Things About AtariAge and the 7800 Community

[Trebor]

Do you know some of the most incredible things about this community?

The amount of information sharing and cooperation among so many hardware/software developers and others - it’s truly incredible. Granted, the [AtariAge] 7800 community may not be the biggest classic gaming community out there, but I'll be damned if it doesn't contain the ones with the biggest hearts along with so many people being eager to share and help each other.

Some elite attitudes and egos could (and despite perhaps justifiably so) make an appearance; however, the vast majority are sincere people truly looking to be a part of assisting and making this community (and the 7800 system) flourish.

I will not even try to list names, as honestly, I don't want to forget anyone...But especially in these last several months or so, the quantity and quality of data coupled with the number of different people that have continuously stepped forward and up, graciously providing specific details, general information, and support is quite astounding.

I was going to post a few examples, but after reaching well over a dozen recent posts from numerous individuals, I realized I would run into the same issue as trying to list names - There are so many and I do not want to leave anyone (or any examples) out.

So I'll just leave it at...THANK YOU - Thank you for sharing the knowledge, tools, programs, games, emulators, input, feedback, examples, and interest. It is all truly and greatly appreciated. The 30th anniversary year is already shaping up to be the most fantastic of them all for the Atari 7800.

I'll go back on one thing and mention one, as you always have to pay respect to "The Godfather"...

From Nexus to Age, I don't know if something like this for the 7800 could have or would have existed elsewhere. However, I do know we have this here and now - Thanks Al.

[rhcocker]

Well put Trebor. I completely agree.

[AlecRob]

7800 for life!

 

 

Just scored a copy of commando, btw!

[gambler172]

Hi my friend

I agree,the 7800 is the best not likeAtari J...users

who never share their work and only want to make lots of money....Sure the programmers should earn something,but when i see they sell some titles like G.... and many more for damn hard money,i just become sad. So the 7800 forum is my number 1 and i can say only

THANK YOU to ALL

Ps:there are only few video game forums,with such great guys,like ithe 7800 Users.And this are the PANDORA handheld Users for example

with a great webmaster,like A....Y....

 

greetings gambler172

Edited April 27, 2014 by gambler172

[gambler172]

And i will also post some new games for our beloved 7800 soooon

[+Defender_2600]

Thank you AtariAge and 7800 Community!!

 

And thank you for your big heart Trebor.

 

[BenjaminR]

Absolutely! It's been a pleasure to read through the 7800 section of AtariAge since I rediscovered the Atari 7800 over the last year. I finally decided to start posting because the conversations have become way too interesting to ignore. The Atari 7800 always had a weird sort of mystique to me. I can remember seeing it at Toy's R Us. I remember my peers snubbing it when it was released back in the mid 80's, and I only knew of one kid who had it (he hated it and wanted a Nintendo by the way), but I sure couldn't get Food Fight and Robotron on our crummy NES, and those games were genuinely fun!

I never imagined being able to find newly released games for the 7800 in 2014, this is a great time for classic gaming, and it's always exiting to see new developments in the small but tight Atari 7800 classic gaming community.

Edited May 1, 2014 by BenjaminR

[Greg2600]

Hate to forget anyone, but come on CPUWiz and PacManPlus have become the maestros. GroovyBee as well. I think the most ambitious, and interesting work to me is what PMP/Bob has done with Bentley Bear. He's begun the work to finally perhaps answer the question of whether the 7800 could have gotten games that were on par with its competitors.

[+Gemintronic]

I have high hopes for the future. I'm not one for the theory that more accessible tools means more bad games. The 7800 is relatively new territory for many people. We're all going to discover what a wider homebrew community can do.

[Rick Dangerous]

Stoked to browse this forum and play many great 7800 games for years to come. Hopefully many great new home brews as well!!

[+Random Terrain]

I have high hopes for the future. I'm not one for the theory that more accessible tools means more bad games. The 7800 is relatively new territory for many people. We're all going to discover what a wider homebrew community can do.

 

I can't wait until the 7800 version of batari Basic is done and working with Visual batari Basic. Think of all of the things we could do with those extra sprites, better playfield, and boatload of variables. Until then, I'll keep playing with the DPC+ version of bB.

