Atari Max cartridges?

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VideoGameCritic
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Atari Max cartridges?

Postby VideoGameCritic » July 20th, 2014, 8:26 pm

Anybody familiar with AtariMax cartridges?

I already own a few multicarts and I would love to be able to play Atari XE Roms on the original systems.

Unfortunately when I got the order web page I have no idea what to order.  There are all sorts of variations and I don't know the difference.

Any info/advice would be appreciated.

VGC

Leo1
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Atari Max cartridges?

Postby Leo1 » July 26th, 2014, 8:30 pm

Obviously you haven't found any help here, but if you figure things out, any chance you'd post your impressions and an explanation? I've faced the same dilemma as you since I don't quite understand all the details here or what best fits my needs.

Just to confuse matters even more, here's another option that they provide, the AtariMax MyIDE-II.

http://www.atarimax.com/myide/documentation/ 


I have excellent solutions for most classic cartridge based consoles and plan to order a Game Boy Everdrive soon (The latest addition to the world of classic gaming multicarts), but figuring out something for the XEGS has confused me in the past and kept me away from placing an order. 


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VideoGameCritic
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Atari Max cartridges?

Postby VideoGameCritic » July 27th, 2014, 12:56 pm

Thanks for chiming in Leo.  Glad I'm not the only confused one.

I was going to order an AtariMax from a guy with a game already on it, but if it's a "modern" game it takes up all the space!  Obviously I'm looking for something I can load many ROMs on.

In addition, it sounds like the AtariMax was more designed for developers, and you need to use some sort of toolkit to transfer ROMs.

Once these details emerged I kind of aborted mission.  It's too bad because there are a lot of obscure Atari XE games I would like to review.

snakeboy1
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Atari Max cartridges?

Postby snakeboy1 » July 27th, 2014, 3:05 pm

I did a little research on these things when I got my 800XL last year.  From what I've learned, I think you might like something like an SIO2SD device:

http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=23

Here is a thread I found on Atari Age that might answer some of your questions:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/210572-sio2sd-questions-and-comparison-with-side2/

Leo1
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Atari Max cartridges?

Postby Leo1 » July 27th, 2014, 4:55 pm

Scotland17. here's what I own for multicarts. Also keep in mind that they're good for much more than just enabling piracy. The pre-crash systems in particular have a thriving world of homebrews, many of which involve no IP infringement.

Atari 2600 - Harmony
Atari 5200 - AtariMax (One of the older ones with a built in selection of games)
Atari 7800 - Cuttle Cart II
Colecovision - AtariMax
Intellivision - Cuttle Cart III
Vectrex - 72 Games (Another one with a built in selection)
NES - Everdrive
SNES - SD2SNES
N64 - Everdrive 64
Genesis - Everdrive MD

I once owned a Master System and an Everdrive for it, but have recently sold both. 

Other than the Everdrive Game Boy, I want to eventually upgrade to the AtariMax flash multicart for the 5200 that allows me to load my own roms, the Harmony Encore for the 2600 with its enhanced capabilities, GroovyBee's new multicart for the Intellivision, and the H2 for the Atari 7800.

Adding games to my CC2 and CC3 has always been a bit of a pain and my CC2 can't play some newer 2600/7800 homebrews like Space Rocks. So that's why I'm watching those last two projects with interest since they should be more user friendly.

I just need something for my XEGS and my GBA one of these days. Hopefully there's at least a Everdrive Advance eventually (The old pirate devices from a decade + ago for the GBA seemed more trouble than they were worth).

Rev1
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Atari Max cartridges?

Postby Rev1 » July 27th, 2014, 5:54 pm

I looked at the page and was really confused on which one you would need, so no you are definitely not alone. Would you be able to put ROMs from games that were on floppy discs on there as well? Trying to find all the old Atari cartridges is a huge pain so something like this would definitely be worth it. Would love to hook up my Atari XEGS but I'm currently out of room and don't have too many games for it.

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Atariboy
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Re: Atari Max cartridges?

Postby Atariboy » August 20th, 2015, 2:56 am

A new, much more conventional looking option has appeared for an Atari 8 bit multicart. :)

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/241796 ... rs-thread/

The only thing I'm not clear on is support for disk and tape images.

Also, we have another option called the 'The!Cart" that actually predates this thread, but somehow slipped through unnoticed as this discussion went on. Haven't read this thread just yet, so unsure how it's setup or compatibility.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/215811 ... dge/page-1

Ideally, I'd want something that's plug and play. I put my game images, regardless of their original format, on to some sort of memory card like a SD card and just insert that into the cartridge that goes into my XEGS, and select my game from the on-screen auto generated menu and play.

Hopefully one of these can provide that.

LuckyWDFN
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Re: Atari Max cartridges?

Postby LuckyWDFN » November 10th, 2017, 10:24 am

VideoGameCritic wrote:Anybody familiar with AtariMax cartridges?

I already own a few multicarts and I would love to be able to play Atari XE Roms on the original systems.

Unfortunately when I got the order web page I have no idea what to order.  There are all sorts of variations and I don't know the difference.

Any info/advice would be appreciated.

VGC


Glad I did a search on this thread before starting one of my own. Did you ever pull the trigger on AtariMax programmable carts? I wanted to bump this thread to see if anyone else has used these. It looks like I'll need Maxflash USB Cartridge Programmer Kit (1st item on the menu) and some 8mbit Flash Carts to start.

http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/documentation/

Questions? Is the software as easy as the videos makes it sound (just drag and drop games into your list)? About how many "typical" arcade or platform games could fit on 1 8mb cart?

$160 seems steep, but with so many games to load onto these carts it might be worth it. Plus, people are asking ridiculous amounts for some of these carts and untested Atari 800 diskettes on ebay.

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Re: Atari Max cartridges?

Postby VideoGameCritic » November 10th, 2017, 4:47 pm

No I never bought one, but I sure would like an affordable way to review obscure old Atari computer games. The library is outstanding.

LuckyWDFN
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Re: Atari Max cartridges?

Postby LuckyWDFN » November 11th, 2017, 11:21 am

I'll pick one up and let you know via this thread how it works, etc. I can't find a full list of games anywhere online except for people that say "literally ALL the games" are available with this program.


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