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Atarimax "Maxflash" Flash MultiCarts
Preliminary Documentation, 07/10/2003
©2003 Steven J Tucker
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Important Notice!
The software described below has been superceded by the new Maxflash Studio software application.
This software is still supported for advanced users, but all new users should try the Maxflash Studio suite located here before attempting to use these programs and scripts.
All information here is based on the state of the beta testers toolkit as of 07/10/2003.
This is only an overview the available features, please see the kit usage documentation for a complete functional description of all options.
Only features for currently available hardware are described here. As of 07/10/2003 that means only features for the 1Mb cartridge.
While the cartridge itself is not machine or OS specific, and can run any code
programmed into it, an open-source toolkit is provided to perform some functions
for those who don't care to write software.
- Open source design using Perl scripts and TASM 6502 table-driven assembler.
- Completely Windows/Linux compatible.
- Atari800 emulator support for cartridge images, very easy debugging and testing. (source included)
- Custom Atari800Win with features for debugging custom and disk-cart images.
- Fully automatic generation of flash binaries, Atari800 CART images and FLASH Programming disks.
- Pack any number of Atari EXE files into available cartridge space to create a multicart.
- Ability to include automatic Atari 800 OSB "translator" in cartridge.
- Built-in ability to bypass cartridge at startup for easy reprogramming.
- Fully tested for compatibility with Jellystone Park EXE Archive (1000+ games verified currently compatible)
- Automatic generation of custom multicart menu without modifying any source code.
- Compatible with all Atari computers, no multicart requires XL/XE OS support.
- Fully automatic EXE strip, compact and repair.
- Keyboard and joystick program selection support when using cartridge.
- Ability to remove unwanted visual features from multi-cart menu, make selection faster, etc.
- Tiny EXE unpacker stub, less than 200 bytes, can be relocated in RAM for extra unpacking compatibility.
- Ability to unpack anywhere in RAM, even under cartridge and OS spaces.
- Full support for 8Mb cartridge already being verified by 8Mb hardware testing group. (done. 07/20/2003)
- Time required to generate a multi-cart from Atari EXE files and test in emulator: 5 seconds @ 500Mhz.
- Ability to pack any single-density ATR image onto cartridge.
- Limited ability to pack some 2-side disks into 1Mb cartridge, for example, most Infocom games.
- Ability to include automatic Atari 800 OSB "translator" in cartridge.
- Ability to pack disk images that require use of internal BASIC cartridge. (XL/XE only)
- Built-in ability to bypass cartridge at startup for easy reprogramming.
- Fully automatic software design. Simply insert cartridge and 'disk' game starts with your custom generated options.
- Complete support for games/utilities that access the disk constantly, for example, Infocom games.
- Ability to pack most anything on disk, so for example making a 'dos cartridge' with your favorite utility set is a trivial operation.
- Complete access to real disks even when disk-cartridge installed, so saving games or using real/simulated disks still works.
- As of 07/10/2003 there are about 200 disk-cart games already generated, including most of the Infocom library.
- Automatically generated disk-carts require an XL/XE computer to operate, custom made disk conversions have no special requirements. (See the 'mule cartridge' tutorial for an example of how to custom convert a disk game to cartridge)
- Automatic and manual side-flipping of 2-disk images.
- Multi-disk compacter with menu currently being tested by 8Mb hardware testing group.
- Time required to generate a disk-cart from an Atari ATR file and test in emulator: 3 seconds @ 500Mhz
- Ability to unpack Atari800 state saves.
- Ability to unpack memory under the OS in XL/XE models.
- This option basically coded as a 'proof of concept', but useful for some hard to pack games that don't reload from disk.
- This option is currently working but has only had about 1 day of development time. EXE and disk packing options cover pretty much everything already.
- Ability to check and fix broken and mutated Atari EXE files.
- Ability to produce no-disk/no-exe transparent 'translator' cartridges. (1 second load time)
- Convert any arbitrary binary image into Atari800 'CART' or flash programming diskette. (Allows for programming your cartridge with any code you desire)
- See the software documentation for a complete, current list of features.
