660 replies to this topic

[johnnywc]

Chad,

Thank you so much for making a product like this available. I will definitely be pre-ordering one!!

With that said, would you consider having people who pre-order send you Pokey chips to be inserted into the sockets before the carts are put together? I have an extra Ballblazer cart that I can rip open. I'm a little nervous about popping the CC2 open - breaking tabs, etc. and would like to avoid it if at all possible.

Thanks again!!

[Mayhem]

Couple of Qs...

1) This will be able to support PAL ROMs right? It isn't documented in the manual but presumably there will be some way of getting them working within the CC2 structure. I ask of course because that's what I'd mostly be running

2) Lee mentioned being able to run the Supercharger games from it. Now precisely how does that work, are the games available out there in a non-audio format? Someone recently sent me PAL mp3 files of the games and I'll be trying to burn them to CD soon to test them on my 2600 and Supercharger. But if I can somehow run them through CC2 instead...

3) Oh and as above, will you offer people to have a Pokey already in it when they buy for say $5-8 extra?

[Mitch]

MayhemUK said:

Couple of Qs...

1) This will be able to support PAL ROMs right? It isn't documented in the manual but presumably there will be some way of getting them working within the CC2 structure. I ask of course because that's what I'd mostly be running

2) Lee mentioned being able to run the Supercharger games from it. Now precisely how does that work, are the games available out there in a non-audio format? Someone recently sent me PAL mp3 files of the games and I'll be trying to burn them to CD soon to test them on my 2600 and Supercharger. But if I can somehow run them through CC2 instead...

3) Oh and as above, will you offer people to have a Pokey already in it when they buy for say $5-8 extra?

I guess I can answer these.

I did the PAL testing and everything ran fine, I tested 300 or so different PAL ROMs of different sizes with no problems.

For Supercharger games you need the PAL BIN files. If you have the Stella CD it has all of the BIN files on there.

Chad will have to give the final answer on number 3 but I think he said on his site that he wouldn't.

Mitch

[johnnywc]

Chad,

Just to be clear - I don't expect to be able to pay extra $$$ to have you dig up a POKEY chip, rip it out of a cart, etc. My question is if I pre-order a CC2 and send you a POKEY chip prior to the assembly of the CC2, would you put it in the socket so I can avoid opening it up (and possibly damaging it).

Thanks,

[bjk7382]

johnnywc said:

Chad,

Just to be clear - I don't expect to be able to pay extra $$$ to have you dig up a POKEY chip, rip it out of a cart, etc.  My question is if I pre-order a CC2 and send you a POKEY chip prior to the assembly of the CC2, would you put it in the socket so I can avoid opening it up (and possibly damaging it).

Thanks,

If you have never taken an atari cart apart just get a common one and practice. It is so easy getting the back of the cart off. I wouldn't be too worried, and that is probly why he gives instructions, because he thinks anyone that can set this up should be able to take the shell of a cart apart.

[Mayhem]

Mitch said:

I did the PAL testing and everything ran fine, I tested 300 or so different PAL ROMs of different sizes with no problems.

For Supercharger games you need the PAL BIN files. If you have the Stella CD it has all of the BIN files on there.  

Chad will have to give the final answer on number 3 but I think he said on his site that he wouldn't.

Cheers for that. I don't have the Stella CD so no doubt I will go asking for some kind person to "donate" (or show me where to buy) it to me...

[Gregory DG]

Man, I really really want one of these. Hope the wife won't notice a $200 drop in the bank account...

[SS]

Gregory DG said:

Man, I really really want one of these. Hope the wife won't notice a $200 drop in the bank account...  

I'm hoping that I won't notice a $200 dorp in the bank account! :wink:

[Buck]

cschell said:

Does everyone believe that I'm not even paying this guy for endorsements like this?    (I find it hard to believe myself, I guess I should go check that he actually paid for his beta unit.   )

But seriously, thanks for your support Buck.  Customer responses like this are great for one's psyche.

Chad

Glad to be of service! I'll take payment in the form of a discount of the re-release of the Intellicart or the 5200 Cuttle Cart III.

(Just kidding people, I don't think Chad has any plans to re-release the Intellicart or for a Cuttle Cart III just yet)

But.... 5200 Cuttle Cart.... Hmmmmm

I know, I know... one step at a time :wink:

Buck

[Mot]

Quote

Hope the wife won't notice a $200 drop in the bank account...

