The Atari 2600+ is live for preorders!

[Zoyous]

3 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:

I've been playing with save states in some test firmware, it's activated by a press of a couple of levers which pauses the machine and brings up a rudimentary UI. I absolutely hate it. It's just so not in keeping with how games were played back in the day, it defiles the machine.

It's just a save state to help people take a break or learn how to get past a hard part of the game. I think defiling the machine would have to be something more along the lines charging $4.99 to customize the color of your square in Adventure.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 hours ago, Bakasama said:

Does that mean Atari could make a mouse if they get the TB working on the 2600+?

The Atari or Amiga mouse are already supported by Stella. They work like the Atari Trackball, just with different signal patterns. So if the TB works, these mice will work to. 

 

 

 

[hizzy]

So, is the consensus that this is worth getting? Is the Stella team involved in helping develop new firmware?

 

Thanks!

[+LS650]

Are you asking us to convince you..? 🤔

[hizzy]

54 minutes ago, ls650 said:

Are you asking us to convince you..? 🤔

Do people like it? Are the Stella team helping? I've read some of this thread and it looks like a firmware update is on the way that might make the 2600+ better. Is that right?

[Dbug]

13 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:

I've been playing with save states in some test firmware, it's activated by a press of a couple of levers which pauses the machine and brings up a rudimentary UI. I absolutely hate it. It's just so not in keeping with how games were played back in the day, it defiles the machine.

What about some intermediate option: Let say you play a game and you want to pause it because life happens (phone call, cat puking in the living room, ...), that could be something as simple as just changing the position of the 4:3/16:9 switch on the back of the machine (or the A-B difficulty) to trigger a PAUSE display (which could simply be the same font as used to display the LOADING when a card is inserted). Pressing any direction or button on the controllers would disable the pause and the game would continue.

Now, you can push a bit farther and automatically save the state of the current gameplay on the machine local storage, associated with the MD5 of the cartridge binary for example, which would allow some things like: The kids want to play one of the game, but it's too long and they want to try another one... well, just pause the current game, replace the cartridge, play the other games, and when a cartridge with a current save state is inserted, the save state is reloaded and the game is displayed in PAUSE like in the first option, you can then either press any controller option to resume gameplay, or RESET to start a new game.

It's basically providing pausing and save state without allowing for easy cheating by scum-reloading saves, which I think is an honorable compromise that does not ruin the retro feeling more than the current Atari logo and LOADING message 😅

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

5 minutes ago, Dbug said:

What about some intermediate option: Let say you play a game and you want to pause it because life happens (phone call, cat puking in the living room, ...), that could be something as simple as just changing the position of the 4:3/16:9 switch on the back of the machine (or the A-B difficulty) to trigger a PAUSE display (which could simply be the same font as used to display the LOADING when a card is inserted). Pressing any direction or button on the controllers would disable the pause and the game would continue.

Now, you can push a bit farther and automatically save the state of the current gameplay on the machine local storage, associated with the MD5 of the cartridge binary for example, which would allow some things like: The kids want to play one of the game, but it's too long and they want to try another one... well, just pause the current game, replace the cartridge, play the other games, and when a cartridge with a current save state is inserted, the save state is reloaded and the game is displayed in PAUSE like in the first option, you can then either press any controller option to resume gameplay, or RESET to start a new game.

It's basically providing pausing and save state without allowing for easy cheating by scum-reloading saves, which I think is an honorable compromise that does not ruin the retro feeling more than the current Atari logo and LOADING message 😅

Why defining complicated sequences if you can use a nice UI? I do not get it. 

[Dbug]

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Why defining complicated sequences if you can use a nice UI? I do not get it. 

Personally I'm fine with having a nice UI, but some people seem to find that repulsive, that was just an alternative suggestion to provide the basic feature without UI.
Could also achieve the same thing by having for example the "game reset" button use to trigger the pause, and then for example show two options: RESUME and RESET, which the user can select with the joystick/paddle/whatever.

It's not like there's a "select", "start" or "pause" button on the machine, so you would have to use some of the existing buttons in some ways to do different things.
 

[Sean_1970]

Personally I don’t require save states or pausing, however I like both options outlined above if that’s going to be a feature 👍

[scifidude79]

The difficulty switch works as a select button for 7800 games. I found this out trying to select tracks in Pole Position II. With the controller, I was only able to select two of the tracks, but I tried that switch and it cycled through all four tracks. I don't know if any of the other switches have functions for 7800 games, besides reset. That resets the game for both 2600 and 7800 games.

[lucienEn]

On 12/23/2023 at 1:17 PM, Ben from Plaion said:

Driving Controller and Video Touch Pad incompatibility are frequently brought up. Its interesting to me as they are just electrical messages being sent to the machine and if the CX40 Joystick and CX30 Paddles work then whats up with that?

See detailed discussion here. Basically driving controller is more like a mouse giving relative changes. I tested driving controllers while ago in Stella and worked fine.

 

[scifidude79]

1 hour ago, scifidude79 said:

The difficulty switch works as a select button for 7800 games. I found this out trying to select tracks in Pole Position II. With the controller, I was only able to select two of the tracks, but I tried that switch and it cycled through all four tracks. I don't know if any of the other switches have functions for 7800 games, besides reset. That resets the game for both 2600 and 7800 games.

