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Atari Flashback Portable FAQ and Compatibility List


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12 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

The closest you'll get to the concepts:

 

https://evercade.co.uk/

 

https://atarivcs.com/

 

Keep in mind that any system that is going to emulate multiple systems usually needs multiple emulators, which incurs its own licensing and other restrictions/limitations and overall hardware and control requirements. It's not as easy as saying "just emulate everything."

Fair enough.

 

But powerful PCs do almost emulate everything (ok, only almost).

 

But from Nintendos many years of leading hand-held gaming, we know that old-school, pick-up-and-play games are very popular, much more popular than on TV-based home-games where you can sit for hours on end.

 

Therefore a powerful, quality Atari-handheld being able to play everything from Atari2600 to Arcades on a bright nice screen the size of a hand-held mounted Switch would have another appeal... since portable playing makes oldschool games feel very right. 

 

Pick them up. Play.

Close it when you need and pick up where you left later.

 

I mean, these are ideas; they don’t have to happen tomorrow (even though that would be preferable to me ? ), but perhaps at the onset of the next Retro-Boom.

Edited by Giles N
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16 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

The closest you'll get to the concepts:

 

https://evercade.co.uk/

 

https://atarivcs.com/

 

Keep in mind that any system that is going to emulate multiple systems usually needs multiple emulators, which incurs its own licensing and other restrictions/limitations and overall hardware and control requirements. It's not as easy as saying "just emulate everything."

Ok, cool!

 

Does the Evercade have capabilities for new releases of other titles, or only built-in?

 

It is the limitation of available titles that has made me spend quite a lot of money on getting the actual old hardware w/ cartridges.

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3 minutes ago, Giles N said:

Ok, cool!

 

Does the Evercade have capabilities for new releases of other titles, or only built-in?

 

It is the limitation of available titles that has made me spend quite a lot of money on getting the actual old hardware w/ cartridges.

 

The Evercade only uses cartridges like you requested. 

 

In terms of your "But powerful PCs do almost emulate everything (ok, only almost)." statement, again, that's not the issue. The issue is is there are commercial use limitations on many emulators. Any commercial product would need to abide by the necessary license/permission not only for the emulator(s), but also for the ROMs. That's a daunting prospect. If you're OK with using an emulator non-commercially and illegally using ROMs, there's no issue. That doesn't make a legal, commercial product, though. 

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33 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

The closest you'll get to the concepts:

 

https://evercade.co.uk/

 

https://atarivcs.com/

 

Keep in mind that any system that is going to emulate multiple systems usually needs multiple emulators, which incurs its own licensing and other restrictions/limitations and overall hardware and control requirements. It's not as easy as saying "just emulate everything."

I will almost certainly get an Evercade.

 

Looks awesome!

 

But I’d like to see Scrapyard Dog there.

 

Star Wars arcade-machine.

 

A collection of 5200 games.

 

The rest of the 7800 games.

 

But, fair ‘nough; looks like a very, very good beginning...!

 

I’ll almost certainly get one of these!

Edited by Giles N
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1 hour ago, Bill Loguidice said:

 

The Evercade only uses cartridges like you requested. 

 

In terms of your "But powerful PCs do almost emulate everything (ok, only almost)." statement, again, that's not the issue. The issue is is there are commercial use limitations on many emulators. Any commercial product would need to abide by the necessary license/permission not only for the emulator(s), but also for the ROMs. That's a daunting prospect. If you're OK with using an emulator non-commercially and illegally using ROMs, there's no issue. That doesn't make a legal, commercial product, though. 

Absolutely!

 

One of the reasons I ‘whine on’  about official re-releases of these games is because the moral thing here is to pay for a product that other people make a living out of, sort of.

 

I think what I meant to say was, PC hardware is now overtly powerful enough to emulate older systems and arcades.

 

I knew about the license issues -> (C) for game-titles, but wasn’t very aware of licenses for emulation-software.

I just didn’t think about it.

