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Atari Flashback X Custom Firmware for USB roms and boxart


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13 minutes ago, Schnafe said:

I am brand new to all of this.  I just picked up a Flashback X and am anxious to get the CFW setup on it.  The only problem is that my version comes with firmware v0.1.21.

I just picked up the version from Sam's Club about two weeks ago, and the custom FW has worked for me.  Sorry I did not even look at the FW version before following the process.  My unit has a batch code on the bottom, D10908 if that helps.

 

I see now that the versions on AtGames Website are really out of date though  https://firmwareupdate.atgames.net/registration

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9 hours ago, Draxxon said:

So... I'm guessing this can also be done on the LFB systems. It will come in very handy on that unit.

Yes, odds are pretty good the same rom folder setup can be done.  I used your various packs for like SG-1000 and SMS and just made individual SD cards for those, plus a main one packed with mostly Genesis stuff.

 

From looking around a bit at least there is a different path for the SD card than the USB stick here.  There is only a custom FW for the 2018 model though, correct? When I bought my AFB at Sam's they also had the 2019 LFB there for $44.   It would be a limited audience with no way to do it on the 2019, but much nicer to go with everything on the one card.

 

@Draxxon  There is one thing I want to draw your attention to.  Once you have the "Data" sub-directories, you should see a retroplayer.ini in there.  That has the path to the bezel art saved starting with res so like BezelPath=res/images/bezel04.png.  THere is also "UseBezel=4" in mine, so maybe those have to change together?  Not sure.  It is almost a freebie to have a custom bezel for each set if you want.  Also, if you pick a different bezel while in the particular rom set it is only going to be saved for that one, not globally.

 

PS - UseOSD in there turns on like FPS and free memory display, if anyone cares, but it is this big font and displays right over a lot of the game.

Edited by rocketfan
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LFB2019 CFW is found here (Have you ever seen the movie "fight club"? :) )
Legends Flashback 2019 ColecoVision Flashback Converter Pack - AtGames Flashback and Portable Consoles - AtariAge Forums

CV, SG1K, SMkIII and SMS have all been finished. I'm almost done with SGG.
I'm also almost done with ATARI v3.0 (NES+Folders)

A BIG THANK YOU to MrFister for doing half of the work by sorting the Licensed Games already.

________________________________________________________________________________________

About the "late Model" AFBXs.... I havent been able to keep up on what models and FW revisions are out there.

This latest one is the first I've heard that they have OTG support Out Of The Box. and im also pretty sure v21

is the latest ive heard yet. is it a standard or deluxe model? just wondering. 

That said, no one knows whats new on this version, besides OTG OOTB support that we just learned.
At any rate, I wish we could dump the FW and pack a new CFW with the changes recently made. anyone know how

to dump the FW? anyone, anyone... buler?

Edited by Draxxon
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Burai Fighter (USA) - Broken (Black Screen)

Burai Fighter (Japan) - Works
Bubble Bath Babes - Almost (cant rotate bubbles right)

 

-------------------------------------------------------

All the Atari roms have been sorted. I need to finalize the nes box art and test everything a bit, and I'm all caught up.
I also added MrFisters game descriptions to any games that did not have one yet. I'm just going to leave the 2 ports 

in the /rom folder for now. im not too worried about them at this point. maybe in the future if more "ports" are added.

Edited by Draxxon
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14 hours ago, Draxxon said:

About the "late Model" AFBXs.... I havent been able to keep up on what models and FW revisions are out there.

This latest one is the first I've heard that they have OTG support Out Of The Box. and im also pretty sure v21

is the latest ive heard yet. is it a standard or deluxe model? just wondering. 

That said, no one knows whats new on this version, besides OTG OOTB support that we just learned.
At any rate, I wish we could dump the FW and pack a new CFW with the changes recently made. anyone know how

to dump the FW? anyone, anyone... buler?

