pretty expensive FPGA or microcontroller to emulate it. That's the reason why the Cuttle Cart 2 has no support for the DPC, BTW. It's design wouldn't have fit on the FPGA, that Chad was using, and a bigger FPGA would have cost much more and be more difficult to fit on the small CC2 cartridge board. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Hierophant Posted January 10, 2005 Author Share Posted January 10, 2005 The Pitfall II chip has three square wave generators for sound in its chip, but how does that sound get from the cartridge to the 2600's audio output? The Atari 7800 had a pin on the cartridge connector to accept extra sound from a cartridge, but the 2600 has nothing like that. Also, it has three random number generators. What exactly are they for, because there is very little that is random about the game? The Cuttle Cart II has a socket for a POKEY, I don't see why this hypothetical cart couldn't have a socket for such a chip. After all, no 2600 cart ever used a POKEY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 Mac compatable software would be a treat. -S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 The Cuttle Cart II has a socket for a POKEY, I don't see why this hypothetical cart couldn't have a socket for such a chip. After all, no 2600 cart ever used a POKEY. The 7800 added signals to the cart port which the POKEY chip audio comes through. Unless this cart were for the 7800, that chip would be a deadend. The DPC audio is fed to the TIA chips one line at a time through the actual kernel. I think most of the Pitfall II kernel is just load/store operations. The DPC chip moves the pointers forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 Mac compatable software would be a treat. Andrew Davie is writing a Java version of the KrokoCart Commander software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted January 10, 2005 Share Posted January 10, 2005 Mac compatable software would be a treat. Andrew Davie is writing a Java version of the KrokoCart Commander software. Fantastic! -S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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