Atari_Warlord

2024-01-22T19:34:35Z

I finally made it to the 3rd level.

Kung Fu Master = 43,540

1 point for Berzerk = 3,440

Thursday at 12:50 PM

Just a reminder that I need the +10 for returning after being absent last season.

January 15

Slight improvement on Dig Dug 240,470

Made it to space cadet 3,135. Not sure I can do any better since this was after multiple tries.

January 15

8 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

I find a lot offers, e.g.:

https://retrorewind.ca/24pin-edge-connector

https://www.arcadepartsandrepair.com/store/pinball-kits-parts/pinball-parts/24-pin-edge-connector-w-solder-eyelet-leads-ec1002/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284365908587

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/CE04W-24

What's wrong with these?

I may have to try one. The connector on the Retron 77 sits up a bit from the board and the pins look to be about 13 mm to reach the board and go through the holes. The pins look shorter on these, but maybe it would still work ok.

January 15

I think I found the part I need. Unfortunately it is sold through AliExpress that has really low ratings and I haven't located an alternative source yet.

image.png.683dd14c49fd696b1dc876f02291c89e.png

January 14

I finally decided to try and fix my cartridge connector and then couldn't find any tools small enough to get to the bent pin jammed at the bottom. It looks like the only option is to replace the whole connector. Does anyone know the part number or who might sell these? I did some searching and only found ones that didn't have the wing screw holes so far.

January 11

Dig Dug Game 1/b/b = 211,270

I've always loved this game, there is something satisfying about pumping monsters until they pop. Kind of like that scene in Live and Let Die where Bond puts an air capsule in a henchman. I also took last season off, so have no final standing for season 14.

January 10

16 hours ago, Dionoid said:

It seems that when a lot of things are happening on the screen plus music is playing, that's when the CPU/GPU currently is not able to keep up. E.g. the intro screen of EPYX California Games on the 2600+ is slower than on original hardware.

I'm also keeping my fingers crossed for the audio preset changes to have a positive effect on performance...

This may explain what is happening with Journey Escape and Music Machine also. They both have slower music while the screen is busy. Hopefully the audio change will fix these too.

January 10

Here is the page with the zodiac symbols from the manual which can be found on Atarimania:

January 8

1 hour ago, Laladien said:

Just a few notes -

RS Boxing Red Label now works.
Circus Convoy loads fine - slow, but fine.

Slight oddity that I haven’t seen here, game specific:

Tried journey escape for the first time since the update and the audio is fine on the splash screen, but once I start the game, the audio is slower and slightly distorted. Didn’t notice it prior to the update, so either I’m just inattentive and blinded by my love for all things Journey or there is an actual audio issue that occurred after the update. If someone else could try a copy and let me know, that’d be great. LOL

Every other game I tested worked fine, but I’m since they’ve all been already reported as fine, I won’t post all the titles.

I had the same problem with both 1.0 and 1.1. Apparently I forgot to add it to my issues list.

January 8

1 hour ago, Ben from Plaion said:

Only change to this file to the christmas update is a fix for Realsports Boxing NTSC.

The Red Label RS Boxing works for me now also.

January 6

1 minute ago, Sean_1970 said:

Ah okay. But they did release a trackball for the 2600 towards the end of its life, right? What actually worked with that? Maybe Millipede?

Yes, they released trackballs back in the day, I have several. There are two modes available by flipping a switch. The first is it acts just like a joystick, which is how we had to play the games back then. With this mode you could use it with any game that accepted a joystick. The second is true trackball or mouse mode. Until Thomas did the conversions, I don't believe any games used this mode.

January 6

4 minutes ago, Sean_1970 said:

Wait, didn’t most of these come out before the trackball was released? How could it be supported? If they are supported that would definitely warrant my getting one if it was reissued - especially if 7800 versions of these games also worked with it.

They are all conversions done by Thomas Jentzsch about 10 years ago. It may be hard to get carts for most of them as Atari/Atariage would need license agreements if they wanted to sell them again.

January 6

7 minutes ago, Sean_1970 said:

Does “Keyboard Controller” include Video Touch Pad? I’m surprised at how many games used that; also how many used the driving controller and that there is any trackball support - which ganes support a trackball on the 2600?

For the "Keyboard" I also included the Star Raiders pad and Kid's Controller, I believe they all function the same.