I was thinking the same thing!

So do we have an ETA or ETP (Estimated time to preorder) yet?

I DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!

Does anyone know how much Cartzella went for? Or does anyone remember that thing?

[cschell]

MayhemUK said:

Couple of Qs...

1) This will be able to support PAL ROMs right? It isn't documented in the manual but presumably there will be some way of getting them working within the CC2 structure. I ask of course because that's what I'd mostly be running

2) Lee mentioned being able to run the Supercharger games from it. Now precisely how does that work, are the games available out there in a non-audio format? Someone recently sent me PAL mp3 files of the games and I'll be trying to burn them to CD soon to test them on my 2600 and Supercharger. But if I can somehow run them through CC2 instead...

3) Oh and as above, will you offer people to have a Pokey already in it when they buy for say $5-8 extra?

I think Mitch covered these pretty well, but I figured I would expound a little.

1) PAL ROMs work, and the menu even operates in PAL mode on PAL consoles. (Not sure how terrible the default colors are though, but you can fix that.)

2) Once you dig up the ROMs, read the appendix on bankswitching formats in the CC2 manual for detailed info on how to set them up for use with the autoloading supercharger emulation. (The menu generator will do this for you actually.)

3) I'll cover both POKEY questions here. I have no good source of POKEYs to install for people, so I can't just take extra money and install them. If I had a ready source I would have just skipped the expense of the "ultra low profile" socket and soldered the things directly onto the PCB.

I'd rather not install POKEYs for individuals either, as it complicates my life when it comes time to ship things. See, after I get things back from the assembly shop I program and test all the carts and throw them in a big pile. Then I put labels onto them all and throw them in another big pile. Then I box them up and throw all the boxes in a big pile. Then I print shipping labels and ship them out, just grabbing a box and slapping a label onto it.

Doing special orders makes this much harder. It might not seem like much, and for a very small number of people it's not. But for a larger number of people it is. That's the main reason I will never individually number another product.

Chad

[cschell]

bjk7382 said:

If you have never taken an atari cart apart just get a common one and practice. It is so easy getting the back of the cart off. I wouldn't be too worried, and that is probly why he gives instructions, because he thinks anyone that can set this up should be able to take the shell of a cart apart.

Yes, that's definitely the best advice if you're worried about breaking the tabs on the cart. Just remember to remove the screw under the label on your test cart.


Chad

[cschell]

Gregory DG said:

Man, I really really want one of these. Hope the wife won't notice a $200 drop in the bank account...  

Would she notice if a certain pizza pan or two went missing from the kitchen? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Chad

[cschell]

Mot said:

So do we have an ETA or ETP (Estimated time to preorder) yet?

I DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!

Does anyone know how much Cartzella went for?  Or does anyone remember that thing?

I finally acquired my Arizona and Tucson business licenses today, so I can now legally take people's money. I just need to get an idea of parts availability, make sure my programmers made it through the move, and other various little things.

Hopefully I'll start taking preorders either this weekend or early next week.

As for Cartzella, do you mean Bankzilla? The 2600 in a 7800 case that played all the 2600 games? If so, it was a one off and never offered for sale.

Chad

[cschell]

Buck said:

But....  5200 Cuttle Cart....  Hmmmmm

Seeing as I just sold my only 5200, and I gave the other one away at a CGE several years ago (and it was really hard to *give* it away), I don't think I'll ever to a 5200 Cuttle Cart.

Isn't there already a USB based flash cartridge for the 5200? Sure, it doesn't do bankswitching, but that only leaves out one 5200 game.

(Which is another reason it doesn't really interest me. Where's the challenge? Especially with an externally programmed cart. That even takes away the problems with needing boot code, in system programmability, the lack of clock lines, etc.)

Chad

[Mot]

Quote

As for Cartzella, do you mean Bankzilla? The 2600 in a 7800 case that played all the 2600 games? If so, it was a one off and never offered for sale.

I think your right Bankzilla but he did put it on ebay and I think slashdot even mentioned it. I don't remember how much it went for.

[oesii]

I have a question just for curiosity's sake for Chad or any of the beta testers. Has anyone tested out some of the 7800 incompatible games like Robot Tank, Decathlon, Space Shuttle, Time Pilot, or Kool-Aid Man on a 7800 with this problem.

