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A7800 - the Atari 7800 Emulator


Trebor

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Unfortunately not on mine.....

 

That is still the same BIOS file(s) missing issue, unfortunately.

 

It means either one of two likely scenarios:

 

1. The BIOS files are not stored properly. This can hopefully be remedied by reviewing the steps provided, along with the additional advice given by a few of us, in this thread, under a fresh new/clean folder/install.

 

The key being the "Atari7800_mergedbios.zip" file is unzipped (only), which provides a "bios" folder that contains a "a7800.zip" file.

 

That "bios" folder containing the "a7800.zip" file intact, should be stored as a subfolder to where A7800.exe resides. [i.E. C:\A7800\bios\a7800.zip]

 

post-18-0-53555400-1534379231.png

 

2. The typical steps outlined and advice are being followed, but Windows is not copying or denying access to the files. It could be a UAC or Admin folder issue.

 

*EDIT: NIKON beat me to the punch. :P :)

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I've only been at my computer for about 2 hours in the past 3 weeks but I gave this update a go. I tried the keypad support with my game and it didn't seem to do anything, it also didn't behave weirdly before so I don't know if I'm just missing something.

 

Somewhat unrelated I tried playing around with the POKEY but 7800BASIC wasn't detecting it. I did some digging and it seems the A78 is set to have the POKEY '@450'if I'm reading it right.

 

I'll continue to try a few things but any insights are welcome.

 

(Also A7800 is brilliant, thank you)

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I've only been at my computer for about 2 hours in the past 3 weeks but I gave this update a go. I tried the keypad support with my game and it didn't seem to do anything, it also didn't behave weirdly before so I don't know if I'm just missing something.

Trebor tested it out on your game (in addition to another test program) so I'm thinking you might be missing something.

 

This would be the usual way to switch controllers in a7800:

  • hit TAB and choose controller selection
  • select keypad for "joy2"
  • select "reset" from the items below the controller selection
If you did all that, maybe you need to remap the keys used for the keyboard controls? (main menu->console & controller inputs)

 

 

Somewhat unrelated I tried playing around with the POKEY but 7800BASIC wasn't detecting it. I did some digging and it seems the A78 is set to have the POKEY '@450'if I'm reading it right.

Not sure. I was able to run the "pokey" program from the 7800basic samples, and it seems to detect the pokey fine. Give that a shot. If it doesn't work, but you can get pokey music from other games with a7800, we can move this over to the 7800basic thread.

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Just tried it again with a fresh install, to be once again certain, and the keypad works without issue.

 

An important point to note, adding onto what RevEng mentioned about (re)mapping, the default keys for the keypad when selected as a controller...

 

post-18-0-95059100-1534609824.png

...are mapped to utilize the keyboard's keypad as default.

 

However, the inputs are in the order as they appear on the controller itself, not in the sequence as they follow on a typical keyboard:

 

post-18-0-20800300-1534609519.png

 

4, 5, 6 are the only keypad inputs with a corresponding 1:1 match:

 

post-18-0-47148900-1534619684.png

The top and bottom numbers inputs are swapped and last row is a mixed bag to correspond to the physical layout.

 

 

 

post-18-0-78081500-1534610201.pngpost-18-0-63557000-1534610206.png

 

 

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I just tried it again on the keypad test program I wrote a while ago and it's working fine with that, so I guess I've just introduced a bug somewhere in my current build of SotA.

I was experimenting with detecting more than one key at once back then and it works better in emulation than on hardware (on the video touch pad at least) because the physical wiring of the touchpad means every button on the same column that is read after the pressed button is detected as pressed. Hardware still allows for 3 simultaneous presses though. It's not exactly something that needs 'correcting' though, just thought it might be useful information to somebody down the line.

 

Also the POKEY sample program isn't detecting one but a Ballblazer ROM works so I guess I'll be taking this to the 7800BASIC thread.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi all having some trouble firing up the roms, i have downloaded everything RevEng has listed in the latest update but for some reason getting this error. Im using Win7 64Bit, havent found anyone with the same issue on a google search either.

 

Edit: Sorry i meant files uploaded by Trebor

 

post-30687-0-75376300-1541576405_thumb.png

Edited by Tony The 2600
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What ROM file(s) were utilized? Please be specific.

 

Off the bat, it seems it may be an unrecognized or bad ROM utilized.

 

Also, what steps have brought the emulator to that point? Again, please be specific.