Here are the Trackball games that I have and were available at one time in the store:

Centipede

Challenge of Nexar

Colony 7

Millipede

Missile Command

Missile Control

Plaque Attack

Reactor

Space Master X-7

Star Wars the Arcade Game

7800 Centipede (Don't have this one yet)

January 6

I just finished testing all of my NTSC 2600 carts that had problems in 1.0 with the updated dumper and 1.1 version. The list of issues is below and I tried to add a description of the problems. I approximated the number of games that use the alternate controllers using the Atariage database, happy to update those if someone has better numbers. I'll start with what changed on my list.

Games that came off the list because they are working now (ignoring special controller needs):

Basic Programming - I think my cart saw me looking at Ebay and decided it better start working

Circus Convoy

Magicard & Videolife - the plus requires a hard reboot after these have been loaded for some reason

Mountain King

Rally Racer

Rush Hour

Sound Paddle

Space Jockey - Similar to my Basic Programming, it started working again

Zarkstars - Ground Force

Games that were added to the list, not because of new problems:

Missile Command Collector's Edition

Thrust+ - I have 3 versions but haven't determined if any of them are playable with the right settings

Yars' Return - I still have heat issues and may need to learn how to take this apart to see if I can figure out what is happening

There are 3 games that I'm not sure if my cart is good or not, would be great if someone else with these could test them:

2600 Signal Tracing

Asteroids Deluxe

Jungle Fever

The list:

1	Keyboard Controller Games	At least 18 games
2	Driving Controller Games	At least 5 games
3	Trackball Mode Games	At least 11 games
4	Light Gun Games	At least 7 games
5	Supercharger Games	At least 14 games
6	Rom Carts (A26 Maxicart, Krokodile, Cuttle Cart)
7	Misc Peripherals (AtariVox, Quadtari, Booster Grip)
8	2600 Signal Tracing Cart	Might be bad cart, doesn't work on original 2600
9	Aardvark	Game freezes when button pressed to start
10	Asteroids Deluxe	Might be bad cart, doesn't work on original 2600
11	Boulder Dash	Loading Game Failed
12	Brik	Loads, but accepts no inputs
13	Bump ‘N’ Jump	Blank screen on attempted load
14	Burgertime	Doesn't load properly
15	Chetiry	Loading Game Failed
16	Crack'ed (earlier version)	Blank screen on attempted load
17	Dare Devil	Loading Game Failed
18	Deepstone Catacomb	Loading Game Failed
19	Draconian	Loads to pulsing line screen
20	Dragon Chase	Doesn't load properly
21	Dragon’s Descent	Game won't advance past starting screen
22	End	Loading Game Failed
23	Epic Adventure	Doesn't load properly
24	Escape from the Castle	Loading Game Failed
25	Evil Magician II	Doesn't load properly
26	Fall Down	Player 2 has no control
27	Funky Fish	Loading Game Failed
28	Galagon	Loads to pulsing line screen
29	Gingerbread Man	Loading Game Failed
30	Gorf Arcade	Loads to pulsing line screen
31	Grizzards	Loads to blank screen with buzzing sound
32	James Bond 007	Blank screen on attempted load
33	Jungle Fever	Might be bad cart, doesn't work on original 2600
34	Lady Bug Arcade	Loads to pulsing line screen
35	Landfill	Appears to play but no sound
36	Load Runner	Loads to pulsing line screen
37	Looping	Blank screen on attempted load
38	Mappy	Loads to pulsing line screen
39	Masters of the universe – The Power of He Man	Doesn't load properly
40	Megaboy	Loading Game Failed
41	Millipede Track Ball Edition	Doesn't load properly, graphics incomplete
42	Missile Command CE	Loading Game Failed
43	Mr. Do! (Rev C)	Blank screen on attempted load
44	Omega Race	Loads, but fire button always on and booster grip not working
45	Panic! Rooms	Loading Game Failed
46	Pitfall II	Doesn't load properly
47	Pleiades	Loading Game Failed
48	Qyx	Loads to pulsing line screen
49	RealSports Boxing	Doesn't load properly, scrolling screen
50	Robot Tank	Doesn't load properly, scrolling screen
51	Robotwar	Loads to pulsing line screen
52	RubyQ	Loads to pulsing line screen
53	Scramble (Champ Games)	Loading Game Failed
54	Seaweed Assault	Loading Game Failed, Older version works
55	Smurfs Save the Day	Blank screen on attempted load
56	Space Cactus Canyon	Loading Game Failed
57	Space Rocks	Loading Game Failed
58	Spike’s Peak	Loads but Joystick not active
59	Star Castle Arcade	Doesn't load properly, graphics incomplete
60	Stay Frosty 2	Blank screen on attempted load
61	Stella's Stocking	Blank screen on attempted load
62	Stratovox	Loading Game Failed
63	Super Cobra Arcade	Loads to pulsing line screen
64	The Byte before Christmas	Loading Game Failed
65	The Gizzle Wap and the Strange Red Tree	Loading Game Failed
66	The Music Machine	Loads but sound messed up
67	The Pursuit of the Pink Panther	Loading Game Failed
68	Thrust+, SE, DC, Platinum	All versions seem to have controller issues
69	Toyshop Trouble	Loading Game Failed
70	Turbo (Coleco)	Doesn't load properly, scrolling screen
71	Tyre Trax	Loading Game Failed
72	Unholy	Loading Game Failed
73	Venture Reloaded	Loads to high pitched sound and won't advance
74	Wizard of Wor (Champ Games)	Loads to pulsing line screen
75	X3V0lux	Loads, but accepts no inputs
76	Yars' Return	Only left side of playfield works, stopped loading
77	Zippy the Porcupine	Blank screen on attempted load
78	Zoltrix	Loading Game Failed
79	Zoo Keeper	Loads to pulsing line screen

