Flashback Portable VS GamePort ?

[Torlus]

Ah...you're the Intellivision guy :-)! I've been to your site many times!

Well I'm not that much into Intellivision, I just made a proof-of-concept cartridge emulation with a FPGA. However, I'm planning to do it again, using a fast MCU this time.

 

I basically have the whole 2600 up and running. I'd say compatibility is about 95% of all

titles released prior to 1992. I don't have the ability to test some of the stranger bankswitching

schemed games at this time since I haven't written the circuits yet. There are a few critical things

I have to do though :

Very nice! If you don't mind sharing your work, I think I could help on some of these tasks.

BTW, did you know this guy's project ?

 

PM me your email address ! I wouldn't mind talking with you !

I'm contacting you right now

Edited June 28, 2008 by Torlus

[TwinChargers]

The Gameport site appears to be a dead link once again. Has the project officially died?

[Reaperman]

The Gameport site appears to be a dead link once again. Has the project officially died?

whatever...

Wake me if the system ever comes out.

even when it was still "active" that site would drop out in exactly the same way for weeks at a time.

 

But in case it doesn't come back, who guessed the closest to mid july in the 'gameport deathwatch' pool? I do seem to recall an august bid. virtual kudos to whoever that was.

 

if the site does come back, we're going to have to get much more 'official' on our deathwatch than we have been.

Edited July 20, 2008 by Reaperman

[TwinChargers]

The Gameport site appears to be a dead link once again. Has the project officially died?

But in case it doesn't come back, who guessed the closest to mid july in the 'gameport deathwatch' pool? I do seem to recall an august bid. virtual kudos to whoever that was.

 

if the site does come back, we're going to have to get much more 'official' on our deathwatch than we have been.

 

I called a new update will come on August 4th. Raskar42 declared its death in October. I just don't want this thing to die. Its like the Michael Myers of retro gaming!

[+karri]

I called a new update will come on August 4th. Raskar42 declared its death in October. I just don't want this thing to die. Its like the Michael Myers of retro gaming!

 

It seems to be dead as a dodo. The site is gone and a placeholder of the www-provider has taken its place.

 

--

Karri

[etschuetz]

Below is quoted from 2007 in regards to the Portable Atari Flashback system. Now, as a huge Atari Fanboy, I was wondering if this will ever be a reality? Obviously, a full year+ has passed and not a word more has been released. Can anyone give me more input on this device? Is it actually available anywhere? Did it become vaporware? I just recently was given an Atari Flashback 2 and love it. It is a wonderful addition to my overall Atari Collection (which includes a VCS CX2600 Sunnyvale Edition, 4 port 5200, ver. 3 7800, Jaguar, and Lynx II). The closest I have come to a portable Atari 2600 is the DS emulator based on Stella (which doesn't work all to well thanks the menu unable to support long name rom files, and with the rom collection I have, I do NOT want to rename them all!).

 

Thanks for the help on this one folks.

 

 

Hi,

I am involved with the project and will bring up a few answers here.

 

The first thing is that due to quite complicated circumpstances, the web site and everything that goes with it went live much earlier than expected and a lot of information is still not on it, this will come.

 

The plastic case was also a preliminary test, it was designed and made in a matter of days for a TV appearance and the proper one is currently being worked on; rest assured it doesn't look like a Gameboy, you will see that the design is surprisingly small.

 

To clear the legal aspect, copying roms you own is not legal in the US, this has been tried in court already; however there is a lot of legitimate use to the product as well, which makes it legal; even under the new law proposal. Now, I am not going to get into the ethics of things (VCRs and MP3 players would be the first guilty devices); if you want to buy again the software you bought 25 years ago, go ahead.

 

The system uses a CPU and a FPGA; the game systems run on the FPGA, the CPU is there mostly to assist with the I/O, setup, etc, although this is not an obligation.

We are not really competing with Curt's portable system; he has a product that caters to the 2600 crowd and I am sure he will take care of the details that matter to the community. We are into the 80s, the 2600 is only one of the platforms supported and we are making decisions based on numerous consoles, therefore we will not address wish lists at the same level of detail as he does.

The GamePort runs literally thousands of games, it is a very different product with different constraints as well.

 

Because we are on AtariAge.com, I can address the 2600 specifics:

The first thing is that the reproduction of the 2600 is as perfect as it can get. There is only one difference in the CPU (I will cover it later). At any time, the values on the bus are identical as the ones for a real machine; we had the 2600 hooked to a logic analyzer, it is a perfect reproduction.

