Gooday Gaming Guests - The Atari Booting Difference from 2600 to 7800

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Each Gets Better.

Alright, so today I'm going to try to pick one system and we're going to ask ChatGPT to tell me how it boots up. Like a detail. But before I do that, I'm always... Drone sightings are still going on. I think people just get more paranoid, but I don't know. But I did see this pop up. It says, What is the zoo hypothesis for alien life? So I'm a big aliens fan. Eventually, we say we just come around and stop messing around with us. We just show up so we can do what we got to do or whatever.

But anyway, it says, it seems that we are completely alone in the universe. But simple reasoning suggests that there should be an abundance of alien civilizations. Maybe they're out there, but they're keeping their distance. Welcome to the zoo hypothesis. So I still think that we're like in some sort of fishbowl, multiverse or something else going on. The story goes that in the summer 1950 eminent uh physicist rico ferme was visiting a colleague at los angeles national laboratory it was at the peak of the ufo mania and naturally

the physics physicists brought it up for lunch after a short while, Fermi went silent. Later, after the conversation had turned to other topics, he explained, where is everybody? Everybody knew what he meant. We know the universe is capable of producing intelligent life. We're literally living proof of that, but the cosmos tends to not do things just once. If life happened here, it likely also happens somewhere else. In fact, given the extraordinary age of the universe, and the incredible number of stars and planetary systems in the given galaxy, melky way should be a buzz with intellectual space faring civilizations so you would think unless the civil unless the whole space is just a an illusion we think there's really stuff out there but there's not that's

what i think i like that i like that theory better all right anyway we'll keep going on humanity itself is right on the cusp of developing a substantial interplanetary presence, and our species is still in its youth, at least as cosmic reckoning is concerned. We should see evidence of other intelligent species everywhere. Radio signals, megastructures, wandering probes, and so on. We've got nothing. Where is everybody? Perhaps the strangest possibility solution to Femur's paradox, as this contradict came to be known.

It's known as the zoo hypothesis. And this idea, alien life is indeed common, as is intelligent. There really is no huge barrier to intellect creatures developing space flight capabilities and spreading themselves throughout the galaxy. But the reason that we don't see anybody is that

they are intentionally hiding themselves from us. Because we are lonely little humans. Through their sophisticated observations they can easily tell that we are intelligent ourselves but somewhat dangerous. Yeah, we are definitely dangerous. After all we have a peaceful space rocket

and dangerous IBCMs. We are just dipping our toes into space and we're not to be exactly trustworthy. So the intelligent civilization of the galaxies are keeping us in sort of a zoo. They are masking themselves in their signals, making us think that we're alone, largely confined to our own solar system and a few nearby stars. Once we prove ourselves, the hypothesis goes, we will be welcomed into a large galactic community with open arms or tentacles the zoo hypothesis is honestly a little far-fetched

is assumes not only existence of alien civilizations but their motivations and intentions but we ultimately do not know if we are alone in the universe there's only one way to find out so that was interesting okay so it's going to that was I just caught my eye I like things like that space still think that we're in some sort of a a kind of like I can't think of a word now we're some kind of universe. Within a universe, pretty much. Alright, so let me...

We are not alone, Congress. So the more I talk about the... Or click on things about UFOs, or I'm really into... Quantum computing. That's my next thing. Ooh, Subnautical. That's another fun fun game subnautical 2 is coming out excited about that death training 2 looks insane all right so let's go to chat gpt here and see if we can get a so yesterday i did Sony in 30 years and 30 minutes less than 30

minutes that was fun I did it all on top of my head so I learned a lot in the last seven years I didn't use Zippy at all yesterday but today we will all right so let's see what Zippy can bring here for me Zippy is my AI companion sidekick co-host okay so we're gonna how can I help you um says I'm not gonna I'm not gonna let them speak says how speak. It says, how does a Atari, only because I was working on Ataris this morning, Atari 2600 boot up. Let's see, I put, how does Atari 2600 boot up? I've done this before when I was using those little face things.

So, the Atari 2600 has a simple and fascinating boot up process rooted in its minimal hardware design. Here how it works. Number one, power on initialization. When the

Atari 2600 is powered on the system hardware initializes. There's no BIOS or firmware like a modern console. The console directly starts executing code from the game cartridge. So Atari's game cartridge driven. The game cartridge contains read-only memory, ROM, that stores the game code. The Atari 2600 MOS6507 processor begins fetching instructions from the ROM at memory location $F with three zeros. The first instruction in the ROM typically sets up the game's environment like initializing variables and clearing memory. So this is what I'm going to do for all my systems. The microprocessor interacts with the television interface adapter, TIA, which controls video and audio output.

It also communicates with the system's 128 bytes of RAM to set up temporary data storage. The TIA and the RAM are mapped into the same memory space on the ROM. Graphics and input initialization. The game code initializes the TIA to define the display, including setup, the play field, sprites, and colors. The TIA is programmed on a per scan line basis, meaning the processor has to be actively controlled by graphics output for horizontal line on the TV. The input of the joystick or paddle control is mapped into the memory and pulled by the game program. Game logic execution. Once initialized is complete the game entered its main loop repeatedly processing inputs updating game stats and rendering the display in real time. The processor alternates between running game logic and synchronizing with the TV's vertical blank interval to avoid screen tearing.

The simplicity of this boot process is a hallmark for Atari 26. Without an operating system or even significant startup routines. The console boots almost instantly relying entirely on the cartridge to dictate its behavior. This design is why cartridges are often included custom code for advanced effects or optimization tailored to those. So let's try it. So that's Atari 2600. How about an Atari 5200?