Does the CC2 fix any of the problem, and for that matter some 7800 are incompatible with the Supercharger I would assume the CC2 loaded with a Supercharger game would bypass any hardware problems.

[Susuwatari]

That is a good question. There's even 2600 Dark Chambers that won't work on certain 7800. Although I'm sure mine's fine as I hadn't run into any game that won't work (including unmodded Supercharger)

[Gregory DG]

cschell said:

Isn't there already a USB based flash cartridge for the 5200?  Sure, it doesn't do bankswitching, but that only leaves out one 5200 game.

(Which is another reason it doesn't really interest me.  Where's the challenge?  Especially with an externally programmed cart.  That even takes away the problems with needing boot code, in system programmability, the lack of clock lines, etc.)

How about a 5200 cart that could play 400/800 disk games? That should be complex enough of a challenge.

[cschell]

oesii said:

I have a question just for curiosity's sake for Chad or any of the beta testers.  Has anyone tested out some of the 7800 incompatible games like Robot Tank, Decathlon, Space Shuttle, Time Pilot, or Kool-Aid Man on a 7800 with this problem.

Does the CC2 fix any of the problem, and for that matter some 7800 are incompatible with the Supercharger I would assume the CC2 loaded with a Supercharger game would bypass any hardware problems.

Robot Tank and Decathlon should work given the way I decided to implement FE bankswitching. I'm not aware of Space Shuttle or Time Pilot having any problems. A lot of Activision games are just picky about how they fit into the cartridge slot, and this is a general problem with some 7800's. It's a mechanical thing not an electrical one. I've had one beta tester report a similar problem with the CC2 and his 7800. I'm going to make a small change to the production carts that I believe will eliminate this problem entirely, but I don't know for certain. If someone get's shafted and their CC2 just doesn't work in their 7800 for this reason (I highly doubt it will happen), I will give them a refund. (Or they can get a different 7800, their call.) This warning will go out when the preorder instructions are given.

Kool-Aid man won't work on the CC2 if it doesn't work on your 7800, as that's a problem in the TIA. Nothing I can do about that. I thought this problem on existed in PAL 7800s. (Am I wrong?)

Supercharger games will work fine, as will Dark Chambers.

Chad

[Kepone]

bjk7382 said:

Buck said:

Kepone said:

I would definitely get this if it was more affordable.

$200 is a fair price though. It looks like a nice utility to play games that are otherwise hard to obtain.

I'm tellin ya, do what it takes to get the cash!!!


Buck

I am already making sacrifices in my collection to try to allocate some funds for this. I put a 4 switch 2600 up on ebay with most of my common games. It was definitely hard to put up over half of my cartriges, but that shows you how much I want this thing.

It would be months before I could ever afford something like this. I believe it would be something cool to have but then again, I'm primarily a 2600 collector/player in regards to Atari.

I use my 7800 though to play 2600 games right now.

[Andrew Davie]

cschell said:

Hello everyone,

I'm happy to announce that the Cuttle Cart 2 is pretty much ready to go.  (But there are still some details I have to work out not directly related to the product.)

I guess this puts an end to my plan to get a free unit in return for development/programming assistance. Dang.

[bjk7382]

Kepone said:

I'm primarily a 2600 collector/player  in regards to Atari.

I use my 7800 though to play 2600 games right now.

Well with the CC2 you can play EVERY atari 2600/7800 game thru your 7800. It is pretty much the end all solution to buying carts.

[Buck]

bjk7382 said:

Kepone said:

I'm primarily a 2600 collector/player  in regards to Atari.

I use my 7800 though to play 2600 games right now.

Well with the CC2 you can play EVERY atari 2600/7800 game thru your 7800. It is pretty much the end all solution to buying carts.

PLUS, you have a 7800, Kepone. You are a step ahead of a lot of gamers out there. Many have only a 2600.
I'm biased because I've been using this for the past few months, but I PLAY more Atari now then before. It's so nice and easy! Think of the conveinence of an emulator (StellaX anyway - I need a GUI ) with the experience of playing on the real deal.

Anybody out there wanna finance Kepone? :wink:

Buck

[Susuwatari]

I do have an interesting idea for CC2: why not integrate the gut into 76800 system and in pace of the cart port is a MMC port?

Just an idea...