Thomas Jentzsch Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Sounds like the cart port doesn't even detect that a cart has been inserted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorfcadet Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Sounds like the cart port doesn't even detect that a cart has been inserted. That is what I think too, but that is strange for those two homebrews and 6 of my text label carts. The text label carts do have an odd configuration where the teeth connect to the system; maybe this is the problem? The homebrews I dont get; I mean I understand they dont work, but those dont even get read by the system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Im sure Slot Machine would run if I put it on the sd, but the machine pretends the cart isnt there. Sounds like the cart port doesn't even detect that a cart has been inserted. Yeah it doesn't seem to trigger as cart detected, and I'm going to guess that it's because (like Air Sea battle which also does the same thing) the cart PCB edge is missing a contact... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reallybrett Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Was super excited that my Retron 77 arrived in the mail today. Was a good boy and did all my chores first so I could tear in to that sweat nostalgic package and play some Atari games. Hooked it up and things were going great, even one of my homebrew games worked (Pac Man 4k). Turned the system off, got a drink, used the bathroom, came back and was ready for round two. Tried out the home brew Caverns of Mars, started up good, got in to the game, could not fire a shot. Reset same issue. New controller same deal. Now I am downloading the SD image to reflash my card as it is likely a file is corrupt. Hyperkin -- I want to LOVE this thing. I want to show it off to friends and replace my Atari 2600 Jr BUT I didn't even get more than an hour of gameplay before this issue arose. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+xucaen Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I just tried out my Retron 77. First thing I did was copy Stella 3.9.3 onto the SD card. For me, hot swapping cartridges doesn't seem to work right. When I hot swap, the fire button stops working and the game seems glitchy. If I power off and back on the cart loads fine and fire button works. I played Astroblast and the paddle seemed a little jittery (I have a set of paddles from Best Electronics with the new "super pots" or whatever they're called.) I tried my Kaboom cart and it seemed to play fine but again there was some jitter in the paddles. And while I didn't break my joystick yet I can tell it is fragile. While I showed some restraint tonight, I know eventually I'll push too hard and snap it... Anyways, that's my preliminary play test. I think with a new joystick, and updates to Stella it will work great! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+xucaen Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Now I am downloading the SD image to reflash my card as it is likely a file is corrupt. I can't seem to find the link to that. Where can I get it? I am assuming they removed the rom limit already... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Everybody wants to love this console. Because Atari. Because cartridges. Because nostalgia. That's fine. But I think we need to uphold a greater standard. And there's different ways to do cartridges. Get a bunch of NFC dots and put them on your cartridges. Then when you "plug in" the cartridge, no ' electrical contact needed, the console looks up the code and loads the appropriate ROM from its own internal database. Imagine the enormous reliability you'd gain! And you'd keep your wall of carts too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akito01 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I got my Retron 77 today, and it's been a pretty solid experience so far. Most of my carts seem to work (even if it takes a few tries and some cleaning to do so in some cases). Being a ROM-dumper, I thought it might get in the way of the experience. When I hooked it up, I put in Space Invaders and turned it on and it basically played right away - there was no UI to deal with at all, it was pretty plug and play. I'm sure the compatibility issues will be resolved in time. My only main complaint is that the paddle sensitivity must be set very high. I have a pair of the newer paddles made by ATGames, and they're typically very stable, but on the Retron 77 there is some very serious jitter going on. If there were some way to adjust sensitivity on the paddles, that would be ideal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 A proper experience would be to put the cartridge in and have it work without any cleaning or fiddling of any kind. Or worries about compatibility. Just like in the old days. Same should go for any controller that worked on the original console. If gamers today are content to live with a 70'ish percent success rate for getting games to work, so be it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I'm going to quote myself here from the other thread as I quite disagree (re: 'completely broken out of the box') . Also if it's not meant as serious commentary yet you realize that 'first impressions are everything' - you must realize that making a video that might give others their first impression... I agree with you, and I'm afraid that stuff like the above ^ is not going to help here... The truth hurts sometimes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Everybody wants to love this console. Because Atari. Because cartridges. Because nostalgia. That's fine. But I think we need to uphold a greater standard. And there's different ways to do cartridges. Get a bunch of NFC dots and put them on your cartridges. Then when you "plug in" the cartridge, no ' electrical contact needed, the console looks up the code and loads the appropriate ROM from its own internal database. Imagine the enormous reliability you'd gain! And you'd keep your wall of carts too. NFC dots? How about an FPGA player that bit bangs the cartridge and controller ports in realtime... The Atari walkman exists, even if it's just a prototype. RetroUSB AVS and Analogue Super NT exist and are available, and rumor mill has it Kevtris is working on a new Analogue console, most likely a Sega. And after that? What's the fourth best selling console pre 3d? Hmmm, could it be Atari 2600? But emulation dumpers like Retron5, 77, Rfreak, and whatever else, are literally putting the cart before the horse. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Near Field Communication dots. Like RF tags that have 5cm range and no more. They're tiny stickers that are with a circuit, printed by the thousands for a like a coupla bucks. --- It goes back to what I said earlier about if you're playing with cartridges you should be playing them in realtime on hardware that access them in the same manner as the hardware that was built in the 1970's does. That means bits and bytes and address lines shuttling the "game program" to the console as you play. FPGA recreations/simulations do that. Dumping is for the dumps. In fact, dumping makes Software Emulation look bad even. If you're going to run a software emulator. It should be run on absolutely nothing less than a mid-range NUC costing about $600. Not this AllWinner crap saddled with a simplistic dumper board. A dumper board that does nothing except create exceptions as to what can be played. --- I'm still firmly in the Software Emulation camp. For the old standby reasons of reliability, versatility, and convenience. It's been about 5 or 6 years now since I've had to effect any sort of repair to any of my emulation hardware. Or even clean a cart. So I really really dig that reliability. I do look at and experiment with the settings from time to time, but mostly out of curiosity and trying new options. Not out of necessity to get playing. Sometimes it can be fun. --- I only know enough about the Crispy Walkman through what I read here in message forums. I don't like the vintage WalkMan formfactor. If it's a game console it should look like a game console. I want clarity and definition on my physical controls. I want them to represent what their function is. Much like the original VCS console's properly labeled switches do. The WalkMan formfactor also raises questions about whether non-standard sized carts will fit. So there's that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jstick Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 rumor mill has it Kevtris is working on a new Analogue console, most likely a Sega. And after that? What's the fourth best selling console pre 3d? Hmmm, could it be Atari 2600? Kevtris has already made a 2600 FPGA core for the NT, so it would just need a cart & controller interface added. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 A proper experience would be to put the cartridge in and have it work without any cleaning or fiddling of any kind. Or worries about compatibility. Just like in the old days. Same should go for any controller that worked on the original console. If gamers today are content to live with a 70'ish percent success rate for getting games to work, so be it. I think it's more based on hope that the issues can be fixed. Of course if they aren't and things stay as they are, no one is really going to use this thing as is on a regular basis going forward. Are they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laner Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Think I'll wait a while to see if the various issues get resolved before taking the plunge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 The problem for me is my general lack of interest in these novelty items that are cheap inferior versions of the original based on what seems to be the retail paradigm that cheap inferior junk is more profitable than a console that is actually superior to the original VCS. I hope that the $200 Collectorvision ColecoVision 2 console will be everything that is promised and then will sell well to inspire someone to build an equivalent $200 VCS console that has a fully compatible 2600 cart slot, sd compatibility with all 8bit Atari systems and keyboard port. It would also need some type of controller port system so you could use a 2600/7800 controller for the 5200 games or some solution I cant quite envision. In 2018, something like this, superior but faithful to the original, would be the only option I could see as a worthy modern 2600 replacement. Otherwise, just stick with the original rather than downgrade. SD Lynx and possibly Jag compatibility would be a bonus. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akito01 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I think it's more based on hope that the issues can be fixed. Of course if they aren't and things stay as they are, no one is really going to use this thing as is on a regular basis going forward. Are they? Why wouldn't I? It looks much better on my gaming TV than my 2600jr, and it works fine for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 That's quite a wishlist there and probably not really comparable to a 70 dollar thing for casuals meant to be sold at Target or whatever. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj_convoy Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Why wouldn't I? It looks much better on my gaming TV than my 2600jr, and it works fine for me. You do you. I get why some people are like "original equipment uber alles" but if the Retron works for you, it's your setup. The Retron 5 works in my setup, for instance, and once they iron some bugs out (or more likely someone here comes up with some good solutions) I suspect the 77 will as well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Truth in sarcasm: Pre-order RetroN 77. You ARE ARE THE BETA TESTER. Many new product issues can be firmware updated, unlike other systems. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 You do you. I get why some people are like "original equipment uber alles" but if the Retron works for you, it's your setup. The Retron 5 works in my setup, for instance, and once they iron some bugs out (or more likely someone here comes up with some good solutions) I suspect the 77 will as well. Yeah, this. People forget that these consoles are meant as cheap, fad, disposables. The fans usually hack them into something better over time. Look at all the work people did converting roms to the FBP. The SD card was only kinda useful when it launched, and now it's a daily driver for me. The Retron 77, in like 6 months, will be way better, given the great communication and the fact that they are releasing all the firmware to the public. That said, I get the annoyance. It feels like a beta at the moment, and it needed a couple of more months to cook before releasing but... I'm glad we finally got a thing that plays real carts on a modern tv. When it works, it's a thing of beauty. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 That's quite a wishlist there and probably not really comparable to a 70 dollar thing for casuals meant to be sold at Target or whatever. It is, but, like I said, it is pretty much what CollectorVision is doing for the ColecoVision, so why not for the Atari VCS? It would be more of an enthusiast market - like 2000 units sold instead of 200,000. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoJoe Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 It would be more of an enthusiast market - like 2000 units sold instead of 200,000. This is why. People aren't in business to make us happy, they are in business to make the most money possible 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 This is why. People aren't in business to make us happy, they are in business to make the most money possible This is why what? Like I said, someone IS doing it for the ColecoVision. Actually three companies are building consoles that should be superior to the original ColecoVision, which had no where near the market share Atari did, BITD. Edit: It might not make anyone rich, but it does not seem to be an absurd idea either. What seems absurd is buying multiple inferior systems because they are $50, so why not, rather than one superior system that is $200? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoJoe Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 This is why what? You asked why no equivalent VCS to what opcode and colectorvision are planning. The answer is in your post ... 2000 vs 200,000. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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