slampam Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Is there any reason why the 8 courses in Jon C. & Torsten Landsvogt's Pole Position X+ couldn't individually be hacked into a 5200 Pole Position rom? This seems so obvious that I'm amazed it hasn't been done. Herwig Henseler's Pole Position & Race Designer seems more problematic as I believe it requires storage of data, not possible on the 5200. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Is there any reason why the 8 courses in Jon C. & Torsten Landsvogt's Pole Position X+ couldn't individually be hacked into a 5200 Pole Position rom? This seems so obvious that I'm amazed it hasn't been done. Herwig Henseler's Pole Position & Race Designer seems more problematic as I believe it requires storage of data, not possible on the 5200. THanks. I've never heard of this. This is great. It would be fantastic if you could just do the four PP 2 tracks or just a few new ones. So the file is 81 sectors on the disk. How big is that in Kilobytes? Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted February 2, 2008 Author Share Posted February 2, 2008 Some XL links: Pole Position X Size: 17.8KB (18,310 bytes) http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=2669 Pole Position X+ Size: 24.5KB (25,100 bytes) http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=2691 Pole Position & Race Designer Size: 20.8KB (21.389 bytes) http://atari.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=2701 I'm not sure about sectors, but total length should be 326 on PP Race Designer. As I recall if you exceed or shorten this, your finish line will be off but it still plays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 JUst wondering if this would work on a 5200. If it's still uses just 16K RAM it might. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted February 3, 2008 Author Share Posted February 3, 2008 I tried loading an XL Pole Position in Atari800Win-Plus using 16K RAM and it crashed. Indeed, it crashed with every game I tried to load with 16K of RAM. I'm assuming this is an emulation issue as I don't think too many games in 1983 required 64K of RAM to run them. Does anyone have another way of figuring out the minimum RAM an XL game needs to run on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 I tried loading an XL Pole Position in Atari800Win-Plus using 16K RAM and it crashed. Indeed, it crashed with every game I tried to load with 16K of RAM. I'm assuming this is an emulation issue as I don't think too many games in 1983 required 64K of RAM to run them. Does anyone have another way of figuring out the minimum RAM an XL game needs to run on? I know Pole Position only required 16K but I'm not sure about PP X+. It would be great if it was only 16K but I think it's got to be bigger. The 5200 has got 32K ROM so if the editor is 16K and the game is 16K it might work. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Pole Position X, I rememer that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted February 20, 2008 Author Share Posted February 20, 2008 Tired of those blocky back tires? Me too. Here's some Tread Hacks I did. They should look OK as long as you stay on course. I'm not sure if they work on real hardware - Adventurous Multi-cart Atarimax users can post their results. I used a Sega MS tile editor as there is no specific Atari 5200 graphic editor. So if you want better hacks I would encourage you to go over to the Atari Graphics Lab forum thread and post your support for lightman's project. http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=119000 Prepare To Qualify. PolePosition_Tread_A_.zip PolePosition_Tread_B_.zip PolePosition_Tread_C_.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted March 3, 2008 Author Share Posted March 3, 2008 A Track Hack I did just to prove it's possible. (5200) PolePosition_Track_A_.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Cool. Can you hack the name of the track to something else or maybe change the title as well? Nice. Was it hard changing the track? Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted March 3, 2008 Author Share Posted March 3, 2008 (edited) I thought of naming my Track Hack but then I got distracted. Good news is that anyone can make new tracks with a hex editor and a 5200 Pole Position BIN file. (see chart below) The 1st set is the original BIN (ROM) data as seen in a hex editor. The 2nd is what I changed it to. The data goes in sequence of the track itself. (simple enough) Straightaways are double zeros "00 00 00". The more 00s you line up, the longer the straightaway. 81-thru-89 turns your curves one direction. 01-thru-09 turns your curves the other way (I forget which is which). 0B can sometimes alter your curve if the 0B comes directly before your curve data. Beginning of a curve always starts with the highest number and descends to the lowest numbers, hence: 00 09 03 01 00. The higher the number you start with, the sharper the entry of your curve. 09 and 89 are sharp beginning curves. 01 and 81 are gentle beginning curves. The more numbers in a row, the longer the curve. 00 05 04 03 02 01 00 is a longer curve than 00 82 81 00. How you descend your numbers will determine how your curve will end. 00 84 83 82 81 00 produces a gentle fadeout. 00 87 84 00 produces a sharp fadeout. It's a good idea to have a straightaway (00) between your alternating curves. The finish line is at the 28. Adding more data than already present, thus moving the finish line, will corrupt data. You can make even sharper turns-like 10 or 90, but you'll get ghost cars and artifacts. Note: (Pole Position X & X + use algorithms not worth messing with. Best just to do your own hacks). 