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I am currently working on a new project which is in an early WIP/PoC phase (I even haven't come up with a name for the project). Proposals for a project name can be found here The story behind this project is that I never liked the approach of the retron77. I always thought that it can be done better. When Atari announced the 2600+ with the same "wrong" approach I decided to test if my idea of doing a better device is feasible. For my testing I use a Raspberry Pi 3B+ connected to a breadboard, but something similar should be possible with the CPUs used in the Retron77 or the 2600+. I have developed a special driver for Stella to connect the cartridge to the CPUs I/O and emulate a 2600 directly using the cartridge without dumping it. If the driver handles the communication and the timings with the cartridge exactly like a real 2600 would do, a 100% of all bankings (even future bankings) and cartridges will work on this setup. @Thomas Jentzsch, @MarcoJ and @DirtyHairy have supported me with ideas to improve the driver. Currently we are at about 85% of the emulation speed. Current status is: Every std. banking cartridge seems to work (2K, 4K, F8, F6, F8SC tested) Decathlon cartridge (FE banking) doesn't work (Stella debugger shows that the bank doesn't switch on a JSR) PlusCart seems to be fully working (including exit and PlusROM functions. See compatibility list below) GameLine cartridge shows briefly the intro message and then crashes or starts to puls dial. I think it might be an voltage issue here, because the Raspberry Pi shows a "Low Voltage" warning SuperCharger doesn't work I don't have a DPC+ or CDFJ cart to test. Here is a compatibility list for all bankings tested mostly on the PlusCart, because I don't have the real cartridges: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/354860-compatibility-list-for-all-bankings/ Software/hardware list for the breadboard setup: Raspberry Pi 4 Pi OS with VS-Code and the SDL2 development libs The latest code from the Stella GIT repository. One 8-bit Logic Level Shifter (SN74LVC245AN) (~ $1.50) 2600 cartridge port connector A breadboard Wires How to connect the components: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/354887-setting-up-the-unnamed-1970s-console/ Setting up the Raspberry Pi development environment: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/354887-setting-up-the-unnamed-1970s-console/?do=findComment&comment=5317255 @ZeroPage Homebrew's reveal video on Youtube:

For those interested, I have some technical information about the Time Wizard game. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire Atari community for the wealth of knowledge they willingly share 🙂. I specifically highlighted some of the people whose tools I used to create my game. Project duration It took me roughly 5 months to work on the project from the end of February to the end of July. The git history contains 175 commits, which were made over a period of 93 days. Development environment The game was implemented in MadPascal, written by Tomasz Biela @tebe. My development environment is Visual Studio Code with an extension to Pascal, written by Allesandro Fragnani. The source code takes about 10k lines, including about 2k of assembler code. In the assembler, I mainly implemented the interrupt handling, the sound engine and the most critical elements that require fast calculations. The binary (xex file) takes almost 54 kB and the whole thing is located on a 90 kB floppy disk and runs under DOS 2.5. Test environment For testing and debugging the program, I used the Altirra emulator, written by Avery Lee @phaeron. I also used my old Atari 130XE computer with SIO2PC as a floppy drive emulator. Title and end graphics The title and ending screens (visible after passing the entire game) are displayed in Antic E bitmap mode. To get more than 4 colors I used DLI interrupts and the player/missile graphics. I originally drew the images in Inkscape, then exported them to bitmaps with the target resolution for the Atari. I did the final adjustments and corrections to the images in MS Paint. Finally I used my Python scripts to convert the bitmaps to the resulting files for Atari. In this way, I was able to generate 2-bit color depth graphics files in the MIC format and the PMG data as well. Additionally, I got snippets of DLI handler source code responsible for changing the colors and positions of PMG in individual screen lines. Board graphics All the graphics of the board and status area are in ANTIC 4 character mode. I prepared a total of 4 fonts - one for the texts and GUI elements (also visible in the main menu), the other for graphic elements on the board. The remaining 2 fonts contain graphics used for animation of some items on the board. I prepared the fonts in the Atari Font Maker program, written by Martin Šimeček @matosimi and Peter Hinz @RetroCoder. Hero graphics The hero is drawn using PMG - the total size of the sprite is 10x18 pixels. I used overlapping/combining of players to get more colors of the hero. A total of 36 animation frames have been created to make the hero alive. To design the graphics, I used the SprEd editor, written by Wojciech Bocianowski @bocianu. Music and sounds One of the ideas of Time Wizard is the ability to rewind the game time including playing sound effects and music. I decided to create a simple engine that allows playing music and sounds at different speeds including backwards. This engine has some limitations and does not give as much playback flexibility as, for example, Raster Music Tracker in terms of effects, filters, etc. However, in this case, this was not essential - more important was the efficient playback of sound at different speeds. In the end, 3 channels are used for music playback and the fourth one for sound effects. I prepared the music and sfx in Raster Music Tracker, written by Radek Sterba and Vin Samuel @VinsCool. By the way, in the game you can hear the following classical music pieces: - "Kyrie Eleison" by W.A. Mozart - "Waltz of the Flowers" by P.I. Tchaikowsky - "Dance of the Little Swans" by P.I. Tchaikowsky - "Voices of Spring" by J. Strauss - "Sonata No. 8 Op. 13" by L. Van Beethoven Compression The game uses graphic, audio and other data that takes up a lot of space. That's why I decided to use data compression to fit everything into RAM. After several attempts, I decided to use the zx5 (de-)compressor, written by Einar Saukas and Krzysztof Dudek @xxl. Almost 45 kB of data is compressed to less than 16kB, which gives a compression level of approximately 35%. Levels I prepared a very primitive level editor in Python and the PySimpleGUI library. The editor is not very convenient to use, but I didn't have time to implement something more sophisticated. And that's pretty much all the basic technical information. If you have any questions, feel free to write - I will try to explain as best as possible.

