131 replies to this topic

[DJT]

I also hear that the XM is going to save the world and reduce government deficits around the world.

Is this true?

[GroovyBee]

DJT, on Sat Oct 8, 2011 7:17 AM, said:

I also hear that the XM is going to save the world and reduce government deficits around the world.

Is this true?

Only if it becomes truly self aware.

[Lendorien]

GroovyBee, on Sat Oct 8, 2011 7:21 AM, said:

DJT, on Sat Oct 8, 2011 7:17 AM, said:

I also hear that the XM is going to save the world and reduce government deficits around the world.

Is this true?

Only if it becomes truly self aware.

Ah. So THAT'S how Skynet starts.

[the.golden.ax]

AtariBrian, on Thu Aug 4, 2011 4:04 PM, said:

so i thought i would ask when is this xm coming out? does anyone really even know?

Wait, what? Is that why it has a rainbow on it?

AX

[GroovyBee]

A couple of errors and omissions about my XM games

Apple Snaffle - RAM / POKEY
Fruitarian - RAM / POKEY
Halloween - RAM / POKEY
Outpost 26 - RAM / POKEY

[Lendorien]

GroovyBee, on Wed Nov 9, 2011 4:39 AM, said:

A couple of errors and omissions about my XM games

Apple Snaffle - RAM / POKEY
Fruitarian - RAM / POKEY
Halloween - RAM / POKEY
Outpost 26 - RAM / POKEY

Corrected. I had only the various threads to go off of. Thanks for the update!

[Nuclear Pacman]

Are Super Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man final versions, or is there a possibility that these will receive an audio upgrade? I have these in my purchase plans, but I'd rather not double dip.

[Lendorien]

Nuclear Pacman, on Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:26 PM, said:

Are Super Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man final versions, or is there a possibility that these will receive an audio upgrade? I have these in my purchase plans, but I'd rather not double dip.

My guess is that it's unlikely. Both have been out for some years now. You might consider contacting the author (PacManPlus) and asking him.

[jdrose]

Sign me up. I definitely want to get one of these 7800 Expansion Modules. Very cool.

[GroovyBee]

jdrose, on Sat Jan 14, 2012 2:19 PM, said:

Sign me up. I definitely want to get one of these 7800 Expansion Modules. Very cool.

You can pre-order from the Legacy Engineer store here :-

http://www.legacyengineer.com

[life_is_pleach]

Lendorien, on Sat Oct 8, 2011 11:55 PM, said:

GroovyBee, on Sat Oct 8, 2011 7:21 AM, said:

DJT, on Sat Oct 8, 2011 7:17 AM, said:

I also hear that the XM is going to save the world and reduce government deficits around the world.

Is this true?

Only if it becomes truly self aware.

Ah. So THAT'S how Skynet starts.

[Math You]

Will there be any games for PAL 7800 consoles? A music program to take advantage of the Yamaha chip might also be a good idea.

It's just a shame there aren't any microphone, audio or USB inputs and outputs on the XM as something like this might have appealed to computer musicians.

[GroovyBee]

Math You, on Fri Mar 9, 2012 1:29 PM, said:

Will there be any games for PAL 7800 consoles? A music program to take advantage of the Yamaha chip might also be a good idea.

Yep! All my games auto detect PAL or NTSC and adjust colours and animation speeds accordingly. So it'll be one cart for both regions.

Quote

It's just a shame there aren't any microphone, audio or USB inputs and outputs on the XM as something like this might have appealed to computer musicians.

With POKEY on board the XM you can play mono RMT tunes fine. With a POKEY equipped CC2 the playback of stereo RMT tunes is possible too.

[Math You]

Sounds good! I hope the Yamaha chip could sound as good as this:

[GroovyBee]

Math You, on Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:46 AM, said:

Sounds good! I hope the Yamaha chip could sound as good as this:

There is a demo of the XM's YM2151 currently at the bottom of the status page :-

http://www.atarimuse...7800/expansion/

More examples of the XM's Yamaha audio are here and here. The quality isn't brilliant because they were taken at the Replay Expo last year.

