40 replies to this topic

[5-11under]

Hi everyone,

It looks like the fabulous ColecoVision SD MultiCart from Atarimax is arriving in some households. One of the things I'm looking forward to is having the manuals available on the cartridge for viewing on the CV. Personally, I'm not too sure about screen shots, but hey, maybe that'll be invaluable to me, too.

If you have any materials available for the SD cart, in the proper format(s), feel free to share them here, either as attachments or links. I'm imagining there could be at least a couple of versions of manuals that people might like. Some might like the full manual, and others might just be interested in the bottom line of how to play the game (they could be labeled as "full" or "minimal" or something like that).

I'm not 100% sure what else the cart is capable of, so if there's more, feel free to post or link those, too.

Before I go, let's try to stay on topic here. There's other threads for other issues. I would suggest to not upload full versions of manuals of homebrews without proper permission, but instructions in your own words should be fine (even if you don't have a ROM of a game, having the manual readily available may still be useful, so you don't have to find the physical manual).

Looking forward to getting my SD cart and loading it up with lots of ColecoVision goodness,
5-11under

[classics]

5-11under, on Thu Aug 5, 2010 1:16 PM, said:

It looks like the fabulous ColecoVision SD MultiCart from Atarimax is arriving in some households. One of the things I'm looking forward to is having the manuals available on the cartridge for viewing on the CV. Personally, I'm not too sure about screen shots, but hey, maybe that'll be invaluable to me, too.

Someone got one already? Nice. I'm packing up another 24 right now!

BTW instructions for making the screenshots is posted here:

http://www.atarimax.....php?f=15&t=978

Steve

[Murph74]

Um, dunno if you saw it or not... but someone was selling a bundle with the screenshots and manuals (among other things!). Ok, that was a feeble attempt at sarcastic humor. But maybe someone who bought the pack can share the screenshot and manual files? Or maybe even ask David if he's ok with that being shared in light of the controversy?

I'd like to think he wouldn't care, but people are funny sometimes, and if he does care, I'm sure we'll be able to make a package of our own in no time. Just thought it might save the group of us some doing if the work had already been done by someone.

Edited by Murph74, Fri Aug 6, 2010 2:16 PM.

[Murph74]

Here are the TXT manuals I have.... feel free reuse them as you see fit. I'm not the originator or creator of these, but I've seen them in several places individually. I'm simply placing them in one location as a ZIP file for convenience. Overlays are also included. 125 files total. Maybe they can be converted to Screenshots? Would it be possible to use 2 screenshots for one game on the U-SD, Steve?

Donations accepted. lol

Ok, bad joke-- NOT FOR SALE! Free to share!

Attached Files

•  Coleco.zip   1.36MB   42 downloads

Edited by Murph74, Fri Aug 6, 2010 2:28 PM.

[newcoleco]

I have a big question and it's how the text looks like on screen while using the atarimax sd card cartridge? And if I do also text files for my games to be used too, what could be the optimum format? Do I need to count the characters per line? If so, how many? and what should be the basic structure? In which order I should put the information? And how to deal with the no possibility to show a screeshot of the game within the manual in text format?

Edited by newcoleco, Fri Aug 6, 2010 8:17 PM.

[classics]

newcoleco, on Fri Aug 6, 2010 8:16 PM, said:

I have a big question and it's how the text looks like on screen while using the atarimax sd card cartridge? And if I do also text files for my games to be used too, what could be the optimum format? Do I need to count the characters per line? If so, how many? and what should be the basic structure? In which order I should put the information? And how to deal with the no possibility to show a screeshot of the game within the manual in text format?

Just plain ASCII text, but the Colecovision screen is 32 characters wide, so for easier reading, you should format the manual in a text editor to a width of 31 or 32 characters.

Longer lines will wrap but looks messier than well formatted text. There is an example manual posted in the Atarimax forum for 2010 which is formatted this way.

Steve

[newcoleco]

I see... you didn't consider that the scanlines can make the first column totally hidden behind the tv-set border, it's not a problem with monitors because the entire screen is visible, but with a good old tv set, the first column is simply useless, impossible to see.

