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New Atari Compatible Console & Controllers

Curt Vendel

By Curt Vendel
in Classic Console Discussion

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New Atari 2600/7800 - which would you choose?  

291 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Console Style would you choose?

    • Housed in the 2600Jr case, but with Composite output
      64
    • Housed in the Atari 3200 "System X" case with Composite output
      227

  2. 2. New Atari compatible Controllers - what type?

    • Atari CX40 styled, but with 2 buttons
      78
    • Atari 3200 "System X" combo joystick/paddles with 2 buttons
      194
    • Atari 7800 Proline joysticks
      19

  3. 3. Console Brand - Would you buy it if it wasn't an Atari brand name console?

    • Yes - its the product, not the name
      258
    • No - if it doesn't say Atari on it, I won't buy it.
      33
  • Please sign in to vote in this poll.

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thegamezmaster River Patroller

thegamezmaster

Posted
Posted

I always loved the short lived Nintendo Fun Club.

 

On a side note, is anyone homebrewing an alternate controller for the 7800? I'm dying with the standard controllers.

 

I know a guy aruond here can mod NES controllers to work on 7800 - but I'd like something a little more "authentic atari"

 

Loved the Nintendo Fun Club! Still have everything they sent me!

So when is the new console going to be available? Any retail or special order?

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jaybird3rd Quadrunner

jaybird3rd

Posted
Posted
So when is the new console going to be available? Any retail or special order?

 

It's still way too early for such questions. Given how busy Curt has been with finishing up the XM, I wouldn't be surprised if the new console is still in the (very early) planning stages, or even put on the back burner temporarily to allow the XM to be completed.

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tinctu Star Raider

tinctu

Posted
Posted (edited)

@Curt - White or matte transparent 2600Jr case will be beautiful!!! And Atari 7800 GAMEPADS are nice too!!!

Make there SD card. And make it available for homebrew scene too ATARI 8bit, C64, APPLE2 etc... And maybe games can be as shareware (you will download half game and than you will get full code by buying it with PAY-PAL). Or maybe you can use 5000-10000BD (5-9seconds for loading game) TAPES (via MP3 PLAYER) and sell MP3s/WAVs on iTUNES, eMUSIC... So you will use MP3 shop infrastructure for selling games...

Or maybe no SD-CARD but DATA CODE MATRIX as data medium. And sell games in MAGAZINE dedicated to that system or on "baseball" like collectable cards!!!

 

NINTENDO e-READER:

 

ZX SPECTRUM loading from iPOD (up to 15 000BD):

 

So maybe no SD-CARDs but TAPE-IN (allready there is MP3 shops infrastructure) and DATA MATRIX CODE scanner (1 code = 4KB)... So people wil buy MP3s (WAVS) and CARDs (newspaper-stand) and monthly MAGAZINE with codes on end of horizontal page and with game instructions and game review inside page. So you will make money from selling MAGAZINE, CARDs and MP3s...

 

BTW Happy Halloween!

Edited by tinctu
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roland p River Patroller

roland p

Posted
Posted (edited)

Or simply cheap ARM SOC with Alltira Emulator (port?) = VBXE, 1MB RAM, STEREOPOKEY etc etc...

Does that boot fast? I hate stuff that take ages to boot (like blu-ray players etc.) The fast booting is a nice feature of old computers and dedicated hardware.

Edited by roland p
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disjaukifa River Patroller

disjaukifa

Posted
Posted

I was thinking about this more and I think it needs to have an SD card. Curt said he didn't want to hurt Harmony sales, but I don't think you can avoid putting an SD on this thing just for that. Also 7800 games aren't supported by Harmony.

 

Actually they are working on the Harmony 2 right now . . . which is an SD cartridge for the 7800. I'd really like too not see an SD card for it. Once I see an SD card on the console itself, it just becomes a computer to me . . . which is what a console is anyway. I like the shell that they are planning on using, I'm just hoping that can add additional hardware to make it more homebrew friendly for programming, which I'm sure it will be.

