Difference between revisions of "ATARI 7800 BANKSWITCHING GUIDE"
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Latest revision as of 01:57, 22 April 2017
ATARI 7800 BANKSWITCHING GUIDE (c) copyright by Eckhard Stolberg (Eckhard_Stolberg@web.de) last modified on April 8, 2008 (version 1.40) Thanks to: Lee Krueger, Graham Percy, Dan Boris, Chad Schell and Mitch Orman ============================================================================== 7800 games can use the memory from $0400 to $047f, from $0500 to $17ff and from $2800 to $ffff, but only the High-Score cart uses anything below $4000. It has 4KB of ROM at $3000-$3fff and 2KB of battery-backed RAM at $1000-$17ff. The non bankswitching games (7808, 7816, 7832 and 7848) just use the specified amount of ROM from $ffff downwards. Then there are several different types of Atari's SuperGame bankswitching. It basically consists of 8 16KB banks (0-7) that can be mapped in at $8000-$bfff. Bank 7 always is fixed at $c000-$ffff. To map in a chosen bank into $8000-$bfff you write it's bank number (0-7) to any address between $8000-bfff. The contend of $4000-$7fff differs between different variations of this type: Some games have nothing connected in this area and return only random data. Some games have bank 6 fixed at this area. Some games have 16K of extra ROM there. Those games are 144K in size and are marked as 78S9 in the list. Some games have either 8K of RAM at $6000-$7fff or 16K of RAM at $4000-$7fff. Some games have a POKEY chip mapped in at this area. It has 16 addresses that get repeated all the way between $4000 and $7fff. Some games only have 4 ROM banks at $8000-$bfff (0-3). Banks 4-7 either return the same data as banks 0-3 or completely random data. PAL Karateka is a special case. It only uses banks 4-7. Banks 0-3 are random data and bank 6 is also fixed at $4000-$7fff. F18 Hornet has it's own bankswitching format (78AB). It has 32K of fixed data at $8000-$ffff and 2 16K banks at $4000 - $7fff. The two banks get mapped in by writing either $01 or $02 to address $8000. I don't know if other addresses trigger the bankswitching too, but I'm assuming any address above $8000 might work. I have no idea what happens when you write other values to the hotspot, but they probably will just be ignored. Double Dragon and Rampage have a very wierd bankswitching scheme (78AC). It has 8 16K banks (0-7) that get mapped in at $a000-$dfff. Write accesses to addresses above $ff80 trigger the bankswitching. This sets the bank according to the low nibble of the address. So a write to $ff80 maps in bank 0, a write to $ff81 maps in bank 1, etc. The games only use addresses $ff80-$ff87, so I'm not sure if other addresses trigger the bankswitching too. If we are assuming that a bank reaches from $a000-$dfff, then the rest of the ROM space looks like this: $4000-$5fff second 8kb of bank 6 $6000-$7fff first 8kb of bank 6 $8000-$9fff second 8kb of bank 7 $e000-$ffff first 8kb of bank 7 The Rescue on Fractalus prototype only has 32K of ROM. But it also has 2K of RAM with a unique mapping. The RAM is devided into 8 blocks of 256 bytes. Each block is repeated twice in the memory area between $4000-$4fff. So block 1 would appear at $4000-$40ff and at $4100-$41ff, block 2 would be at $4200-$42ff and at $4300-$43ff, etc. This setup allows the game to create double-scanline graphics for the landscape display in a fast and space efficient way. Type RAM POKEY TV Name 78SG 0 no NTSC Ace of Aces 78S9 0 no NTSC Alien Brigade 7816 0 no NTSC Asteroids 7832 0 yes NTSC Ballblazer 78SG 0 no NTSC Barnyard Blaster 78SG 0 no NTSC Basketbrawl 7816 0 no NTSC Centipede 7832 0 no NTSC Choplifter! 