The Atari 2600 Nexus website was created in 1998, and from that sprung AtariAge in April, 2001. ..Al

While I I know, I don't like that logo! But it was an official logo for a time. I'm glad the company abandoned that one... I do think they are cool, only because I'm old now and dip switches were used for many devices back in the day (you were certainly familiar with them if you owned any arcade games!) Heck, we have dip switches today in the AtariVox+. Also, since you are kindly reading my message, here's a nice photo of the dip switches on the back of one of these new cartridges: ..Al

I need to go through the entire thread (oh dear, over 56 pages at 25 posts per page) and add some of the questions and answers to the first post. I am also going to create a 2600+ forum in the 2600 forum and start moving some threads into that, and likely will create a "Homebrew Compatibility" thread for the 2600+ that can be updated as homebrew games are tested (and obviously I can test AtariAge-related titles). ..Al

Dip switches can be annoying, especially if you have large fingers like me. Back in the 80s, XONOX found a low-tech way to put multiple games on cart, the Double-ender: So I present the 4-ender And 10-ender for the 10-in-1 games, it comes in a pizza box

Atari 2600 Berzerk, was my first ever video game playing experience. I was in hospital, in my kindergarten year, recovering from burn injuries on my arms, from falling on freshly paved road in front of the school. One of my orderlies, who used to change my dressings daily, used to bring it in for me. The family didn't get a 2600 until mid 80's, with the Jr for 50 bucks. It was our income tax refund splurge that year, with 3 games- Warlords, Galaxian, and Battlezone. The next year, my grandmother got me the C64c and I could afford bargain bin discs/tapes for that, so most gaming began there for me. In those days, Jamesway, ran a promotion, of offering a gift certificate of like 5 or 10 bucks, for every $500 in reciepts, turned in at front desk. So, I spent an entire summer, wandering the lot, picking up any stray ones I could find, and turning them into game cash. 😎

Great Job, this is very cool! If you're interested in trying any Champ Games for (DPC+, CDFJ, and CDFJ+), send me a PM and I'm sure we can work something out.

