+stephena Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 first, thanks for the work so when you say we can use stelladaptor , it is through a mini usb hub? will it be possible to use mouse, trackball and other through that device in the future? Behind the scenes, this device is just like a normal (but slow) Linux computer. So plugging in a 2600-daptor will definitely work. We are not yet ready to fully support it yet, since much more testing needs to be done. But it is very possible. I can't say for a real mouse, though, since I've never tried. I know for a fact that there's no mouse cursor in UI mode, but the mouse events may still be getting through. But if it's coming from the 2600-daptor, it's all coming in through the USB port, so Stella should see it and 'just work'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lohe Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 (edited) Like the scanline filter and overall appearance of my games. The picture is a bit cut off in all aspect ratio modes on my tv (blaupunkt), except when choosing point-to-point. No overscan disabling option for this tv to be found unfortunately. Im looking forward to see where my new retron77 will go with all of your future work. Out of the box I was not so impressed I would give honest feedback to Hyperkin. Edited April 8, 2019 by Lohe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Muddyfunster Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 (edited) I tested this new build on my R77 today and I immediately noticed that thanks to the Stella6 emulation, Tyre Trax runs much better. On the old firmware / Stella3.x I would see graphics tears on sprites sometimes. Great work guys! Edited April 8, 2019 by Muddyfunster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+stephena Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 Yep, barring even the huge improvements to TIA emulation in Stella 5/6, getting rid of tearing in Stella 4 was a major thing for me. I hate tearing in any video game. Absolutely kills the experience for me. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 The Retron 77 that I purchased back in January came with the 'Trooper.' Thanks - I got an e-mail this morning from Hyperkin confirming that they are shipping with the Trooper joystick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drunk_Caterpillar Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 So far my favourite look for the video output has been:- TV Mode: Bad Adjust - TIA Interpolation [ON] - 25-30% Scanlines Has such a grungy old feel that doesn't seem too unnatural to me. I still really enjoy bypassing any sort of analogue look too, but there's something very satisfying about these three settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 Out of the box I was not so impressed I would give honest feedback to Hyperkin. You are not alone. Here was my feedback which I also exchanged with Hyperkin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 So far my favourite look for the video output has been: - TV Mode: Bad Adjust - TIA Interpolation [ON] - 25-30% Scanlines Instead of enabling TIA Interpolation, you should reduce the sharpness. TIA interpolation is just an old short cut before we had the TV effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 Thanks - I got an e-mail this morning from Hyperkin confirming that they are shipping with the Trooper joystick. To me, somehow it feels wrong that Hyperkin (who did invest almost nothing into the software) now profits from the hard work of the Stella team. Am I the only one who feels that way? 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 To me, somehow it feels wrong that Hyperkin (who did invest almost nothing into the software) now profits from the hard work of the Stella team. Am I the only one who feels that way? I see this as less of a win for Hyperkin, than for the community. The RetroN 77 is a niche product, and will probably never be a big money maker for them anyway. But these improvements make a product that represents the 2600 and its games better in the eyes of the public (assuming Hyperkin ships the RetroN 77 with these updates someday), and also gives the rest of us a more functional, enjoyable experience. Of course, I'd rather give my money to the Stella team (hang on a sec... okay, done), but the RetroN 77 has appeal to me as something I can give to friends to play games that I've worked on, without needing to dredge up working 40-year-old consoles for them. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hizzy Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 I wish the R77 was as good a product as Stella is. Hyperkin could have done so much better. The Stella folks are geniuses. They should be on the Hyperkin payroll. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 It arrived, picked up a new SD card for it during lunch. Worked great for Draconian and Space Rocks. Stella correctly picked up that I'd swapped the joystick for paddles for Medieval Mayhem, but the control lagged way to much to be playable. Also had an issue with Stay Frosty 2, it thinks I have a gamepad plugged in. That makes the game unplayable as you cannot finish level 4 because throwing snowballs is mapped to a nonexistent second firebutton. I don't know if a Sega gamepad will work, will check into that later. I didn't want to blindly plug one in as I know doing so can short out components in a Commodore 64. All in all pretty slick. