E. King

The Harmony cart already has a micro USB connection to connect to PC with USB cable. The Harmony software has a development tab that easily allows you to load a single game on the Harmony cart and play that one game on the 2600+. Outlaw is a $5 cartridge for the original so the only people buying the $60 version are people that want to collect the re-releases or flip them for profit and most of them will remain sealed.

After further digging, I think the only way to use Harmony Cart on 2600+ is to use the Harmony software and flash the Harmony cartridge to be in single image mode, which overwrites the normal firmware and turns it into a one game at a time flash cart. In this case the cart behaves like a standalone cartridge so a single game can be played just like a standard cartridge so should theoretically work on the 2600+. Hopefully someone soon comes up with a better way to play a rom on the 2600+.

Can you please try Harmony cart with a single rom and rename the rom "AUTORUN" or "AUTORUN.bin" or "AUTORUN.a26" with the single rom on the root of the sdcard, to see if it auto boots the one game on the Harmony cart? I read in this other thread that the Harmony cart has a single game mode that boots directly like a normal cart does.

You might have a good point there that maybe Atari just simply can't afford to fix it properly. Maybe Atari should start a GoFundMe campaign so we can all donate to them to pay someone to get this fixed once and for all.

I just tried to get Berzerk Recharged and I am getting the zip code glitch that is preventing me from getting games. Is anyone else getting this zip code glitch again? I have not been able to get games for a long time on VCS but that is ok no big deal.

Ok I think I was wrong about the zip code glitch being supposedly "fixed" I have not hooked my VCS up for weeks because I have not been able to get games since Ultimate Ski Jumping released that is the last game I was able to purchase, have had the zip code glitch ever since that. I also had the zip code glitch before that game but for some reason it let me get that one game that day Ultimate Ski Jump released. Well, I just hooked up my VCS to get Berzerk Recharged thinking it was going to be fixed because that was the recent report that it was fixed but I am still getting the zip code glitch. And people wonder why I am always so aggravated by my Atari VCS. I have to say that I am not surprised but it sure would help my VCS attitude if it worked correctly.

Good idea about turning the switch off in wired mode. I will have to try that to see if it helps as I was having some lag issues even when wired on certain games. Thanks!

Shame to hear about the controller issues in Berzerk Recharged. The zip code issues is all cleared up for now but there are still a bunch of people who can not download games when they buy them without going through support to verify the purchase each time. This issue has been ongoing for many months for quite a few users, some of them just accept it and others have probably moved on from the VCS because of it. I am not crazy about the way Berzerk Recharged looks. Even hearing about the controller issues on Berzerk, I will probably still get it, because it is a new Recharged game and I like to support the series. I hope more Recharged games are coming soon.

I took some time to let this all sit. I just checked and it looks like Dave removed the Twitch stream so I went ahead and privatized the clip from my end too as a gesture of moving on from this and hopefully squashing whatever beef he has with me. I don't think anyone else needs to see it so hopefully we can just let it go and be cool again. I am willing to start with a clean slate if he is and I think we should let this thread sleep for now. I stated my truths above in this thread, so as of right now, I have no desire to discuss this any further here or anywhere else unless something else happens that changes that. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to share their opinions here and especially to those who understand some of the things I've said.

Thanks, I am not claiming to be a crystal clean completely innocent person when it comes to VCS stuff. I've made my fair share of mistakes and have been very critical of the VCS technical problems as I partially explained above in my response. I guess my expectations of the VCS platform are way too high but after 3 years from the initial launch I have to say I expected things to be in a much better place right now which does fuel my frustrations enough to where I can sometimes come off as a real a-hole in my pointing out the issues. I just think Dave's way of venting in this recent video is not the most appropriate way to move forward here and would have liked a more friendly approach as I am quite open to squashing the beef and moving on from it. I do think a public apology both in this thread and on a video is probably appropriate here for the name calling and false accusations though I am not expecting anything. I have no issues with apologizing for my actions but I will not admit to things I did not do. Other than that, I think I need a couple days to let this all sink in. I really am saddened that this all had to cause some controversy on a great game from a developer that I greatly admire. Thanks again for speaking up in agreement of some of the things I've said.

