svenski Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 Seriously, I think I read that the 7800 uses the same sound chip as the 2600 but that certain 7800 carts come with their own POKEY chip. Is this right? If so, does anyone know which carts do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 http://www.atariage.com/7800/faq/index.htm...mID=7800#cat3_9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted May 2, 2003 Share Posted May 2, 2003 ...but "Scrapyard Dog" shows what can be done with just the standard equipment. The music in it is really quite good for the 7800. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted May 2, 2003 Author Share Posted May 2, 2003 Thanks guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyranthraxus Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 I think the sound issue is overrated. It is true that compared to the 5200 the sound is poor and it is astounding that Atari would downgrade their new systems sound. BUT many games do a pretty admirable job Ms Pac-man and Galaga are pretty faithful to the arcade versions. But then DK is brutal. So you win some and lose some but I don't think the sound is a system breaker for the 7800. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted May 3, 2003 Share Posted May 3, 2003 It was a major design flaw not to have an onboard POKEY. It also hurts future homebrews, as no one has designed a clone of that chip that only does sound to work with homebrews, so if you want good sound, its gonna be pricey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 What is a Pokey? Wait, that didn't sound like it sounded like. I mean, is Pokey a custom chip for Atari back in the day? Or was it an off the shelf componant? I'm just wondering why people can't use it or a simular chip? As for the "horrible" sound of the 7800, I guess that just depends on who listens to it. I'll agree, DK was grating music. But most of the music on the game is quiet nice. Sure, pokechips made better sound, but if the programmers knew what they were doing, or cared, they can still squeeze some nice sounds from the 7800. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Pokéchips make the carts more expensive to produce rather than using the on-board hardware...unless you can find a spot to catch them in the wild BTW Pokey is Gumby's brown pony. And the brown ghost in PacMan. Possibly the brown ghost of Gumby's pony. Hmm...I'm sensing a pattern here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Pokéchips make the carts more expensive to produce rather than using the on-board hardware...unless you can find a spot to catch them in the wild BTW Pokey is Gumby's brown pony. And the brown ghost in PacMan. Possibly the brown ghost of Gumby's pony. Hmm...I'm sensing a pattern here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricBall Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 The major limitation of the TIA sound generator is it only has a 5 bit frequency divisor. This really limits the number (and accuracy) of notes it can produce. But, it is possible to make decent original music and sound effects with the TIA. POKEY (potentiometer & keyboard processor) was created for the Atari 8 bit computers as a keyboard & paddle interface. It contains an improved version of the TIA sound generator with 4 channels each with an 8 bit divisor (versus 3 channels with 5 bit divisors) and pairs of channels could be linked to create a 16 bit divisor. This provides the required resolution for accurate notes, and thus decent music reproduction. (Though still with fairly limitted 1 bit polynomial waveforms.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miqorz Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 If you ask me the sound isnt that bad...I mean if it's SOOO bad put on a cd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 I'm in agreement with lots of the folks here: The 7800 does have a pretty bad sound chip, but not all 7800 games have irritating sound. Some programmers came up with relatively non-offensive music: some that come to mind: * Jinks: Impressive digitized speech and music for the old chip * Midnight Mutants * Scrapyard Dog * Alien Brigade * Dark Chambers * Dark Chambers Of course, many others have terrible sound, including: * Tower Toppler * Xenophobe * Donkey Kong * Donkey Kong Jr * Basketbrawl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyle Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 The 7800 sound isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. I dont really have a problum with it. But by far Mario bros and Donkey Kong have the worst sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari_aaron Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 This is just a question and speculation... not offering this as the truth. Maybe it was just easier (by that I mean cheaper) for Atari to have backward compatibility by using the crappy sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 If I recall, they didn't put it on the console just because they didn't want to have to design a new casing, and without it, the board would fit fine into the one that was already designed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Kay Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 they didn't put it on the console just because they didn't want to have to design a new casing, and without it, the board would fit fine into the one that was already designed Yeah... isn't the 7800 case basically the same as the Sears Arcade II - somebody refresh my memory. Dumb idea as far as I can see it... I'm sure Atari produced more POKEY chips between BallBlazer and Commando than they produced 7800's... makes no financial sense... Cheers! Joey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariman Posted May 7, 2003 Share Posted May 7, 2003 they didn't put it on the console just because they didn't want to have to design a new casing, and without it, the board would fit fine into the one that was already designed Yeah... isn't the 7800 case basically the same as the Sears Arcade II - somebody refresh my memory. Dumb idea as far as I can see it... I'm sure Atari produced more POKEY chips between BallBlazer and Commando than they produced 7800's... makes no financial sense... Cheers! Joey actually, if you compare the two, they are exactly alike (except that the Sears Video Arcade II has a channel switch on the bottom and a few more buttons on the top) if you check out the sears arcade II and the 7800 side by side, you can see where they didn't even bother to make even minor case changes for where there was additional information on the SVAII. (If you look at them, you'll understand what I mean) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElectricTroy Posted May 14, 2003 Share Posted May 14, 2003 The Nintendo ES didn't have great sound either. Back then, 8-bit sound was not a high priority. IMHO the only 8-bit machine with sound worth hearing is the Commodore=64. The rest I just turn down the volume to barely audible. So does the 7800 *have* to use the Pokey? Can't it use other sound chips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamienC Posted May 14, 2003 Share Posted May 14, 2003 The NES had some great music, IMO. Listen to the music in any Mega Man game (MM3 has some great songs), Blaster Master (stages 1, 4, and 7 all have excellent music), Double Dragon (half-assed arcade port, but kick ass music), River City Ransom (some damn good music all the way through) or even older games like Metroid (some eerie music for a game made in 1986). I still prefer the 7800 though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witchfynde Posted May 14, 2003 Share Posted May 14, 2003 I still prefer the 7800 though. I must've lucked out with the 7800 games I have--I only have 15 at the moment--as I've only disliked the sound on only a few of those games, like Donkey Kong Jr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted May 14, 2003 Share Posted May 14, 2003 I agree: The NES argueably has the best sound of any 8-bit system. I have an SMS, 7800, NES, and XEGS and generally find that to be the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyranthraxus Posted May 14, 2003 Share Posted May 14, 2003 Yeah NES musci wasn't quite so bad, of course it wasn't all that great either but it is probably the best of the 8-bit era. I recently popped in Karateka to test it for a trade I'm doing and oh the horror!! Brutal gameplay, brutal sound. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Witchfynde Posted May 14, 2003 Share Posted May 14, 2003 I recently popped in Karateka to test it for a trade I'm doing andoh the horror!! Brutal gameplay, brutal sound. More like "Krapteka", eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted May 14, 2003 Author Share Posted May 14, 2003 Karateka on the 7800 has to be the worst game I've ever played. It stinks. Why did it even get published? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted May 15, 2003 Share Posted May 15, 2003 The Nintendo ES didn't have great sound either. Back then, 8-bit sound was not a high priority. IMHO the only 8-bit machine with sound worth hearing is the Commodore=64. The rest I just turn down the volume to barely audible. So does the 7800 *have* to use the Pokey? Can't it use other sound chips? You should hear some of the music in games coded for the Atari 8-bits in Eastern Europe in the '90s. They'll truly increase your appreciation for the good 'ol POKEY chip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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