There is NO software emulation for the 2600 BUT for the paddles.

All the known bankswitching modes are supported but the Arcadia/Starpath. This includes fancy cartridges like BurgerTime, etc. For the Starpath games, they can be made to run, but no logic was ever put in the menu system to address the loading of the next part. We document the menu system hardware, so if someone feels like it, it is possible to implement.

Before someone asks: yes, Pitfall II runs. So do GI Joe and Cosmic Ark; and this involves no hacks of any sort, just fidelity to the original.

The 2600 games are not run from storage memory, they are copied to the main RAM, then flags are set to determine the mode in use; Pitfall II and Burgertime have their own modes; Pitfall II has additional logic and BurgerTime a unique bank switching system if I recall correctly.

This brings me to the CPU's difference, one (originally illegal) opcode was changed: the 6507 has two set of registers; execution of that instruction toggles the set in use and, while one set points to the 2600's context, the second one can access the 2600's ram and storage memory in the menu system. one the second context, the CPU runs at 4x the speed but there are a few caveats as this was used primarily to interface with the menu. But this allows things such as unlimited lives (you can lock a certain number of memory addresses) or any kind of cheats.

There is a screen overlay system used for all consoles to emulate the keypads; Due to the nature of the 2600, there is no way to pause a game and keep the display active, so when used the background of the screen goes black. On most other systems, the background just dims and the game is frozen while you do your selection.

 

The video output is very clean with a 12 bit R-2R DAC; while the sound system is stereo, it doesn't affect the 2600 as both channels output the same for this system. The audio output is a 1-bit sigma delta DAC at 28mhz.

 

The tools will be open source; they are currently written for Windows (VC++), so if there are people interested to do Linux/Mac ports, you can contact one of us on the site. We did not invest much time on the software side, most of the tools are pure command line so far. Same for the menu system in the GamePort, it has similar specs as the SNES for the video and plays samples like the Amiga for the audio, yet the menus are simple text mode with no sound for now, this will eventually change.

 

We originally announced the 2600 and Coleco/MSX as those cleared legal hurdles easily; Things are changing very fast; some systems will never be made, such as the Vectrex due to their architecture, but most of the 80s will be there!

 

We are going to set up a Q&A bulletin board on the website and a mailing list for those that want to be updated with the release date, etc. (target is for fall)

[etschuetz]

Nevermind, I guess. It seems I found my answers.

 

Below is quoted from 2007 in regards to the Portable Atari Flashback system. Now, as a huge Atari Fanboy, I was wondering if this will ever be a reality? Obviously, a full year+ has passed and not a word more has been released. Can anyone give me more input on this device? Is it actually available anywhere? Did it become vaporware? I just recently was given an Atari Flashback 2 and love it. It is a wonderful addition to my overall Atari Collection (which includes a VCS CX2600 Sunnyvale Edition, 4 port 5200, ver. 3 7800, Jaguar, and Lynx II). The closest I have come to a portable Atari 2600 is the DS emulator based on Stella (which doesn't work all to well thanks the menu unable to support long name rom files, and with the rom collection I have, I do NOT want to rename them all!).

 

Thanks for the help on this one folks.

 

 

Hi,

I am involved with the project and will bring up a few answers here.

 

The first thing is that due to quite complicated circumpstances, the web site and everything that goes with it went live much earlier than expected and a lot of information is still not on it, this will come.

 

The plastic case was also a preliminary test, it was designed and made in a matter of days for a TV appearance and the proper one is currently being worked on; rest assured it doesn't look like a Gameboy, you will see that the design is surprisingly small.

 

To clear the legal aspect, copying roms you own is not legal in the US, this has been tried in court already; however there is a lot of legitimate use to the product as well, which makes it legal; even under the new law proposal. Now, I am not going to get into the ethics of things (VCRs and MP3 players would be the first guilty devices); if you want to buy again the software you bought 25 years ago, go ahead.

 

The system uses a CPU and a FPGA; the game systems run on the FPGA, the CPU is there mostly to assist with the I/O, setup, etc, although this is not an obligation.

We are not really competing with Curt's portable system; he has a product that caters to the 2600 crowd and I am sure he will take care of the details that matter to the community. We are into the 80s, the 2600 is only one of the platforms supported and we are making decisions based on numerous consoles, therefore we will not address wish lists at the same level of detail as he does.

The GamePort runs literally thousands of games, it is a very different product with different constraints as well.

