[RetroN 77]

I just finished testing 127 atari carts. 123 worked and 4 did not for a 96% working. I would attach a list but I don't see an option for that. if you are interested in the list, please let me know how to attach it to a post and I will.

[RetroN 77]

Well out of 33 games only one did not work that I have tested so far. I had to clean the open faced carts of activision and such, but all the atari produced carts with the dust cover worked fine. below is a list of the ones I have played on the r77:

 

asteroids, basketball, air-sea battle, atlantis, berzerk, barn storming, bowling, boxing, breakout, carnival, frogs n flies, combat, centipede,circus atari, deadly duck, chopper command, commando raid, freeway, casino, cosmic ark, crackpots, defender, demons to diamonds, dig dug, dodge 'em, eggomania, e.t., football, donkey kong, dragonfire, fantastic voyage, dolphin, fishing derby.

 

the only one that did not work was decathlon, this one worked on my original atari but not on the r77.

[RetroN 77]

OK, here's my second revision of the latest Stella 3.9.3 firmware. After applying, you can tell by looking at the license file; it should say "Using Stella 3.9.3 (rev 2)".

 

Changes are as follows:

• Fix corrupt Stella config file on improper shutdown
• Fix 16:9/4:3 toggle sometimes not sticking
• Remove '0' text from state load/save (minor cosmetic change)

Here is the file: r77_stella-3.9.3_rev2.zip

 

Note that you have to unzip this, and copy the resulting files (uImage and License.bin) to the root folder on the SD card, overwriting the ones already there.

 

For anyone that is interested, here are the specifics of what was going wrong, and how it was fixed.

 

---------------------------------------------------

Stella is like any normal app or computer OS; if you shut it down improperly, it won't save its settings (or it will corrupt the settings file). One of the settings controls mapping for the joystick fire button. So if the file is corrupted, Stella generates a new generic one, that will have lost the mappings for this specific device. So when you then restore the original image, it uses the original config file that has the correct mapping, and everything works again (until the next crash).

 

With the new code, we realize that almost none of the settings are actually changeable on this hardware, so it makes sense to not allow settings to ever be saved (and hence never be corrupted). The one exception is the 'fullscreen' option, which determines whether to use 16:9 or 4:3 mode. So this new code saves only that setting. Joystick mapping can never be screwed up, since the mapping is hardcoded into Stella for this device.

 

Also, this fixes another bug, where sometimes toggling the 16:9/4:3 mode didn't stick. Try playing a game, toggling the setting, then immediately powering off. The setting would not be saved, since Stella was killed before its settings could be saved. With the new code, each time the toggle is done, the change is immediately written to the SD card. So powering off afterwards will have no effect on it.

---------------------------------------------------

 

So, that is basically all I will be doing for Stella on this device in the immediate future. We now have the latest 3.x version (3.9.3), and fixes for corrupt files and losing the joystick fire button (which is arguably more important that having the latest Stella version). Barring any huge bugs in Stella 3.9.3, I will now return to Stella 5 development.

 

We've created a Retron77 wiki which explains how to work on this hardware, and what is required to get it all updated. It is quite a bit of work. I may (and I stress this heavily) come back to this after the next major version of Stella is released, perhaps at the end of the summer or later. But only if I find time and motivation. In the meantime, I strongly urge either Hyperkin or some interested 3rd party to look into our research, and attempt to get Stella 5 working on this device.

 

Good luck,

Steve A.

Stella maintainer

Thank you very much, works great, I am testing with a bunch of games right now.....

[RetroN 77]

 

Absolutely. And lack of interest in half-baked products like Retron 77 or some of the FlashBacks is to be expected. It is literally Cheap Chinese Junk! Look at the edges of the PCB on the R77 and compare them against the PCB edges in a vintage VCS built in 1977. And note the solder quality and quantity. Just because there's a 2018 AllWinner quad-core chip in doesn't mean it's cool. the Mali GPU design is quite dated and not compatible with the necessary standards to make for good emulation. Wasn't the Mali designed for 2005-era (pre-smartphone) phones?

 

There are many cost-cutting, corner-cutting, things going on in this console. But that's enough for now.

 

---

 

You know, there's another thing. How come no one is complaining about the razor sharp images and pixels rendered by this? Yet people complained (and continue to do so) that Software Emulation on the PC is harsh with sharp edges.

 

It's 100% the same damned thing here! You have a PC emulator outputting unfiltered, sharp, harsh edges.

 

Does "because cartridges" suddenly make it all better? Mmmhmm..

 

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As far as building a modern VCS today, it's eminently doable, and the basic groundwork has been done in FPGA already. Several times over. AND in the Software Emulation camp, Stella got a shot of increased accuracy this year. And sound is up for improvement next, I hear. Not that it's bad to begin with.

 

There are several ways to go about making a modern-day VCS. You could have recreation/simulation of the original circuitry. You could even build limited editions using old-stock or (somehow) reclaimed TIA chips.

 

Or even a non-gimmicky console around Stella itself.

So when will you have it ready?

[RetroN 77]

 

We need to decide who is going to do any of this work, how it will be distributed, etc. I personally don't want to take responsibility for releasing something that can potentially brick a paid-for product. Particularly when many of its users won't have as much of a technical background as many users here.

 

Updating to Stella 3.9.3 is relatively easy; I could just release the uImage that can be directly updated on the SD card. Anything further will require help from the parent company.

I would also love to see an image of the update you created posted also. It would be relatively easy to place it on a different micro sd for testing purposes leaving the original card safe and sound.

[RetroN 77]

I could not find the earlier post but simply Googled Hyperkin R77 image and found the link immediately.......

https://www.hyperkin.com/r77

Thank you for the link, I tried googling that and it did not show up

[RetroN 77]

Today I had a strange issue with my Retron 77 happen. The fire button on all compatible controllers stopped working in games. I was able to fix the issue. I just reformatted the sd card and downloaded the R77 image file back onto the SD card.

I was wondering where did you get the R77 Image from?