Hi,

I'm hoping there are still active users around. I have two old Atari 400 systems, and my goal was to get some games working, especially the multiplayer (multijoy) games like Asteroids.

1. I have the flash cartridge and have tried writing several ATRs to the 8MBIT cartridge but I get the "This selection requires 64k RAM!" error every time I try to load them. Am I out of luck? My 400s are both just standard ones. Would a 400 with the 48K memory addition work? Should I buy an 800 or 800XE/XL?

2. I have also tried using just some XEX files, but while they load I just get garbled screens. Any tips for getting XEX files to work on the 400? Is there a setting in Maxflash Cartridge Studio that I'm missing?

Thanks for any help,
Dan

Hi dan,
I know for ATR-support, you need a 64k machine, so XL/XE only.
XEX-files, should load, if they stay inside the 16k RAM a 400 has.
Scrambling up the screen is a number one indication that it already loads into screen (upper) ram and soon will hit non existing ram.
But ROM-images should normally work, so, asteroids as rom, would not be a problem.
Grtz,
Sijmen.

Thanks Sijmen.

Can you point me at a ROM or XEX that you think should work? I can't seem to get any to work so far.

-Dan

I have browsed and zipped the 8k roms I could find.
Games, Utilities, demo's and unreleased.

In theory, they should work.
Since the atarimax supports or in fact is an 8k LEFT-cartridge.

Grtz,
Sijmen.

Thank you so much! All of these seem to work great.

-Dan

I have a 48k Atari 400 and it only works with xex files. I guess I'll have to pick up a 64k XL in order to play ATR files. I used to have a MULE cart that I had made but I can't find it. I assume since it was on a cart it would work in my 400, right? I have an XE Rescue on Fractalus cart that works in that 400 just fine.

Yes, ATR-emulation can only be done on 64k systems.
There is a MULE cartridge image in the 1mb forum.
Grtz,
Sijmen.

I have an Atari 400 with 48K of RAM. I used your 8K ROMS zip. No Matter what order i put the games in whatever game is in the #5 slot is the only game that plays, even if i choose other games. This is day 1 with my Atari Max programmer. Is there something I can do to fix this? Thank You.

Perhaps you can upload your workbook here, so I can have a look.
From the post itself I can not draw conclusions.
8k rom files on a 48k machine should always work.
You do set them in the loader as rom, yes?

I have uploaded the my latest test. Only the fifth game comes up on this one as well.
I do not see a specific setting for ROM. Can you help me know where that is?
Thanks for your patience with me.

Ok, weird, I have seen your workbook and all are set as ROM.
If you hoover with your mouse above the slot, you see this information.

Your book, flashed into a 8mb.
atari 16k:
menu comes, games work.
atari 48k:
menu comes, all games work....

So, that is strange.
Either your cartridge-slot is bad, your 8mb does not program correctly or your programmer makes a mess.

How does it work:
Bank #0 is the power-on default, selected from the flash-logic.
Here your menu is stored. You select the slot and;
Then flash-cartridge simply selects the 8k flashbank where the rom is flashed to, resets the atari, hence making the game start.
So here, in theory, nothing can go wrong.

Unless the flash-content is incorrect.
Or the flash-bank-selection-process, done from the atari, goes wrong (bad signals/slot).
If there is a RAM issue with your system, the game selection still should go ok, but the game will freeze or what-ever.

Here are a few things I can share.
*I upgraded my RAM to 48K a few months ago. It was my first soldering job and it went off without a hitch. All the RAM was detected.
*I have about 20 cartridges and they all play great. I picked up a Blue Max Cartridge because I knew it required more RAM and my Blue Max cart plays just fine.
*My AtariMax CD was not detected by my PC. It treated it like a blank media. I ended up downloading the software from the AtariMax website. The link to the 800 win plus emulator was dead so I found it elsewhere. AtariMax and the emulator are not getting along presently. (I don't think that has anything to do with my slot 5 issue)
*Whatever game is in slot #5 from the 8-bit ROMS runs like a champ.
*I tried the sample workbook from the AtariMax Demonstration. Although none of the games load for me I do get different results for different games, some will give me a garbled screen, some go to memo pad and some tell me I need 64K to run it so I do not think I am getting the slot 5 issue with the demonstration workbook
*I tried a workbook where I deleted the 5th game and all the slots defaulted to the 6th game then. I then deleted out the 6th game and the 7th game becomes the default game.
*If i make a cart with only 4 games, all the games default to Memo pad
*If i make a cart with 1 game in slot 5, memo pad comes up
*If i make a cart with just 5 games in the first 5 slots, again, the game in slot 5 is the game that all 5 slots default to
*I think I will borrow my wife's laptop tomorrow and see if programming the cart from a different PC makes a difference.
*I also bought the 5-cart 8Mbit pack so after the first cart had the issue, I tried a virgin cart and the same thing happens
*I am plugged directly to my pc's usb port, not using a hub
Thanks for listening to me ramble

I tried programming it from a different PC. It's still the same, the game in the fifth slot is the default game for all games in all slots

Busy week. So. Very strange.

The slot ID is not the 8k bank the atarimax selects.
So if you delete one slot, all 8k games move 1 down, hence, what you see.

In theory, something is fundamentally wrong here.
You are working with 8k rom games, these should always work, since it it rom.

The cartridge as you use it, simply is a stack of all 8k rom's.
The bootup menu is always on the first 8k bank.
That is the selection menu, you select, then the hardware sets another bank and resets the system.
There is no other change in banks what so ever after you selected a game.
So not changing banks, can not make games not work.....
Even when there should be a hick up in selecting the correct bank, you should see another game popping-up then the one you choose.
But that one still should work.

So:
At first I thought the selection hardware is bad/malfunctioning, but with another cartridge doing the same, that is ok.
Most likely the programmer works ok too. It just flashes 8k data in 8k flashbanks until all are done.

Back to the start. Most likely there is an issue with your atari.
Would be nice if you can check on another system.

If I remember correctly:

On powerup the atarimax device itself selects bank #0. The menu that you see on bootup.
Selecting bank #5 does only one simple routine:
Screen off, stop the OS, write a value to $D505, do reset.
(Selecting bank #23 for example writes a value to $D517)

The cartridge uses the WRITE signal, $D5xx signal and A0 through A7 signals for this.
Check if your 48k has some bad wiring here.