MESS 0.61 & Atari 7800 outstanding issues...

[Trebor]

First, let me thank all who have contributed to MESS in general, and a special thanks to all who are working on the 7800 driver. In the spirit of being helpful, I have tested all available 'Good' Atari 7800 ROMS, and discovered the following:

 

-Centipede (1987) (Atari).a78

 

Very top of playing box - Dashed lines going across.

 

 

-Commando (1989) (Atari).a78

 

No music present. Conclusions: A) There is a version of Commando without background music. Or, B) Emulation not complete/accurate.

 

 

-F-18 Hornet (1988) (Absolute).a78

 

Game freezes during "First Mission" instructions.

 

 

-Ikari Warriors (1989) (Atari).a78

 

After 'Atari logo', screen changes to proper background color with two boxed/garbled graphics appearing at bottom. Then emulation freezes.

 

 

-Karateka (1987) (Atari).a78

 

Story after 'Karateka' title introduction scrolls too fast (Possible tie-in with One-On-One issue?).

 

 

-Kung Fu Master (1989) (Absolute) [!].a78

 

Numerous graphical problems/issues.

 

 

-One-on-One Basketball (1987) (Atari).a78

 

Game plays too fast (Possible tie-in with Karateka story issue?).

 

 

-Sentinel (PAL) (1991) (Atari) [!].a78

 

'Atari logo' keeps recycling, never leaves screen.

 

 

-Xenophobe (1989) (Atari) [!].a78

 

Flickering screen(s)/graphics throughout game.

 

 

-XXXXX (Froggo).a78

 

All Froggo games have their 'information-boxes' at the top and bottom portions of the screen chopped in half (At least in 800x600 fullscreen stretched mode

 

 

I hope the above information helps in troubleshooting/resolving the problems with the 7800 driver.

 

Thanks for Reading,

Trebor

[+Mitch]

Well, I'm not on the MESS team but I can comment on a couple of these issues.

 

F-18 Hornet - MESS doesn't yet support the non-standard bankswitching format that F-18 uses. This is the same issue with Double Dragon and Rampage. I have a hacked version of this game on my site that is semi playable.

 

Karateka and One on One - Speed issues, seems to be a problem with Asteroids and Pitfighter as well. Possible related to the Video mode.

 

Sentinel - PAL games don't work with the NTSC (US) bios. Grab a copy of the NTSC version and you can see the game. No lightgun support yet.

 

MESS keeps improving with each release, maybe in the not to distant future we'll have full 7800 compatibility.

 

Mitch

http://atari7800.atari.org

[jindroush]

F-18 Hornet - MESS doesn't yet support the non-standard bankswitching format that F-18 uses. This is the same issue with Double Dragon and Rampage. I have a hacked version of this game on my site that is semi playable.

 

As I wrote in another post - all (even) non standard banking works.

 

The other problems are problems with timing, but as I don't understand MESS approach, I can't do anything with that.

[AtariDude]

I had something weird too happen when I was playing Ms. Pac Man. The screen redrew itself and I could no longer see the maze. This only happened once but it never happened before with the earlier version. Hopefully this was just a one time glitch since Ms Pac Man is one of my favorite 7800 games.

[liquid_sky]

ikari worked well in the old mess though

[+Mitch]

I just updated several ROMs on my website to work with the new version of MESS. See my post on the 7800 board.

 

I don't know what's going on with Ikari Warriors either, it seems to have died in the latest revision. Hopefully they can get it working again in the next update.

 

Mitch

http://atari7800.atari.org