46 replies to this topic

[Avraham]

The A52 MaxiCart is in stock and ready to ship. The MaxiCart is an Atari 5200 cartridge fitted with a special circuitry, which allows loading any Atari 5200 game into it's on board flash memory. All you need to do is to connect the MaxiCart to the USB port of your pc and using a loader program which is supplied with the MaxiCart send the game bin file to the MaxiCart, no EPROM writer is needed.
For more information visit www.vgwiz.com

[joeybastard]

This looks pretty cool. Are you going to be selling them at PC5?

[Avraham]

We will be selling them at PC5 if we have any left

[jetset]

I think I want one! Much cheaper than a Multi cart! I'll have to poke around the site and see which games are compatible.
I'm also curious how long the "loan" time is for each game...

[Allan]

jetset said:

I think I want one!  Much cheaper than a Multi cart!  I'll have to poke around the site and see which games are compatible.  
I'm also curious how long the "loan"  time is for each game...

Everything should be compatible except Bounty Bob since it is bank-switched. What do you mean 'loan' time?

Allan

[jnice]

Wowzers! I think I'd like to get one of these. Maybe jetset meant "load time"?

[jetset]

jnice said:

Wowzers!  I think I'd like to get one of these.  Maybe jetset meant "load time"?

Yep, load time.

Unless......you want to front me a few bucks!!

[Bruce Tomlin]

Will there be any support for Linux or OS X? I'd rather not be required to run Microsoft's Active Virus, er I mean Windows to use this.

[OldGuru]

Bruce Tomlin said:

Will there be any support for Linux or OS X?  

Bruce,
The intention is to complete a Linux version as well.
I started porting the software using QtDesign Kit. The required USB drivers are available as well. It may take a while though before we can have a full blown running software. BTW: If you know a Linux C++ programmer that could assist in this task, please let me know.
In any case, the hardware will stay the same, regardless to the operating system someone uses.

jetset said:

I'm also curious how long the "load" time is for each game...

jetset,
It really depends on the computer you are using and the size of the game. From our experiments, on a 677MHz P3 PC, it took about 20-25 seconds to complete a download of a 32KB game. This time may vary if other PC applications are running in the background. Please note that while downloading, the software also verifies the content of the Flash - so there is no need to do a verify MaxiCart rightafter.
Also note that the more 0xFF are in the code - the faster the download time is (less on-the-fly verification is required). Therefor, the total download time is also "game" dependent.


Ronen.

[Tempest]

So you can only put one game on the cart at a time? Hmm... Good for homebrewers, but not for me.

Is there anything out there for the 5200 where you can load multiple games onto one cart (a make your own multicart type thing)?

Tempest

[Official Ninja]

One is fine with me. This cart will let us try all these conversions classic is doing (and has done) on a real 5200. Not a lousy emulator.

Chaz

[Allan]

Tempest said:

So you can only put one game on the cart at a time?  Hmm... Good for homebrewers, but not for me.

Is there anything out there for the 5200 where you can load multiple games onto one cart (a make your own multicart type thing)?

Tempest

I think there is definately room for both. The multicart is great because it's quick and full of the majority of the games. The Maxicart is great because you can try any new games and develop ones yourself. I ordered my Maxicart yesterday. Can't wait to get it and play Caverns of Mars on the real thing!

Allan

[jetset]

Allan said:

Tempest said:

So you can only put one game on the cart at a time?  Hmm... Good for homebrewers, but not for me.

Is there anything out there for the 5200 where you can load multiple games onto one cart (a make your own multicart type thing)?

Tempest

I think there is definately room for both. The multicart is great because it's quick and full of the majority of the games. The Maxicart is great because you can try any new games and develop ones yourself. I ordered my Maxicart yesterday. Can't wait to get it and play Caverns of Mars on the real thing!

Allan

Caverns of Mars?!?!?! When, Where, How?!?!?!?!?!
I'm buying a maxicart anyway, but I want to try that one for sure!!!!!

[Allan]

jetset said:

Allan said:

Tempest said:

So you can only put one game on the cart at a time?  Hmm... Good for homebrewers, but not for me.

Is there anything out there for the 5200 where you can load multiple games onto one cart (a make your own multicart type thing)?

Tempest

I think there is definately room for both. The multicart is great because it's quick and full of the majority of the games. The Maxicart is great because you can try any new games and develop ones yourself. I ordered my Maxicart yesterday. Can't wait to get it and play Caverns of Mars on the real thing!

Allan

Caverns of Mars?!?!?! When, Where, How?!?!?!?!?!
I'm buying a maxicart anyway, but I want to try that one for sure!!!!!

It was posted here on atariage n one of the other 5200 threads.

