Atari/Legends Flashback Expansion Builds

[magnusfalkirk]

I goofed. The file I downloaded was linked to by rrifonas. So I'll be using his file to try and update my 2018 LFB Deluxe.

 

magnus

[pimpmaul69]

2 hours ago, magnusfalkirk said:

Well I'm going to give it a try with somw stuff I downloaded that Rocketfan posted a link to in another thread. If it doesn't work I guess I'll just have to find another LFB.

 

magnus

Cool. I just added the nexus 1.5.1 that rocketfan posted on here on my atari flashback x and i think you will like it. I have to remove all the legends flashback stuff myself since i only want atari stuff on my atari flashback. 

[pimpmaul69]

On 8/5/2022 at 6:24 PM, rocketfan said:

 

Ignore my last two posts i had asked questions in. Your nexus 1.5.1 fixed the stella problem. 

[magnusfalkirk]

1 minute ago, pimpmaul69 said:

Cool. I just added the nexus 1.5.1 that rocketfan posted on here on my atari flashback x and i think you will like it. I have to remove all the legends flashback stuff myself since i only want atari stuff on my atari flashback. 

I was able to successfully update the Legends Flashback 2018 using these two downloads from this link:

 

https://gbatemp.net/threads/custom-firmware-for-atgames-legends-flashback-with-support-for-arcade-games.527550/

 

that rrifonas posted in another thread here on AtariAge. I used the arcade_update.img from the arcade_update_v2.8.4_20191204 and the retroplayer.ini, which isn't there even though it is mnetioned in the read me, from this arcade_update_v2.6_fba_mame_v2.

 

After I did that I loaded the LUFB_May21_2022 files from Archive.org onto a 32GB SD card and installed it into the LFB. Everything runs fine.

 

I have a different copy of the Nexus build on my Atari 9 Flashback, they are in a 16GB card that I got with the FB9 that I bought through Facebook about a month ago.

 

magnus

[pimpmaul69]

5 hours ago, magnusfalkirk said:

I was able to successfully update the Legends Flashback 2018 using these two downloads from this link:

 

https://gbatemp.net/threads/custom-firmware-for-atgames-legends-flashback-with-support-for-arcade-games.527550/

 

that rrifonas posted in another thread here on AtariAge. I used the arcade_update.img from the arcade_update_v2.8.4_20191204 and the retroplayer.ini, which isn't there even though it is mnetioned in the read me, from this arcade_update_v2.6_fba_mame_v2.

 

After I did that I loaded the LUFB_May21_2022 files from Archive.org onto a 32GB SD card and installed it into the LFB. Everything runs fine.

 

I have a different copy of the Nexus build on my Atari 9 Flashback, they are in a 16GB card that I got with the FB9 that I bought through Facebook about a month ago.

 

magnus

On your flashback 9 can you test that older nexus and see if the select button works in a 2600 game? Asteroids 2600 is a good game to test. It didnt work for me on any update until the nexus 1.5.1 slim build. But it was on my flashback x. So im curious if it was the same with the fb9

[magnusfalkirk]

17 hours ago, pimpmaul69 said:

On your flashback 9 can you test that older nexus and see if the select button works in a 2600 game? Asteroids 2600 is a good game to test. It didnt work for me on any update until the nexus 1.5.1 slim build. But it was on my flashback x. So im curious if it was the same with the fb9

Just tested my Nexus version and the Select button works. Played game number 8 in Asteroids. What's interesting about the build that came on the 16GB card with the FB9 is that it also had Jaguar games on it. Of course without it being overclocked they were pretty slow to run, so I just copied the folder from the SD card to my computer and then removed the entry in the all-games.ini.

[rocketfan]

On 8/6/2022 at 7:10 AM, rra said:

Are you referring to the updated Atari800 v.5.0.0 emulator?

 

Wow, been away longer than I realized!  Nope, that's not the one.  The a5200 core is referenced here:

 

https://www.libretro.com/index.php/libretroretroarch-new-cores/

 

And here is the link in Github:

 

https://github.com/libretro/a5200

 

I haven't made any progress but still on my list to look into some more.

