Ben from Plaion Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 (edited) 30 minutes ago, GoldLeader said: @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)) I've been looking for freedom! 0:57 really kicks off Atari could sell a nice jacket like that. Edited December 25, 2023 by Ben from Plaion 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 4 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said: I've been looking for freedom! 0:57 really kicks off Atari could sell a nice jacket like that. OMG! That's Brilliant! (Personally) I prefer the grind version (Merry Christmas Y'all!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 Well, Just in case there's some new members here (Remember don't talk about Fight Club*) who are scratching their heads about all this Knight Rider business... **Your initiation, pledges** Read this thread! (below) and I think you'll be glad you did! Also Once the New Year starts, we all start posting in that thread again! Sure some of us may jump the gun (Hey I Had to, my post also dealt with Christmas)... *I think you'll agree that the best way to get people talking about something is to tell them not to. Shout outs to all the actual HomeBrewers, who really do put in hours of Actual HARD WORK! Merry Christmas to you! CHEERS! 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperZapperRecharge Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 (edited) Merry Christmas to @Ben from Plaion. You have worked your ass off. The updated firmware has been, I feel, a project of passion. We will all appreciate the update! I amazed that Rikki and Vikki will actually work, I had my doubts!. Your attention to detail has been dedicated and comes from a true passion to the community. Thank you, Thank you. Thank you, @Ben from Plaion Edited December 25, 2023 by SuperZapperRecharge 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 7 minutes ago, SuperZapperRecharge said: Merry Christmas to @Ben from Plaion. You have worked your ass off. The updated firmware has been, I feel, a project of passion. We will all appreciate the update! I amazed that Rikki and Vikki will actually work, I had my doubts!. Your attention to detail has been dedicated and comes from a true passion to the community. Thank you, Thank you. Thank you, @Ben from Plaion Thanks dude, but I just shuffle papers around and email people. Here is a message elsewhere on AA posted today from the guy that's done the actual 7800 work for the update Merry Christmas to you. Let's hope it all pans out sweet. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raz0red Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Ben from Plaion said: Here is a message elsewhere on AA posted today from the guy that's done the actual 7800 work for the update Just to be clear, @RevEng has done a tremendous amount of work to make the 7800 portion of the update possible. Chris. Edited December 26, 2023 by raz0red 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperZapperRecharge Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 On 12/23/2023 at 1:04 PM, RevEng said: But Orson may sample the "update" a bit before the public does... Thank you. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamma Ray Posted December 26, 2023 Share Posted December 26, 2023 Another one for @Ben from Plaion I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but the 2022 release of Yars' Return is not working properly. The right side of the playfield is not drawing or reacting to shots correctly. The starting stage should have a circular barrier, but the right side is like a big rectangular block that you can't shoot while the left side is a semicircle that operates as intended. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dionoid Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 On 10/4/2023 at 8:25 PM, Ben from Plaion said: OK I'll make some PAL50 carts. Yup send me the NTSC cart and I'll send a PAL one back. I'm in the UK. Once I have some I'll post here and anyone interested can send me a DM to arrange. Hi @Ben from Plaion, does the offer for swapping Berzerk NTSC for PAL50 still stand? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 56 minutes ago, Dionoid said: Hi @Ben from Plaion, does the offer for swapping Berzerk NTSC for PAL50 still stand? Sure. DM me. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetmanUK Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 19 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said: Sure. DM me. @Ben from PlaionHi Ben, I have both Berzerk Enhanced and Mr Run and Jump but would like to know what the PAL versions are like. Are they 60hz? Are they full speed? Are there additional borders? If they are in any way comprised I'll stick with the default NTSC carts, but if they are equals but PAL then the compatibility with old hardware is nice. Thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 4 hours ago, JetmanUK said: @Ben from PlaionHi Ben, I have both Berzerk Enhanced and Mr Run and Jump but would like to know what the PAL versions are like. Are they 60hz? Are they full speed? Are there additional borders? If they are in any way comprised I'll stick with the default NTSC carts, but if they are equals but PAL then the compatibility with old hardware is nice. Thanks I would not recommend PAL carts at 50hz over NTSC at 60hz. NTSC is just miles better because of the 60hz. Even then look at Mario Bros NTSC looks much nicer then PAL cause of the better colours imo. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbug Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 I've used my 2600+ in a new video for my channel, hopefully I did not say too many factual errors regarding the Atari 2600 consoles. For some reason the Parker Brother "Frogger" cartridge stopped working and then crashed, I tried to clean the contacts, made no difference. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KainXavier Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 (edited) In regards to UI support, how about this solution: UI and other niceties are disabled by default. UI can only be enabled at boot. This is achieved by pressing and holding the Game Select or Game Reset switches while the Atari logo is still on-screen. Once in the UI, players can enable save states and also change whether or not the UI appears when no cartridges are present. You could enable other stuff here like Driving Controller emulation, external ROM dumping, and cheats. You could even add the ability to pause both 2600 and 7800 games through the use of the screen ratio switch. Oh and being able to switch between NTSC, PAL, and SECAM here would be good too! Ideally, any changes made here would be retained. If the UI is enabled, players can access the UI in-game by first pausing the game and then hitting the Game Select or Reset switches. You could even make Pause + Game Reset a hard reset that reboots the console. (This would be a good way to address any weirdness that results from hot-swapping.) Edited December 28, 2023 by KainXavier Fixed a typo and decreased the indents for some ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 10 minutes ago, KainXavier said: In regards to UI support, how about this solution: UI and other niceties are disabled by default. UI can only be enabled at boot. This is achieved by pressing and holding the Game Select or Game Reset switches while the Atari logo is still on-screen. Once in the UI, players can enable save states and also change whether or not the UI appears when no cartridges are present. You could enable other stuff here like Driving Controller emulation, external ROM dumping, and cheats. You could even add the ability to pause both 2600 and 7800 games through the use of the screen ratio switch. Oh and being able to switch between NTSC, PAL, and SECAM here would be good too! Ideally, any changes made here would be retained. If the UI is enabled, players can access the UI in-game by first pausing the game and then hitting the Game Select or Reset switches. You could even make Pause + Game Reset a hard reset that reboots the console. (This would be a good way to address any weirdness that results from hot-swapping.) All excellent suggestions. UI I'm going to do, its too much of a modern QOL feature to ignore. Someone tipped me over the edge the other day on AA when they said Mr Run and Jump could do with save states and I thought he's right. Thing is, as I understand it a lot of the config is done at boot with predefined settings from both emulators which then is controlled by libretro I presume for system wide functionality. Thats why I cant just switch on the amazing Stella UI without a serious rebuild of the whole systems software architecture. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 Personally I would always prefer a UI that can be bypassed altogether for that old school feel (but can still be accessed for tinkering) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted December 28, 2023 Share Posted December 28, 2023 Going to be releasing an update to AA shortly, check out the detail here 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
protomank Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 1 hour ago, Dr Karnov said: Personally I would always prefer a UI that can be bypassed altogether for that old school feel (but can still be accessed for tinkering) Just make two firmware versions. I still can't see why having a HIDDEN UI is so manacing to the experience, but whatever, just split it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_from_the_80s Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 I've anticipated some sort of UI, but I think it should be well hidden and probably only needs a very few options (scanlines), preferably by system (2600 vs 7800). At any rate for those who don't want it needs stay out of the way and hard to activate by accident. Save states, even rewind, I've had for some time on Flashback units, but I rarely use them. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbug Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 6 hours ago, protomank said: Just make two firmware versions. I still can't see why having a HIDDEN UI is so manacing to the experience, but whatever, just split it. As a programmer myself, I would really dislike having to maintain two different versions of a firmware, makes tracking potential issues more difficult because now you need to know if the problem happens only in one version only or both, and which one it is. 🙀 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 12 hours ago, protomank said: Just make two firmware versions. I still can't see why having a HIDDEN UI is so manacing to the experience, but whatever, just split it. The UI can be hidden by default. Just do not open it. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
protomank Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 5 hours ago, Dbug said: As a programmer myself, I would really dislike having to maintain two different versions of a firmware, makes tracking potential issues more difficult because now you need to know if the problem happens only in one version only or both, and which one it is. 🙀 I am a software engineer. The code would be the exactly same, just a flag to enable disable it would change between versions. I fail to see this being any issues. I do agree it is not ideal, but for some people here, it seems if you add the UI and saves they will be forced to use, like someone putting a gun on their heads, them and all joy of their livfes will be lost forever I still fail to see how such hidden option YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE are so bad. Maybe I am just the crazy one here, so I'll leave at it. Someday, someone will hack the plus and we'll end with a open source firmware that can do everything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbug Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 2 minutes ago, protomank said: I am a software engineer. The code would be the exactly same, just a flag to enable disable it would change between versions. I fail to see this being any issues. I do agree it is not ideal, but for some people here, it seems if you add the UI and saves they will be forced to use, like someone putting a gun on their heads, them and all joy of their livfes will be lost forever I still fail to see how such hidden option YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE are so bad. Maybe I am just the crazy one here, so I'll leave at it. Someday, someone will hack the plus and we'll end with a open source firmware that can do everything. Even if the source is the same, it's still two different binary packages, which means that some people will use the wrong one, and if a bug happens, you have to know in which configuration it happened. Personally I'm fine with an UI as long as it only appears as the result of an actual action of the player, so if you just remove and insert cartridges you don't see any UI by default. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 27 minutes ago, Dbug said: Personally I'm fine with an UI as long as it only appears as the result of an actual action of the player, so if you just remove and insert cartridges you don't see any UI by default. Exactly. Since the 2600+ has not extra buttons (besides the 16:9 switch), there would have to be a special input (console + controller) combination to enter the UI. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 34 minutes ago, protomank said: Maybe I am just the crazy one here, so I'll leave at it. It's the opposite, IMHO. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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