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Powertran Cortex

not saying too much yet.... but mine went totally unstable, I got to test the speaker (continuous beep:() I've done some reseating, and it now seems ok. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed until it boots 50 times on the run & from cold too.
I'm hoping it isn't something funny like an earthing problem, Ive put all the screws in that it looks like it should have.
I'm waiting for an order to turn up, hopefully with the mains switch in. then I can put it together properly again.
 
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I'll try and get the updated ROM images up on WHTech sometime this week. I've been pretty busy at school this month, so I've been totally quiet otherwise. . .
 
Nige, A quick correction to my earlier post, the speaker is shown on "fig 2 Circuit Diagram of the RS232 and cassette interfaces".

I'm currently having fun and games trying to recover my Cortex programs from the old cassette tapes.
After trying several cassette players and having the dreaded mains hum and frequency equalisation destroying the waveforms, I have now found an old dictaphone (battery operated). This basic player seems to have just the bare minimum of amplifiers to replay rather than destroy the original info.
When I've got them into WAV format, I'll post them on the forum.
 
AAAAHH! Kind of pencilled in as an afterthought!

Mine seems to be stable & nice now. I've put a good little mains switch on the back & screwed it mostly together. I was just on the point of putting the top on when I noticed the frayed disk connector, so it's another hunt in the shed for another, or buy a spare 34 way idc connector & splice it on the good side of the fray.
 
A quick question to all of you using a Cortex with an old analogue TV.
Is your screen display to far to the left?
I am unable to see the very first character on the left hand side of the screen and my TV doesn't have the luxury of a manual adjust.
How do you think I can overcome this - Is it likely to be a circuit problem or a modulator problem - Any ideas?
It's not terribly important, but it is annoying - I've tried several different TVs and the're all the same.
 
Might one of the TVs have an internal adjustment pot on the PCB? If you have a friendly local traditional TV repair shop they might be able to advise.

(Usual disclaimers about electrocuting yourself apply)

andyp said:
A quick question to all of you using a Cortex with an old analogue TV.
Is your screen display to far to the left?
I am unable to see the very first character on the left hand side of the screen and my TV doesn't have the luxury of a manual adjust.
How do you think I can overcome this - Is it likely to be a circuit problem or a modulator problem - Any ideas?
It's not terribly important, but it is annoying - I've tried several different TVs and the're all the same.
Click to expand...
 
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Now that's strange.... I put it down to the TV, but perhaps it isn't. There's also a little visible flyback line diagonal top right hand side. I wonder if it was a bug.
 
That was the first thing I did. it seems to adjust mostly the contrast, and finally the sync gives up. (although I'll re-ascertain that)
 
I've now got all the WAV files prepared and ready to put on to the forum.
Can anyone advise me how to go about this. I've made an attempt to upload them but it appears that there is a size limit.
When zipped, the largest file is almost 72 Meg.
 
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Anytime I've had to transfer files that large I had to use something like Rapidshare as a way point for the sender (or an FTP site like WHTech when I send them back out, which is why I've put everything up there to keep it available to everyone).
 
My e-mail (most of e-mail providers in existence, for that matter) won't accept file attachments larger than 10MB, Andy. You can use the LiveDrive function on your Hotmail account to put files up to 50MB up and share them with specific individuals for transfer, but that doesn't help with the largest ones. Pretty much the only options left are mail or Rapidshare for files that size.
 
One other thought: a Yahoo group! They have a file storage area. Maybe we should start a Cortex group on Yahoo for data transfers. There are likely enough of us now to make it useful. Thoughts?
 
That's a bit huge, are they recorded at 44Ksamples per second, 16 bit stereo? in which case, you could archive the original recordings to CD and possibly reduce it to 10 -11 ksps, 8 bit mono & still get away with it. Good in some ways to record the original as accurately as possible, as it increases the chances of getting the original data back should the tape be bad, but as far as getting a useable copy....
If you haven't got a sound editing program that'll do it send us a CD & I'll plug it into sound forge (& keep a copy too!)
 
Rather than making copies of the original tapes, I loaded them onto my Cortex and then saved them back into Audacity to get perfect copies.
I now realise that I left the sample settings at default which is a bit of overkill.
I'll have another play in the next few days and try to get working copies small enough to e-mail.
 
I was meaning load the WAVs into e.g. Audacity & downsample it from there, rather than going through the rigmarole of re-recording it.
 
I've re-sampled the Cortex game files in WAV format and they are now all less than 10 meg.

I went through all my old tapes and have managed to find the following:

MAZE (Instructions on screen)

SPACEBUGS (Instructions on screen)

BURGLAR
Instructions = Move the burglar around the screen collecting the five keys and then take them to the bank to open the safe.
Each key scores 100 points and there is a time bonus on each sheet. "L" to jump, "<" left, ">" right, SHIFT + "<" left jump and SHIFT + ">" for right jump.

ARCHIE (Instructions on screen)

SKI-RUN (Instructions on screen)

ALIENS (Instructions on screen)

Use the LOAD command plus the names shown above.

Maze, Spacebugs, Burglar and Archie all appeared for sale in the newsletters - (I think Spacebugs might have been originally called invaders)

Archie was my one and only attempt at writing a multi-screen game and I have been told by my kids that it is very frustrating compared with modern games.
Because I spent so many hours testing it, I must have become quite an expert and tweeked it so that it wasn't too easy.
As a result, it is very unforgiving, will not let you step of the ladders before reaching the ground etc and you have to get used to timing your jumps. - Apologies
(You could always alter the program to increase your chances)

"ALIENS" and "SKI-RUN" were my early experiments and a bit basic but I have included them anyway.

This afternoon, I e-mailed them all to Ksarul / WHTech.

Nige - Do you want me to e-mail them to you ( 2 x 10 meg emails + 1 x 5 meg email) or do you want to wait and get them from WHTech?
 
Nige - Do you want me to e-mail them to you ( 2 x 10 meg emails + 1 x 5 meg email) or do you want to wait and get them from WHTech?
Click to expand...
Thanks Andy, but don't worry, I'm fine downloading them from WHTech.
 
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