It is a standard model that I ordered from Menards.com last week.  It has the reset button accessible on the bottom of the case.  It has the batch code on the bottom, D10908, as the one that @rocketfan picked up from Sam's Club.  I know those should be the deluxe models.

 

I'd be happy to help dump the firmware if someone can provide instructions on that.

Edited by Schnafe
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Request: Atari Flashback 9 Boom firmware backup - AtGames Flashback and Portable Consoles - AtariAge Forums

That was the results from the AFB9 firmware dump.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

So, I'm all finished with ATARI v3.0. Once it comes out pretty much everything before it is obsolete. Ever since v2.0

with the fixed art, you wouldn't want anything done in the past anyways. Having said that, MrFister's pack was the 

only pack I saw that used v2.1 as a base. I used his superb pack for the ATARI GAMES category. I did put back all

the old, long, flashback game descriptions. We have unique, stock descriptions for games from the AFB8, AFB9, AFB9G,

AFBX and the AFBXD. A handful of games have come and gone from unit to unit and I didn't want to lose that legacy. Not 

to mention all the ones that people here wrote and added before I came. But, Like I said, I did bring over the new

descriptions he wrote for real games that had none, so every real game has a description at least now. You could also

very easily cut and paste his ini file, as I only added Party Mix vol2 and vol3, and the missing XXX games if you prefer

the short game desriptions. I added all of missing real games to the bottom of the new ini file. so make sure to keep

those entries if you want those games.

 

Edited by Draxxon
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A.T.A.R.I. v3.0:

(Folder & Core Support Added) Thank You, RocketFan

THE POWER ON BOOT-UP TIME HAS BEEN VASTLY IMPROVED!!! Its around ~5 Secs. now.
Start with a blank USB device and Copy & Paste all of the files in the ATARI v3 archive to the root of your device.
obviously, you have to have Brad's pimp-ass CFW installed. (In case you're new here).

Old Art, Packs, Themes, etc. from 1.0, 2.0 and elsewhere aren't going to work correctly anymore.

(Except for MrFister's sweet "Retail Games" Pack, but its already in this Update! Thanks again, brother.)
This pack comes with the "Sans Boom" Theme set up, once again. With a few minor tweaks.

In the /theme folder, you can find new, updated/working themes. In case you prefer Darth Vader, AFB Gold, or Woodys.

This is for the AFBX and AFBX Deluxe ONLY!!! USB 3.0 device, blah, blah, blah.

 

NOTE:
Late Model AFBX/D Owners: These CFWs are based off of the official firmwares on the AtGames Website.

this is technically a downgrade. I have no idea what v.21, etc. has changed, if anything, (other than OOTB OTG Support) to be clear. 

 

DOWNLOAD:

 

ATARI_v3.rar

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No problem, now for a small test. Hoping you can just drag and drop that to the root and copy over the old all-games.ini file. let me know.
Is it just me or is Pac-Man CE really, really good? I do notice diagonal screen tearing or whatever on these games tho.

A.T.A.R.I. v3.0.1 (Update Only):

 

rom_alt_2.rar

Edited by Draxxon
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On 2/3/2021 at 10:57 PM, rocketfan said:

I discovered you can point to a file with no extension and the menu will try to launch it like an executable, so no need to take over the Space Invaders or Frogger ports to start a random executable.

At this point I'm pretty sure I was wrong about this.  Funny thing is the "Next" script for the rom folder switchover basically just tries to kill off the retromenu program so it can be restarted.  But I tried to add some other stuff in there to experiment and I realize now it maybe is just making retromenu crash!  Like there is a bug or un-handled exception in retromenu.  Anyway, it does what was needed - good to be lucky once in a while.  ?

 

I proved the Colecovision core will bring up a game.  I started the Colecovision Centipede.  I got immediately stuck because the game wants you to enter a number (like difficulty level or something) and there is no way to do it.  Pretty sure most Colecovision games do that.  Gets back to controller mapping pains. 