 

 

 

[rocketfan]

On 8/25/2022 at 5:39 PM, magnusfalkirk said:

I was able to successfully update the Legends Flashback 2018 using these two downloads from this link:

I'm glad you got the Legends Flashback going, and thank you for providing the links to gbatemp.  I think some similar information is here:

 

 

BTW, if I was paying attention I would say I mainly use a 50 game unit for everything I do.  I own both now, from the time we were playing with "arcade play link" (APL) which is only on the newer units.

 

The various files are also on archive.org here:

 

 

Spoiler

https://archive.org/details/firmware_backup

 

AFAIK and beware, you must not mix up the firmware files - they must be applied to the right type of system!  Those files are labelled:

LFB1 ==> 2018, 50 games unit

LFB2 ==> 2019, 100 games unit

 

OFW ==> Original FW

CFW ==> Custom FW

 

I did not create the file, our friend from the past threads did.  There was not originally a 1.2Ghz overclock version of the CFW for the LFB2, but relatively recently @rmr_md graciously helped us by creating a file with only the overclock.  That is in the file LFB2_1.2Ghz.img

 

Any of these are applied by placing the file on the root of your drive and renaming to arcade_update.img before booting from the drive, which should start the update.

Edited September 21, 2022 by rocketfan

[rocketfan]

There was a mention of taking the LUFB stuff over to Nexus.  It's doable, for example the box art and game files go over fine, but the button mapping could be different and tons of the games from the LFB build are not playable on the Atari device, because of the one button limitation.  Mostly if anything could be played on the Atari setup it would be put in there, but you certainly might find some exceptions.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by rocketfan

[rocketfan]

On 8/22/2022 at 10:34 PM, pimpmaul69 said:

I have a question since draxxon isnt around. Going through 53 pages in 2 threads I found his nexus up to 4.1 but 5.2 didnt seem to be in post it shouldve been in. Question i have though. He has atari 7800 games on it and they are kind of unplayable with one button. Was there ever a workaround for different controls? I am assuming not?

Yes, there is a workaround available, but you may not consider it great.  I see now the instruction manual has some information on what was done for the 8bit a800/a5200 stuff, but not on a7800.

 

If you look down in /rom_a7800/data/retroplayer.ini there is a setting:

prosystem_J2FA2=enabled

 

That stands for (I think) "Joystick 2 Fire (performs) Action 2"  You MAY also find that for the Prosystem the joystick one fire works to control player two second action - but honestly I'm no longer positive without digging into some source code or trying it.

 

Bottom line is that you should be able to use the fire button on the second joystick to get your second action on 7800 games.  At least of a couple people built custom joysticks to exploit this, and I have a jury-rig setup to velcro(tm) the joysticks together and also use a little mini clipboard.  Here are pics of that.  I like it, because I can stick the joysticks to the clipboard for like Robotron (works very well for that, BTW) or stick them top to bottom and play two-button 7800 with a super chunky joystick and like use your pinky finger of your left hand for the second action on the bottom.

 

Ugly but effective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pimpmaul69]

1 hour ago, rocketfan said:

Yes, there is a workaround available, but you may not consider it great.  I see now the instruction manual has some information on what was done for the 8bit a800/a5200 stuff, but not on a7800.

 

If you look down in /rom_a7800/data/retroplayer.ini there is a setting:

prosystem_J2FA2=enabled

 

That stands for (I think) "Joystick 2 Fire (performs) Action 2"  You MAY also find that for the Prosystem the joystick one fire works to control player two second action - but honestly I'm no longer positive without digging into some source code or trying it.

 

Bottom line is that you should be able to use the fire button on the second joystick to get your second action on 7800 games.  At least of a couple people built custom joysticks to exploit this, and I have a jury-rig setup to velcro(tm) the joysticks together and also use a little mini clipboard.  Here are pics of that.  I like it, because I can stick the joysticks to the clipboard for like Robotron (works very well for that, BTW) or stick them top to bottom and play two-button 7800 with a super chunky joystick and like use your pinky finger of your left hand for the second action on the bottom.

 

Ugly but effective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So ive made several controllers functional on flashbacks with working start an select buttons. On my 3 button genesis controller i added “up” to the a button and “down” to c button. I can just change c to go to the second joystick fire with a modification. Will work great for me. On my nes controller i modified, i will make the b button be the j2 fire. 