Sir, this is AtariAge, not https://www.amigalove.com/

Hello Everyone, Here's the new game we've just announced, which will enable you to save on postage costs (in connection with the end of the services offered by the Post Office for our reduced-rate shipments). The new game is PYRAMID WARP. We're offering it as a single edition this time, but with a few extras, since in addition to the now traditional mini poster in our boxes, we're adding 9 encyclopedia cards. With the Norseman 2 cards (18 cards) and those already produced, we now have 39 cards dedicated to intellivision (out of a total of 223!). The sacred link : https://cotegamers.com/shop/en/accueil/173-stop-the-express-intellivision.html We had to set up several new carriers to compensate for the post office. The system is still subject to a few bugs, so if you have any problems with delivery to our store, please contact us/me. The box The poster/instructions The 2 overlays Note that this time there is a small and mysterious bonus with this game : special cards to use with our next game but ssht! A word about shipping costs. We'll be sending Pyramid Warp at the same time as Norseman 2 and your other orders. Shipping costs will be high this time, especially for the USA, Canada and Australia. -If you buy this game, we won't ask you to pay extra for your other orders, as we'll pass on the missing shipping costs to the small profit on the game. You'll save a little on shipping costs, since you won't have to add anything. -If you don't order this game and you have other orders in progress, we'll ask you to top up the shipping costs. You can of course cancel your orders, and we'll refund your money without further ado! We've tried to limit the number of additional shipping charges. When you buy this game, it's as if you're paying the top-up, but not actually doing it. We think this is a good compromise.

That's the same Atari guy who is chatting in the AtariAge + Atari Q&A thread (David Lowey). ..Al

I don't have much time to look, but now I see that there's quite a lot of progress, which is great! I seem to remember a few things, which may be relevant to the previous discussion: - The motivation for "XOR $55" obfuscation in the binary files was not a "protection". Looking at the list, these are all resident drivers. Since they provide the option to uninstall (the OFF option), there are some checks for presence of installed resident code (I don't remember exact procedure and motivation, might also be an attempt to avoid installation of second copy), which include a memory search for the said code. Because of this, the binary file (possibly still partially present in disk buffers below MEMLO) shouldn't contain the same pattern, and so I decided to encrypt it. - The motivation for clearing user RAM after boot-up is somehow inherited from Micro-SpartaDOS gameloader, to achieve the same (maximum) level of compatibility. While testing the gameloader on my game collection, including rather obscure items inherited from boot-tape versions of the 80's, I observed several pieces not running well (or displaying garbage) if not loaded into a clean RAM. I believe that this requirement was more of a bug, not revealed due to the nature of tape-boot process (always into clean RAM), but it doesn't really hurt to have the maximum compatibility at least for the first application after boot-up (typical case, if one just want to run a game). It doesn't cost RAM, since the initialization code is just temporary. - Loading the DOS code to upper RAM and then copying to $700 is indeed motivated by the possibility to run the DOS from another DOS. This most notably includes the MicroSpartaDOS gameloader (which also sits at $700), to allow for convenient handling of combined disks with part of the contents running with the gameloader, and part with full DOS. Both are loaded in the mentioned way, allowing to switch between the loader and full DOS by running one from the another, and vice versa. - The handling of CAR and BASIC is more or less inherited from SpartaDOS, and somehow normal at the time. I would be very careful with pushing these to external commands, so that usage of BASIC doesn't get a pain. Especially CAR is a simple transfer-control operation, which I felt shouldn't depend on availability of system diskette, and shouldn't touch the contents of user RAM. - Labels in the original sources are horrible, not really something worth preserving. They are result of desperate attempts to fit the source into the limited text buffer of ATMAS II. After removal of comments, the labels were the only option to save a few characters... So they became rather cryptic. I relied on extra notes on paper (which might still exist, somewhere, but were not really extensive / self-documenting to be understood after all these years...) Have a nice day, and thanks for all the interest for BW-DOS...

We are planning to have the network fixed and multiple players.