January 5

33 minutes ago, Living Room Arcade said:

What a find! There are hundreds of games for the Atari 2600, but, I think "the surgery game" in M*A*S*H is the only doctor/hospital game on Atari 2600.

Not sure if you want to count these since it is a bit of science fiction but Fantastic Voyage and Suicide Mission are kind of medical. There is also Plaque Attack if you want to throw in Dental services.

January 3

1 minute ago, sramirez2008 said:

That's not working. On actual hardware, if you hold down the Pause button, while turning on the 7800, it will invoke the hidden game. Flipping the B/W switch on the 2600+ is not making any difference. Asteroids Deluxe starts up whether I have the switch flipped to Color or B&W.

Sorry I confused your question. It may not be possible on the 2600+ since the "pause" can't be held down.

January 3

3 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

Asteroids Deluxe (Atari 7800 by Pac-Man-Plus) is working and looks/sounds amazing on HDMI, but I haven't been able to get the hidden game to load. Apologize, but how do I invoke the 7800 pause feature with the 2600+?

Flip the Color / Black & White switch.

January 2

9 minutes ago, CentipedeFan said:

It's a USB C cable. It uses the USB C port. Is there a USB port on the 2600+?

The other end of the power cable that comes with the 2600+ is a USB A. That's the end people were referring to for the 2.0/3.0 USB standards.

January 2

4 minutes ago, CentipedeFan said:

So far my 2600+ can not be detected either with the Dumping Tool or my PC. Im using a known working Data and Power cable. It's set to B&W and Im holding down game select before powering it on. Nothing. Ive tried multiple cables on multiple PC and nothing will detect it. Ive tried multiple combinations of color/game reset, difficulty switches and still nothing. I get no beep, nothing in device manager. Does the atari logo light up like when its powered on normally? Mine does not. Am I doing something wrong or do I have a defective 2600+?

Some people have mentioned that it doesn't work with USB 3.0 ports and needed to use 2.0 ones.

January 2

I worked through my remaining NTSC 7800 games from O-Z.

First the good news, I found out where my Klax cart was ..... in my imagination, apparently I thought I bought the reproduction but missed it. Maybe Atari should consider releasing all the known prototypes with any fixes needed to make them playable (3D Asteroids, G.A.T.O., Klax, Missing in Action, Pitfighter, Plutos, Rampart, Rescue on Fractalus, Sirius).

