Testing out the cassette on the Compumate, saving/loading basic programs seems to work, saving/loading pictures and saving/loading music seems to work.
(The Compumate has 3 different modes, basic, graphics and music mode.
(loaded from a saved cassette picture)
(loaded from a saved music file)
One thing I think that the Compumate could have done was to allow assembly language programs to be loaded into the 2k memory, like the Commavid Magicard. That would have been interesting.
Recently, I've been hearing about the Frob which was a development system for the 2600 which had 4k of memory and hooked up to the Apple II. You could write the 4k ram from the Apple II and then let the Atari 2600 have access. It could also pass data back and forth between the Apple and the 2600. I've been thinking about how to do something like that in mame, converting the a2600 into an apple slot card.
One thing I think that the Compumate could have done was to allow assembly language programs to be loaded into the 2k memory, like the Commavid Magicard. That would have been interesting.
As a kid I expected the Compumate to be crippled by design with intentionally blocking joystick ports and lacking machine code support (unlike my ZX81 it had no poke, peek, usr) due to somekind of contract with Atari to prevent hobbyists from making actual games for the 2600 that could potentially compete with commercial ones. (Much later Apple banned from their appstores everything that could load external code (including C64 emulators) to protect the monopoly on selling iPhone software.)
But may be they just cheapened the thing with simplified hardware (blocking joyports as address lines, keeping BASIC rom smaller), much like most toy laptops did and so prevented hobbyists from serious programming on it. The atrocious manual of the Sound FX Phasor shows what attitude electronic toy companies had.
Thought I'd try to see if I could get the frob going, I can get the explorer running, don't know what I'm doing but it does seem to be able to change some of the values.
Thought I'd try to see if I could get the frob going, I can get the explorer running, don't know what I'm doing but it does seem to be able to change some of the values.
The Frob support is USEFUL, because I am smack dab in the middle of making a comprehensive deep dive video on it (4+ hrs long), and this makes the interactive portions a whole lot more straightforward!
The difference between the NTSC and PAL a2600 is < 1%.
One of the things that makes it look different is that the top track is 44100 and the lower track is 22050 and that can make it not quite line up graphically.
It's close, but not 100% exact.
I wanted to use round numbers, to get it 100% exact I'd have to go to floating point numbers or keep track of fractional parts.
The 1 bits are probably just a bit too long and the 0 bits are probably a bit too short.
Over a typical load, the difference in length is < 1%.
(on this picture, the top is 44100 that is an actual save, the second track is 22050, and the third track is 11025, the length difference is 16.204 versus 16.140 seconds)