RetroN 77

[Zaltran]

Well out of 33 games only one did not work that I have tested so far. I had to clean the open faced carts of activision and such, but all the atari produced carts with the dust cover worked fine. below is a list of the ones I have played on the r77:

 

asteroids, basketball, air-sea battle, atlantis, berzerk, barn storming, bowling, boxing, breakout, carnival, frogs n flies, combat, centipede,circus atari, deadly duck, chopper command, commando raid, freeway, casino, cosmic ark, crackpots, defender, demons to diamonds, dig dug, dodge 'em, eggomania, e.t., football, donkey kong, dragonfire, fantastic voyage, dolphin, fishing derby.

 

the only one that did not work was decathlon, this one worked on my original atari but not on the r77.

[Jstick]

Am I the only one who wonders why they released the Retron 77 if it still had plenty of bugs in it?

 

 

Simple, they wanted to hit the ‘7/7’ release date. Marketing wins again

[Zonie]

Can someone please explain to me why 40 year old abs plastic in the original CX-40 joysticks is actually stronger and less brittle than Hyperkin newly manufactured abs plastic? It appears that 40 years of oxidation and uv exposure would have the opposite effect.

Because the stick itself (white part) is NOT ABS but Polyethylene, and is more flexible. If Hyperkin made the insert out of ABS, it was the wrong material.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Zonie

[SIO2]

So I got all my roms loaded onto micro SD cards (18 each) and I modified one of those Atari cart wallets to hold them all so now I just flip that open and .... Oh crap, oh no there they go - oh they are all over the floor. Stop - don't! Oh, the dog just ate the sd card with chase the chuckwagon on it. Nope, nope - it was the one with original pacman and E.T. on it. No worries then. Hope that doesn't upset his stomach.

[iesposta]

Youre forgetting the Flashback 2, Flashback 2+!
>>> It is a real Atari-on-a-Chip! <<<


The failure with adding your own cartridge connector is that manufacturing changed the circuit board.
As designed, it would play every cartridge. It must have been cheap enough to make a profit in 2000 and 2005.
All following Flashbacks through 2017 use emulation which must be more profitable for the company than making an Atari-on-a-Chip.

As it exists, the FB2 built-in chip WILL play every released original Atari ROM.
Someone just need to figure out how to replace the daughter chip containing the built-in games.
Ive asked the designer, and never got a reply, so dont go there!
Or find a spot to tap the A12 line it never changes low/high resulting in bankswitching real cart failures.
This Atari-on-a-Chip works on the the built in games such as Millipede which fail as real carts.

Only remaining question is: Does the FB2 handle illegal opcodes?
No original release should be using those, but homebrew will use them in order to push the system.

The FB2 even plays Mappy from Harmony Cart, failing only on samples/3-channel music which is odd as the built-in Quadrun does play its speech sample.
Mappy, Draconian, Super Cobra, and Scramble all use current, state-of-the-art bankswitching and coprocessor.

So now we can argue what is cheaper. Atari-on-a-Chip OR cart dumping/emulation OR FPGA.

Edited July 14, 2018 by iesposta

[Shipwreck]

I assume that shutdown is just turning it off, like a real console. It is impossible to 'brick' the OS or filesystem itself, since it is never saved to the SD card (it is all in RAM). The only thing that can possibly be corrupted is things that are written to the SD card. And the only thing doing that was Stella config file. Now that that issue is taken care of, nothing should be adversely affected by just turning the system off.

Any chance of fixing the ROM limit?

[Keatah]

Simple, they wanted to hit the ‘7/7’ release date. Marketing wins again

 

Goes to show you how stupid and dumb (short sighted too) marketing people are. Wouldn't the anniversary of the original console be a better release date? There's your extra months for testing.

 

And 7/7 so fucking what..?? It's come and gone and the product isn't being shown in the best of light. We're talking about it! Granted I'll give them that, but we're also talking about many faults and bugs too! Especially lame emulation.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The failure with adding your own cartridge connector is that manufacturing changed the circuit board.

IIRC they also "optimized" the hardware and removed HMOVE blanks. Which is nice for some games, but bad for games utilizing those blanks to hide sprites (e.g River Raid).

 

Or was that another version?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Any chance of fixing the ROM limit?

The ROM limit is not Stella's fault so it cannot be fixed by Stella. Hyperkin or a third party has to fix that.