We'll do a couple of them. We'll do the Atari 5200. That's a big boy. Atari 5200. All right, so we We'll do the Atari 5200. That's a big boy. The Atari 5200. All right, so we're going to do the Atari 5200. That one also, this one I can kind of scan through. I won't read the whole thing. So the Atari 5200 also has an MOS 6502C processor. The boot, it doesn't have a BIOS same cartridge

driven ROM the memory address for 5200 is dollar sign C and three zeros so we can do this now we can through the... So this Atari 5200 has a Antec Alpha Numeral Television Interface Control for managing video display lists and a DMA, Direct Memory Access, for fetching screen data. It has a GTIA, Graphics Television Interface Adapter It has a GTIA graphics television interface adapter for handling player missile graphics PIA, which is a peripheral interface adapter.

So depending on the controls or paddles you're using. So significantly different than the 2600. It's really big. There's two models. One's got the four ports in the front and the other one's got the two so then the atari 5100 has 16 kilobytes of ram to initialize the game unlike the 2600 which only had 28 bytes of ram 128 bytes of ram this has 16 kilobytes of ram more sophisticated and memory intensive games therefore the games were a little better

Game and logic main loop. So loop is the same rendering graphics using the Antec and Jack tech Generate sound through the pokey chip Which also handles I slash o tasks like keyboard input so there's a pokey chip then it was the ANT IC and GTI a pretty cool this is the system the system synchronized rendering the TVs native chip ensures smooth video output 1500 shares much of the architecture of a Atari 400 800 computer but lacks the keyboard oh cool I have I actually have both the Atari

400 and 800 to video yeah today I was doing Atari the XL 1200 and I found my power adapter so I can do the 600 800 XL but there's also the 400 800 original ones so similar to the 5500 200 okay so that's pretty much that let's go on to the 7800? So those are the three. We'll do those three. How about the 7800? Let's see what we get here. Let's see what kind of abbreviations and thingies.

Still using the MOS6502C processor. I was talking about processors the other day. Still trying to understand how a CPU works and the difference between ones and zeros and how that factors into something running. I haven't quite got that concept. And then you get into quantum computing when you have cubites,

logical or physical cubites, and how they can be present at the same time which to me is really interesting i'd really like to learn more about that all right so let's see 70 or 7800 same deal so far hardware initialization components like maria graphics chip the audio hardware input systems. Cartridge check. The BIOS checks the cartridge to determine whether it contains the game 7800. So this has some sort of a BIOS. Because it can play 2600 legacy games. If the cartridge includes a signature byte, specifying the 7800, the system boots to 7800 mode.

Ah, interesting. specifying the 7800 the system boots to 7800 mode ah interesting if no signature is found it assumes it's a 2600 game initializes into the 2600 compatibility mode really so that's pretty cool so each one of these is significantly different the bios map for the cartridge ROM is $430 for 7800. It's called a Maria graphics chip. Sets up the display, sprite data, play fields, and other graphical assessments. RAM initialization. Then the RAM initializes. In the 2600 running under that mode. Main game execution once it's processor does all that. The Mario chip, Maria chip is used for 78.

The TIA chip is used for 2600. Special features. The Maria graphics chip, 78 graphics chip is much more powerful than the TIA, allowing for more significant visuals, including hardware sprites and independent object scaling. Backwards compatibility, the 7800 can run the 2600 mode through the BIOS, so it has some sort of a BIOS. In addition to the BIOS, the 7800 introduced a more controlled and flexible boot process compared to the 2600 and the 5200. This dual mode operation made the 7800 both forward-looking and backwards compatible offering a unique edge to its generation so that's pretty cool so that's the

basic boots up of each one let me just check the about the 2600 mini is there any difference between the 2600 mini 2600 mini unlike the original 2600 Mini. 2600 Mini, unlike the original 2600 Mini, doesn't use original hardware and boot. This is how the 2600 Mini works. Mini runs in modern... Oh, no, 2600 Junior then.

How about 2600 Junior? Not Mini. The 2600 Junior is the one I met oh it's it's thinking I'm talking about though one of those little ones now it's not 2600 jr. let's try that again it's cost reduction redesign version of the Atari 2600 in 1986. So it still uses the MOS 6507. It does not have the BIOS or firmware. I'll just breeze through this one pretty much.

Memory address is the same as the 2600. Dollar sign, F30s. It uses a TIA chip. See, I learn all this stuff now as I'm doing this so this is pretty cool. Riot chip RAM input output timer chip 128 bytes so it's basically the same. So the difference between the 2600 and the Atari junior. The 2600 is smaller and modern design. Cost reduction. Has fewer components and has a simplified motherboard making it more economical to produce. Same hardware. The core components MOS 6507 CPU, TIA and II our IOT chip improved aesthetics on it compatibility full

compatibility for 2600 improved TV output some juniors use a slightly better RF redesign switches and has that ribbon cable so that's all the three towers I did one two and so that's the boot up of each one of those so we'll do that for all the systems I'll do a little at a time because I can't so I can do a little boot up process and then I got to learn more about I want to learn more about CPUs in general. How they work. I can understand the concept of ones and zeros

but how does that relate to things working. So that's what I'm going to do for the Atari I think for today. So that's the 2600. Then you get to the Atari computers. We'll do those later. But I just learned a lot just from doing that.

Again, it's endless knowledge. It's just fantastic. At 56 years old, I'm just like this giant sponge. All I want to do is learn stuff. It's pretty crazy. So that's all I do is just learn stuff. And I can sit here and do it on ChatGT anytime I want all right so that's it for today we'll do the boot up process for the 2600 the 52 the 78 and the junior all right I'll talk

to you guys later all right bye