I just grabbed a bunch of 2600 homebrew games that I have built, including three PAL games and one PAL60 game. They all ran. This includes: - Juno First (PAL60) (32K F4) - Star Fire (PAL) (8K F8) - L.E.M. (16K F6) - Lady Bug (16K F6) - 2005 Minigame Multicart (32K F4) - AStar (PAL) (4K) - Go Fish (PAL) (8K F8) - Colony 7 Trak-Ball (32K F4) - Drive! (4K) - Cannonhead Clash (4K) The PAL games all ran with the proper colors, which was nice to see. Here are a few photos. Excuse the mess, we are in the middle of packing as we will be moving soonish. Juno First is a PAL50 game, and it ran fine, but the colors were wrong. Which makes sense, since it's basically an NTSC game with the wrong color pallet. ..Al

Lets just say a certain New Mexico landfill has a few new mounds.

100%! It’s so telling when people respond to criticism by attacking that person on a personal level. Like people making fun of Ian’s stutter, or comparing incomes. I was told by someone that I’m a lonely basement dweller and don’t even game… both of which are so untrue as to be laughable. They said this about me because I said that the VCS was not going to be competitive with the Switch. Good times

Rule #1: Never ask for a name.

Stella+

Fair point. I'd always heard otherwise... (as I said off the cuff ramblings) ... HMMmmmmm...

YEP here's some of mine:

Updated Horizon Ramdisk User Manual, with a copy uploaded to Github. The next ROS and/or CFG release will be version 8.43, to address a few of the logged issues since 8.42c. And to loosely paraphrase Scotty, there will be "no bloody a,b,c or d" nor other letters of the alphabet added to future version numbers. HORIZON RAMDISK USER OPERATING MANUAL 9-12-2023.pdf

What's truly amazing is that the car isn't even the biggest fake in that picture. 🤣

You're talking about Infogrames. There's a song for that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=522bVV-82qQ

Hi folks, for the third time Logiker decided to organize Atascii Online Competition. This contest is targeted towards people that are creating ascii art but in form of Atari 8 Bit characters known as Atascii. Last two editions gathered many talented artists, all of the contributions can be seen here and here This year we decided to prepare special prizes for three winners- money, two games and a retrobit PC pad (see images attached). Works can be prepared in numerous editors, but we can advice to use ARTur or Playscii. Submission of the entries starts on 1st October and ends on 19th October. For more information please head to the official website: website Let the fun begin!

Admittedly I've only been a member of the community for a couple of years but I don't recall seeing massive yearning for an official emulation machine even if it has some improvements over the previous ones.

Yeah. Us slow people be like --

https://www.a8preservation.com/#/software/release/770 afaik this release - but my tape is not as nice as on the picture already uploaded - maybe just a label print error setup: Technics TR-RS737 > AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller (Onboard) > Audacity 2.4.2 (cut and amplified) > a8cas-convert 1.3.1-> turgen 9.2.0 (removed some afaik unnecessary fsk-blocks) SteveDavisSnooker.flac SteveDavisSnooker_cut.cas

@jerseystyle the flip side of that is toxic positivity, trying to silence people by suggesting they're trying to tear down or destroy something beautiful, and that the Intellivision Amico/Fyre Festival/Tiger King Park are just trying to bring light to the world, and you must have a terribly sad life for not appreciating the vision. Only one side is actively trying to separate fools from their money, of course.

One of my kids has gotten bitten by the retrogame bug and has started hitting retrogame shops to collect physical media Only thing... for him "retro" means Wii/GBA era

Well said. Also it might bear repeating that this is a privately owned forum, so there's no right of free speech here. As I've said before, I would have kicked Tallarico long before he self-deported, but Albert et al have every right to run this site however they see fit.

