ColecoJoe Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Well i updated my card and now for some reason i have huge bars on the top and bottom of my TV Screen when its plays games. For a Minute i thought it was my TV. But it dose the same thing on every TV in my house. I tried changing my Stella setting but nothing works. That looks correct to me ... well at least how I would prefer to see it on a HDTV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 That looks correct to me ... well at least how I would prefer to see it on a HDTV. I'll have to check when I get home, but I'm positive that's how my TV displays it as well. I prefer the smaller 4:3 perspective, looks amazing in HD. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Looks like it's in 4:3 mode; press the button to switch it to 16:9 and have it fill the screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoJoe Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I'll have to check when I get home, but I'm positive that's how my TV displays it as well. I prefer the smaller 4:3 perspective, looks amazing in HD. Yeah I'm not even sure why that 16:9 button is there 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Yeah I'm not even sure why that 16:9 button is there Well, the question from the user as to why it's not filling the screen is the answer. Many people using 16:9 TVs want the image to fill the whole screen, even if it's technically incorrect compared to real hardware. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I really like everything about the new joysticks except the reliability! I received an e-mail reply from Hyperkin Service about my broken RetroN 77 joystick. They offer to first: send a CirKa "A77" Premium Joystick Controller immediately... >>Decline! The CirKa A77 breaks very easily as it also uses the same kind of plastic in the stick!<< … or the second option: reply with my name, address, contact information, "so I can get on the replacement "list" ", and then the e-mail says to contact Service again at the end of October. I thought that was quite a strange way to handle this. Anyone else told the same thing? I've heard others reporting very different replies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SqueezeBoxer77 Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 All i know is before i flash the new image it took up the entire screen. I should have made a back up. Anyways Im not going worry about it. Ill just wait for a firmware update or something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoJoe Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Well, the question from the user as to why it's not filling the screen is the answer. Many people using 16:9 TVs want the image to fill the whole screen, even if it's technically incorrect compared to real hardware. Yeah I know but for Atari games that's just silly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoJoe Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 All i know is before i flash the new image it took up the entire screen. I should have made a back up. Anyways Im not going worry about it. Ill just wait for a firmware update or something Looks like you just have to switch it to 16:9 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Yeah I know but for Atari games that's just silly Not really. I have used Stella on my computer and hooke it up to my TV. I actually prefer it in HD full screen. To each their own I guess. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 All i know is before i flash the new image it took up the entire screen. I should have made a back up. Anyways Im not going worry about it. Ill just wait for a firmware update or something Hmm, now I see what you mean. You're the person that mentioned about an 'overscan' issue a few pages back. This is not a 4:3 vs. 16:9 mode; I see you are already using 16:9. This must be a change in how Stella 3.9.3 vs 3.7.5 handles fullscreen mode. I'm pretty sure this won't be fixed for Stella 3. In fact, this is something that has already been fixed in the very latest versions of Stella (version 5.0 and up), so the best course of action will be to get that running on this device. However, I can't say when (or who) will do it, but it's likely to happen eventually. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarifan88 Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I do see my Flashback uses the 4:3 mode so I guess they both are useable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swami Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 All i know is before i flash the new image it took up the entire screen. I should have made a back up. Anyways Im not going worry about it. Ill just wait for a firmware update or something Not to be trivial, but rather practical, is there a way to change your TV settings to fill the screen? I know this did not cause it, but might fix it in the gap time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I just bought a 64GB card to use, so I do not mess with the original card. If I do these steps mentioned by someone else, this will not work? It must be a 128GB card? If I format the card and THEN do these steps, will it work? Steps: 1. Download an unzip the .img file above. 2. I use etcher from https://etcher.io/ 3. Install etcher, run it, and select the.img file you downloaded for the first option. 4. Connect the Retron 77 SD card to your card reader, and select as the second option 5. Burn the file to your SD card. If all went well, you should get a confirmation notice 6. Copy your desired ROM files over to the 'Games' folder on the SD card 7. Play Atari. Note that there are no page transition animations. It works, but the UI is still basic. This will allow you to play 99% of the games the current Retron 77 cart dumper will not read. 128MB Well, I went and exchanged it for a 128GB card. I don't wanna use the existing one for now - so I have a way to go back to at least what I had before, in case I screw something up. All this is new to me. I don't wanna turn my Retcon into a brick if I screw something up on the original card. When I get home, I will try those steps with the new card and see what happens. Thanks 128Gb... You are about 3 orders of magnitude too large. The card that came with the Hyperkin was 128 Megabytes. :roll: The Hyperkin card used was probably formatted as FAT. If you want to keep the FAT partition, the biggest size card you can use is 4Gb. I don't know whether the Retron77 supports SDHC or SDXC cards or FAT32 file system. You can waste your money on a card that is orders of magnitude to big if you want. The entire library of Atari ROMs is about 30-something megabytes in size, but takes up a little more space in practice since the file sizes themselves (many games are only 2-4kb, with the largest back in the day commercial games being rarely bigger than 16kb) are smaller than the block size in most circumstances. Return your oversized card or keep it for use in another device. It would make a great external storage for an Android or Apple iOS device. The smallest size SD card you can buy currently at brick and mortar stores is 4Gb as standard SD (2Gb and smaller) are being phased out. The cards Hyperkin used are likely cheap overstock. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shipwreck Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 (edited) Thanks for the help. I have an extra, old 2 GB card. So, how do I make this work with the 2GB card? Do the steps up above after I format? Or, some other step to make the 2 GB card work in the Retron? Edited July 16, 2018 by Shipwreck 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I really like everything about the new joysticks except the reliability! I received an e-mail reply from Hyperkin Service about my broken RetroN 77 joystick. They offer to first: send a CirKa "A77" Premium Joystick Controller immediately... >>Decline! The CirKa A77 breaks very easily as it also uses the same kind of plastic in the stick!<< … or the second option: reply with my name, address, contact information, "so I can get on the replacement "list" ", and then the e-mail says to contact Service again at the end of October. I thought that was quite a strange way to handle this. Anyone else told the same thing? I've heard others reporting very different replies! No thanks, I'll keep the Retron77 controller as a shelf queen and use my own over-engineered arcade sticks. Again, sorry to disappoint my fans, no reposted pics... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 Thanks for the help. I have an extra, old 2 GB card. So, how do I make this work with the 2GB card? Do the steps up above after I format? Or, some other step to make the 2 GB card work in the Retron? I'm not entirely sure the exact process, but it is possible to "expand" the FAT partition to occupy the remainder of unused space on the card. It would be best to backup the files on the FAT partition before expanding in case of error. Do not use the official SD formatter utility as it will overwrite the boot partition. I've used it before to restore the listed capacity on Pi-formatted cards. I forget the software I used to burn Pi images, but it had the option to expand the image if the current SD card was bigger than the source image. I would assume other imaging software would have similar abilities. Please note you cannot build a FAT16 directory larger than 4Gb. Typically 2Gb and under cards use FAT and 4Gb and larger (up to 32Gb) use FAT32. SDXC cards (64Gb and above) come preformatted as ExFAT, but you can use Windows command line or third party formatters to reformat it as FAT32. Most non-commercial or legacy devices do not support ExFAT file system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shipwreck Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I'm not entirely sure the exact process, but it is possible to "expand" the FAT partition to occupy the remainder of unused space on the card. It would be best to backup the files on the FAT partition before expanding in case of error. Do not use the official SD formatter utility as it will overwrite the boot partition. I've used it before to restore the listed capacity on Pi-formatted cards. I forget the software I used to burn Pi images, but it had the option to expand the image if the current SD card was bigger than the source image. I would assume other imaging software would have similar abilities. Please note you cannot build a FAT16 directory larger than 4Gb. Typically 2Gb and under cards use FAT and 4Gb and larger (up to 32Gb) use FAT32. SDXC cards (64Gb and above) come preformatted as ExFAT, but you can use Windows command line or third party formatters to reformat it as FAT32. Most non-commercial or legacy devices do not support ExFAT file system. OK - looks like I will use the included factory card. So, IF I do that - THEN I reform at it, then do those steps, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaltran Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 OK - looks like I will use the included factory card. So, IF I do that - THEN I reform at it, then do those steps, right? My recommendation is to use a different sd card so if you mess it up then you still have the original to use in the retron 77, you can write the image to the sd card without the step to format it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shipwreck Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 My recommendation is to use a different sd card so if you mess it up then you still have the original to use in the retron 77, you can write the image to the sd card without the step to format it. Well, I will try to image the 2 gb card I have like the other guy did. Otherwise I needa find a 128 mb card someplace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaltran Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 (edited) Well, I will try to image the 2 gb card I have like the other guy did. Otherwise I needa find a 128 mb card someplace the spare 2gb i had worked for me. Edited July 17, 2018 by Zaltran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shipwreck Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 the spare 2gb i had worked for me. Care to explain step by step? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaltran Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 Care to explain step by step? What I used is a program called Win32DiskImager. a very simple interface. I ran it as administrator, selected the image, selected the sd card and clicked write. That's about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shipwreck Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 (edited) What I used is a program called Win32DiskImager. a very simple interface. I ran it as administrator, selected the image, selected the sd card and clicked write. That's about it. Is that free? Did you basically image the 2gb card as a 128mb card? Edited July 17, 2018 by Shipwreck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 17, 2018 Share Posted July 17, 2018 Is that free? Did you basically image the 2gb card as a 128mb card? The disk image can be smaller than the storage medium, but cannot be larger than the storage medium. It is possible to modify the image by expanding the FAT partition to use the remaining space on the storage, but I don't know of any utilities offhand that do this. Expanding the FAT partition will increase the sector size so data present on the disc will have to be relocated. This should not affect the hidden boot partition. Sorry I cannot be of more help. Even without expanding the image, 70+ megabytes should be plenty for any Atari ROMs you want to add to the card. They aren't very large files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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