Edited September 21, 2022 by pimpmaul69

[pimpmaul69]

 

1 hour ago, rocketfan said:

Yes, there is a workaround available, but you may not consider it great.  I see now the instruction manual has some information on what was done for the 8bit a800/a5200 stuff, but not on a7800.

 

If you look down in /rom_a7800/data/retroplayer.ini there is a setting:

prosystem_J2FA2=enabled

 

That stands for (I think) "Joystick 2 Fire (performs) Action 2"  You MAY also find that for the Prosystem the joystick one fire works to control player two second action - but honestly I'm no longer positive without digging into some source code or trying it.

 

Bottom line is that you should be able to use the fire button on the second joystick to get your second action on 7800 games.  At least of a couple people built custom joysticks to exploit this, and I have a jury-rig setup to velcro(tm) the joysticks together and also use a little mini clipboard.  Here are pics of that.  I like it, because I can stick the joysticks to the clipboard for like Robotron (works very well for that, BTW) or stick them top to bottom and play two-button 7800 with a super chunky joystick and like use your pinky finger of your left hand for the second action on the bottom.

 

Ugly but effective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well i tested and the j2 fire did nothing. Looked in the ini. Scramble is listed as have that enabled in the ini. Worked with 2 buttons in scramble. I am going to have to edit the ini to add this to all 7800 games. Thank you so much! Havent tried 800 and 5200. What is their workaround?

Edited September 21, 2022 by pimpmaul69

[rocketfan]

18 minutes ago, pimpmaul69 said:

1 hour ago, rocketfan said:

Well i just tested and the j2 fire does nothing on player 1

OK, I had to check for myself.  I tried 7800 Scramble on my Flashback X.  For me, the J2 fire is dropping the bombs, as expected.  Also, indeed if you play a 2 player game, the controls get correctly swapped so J2 works for player 2 and J1 fire will drop the bombs.

 

I dunno, but maybe make sure your J2 joystick is working OK in general...

[pimpmaul69]

6 minutes ago, rocketfan said:

OK, I had to check for myself.  I tried 7800 Scramble on my Flashback X.  For me, the J2 fire is dropping the bombs, as expected.  Also, indeed if you play a 2 player game, the controls get correctly swapped so J2 works for player 2 and J1 fire will drop the bombs.

 

I dunno, but maybe make sure your J2 joystick is working OK in general...

So i had edited my previous post. Scramble is actually in the ini with j2af enabled. I am going to have to manually add all the 7800 games to the ini enabling the j2af. 

[rocketfan]

12 hours ago, pimpmaul69 said:

Havent tried 800 and 5200. What is their workaround?

The main one you will want for 5200 is very similar to the 7800 one, except it only works for player one:

"atari800_J2FA2",
"Use Joystick 2 fire button as second action button.; disabled|enabled",

 

For the 8-bit there are a number or options that can be tailored as you like, mainly useful is that the core allows you to map the extra buttons on the Legends Flashback controllers to keyboard presses for games that need those.  IIRC the mechanism also works on the Atari Flashbacks but maps to the 4 directions and fire button of the second joystick, which is a bit less handy,  But still, some games you can't play otherwise.  Those core options are described in the section "MULTI-BUTTON GAMES" in the Instruction_manual.txt file at the root folder of the Nexus build on archive.org.

 

It's those keyboard to button settings that allow you to play 8bit Dropzone on your Legends flashback and use smart bomb and cloak with the buttons on the controller - those were originally keyboard shortcuts.  That mapping should already be set up on the LUFB build on archive.org if you wanted to see it put to use in a real example.

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by rocketfan

[pimpmaul69]

On 5/22/2022 at 8:47 AM, rocketfan said:

 

here is the ini file for atari 7800 and 5200. i made all 7800 and 5200 games 2 button compatible. not just scramble. in fact scramble on 5200 was set to combine buttons i separated them

 

 

atar fb.zip

Edited September 22, 2022 by pimpmaul69
added ini file

[rocketfan]

@pimpmaul69 Thanks for providing that.  If you could share any more details or pictures of what you come up with on a custom game pad that would be interesting!

[rocketfan]

I did a proof of concept test on this public domain "jump n bump" two-player game on the Legends flashback.  Seems to work OK.  It is one button, so given the right button mapping magic, it should also be possible to get it to work on the Atari flashbacks.