 

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I think the onscreen number pad for cv was Y on the LFB pad. All the games need the numberpad to start iirc.
Mame if select adds credits, final burn alpha, maybe? there has to be a good number of one and no button games for mame.

of course, atari 800 if you get it rolling. btw, now that the data folder is out, can we share save states?

 

if all else fails, genplusgx for sg-1000/mastersystem. the version of fix it felix on the LFB2019 is one button and SUPERB. arcade style, not the genesis style version.

Edited by Draxxon
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One thing I wanted to mention is the "slots" concept.  My understanding that is each retromenu is tweaked for a particular atGames unit to support one or a few cores.  This AFB one supports VCS games, the SpaceInvaders, and Frogger special cases, and (for whatever reason) .nes and .zip.   The LFB must support several more than that.  I think the reason for the consideration of the slots is the "emulator path paired with a file extension" strings in the retromenu give you a pretty easy hex edit hack to run other cores/extensions, but you are limited to the number already supported (3 in the case of AFB).

 

With the new system of rom folders that limitation can be overcome, IMO.  Because you could have several copies of retromenu hacked differently for different cores.  You can use the symbolic link trick to locate those cores out in the emulator folder on the usb stick.  So 3 hacked retomenus gives you 9 cores you can run - or just make a single hack in each one - no real limitation.  The way it could be implemented is place the proper hacked retromenu for the files in the rom_alt_? folder.  Like "retromenu.atari800".  If there is a retromenu.? in the rom folder, just start that one, not the regular one.

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16 hours ago, Schnafe said:

I'd be happy to help dump the firmware if someone can provide instructions on that.

Well, if you have not already overwritten your FW, here are the instructions.  It's not necessarily straightforward.  The experts in this stuff have not been active in the conversation recently, but I dug into it this morning.

 

The big prerequisite is that the tool you need runs in Linux, so first requirement is you have like an Ubuntu system!  If not, I don't think the windows tools make it so easy, and not sure how to do it with those.

 

The instructions for installing and running the tool can be followed almost exactly from here: Installing RkFlashKit

 

Update: Except see bottom of post - I added the .deb package and short install instructions, so try that first before you do the more complicated approach.

 

One hint if you are not a github person is just follow the link on that page and click the code button to get a .zip of the sources:

image.thumb.png.cabf288d1e486a170a0c0446b2113463.png0.1.

Then unzip them anywhere and open a terminal window in that folder to complete the steps.

 

Then I was able to pretty much follow the install instructions on that linked page above.  Once you did what it says, the .deb package lands in the .../binaries subfolder in there, and you can just choose the most recent version (0.1.3) to install/run.

 

After the tool is running, have the unit powered off.  Plug a micro USB cable to your device and the Linux system, press the reset with your favored thin pokey device, and power on.  The program should then recognize the device in recovery mode.

 

Then it's pretty straightforward to backup each of the partitions by selecting the partition (the NAND Partitions selection box), then clicking the "Backup Partition" button.  I'm not sure if they are all important when repacking the update image, but I would say get all 8 of them to be on the safe side.

 

Tool interface:

 

image.thumb.png.84b249988987145701ae49143b51dad4.png

 

 

Partition selection dialog (which also shows their size @ location/address!)

image.png.0e4274a0f74adad98baeebfdf0b366df.png

 

 

Update:  I just realized I can just provide the .deb installer package here ?

 

So instead of following all those instructions, maybe you can just put that (attached) on your Ubuntu system and execute these commands:

sudo apt-get install python-gtk2 
sudo dpkg -i rkflashkit_0.1.3_all.deb

If the install works you can run it by:

 sudo rkflashkit

 

 

rkflashkit_0.1.3_all.deb

Edited by rocketfan
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Nice video Draxxon.  Yes, Pac Man CE is good!  I never tried it before you pointed it out.

 

Some bad news, but some pretty good news also.

 

I am totally stumped by the button mapping.  Without actual sources, not sure I can figure anything out on that, and I am moving on.  Also, I went back to the MAME cores and could not get anywhere.   Also the individual game cores like FIF and Galaga - no luck whatsoever.  