 

So, what would seem to me to be a nice thing to happen would be the 2600 games, 5200 games, and remaining 7800 games - and more Arcades- being officially released for the Evercade.

 

Perhaps it would take some getting hold of old licences.

 

Perhaps some of the owners of these titles would have interest in re-releasing them themselves for the Evercade.

 

I write and ‘opinionate’ as a ‘mere’ user.

Edited by Giles N
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So the NES mini, which I believe is considered a success contained the following games:

 

Balloon Fight,

Bubble Bobble,

Castlevania,

Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest,

Donkey Kong,

Donkey Kong Jr.,

Double Dragon II: The Revenge,

Dr. Mario,

Excitebike,

Final Fantasy,

Galaga,

Ghosts‘n’Goblins,

Gradius,

Ice Climber,

Kid Icarus,

Kirby’s Adventure,

Mario Bros.,

Mega Man 2,

Metroid,

Ninja Gaiden,

Pac-Man,

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream,

StarTropics,

Super C,

Super Mario Bros.,

Super Mario Bros. 2,

Super Mario Bros. 3,

Tecmo Bowl,

The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

 

Now, as a question to all on this thread; which Atari-home-console games could be found to have a line-up of similar categories/game-styles etc.  

 

Please mention/suggest 30 - 40 games from Atari-home-consoles to ‘match’ it as a challenge!

 

Anyone?

Edited by Giles N
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5 hours ago, Giles N said:

So the NES mini, which I believe is considered a success contained the following games:

 

Balloon Fight,

Bubble Bobble,

Castlevania,

Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest,

Donkey Kong,

Donkey Kong Jr.,

Double Dragon II: The Revenge,

Dr. Mario,

Excitebike,

Final Fantasy,

Galaga,

Ghosts‘n’Goblins,

Gradius,

Ice Climber,

Kid Icarus,

Kirby’s Adventure,

Mario Bros.,

Mega Man 2,

Metroid,

Ninja Gaiden,

Pac-Man,

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream,

StarTropics,

Super C,

Super Mario Bros.,

Super Mario Bros. 2,

Super Mario Bros. 3,

Tecmo Bowl,

The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

 

Now, as a question to all on this thread; which Atari-home-console games could be found to have a line-up of similar categories/game-styles etc.  

 

Please mention/suggest 30 - 40 games from Atari-home-consoles to ‘match’ it as a challenge!

 

Anyone?

So, the Mini-NES which was a success, had Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Galaga and Pac-Man.

 

The Atari 7800 have all these with the exception of Pac-Man where the 7800 has the more advanced Ms.Pac Man.

 

Now, so if a Atari-MINI was to be produced, these games could be there, and then just add 35 other cool games.

 

For example:

 

Robotron 2084

Rampage

Double Dragon

Xevious

Commando

Ikari Warriors

Kung Fu Master

Pole Position 2

 

and perhaps somewhat less iconic, but still Arcade-ports:

 

Food Fight

Joust

Centipede

Choplifter

Dig Dug

Xenophobe 

 

etc

 

These were big (!) titles for that generation.

 

And are generally remembered today among gamers with some decades behind them.

 

And if Nintendo have their own specials, well so do the 7800:

 

Ninja Golf

Motor Psycho

Fatal Run

Scrapyard Dog

Tank Command

Alien Brigade

Planet Smashers

Dark Chambers

BallBlazer

BasketBrawl

Desert Falcon

 

And solid home-computer ports:

 

Impossible Mission (PAL/European version).

Tower Tumbler

 

And of course top-titles from 2600 and 5200 could also be included.

 

5200:

 

Pac Man 

Pole Position 

Mr Dos Castle

H.E.R.O

Pitfall

Pitfall 2

Pengo 

Star Wars Arcade

Buck Rogers

 

And from the 2600:

 

Tunnel Runner 

Battlezone 

Jr.Pac Man 

River Raid 2

Empire Strikes Back

Spider Fighter

 

 

This ^ would have been an awesome Atari-MINI, in my (dreamy) opinion...

