MiSTer FPGA Forum

It says that 2600 is not yet enabled, which hints that it is a planned feature. Considering that there is already a standalone Atari 2600 core, what would be the advantage of enabling the backwards compatibility for the 7800 core?

12characters wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 2:54 pm It says that 2600 is not yet enabled, which hints that it is a planned feature. Considering that there is already a standalone Atari 2600 core, what would be the advantage of enabling the backwards compatibility for the 7800 core?

To behaves as the original hardware which allowed the use of most 2600 games. To me this is important even if there is a A2600 core.

12characters wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 2:54 pm It says that 2600 is not yet enabled, which hints that it is a planned feature. Considering that there is already a standalone Atari 2600 core, what would be the advantage of enabling the backwards compatibility for the 7800 core?

The current 2600 core has issues. The potential here would be to have a more accurate 2600.

Kitrinx wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:42 am

Chris23235 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 10:29 am What a great core. I love the color temperature option, with Hot the picture has the same colours as on my PAL machine on a CRT. Many thanks.

I noticed that the Pokey demos from the Trebor Pack don't work. Any chance to get them playing?

I actually debugged this for quite a while and discovered the issue is that they don't work on real hardware. Some flash carts may pre-initialize things they need, but it's actually an accuracy that they don't work, not a bug. I believe they won't work on Dragonfly cart either.

Thanks for the info.

12characters wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 2:54 pm It says that 2600 is not yet enabled, which hints that it is a planned feature. Considering that there is already a standalone Atari 2600 core, what would be the advantage of enabling the backwards compatibility for the 7800 core?

Since a 7800 is basically a 2600 with one extra chip, I would like to add full 2600 support to it as well. While the current 2600 core does pretty well, it does have various issues, is written in VHDL, and doesn't use clock enables, which makes things like pausing the core more difficult. I decided to write my own RIOT and TIA in addition to the Maria chip, so it only makes sense to get the 2600 part of things polished up as well.

Good luck Kitrinx. A 2600, 7800 (maybe even 5200?) core would be awesome.

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Atari800_MiSTer
Atari 800/800XL/65XE/130XE and Atari 5200 for MiSTer Board

I have that core and its great. I see the 5200 as part of the console range though and the 800XL XE etc as a computer range. I always found it odd that the 5200 was in with the 800 on that core.

I believe it's because the 5200 is effectively an Atari 8-bit computer with some (mostly intentional to semi-break software running on both) differences. I suspect once you implement a core for an atari 8-bit computer you effectively just implemented the 5200 anyways.

I haven't tried this core yet, but I am thankful it exists. The 2600 core is not bad, but not perfect. I am hoping this core will eventually support the following things:
- 2600 cartridges
- SNAC and all controllers on it such as the keypad controller from Star Raiders and the Driving controller
- Perfect sound emulation including Pitfall 2 at the right pitch
Thanks!

thorr wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:43 pm I haven't tried this core yet, but I am thankful it exists. The 2600 core is not bad, but not perfect. I am hoping this core will eventually support the following things:
- 2600 cartridges
- SNAC and all controllers on it such as the keypad controller from Star Raiders and the Driving controller
- Perfect sound emulation including Pitfall 2 at the right pitch
Thanks!

The first one I can tell you will not happen it is out of the scope of the project. The second and third one may be. I know that the core is currently being re-developed so I would probably wait until the new core is released for extra features to be added. The new core might even have some of them. I know that there are quite a bit of people working on sound, the C64 just got a Sid chip upgrade. So that will probably end up being a thing. I know MD Fourier is being used to scientifically prove the accuracy of the sound but I don't know if it has been ported to the 2600.

Thanks. Sorry, I meant 2600 support, not hardware cartridges. That would be very cool, but not what I meant to say. I currently have a SNAC version of the 2600 core, but it doesn't work with all the controllers, so it should theoretically be possible to at least implement the joystick and paddles. Getting the sound right would be awesome and it is very cool that so much work is going into the C64 sound, and would be awesome if the 2600 would get the same attention.

thorr wrote: ↑Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:43 pm I haven't tried this core yet, but I am thankful it exists. The 2600 core is not bad, but not perfect. I am hoping this core will eventually support the following things:
- 2600 cartridges
- SNAC and all controllers on it such as the keypad controller from Star Raiders and the Driving controller
- Perfect sound emulation including Pitfall 2 at the right pitch
Thanks!

-I'm working on 2600 support
-SNAC is already supported, keypad is already supported, driving controller is already supported, as well as lightguns, paddles, st mouse, amiga mouse, trakball, and keyboard via POKEY. Quadtari is also supported.
-I wrote the tia audio myself, almost directly from the schematic, with a LUT to represent the channel mixing compression as well. There's no mdfourier for this, but to the best of my knowledge it's effectively perfect.

Wow! That is amazing! I am greatly looking forward to the 2600 support. Thank you very much! With regards to Pitfall II, I think different cartridges had slightly different pitches. The 2600 core is off by a whole octave from what I recall. Hopefully you can add support for the DPC chip and maybe the DPC+ chip as well that is used in Space Rocks. https://atariage.com/forums/topic/28149 ... -the-cart/

How about Supercharger games support?

Just took delivery of my Driving Controller for some Indy 500 action. Looking forward to it!

I finally tried this core, and I can't get the buttons to work with SNAC. The joystick directions do work. I tried both a 2600 controller and a 7800 controller, and both an Atari and Sega SNAC adapter. Also, I tried programming the keyboard for button mappings so I can hit select and start, and that doesn't work either. If I use a USB joystick, everything works. Any suggestions? It looks like a fantastic core if I can get it to work.

thorr wrote: ↑Sun Apr 25, 2021 10:10 pm Just took delivery of my Driving Controller for some Indy 500 action. Looking forward to it!