I tried all of the other switches on the console with 7800 Asteroids, nothing else does anything, besides the 16:9/4:3 switch. The rest have no functions for 7800 games. You'd think they would have programmed a pause function into the thing, since the 7800 had a pause button. The color/bw switch could probably be programmed for pause. Though, at least they added a select function for those cartridges where you need it.

[+Defender_2600]

2 hours ago, scifidude79 said:

The difficulty switch works as a select button for 7800 games. I found this out trying to select tracks in Pole Position II. With the controller, I was only able to select two of the tracks, but I tried that switch and it cycled through all four tracks. I don't know if any of the other switches have functions for 7800 games, besides reset. That resets the game for both 2600 and 7800 games.

 

 

[+Defender_2600]

52 minutes ago, scifidude79 said:

You'd think they would have programmed a pause function into the thing, since the 7800 had a pause button. The color/bw switch could probably be programmed for pause

 

It would be a very useful option, I've already mentioned it a couple of times to @Ben from Plaion

[John Stamos Mullet]

Maybe I’m just an old romantic for simpler times in gaming, but I kind of prefer that it doesn’t have save states or a pause button. Yes I know the real 7800 has a pause button, I have a modded 7800 hooked up too,  but I honestly can’t say I ever used it back in the day.

Edited December 25, 2023 by John Stamos Mullet

[Sean_1970]

2 hours ago, lucienEn said:

See detailed discussion here. Basically driving controller is more like a mouse giving relative changes. I tested driving controllers while ago in Stella and worked fine.

 

What about the Video Touch Pad? I mean Star Raiders not being actually playable seems like a big deal to me - and not just because it’s one of my very favourite 2600 games.

[scifidude79]

42 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Maybe I’m just an old romantic for simpler times in gaming, but I kind of prefer that it doesn’t have save states or a pause button. Yes I know the real 7800 has a pause button, I have a modded 7800 hooked up too,  but I honestly can’t say I ever used it back in the day.

Yeah, but sometimes the phone rings or the sudden urge to pee hits (gets worse the older I get) and I don't want to lose my hot run of Asteroids, or whatever I'm playing. I'm just saying, being able to pause games is nice.

[John Stamos Mullet]

21 minutes ago, scifidude79 said:

Yeah, but sometimes the phone rings or the sudden urge to pee hits (gets worse the older I get) and I don't want to lose my hot run of Asteroids, or whatever I'm playing. I'm just saying, being able to pause games is nice.

The pause button I can see. Save states are not my cup of tea though.

[Dr Karnov]

7 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

The pause button I can see. Save states are not my cup of tea though.

I can imagine using save states to keep a track of my hiscores (like I do with the Arcade carts on Evercade) but I've started a new "hi-score book" since getting the 2600+, so I'd be fine either way 

[Ben from Plaion]

1 hour ago, Defender_2600 said:

 

It would be a very useful option, I've already mentioned it a couple of times to @Ben from Plaion

Colour /BW switch pauses 7800 games in the new update.

[scifidude79]

19 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

The pause button I can see. Save states are not my cup of tea though.

Yeah, I don't do save states either. Games from that era were intended to be enjoyed in a single session, not played for a while, saved and then came back to later.

[JetmanUK]

28 minutes ago, scifidude79 said:

Yeah, I don't do save states either. Games from that era were intended to be enjoyed in a single session, not played for a while, saved and then came back to later.

In general I agree with this, not too arsed about console wide save states. 

 

The funny outlier being that Mr Run and Jump, widely advertised as Atari's first new 2600 cartridge game in decades would hugely benefit from a save system, although it's really more of a modern rage platformer than a game or the 2600 era anyway.

Tbf the system shouldn't be picking up the slack there, there should be a passcode system in the game.

[scifidude79]

56 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

In general I agree with this, not too arsed about console wide save states. 

 

The funny outlier being that Mr Run and Jump, widely advertised as Atari's first new 2600 cartridge game in decades would hugely benefit from a save system, although it's really more of a modern rage platformer than a game or the 2600 era anyway.

Tbf the system shouldn't be picking up the slack there, there should be a passcode system in the game.

Heh, I'm all for passcode saves. That's good and retro. I remember having those written in the "notes" section of various manuals.

[protomank]

I find funny some people (no one in particular here) are very against save-states, that is just an OPTIONAL feature. You do not ever need to use it, ever. But why would you want an option not to be available for people who do like it?

I do agree most 2600 games do not need this, but there is always Pitfall 1 and 2, Hero, Frostbite, Keystone Kapers... well looks like mostly Activision games, that would benefit.

Of course, in an ideal world, the game rom should be chacked to save between stages or some points (Pitfall 2 already has checkpoints), not giving an option for the user himself to sdave/load, but that is the easier way to implement saves. If someone wants to implement saves in games instead, I would love it.

[+GoldLeader]

@Ben from Plaion

 

Ben,  a friend of mine (Dirt Gherkin) was asking me if the 2600+ will play James'  HardWork's 2600 Knight Rider game?

 

(Quiet people,  Ben will know this (after being entertained))