I really REALLY have avoided commenting on almost all of this, but... there's this really strange trend in recent years that seems to be accelerating: 1. Someone or some group (let's call them A) says a bunch of terrible things. Or obnoxious things. Or flat out lies. Or any combination of the above. 2. People (call them B) call A out on their BS/nonsense/bad behaviour. 3. A, and a bunch of A's defenders, go into histrionics about "free speech!". 4. Shortly thereafter - and often at the same time - A and A's defenders start complaining that B shouldn't even be saying these things in the first place. Am I the only one that notices the irony? It astounds me how little this is ever mentioned. Free speech is either absolute or it isn't. If there's any claim to Tommy's posts here being "free speech", then literally everything Pat and Ian have ever said should and MUST be allowed, and hell, encouraged. Anything else is pure hypocrisy. Sorry, but this supposed free speech absolutism from people who want to stifle other speech really grinds my gears. Free speech is not about protecting and encouraging things you agree with. It's about tolerating and accepting that which you do not.

StellaRT (RT for RealTime access to cartridges)

"StellaR" comes to mind.

Here is some information how to connect the components (might change in the future):

Or, you could contact them with a proposal. Something tells me they would at least listen.

If I were to consider it last week..... vs, with the new owners, dare I? (Serious question)

Same with me. I've been here since back in the Nexus days and I'm optimistic about the move.

I find the dip switches charming. I really really hope it can play Pitfall II.

Me when you guys start talking about soldering:

This IS the current beta... ---------------------------- My queue for working on games currently looks something like this: 1. Slot Machines (part of casino package) - working game already - next major phase: generic machine loader structure 2. Black Jack (part of casino package) - code for dealing cards with PMG underlays in place - next major phase: change to new card dimensions/type -- which will sync with recently created design for Poker games 3. Yahtzee - some preliminary code done - board/dice graphics done 4. Mastermind - board/piece graphics done These would be next highest on the list, in no particular order ATM, and are at various stages of graphics and planning work: Stratego Monopoly Shanghai Casino Package (other modules: poker, craps, roulette) Mr. Do (improved graphics hack) Oregon Trail Scrabble Parchesi

O M G ... I had no idea. I was listening to Liz Phair on vinyl and this at the same time, that hurt.

PS: My previous post may be considered offensive, which is not my intention. It's not so much about me, it's more about raising awareness for the Puny BuildTools and I sincerely hope my post is understood in that context.

As I patiently await the new Decent Mechanical Keyboard and having the 8-bits out to prepare for some upgrades, I always tend to ponder what could have been on the color-scheme side with such an already incredible looking design. To match the Falcon-themed graphite gray keyboard: Little Brother & Big Brother hanging out together....

I never had one. That's what all the rich kids had, while I played C64c, lol.

if you built it, he will come.mp4

On the subject of why Atari hasn't tested more of the released games for the 2600+ console, one could suspiciously assume they're trying to hide something, but it can certainly boil down to not everyone scoured the thrift stores in the late 80's/early 90's and built up a Smaug-level Atari horde like some of us. And companies can certainly change over time such that things and knowledge from even a decade prior are no longer available. In the back of my mind I remember a similar situation happening with Activision's early entries into the "retro" market - most notably, the 2600 Action pack from the mid-90's for the PC. And I was right! There was an article in the 2600 Connection (issue 27 - reprints available here) about Activision in the mid 90's contacting Jerry Greiner and Tim Duarte about getting some of the Activision games and manuals to help with their compilation since they no longer had any of those materials. So a company needing the assistance of the community to recover things that company themselves published is nothing new.

@Shift838 I don't want to be a party pooper but it would be nice if you could mention that I helped you a lot with understanding the characteristics of some of the Z-machine hosts, both with very detailed support on the Github issues you opened on my repository, also via chat on the Puny Discord. It would also be nice if you could mention that you are using my BuildTools for PunyInform for distributing your game to a broad range of retro systems. In fact all of the disk images were generated using my software. And I am literally credited nowhere, not in the game itself, nor inside the archive you distribute, nor on your website, nor here on the forum. It took so many hours to create the BuildTools for PunyInform. So if you, as a game author, take advantage of my software by generating +25 disk images for the most popular home computers of the 80s in under 10 seconds, please give credit and let others know, so they learn about the system and may be inspired to write their own adventure. Giving credit also makes me feel my work has been appreciated and gives me the motivation to continue to improve the BuildTools. Thanks.

I will be customer #1 if you do this.