 

Because we are on AtariAge.com, I can address the 2600 specifics:

The first thing is that the reproduction of the 2600 is as perfect as it can get. There is only one difference in the CPU (I will cover it later). At any time, the values on the bus are identical as the ones for a real machine; we had the 2600 hooked to a logic analyzer, it is a perfect reproduction.

There is NO software emulation for the 2600 BUT for the paddles.

All the known bankswitching modes are supported but the Arcadia/Starpath. This includes fancy cartridges like BurgerTime, etc. For the Starpath games, they can be made to run, but no logic was ever put in the menu system to address the loading of the next part. We document the menu system hardware, so if someone feels like it, it is possible to implement.

Before someone asks: yes, Pitfall II runs. So do GI Joe and Cosmic Ark; and this involves no hacks of any sort, just fidelity to the original.

The 2600 games are not run from storage memory, they are copied to the main RAM, then flags are set to determine the mode in use; Pitfall II and Burgertime have their own modes; Pitfall II has additional logic and BurgerTime a unique bank switching system if I recall correctly.

This brings me to the CPU's difference, one (originally illegal) opcode was changed: the 6507 has two set of registers; execution of that instruction toggles the set in use and, while one set points to the 2600's context, the second one can access the 2600's ram and storage memory in the menu system. one the second context, the CPU runs at 4x the speed but there are a few caveats as this was used primarily to interface with the menu. But this allows things such as unlimited lives (you can lock a certain number of memory addresses) or any kind of cheats.

There is a screen overlay system used for all consoles to emulate the keypads; Due to the nature of the 2600, there is no way to pause a game and keep the display active, so when used the background of the screen goes black. On most other systems, the background just dims and the game is frozen while you do your selection.

 

The video output is very clean with a 12 bit R-2R DAC; while the sound system is stereo, it doesn't affect the 2600 as both channels output the same for this system. The audio output is a 1-bit sigma delta DAC at 28mhz.

 

The tools will be open source; they are currently written for Windows (VC++), so if there are people interested to do Linux/Mac ports, you can contact one of us on the site. We did not invest much time on the software side, most of the tools are pure command line so far. Same for the menu system in the GamePort, it has similar specs as the SNES for the video and plays samples like the Amiga for the audio, yet the menus are simple text mode with no sound for now, this will eventually change.

 

We originally announced the 2600 and Coleco/MSX as those cleared legal hurdles easily; Things are changing very fast; some systems will never be made, such as the Vectrex due to their architecture, but most of the 80s will be there!

 

We are going to set up a Q&A bulletin board on the website and a mailing list for those that want to be updated with the release date, etc. (target is for fall)

[+stephena]

The closest I have come to a portable Atari 2600 is the DS emulator based on Stella (which doesn't work all to well thanks the menu unable to support long name rom files, and with the rom collection I have, I do NOT want to rename them all!).

I just wanted to comment on this. I'm not sure of the reasoning for not wanting to rename the ROMs. If it's because it would take too long to manually do it, then be aware that there's a ROM renamer built into the latest versions of Stella that can do that automatically. Of course, if there isn't a technical reason for wanting to keep the long names, then Stella is inadequate for showing them at this point.

[SalemFrost7800]

I called a new update will come on August 4th. Raskar42 declared its death in October. I just don't want this thing to die. Its like the Michael Myers of retro gaming!

 

It seems to be dead as a dodo. The site is gone and a placeholder of the www-provider has taken its place.

 

--

Karri

 

Yep the Gameport project looks Dead, wonder what killed it

[etschuetz]

The closest I have come to a portable Atari 2600 is the DS emulator based on Stella (which doesn't work all to well thanks the menu unable to support long name rom files, and with the rom collection I have, I do NOT want to rename them all!).

I just wanted to comment on this. I'm not sure of the reasoning for not wanting to rename the ROMs. If it's because it would take too long to manually do it, then be aware that there's a ROM renamer built into the latest versions of Stella that can do that automatically. Of course, if there isn't a technical reason for wanting to keep the long names, then Stella is inadequate for showing them at this point.

 

I actually decided to go back and create a new folder that I re-labeled all of my atari 2600 roms to a shorter, yet identifiable name. The emulator has a bit of slow down, which is sad considering the DS is a significantly more powerful system than the 2600 was. However, the games are still very playable. It is a nice twist as a way to have 2600 games on the go. Now if only there was 5200 and 7800 support.

 

There is atari 800xl emulation for DS by the way. Alekmaul did a fine job, and I strongly recommend it. Closet I will come to an atari xl laptop LOL, games work very well, however, sound is a bit "off". Again, very playable and enjoyable.