[sweetf2a]

Id really been tempted by this R77, it sounded great and id have preordered it if they shipped to the UK but now im thinking id be better off buying Atari joystick adaptors for my Pi and playing either on that or my 7800.

That said a couple of joystick adaptors isnt far off the price of a R77.

Edited July 14, 2018 by sweetf2a

[Keatah]

Id really been tempted by this R77, it sounded great and id have preordered it if they shipped to the UK but now im thinking id be better off buying Atari joystick adaptors for my Pi and playing either on that or my 7800.

That said a couple of joystick adaptors isnt far off the price of a R77.

 

Yes something like that. The advantage of the Pi is that you will get emulation as it was intended. Not modified and limited to fit the requirements of a commercial product - which includes everything from cost-cutting, artificially induced time and schedule constraints, a simplified to the point of being useless user interface, and more.

[Keatah]

So I got all my roms loaded onto micro SD cards (18 each) and I modified one of those Atari cart wallets to hold them all so now I just flip that open and .... Oh crap, oh no there they go - oh they are all over the floor. Stop - don't! Oh, the dog just ate the sd card with chase the chuckwagon on it. Nope, nope - it was the one with original pacman and E.T. on it. No worries then. Hope that doesn't upset his stomach.

 

Choice material bro. Dog approved!

[sweetf2a]

 

Yes something like that. The advantage of the Pi is that you will get emulation as it was intended. Not modified and limited to fit the requirements of a commercial product - which includes everything from cost-cutting, artificially induced time and schedule constraints, a simplified to the point of being useless user interface, and more.

Shame those joystick adaptors are so expensive though... any recommendations or do I have to bite the bullet and pay $35 for the 2600 D9?

[mr_me]

Shame those joystick adaptors are so expensive though... any recommendations or do I have to bite the bullet and pay $35 for the 2600 D9?

It is possible to connect Atari joysticks (and sega/nintendo gamepads) directly to the raspberry pi gpio pins. There is a driver for it but sadly it doesn't support paddles.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/GPIO-Modules#db9_gpio_rpi

 

Or just use a standard usb game controller. Most game controllers designed for PC should work with the Rsspberry Pi.

 

 

Goes to show you how stupid and dumb (short sighted too) marketing people are. Wouldn't the anniversary of the original console be a better release date? There's your extra months for testing.

 

And 7/7 so fucking what..?? It's come and gone and the product isn't being shown in the best of light. We're talking about it! Granted I'll give them that, but we're also talking about many faults and bugs too! Especially lame emulation.

What's wrong with the emulation. What's the disadvantage of Stella 3.x vs Stella 5.x?

 

I'm not sure extending the release date would have made much difference. They may not have the know how to create a flexible rom dumper. This is not easy, it would have to somehow automatically figure out what the cartridge is before it can dump the rom. And if a new cartridge technology comes out in the future, it wouldn't be aware of it. It's one of the disadvantages of software emulatiom vs fpga emulation. They really should have known about the losing settings problem.

Edited July 14, 2018 by mr_me

[SIO2]

Pi is a lot more versatile but the controller thing is an issue for emulators in general. The way I usually choose an emulator is try it with the controller I want to use and if it doesn't work - download another one until I find one that works with my controller. Sad thing is it seems that the ones that are best with controllers only run like 70% of the games. The ones that emulate games well only work with a few controllers. At least that is my experience.

 

I considered getting an adapter but I have buckets of those already that I never use (USB to Playstation, USB to NES, USB to Genesis, USB to Atari) because they don't work with everything.

 

So, Retron 77 seemed like the way to go for an emulator. Neat package, easy setup, used my Atari controllers. With the bug fix to the Stella config file, I am liking it. If they just fix the dumper and or lift the rom limit I will like it even more. If ever they get a newer Stella is icing on the cake.

[sweetf2a]

It is possible to connect Atari joysticks (and sega/nintendo gamepads) directly to the raspberry pi gpio pins. There is a driver for it but sadly it doesn't support paddles.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/GPIO-Modules#db9_gpio_rpi

 

Or just use a standard usb game controller. Most game controllers designed for PC should work with the Rsspberry Pi.

 

Thanks but sounds complicated!

 

Yeah ive got USB game controllers, maybe ill stick to those whilst waiting to see if the R77 gets fixed or the FB9 is worth buying later in the year.

