+SpiceWare Posted January 3, 2018 Share Posted January 3, 2018 Heh. The two gray cords connect to the Atari. The other 4 ports (only 3 of them are connected in this picture) are for the joysticks :-) was thinking about my PS2's multi-tap adaptor, had forgotten you're using both 2600 joystick ports to implement this 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 After a good night of playtesting joust with my kids, I decided to try adding on another game, this time a combat/tank knockoff. Having a lot of the 4-player framework in place from joust makes for some pretty fast development.... Awesome! Maybe you could call this game "Tanks a Lot?" :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 If you are still looking for more ideas for small 4-player game ideas, maybe a Hungry, Hungry Hippos style of game could be fun? Unlike the board game, perhaps the hippos could turn their heads when trying to chomp the flying food. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Ugh, and tonight's further tests show some weird static/interference on the screen on my Jr when I use the PCB version of the adapter instead of my breadboarded version. Something's different between them. I need to scrounge up another Atari to test though. hello gauauu Any progress on the board design and game creation/modification? PGRE 2018 is fast approaching...I hope to play it again and take it home with me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted July 30, 2018 Author Share Posted July 30, 2018 hello gauauu Any progress on the board design and game creation/modification? PGRE 2018 is fast approaching...I hope to play it again and take it home with me Thanks for asking! Not a lot of progress right now -- I still haven't found a good solution for the weird flicker issues that it causes. I tried building a similar but slightly-different board design, to see if that would make a difference, but I get the same problem. Just this week I thought of a new idea to try, so hopefully if I get some time, I'll be able to test it out and see. So hopefully I'll be able to demo again at PRGE (not sure if I'll be there, but I'd like to!) but I'm fairly sure it won't be ready to purchase by then :-( But feel free to keep nagging me, I'm more motivated when I remember that people are interested! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzep Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 Sounds like a cool idea! As for 4-player games, how about a 4-player Surround/Light Cycle type game? With better resolution than the LEGO block thickness of Surround, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted August 10, 2018 Author Share Posted August 10, 2018 Sounds like a cool idea! As for 4-player games, how about a 4-player Surround/Light Cycle type game? With better resolution than the LEGO block thickness of Surround, of course. I've thought about that one, although I'm not sure I'm smart enough to come up with a way to do it with better horizontal resolution than surround did. And I think that the board would get too crowded too quickly with surround-sized walls and 4 players. But I appreciate the suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted August 22, 2018 Share Posted August 22, 2018 4 person Surround would be great, and if there are less than 4 people available then they can be auto-AI controlled. Intellivision's SNAFU is quite fun with 2-players and 2-AI bots, or even 1 against 3. Its AI is quite dumb, too, but still fun to play. Surround has a few additional modes that SNAFU doesn't have, but the SNAFU music is so good.Stell-A-Sketch is able to make really fine lines https://youtu.be/YMRfukA7JWg So maybe it is possible to make a 4-person Surround that has smaller lines than the original, but wider than Stell-A-Sketch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+McCallister Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 Does the rf interference happen just from the adapter being plugged in or is it something that happens with button presses? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 (edited) Does the rf interference happen just from the adapter being plugged in or is it something that happens with button presses? With button presses. I'm guessing the level change coming out of the multiplexer is somehow different enough from just a regular level-change from a joystick, that it's somehow doing something "bad". My current design that I'm testing involves turning off the adapter during the kernel, and that seems to be a big improvement. Maybe it's just hiding the issue (the RF interference still happens, but only during vblank so you can't see it?) We'll see. Edited November 5, 2018 by gauauu 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+McCallister Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 With button presses. I'm guessing the level change coming out of the multiplexer is somehow different enough from just a regular level-change from a joystick, that it's somehow doing something "bad". My current design that I'm testing involves turning off the adapter during the kernel, and that seems to be a big improvement. Maybe it's just hiding the issue (the RF interference still happens, but only during vblank so you can't see it?) We'll see. Interesting. Thanks for the answer. I asked because I have had this happen with a couple of third party controllers from back in the day. Push a button, a static pattern appears. Thought it might be somewhat useful info to know it has happened with original equipment, albeit 3rd party. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted November 29, 2018 Author Share Posted November 29, 2018 Interesting. Thanks for the answer. I asked because I have had this happen with a couple of third party controllers from back in the day. Push a button, a static pattern appears. Thought it might be somewhat useful info to know it has happened with original equipment, albeit 3rd party. Yeah, as far as I can tell, the Atari RF is super-sensitive about all the inputs. On one vader that I use for testing, the screen freaks out with static every time you pull the select or reset switches. But still, I don't want my device to be the cause of more problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted November 30, 2018 Author Share Posted November 30, 2018 Just FYI, I tested a new design today that got rid of all the RF interference! So I'm finally making progress again. Unfortunately, I had to remove support for the genesis extra buttons (for some reasons, the combination of them and the multiplexers really freaked the atari out). Next steps: rework the board into something that uses smaller/cheaper surface mount components to make it cheaper to produce in larger quantities. Until then, if anybody is interested in making a game that would support the adapter, I have a few prototypes available. PM me for details. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Novastar Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 I haven't idea why no one has replied to this thread. This is great news! I think we can all attest that, while it's too bad we can't have two button support, there are so many games that only need one button to be fun. Thanks so much for all your work. I am excited and I will have to start saving now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted December 5, 2018 Author Share Posted December 5, 2018 (edited) Well, the bad news is that after further testing last night, there's still a little bit of RF interference hanging around after all. I'll keep you posted :-( Edited December 5, 2018 by gauauu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 Well, the bad news is that after further testing last night, there's still a little bit of RF interference hanging around after all. I'll keep you posted :-( Are you using a simple 2-layer board, or you have an internal ground layer(s)? That should help reduce noise. Also, are you using shielded DB9 cables between the board and the console? If in a metal housing, then you can ground that, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 Are you using a simple 2-layer board, or you have an internal ground layer(s)? That should help reduce noise. Also, are you using shielded DB9 cables between the board and the console? If in a metal housing, then you can ground that, too. Hmm...Shielded DB9 cables won't be much help since the DB9 connector on the console isn't shielded, but it may help a little if the DB9 connector on the board is shielded. It is worth attempting if you haven't tried it already Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapitanClassic Posted April 18, 2020 Share Posted April 18, 2020 On 8/10/2018 at 7:14 AM, gauauu said: I've thought about that one, although I'm not sure I'm smart enough to come up with a way to do it with better horizontal resolution than surround did. And I think that the board would get too crowded too quickly with surround-sized walls and 4 players. But I appreciate the suggestions! Surround had a 40x20 block playfield, which is the same as the 40x20 block playfield in Bally Astrocades Checkmate, builtin surround game. http://www.bjars.com/source/Surround.asm We used to play to death the 4-player Checkmate game, I have no doubts that a 4-player surround game for VCS would be extremely fun and wouldn’t feel too crowded. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Now that the QT has been completed and nearly released, and virtual QT appears to be on the way for Stella, has there been any progress on on additional games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 (edited) 17 minutes ago, fdr4prez said: Now that the QT has been completed and nearly released, and virtual QT appears to be on the way for Stella, has there been any progress on on additional games? I have "QuadGames" -- a single game rom with 5 small simple 4-player games: joust, tanks, bomb defense, indy racing, and surround. It's not yet available on cartridge, but I'm sending out a rom to anyone who purchases the QuadTari. I will have this page available about it, but it's a bit out of date right now. With any luck I'll get it polished up and we'll make it available on cart from the AA store, but we'll see how that goes. Edited January 31, 2021 by gauauu 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 On 1/31/2021 at 9:53 PM, fdr4prez said: ... and virtual QT appears to be on the way for Stella, What do you mean? Stella supports the QuadTari (except for the selection bug in the Game setting dialog). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+fdr4prez Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 58 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: What do you mean? Stella supports the QuadTari (except for the selection bug in the Game setting dialog). I am just responding to what is says on the Bite the Chili site: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 I don't know this website and where they got their information from. Probably they are just outdated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gauauu Posted February 3, 2021 Author Share Posted February 3, 2021 Yeah, that's my product website for the QuadTari. I don't update it frequently enough, I'll edit that line. That said, does anyone know if the QT emulator support works properly in the Retron 77 currently? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 It should work if the ROM is auto-detected. Unfortunately the entry in the manual controller selection is missing, this will be fixed soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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