I can PM the ROM file(s) utilized if you want but it doesn't seem to matter they all do the same thing. Even the ones from Atariage bring the same error.

 

Basically i have no issues booting in NTSC cool mode - standard console - orange, grey and black striped bios screen. I then hit TAB - load rom file - cartridge(cart) - roms - eg.Asteroids - Asteroids.bin or .a78. That's as far as i get, the screen goes black and looks like its about to boot the ROM but throws that error message.

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Basically i have no issues booting in NTSC cool mode - standard console - orange, grey and black striped bios screen. I then hit TAB - load rom file - cartridge(cart) - roms - eg.Asteroids - Asteroids.bin or .a78. That's as far as i get, the screen goes black and looks like its about to boot the ROM but throws that error message.

 

It's appearing to be definitely a ROM issue; *.bin files will not work.

It must be *.a78 file(s) containing correct header information.

See Trebors 7800 ROM PROPack for confirmed, good ROM files with proper headers.

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It's appearing to be definitely a ROM issue; *.bin files will not work.

It must be *.a78 file(s) containing correct header information.

See Trebors 7800 ROM PROPack for confirmed, good ROM files with proper headers.

Well that seems to have done the trick, i was even having issues with the roms from the Atariage site not sure why but your pack seems to work flawlessly. Thanks for the help

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  • 5 months later...

Hi guys,

Just trying to get this working on Ubuntu 18.04.02 x64. When I run the emulator I get the following error:

/home/mksmith/github/atari-dev-studio/out/bin/emulators/a7800/a7800.Linux.x86_64: error while loading shared libraries: libQt5Widgets.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Any thoughts? Would you suggest attempting to compile my own version to see if that might work?

 

I've got it working no problem on Windows. Also should I be able to take the Windows release and drop the Linux app into the base root folder (along with the Windows .exe)?

Edited by mksmith
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@RevEnv and @danwinslow

 

That made all the difference - now working!

 

If others come across this issue (I'm on Ubuntu 18.04.02 x64 [Hyper-V provided install]), I installed the following packages:

sudo apt-get install qt5-default
sudo apt install libsdl2-ttf-2.0
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  • 5 months later...

I just discovered A7800 - awesome emulator much better than the Retroarch core, very accurate, not seeing the visual issues I get from ProSystem at all!

 

But I have one problem, and I am not sure how to solve it.

 

I launch all my emulators from a variety of FE menus - Launchbox, Pegasus etc.

 

In all the emulators I use I can setup a hot key combo to quit back to the FE - either because the emulator lets me setup a quit controller button combo, I can setup an Xpadder profile for an emulator .exe that uses the joypad buttons to simulate keys to quit, or the FE has a quit function (like Launchbox).

 

But I cannot do that in A7800, it appears only the actual hardware ESC key quits! Xpadder cannot trigger it (or send any inputs to A7800 for that matter), nor can any of my FE menus. And I cannot assign a joypad key combo from inside A7800 as there is no access to the UI keys, just the controller inputs.

 

So I am kinda stumped - does anyone who uses this emulator have a  solution to this, I assume this issue also affects the standalone version of Mame, however I use the Retroarch Mame cores that respond to the Retroarch quit hot keys...

 

sTeVE

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6 hours ago, RevEng said:

Try using the "-keyboardprovider dinput" switch when you launch a7800 with the FE, and see if it makes a difference.

WOW - thank you SO much - that has worked perfectly!

 

I can now play Rorbotron to my heart's content (and using the L and R sticks on one controller to mimic 2 prolines)!!

 

sTeVE

 

P.S. One extra question to anyone using A7800 - I see a little horizontal distortion on vertical scrolling games (Xevious and Plutos). It affects a horizontal line across the 7800 display, starts at some random vertical position, and slowly moves down the screen and off only to reappear at the top a few seconds later. This artifact does no appear in RetroArch, just A7800?

 

 

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56 minutes ago, Jetboot Jack said:

...I see a little horizontal distortion on vertical scrolling games (Xevious and Plutos). It affects a horizontal line across the 7800 display, starts at some random vertical position, and slowly moves down the screen and off only to reappear at the top a few seconds later...

Try this first:

-triplebuffer

 

If that does not work, then try:

-notriplebuffer -waitvsync

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  • 5 months later...

Does anyone know how to save controller configuration in the A7800 emulator.   It seems everytime I start I have to reset all the controller configuration setting.  I have read the manual and cannot find any place that saves the controller configuration.  What am I missing?

 

Thanks in advance

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