Fred Quimby's Concerto SD Multicart - one year later, your thoughts on it

[BIGHMW]

I was wondering what your thoughts were just one year after Fred Quimby @batari came up with, developed, and put out THE BEST 7800 multicart ever produced, The Concerto. It's what got me to get a 7800 (thanks to @CPUWIZ) and it has been a godsend as I have been able to discover the great things about Lil' Sexy and her capabilities, as well as the almost thousands of titles, hacks, and homebrews amassed, and as painful as it is, for me to part with all but 2 systems if it came down to both it and the complete cancellation of The Atari Report (I'm at -$400.00 in my bank account right now as I have been hit hard by both my allotment of food stamps being taken from me as well as massive payday loans just to keep up), one I would keep, would be this one as well as Big Sexy Herself, the 5200. The Concerto, as well as the 7800's native backwards compatibility with 2600 games (and yes I also own a Harmony Encore for those games too) made that an easy choice.

 

So now, YOUR thoughts on this genius creation, known as Concerto, and the great times and convenience we all get to experience and enjoy, I can't wait to hear from you guys!!! Happy gaming everybody!!!

 

BTW, here is that thread on the 5200 forums explaining the reasons why the 5200 and 7800 would be THE TWO I would keep and just dump the rest:

 

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by BIGHMW

[bikeguychicago]

For the most part, I really enjoy having most of the library on a single cart. That said, one can definitely tell that Concerto is still a work in progress.

I would love to see an update to the BIOS soon that would at least make it feel that it's in the process of becoming more polished. Things like the flashing logo on boot irk me.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[+x=usr(1536)]

10 hours ago, bikeguychicago said:

For the most part, I really enjoy having most of the library on a single cart. That said, one can definitely tell that Concerto is still a work in progress.

This is pretty much where I sit with it as well.  The WIP nature of the firmware doesn't bother me, but I went into it with the expectation that this would be the case.

10 hours ago, bikeguychicago said:

I would love to see an update to the BIOS soon that would at least make it feel that it's in the process of becoming more polished. Things like the flashing logo on boot irk me.

Are you referring to the one with the really bright flashing screens?  If so, that one's been taken care of here.

[jefffulton]

I love it. I'm still looking for a Pokey to add to it, but it plays the 7800 and 2600 games I don't have + hacks, etc really well. 

[phattyboombatty]

I think the Concerto is amazing, and I’m so glad @batari picked up the torch  and carried it through the long, dark tunnel! I’m very happy that we got a pre-release. It works phenomenally as-is, and WIP firmware builds are standard practice for any consumer device. 
 

Mine has the non-flash firmware update—which is awesome—and I’ve installed a POKEY chip. My hardware has a bitchin green translucent cartridge encasement. 
 

I own the Cuttle Cart II, the Dragonfly, and the Concerto multi-carts. With its standard cart size, on-screen menu, and no back-end file configs required, I think that the Concerto has the best overall implementation for a multi-cart.

[doctorclu]

Cuttle Cart 2.   Had it right a long time ago. But... glad Concerto is a thing.

 

Just wish they were more available.

[BIGHMW]

5 hours ago, doctorclu said:

Cuttle Cart 2.   Had it right a long time ago. But... glad Concerto is a thing.

 

Just wish they were more available.

There will be, believe me there will be more available. Or you can go ahead and get on the queue now for the next batch.

[+batari]

1 hour ago, BIGHMW said:

There will be, believe me there will be more available. Or you can go ahead and get on the queue now for the next batch.

Just added more stock today!

 

6 hours ago, doctorclu said:

Cuttle Cart 2.   Had it right a long time ago. But... glad Concerto is a thing.

 

Just wish they were more available.

CC2 was the inspiration for Concerto, and I designed it to match or exceed all of the CC2's specifications while adding some modern improvements in both function and usability (things like SD card support, A78 support, autodetection of bankswitching, USB connectivity, etc.) Some things aren't there yet, but once all of the WIP features are fleshed out, Concerto basically will do everything the CC2 can (such as HSC support, configuring menu colors, and saving menu position are on the drawing board) and certain things that CC2 can do are still a little rudimentary on Concerto (such as viewing text file manuals on screen: This works on Concerto but needs to be improved.)

 

Plus, I wanted it more affordable so more people would be able to own one, so I had to hit a lower price than CC2 (which was $200, in 2004 dollars, which is equivalent to about $290 today). I think I did alright there as pre-production Concertos are $89, less than a third of the inflation-adjusted CC2 price.

Regardless, the CC2 was way ahead of its time and is a hard act to follow!

[doctorclu]

5 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

There will be, believe me there will be more available. Or you can go ahead and get on the queue now for the next batch.

 

Was in the queue for some batch, so...  

[toiletunes]

I bought a Concerto at the first opportunity, from someone who got the pre release at a convention iirc. I have a Harmony and used to have a 5200 flashcart. Concerto is closest to Harmony in that you can add games and subfolders without having to reflash the whole cart.

More than 95% of the games work 100% for me. For the rare games that don't behave (Midnight Mutants iirc) I have the original cart so it's not a big deal. 

I love the convenience of having almost everything on one easy to use cart. I especially like being able to try wip homebrews. I usually wind up buying the finished games, but it's nice to be able to try them early.

 

When the new features come to the Concerto with the updates, that's just icing on the cake.

Edited November 3, 2021 by toiletunes

[+MrZarniwoop]

1 hour ago, toiletunes said:

For the rare games that don't behave (Midnight Mutants iirc) I have the original cart so it's not a big deal. 

Midnight Mutants works for me from Concerto if I use the Concerto "DMA off" 0.95 test firmware from batari. (Note it will incorrectly display 0.94a after flashing.)

[XLurker]

I have had a 5200 Atarimax cart for quite a while and although it works great for most games on my system, it produces graphical glitches on some games like Quest for Quintana Roo, K-Razy Shootout, Pac-Man, Jr.Pac-Man and a few others. The strange thing is that the real and reproduction carts of the exact same games play perfectly. My experience with the Concerto 7800 ROMs so far is much more positive. So far all of the ROMs I have played on the Concerto cart play identically to the real cart.