This video ^ is from a live stream on 11/6/23 Dave, I was quite satisfied with your previous response video on 11/4/23 that I found to be professional enough to where I privatized the video I linked earlier in this thread about the game delisting due to you not liking my word choices. I have to say this recent video you did today, I find to not be very professional and I dislike some of your word choices. I also defended you previously many times including in this very thread saying none of this was your fault but you seem to feel my continual criticism about the Atari VCS technical issues and design flaws is somehow a personal attack against you when I've always maintained you are doing a great job for what you have to work with. I am insulted by you calling me a "lying coward" multiple times in this video. I have never insulted you personally so I was surprised to hear you take that tactic. I never once denied that I previously had a discord account named "Frank" and everyone in that discord always knew I had that "Frank" user name before. I have stopped being so critical about the VCS in that discord and while I have recently discussed technical issues in there, it is nowhere near to the levels I previously did. This is not because anyone told me to change but because I myself am trying not to spend so much time pointing out Atari VCS issues. I have not even made a video about the VCS in almost 2 months until Alien Abduction was delisted. Also, you refer to a much older video from around 6 months ago where someone showed how to backup VCS games and just happened to use Alien Abduction as an example and you still falsely accuse me of having made that video when it was a completely different channel. I've previously talked in great detail about the importance of backing up VCS games but never once have I ever made a public tutorial video on how to do so. Maybe I should since you continue to falsely accuse me of it. I do still stand firmly of how I defended that very helpful video when another channel showed how to correctly backup VCS games in PC mode. I may have gone overboard in defending it which could be why people thought it was my video because I defended it more than anyone else because I have very strong opinions on the digital rights of the customer for personal use when it comes to digital video games. There were others who defended the video at the time too and I think some of them may have also been banned from the discord for doing so. The person who posted the link to the video, which was not me, may have been banned too. You consider me a "shit-stirrer" for being very vocal about the technical issues regarding the Atari VCS and I can accept that but if Atari did not take so many big shits, I would have nothing to stir. Regarding that term "shit-stirrer" well It takes one to know one. Someone during your stream just asked about Alien Abduction and you somehow thought it was appropriate to go on a tirade of "shit-stirring" yourself which is fine (except for the personal insulting attacks calling me a "lying coward", also you are flat out wrong about me saying I was not the "Frank" user account and you continue to falsely accuse me of having made that VCS game backup video). I take no offense to you calling me a "shit-stirrer" and you are entitled to your opinions, even though some of them are way off base. I saved the video of your recent response as an unlisted video just to link here because it is very relevant to this topic and in case I decide to make a response video since you have decided to launch some personally insulting attacks here. I was actually not even going to talk about this game abduction again but now I don't know. I may need to ponder for a couple days here. Even though you have never apologized to me for falsely accusing me of making that VCS Game Backup video and you still accuse me of it to this day, and even though you have never apologized for calling some of "pirates" for wanting to backup our VCS games, and even though I doubt you will ever apologize for calling me a "lying coward", I will still apologize to you if my persistent over-critical opinions about the Atari VCS have in some way personally offended you. Have a nice day and thanks for at least telling it like you think it is. I can respect that.

My intention was never to imply the game was being removed from peoples VCS hard drives by Atari. The entire point of the video was that the game was taken away from the customer as far as being taken away from the customer's store "owned" library losing access to the download, not that it was being removed from their VCS. I went back and listened to the video and I do see how my poor, unclear word phrasing could be taken the way you took it but that was not the intention. The video is now private so I may need to edit for clarification and reupload or make a new one to clarify the message. When it comes to digital games that ease of access is important to a lot of people so hopefully next year there can be an update to prevent this sort of thing from being an issue in the future. Thanks for the video response.

Ok then that makes much better sense, thank you for the explanation.

Actually there have already been at least one shipping delay on Atari.com. When the 2600+ was first listed for preorder, it had a shipping date of November on Atari.com. The date was later changed to November/December and then changed again to December. Currently Amazon has a date of November 17th and Atari.com says December so if Amazon starts shipping on Nov 17 as listed and Atari.com starts shipping in December as listed then I's say it is a concern for those who ordered first on Atari.com. Maybe there is a good reason for the conflicting shipping dates which is why I asked the question in the first place.