[classics]

newcoleco, on Fri Aug 6, 2010 8:52 PM, said:

I see... you didn't consider that the scanlines can make the first column totally hidden behind the tv-set border, it's not a problem with monitors because the entire screen is visible, but with a good old tv set, the first column is simply useless, impossible to see.

The left most column of text is not visible on a television? I really had no idea!

Nobody ever mentioned any part of the menu text being invisible on the 128-in-1 cart either.

Steve

Edited by classics, Fri Aug 6, 2010 11:31 PM.

[Tursi]

On the TI-99, they actually considered two columns on each edge of the screen to be potential clip victims, and only used 28 characters for text. I never saw more than 2 columns total clipped, myself, on many TVs over the years. I suspect that it's not going to be terrible, and the horizontal width can often be adjusted.

[newcoleco]

There is also a text mode that provides a 40x24 characters resolution, but again the first column is considered as useless. Some Coleco ADAM softwares use the text 40 mode and sometimes put a useless character like "]". If running on a not modified ColecoVision BIOS, the font set inside works perfectly with the text 40 mode.

Should I presume the rom file in the root of the SD card to be modified in order to experiment some kind of modifications, or the main code is burned in the rom chip of the cartridge and we should simply format all the text files for a 32 columns of text with the first character per line being an empty space?

[Pixelboy]

So you guys want to insert on-screen manuals like in Activision Anthology on GBA? Interesting idea.

[newcoleco]

Pixelboy, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 6:53 AM, said:

So you guys want to insert on-screen manuals like in Activision Anthology on GBA? Interesting idea.

Well, considering that the project already work that way, it's more than a wanted feature, but it's not like what you're describing, so I guess it's still a wanted feature too.

Anyway, maybe programmers here can take a look at the sd card bios and see if we can change for the text 40 mode and deal with the 1st column issue, or we simply reformat the text files to deal with the 1st column issue and keep a 31 characters per line in mind. Because everything is the same color in text mode, the highlite will simpoly be the reverse of the fontset, like done in PETASCII for example.

[Yurkie]

Murph74, on Fri Aug 6, 2010 2:23 PM, said:

Here are the TXT manuals I have.... feel free reuse them as you see fit. I'm not the originator or creator of these, but I've seen them in several places individually. I'm simply placing them in one location as a ZIP file for convenience. Overlays are also included. 125 files total. Maybe they can be converted to Screenshots? Would it be possible to use 2 screenshots for one game on the U-SD, Steve?

Donations accepted. lol

Ok, bad joke-- NOT FOR SALE! Free to share!

I downloaded your pack and it looks like they need some formatting.

[retroillucid]

I've started to work on the Box Artworks
Anyone interested to this?
Keep in mind that they display only with 16 colors

It is possible to have more than 1 screenshots per game?
Cause I've to put the boxes images in the "image folder"
So basicaly, I replaced screenshots by box artworks

[classics]

retroillucid, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 3:13 PM, said:

I've started to work on the Box Artworks
Anyone interested to this?
Keep in mind that they display only with 16 colors

It is possible to have more than 1 screenshots per game?
Cause I've to put the boxes images in the "image folder"
So basicaly, I replaced screenshots by box artworks

Hi J-F,

I can add a folder for boxes, and a separate hotkey to display them, like the manual and screen shots. Send me a couple examples and I'll do it the next time I can work on it.

I'll also add the ability to cycle through multiple screenshots for each game.

Steve

[classics]

newcoleco, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:25 AM, said:

Pixelboy, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 6:53 AM, said:

So you guys want to insert on-screen manuals like in Activision Anthology on GBA? Interesting idea.

Well, considering that the project already work that way, it's more than a wanted feature, but it's not like what you're describing, so I guess it's still a wanted feature too.

Anyway, maybe programmers here can take a look at the sd card bios and see if we can change for the text 40 mode and deal with the 1st column issue, or we simply reformat the text files to deal with the 1st column issue and keep a 31 characters per line in mind. Because everything is the same color in text mode, the highlite will simpoly be the reverse of the fontset, like done in PETASCII for example.

Right now I would say just make the first character a space if this effects you. I think it is rare since I've never heard it before.

I will add an option to make the left most column blank for the other screens. Does this effect the right-most column as well?

