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JackFrost22
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JackFrost22
- Sir Posts-alot
- Posts: 4186
- Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 4:10 pm
Its a atari 2600 cart that allows you to load games onto it. It also allows you to make multicarts.
AA wrote:The Krokodile Cartridge is a programmable game cartridge for the 2600 game console. The cartridge contains 512K of Flash ROM that can be programmed by connecting the cartridge to a Windows PC with a serial cable. Once connected to a PC, the Windows-based Krokodile Commander software (screenshots below) is then used to download software into the Krokodile Cartridge. The cartridge also includes 32K of built-in RAM to support games that require additional onboard cartridge memory (such as Atari's SARA-chip games).
Using the provided Windows software, you can directly download Atari 2600 ROM images to the cartridge. In addition to downloading a single ROM binary, the cartridge can be used as a multicart. It can store up to 127 games (4K) which can be selected with a built-in menu system. Bankswitched multicarts are also supported, allowing you to create F8 (8K), F6 (16K) and F4 (32K) bankswitched multicarts. The multicarts can be created with the Krokodile Commander software. You can easily select which games you want to have on the cartridge and once you've made your selections you can download the created multicart image to the Krokodile Cartridge.
If you're thinking about developing games for the Atari 2600, or if you're already an established homebrew author, the Krokodile Cartridge is a great tool to add to your arsenal. You can quickly download binaries to the Krokodile Cartridge to test on a real system--especially useful as you near the end of your development cycle and want to make sure your game runs correctly on the real thing!
The Krokodile Commander can also be invoked on the command-line, which makes it possible to automatically download a binary to the cartridge after your compile has completed. Additionally, there is an "incremental download" mode that will only "patch" the binary in the cartridge, only downloading the differences between the new binary and the binary currently in the cartridge. This allows for extremely fast downloading, especially if the binary has only changed little (which is often the case during development).
The Krokodile Cartridge supports the following bankswitching modes:
* 1K / 2K / 4K (Non-Bankswitched)
* F8 (Atari 'Standard' 8K) / F8 SARA Chip
* F6 (Atari 'Standard' 16K) / F6 SARA Chip
* F4 (Atari 'Standard' 32K) / F4 SARA Chip
* 3F (Tigervision, up to 512K ROM)
* 3E (up to 512K ROM and 32K RAM)
* EF (64K)
* FA (CBS RAM+ Cartridges)
* UA (UA Limited - Pleiades & Funky Fish)
* CV (CommaVid)
The following Multicart modes are also supported:
* 1K / 2K / 4K Multicart (127 Games)
* F8 (8K) Multicart (63 Games)
* F6 (16K) Multicart (31 Games)
* F4 (32K) Multicart (15 Games)
Once the Krokodile Cartridge has been programmed, it can be plugged directly into the Atari 2600 like any other game cartridge. When programming the cartridge, it must be connected to its external power supply.
The Krokodile Cartridge includes the cartridge, manual, serial cable, and Krokodile Commander software on CD. The Krokodile Cartridge additionally requires a power supply with a voltage between 6V and 9V and at least 500mA. An Atari 2600 power supply can be used. The power supply is not included.
AtariAge sponsored a label design contest to design an original label for the Krokodile Cartridge. A label by Nathan Strum was selected as the winner and will be the label used (with some minor modifications) for the Krokodile Cart, as well as for the manual cover. You can view all the contest submissions (over 80!) here
We are presently accepting pre-orders for the Krokodile Cartridge, and those who pre-order will be the first to receive the Krokodile Cartridge when shipments begin. We anticipate the Krokodile Cartridge will ship no later than January 3rd, 2005.
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JackFrost22
- Sir Posts-alot
- Posts: 4186
- Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 4:10 pm
-
JackFrost22
- Sir Posts-alot
- Posts: 4186
- Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 4:10 pm