ColecoVision Flashback Upgrade Service

[blair]

Hey Original John, I finally was able to get back  to the coleco project. I had to wait on the 2600daptors, another usb card that was big enough, and I had found a coleco driving controller on e-bay on it's way.  So far, I cannot get any controller to be recognized through the 2600 adaptors. I had to revert to my logitech controller to get started. There's already 5 games between 2010 and the end of the "b"s that I can't get to work because of the joystick mapping and I would guess that they would work if the 2600daptors were recognized. I am able to exit games back to the game menu by hitting the "ctrl" button on a keyboard so that's a bonus because I just opened the flashback today to see what I have to do with that.

 

Before you sent the zip file I was able to get all but 2 games working out of about 600 roms that I have on my previous attempt to make a colecopie. I might just have to use that build and educate myself how to make the adaptors work and hopefully once i hook up the on/off and reset buttons, everything should be great.

[dualcam]

8 hours ago, blair said:

 So far, I cannot get any controller to be recognized through the 2600 adaptors.

Which 2600-daptors?  If the D9's, you need to use the Auto Sense to set the adapter controller mode.  This involves holding a particular controller button as the USB is connected to the adapter.  There is an Auto Sense label on the back of the adapter and more info on the web-site.  Use a joystick/gamepad app like Windows joy.cpl or Linux jstest-gtk to check that the adapter and controller are working.

 

Tom

http://2600-daptor.com/

[OriginalJohn]

4 hours ago, dualcam said:

Which 2600-daptors?  If the D9's, you need to use the Auto Sense to set the adapter controller mode.  This involves holding a particular controller button as the USB is connected to the adapter.  There is an Auto Sense label on the back of the adapter and more info on the web-site.  Use a joystick/gamepad app like Windows joy.cpl or Linux jstest-gtk to check that the adapter and controller are working.

 

Tom

http://2600-daptor.com/

This is correct, when you switch to any controller, there is something you have to do before turning the power to the 'dapters on.   So with the coleco controllers, I hold down 0 and turn it on.  You only do it once as the settings is 'remembered'.  There are 1 or 2 games that won't play in the emulator as they are 'Phoenix Only' titles.  Dead tomb is one of them: https://collectorvision.com/store/shop/colecovision/dead-tomb-exclusive-phoenix/

[blair]

Thanks guys, I don't really know how to explain how but I was finally able to get a coleco flashback controller to work. I haven't yet begun to grasp how to map it so that the number pad works as a number pad. I have to read and reread the instructions that original john gave me a few dozen more times before my wee brain will get it. Same with adding art without the scraper.

[OriginalJohn]

6 hours ago, blair said:

Thanks guys, I don't really know how to explain how but I was finally able to get a coleco flashback controller to work. I haven't yet begun to grasp how to map it so that the number pad works as a number pad. I have to read and reread the instructions that original john gave me a few dozen more times before my wee brain will get it. Same with adding art without the scraper.

If you need help, please pm me, I'd be happy to assist!   If you're using my image, coolcv is already setup for coleco controllers.  Also, there is a gamelist.old  in the the same directory as the gamelist.xml.  You can pick and choose what games you want to add to the gamelist.xml just by copy/paste.

[OriginalJohn]

Fixed something that was bugging me - no access to SD card on the PI.  So I added an extender by carefully using a dremel  to remove a cut out on the case and also cut a slot on the extender sides, top and bottom so it can slide into the void.  Here is the result:

 

 

Here is a direct link to the extender:

https://www.amazon.com/Extension-Electop-MicroSDHC-Compatible-Raspberry/dp/B07YYSP5F5/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1JTEQH3NYU07P&keywords=electop+micro+sd+to+sd+card+extension+cable+adapter&qid=1647552071&sprefix=electop+sd%2Caps%2C75&sr=8-2

[blair]

Thanks again Original John.  There's so much to this that might seem simple to other people but I haven't got it together yet. Like the gameslist, adding art any way other than scraping, and mapping the controllers to the way I want them. I may go with the image that I had already finished because I've already tested all the games and they worked so far. I was in the middle of a bunch of projects and now I'm trying to focus on this one.  I just added a fan to the pi too and had to figure out where to hook it so it didn't take the same spots as the on'off and reset switches. I just did 2 retroflag builds, a sega and a nintendo and they both have safe shutdown scripts. Did you use something like that or do you just do the system shutdown with the joystick?

[phattyboombatty]

After many years, I finally picked up this project again. I bought an Ultimate PC Interface Special ColecoVision Flashback Edition and I have my RPi3.

 

This project needs significantly improved documentation and how-to-ness. Thank you to @OriginalJohn for providing a lot of insight.

 

Here's my quick and dirty. Anyone is welcome to flesh this out and add steps.