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jaybird3rd Quadrunner

jaybird3rd

Posted
Posted

Flash storage technology becomes obsolete so quickly that you don't want to have it built into the console. It would become the equivalent of those proprietary 2400-baud faxmodems that Packard Bell integrated into their PC motherboards years ago; you couldn't get rid of them even after newer and better solutions became available. Just think of the memory card technologies that have come and gone in the last few years: SmartMedia, MMC, all the varieties of SD cards, etc. It's far better to leave the memory card inside the cartridge; when it becomes obsolete, a new cartridge can be designed to support the newest cards.

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raskar42 River Patroller

raskar42

Posted
Posted (edited)

i like the sd card idea. i just do - sd cards have been around for awhile - there readily available, cheap, tested and you just need a small one to hold the entire 2600/7800 library. they're very universal, almost all new laptops are made with an sd port and I think they will be in use for a long time.

 

 

also, if were we scared of obsolescence - we wouldn't be on atariage.

 

imo

Edited by raskar42
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jaybird3rd Quadrunner

jaybird3rd

Posted
Posted
That can still be done if the unit comes with an onboard SD cart slot.

An onboard SD card slot would add significantly to the unit cost also. There's a lot more involved than simply slapping a card slot onto the motherboard; you'd need other support hardware to manage the memory card I/O, to hold the game binaries loaded from the card so they can be executed by the 7800, and to implement all the various bankswitching modes used by 7800 games. You'll also need some sort of onboard firmware with a menu system so you can browse the game ROMs on the card, and ideally you'd also want the firmware to be flashable for updates ... it all adds up.

 

If the new console is going to be fully 7800 and 2600 compatible, and if it's also going to include all the functionality of the XM, the mainboard inside it will already be rather crowded. Adding the extra hardware for the memory card on top of all that, and in a way that doesn't break backward compatibility, will be a challenge. Why not just leave the memory card inside the cartridge instead? It's a cleaner and more modular solution which would make the console cheaper, it would make it much easier to perform upgrades or repairs, and those people who don't need the memory card functionality won't have to buy it.

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wongojack Quadrunner

+wongojack

Posted
Posted
That can still be done if the unit comes with an onboard SD cart slot.

An onboard SD card slot would add significantly to the unit cost also.

 

Kind of premature to talk about cost. Curt's objection in the thread was that it would compete with Harmony and not that it would make it cost more, so I was going off that. Besides, you'd still have to buy some kind of 7800 flash cart which won't be free. I'd rather pay for it in the unit.

 

There a homebrew focus to this thing after all. SD would be the easiest way to 'test' on a working system.

 

Anyway - just keeping the thread warm

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raskar42 River Patroller

raskar42

Posted
Posted
That can still be done if the unit comes with an onboard SD cart slot.

An onboard SD card slot would add significantly to the unit cost also.

 

Kind of premature to talk about cost. Curt's objection in the thread was that it would compete with Harmony and not that it would make it cost more, so I was going off that. Besides, you'd still have to buy some kind of 7800 flash cart which won't be free. I'd rather pay for it in the unit.

 

There a homebrew focus to this thing after all. SD would be the easiest way to 'test' on a working system.

 

Anyway - just keeping the thread warm

 

Wongojack : Thread Warmer!

 

 

but yes the sd thing was was addressed by curt who said he didn't want to compete with harmony. but if harmony dosen't do 7800 it's not really competition.

 

also competition is good for a free economy :D

 

I[h]MO

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TheGameCollector Stargunner

TheGameCollector

Posted
Posted

Yeah, floppy disks! I love those things! Unreliable, yes, but they have such a charm about them.

 

I remember Senior year of high school where my social studies teacher banned us from storing documents for his class on floppy disk after people kept using floppy disk failure as an excuse not to do their project. They would just bring a failed floppy and say "it was on this." He held up a flash drive and said "over the weekend I want everybody to get one of these and show it to me on Monday for points." haha

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