 

However the good news - genesis_plus_gx_libretro.so: works for .sg games.  (I have not tried on SMS yet) I tried Kings Valley (nice lode runner type game), Rally X, and Pitfall II, they all seem to work well.  Some SG-1000 games are two button for sure. "The Castle" is a good SG-1000 game. I didn't try it on this device yet, but I think the only thing the second button does is speed up the elevators, so probably playable.

 

Even better news - lr-fbalpha.so also works.    Which means arcade/MAME roms are gonna work after all!  Select adds coins, start starts one-player.  No way to start two-player I can find. 

 

With the "FBN_v02.97.44" non-merged roms I found online, things seem solid. However, the core/games load pretty slow.  I tried Centipede, Galaga, and Eagle (Moon Cresta clone I like) they all work great!  1941 (which is a newer game) takes forever to load but does come up and work.  The sound is sketchy and play is really laggy though (IMO unplayable), so don't get too excited about newer games on this device.  For the classics though, I think it will fly.

 

Probably tomorrow I will work on hacking the retromenu to handle these out of the rom folders with art.  The current retromenu can be modded to handle the fbalpha core, then I can make a second one for .sg and .sms (and God willing maybe someday Atari800).

 

 

 

   

Edited by rocketfan
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that all sounds good. Gen+GX also plays game gear, .gg extension.

it also plays sega cd (.bin and .cue) with the sega cd bios files, but not sure anything is playable from that set.


with the data folder out, can game save states be shared?

Another question, can multiple /emulator folders be ran? can a "theme" be tied to each folder/category/rom_alt_X?

from what i remember on the LFB FBAlpha front, there was no way to get the other system's roms (NES, TG16, etc.) to work.

EDIT: Wait, isnt centipede arcade a trackball game? how does that work?

Edited by Draxxon
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Flea! - worked

blade buster - worked (good game!)

Cowlitz Gamers' Adventure/2nd Adventure/Lost Adventure - Broken (Wrong Button)

Black Box Challenge - Broken (wrong button)

Fantasy Zone II - Broken (wont load game/black screen)
Log Jammers - Broken (wrong button)

Böbl - Broken (wrong button)

 

We are at 55 working or "almost" working games.

Can anyone confirm if the saved game sharing works?

Edited by Draxxon
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8 hours ago, rocketfan said:

Nice video Draxxon.  Yes, Pac Man CE is good!  I never tried it before you pointed it out.

 

Some bad news, but some pretty good news also.

 

I am totally stumped by the button mapping.  Without actual sources, not sure I can figure anything out on that, and I am moving on.  Also, I went back to the MAME cores and could not get anywhere.   Also the individual game cores like FIF and Galaga - no luck whatsoever.  

 

However the good news - genesis_plus_gx_libretro.so: works for .sg games.  (I have not tried on SMS yet) I tried Kings Valley (nice lode runner type game), Rally X, and Pitfall II, they all seem to work well.  Some SG-1000 games are two button for sure. "The Castle" is a good SG-1000 game. I didn't try it on this device yet, but I think the only thing the second button does is speed up the elevators, so probably playable.

 

Even better news - lr-fbalpha.so also works.    Which means arcade/MAME roms are gonna work after all!  Select adds coins, start starts one-player.  No way to start two-player I can find. 

 

With the "FBN_v02.97.44" non-merged roms I found online, things seem solid. However, the core/games load pretty slow.  I tried Centipede, Galaga, and Eagle (Moon Cresta clone I like) they all work great!  1941 (which is a newer game) takes forever to load but does come up and work.  The sound is sketchy and play is really laggy though (IMO unplayable), so don't get too excited about newer games on this device.  For the classics though, I think it will fly.

 

Probably tomorrow I will work on hacking the retromenu to handle these out of the rom folders with art.  The current retromenu can be modded to handle the fbalpha core, then I can make a second one for .sg and .sms (and God willing maybe someday Atari800).