I had 5 issues with this final batch, all of these load fine on a 7800:

1. The Original Pac-Man Collection wouldn't load properly and just had big blocky lines (the 40th anniversary version worked perfectly)

2. Rampage also loaded to a muddled mess of graphics

3. Rikki & Vikki wouldn't load

4. The Bob Decresenzo Collection 8 in 1 cart wouldn't load

5. Worm! wouldn't load

The carts that worked:

Video 61 Monitor Cart - It loaded but probably needs keyboards to actually do anything

One-on-One Basketball

Pac-Man Collection 40th Anniversary Edition

Pete Rose Baseball

Planet Smashers

Pole Position II

Popeye - version 2.3D

Realsports Baseball

Ripoff

Robotron 2084

Santa Simon

Scrapyard Dog

Serpentine

Space Duel

Space Invaders

Scramble

Summer Games

Super Huey

Super Circus

Super Pac-Man

Super Skateboardin'

Tank Command

Time Salvo

Title Match Pro Wrestling

Tomcat: F-14 Fighter Simulator

Touchdown Football

Tower Toppler (check difficulty settings to be able to play)

UniWars

Wasp

Water Ski

Winter Games

Wizard's Dungeon

Xenophobe

Xevious

January 1

I've completed E-N of my NTSC 7800 collection. I encountered only 4 issues:

1. I haven't been able to locate my Klax cartridge yet.

2. Meltdown boots but isn't playable without Light Gun support.

3. Missing in Action works for one level and then the main character becomes invisible when starting the next level.

4. Keystone Koppers had no music on the selection screen or in the game.

Here are all the ones that worked:

F-18 Hornet

Failsafe

Fatal Run

Fight Night

Food Fight

Frenzy

Froggie

Galaga

Galaxian

Hat Trick

Ikari Warriors

Impossible Mission

Jinks

Joust

Jr. Pac-Man

Karateka

K.C. Munchkin!

Knight Guy in a Low Res World - Castle Days

Kung-Fu Master

Mario Bros.

Mat Mania Challenge

Mean 18 Ultimate Golf

Meteor Shower

Midnight Mutants

Moon Cresta

Motor Pscho

Ms. Pac-Man

Ninja Golf

January 1

Setup my old 7800 this morning to test Karateka. I found that it is just a awful game, the 2600+ is emulating my NTSC copy correctly, bad controls and all.

I also wasn't able to replicate the "Pause" crashes from yesterday, so not sure what happened for those two titles.

Probably already known and related to Pokey emulation, but the music in certain games just isn't working right (Danger Zone, Keystone Koppers, etc.).

December 31, 2023

Two updates on the NTSC testing:

After setting the difficulty switches properly for Crazy Brix the Joystick works and I wasn't able to repeat the crash from toggling game select that happened earlier.

Karateka

It loads and I was able to perform the punches and kicks as well as use both buttons, but it is really sluggish. I would need to try it on a real 7800 for comparison. I'll get a unit out tomorrow morning to help with the testing.

December 31, 2023

I'm using the 1.1 beta test to get my NTSC 7800 collection organized and was able to do A-D this morning. I used the Eladdin Super Arcade Controller+ in 2600/7800 mode as well as a CX-40. I also don't have a 7800 out at the moment, so didn't do any sound comparisons to see if there were issues in that area.

Controller Issues:

The CX-40 worked fine for games that only needed one button. Anything that allowed the pull back did not function properly (Asteroids, etc.).

The light gun currently doesn't work although maybe a clever engineer can come up with a new one that works with modern TVs as well as CRTs.

All other controllers aren't currently supported.

The results are below:

Ace of Aces - Works

Alien Brigade - Works

Armor Attack II - Works

Asteroids - Works

Astro Blaster - Works

Astro Figher - Works

Attack of the Petscii Robots - Doesn't Load

Ballblazer - Works

Barnyard Blaster - Boots but not playable without Light Gun

Basketbrawl - Works

Beef Drop - I have two copies for some reason. Each has a numbered sticker on the back.

Number 100 - Works

Number 18 - Works but crashes when pause is selected (black/white switch)

b*nQ - Works

Centipede - Works

Choplifter! - Works

Commando - Works

Crack'ed - Works

Crazy Brix - Loads but would not accept any inputs after the game was started (joystick or paddles), also would crash when game select switch toggled

Crazy Otto* - Works

Crossbow - Graphics would not load properly resulting in a blocky dark screen

Crystal Quest - Works, Had similar issue as John where two buttons wouldn't work, but after dinking around a few minutes they suddenly worked

Danger Zone - Works

Dark Chambers - Works

Desert Falcon - Works

Dragon's Descent - Works

Diagnostic Test Cartridge - Doesn't Load

Dig Dug - Works

Donkey Kong - Works

Donkey Kong Junior - Works but crashes when pause is selected (black/white switch)

Donkey Kong XM - Works

Double Dragon - Doesn't Load

Dungeon Stalker - Works

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