 

 

For anyone who knows how to hack this in already (new entry in your runcommand.lfb) here are the core (place in /emulator folder) and the level files (place in /game on the Legends Ultimate Flashback):

 

The entry in runcommand.lfb looks like this:

   "jbdat")
 /usr/bin/startx /tmp/retroplayer.l ${dev}/emulator/jumpnbump_libretro.so  $gm  >/dev/null 2>&1 ;# >${dev}/output_jbdat.txt 2>${dev}/error_jbdat.txt
     ;;

 

The reason .dat (which is standard for jump n bump) could not be used is that it is already in use for some nes games.

 

It would be nice to make all the levels available into a new section for the devices.  I have also taken a screen shot of each level that could be used to make "box art" for each.  There is one main "Jump n Bump" image for the section "goto" box art.  Is there an artist out there who would be willing to create some standard box art from these  - one per level, and one for the section goto?

 

 

 

jumpnbump_libretro.so jumpnbump_levels.zip jumpnbump_shots.zip

Edited September 22, 2022 by rocketfan

[pimpmaul69]

51 minutes ago, rocketfan said:

@pimpmaul69 Thanks for providing that.  If you could share any more details or pictures of what you come up with on a custom game pad that would be interesting!

Look at my post above. I added the ini for 2 button 5200 as well. So first i made this cable. It puts player 2 fire on pin 9 (same as button 2 on a sega master system controller)then i modified a 3 button genesis controller. The start works like start on flashback and button A is “up” B is “fire” C is fire 21. The wire for pin 9 is wired straight to button “C”. Diodes on all these controllers are used to make start and select buttons function same as fb joysticks 

Then i modified an nes controller. The A button is fire 2 and the B button is fire. Start and select work same as flashback. 
Then i took an atari flashback 1 mini 7800 joystick and did all the same as the nes controller.

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by pimpmaul69

[rocketfan]

@pimpmaul69 That is very cool.

 

So, if you had to pick one - which is the best approach to use?  Keep in mind I am not too hardware literate, and also not even very good at using a soldering iron! 

 

I would like to find the simplest (and not expensive) way.  A classic NES controller from Aliexpress is cheap, but has the wrong connector, so I would have more work to replace that, correct?

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256804568525668.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.6ae447834kSSL6&algo_pvid=6e826629-210f-44df-b9a4-0db80318e3fc&algo_exp_id=6e826629-210f-44df-b9a4-0db80318e3fc-29&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000030348093122"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!USD!10.54!7.06!!!!!%402132f6d016638171118695647e9bc2!12000030348093122!sea&curPageLogUid=OuRhHck92MEQ

 

[pimpmaul69]

9 minutes ago, rocketfan said:

@pimpmaul69 That is very cool.

 

So, if you had to pick one - which is the best approach to use?  Keep in mind I am not too hardware literate, and also not even very good at using a soldering iron! 

 

I would like to find the simplest (and not expensive) way.  A classic NES controller from Aliexpress is cheap, but has the wrong connector, so I would have more work to replace that, correct?

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256804568525668.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.6ae447834kSSL6&algo_pvid=6e826629-210f-44df-b9a4-0db80318e3fc&algo_exp_id=6e826629-210f-44df-b9a4-0db80318e3fc-29&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000030348093122"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!USD!10.54!7.06!!!!!%402132f6d016638171118695647e9bc2!12000030348093122!sea&curPageLogUid=OuRhHck92MEQ

 

So a 3 button genesis controller is the best approach. Aftermarket is going to be different and most likely a terrible option as far as wiring since it will have a blob chip in it. I can make one for you if you are in the u.s.but i will have to locate a controller. You would need to make an adapter as well. This can be done with 2 9 pin extension cables. 

[pimpmaul69]

24 minutes ago, rocketfan said:

@pimpmaul69 That is very cool.

 

Question. In Atari Arcade when i went into the games it used to bring up the mame config tool so i could map the controllers. It no longer does that and i cant figure out why and how to bring it back up?

[rocketfan]

7 hours ago, pimpmaul69 said:

In Atari Arcade when i went into the games it used to bring up the mame config tool so i could map the controllers. It no longer does that and i cant figure out why and how to bring it back up?

This discussion only really applies to the Atari flashback, not Legends FB - well maybe it slightly applies to Legends FB but the mame button mapping is a different ballgame on those. 