 

 

 

   

Can you do 2-button games with an SMS or genesis controller. The X still has a working paddle line at pin 9 the controllers may fire with.

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Here are some update files.  The attached retromenu has been modified to use the fba core for .zip files. (also supports .a26 and .nes and maybe some kind of Atari 2600 bin?) I was using "FBN_v02.97.44" non-merged roms.  If you use others your mileage may vary.  Replace the one in /emulator with it.  Older games work OK, newer ones don't run well.  Probably due to memory and CPU speed both.  They all load a little slow, maybe just due to the larger size of the core.  For me Joust worked properly the second time in.  First time it has the "reset factory defaults" message.

 

The retromenu.sega supports Genesis (.bin), Master system (.sms) and SG-1000 (.sg)  If you place it in your /rom or /rom_alt_# folder it will be used instead of the one in /emulator (which means the other types of roms like .a26 are not going to be supported for that particular rom_alt_# folder).  Just to be clear, leave it named as retromenu.sega when you copy it to the rom folder.

 

You have to also use the attached startup.sh to enable this.  There are not going to be many Genesis roms that work because of lack of buttons.  Here is a list I found that (I think) do though:  

bio hazard battle
bonkers
columns
dr robotnics mean bean machine
Frogger
Gynoug
Insector X
ms pac man
pacmania
paperboy
Phelios
puyo puyo
sega arcade classics
sonic games (not spinball)
williams arcade classics (robtron and joust work)

 

Genesis performance is not that great.  Sonic games in particular do NOT run well (although the .sms one does).  If this is the core used for the LFB I'm not sure why - thought it was  the same hardware.

 

The cores are attached for convenience (put them in /emulator) but they are the same ones from Draxxon's archive with all the cores.

 

 

startup.sh retromenu retromenu.sega genesis_plus_gx_libretro.so lr-fbalpha.so

Edited by rocketfan
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9 hours ago, Swami said:

Can you do 2-button games with an SMS or genesis controller. The X still has a working paddle line at pin 9 the controllers may fire with.

Draxxon tried the controllers from the Legends Flashback (they at least look like Genesis controllers) and they didn't work.  Maybe it is worth a try to build a little special adapter that bridges the normal fire pin with 9 though. It looks like pin 6 is the normal Atari button pin, except I guess that first port is non standard due the joysticks with the extra buttons - anyone know the actual pinout?  How do they even have 4 directions and 5 buttons working on 9 pins (because if it is just switches, then one pin must be ground)?

Edited by rocketfan
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16 hours ago, Draxxon said:

Another question, can multiple /emulator folders be ran? can a "theme" be tied to each folder/category/rom_alt_X?

You are starting to make my head spin!   But yes, at least multiple/different themes for each rom_alt_x could work.  The only part that changes across themes is really the stuff in the /emulator/res folder right?

 

I will try something.

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sorry man, just a question. Its not important to implement. just wondering whats possible. BGM is the only thing not in the /emulator/res/images folder that might be changed for "themes". again, its no big deal. But the retromenu/players are in there, so if you were thinking about running multiple retromenus/players it was an idea. My bad, dude. youve done plenty already. i had wanted to ask about the /data folder coming out sooner, for sharing save files. The /data folder is out on the LFB out of box/stock if you activate it the settings menu. but i left that alone, it wasnt important. but cool that it happened none the less.
 
I seem to have left out the files that make frogger and SI work on my pack. But, the files are one page back, posted by Rocketfan. you can just dump those files in the /rom folder.
I did however move these two ports, and they work, to the HOMEBREW category. so if and when i post an update, they will move.

About the extra buttons on the P1 joystick. Its something like up+down, and left+right (as examples, dont really remember), are buttons combinations to rewind, go to menu, etc. that cant be pushed on accident.... iirc. I want to say there are no extra buttons, just "hotkeys" of "impossible combinations".

Edited by Draxxon
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