Allan

PS. It works great!

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[classics]

You can find the rom for CoM in this thread. Also links for Maxi and Multi carts.

Steve

http://www.atariage....pic.php?t=44265

[OldGuru]

Allan said:

[Can't wait to get it and play Caverns of Mars on the real thing!

Allan

I Played it last night on the MaxiCart. Plays great! Nice game.

Ronen.

[Tempest]

Where's the Cavern of Mars link? I didn't see it in there (maybe I'm just blind?).

Tempest

[oesii]

Tempest said:

Where's the Cavern of Mars link?  I didn't see it in there (maybe I'm just blind?).

Tempest

It's the 2nd to last post on the second page of the thread, it's attached.

this link might work too:

http://www.atariage....ad.php?id=20749

[icbrkr]

I checked my email today, and found that my wife had ordered me one of these Since there isn't any OS X software for it, I'll let everyone know if it works under VPC (and worst case scenario, I'll just use my XP box.. ugh). Since I haven't touched the programming of my game in a bit (like.. months), this will give me some incentive since it'll be running on real hardware.

[jetset]

I just ordered mine!

[Gabriel]

I sent the check today.

Hopefully soon I'll be seeing how the Stargate proto plays on a real 5200.

[icbrkr]

Got my cart in today! Here's a few things:

1. It works fine with Virtual PC under OS X. I was able to flash it without issues. However, it won't work through the keyboard, only through its own dedicated USB port.

2. "Utopia" works on a real 5200! However, the joystick routine doesn't. I suspected that before, but it's been confirmed. Also, I see my colors are way off - water that on an emulator is blue, is purple on the TV.. doh!

[GrizzLee]

Quote

Hopefully soon I'll be seeing how the Stargate proto plays on a real 5200.

Don't expect too much.... I was rather dissapointed with Stargate

-Lee

[Cafeman]

icbrkr said:

Got my cart in today!  

2. "Utopia" works on a real 5200!  However, the joystick routine doesn't.  I suspected that before, but it's been confirmed.  Also, I see my colors are way off - water that on an emulator is blue, is purple on the TV.. doh!

I'm having a flashback back to my Koffi koding days. The emulator color palettes are either based on a changed XE color plalette or just plain wrong for several values. When I first put Koffi on a real 5200, what looked good on VSS looked really crappy on a TV. Atari800win is more accurate but still not correct with everything.

If you download the koffi.bin file which is here on AtariAge, and start a level and press the #5 key, you'll enter the "Koloring Book" feature -- basically a color debugger, showing you the color values as you change them.

http://cafeman.www9....structions.html

Some other "Koloring Book" instructions are at that link. Just use the #,*, and 0 keys to increase/decrease values.

About the joystick routine, I'd say that if Atari800win works with it, it'll work on the real machine too. When is the ETA for Utopia?

[icbrkr]

Cafeman said:

I'm having a flashback back to my Koffi koding days. The emulator color palettes are either based on a changed XE color plalette or just plain wrong for several values. When I first put Koffi on a real 5200, what looked good on VSS looked really crappy on a TV.  Atari800win is more accurate but still not correct with everything.  

Yep, I remember reading the progress on Koffi, so I'm not entirely surprised. Overall though, the color scheme was close.

Cafeman said:

About the joystick routine, I'd say that if Atari800win works with it, it'll work on the real machine too. When is the ETA for Utopia?

I have a question about reading the joystick (looking for values) posted under "Programming". ETA? Hrmmf. I decided against those because of my last game that didn't happen. I sorta pressured myself to get it done by that date and it became less "fun" and more of a job. So, I'll say with all certainty, that it'll be done "sometime" As of right now, here's what's done:

1. The island is drawn (hurray! )
2. On an emulator, you can point and select parts of Island #1 to build on. If you try to build on the secondary island, it won't let you.
3. It keeps accurate count of your cash on-hand.
4. Every item except for "in water" items are "buildable".
5. All of your ships are able to be selected and moved around the screen.

I last left off with the IRQ movement of pirate ships. I found out in 5200BAS that using the locate function fails during an VBI so I'm trying to find an easier way to "plot" the pirate ships on the screen. And, well, I haven't been very successful. Honestly, at that part is where I gave up for awhile (11/24/03 was the last time I touched it). Seeing it on the TV gives me a renewed interest though.

What needs to be done is this:

1. Pirate ships need to be finished.
2. Weather needs to be implemented.
3. Collision detection with other ships need to be implemented.
4. A timer and "end of round" functions need to be implemented.
5. Scoring.
6. 2nd player routines need to be added in.
7. Fish need to be added in (once I get the pirate ships, the same routine can be used for the movement of fish).