Dbug Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 1 minute ago, Ben from Plaion said: And the cart works fine on an original 7800? I got it from eBay, I never had a 7800 before, the seller had a photo of the game running and the description said it was tested. "Atari VCS 7800 game ! Cartridge + Box + Manual good condition in working condition" Question: Do 7800 games require the 7800 pad to even start? I only have the CX40+ which came with the 2600+ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donjn Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 @Ben from Plaion I am curious about people who are not privy to using these cartridges and have a bunch of old ones slaying around. A lot of people who either find them in their closet or buy them on Ebay might not go through the trouble that we do by cleaning the contacts. All this rust and dirt, over time, is gonna come off and transfer onto the contacts of the Atari 2600+ unit. From what I see the contacts on the 2600+ are behind that plastic shield and dont initially look easy to clean. Was any in-house testing done using cartridges that are in bad shape, to see if their residue comes off onto the Atari 2600+ contacts? I don't think I will ever see the combination of brand-new and 40-year-old hardware merging like this again. The only comp is old records on new record players. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 32 minutes ago, Dbug said: I got it from eBay, I never had a 7800 before, the seller had a photo of the game running and the description said it was tested. "Atari VCS 7800 game ! Cartridge + Box + Manual good condition in working condition" Question: Do 7800 games require the 7800 pad to even start? I only have the CX40+ which came with the 2600+ Ok. No you don't need a 7800 controller to play them. Don't worry too much, I will look into this and report back. I value you taking the time to test and post here your experience. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Karnov Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 I have PAL Joust. I'll test it Sunday and let you all know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 4 minutes ago, donjn said: @Ben from Plaion I am curious about people who are not privy to using these cartridges and have a bunch of old ones slaying around. A lot of people who either find them in their closet or buy them on Ebay might not go through the trouble that we do by cleaning the contacts. All this rust and dirt, over time, is gonna come off and transfer onto the contacts of the Atari 2600+ unit. From what I see the contacts on the 2600+ are behind that plastic shield and dont initially look easy to clean. Was any in-house testing done using cartridges that are in bad shape, to see if their residue comes off onto the Atari 2600+ contacts? I don't think I will ever see the combination of brand-new and 40-year-old hardware merging like this again. The only comp is old records on new record players. ha yes a lot of old carts did not work first try, maybe 10% when I tested them, with a clean iirc the overwhelming majority then worked fine. Some that failed after cleaning also then failed on original console. Honestly, if you sat next to me testing hundreds of games and basically every one worked with the very very odd time one didn't Id hope you would have same opinion as me that this is more then an acceptable situation. Here on this forum we are primarily going to get reports of carts that don't work over carts that do and that has to be dealt with. But please refer to the compatibility list and have confidence that 99% of games work. Additionally games that don't work like Real sports Boxing will work soon with an update. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbug Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 I think really that's the main negative point on the product: Lack of documentation for people new to the system, so in this case the fact that old cartridges should be cleaned (and how to do it), how game select/variants work, etc... At the very least, that could be a page on the Atari website explaining all of that, a proper "quick start/faq" really Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 2 minutes ago, Dbug said: I think really that's the main negative point on the product: Lack of documentation for people new to the system, so in this case the fact that old cartridges should be cleaned (and how to do it), how game select/variants work, etc... At the very least, that could be a page on the Atari website explaining all of that, a proper "quick start/faq" really And what's the main positive point? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbug Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 3 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said: And what's the main positive point? The hardware feels right: Proper ports with proper connectors (legacy joysticks, modern video and power), proper switches, it feels well built and would feel just right on my shelf, and obviously the fact it can use the real cartridges, which yes indeed is less efficient than a menu system or whatever, but it feels good in spirit to open a box, take a cartridge and plug it into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 Just now, Dbug said: The hardware feels right: Proper ports with proper connectors (legacy joysticks, modern video and power), proper switches, it feels well built and would feel just right on my shelf, and obviously the fact it can use the real cartridges, which yes indeed is less efficient than a menu system or whatever, but it feels good in spirit to open a box, take a cartridge and plug it into it. Thank you. I can assure you we will make progress with instructional guidance and in the case of cleaning 40 year old cartridges it also makes sense to offer some tips. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben from Plaion Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 5 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: The article links to an "updated compatibility" list. It looks like the old one to me. Was I too fast? There was apparently 2 links on that page to the compatibility list one was updated and one not. It's being fixed right now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcinJ Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 1 hour ago, Zap1982 said: My 7800 collecting has started too now.. 🤗 I am glad I started to buy Atari 7800 cartridges two months ago. Now, the prices on eBay are a bit too crazy for me. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donjn Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 24 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said: And what's the main positive point? Oh, I am sure we can agree, LOTS of positives. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 Joystick bundled with console seems better than the one I bought separately. The second one is more loose and stick seems a bit rotated, hexagon edges are not in the right position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake67 Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 8 minutes ago, MarcinJ said: I am glad I started to buy Atari 7800 cartridges two months ago. Now, the prices on eBay are a bit too crazy for me. I started buying 7800 games on eBay in September after going through reviews of every original title and deciding which I wanted. In the end, I bought 13. Where possible (and financially realistic) I tried to buy sealed versions. At the very least an opened box with the manual. Dark Chambers is the only one where I thought I might need an intervention of some kind. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEANJIMMY Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 1 hour ago, Ben from Plaion said: ha yes a lot of old carts did not work first try, maybe 10% when I tested them, with a clean iirc the overwhelming majority then worked fine. Some that failed after cleaning also then failed on original console. Honestly, if you sat next to me testing hundreds of games and basically every one worked with the very very odd time one didn't Id hope you would have same opinion as me that this is more then an acceptable situation. Here on this forum we are primarily going to get reports of carts that don't work over carts that do and that has to be dealt with. But please refer to the compatibility list and have confidence that 99% of games work. Additionally games that don't work like Real sports Boxing will work soon with an update. Tested some PAL 2600 and 7800 games. Some work but many fail (no homebrews). They all work on the original Consoles! Of course I will try to clean them but it is strange they work on the old consoles... I get the usual black or corrupted screens (e.g. Pitfall 2600, Choplifter 7800, Xevious 7800). Commando 7800 PAL is special. It seems to dump and load fine but once you press the button to start the game, it resets to first screen. Well, as I said I will clean them but with Basketbrawl I only have one game which did not start on my old console... and it worked right away on the 2600+. Srange world 🙃 Is there a new compatibility list? A note "works on release x.y" in that list would be fine too. My tested games are in the picture. Left OK, right fail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Defender_2600 Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 It would be preferable to clean the old cartridges before inserting them into the new console, in order to avoid a vicious circle. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XEGS88 Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 (edited) My 2600+ arrived this afternoon. So far it's been a joy; the unboxing experience, dabbling with games on the 10 in 1 cart, playing River Raid like it was my favourite Christmas Day in the 80s again. Like a few people have mentioned I did have to give River Raid a good clean to get it working, but others that I have tested worked first time. I've tested one of my old joysticks with no issues. Tomorrow I might try a 3rd party one. I'm excited by the 7800 controller announcement. Edited November 17, 2023 by XEGS88 More to say Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForceInfinity Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 So is Atari itself running behind on the 2600+? Sad thing is I could almost get one faster from Amazon.com at this point than Atari; especially since I ordered while the Nov 17 ship date was shown. All I’ve seen recently was that they were getting ready to ship and nothing since. Order status from August 22 still says order confirmed. So I have no idea what happened to the order or even a vague idea on when it was coming 😞 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyous Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 7 minutes ago, ForceInfinity said: So is Atari itself running behind on the 2600+? Sad thing is I could almost get one faster from Amazon.com at this point than Atari; especially since I ordered while the Nov 17 ship date was shown. All I’ve seen recently was that they were getting ready to ship and nothing since. Order status from August 22 still says order confirmed. So I have no idea what happened to the order or even a vague idea on when it was coming 😞 Is it some kind of big surprise that Amazon has a faster distribution network than... well, anyone else in the world? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEANJIMMY Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 28 minutes ago, Defender_2600 said: It would be preferable to clean the old cartridges before inserting them into the new console, in order to avoid a vicious circle. You are right but they all look clean, got cleaned in the past and worked on my original consoles. I play these games quite often, therefore I picked them for the first test. Will clean them again... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 2 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said: Thank you. I can assure you we will make progress with instructional guidance and in the case of cleaning 40 year old cartridges it also makes sense to offer some tips. Maybe Atari-branded Q-tips? ..Al 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bent_pin Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 6 minutes ago, Albert said: Maybe Atari-branded Q-tips? ..Al Do you have to blow on those before you use them to clean your ears? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 7 minutes ago, bent_pin said: Do you have to blow on those before you use them to clean your ears? I think you may be confusing Atari with Nintendo here. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric-Dreams Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 7 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said: Heres some pics of the finished CX78+ WTF ! The result is superb and faithful to the original. I can't wait to get my hands on it 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForceInfinity Posted November 17, 2023 Share Posted November 17, 2023 27 minutes ago, Zoyous said: Is it some kind of big surprise that Amazon has a faster distribution network than... well, anyone else in the world? To be fair Amazon wasn’t an option at the time of preorder (at least not that I remember) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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