1. Download RetroPie hard drive image here and clone to MicroSD card with tools for MacOS or Windows.
2. Open CV Flashback, remove guts.
3. Install UPC board and RPi with RetroPie image.
4. Provide power to your RPi and connect your assemblage to an HDMI or other display.
5. Boot the OS and make important changes, like connecting to your Wifi, updating packages, and enabling SSH (more detail/video needed)
6. Download CoolCV emulator explained in this video.
7. Configure controllers (totally unclear as to how you go back and reconfigure CV controller(s) if you messed it up)

I got this far. CoolCV is working, but my stock CV controller is just not configured correctly. I can't escape out of a directory (or up-level) without resetting the Pi. Also needed are the "right" steps to add box art images and choosing the best display/splash screen for dedicated CV emulation use. 

 

Lastly, is this a dedicated CV emulator, or is this just a RetroPie build with ALL the emulators? Because the latter is what it seems to me. You can scroll left and right and choose any emulator that you have installed. This whole project has been rather unclear to me, as what I've really built is a shiny bomb casing filled with used pinball machine parts. In other words, another multi-emu system running on an RPi stuck in an old CV Flashback casing. ?

[OriginalJohn]

On 7/24/2022 at 3:29 PM, phattyboombatty said:

I got this far. CoolCV is working, but my stock CV controller is just not configured correctly. I can't escape out of a directory (or up-level) without resetting the Pi. Also needed are the "right" steps to add box art images and choosing the best display/splash screen for dedicated CV emulation use. 

 

Lastly, is this a dedicated CV emulator, or is this just a RetroPie build with ALL the emulators? Because the latter is what it seems to me. You can scroll left and right and choose any emulator that you have installed. This whole project has been rather unclear to me, as what I've really built is a shiny bomb casing filled with used pinball machine parts. In other words, another multi-emu system running on an RPi stuck in an old CV Flashback casing. ?

On the addition of the images, what I've found is that there isn't any special type of file to use (I used PNG), but what is important to know is that the higher the resolution of the image, the longer your menu will take to load.  The way that you add new games is to edit the gamelist.xml file,  which denotes the name of the game on the menu, the description of the game and the location of the rom and the image to display.  

 

On the reset issue, there is a way to install an additional program that loads on startup that will treat GPIO pins like keyboard presses.  Once pikeyd is installed, you wire up the reset switch to the gpio pins and configure (retropie if you want to) but more importantly CoolCV to treat it as escape.  More info here: https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/23991/noob-here-how-can-i-rig-up-a-button-to-the-gpio-and-set-it-so-that-it-will-tri

 

Another thing to note is that CoolCV does not inherit controller settings - you must do that manually. 

 

In the config file, you can 'stack' the button/controller ID, so if you have multiple controllers you'll have to do that.  For example, joystick movement is configured like - left_button_1 key32 joy0_0 which is read as 'In coolCV the left button 1 is configured to keyboard key 32 and also configured to joystick 1, left button.   When you launch coolcv with your retropie setup, keep a keyboard attached.  When you launch coolcv, you have to press a function key (I'm not sure what the key is F7?)  which puts it into a mode where you can move the joystick and it'll show a value at the top.  That value needs to be inserted into the coolcv config file. More info here: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Colecovision/

 

To answer your other question, retropie/retroarch CAN be configured for multiple emulators, but in my image, it's only colecovision.  I stripped all the other stuff away.  I did start dabbling and put intellivision on there.  All I have to do is swap controllers and hold the '0' button down and it gets configured in the hardware to then use with the menu/games.

 

Yes, just nothing but a fancy emulator in a flashback case.  But, it's dedicated, feels kinda like coleco and is dedicated to using the correct controllers.  The only way to play. 

[phattyboombatty]

Great information John! Thank you for all of that. I will check out those links and try to flesh out my bulleted list. This looks to be coming a long way in a short time!

[CrimsonGhost]

Still wondering if you or anyone else you know is still doing this project.

im very interested but don’t think I would be able to do it myself.

Thanks in advance,

Nick

[+fdr4prez]

Sorry, Byte Knight is no longer doing these upgrades.  Not sure if that will change in the future.

 

Also, as of right now, the Raspberry Pi that are needed are in short supply and demand is high worldwide, so trying to get some to do an upgrade is difficult, or near impossible.

 

If you are willing to give this work a try yourself, there are those of us here that can help guide you along the way.

 

Byte Knight used his own design for the controller adapter interface, but those are no longer available either, so you can use either a UPCI or two 2600datpor-D9 and it will require some soldering.

 

Also getting the reset button and the on/off switch to be functional will also require some soldering, along with the Powerblock (or similar).

[pakrflo]

Are you still upgrading Colecovison/intellivision flashbacks? Thanks

[+fdr4prez]

15 hours ago, pakrflo said:

Are you still upgrading Colecovison/intellivision flashbacks? Thanks

Please read the the post immediately above yours. 

 

It explains the current status. 

[QUINTENRT]

How much does it cost to get this? I don't have any of these modules.

QUINTENRT