[GroovyBee]

Math You, on Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:46 AM, said:

Sounds good! I hope the Yamaha chip could sound as good as this:

There is a demo of the XM's YM2151 currently at the bottom of the status page :-

http://www.atarimuse...7800/expansion/

More examples of the XM's Yamaha audio are here and here. The quality isn't brilliant because they were taken at the Replay Expo last year.

[Math You]

Nice demo. This might be a silly question, but could the Hi-Score cartridge facility be used to store other types of data such as sound data or a small program?

[GroovyBee]

Math You, on Sun Mar 11, 2012 3:52 AM, said:

Nice demo. This might be a silly question, but could the Hi-Score cartridge facility be used to store other types of data such as sound data or a small program?

The high score cart has a BIOS that the game passes information to/from and that takes care of the data structure in the HSC's non volatile memory. I'm no HSC expert but I don't think there is a way to insert extra data outside the format that it expects.

[Math You]

That's a pity. It would have been interesting if someone wrote a simple BASIC programming language for the 7800 that used the HSC to store programs.

[GroovyBee]

Math You, on Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:29 AM, said:

That's a pity. It would have been interesting if someone wrote a simple BASIC programming language for the 7800 that used the HSC to store programs.

There is nothing stopping a developer from enabling the HSC RAM and writing to it directly without making calls into the BIOS. However, its only 2K of RAM and you'd lose the HSC functionality (HSC compatible games could "reformat" the non volatile memory later). If somebody was going to the trouble of getting BASIC going on the expanded console it would be better for them to support the A8 disc drives (SIO2PC etc.) instead.

[Math You]

I guess it wouldn't be very practical saving programs to the HSC. Perhaps it could be used as a save game feature or to save data as part of a Game Construction Kit?

Edited by Math You, Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:54 AM.

[GroovyBee]

Math You, on Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:53 AM, said:

I guess it wouldn't be very practical saving programs to the HSC. Perhaps it could be used as a save game feature or to save data as part of a Game Construction Kit?

With the HSC BIOS in its current form its only useful for saving high scores in games that know how to interact with it. Personally, I don't have any plans to code a new HSC BIOS. If games need to save more information they can add SaveKey functionality. A SaveKey is a small device that fits into the player 2 joystick connector. It contains an EEPROM that can be accessed by the game. My game Worm! is SaveKey compatible.

[PacManPlus]

The only thing you could potentially save is 15 bytes of information. Normally there are 5 scores held per difficulty level, and each score is 4 bytes each. In order to reliably order the data being saved / retrieved, you would have to use the high nybble of the first byte of each set of 4 to set the order (i.e. you would need to 'force' the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place entries so you know what bytes you are getting). Then you would need to call the HSC routine, and read the data from RAM (I do this for my latest games, Scramble, Meteor Shower, etc.) That's why I don't use the HSC routine to display the scores any more... I use my own.

To show an example:

1st Place - $9X $XX $XX $XX
2nd Place - $8X $XX $XX $XX
3rd Place - $7X $XX $XX $XX
4th Place - $6X $XX $XX $XX
5th Place - $5X $XX $XX $XX

The 'X's are where you could potentially save data per difficulty level.

NOW - the only issue here (and this is the big one), is finding the routine that actually puts the data in the cart (after entering your initials). I wouldn't think you would want a High Score entry screen with some arbitrary (to the player) number being saved.
I've been meaning to look at that but I haven't had the time.

Hope this helps!

Bob

[potzrebie]

I havent been on here in a while so this may be a silly question but is there an eta for the 7800 xm? I really would like to demo it at the ccag show in June. (if its ready) Anyone know?

[GroovyBee]

Curt and I are in the final stages of the project. Once the XM's PCB, CPLD and BIOS have been signed off it won't be long after that.