 

It's a complicated topic!  It depends at least on the retroarch core being used for a given game, but also and maybe more so on the retroplayer (libretro front end program) that is used.  The rom extension controls the core used on these devices, and we are talking about mainly .zim files (mame2000) and ,zi3 files (mam2003).

 

Draxxon did a ton of fine-tuning work on that sort of stuff (hard to believe it was just early last year!) and could always remember the details better, but I did some digging and I believe it has to do with one of two things:

 

1) If there is already a .cfg file (mame button config) saved for the game, it may not appear anymore.  So, you might try renaming it and see if the config comes up initially when you start the game.  The configs are saved in /rom_aarc/data/mame2003-plus/cfg, and /rom_aarc/data/mame2000/cfg

 

2) .zim got swapped back and forth between retroplayer.x and retroplayer.9 during the fine tuning.  It landed on .x for some reason, but it's possible retroplayer.9 would always bring up the config?  Again, sorry - it has been a while.  You could do one of two things to try it: A) change your rom extension (and all-games.ini entries) to .zim9 from .zim - .zim9 uses retroplayer.9. or probably easier is B) temporarily modify the /emulator/runcommand script to change from retroplayer.x to retroplayer.9 for the .zim and .zi3 extensions, and see if the config menu comes back up.  Once you have configured things I suggest swap it back - since I assume retroplayer.x is better for whatever reason.

[pimpmaul69]

7 hours ago, rocketfan said:

This discussion only really applies to the Atari flashback, not Legends FB - well maybe it slightly applies to Legends FB but the mame button mapping is a different ballgame on those. 

 

It's a complicated topic!  It depends at least on the retroarch core being used for a given game, but also and maybe more so on the retroplayer (libretro front end program) that is used.  The rom extension controls the core used on these devices, and we are talking about mainly .zim files (mame2000) and ,zi3 files (mam2003).

 

Draxxon did a ton of fine-tuning work on that sort of stuff (hard to believe it was just early last year!) and could always remember the details better, but I did some digging and I believe it has to do with one of two things:

 

1) If there is already a .cfg file (mame button config) saved for the game, it may not appear anymore.  So, you might try renaming it and see if the config comes up initially when you start the game.  The configs are saved in /rom_aarc/data/mame2003-plus/cfg, and /rom_aarc/data/mame2000/cfg

 

2) .zim got swapped back and forth between retroplayer.x and retroplayer.9 during the fine tuning.  It landed on .x for some reason, but it's possible retroplayer.9 would always bring up the config?  Again, sorry - it has been a while.  You could do one of two things to try it: A) change your rom extension (and all-games.ini entries) to .zim9 from .zim - .zim9 uses retroplayer.9. or probably easier is B) temporarily modify the /emulator/runcommand script to change from retroplayer.x to retroplayer.9 for the .zim and .zi3 extensions, and see if the config menu comes back up.  Once you have configured things I suggest swap it back - since I assume retroplayer.x is better for whatever reason.

Awesome info! Thanks. So next question. Are you swate if joy2fire can be assigned in atari lynx. As of now button 2 is assigned to “select” which in reality is just left and right. In a game if you press select while trying to crouch it wigs out and doesnt know what to do. 

[pimpmaul69]

14 hours ago, rocketfan said:

This discussion only really applies to the Atari flashback, not Legends FB - well maybe it slightly applies to Legends FB but the mame button mapping is a different ballgame on those. 

 

editing the runcommand worked delightful! i finished the atari arcade. a lot was involved in configuring them. if i could avoid using the second player fire button i did. 2 games use 2 full 8-way joysticks so they are setup to use dual sticks. player 1 "select" gives coins for both players. player 2 fire button is the player 2 start button. even in games that share player 1"s controller. some games are only 1 player because i couldnt edit them at all. gauntlet is only 1 player as player 2 has no second button for magic. if i had a legends fb i would do slight editing for that as a lot of these atari arcade games wouldnt work on either before i configured them. once i get some more extension cables in i am going to create a splitter cable so i can hook up both a joystick and a set of paddles at the same time. if i can setup paddles that way and run both at the same time, then i will modify xbox controllers to do everything. here are the cfg files. 

atari fb.zip

Edited September 23, 2022 by pimpmaul69
more info