Steve

[retroillucid]

classics, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 4:30 PM, said:

retroillucid, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 3:13 PM, said:

I've started to work on the Box Artworks
Anyone interested to this?
Keep in mind that they display only with 16 colors

It is possible to have more than 1 screenshots per game?
Cause I've to put the boxes images in the "image folder"
So basicaly, I replaced screenshots by box artworks

Hi J-F,

I can add a folder for boxes, and a separate hotkey to display them, like the manual and screen shots. Send me a couple examples and I'll do it the next time I can work on it.

I'll also add the ability to cycle through multiple screenshots for each game.

Steve

Sounds all good
I'll send a couple to you

There's enough space to add some things ... product # ... Release Year... etc
Should I add this?

[Yurkie]

Quote

Hi J-F,

I can add a folder for boxes, and a separate hotkey to display them, like the manual and screen shots. Send me a couple examples and I'll do it the next time I can work on it.

I'll also add the ability to cycle through multiple screenshots for each game.

Steve

Going along with adding a boxes folder Steve, could you add a high score folder. Inside it could be a text page that you could bring up and manually add high scores and initials using the keypad and/or joystick. Basically you would be modifying a .txt file. Possible? Too difficult to program? Just curious.

[retroillucid]

OK, here's some Box Art for the SD MultiCart
Don't forget that these only use 16 colors max
So it can't look as good as a scan... but it's great though

Enjoy!


EDIT: Rename the ZIP file to RAR (otherwise, it won't work)

Attached Files

•  MultiCart Box Art.zip   176.33K   44 downloads

Edited by retroillucid, Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:52 PM.

[5-11under]

retroillucid, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:21 PM, said:

OK, here's some Box Art for the SD MultiCart
Don't forget that these only use 16 colors max
So it can't look as good as a scan... but it's great though

Enjoy!

Files don't work for me. Anyone else?
5-11under

edit: I get a message that the zip file is invalid or corrupted.

Edited by 5-11under, Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:42 PM.

[retroillucid]

5-11under, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:42 PM, said:

retroillucid, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:21 PM, said:

OK, here's some Box Art for the SD MultiCart
Don't forget that these only use 16 colors max
So it can't look as good as a scan... but it's great though

Enjoy!

Files don't work for me. Anyone else?
5-11under

Be sure that your roms name are the same as the box

[retroillucid]

Ok guys, I really want to know...

Should I add some other things like

- Year of Release
- Rarity
- Part #
- Manufacturer


Any ideas?


I'm going to make them all, so I want to be sure what should be there...

[5-11under]

retroillucid, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:43 PM, said:

5-11under, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:42 PM, said:

retroillucid, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:21 PM, said:

OK, here's some Box Art for the SD MultiCart
Don't forget that these only use 16 colors max
So it can't look as good as a scan... but it's great though

Enjoy!

Files don't work for me. Anyone else?
5-11under

Be sure that your roms name are the same as the box

Unfortunately, I'm not getting that far (and I don't have the SD cart yet... ).
I can't open the zip file in Windows.

[retroillucid]

5-11under, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:42 PM, said:

retroillucid, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:21 PM, said:

OK, here's some Box Art for the SD MultiCart
Don't forget that these only use 16 colors max
So it can't look as good as a scan... but it's great though

Enjoy!

Files don't work for me. Anyone else?
5-11under

edit: I get a message that the zip file is invalid or corrupted.

Ah, I see... I've to rename to RAR to ZIP since AtariAge won't authorize RAR apparently...

So, simply rename the ZIP file to RAR

[5-11under]

retroillucid, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:48 PM, said:

5-11under, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:42 PM, said:

retroillucid, on Sat Aug 7, 2010 8:21 PM, said:

OK, here's some Box Art for the SD MultiCart
Don't forget that these only use 16 colors max
So it can't look as good as a scan... but it's great though

Enjoy!

Files don't work for me. Anyone else?
5-11under

edit: I get a message that the zip file is invalid or corrupted.

Ah, I see... I've to rename to RAR to ZIP since AtariAge won't authorize RAR apparently...

So, simply rename the ZIP file to RAR

That's much better.
5-11under