 

For colecovision fans, Alekmaul also has a ColecoVision emu for DS. From what I can tell, the games work beautifully, as I have not encountered any real issues. He even emulated the keypad on the bottom touch screen!

 

In order to use these emulators, you need a DS flash card. You can get one from most stores in the Form of the Games n Music card by Datel. It is the cheapest out there, but far from the best. I would recommend CycloDS. But if you do some research, you could find one you like more. All seem to use the MicroSD card standard.

[mimo]

The closest I have come to a portable Atari 2600 is the DS emulator based on Stella (which doesn't work all to well thanks the menu unable to support long name rom files, and with the rom collection I have, I do NOT want to rename them all!).

I just wanted to comment on this. I'm not sure of the reasoning for not wanting to rename the ROMs. If it's because it would take too long to manually do it, then be aware that there's a ROM renamer built into the latest versions of Stella that can do that automatically. Of course, if there isn't a technical reason for wanting to keep the long names, then Stella is inadequate for showing them at this point.

 

I actually decided to go back and create a new folder that I re-labeled all of my atari 2600 roms to a shorter, yet identifiable name. The emulator has a bit of slow down, which is sad considering the DS is a significantly more powerful system than the 2600 was. However, the games are still very playable. It is a nice twist as a way to have 2600 games on the go. Now if only there was 5200 and 7800 support.

 

There is atari 800xl emulation for DS by the way. Alekmaul did a fine job, and I strongly recommend it. Closet I will come to an atari xl laptop LOL, games work very well, however, sound is a bit "off". Again, very playable and enjoyable.

 

For colecovision fans, Alekmaul also has a ColecoVision emu for DS. From what I can tell, the games work beautifully, as I have not encountered any real issues. He even emulated the keypad on the bottom touch screen!

 

In order to use these emulators, you need a DS flash card. You can get one from most stores in the Form of the Games n Music card by Datel. It is the cheapest out there, but far from the best. I would recommend CycloDS. But if you do some research, you could find one you like more. All seem to use the MicroSD card standard.

 

The 5200/800XL Emulator is called POKEYDS. It is ok, but runs way too slow for me to enjoy, and the sound is particulally bad.

 

MEtalguy 66 did this which improved the speed somewhat, but I will just wait for my Pandora

Ok.. I bought one of these: GBAccelerator DS

 

And stuck it in my NDS lite.

 

It has four modes of operation, switchable "on the fly" by pressing L1,L2, and SELECT at the same time..

 

0.6x (slower than normal, about 44mhz)

1x (normal NDS 66mhz clock speed)

1.4x (overclcoked to 92mhz)

1.8x (overclocked to 118mhz)

 

In 1.4x mode, POKEY DS seems to run somewhere around the normal speed of the ATARI, maybe about 85-90% normal speed.

 

In 1.8x mode, POKEY DS runs slightly faster than a normal ATARI, maybe about 115-125% normal speed.

 

In all speeds, the sound emulation is still AWFUL.. This is an area which really needs alot of work..

 

Also, the speed % indicator on POKEY DS is obviously not compared against realtime, because even in 1.8x mode, with the game running noticably faster than on a real ATARI, the speed indicator still shows something like 62% (or whatever it would on a stock normal clockspeed NDS).

 

besides these few indescrepencies, it seems to be a pretty solid emulator overall, and its awesome to be able to have ATARI in a palm-sized device..

 

 

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

kjones66@earthlink.net http://www.rasterline.com

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[etschuetz]

Thanks for the input.

[Curt Vendel]

I wouldn't necessary classify it as vaporware, its "unreleasedware" as its done, sitting on my bench, all designs and files are ready, I just don't have the funding to move forward with it at this moment.

 

 

Curt

 

Nevermind, I guess. It seems I found my answers.

 

Below is quoted from 2007 in regards to the Portable Atari Flashback system. Now, as a huge Atari Fanboy, I was wondering if this will ever be a reality? Obviously, a full year+ has passed and not a word more has been released. Can anyone give me more input on this device? Is it actually available anywhere? Did it become vaporware? I just recently was given an Atari Flashback 2 and love it. It is a wonderful addition to my overall Atari Collection (which includes a VCS CX2600 Sunnyvale Edition, 4 port 5200, ver. 3 7800, Jaguar, and Lynx II). The closest I have come to a portable Atari 2600 is the DS emulator based on Stella (which doesn't work all to well thanks the menu unable to support long name rom files, and with the rom collection I have, I do NOT want to rename them all!).