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 (edited) Stay Frosty 2 supports a Genesis controller too, that's why the code detects it. So this is a rare case, you will have to set the controller manually. The next version will have a menu for doing this. Edited April 11, 2019 by Thomas Jentzsch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 Stay Frosty 2 supports a Genesis controller too I know - I'm just found it odd it would detect one when it wasn't plugged in. Possibly it's an unintended side-effect of being able to hot-swap the joystick and paddles. I suspect the same issue will occur with other games that auto-detect a gamepad, like Scramble and Super Cobra Arcade. I got lucky with Space Rocks as I didn't realize gamepads could be autodetected back then, so I'd made it a menu option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted April 11, 2019 Share Posted April 11, 2019 I know - I'm just found it odd it would detect one when it wasn't plugged in. Possibly it's an unintended side-effect of being able to hot-swap the joystick and paddles. Nope, its because the detection happens static, solely based on the code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NISMOPC Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 So overwhelmed seeing this beta release. Was so excited to try it out... Long story short, I re-imaged my 128MB microSD that came with my Retron (had the community build on it) and it became unusable. Windows no longer sees the drive either. Apparently, the SD Card took a dump. A huge one. I tried a few different steps and apps to recover it. Pulled out an extra 32GB micro SD and tried same beta image. It successfully wrote image but still not working. Windows DID see it. Not giving up I decided to download the beta image again. Deleted previous download, re-imaged the 32gb micro SD and success. Loaded games and off to the races. Now I have a useless 128MB Hyperkin Retron77 micro SD card to throw away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drunk_Caterpillar Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 (edited) Sort of an off topic thing, but when I load the new image on to a 16GB SD card the partition is still pretty small; like, only 100MB or so. Do you folks just resize the partition once you image the card? Or is there something Im doing wrong? Im using Etcher on Mac OS. Edited April 12, 2019 by Drunk_Caterpillar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 Now I have a useless 128MB Hyperkin Retron77 micro SD card to throw away. I'm sure it's recoverable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHairy Posted April 12, 2019 Author Share Posted April 12, 2019 (edited) Now I have a useless 128MB Hyperkin Retron77 micro SD card to throw away. Apart from the possibility that the SD card has a hardware fault, writing the image should not be able to trash it. Either rewriting the image or repartitioning and reformatting should recover it. Sort of an off topic thing, but when I load the new image on to a 16GB SD card the partition is still pretty small; like, only 100MB or so. Do you folks just resize the partition once you image the card? Or is there something Im doing wrong? Im using Etcher on Mac OS. You can safely resize it, as long as the start of the partition remains unchanged. The technical reason for this is the boot process of the device: the H3 CPU is hardwired to load the actual boot code from the first few blocks of the SD, directly behind the partition table. This is pretty neat as it renders the device essentially unbrickable (the first-level boot code that reads the SD resides in ROM directly on the CPU die and cannot be changed), but it evidently requires a few blocks between the partition table and the start of the first partition. Edited April 12, 2019 by DirtyHairy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mckafka99 Posted April 12, 2019 Share Posted April 12, 2019 Rather than re-image my whole SD card, I just swapped out the 'uimage' file and for the brief time I have had so far, it seems to be working great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHairy Posted April 12, 2019 Author Share Posted April 12, 2019 (edited) Rather than re-image my whole SD card, I just swapped out the 'uimage' file and for the brief time I have had so far, it seems to be working great! Swapping out the uImage works, too --- the whole root filesystem, including Stella, is included in the file. However, the SD image also contains updated Stella metadata (game snapshots etc.), that's why I didn't advertise this method yet Once we provide more builds, this is definitely the preferred way to migrate between different versions of the FW (unless the metadata changes again). Edited April 12, 2019 by DirtyHairy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NISMOPC Posted April 13, 2019 Share Posted April 13, 2019 Apart from the possibility that the SD card has a hardware fault, writing the image should not be able to trash it. Either rewriting the image or repartitioning and reformatting should recover it. I'm sure it's recoverable. Unfortunately, Windows no longer can see it and I tried third party software as well as diskpart (which can see if but says it's unavailable). Imaging software no longer sees it either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluxit Posted April 13, 2019 Share Posted April 13, 2019 (edited) With Linux, my next step in a situation such as yours would be to "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb2(or whatever)" Often, the reason Windows tools will no longer write to a 'disk' is because either the 'bootsector' or partition table(s) doesn't make sense to them. Perhaps you could try a "disk wiper" utility in Windows instead? Edited April 13, 2019 by fluxit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluxit Posted April 14, 2019 Share Posted April 14, 2019 Not that the correction is going to help someone on Windows, but for the sake of accuracy as it dawned on me later what exactly we're trying to do here- on Linux you'd be addressing /dev/sdb in the above example as we are overwriting the entire card(even though overwriting to the end would typically not be necessary so long as you'd wiped out any copies of the partition table) from the beginning, not just a partitition(if any.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHairy Posted April 14, 2019 Author Share Posted April 14, 2019 (edited) With Linux, my next step in a situation such as yours would be to "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb2(or whatever)" Often, the reason Windows tools will no longer write to a 'disk' is because either the 'bootsector' or partition table(s) doesn't make sense to them. Perhaps you could try a "disk wiper" utility in Windows instead? I agree, but I'd like to add a WORD OF WARNING for the general audience: don't copy this and run it in verbatim under all circumstances. You absolutely need to figure out the correct block device to use on your system; otherwise, you may well end up overwriting you hard drive with zeroes. If you don't know what a block device is, don't try this either Edited April 14, 2019 by DirtyHairy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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