Atari 800/400 harmony cart equivalent? Or other method?

[Gradualore]

Forgive my extreme newbieness. When I was a kid I think all I knew how to do with my 400 was play Asteroids, Missile Command and Stair Raiders, and program a tiny bit of BASIC. Assuming my Atari 400 works, what are some common ways of getting code (written in asm most likely) onto the system? Is there anything like the harmony cart available for the Atari 400?

 

Also, I noticed Altirra does not have a mode for the 400---or is it an equivalent computer to the 800 just with less ram?

[Bryan]

1. SIO2PC. The Atari can use a PC as a virtual disk drive. Check out Steve Tucker's site: http://www.atarimax.com/

 

2. Yes. A 400 and an 800 are internally the same except for the RAM and expansion options. The 400 was made to be more affordable.

[GrizzLee]

Forgive my extreme newbieness. When I was a kid I think all I knew how to do with my 400 was play Asteroids, Missile Command and Stair Raiders, and program a tiny bit of BASIC. Assuming my Atari 400 works, what are some common ways of getting code (written in asm most likely) onto the system? Is there anything like the harmony cart available for the Atari 400?

 

Also, I noticed Altirra does not have a mode for the 400---or is it an equivalent computer to the 800 just with less ram?

 

 

I'd love a harmony cart for the 8 bits. Yes, there is the PC cable connection option. Not quite as handy as a SD card and a single cartridge IMHO. Simplicity.

 

I'd love a Harmony cart for all cart based systems. I do have a an NES and SNES CF cart from Retrogamer.. works fairly well.

 

-GrizzLee

[+Stephen]

Several reprogrammable carts do exist. Check the above link to the AtariMax site for info. There was also a new one developed by MHz I think. Can't remember the name - I am typing this on my Droid so searching won't be easy.

[+Philsan]

I'd love a harmony cart for the 8 bits. Yes, there is the PC cable connection option. Not quite as handy as a SD card and a single cartridge IMHO. Simplicity.

I'd love a Harmony cart for all cart based systems. I do have a an NES and SNES CF cart from Retrogamer.. works fairly well.

-GrizzLee

IMHO the easier solution is SIO2SD:

http://sio2sd-dev.gucio.pl/wiki/English

http://marcinprusisz.pl/ (AtariAge user Pigula, €40 without SIO cable/connector)

http://lotharek.pl/5/product/info/22 (AtariAge user lotharek, €75 with case)

http://mega-hz.no-ip.com/Angebote/SIO2SD/SIO2SD%20rev.2.html (€80 with case)

http://afs.atari.org/sio2sd.htm ($80)

You don't have to program anything and you can have all A8 software in an SD card.

[_Fandal_]

Forgive my extreme newbieness. When I was a kid I think all I knew how to do with my 400 was play Asteroids, Missile Command and Stair Raiders, and program a tiny bit of BASIC. Assuming my Atari 400 works, what are some common ways of getting code (written in asm most likely) onto the system? Is there anything like the harmony cart available for the Atari 400?

 

Also, I noticed Altirra does not have a mode for the 400---or is it an equivalent computer to the 800 just with less ram?

 

You are looking for this: http://raster.infos.cz/atari/hw/ramcart/ramcart.htm - one of the best and most underrated A8 HW of last decade.

 

F.

[Bryan]

Forgive my extreme newbieness. When I was a kid I think all I knew how to do with my 400 was play Asteroids, Missile Command and Stair Raiders, and program a tiny bit of BASIC. Assuming my Atari 400 works, what are some common ways of getting code (written in asm most likely) onto the system? Is there anything like the harmony cart available for the Atari 400?

 

Also, I noticed Altirra does not have a mode for the 400---or is it an equivalent computer to the 800 just with less ram?

 

You are looking for this: http://raster.infos.cz/atari/hw/ramcart/ramcart.htm - one of the best and most underrated A8 HW of last decade.

 

F.

Doesn't that have to be programmed from the A8? If so, it won't help get games into the 400 without being pre-programmed.

[pajero_pn]

http://sio2sd-dev.gucio.pl/wiki/English

 

Firmware 3.0 is not finish!

Momentally: this www is created for firmware testing users.

Data is not current.

[Ransom]

IMHO the easier solution is SIO2SD:

http://sio2sd-dev.gucio.pl/wiki/English

http://marcinprusisz.pl/ (AtariAge user Pigula, €40 without SIO cable/connector)

http://lotharek.pl/5/product/info/22 (AtariAge user lotharek, €75 with case)

http://mega-hz.no-ip.com/Angebote/SIO2SD/SIO2SD%20rev.2.html (€80 with case)

http://afs.atari.org/sio2sd.htm ($80)

You don't have to program anything and you can have all A8 software in an SD card.

 

Can you select which software to run from the Atari itself, or do you have to do it with the little LCD screen on the SIO2SD?

[+Philsan]

IMHO the easier solution is SIO2SD:

http://sio2sd-dev.gu...pl/wiki/English

http://marcinprusisz.pl/ (AtariAge user Pigula, €40 without SIO cable/connector)

http://lotharek.pl/5/product/info/22 (AtariAge user lotharek, €75 with case)

http://mega-hz.no-ip...SD%20rev.2.html (€80 with case)

http://afs.atari.org/sio2sd.htm ($80)

You don't have to program anything and you can have all A8 software in an SD card.