 

Thanks for the help on this one folks.

 

 

Hi,

I am involved with the project and will bring up a few answers here.

 

The first thing is that due to quite complicated circumpstances, the web site and everything that goes with it went live much earlier than expected and a lot of information is still not on it, this will come.

 

The plastic case was also a preliminary test, it was designed and made in a matter of days for a TV appearance and the proper one is currently being worked on; rest assured it doesn't look like a Gameboy, you will see that the design is surprisingly small.

 

To clear the legal aspect, copying roms you own is not legal in the US, this has been tried in court already; however there is a lot of legitimate use to the product as well, which makes it legal; even under the new law proposal. Now, I am not going to get into the ethics of things (VCRs and MP3 players would be the first guilty devices); if you want to buy again the software you bought 25 years ago, go ahead.

 

The system uses a CPU and a FPGA; the game systems run on the FPGA, the CPU is there mostly to assist with the I/O, setup, etc, although this is not an obligation.

We are not really competing with Curt's portable system; he has a product that caters to the 2600 crowd and I am sure he will take care of the details that matter to the community. We are into the 80s, the 2600 is only one of the platforms supported and we are making decisions based on numerous consoles, therefore we will not address wish lists at the same level of detail as he does.

The GamePort runs literally thousands of games, it is a very different product with different constraints as well.

 

Because we are on AtariAge.com, I can address the 2600 specifics:

The first thing is that the reproduction of the 2600 is as perfect as it can get. There is only one difference in the CPU (I will cover it later). At any time, the values on the bus are identical as the ones for a real machine; we had the 2600 hooked to a logic analyzer, it is a perfect reproduction.

There is NO software emulation for the 2600 BUT for the paddles.

All the known bankswitching modes are supported but the Arcadia/Starpath. This includes fancy cartridges like BurgerTime, etc. For the Starpath games, they can be made to run, but no logic was ever put in the menu system to address the loading of the next part. We document the menu system hardware, so if someone feels like it, it is possible to implement.

Before someone asks: yes, Pitfall II runs. So do GI Joe and Cosmic Ark; and this involves no hacks of any sort, just fidelity to the original.

The 2600 games are not run from storage memory, they are copied to the main RAM, then flags are set to determine the mode in use; Pitfall II and Burgertime have their own modes; Pitfall II has additional logic and BurgerTime a unique bank switching system if I recall correctly.

This brings me to the CPU's difference, one (originally illegal) opcode was changed: the 6507 has two set of registers; execution of that instruction toggles the set in use and, while one set points to the 2600's context, the second one can access the 2600's ram and storage memory in the menu system. one the second context, the CPU runs at 4x the speed but there are a few caveats as this was used primarily to interface with the menu. But this allows things such as unlimited lives (you can lock a certain number of memory addresses) or any kind of cheats.

There is a screen overlay system used for all consoles to emulate the keypads; Due to the nature of the 2600, there is no way to pause a game and keep the display active, so when used the background of the screen goes black. On most other systems, the background just dims and the game is frozen while you do your selection.

 

The video output is very clean with a 12 bit R-2R DAC; while the sound system is stereo, it doesn't affect the 2600 as both channels output the same for this system. The audio output is a 1-bit sigma delta DAC at 28mhz.

 

The tools will be open source; they are currently written for Windows (VC++), so if there are people interested to do Linux/Mac ports, you can contact one of us on the site. We did not invest much time on the software side, most of the tools are pure command line so far. Same for the menu system in the GamePort, it has similar specs as the SNES for the video and plays samples like the Amiga for the audio, yet the menus are simple text mode with no sound for now, this will eventually change.

 

We originally announced the 2600 and Coleco/MSX as those cleared legal hurdles easily; Things are changing very fast; some systems will never be made, such as the Vectrex due to their architecture, but most of the 80s will be there!

 

We are going to set up a Q&A bulletin board on the website and a mailing list for those that want to be updated with the release date, etc. (target is for fall)

[etschuetz]

I wouldn't necessary classify it as vaporware, its "unreleasedware" as its done, sitting on my bench, all designs and files are ready, I just don't have the funding to move forward with it at this moment.

 

 

Curt

 

: :

 

Oh, joy of joys of joys! How much do you intend to sell it for? Is it an issue of getting the support? What about the same route the Flashback 2 went? See if the distributors would be interested in this? Have you consider making just a few "special edition limited release" versions and selling them on ebay?

 

 

Also, I would like to know, will it support standard 2600 roms?