Edited July 14, 2018 by sweetf2a

[Shipwreck]

The ROM limit is not Stella's fault so it cannot be fixed by Stella. Hyperkin or a third party has to fix that.

 

Ok, thanks.

 

I didn't know if downloaded a later fix would undo the fix that he released yesterday.

[Keatah]

What's wrong with the emulation. What's the disadvantage of Stella 3.x vs Stella 5.x?

I'm not sure extending the release date would have made much difference. They may not have the know how to create a flexible rom dumper. This is not easy, it would have to somehow automatically figure out what the cartridge is before it can dump the rom. And if a new cartridge technology comes out in the future, it wouldn't be aware of it. It's one of the disadvantages of software emulatiom vs fpga emulation. They really should have known about the losing settings problem.

 

It isn't so much a matter of wrong things. But the added features and subtle changes throughout the whole core. Check the changelogs on github. That's what makes 5.x more appealing. 5.x will handle the more recent titles like SuperCobra and Mappy and Draconian, and likely others - which sort of plays into needing updates with new tech.

 

I agree that SE will often need updates if new cart tech comes out. But on the other hand. If a cart "plays games" with the signals, like with bus-stuffing, I doubt the FPGA would handle it correctly.

 

Seems like every time a new ARM game is out, the emu needs updating.

 

Pi is a lot more versatile but the controller thing is an issue for emulators in general.

 

So, Retron 77 seemed like the way to go for an emulator. Neat package, easy setup, used my Atari controllers. With the bug fix to the Stella config file, I am liking it. If they just fix the dumper and or lift the rom limit I will like it even more. If ever they get a newer Stella is icing on the cake.

 

Controllers are always a tricky thing to setup. And a single convenient package is indeed a big plus.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Keatah

[Keatah]

Ok, thanks.

 

I didn't know if downloaded a later fix would undo the fix that he released yesterday.

 

It might. Hyperkin would need to incorporate those fixes in whatever they release as well.

[mr_me]

Thanks but sounds complicated!

 

Yeah ive got USB game controllers, maybe ill stick to those whilst waiting to see if the R77 gets fixed or the FB9 is worth buying later in the year.

If you have a raspberry pi running stella, what advantage would a FB9 give you? I'm assuming you've already paid for the games many times over.

 

 

...

 

I agree that SE will often need updates if new cart tech comes out. But on the other hand. If a cart "plays games" with the signals, like with bus-stuffing, I doubt the FPGA would handle it correctly.

...

See this regarding fpga emulation and bus stuffing.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/279990-first-review-of-retron-77/?p=4056707

[MrBeefy]

If you have a raspberry pi running stella, what advantage would a FB9 give you? I'm assuming you've already paid for the games many times over.

 

See this regarding fpga emulation and bus stuffing.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/279990-first-review-of-retron-77/?p=4056707

Ability to use paddles for me. It is the one thing about the pi I don't like. There may be an option I can use and don't know about it.

 

I have my pi as a handheld predominantly anymore and was playing atari yesterday while waiting for a movie to start. It really is a nice piece of hardware.

[mr_me]

Ability to use paddles for me. It is the one thing about the pi I don't like. There may be an option I can use and don't know about it.

 

I have my pi as a handheld predominantly anymore and was playing atari yesterday while waiting for a movie to start. It really is a nice piece of hardware.

Here's a couple of solutions for original Atari paddle USB adapters. Do they not work on the Raspberry Pi?

http://www.2600-daptor.com/

https://www.retronicdesign.com/en/

[AtariLeaf]

I've thought about doing the pi thing but if there's no paddles that's a deal breaker, it's a deal breaker on the Retron 77 right now too judging by Kosmic Stardusts video. Any modern clone or emulation solution MUST have legacy paddle support for me to get on board.

[+sramirez2008]

Here's a couple of solutions for original Atari paddle USB adapters. Do they not work on the Raspberry Pi?

http://www.2600-daptor.com/

https://www.retronicdesign.com/en/

 

I use a 2600-daptor II with my Pi 3B+. It works with paddles, trak-balls and Starplex controller. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/275619-the-raspberry-pi-and-retropie-discussion-thread/?p=3996596

[Keatah]

If you have a raspberry pi running stella, what advantage would a FB9 give you? I'm assuming you've already paid for the games many times over.

 

See this regarding fpga emulation and bus stuffing.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/279990-first-review-of-retron-77/?p=4056707

 

Yes yes. I re-read the posting. It does handle bus-stuffing.