78S9 0 no NTSC Chuck Norris: Missing in Action (prototype) 78SG 0 yes NTSC Commando 7808 0 no NTSC Colour Test 78SG 0 no NTSC Crack'ed 78S9 0 no NTSC Crossbow 78SG 0 no NTSC Dark Chambers 7848 0 no NTSC Desert Falcon 7816SG 144 no NTSC Development Cartridge (Atari) 7816 0 no NTSC Diagnostic Cartridge 7816 0 no NTSC Dig Dug 7848 0 no NTSC Donkey Kong 7848 0 no NTSC Donkey Kong Junior 78AC 0 no NTSC Double Dragon 78AB 0 no NTSC F18 Hornet 78SG 0 no NTSC Fatal Run 78SG 0 no NTSC Fight Night 7832 0 no NTSC Food Fight 7832 0 no NTSC Galaga 7848 0 no NTSC GATO (prototype) 7848 0 no NTSC Hatrick 78HS 2 no NTSC High-Score Cartridge (RAM is battery backed) 78SG 0 no NTSC Ikari Warriors 78SG 8 no NTSC Impossible Mission 78SG 8 no NTSC Jinks 7832 0 no NTSC Joust 7848 0 no NTSC Karateka 78SG 0 no NTSC KLAX (prototype) 7832 0 no NTSC Kung-Fu Master 7848 0 no NTSC Mario Bros. 78SG 0 no NTSC Mat Mania Challenge 78SG 0 no NTSC Mean 18 Ultimate Golf 78SG 0 no NTSC Meltdown 78SG 0 no NTSC Midnight Mutants 7804 0 no NTSC Monitor Cartridge (Harry Dodgson) (early versions had only a 4K 7800 mode) 7816*2 8 no NTSC Monitor Cartridge (Harry Dodgson) (16KB for 7800 mode and 16KB for 2600 mode RAM is battery backed) 78SG 0 no NTSC Motor Psycho 7816 0 no NTSC Ms. Pac-Man 78SG 0 no NTSC Ninja Golf 7848 0 no NTSC One on One Basketball 7832 0 no NTSC Pete Rose Baseball 78S4 0 no NTSC Pitfighter (prototype) 78SG 0 no NTSC Planet Smashers 78SG 16 no NTSC Plutos (prototype) 7832 0 no NTSC Pole Position II 78AC 0 no NTSC Rampage 78SG 0 no NTSC Rampart (prototype) 78S4 0 no NTSC Realsports Baseball 7832+ 2 no NTSC Rescue on Fractalus (prototype) 7832 0 no NTSC Robotron 78SG 0 no NTSC Scrapyard Dog 78SG 0 no NTSC Sentinel (prototype) 78SG 16 no NTSC Sirius (prototype) 78SG 16 no NTSC Summer Games 7848 0 no NTSC Super Huey UH-IX 7832 0 no NTSC Super Skateboardin' 78S4 0 no NTSC Tank Command 7832 0 no NTSC Titlematch Pro Wrestling 7832 0 no NTSC Tomcat F14 78SG 0 no NTSC Touchdown Football 78S4 8 no NTSC Tower Toppler 78S4 0 no NTSC Waterski 78SG 16 no NTSC Winter Games 78SG 0 no NTSC Xenophobe 7832 0 no NTSC Xevious 7800 Computer Keyboard modules: 7816 0 no NTSC AtariLab Light Module 7816 0 no NTSC AtariLab Temperature Module 7840 8 no NTSC AtariTerm (?) (RAM at $4000-$5fff) 7816 16 no NTSC OSS / Atari 7800 BASIC (RAM might be at $8000-$bfff) 7832 16 no NTSC VideoWriter missing: Sky Fox (?) 78SG 0 no PAL Ace of Aces 78S9 0 no PAL Alien Brigade 7816* 0 no PAL/NTSC Asteroids (BIOS) 7832 0 yes PAL Ballblazer 78SG 0 no PAL Barnyard Blaster 78SG 0 no PAL Basketbrawl 7816 0 no PAL Centipede 7848 0 no PAL Choplifter! 78SG 0 yes PAL Commando 78SG 0 no PAL Crack'ed 78S9 0 no PAL Crossbow 78SG 0 no PAL Dark Chambers 7848 0 no PAL Desert Falcon 7832 0 no PAL Dig Dug 7848 0 no PAL Donkey Kong 7848 0 no PAL Donkey Kong Junior 78AC 0 no PAL Double Dragon 78AB 0 no PAL F18 Hornet 78SG 0 no PAL Fatal Run 78SG 0 no PAL Fight Night 7848 0 no PAL Food Fight 7848 0 no PAL Galaga 7848 0 no PAL Hat Trick 78SG 0 no PAL Ikari Warriors 78SG 8 no PAL Impossible Mission 78SG 8 no PAL Jinks 7848 0 no PAL Joust 78S4 0 no PAL Karateka (uses banks 4-7 instead of 0-3) 7832 0 no PAL Kung-Fu Master 7848 0 no PAL Mario Bros. 78SG 0 no PAL Mat Mania Challenge 78SG 0 no PAL Mean 18 Ultimate Golf 78SG 0 no PAL Meltdown 78SG 0 no PAL Midnight Mutants 78SG 0 no PAL Motor Psycho 7832 0 no PAL Ms. Pac-Man 78SG 0 no PAL Ninja Golf 7848 0 no PAL One on One Basketball 7832 0 no PAL (Pete Rose) Baseball 78SG 0 no PAL Planet Smashers 7832 0 no PAL Pole Position II 78SG 0 no PAL Scrapyard Dog 78SG 0 no PAL Sentinel 7848 0 no PAL Super Huey UH-IX 7832 0 no PAL Super Skateboardin' 7832 0 no PAL Titlematch Pro Wrestling 7832 0 no PAL Tomcat F14 78S4 8 no PAL Tower Toppler 78SG 0 no PAL Xenophobe 7848 0 no PAL Xevious no PAL version released (?): Rampage Realsports Baseball Robotron Summer Games Tank Command Touchdown Football Water Ski Winter Games