protomank Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said: Hasn't high import taxes always been a problem with videogame hardware distribution in Brazil? Not sure about today I bet the big three have dealt with that nowadays with Brazil being such a big market, but still in the back of my mind I recall lots of clone machines being sold and not official machines, interested to hear your view The (very, very dumb) law is that if you "produce" the item in the country, taxes are way lower. And by producing, it is just puttying all in a box with translated manuals and safety labels adaptations to local market. So, even in 1983, what Atari did was to make a deal with a company know for their quality sound systems (Gradiente/Polyvox) and sent all the major parts (circuits, PCB and other internals) to be put inside the box, and all good, the importing tax goes from 60% + other taxes to something like 10% to 15%. This is still done that way by Sony, for PS5, for example. But even if importing the object already assembled, companies have ways to lower importing taxes if they have a "factory" in the Amazon forest Manaus city, that is a zero taxes zone. I know Mattel is doing something like that to bring their products here, even if assembled in east Asia, because the price is not that high. Edited December 1, 2023 by protomank 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 3 minutes ago, protomank said: The (very, very dumb) law is that if you "produce" the item in the country, taxes are way lower. And by producing, it is just puttying all in a box with translated manuals and safety labels adaptations to local market. So, even in 1983, what Atari did was to make a deal with a company know for their quality sound systems (Gradiente/Polyvox) and sent all the major parts (circuits, PCB and other internals) to be put inside the box, and all good, the importing tax goes from 60% + other taxes to something like 10% to 15%. This is still done that way by Sony, for PS5, for example. But even if importing the object already assembled, companies have ways to lower importing taxes if they have a "factory" in the Amazon forest Manaus city, that is a zero taxes zone. I know Mattel is doing something like that to bring their products here, even if assembled in east Asia, because the price is not that high. I'm no regional macro economic policy expert, but from a layman's view I wonder why they insist on such restrictions to trade. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Also, this thread has hit 100,000 views. Time for a giveaway to celebrate! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bent_pin Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 3 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said: Time for a giveaway to celebrate! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 1 minute ago, bent_pin said: Let me raid the promo cupboard on Monday! 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Can't beat a giveaway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 2 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said: Wait does Xevious play, PAL cart 50Hz? Also Ninja Golf is good to watch for smooth scolling VID_20231201_212223.mp4 VID_20231201_212125.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Motion looks good in everything I've tried in 50hz VID_20231201_214203.mp4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Looks like I was mistaken with my Xevious cart. I just checked again and it's running in 60hz. It was sold to me as a PAL cart but I guess it could actually be an NTSC cart. Sorry! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 41 minutes ago, Dr Karnov said: VID_20231201_212223.mp4 VID_20231201_212125.mp4 Nice to see Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 6 minutes ago, Dr Karnov said: Looks like I was mistaken with my Xevious cart. I just checked again and it's running in 60hz. It was sold to me as a PAL cart but I guess it could actually be an NTSC cart. Sorry! No worries, any pics of the cart label? sometimes the sku code can give the region away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 2 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said: No worries, any pics of the cart label? sometimes the sku code can give the region away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 4 minutes ago, Dr Karnov said: Looked at a PAL and NTSC cart for sale on eBay and no difference in the label markings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 It was sold to me by a UK seller in a bundle of 5 carts, all supposedly PAL. Of the other carts, 3 load up at 50hz and the other one (Choplifter) doesn't load Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEANJIMMY Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 3 hours ago, Dr Karnov said: My Xevious PAL runs in 50hz Funny thing is, it worked fine with the release firmware, and a lot of people apparently couldn't get their PAL Xevious to work All, except you did not get it working😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 1 minute ago, DEANJIMMY said: All, except you did not get it working😉 Yeah, it's looks pretty likely it's an NTSC cart. Sorry for the confusion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 I just noticed that H.E.R.O. (NTSC cart) movement is inconsistent and extremely jerky... 2023-12-01 21-38-00.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atwwong Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Does anyone have the PAL version of 7800 Ballblazer to test with the new firmware? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_from_the_80s Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 I saw a YT comment somewhere, so I can't really take credit for this idea, but someone suggested new cartridges with a combo of the 2600 and 7800 version of the same game, as happened a few times, and include a basic game selection menu. Not sure a menu would be feasible, the system has to known which emulator subsystem to use, but I think it might be a novel application for the dip switches if doable, or just for mixed 2600/7800 future multi-carts in general. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 3 hours ago, atwwong said: Does anyone have the PAL version of 7800 Ballblazer to test with the new firmware? I do - I just need to restore my pokey chip back in to it as it didn't load when I tried it the past week 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 4 hours ago, remowilliams said: I just noticed that H.E.R.O. (NTSC cart) movement is inconsistent and extremely jerky... 2023-12-01 21-38-00.mp4 1.32 MB · 0 downloads At first glance it looks like frame skips. But something is weird. Usually the player should move 1 pixel per frame. So if a frame is skipped the movement should look like this ...1, 1, 1, 0, 2, 1, 1, 1... But it also does this ...1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 1... So after the frame skipped, a normal move follows. And only after that the double move happens. Maybe your TV is doing something strange. Or is anyone else experiencing this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcinJ Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 On 11/30/2023 at 9:23 PM, dancero said: do you have this cartridge? Not this edition, but apparently PAL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 4 hours ago, atwwong said: Does anyone have the PAL version of 7800 Ballblazer to test with the new firmware? I do. It's the same as on the shipped firmware 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 (edited) From my testing, on the beta firmware, the following PAL 7800 carts won't start, same as on shipped firmware: Food Fight Joust Choplifter Then the following carts start up but don't run correctly: PAL Ballblazer runs in 50hz and has same glitches as stock firmware (not playable) PAL Commando runs in 50hz, gets to title screen but resets when I try to start the game with button 2, same as stock firmware. Interesting is Ms Pacman. It starts in 60hz, has the same glitch as stock firmware (not playable). Definitely a PAL cart, complete with 'P' sticker. (Might be a duff cart) Edited December 2, 2023 by Dr Karnov 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 3 hours ago, Dr Karnov said: From my testing, on the beta firmware, the following PAL 7800 carts won't start, same as on shipped firmware: Food Fight Joust Choplifter Then the following carts start up but don't run correctly: PAL Ballblazer runs in 50hz and has same glitches as stock firmware (not playable) PAL Commando runs in 50hz, gets to title screen but resets when I try to start the game with button 2, same as stock firmware. Interesting is Ms Pacman. It starts in 60hz, has the same glitch as stock firmware (not playable). Definitely a PAL cart, complete with 'P' sticker. (Might be a duff cart) All these PAL 7800 games issues I beleive are emulation based and thats being adressed in a diffferent beta 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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