RetroN 77 Community Build Image

[Krathoon]

Does it matter if your games folder starts with a capital letter?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

 Detailed info about the crashes/freezes can be found here.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

On 9/9/2022 at 10:31 PM, Krathoon said:

Does it matter if your games folder starts with a capital letter?

Yes, the Linux file system is case sensitive (unlike Windows).

[Krathoon]

7 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Yes, the Linux file system is case sensitive (unlike Windows).

I may have to re-image the sd card. Windows will not let me rename the folder.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 hours ago, Krathoon said:

I may have to re-image the sd card. Windows will not let me rename the folder.

You could try to rename it into something completely different first and then into the correct name. Or, after the first step, create a new folder with the correct name.

Edited September 11, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Krathoon]

13 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

You could try to rename it into something completely different first and then into the correct name. Or, after the first step, create a new folder with the correct name.

Yeah. I didn't think about that. Make a whole new folder and delete the old one. I will fiddle with it later.

[Krathoon]

For some reason, the Ranger controller does not work with the Atari Flashback X. That was annoying. It should. It is supposed to work on an Original Atari 2600.

I assume AtGames did something.

[lucifershalo]

hello, what is the latest firmware available?

[+Atari2600PAL]

Edit: Doh. Please ignore this

 

Was thinking 65mb wasn’t very much, but of course game images are tiny in comparison..

 

Hi. I've recently acquired a RetroN 77 so decided to try the community build

 

I used dd from terminal on my Macbook to write the image to the SD card and when I plug the card into the R77 it's working fine

 

But the partition created on the SD card is only 82mb (leaving about 65mb for games), is there some way to expand this so I can store more images in my games folder please? 

 

Thanks

 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Atari2600PAL

[+Atari2600PAL]

Am I correct in thinking that when using the dumper function it's matching against some kind of in-built database via the hash to display the game details in the panel bottom right of Stella screen please?

 

I've so far dumped 56 of my PAL cartridges (all of these were Atari brand games as I thought these most likely to be compatible with dumping) and 13 of them didn't pick up any details and just show the filename of the bin file (no year, author, brand etc.)

 

An example is Asteroids

 

It seems unlikely to me that nearly 25% of my cartridges wouldn't be in the database, if this is how it works, so am I likely to have bad dumps (even though they all start playing fine) please?

 

Or am I missing something obvious please?

 

Thanks

Edited January 8, 2023 by Atari2600PAL

[alex_79]

In games over 4k, some of the addresses are used as "hotspots" to switch banks, and the value read from there can be undefined/unreliable, and depend on the method used to dump the games. If the game has extra ram on cart, the corresponding area in the resulting rom file can also change depending on the dumper used (its content is not used by the emulator, anyway).

While those differences are irrelevant, of course they cause the hash to change, and so Stella cannot recognize the game.

 

IIRC, the latest community build allows you to save the dumps on the SD card, so you can check your dumps against the known ones and see if this is the case, or if you actually found a previously unknown variation of a game (unlikely, but not impossible).

 

@Thomas Jentzsch: maybe there's a way to workaround this limitation and allow Stella to ignore ram and hotspots when calculating the hash and recognize the rom also in those cases?

 

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by alex_79

[+Atari2600PAL]

Thanks. I've just done a "diff" comparison against the 2 Asteroid PAL roms in rom hunters v18 collection and both are different to mine

 

All are 8kb though

 

But Breakout also has the same issue and they are only 2kb roms

 

EDIT: just rechecked and for Breakout Rom Hunters is 2kb and mine is 4kb! Which explains that one I guess

Edited January 8, 2023 by Atari2600PAL

[alex_79]

11 minutes ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Thanks. I've just done a "diff" comparison against the 2 Asteroid PAL roms in rom hunters v18 collection and both are different to mine

Check which bytes differ. If the differences are limited to the four bytes at address "ff8", "ff9", "1ff8" and "1ff9", then you can ignore them (those are the hotspots).

12 minutes ago, Atari2600PAL said:

EDIT: just rechecked and for Breakout Rom Hunters is 2kb and mine is 4kb! Which explains that one I guess

Yes. Dumping 2k games with the Retron will result in a 4k rom, with the game repeated twice (overdump). If you split the file in two 2k chunks, they should be identical and match one of the known roms.

 

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

1 hour ago, alex_79 said:

@Thomas Jentzsch: maybe there's a way to workaround this limitation and allow Stella to ignore ram and hotspots when calculating the hash and recognize the rom also in those cases?

Maybe.

 

One problem is, that the MD5 hash is used to identify the ROM. And then we load the properties which may contain the bankswitching type. For these ROMs there is no solution. 

 

Fortunately Stella has a very reliable cart type auto-detection. So for >99% ROMs we could calculate the hash ignoring RAM and hotspots. However, this would require some restructuring of the code, because the hash is calculated way before auto-detection runs.

 

Also we would have to update up to ~3600 hashes in our database. User defined property files would become invalid too.

 

And several other stuff which is based on the md5 would have to be considered too.

 

So quite a lot of work.