[Curt Vendel]

Its a matter of economics, I have to place a minimum quantity order with the factory for production, there are also paying for the tooling costs and such. So coughing up a significant amount of $$$ upfront to kick this off is not an option right now, hopefully in a few months once things get a little better.

 

 

 

Curt

 

 

I wouldn't necessary classify it as vaporware, its "unreleasedware" as its done, sitting on my bench, all designs and files are ready, I just don't have the funding to move forward with it at this moment.

 

 

Curt

 

: :

 

Oh, joy of joys of joys! How much do you intend to sell it for? Is it an issue of getting the support? What about the same route the Flashback 2 went? See if the distributors would be interested in this? Have you consider making just a few "special edition limited release" versions and selling them on ebay?

 

 

Also, I would like to know, will it support standard 2600 roms?

[Wickeycolumbus]

I wouldn't necessary classify it as vaporware, its "unreleasedware" as its done, sitting on my bench, all designs and files are ready, I just don't have the funding to move forward with it at this moment.

 

 

Curt

 

 

Curt, we'd love to see new pictures of the internals and it in action

 

- Rick

Edited October 19, 2008 by Wickeycolumbus

[TwinChargers]

I still think that the best thing for the retro Atari scene is the release of this thing. No new console or plug n' play, just a portable with access to all the classics. This still fascinates me more than any other video game related release ever rumored. Still awaiting its release someday.

[etschuetz]

This is one of the times I wish I was a rich SOB. I would love to get behind a project like this to help it along. All I can offer is hope and luck.

[+karri]

hopefully in a few months once things get a little better.

 

In Europe people are playing these new iPod touch units everywhere. It has hit down as a storm and to my surprise even older people 60+ buy them. The touch screen and built in accelerometer has made this a hit.

 

My Lynx (and even my PSP) feels so retro compared to the iPod.

 

There is a small article about Atari retro releases here

This is probably the way to go.

 

--

Karri

Edited October 21, 2008 by karri

[Retro Rogue]

In Europe people are playing these new iPod touch units everywhere. It has hit down as a storm and to my surprise even older people 60+ buy them. The touch screen and built in accelerometer has made this a hit.

 

My Lynx (and even my PSP) feels so retro compared to the iPod.

 

There is a small article about Atari retro releases here

This is probably the way to go.

 

--

Karri

 

 

If done right. Those games haven't gotten great reviews, and I think they missed the boat trying to turn Super Breakout in to another Arkanoid clone.

Edited October 21, 2008 by wgungfu

[TwinChargers]

Maybe if the USB Atari Joystick thing that Curt is working on does really well, it could help generate enough cash to get this project back on its feet. Gotta dream right?

[Math You]

Maybe if the USB Atari Joystick thing that Curt is working on does really well, it could help generate enough cash to get this project back on its feet. Gotta dream right?

Hopefully, they'll release the FB portable without Atari's blessing. It would be nice to have the Atari logo on it, but it's not really necessary.

[TwinChargers]

Maybe if the USB Atari Joystick thing that Curt is working on does really well, it could help generate enough cash to get this project back on its feet. Gotta dream right?

Hopefully, they'll release the FB portable without Atari's blessing. It would be nice to have the Atari logo on it, but it's not really necessary.

Can that even be done legally?

[jbanes]

Can that even be done legally?

That's like asking if a 2600 clone can be released legally. And we all know the answer to that one.

 

The biggest hurdle would be acquiring the rights to ROMs. Potentially ROMs could be licensed from third parties like Activision. (Who, as I recall, owns much of the GOOD third party library including IMagic's titles.)

[Retro Rogue]

Maybe if the USB Atari Joystick thing that Curt is working on does really well, it could help generate enough cash to get this project back on its feet. Gotta dream right?

Hopefully, they'll release the FB portable without Atari's blessing. It would be nice to have the Atari logo on it, but it's not really necessary.

Can that even be done legally?

 

 

The 2600 is off the shelf parts except for the TIA, and that patent expired around 10 years ago. The TIA was covered under patent 4,112,422 "Method and apparatus for generating moving objects on a video display screen" filed by Steve Mayer and Ronald Milner on December 13, 1976 and granted September 5, 1978.

 

So yes, anyone can do a 2600 clone legally. You just can't use the Atari or the 2600 brand names, and you have the issue Jbanes brought up on licensing. That was a big deal with the Flashback2 and why there were only the 2 licensed titles on there, as each license adds cost to the unit. And in this case, without Atari's backing *every* title would be licensed then.