3250: 10 0F 0E 0D 0C 0B 0A 09 08 07 05 04 03 02 01 00 3260: 00 86 83 82 81 00 03 02 01 00 85 83 82 81 00 0B 3270: 08 05 02 00 83 81 00 85 83 81 00 28 0A 05 03 01 3250: 10 0F 0E 0D 0C 0B 0A 09 08 07 05 04 04 04 03 02 3260: 01 00 81 00 00 83 82 81 00 0B 08 05 02 00 00 00 3270: 05 01 00 00 84 81 00 09 03 01 00 28 0A 05 03 01 And that's it! That's all you have to do to make your very own track hacks. Edited January 1, 2012 by slampam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 (edited) Pit Stop2 mountains hacked into Pole Position. Just a little change of scenery. Also changed Malibu GP back to the original arcade: Fuji Speedway. And for a little challenge, a pair of Speed Up hacks. PolePosition_Fuji__speedup_.zip PolePosition_Fuji_.zip Edited March 20, 2008 by slampam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 (edited) I renamed my "Track_A" Hack to the Zambezi Zinger-after my favorite roller coaster as a kid. Last I heard some banana republic bought the track and re-erected it in South America. Title screen is renamed to Top Racer Series. Track names in the Top Racer series are Zambezi Zinger, Gum Ball Rally, Red Slurpee Raceway, Cannon Ball Run, Daytona Beach IRL, Kessel Run & Seattle Speedway. To change track names load the 5200 Pole Position BIN file into your hex editor and changed the following data: Original racetrack names data 3470: 00 00 12 10 10 00 38 00 00 00 30 32 21 23 34 29 3480: 23 25 00 32 35 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 0D 00 2C 21 3490: 30 33 00 00 2D 21 2C 29 22 35 00 27 32 21 2E 24 34A0: 00 30 32 29 38 00 0D 00 2C 21 30 33 00 00 2E 21 34B0: 2D 23 2F 00 33 30 25 25 24 37 21 39 00 00 00 00 Changed racetrack names data 3470: 00 00 12 10 10 00 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 30 32 21 3480: 23 34 29 23 25 00 00 32 35 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 3490: 00 00 0D 00 00 00 3A 21 2D 22 25 3A 29 00 3A 29 34A0: 2E 27 25 32 00 00 0D 00 2C 21 30 33 00 00 33 2C 34B0: 21 2D 00 30 21 2D 00 33 30 25 25 24 37 21 39 00 The letter A on screen is 21 in hex. A=21, B=22 -thru- I=29. Then it is: J=2A, K=2B -thru- O=2F. Then it is: P=30, Q=31 -thru- Y=39. Z=3A. (a space)=00. Numbers on screen in hex: 0=10, 1=11 -thru- 9=19. "-"(a dash)=0D I changed the Atari © "in game" as well. Original ©1983 ATARI 37C0: 09 11 19 18 13 00 21 34 21 32 29 11 19 18 12 00 Changed ©2008 ATARI 37C0: 09 12 10 10 18 00 21 34 21 32 29 11 19 18 12 00 Final saved BIN(ROM) file should always be 16,384 bytes. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Edited March 29, 2008 by slampam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 (edited) (Pole Position: new tracks) The A8 track hacks are here. Top Racer Series TopRacer6.zip TopRacer5.zip TopRacer4.zip TopRacer3.zip TopRacer2.zip TopRacer1.zip TopRacer7.zip TopRacer8.zip TopRacer9.zip TopRacer10.zip Edited October 2, 2008 by slampam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 I'd settle for someone adding the voice to the 5200 version. I miss that "Prepare to Qualify" voice. Tempest 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 I'd settle for someone adding the voice to the 5200 version. I miss that "Prepare to Qualify" voice. Tempest I like when she says "Good Job" after you qualify. Zone Patrol starts off with a "G-e-t R-e-a-dy!" voice. That should sound OK for racing. Not as pretty as the female voice. So far voice data hacking has eluded me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted March 9, 2008 Author Share Posted March 9, 2008 (edited) Top Racer Speed Up hacks. TopRacer1_speedup_.zip TopRacer2_speedup_.zip TopRacer3_speedup_.zip TopRacer7_speedup_.zip TopRacer6_speedup_.zip TopRacer5_speedup_.zip TopRacer4_speedup_.zip TopRacer10_speedup.zip TopRacer9_speedup.zip TopRacer8_speedup.zip Edited October 4, 2008 by slampam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Tyler Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 The whole Pole Position race designer kit makes me wish I had an Atari 400/800 as a kid. I loved Pole Position and would probably have spent hours designing my own courses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slampam Posted October 2, 2008 Author Share Posted October 2, 2008 (edited) Pole Position 10 Track Hacks (ALL) 5200/A8 (xex-flag-fix-version) PolePosition(Track hacks)5200-A8.zip Edited January 10, 2011 by slampam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 The >16K improved versions would likely use RAM somewhere in the $4000-7FFF range for the addons. I'd say doing a 5200 conversion should be possible but maybe not so straight-forward if addresses in that range are also used for data that changes. It would have to be reassembled to use free RAM somewhere in the first 16K. I've had a look at the voice data today from the arcade (in the other post elsewhere). I tried ripping the data directly, and just doing audio capture with MAME. Turns out MAME does a better job - maybe some sort of post-processing gets done on the sample data to clean it up a bit. It's only 2 KHz sampling 8 bit size. I whipped up something on the emulator to play the sample, but it's not going the best. For some reason my emulator has occasional sound trouble. On top of that, it's also a bit troublesome getting the MAME recordings back from 48 to 2 KHz without messing up the audio quality. Or, maybe it's just that the original hardware used some sort of oversampling which made it sound better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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