Will 2600+ orders placed on Atari.com be shipped at the same time as orders placed on Amazon? I would hope that people who pre-ordered first on Atari.com would not have to wait longer than people who ordered later on Amazon. If 2600+ Amazon orders were to get filled before orders placed on Atari.com, that would not be very good for the dedicated Atari.com customers. I hope and expect Atari to do the right thing here.

Thank you for speaking up about some of the serious VCS technical issues because I think it is important to do so. When I say "Atari took the game away" I meant the access to the download which in my opinion should never be taken away from people who bought the game for the life of the platform. It is not a very customer friendly thing to expect customers to have to submit a support ticket and enter into a back and forth situation with tech support in order to gain access to a digital game they paid for and having to deal with frequent tech support is a big reason why many VCS customers have stopped buying games. I agree with you completely that Atari should have notified VCS owners in advance before delisting the game. Also, maybe there should be some disclaimer on the VCS store before purchasing games that at some point games can get delisted and we can lose the ease of access to the download. I don't blame Dave since he is not responsible for how the Atari VCS was designed with so many flaws and if it was up to him he would want everything running smoothly. I also do not blame the developer for removing his game, though I think he is doing the wrong thing, he has every right to halt sales of the rom on the VCS store. Maybe he thinks more people will buy a physical cartridge if the rom is no longer available for purchase or maybe he has other plans on making the rom available for purchase elsewhere for those that did not have the chance to buy it on the VCS. Maybe he can also sell a USB stick with the Rom and some cover artwork with a manual, that would be cool. Thanks to Dave and the developer for bringing this cool game rom to the VCS even if it was a timed offering and I hope the game becomes available to more people soon as a physical cartridge and an easily obtainable rom purchase for the old school 2600 console players who want to use it on a Harmony cart or in emulation. The main issue here is that the VCS does not allow for people to have easy access to their purchased game downloads after a game gets delisted. People who buy games that eventually become delisted should still see them in their VCS storefront as "OWNED" or there should be some Game Library feature added for users to still be able to download games that are no longer for sale. Maybe we will see something like that in an OS update at some point but Atari sure does seem to take a very long time to make these kinds of changes on the VCS. I do think it is unfortunate that this game has been subject to this controversy when some of this is VCS related stuff, not really about this specific game which I greatly enjoy playing and very happy that I purchased the rom on the VCS. I have the original H.E.R.O cartridge for 2600, 5200, Colecovision and even the H.E.R.O My Card for SG-1000 so I would for sure be interested in a physical Alien Abduction even though I already bought the rom.

I can confirm the game plays great on a Harmony cart and works good on Gamestation Pro also. The VCS is a great platform for 2600/7800 rom sales and I think if more people knew about the flexibility of the roms from the VCS store, more people would buy an Atari VCS. You are indeed 100% correct that the guy who made the video was trying to help people protect the games they spent good money on for long term personal use game preservation. Nothing at all wrong with backing up the VCS games that we purchased for personal use and long term digital game storage.

When Atari takes the customers money for a digital game, the customer should have easy access to that game. Plain and simple. Not sure how anyone can disagree with that point. It is all too common on the VCS for customers to have issues getting games. The technical issues are ridiculous and many people still have problems after buying games trying to download them. Also, the VCS store should have been designed to allow people who paid for the game to still have easy access to download it even if the game is no longer available for purchase for new sales. That is the entire point of the video and if you don't get that then I don't know what to tell you.

What the meaning is that the game is no longer available for download, I will edit the description to make that more clear. Thanks for pointing that out.

100% Yes the game has been removed from the digital store and is no longer available for download to those who previously purchased it. Also, many customers have constant issues buying games on the VCS so not sure why you are so defensive about it. It is how the VCS works unfortunately flawed with technical issues so you should not get offended by people talking about it in an honest way.

the Gamestation "pro" can't use Atari joysticks since it has no 9 pin ports and does not seem to recognize a 9 pin to USB adapter so I think you might be better off with getting a real Atari 7800 console with a high quality AV/S-Video mod

The 2600 version as far as I know is only 80 single screens so more like 30 MINUTES of gameplay.