I finally tried this core, and I can't get the buttons to work with SNAC. The joystick directions do work. I tried both a 2600 controller and a 7800 controller, and both an Atari and Sega SNAC adapter. Also, I tried programming the keyboard for button mappings so I can hit select and start, and that doesn't work either. If I use a USB joystick, everything works. Any suggestions? It looks like a fantastic core if I can get it to work.

I don't actually have a 7800 controller to test with, but it's wired correctly. It may need a particular pinout from snac to work correctly, like the special 2600 adapter but with the analog pins connected.

Kitrinx wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 2:27 am I don't actually have a 7800 controller to test with, but it's wired correctly. It may need a particular pinout from snac to work correctly, like the special 2600 adapter but with the analog pins connected.

Thank you for your reply. I have the 2600 SNAC adapter, and it works perfectly on my 2600 SNAC enabled core with both the 2600 and 7800 joysticks, and the paddles and the driving controller. To get the paddles working, the switch needs to in the paddles position and there is a switch in the menu of the 2600 SNAC core to enable the ADC for paddles. After confirming that everything is working with the joysticks via SNAC in the 2600 core, I try running the 7800 core and neither joystick has working buttons. Is there a switch in the 7800 core that needs to be a certain way for the joysticks to function correctly? I can't get a 2600 joystick to work either, so if you have one of those, that would be something we have in common. Thanks again!

I will do some more testing with the ADC cable connected and the switch in the paddles position... Edit: tried it and nothing I do helps. I can PM you the 2600 SNAC core if you want/need it for testing and comparison.

Played some games via USB and found the Summer Games and Winter Games had corrupt graphics. The sound worked. I am not sure if it is just my roms or a real issue. Having lots of fun so far with this core regardless. Thanks!

thorr wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 1:34 am Played some games via USB and found the Summer Games and Winter Games had corrupt graphics. The sound worked. I am not sure if it is just my roms or a real issue. Having lots of fun so far with this core regardless. Thanks!

Both of those games work properly, but they do require the header being set correctly. Try googling Trebor's Pro Pack and seeing if the roms there give you the same issues.

Kitrinx wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 6:58 pm Both of those games work properly, but they do require the header being set correctly. Try googling Trebor's Pro Pack and seeing if the roms there give you the same issues.

Thanks! That did the trick.

I was able to test the paddles via SNAC with Arkanoid from the homebrews and that did not work for me either. I set it to SNAC with Analog Yes. I also tried setting it to Paddles, but I assume that is if you have a 2600daptor. I verified the paddles were working in the 2600 SNAC core before trying it. I have a 2600daptor D9 on order and I will try that once I get it. Thanks again!

Edit: I have a Stelladaptor and I tried that with the paddles, and I can't get that to work either. I will see what happens when I get the 2600daptor D9. Thanks.

I noticed a small oddity. I created a name for a high score cartridge in one game after being prompted, played the game for some time, getting a high score in process. Later I loaded a new rom from the menu without resetting. When I reached game over in the second game my high score cartridge already had the same name as I gave it in the previous game. Is that a bug or a feature?

TLPD-AVW wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 8:08 pm I noticed a small oddity. I created a name for a high score cartridge in one game after being prompted, played the game for some time, getting a high score in process. Later I loaded a new rom from the menu without resetting. When I reached game over in the second game my high score cartridge already had the same name as I gave it in the previous game. Is that a bug or a feature?

No, that's how the hi score cartridge worked/works.

Interesting. Reading about it, the real high score cartridge does indeed save its name separately from the scores and can store results for multiple games. What took me by surprise is that, as far as I understand, this core saves high score data for games individually similar to regular save data in other cores. I guess high score cartridge information persists between loaded roms, but if no save data exists for the first game loaded it creates new name for the cartridge.

TLPD-AVW wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 5:53 pm Interesting. Reading about it, the real high score cartridge does indeed save its name separately from the scores and can store results for multiple games. What took me by surprise is that, as far as I understand, this core saves high score data for games individually similar to regular save data in other cores. I guess high score cartridge information persists between loaded roms, but if no save data exists for the first game loaded it creates new name for the cartridge.

There actually was no "real" HSC, it was never produced to the best of my knowledge. However, it was intended to share memory according to the documentation. Like NeoGeo though, each game encapsulates it's own version of it. I did however avoid clearing the memory between loading games, so a game not using it yet will inherit the name from a previous game that already has the name entered. A little convoluted I know, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Just wanted to check in and find out if there are any plans to fix it so this will work with the Atari SNAC adapter for paddles and the other controllers. If not, how can I make this work with all my controllers? Do I need a different SNAC adapter, and if so, what is the pinout. Also looking forward to 2600 support. Thanks!

Are there any paddle games native to the 7800? Or is it all just the 2600 games?

Newsdee wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 11:56 pm Are there any paddle games native to the 7800? Or is it all just the 2600 games?

Yes. There are a ton of awesome homebrews. I am not sure how many are paddle games, but Arkanoid is one of them.

Newsdee wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 11:56 pm Are there any paddle games native to the 7800? Or is it all just the 2600 games?

almost none. Super circus atari is the only one I know of out of hand. There a test rom made to test paddles too that uses them, it just shows a number.

As far as I know Atari had already stopped producing paddles for some years when the 7800 finally launched. This made paddle games not attractive, even more as the majority of paddles for the 2600 were bundled with the system (at least in the US, in europe the paddles were never bundled with the 2600).