[Trebor]

He's begun the work to finally perhaps answer the question of whether the 7800 could have gotten games that were on par with its competitors.

 

Bob pulled off BB's Crystal Quest with only 144k, and a couple of people* assisting with graphics and music composition. Imagine if there was a whole team getting paid to work on a game full time with all the tools and resources available to major game developers. Then throw in additional hardware assistance the NES had for over 90% of its games.

For example, how about throwing 256k, 384k, 512k or/and multi-directional scrolling assistance, chips that allow larger amount of graphics, vertical support for screen splitting, a chip that adds more available colors to the graphics mode and/or tiles sprites of the console?

Those are just some of the many things that were provided to developers for the NES via additional chips on cartridge hardware.

The question is not could the 7800 have gotten games that were on par with its competitors. Of course it could...just throw the same (or similar) resources into the 7800. Right now, it's a matter of seeing whether or not the 7800 will have developed for it more 'advance' games with or without additional hardware assistance as the competition utilized.

The (new) excellent software and hardware tools, interest, and determination from many of the devs both old and new helps to strengthen the probability of that occurring. It's a great thriving community and it is exciting to see all the new developments.

*EDIT: PAC-MAN RED & Synthpopalooza (This is why I don't like to list names - Don't want to forget anyone).

[+Random Terrain]

For example, how about throwing 256k, 384k, 512k or/and multi-directional scrolling assistance, chips that allow larger amount of graphics, vertical support for screen splitting, a chip that adds more available colors to the graphics mode and/or tiles sprites of the console?

But that's only OK for the NES. For the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800, that kind of stuff is cheating. We must remain pure! 4K or die!

[Greg2600]

But that's only OK for the NES. For the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800, that kind of stuff is cheating. We must remain pure! 4K or die!

 

Only if it's done on a cartridge! If it's some big bulky add-on, like the 32X or 7800XM then it's not really the same "system." I guess it's weird semantics. But to me, an add-on system is definitely cheating. If it's a cart with additional graphical, sound, and/or memory hardware, then it's still the same core console.

 

But I won't be satisfied until someone ports Castlevania to the 7800! Then gets a cease and desist letter.

[+Random Terrain]

 

Only if it's done on a cartridge! If it's some big bulky add-on, like the 32X or 7800XM then it's not really the same "system." I guess it's weird semantics. But to me, an add-on system is definitely cheating. If it's a cart with additional graphical, sound, and/or memory hardware, then it's still the same core console.

 

But I won't be satisfied until someone ports Castlevania to the 7800! Then gets a cease and desist letter.

 

Yep, that's what I'm talking about too. Everything in the cart. I'm not interested in add-on devices or speech synthesizers (unless the speech synthesizer is in the cart).

[AtariNerd]

/tease/

 

Playing the semantics game, though, you might think of the XM as a (rather) large pass-through-cart, since it mainly is just a combination of known and previously used extensions that have been implemented before in-cartridge or by using an extension cart (High Score). All powered off of the main cartridge slot, not some external wall-wart like that Sega console. That it has extra space given so that it may lay flush to the main console are for the purposes of stabilty (as opposed to the two cartridge stack situation imposed by the use of the HS pass-through.) , technical and aesthetic considerations, mainly. Maybe a bit of an exageration of in-cartridge, but there you go.

 

/-tease/

 

Though, given how tech advances, with some of the cheaper FPGA's becoming available, I can see it becoming a moot point, fairly soon. In a few years, you could have an entire other system on-cart, for less than the cost of what a new cartridge would have cost "in the day" Now those are some apples that could tip the "cart".

[Trebor]

The 32X adds two 32-bit RISC processors with a brand new GPU to the 16-bit Genesis.

 

The XM is a conglomerate of cartridge based hardware expansions that is cheating the cost of doing things on a cart-by-cart basis while saving developers resources. However, it does not provide the scope and depth of cartridge based hardware expansions that is present in the NES library.

 

Regardless, whatever route(s) developers choose, it's fantastic to have the development (software & hardware ) present for the 7800.

[Lynxpro]

5200XM next!