 

Edited by Giles N
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Midnight Mutants

Commando

are two of my favorites on the system and a must have for a 7800 selection, but the 7800 library is so small that I'd really like to see all its games in a collection / on a Flashback.  I realize some ridiculous licensing issues for 30-year-old games would prevail, but if the game selection didn't include at least "most" of the library, it wouldn't really grab my interest... (I don't think, but who knows. I've bought stuff I thought I wouldn't care for before).

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7800 Asteroids is still the best version outside of the arcade for me. 

Centipede and Joust are rock solid but with a handheld the 2 player version of Joust wouldn't be applicable.

Food Fight

Ms Pacman (licencing wrangling needed - Pacman Collection would be the ultimate though).

 

Honestly if that's all it had I'd be happy enough to purchase it.

 

It could be filled out with some of the better 1 player 2600 games...

 

 

 

 

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I agree with most people's lists of the greatest and rarest...

 

I'd probably make sure to also include Asteroids and Centipede in there, and (although they're very unlikely) for Homebrews; Baby Pac-Man, Rikki & Vikki, and Armor Attack II (which nobody mentions, but I really like).

 

 

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15 hours ago, KevinMos3 said:

Midnight Mutants

Commando

are two of my favorites on the system and a must have for a 7800 selection, but the 7800 library is so small that I'd really like to see all its games in a collection / on a Flashback.  I realize some ridiculous licensing issues for 30-year-old games would prevail, but if the game selection didn't include at least "most" of the library, it wouldn't really grab my interest... (I don't think, but who knows. I've bought stuff I thought I wouldn't care for before).

Yeah these license-issues do seem to get in the way of what actually would get people to go buy things... 

Perhaps Atari should buy the licenses & ownership for all the 5200 and 7800 releases once and for all, so they´d be free to use these titles in any way they wanted in the future...

Could be an idea if they want to be remembered alongside Sega and Nintendos retro-stuff 


Do you think Double Dragon (7800) should be included on a Flashback System?

Edited by Giles N
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What resolution does this output to a tv? What the game ran at originally, or is it converted by the emulator to 480i?

 

Was bored and connected it to a HDTV I'm using as a PC monitor, and was pleasantly surprised how nice my 1st run Atari Flashback Portable looked. Have weird discoloration when using it on my Trinitron and so always thought something was messed up with the tv out port on the handheld (I even tried a second video out cable back in 2016 thinking it was the cable). But it's fine here which is odd since other composite sources display perfectly normal on my CRT (including other AtGames Flashback systems). And while it's composite and you can clearly see color bleeding and such, my tv isn't murdering the signal like I was expecting and it wasn't at all unpleasant to look at. 

 

Has me considering digging out my Atari Flashback 2 that is stored away and keeping it connected to this tv full time, but that doesn't alter the resolution of each game like I'm thinking this handheld probably does. So it may not play nice with the oddball screen resolutions of 2600 games.

Edited by Atariboy
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Sorry if I missed this (I swear, I did a search on the forum), but the newer Flashback Portables...how's the sound? I've found that on my 2016 version, there are some games I just cannot stand playing because of the lower key of the sound; my ears are very fine-tuned, so if something's off, it really throws me for a loop. (That's why sometimes when I hear, say, a song performed in a key other than what I'm used to, I literally cannot recognize it right away.)

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12 hours ago, Spectreman said:

The chicken is not send back when hit by cars. The portable flashback hardware has issues with some games. Later it was posted here a fixed .bin that works.

I just checked and my ROM pack from 12/6/17, it does have the Freeway (Portable) version ROM in it (from 1/13/17) and also the Freeway (afp2player) ROM where the 2nd player uses the Select and Reset keys to move, Color selects the game variation, and first player's trigger starts the game (from 1/14/17).

image.thumb.png.660837e39d2a568b36afb98d355b3d5b.png

Edited by Arenafoot
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