[+Atari2600PAL]

Asteroids has a lot of differences, my file has a lot of 00. Will have to come back to this one, maybe try another dump

 

I split Combat into 2 x 2kb files and they match each other and a known rom hunter rom and Stella matches them ok. so all good there

 

With Breakout my 2 x 2kb files match each other (and work) but don't match a rom hunter rom and Stella doesn't recognise them

 

Thanks for the advise @alex_79, will have a play (like splitting any other 4kb overdump roms) and see what I end up with as unidentified at the end

[+Atari2600PAL]

Have decided I'm on a fools errand trying to dump my own carts, especially as a lot of them won't run/dump anyway

 

Will find the closest rom matches I can to mine and save myself a lot of problems/time

 

I've come around to the thinking that the slot is really just a gimmick

 

Thanks all

[fiudr]

I bought a new Ranger controller and tried using it plugged directly into my Retron77, but the paddle isn't working correctly. I've tried several paddle games and either they don't work at all with the controller or for some games the paddle works for the left side of the screen but then it just "jumps" over to the far right once I hit the center part of the screen. It doesn't move across the right side properly. I'm on the most recent community build firmware and have an older original Retron that passed the crash test.

 

Any idea what might be wrong?

 

[Jack Burton 1]

19 hours ago, fiudr said:

I bought a new Ranger controller and tried using it plugged directly into my Retron77, but the paddle isn't working correctly. I've tried several paddle games and either they don't work at all with the controller or for some games the paddle works for the left side of the screen but then it just "jumps" over to the far right once I hit the center part of the screen. It doesn't move across the right side properly. I'm on the most recent community build firmware and have an older original Retron that passed the crash test.

 

Any idea what might be wrong?

 

I don't know what is causing that problem but I ended up selling my Ranger controllers. Even when they were working "perfectly", the responsiveness just wasn't quite what you expect as far as paddles. I highly recommend getting two sets of original paddles and connecting them via a 2600-daptor. You get that precise feel you need. If you decide to go this route, respond to this message and I can give you details and send a photo of the setup. You'll need a few adaptors to get it working. 

 

I've spent a ton of time trying to figure out the perfect paddle setup for 4 player paddle games. I really wanted to use the Atari VCS classic controllers on Stella to work so I could use them wirelessly, and while they do technically work, they're just not as precise as the setup with original controllers and the 2600-daptor, even at the highest sensitivity. 

 

After spending countless hours experimenting, I'm convinced the best way to play paddle games is through the Retron 77 community build with the 2600-datptor. 

[fiudr]

1 hour ago, Jack Burton 1 said:

I don't know what is causing that problem but I ended up selling my Ranger controllers. Even when they were working "perfectly", the responsiveness just wasn't quite what you expect as far as paddles. I highly recommend getting two sets of original paddles and connecting them via a 2600-daptor. You get that precise feel you need. If you decide to go this route, respond to this message and I can give you details and send a photo of the setup. You'll need a few adaptors to get it working. 

 

I've spent a ton of time trying to figure out the perfect paddle setup for 4 player paddle games. I really wanted to use the Atari VCS classic controllers on Stella to work so I could use them wirelessly, and while they do technically work, they're just not as precise as the setup with original controllers and the 2600-daptor, even at the highest sensitivity. 

 

After spending countless hours experimenting, I'm convinced the best way to play paddle games is through the Retron 77 community build with the 2600-datptor. 

Thanks. I'd appreciate more info on that.

 

I didn't expect the Ranger would be as good as real paddles, but I did hope it would at least be usable. Sadly the only thing the Ranger seems good for is the stick. I guess this has been an ongoing issue and it must be something to do with the Ranger not working well with the community firmware, since apparently it works with the stock firmware according to other comments. I'm guessing the developers of the community firmware can't seem to figure out how to work around the issue.

 

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by fiudr

[fiudr]

I own a set of original 2600 paddles along with the Daptor-2600 D9 with the most recent firmware, and also the Ultimate PC Interface v3. I've also got a USB printer cable. But I'm not sure how to connect it to the Retron77, and what settings I'd need to change, if any. Is there a guide for this somewhere?

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

27 minutes ago, fiudr said:

Is there a guide for this somewhere?

Just search this thread for an "OTG" cable.

[fiudr]

Okay, I just checked and I already have an OTG cable as pictured in this thread.

 

So to get the paddles (or original joysticks) working with the Retron77 community firmware, is this the correct setup?:

 

- Plug OTG cable male into Retron77's Micro USB power port on back.

- Plug Retron77's power cable into OTG cable's female Micro USB port.

- Use a USB printer cable to connect the Daptor-2600 D9 into the OTG cable's USB port.

- Plug the paddles into the Daptor-2600 D9.

 

Is this correct?

 

What if I want the joysticks plugged in also? Can I keep the joysticks plugged into the two front ports on the Retron77 and they will work along with the paddles plugged into the OTG cable?

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by fiudr

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 minutes ago, fiudr said:

Is this correct?

Yes.

2 minutes ago, fiudr said:

What if I want the joysticks plugged in also? Can I keep the joysticks plugged into the two front ports on the Retron77 and they will work along with the paddles plugged into the OTG cable?

I can't remember. Just give it a go and let us know.  

[fiudr]

Thanks! I'll give it a shot. Does anybody know if the Ranger works now with the 2600-Daptor D9 or is it still unsupported?

 

[fiudr]

I was told the Ranger won't ever work with the D9 due to how it was designed, but the Ranger does work with the 2600-daptor II and the original 2600-daptor. I own an original Daptor-2600 and tested my Ranger and it does indeed work very well using it through the OTG cable using the latest community firmware. Plugged directly into the front ports, the Ranger only works on one half of the screen with the community firmware. So those looking to use the Ranger with the community firmware should get the Daptor-2600 II. It's far more limited than the D9, but it does support the Ranger.

 

Also, with the Daptor-2600 and the Ranger using the OTG cable, I can keep the Trooper joysticks plugged into the front ports of the Retron77 and they work too.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2023 by fiudr