 

Can you select which software to run from the Atari itself, or do you have to do it with the little LCD screen on the SIO2SD?

You can select the software from Atari itself.

Here is why I prefer SIO2SD over SDrive:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/170023-memory-flash-cards-to-the-xl/page__p__2103844?do=findComment&comment=2103844

[+orpheuswaking]

Forgive my extreme newbieness. When I was a kid I think all I knew how to do with my 400 was play Asteroids, Missile Command and Stair Raiders, and program a tiny bit of BASIC. Assuming my Atari 400 works, what are some common ways of getting code (written in asm most likely) onto the system? Is there anything like the harmony cart available for the Atari 400?

 

Also, I noticed Altirra does not have a mode for the 400---or is it an equivalent computer to the 800 just with less ram?

 

You are looking for this: http://raster.infos....art/ramcart.htm - one of the best and most underrated A8 HW of last decade.

 

F.

 

Which would be nice if someone was selling ready built units, or at the very least a PCB! I've been wanting one of these for sometime, but I have no way to get it made!

[roland p]

The 5200 does have a device that can be classified as 'harmony-like': http://www.atarimax.com/5200sd/documentation/index.html

 

I guess this is the fastest way to load roms?

 

With an SIO2SD device the speed depends on the SIO speed and the speed of the loading routines. How fast is an SIO2SD device?

A harmony-like device that emulates a rom just loads the rom from the sd-card to the ram of the device as fast as todays hardware permits.

 

Noob question: Can atari 8-bit disk-games (those not available as rom) be converted to roms?

[+Philsan]

I think this is the right topic for my question.

 

I asked (in Sic! Cart topic) if it is possible to have a bigger cartridge and Robert kindly answered that "it is not easy to use the high capacity flash chips that are commonly available at the moment because they are incompatible with the Atari without additional components that complicate the design".

 

But is it possible to make a plug & play cart like VCS Harmony?

It reads SD cards so there's no need of flash chips.

[kurtm]

I think this is the right topic for my question.

 

I asked (in Sic! Cart topic) if it is possible to have a bigger cartridge and Robert kindly answered that "it is not easy to use the high capacity flash chips that are commonly available at the moment because they are incompatible with the Atari without additional components that complicate the design".

 

But is it possible to make a plug & play cart like VCS Harmony?

It reads SD cards so there's no need of flash chips.

 

I'd suspect it hasn't happened because things like SIO2SD, SDrive, SIO2USB and MyIDE can essentially do that, and be more flexible to boot. Pretending to be a disk drive doesn't buy you anything for a VCS, it's cart port or nothing.

[+Philsan]

I don't think so, Kurt.

Hundreds of Atarimax and Sic! Cart have been sold.

Moreover, an SD cartridge would be faster than SIO2XX devices (and IDE Plus).

There must be a technical problem.

[Hatta]

Is there cartridge based software that one cannot run from an SIO device like SIO2SD or SIO2PC? If so, we need a flash cart for the 8-bit. If not, then we don't.

 

As far as I'm aware it's not as simple as dumping a cart to disk and loading it into memory. Disk games and cartridge games use different blocks of memory, so they have to be edited after dumping. A lot of software has been dumped and edited to work, but probably not all. What's important that hasn't been dumped?

[+Philsan]

Is there cartridge based software that one cannot run from an SIO device like SIO2SD or SIO2PC? If so, we need a flash cart for the 8-bit. If not, then we don't.

Have you tried for example SIC! Cart?

Instant loading!

I have SIO2PC, SIO2SD, IDE Plus (I had an SDrive NUXX too) but I think an SD cartridge would be useful.

[sloopy]

if your looking for a 'single cart solution' i would think the MyIDE+Flash cart would be your best solution... has compatibility with alot of games and apps, and can be fitted with a DOM, to make it self sufficient...

 

i think part of the reason a SD card solution with a cart hasnt been made is, the difficulty of such a task isnt worth it considering the more flexible nature of haveing a SIO2SD or similar device, and a MyIDE cart would server a similar purpose and is already available. altho i personally prefer SD cards over CF, as i have more SD devices then CF, if a SD card cart was released, its not likeley i would buy one...

 

sloopy.

[kurtm]

I don't think so, Kurt.

Hundreds of Atarimax and Sic! Cart have been sold.

Moreover, an SD cartridge would be faster than SIO2XX devices (and IDE Plus).

There must be a technical problem.

 

But those carts either get used for non-games, or games that use multiple disks (Ultima 4). The other thing is, an SD card is not like a cartridge, it's more like a disk. It isn't direct addressable. And those carts only have limited space. For an SD "cart", it would have to have smarts and memory to hold the desired games. And I don't know if an SD card can spew data as fast as bank switching a cart.

 

I think there is a potential advantage to such a cart, but it's *way* more complicated than Atarimax and Sic! Cart. (And that's not meant to slight those products at all).