The Atari 2600+ is live for preorders!

[fluxit]

1 hour ago, SparkleFork said:

Thanks Thomas. What would frame skipping be down to? Is it dumping the cartridge incorrectly, is the cart defective or something else entirely? Sorry for all the questions! 

I've seen something similar on the Retron 77 with a bad HDMI cable.

[Dalton]

10 hours ago, Tavi said:

I am a bit impressed the 2600+ will run a 128-in-1 game cartridge. I really would have thought it would choke on any multicart.

This cart uses a counter internally. When you turn the console off the counter advances to the next game. When you turn it on again, Atari "sees" only the 4KB memory segment as it was a cart with a single game. It's different type of "multicart" than UnoCart or Harmony.

 

This guy - https://youtu.be/4Spf_Mlpo7o - says he managed to load only the first game from 32-in-1. However, 32-in-1 is marked as "working" on the compatibility list. Probably he expected to see a game menu.

[Dbug]

I guess for a usable multi cart solution for the 2600+ you would need something like a cartridge with a large "ROM" split in many banks, and some button selector (like +/- or a rotary encoder) and a small display to show the number of the selected bank, it would still look like a standard cartridge for the console?

[Dalton]

11 minutes ago, Dbug said:

I guess for a usable multi cart solution for the 2600+ you would need something like a cartridge with a large "ROM" split in many banks, and some button selector (like +/- or a rotary encoder) and a small display to show the number of the selected bank, it would still look like a standard cartridge for the console?

There was a guy in Poland that once created a cart with LCD screen, with game selector - https://allegrolokalnie.pl/oferta/kartridz-974-in-1-do-konsoli-atari-2600. The cart automatically disables and enables console's power. He produced a limited run of 10 cartridges

 

 

I don't have it, but a multicart based on the similiar idea should work with Atari 2600+.

[+karri]

5 minutes ago, Dalton said:

There was a guy in Poland that once created a cart with LCD screen, with game selector - https://allegrolokalnie.pl/oferta/kartridz-974-in-1-do-konsoli-atari-2600. The cart automatically disables and enables console's power. He produced a limited run of 10 cartridges

 

 

I don't have it, but a multicart based on the similiar idea should work with Atari 2600+.

Sounds and looks as a design of Rafał. The same guy who created Dragonfly and the latest SN cart.

 

And the Ada cart for the Lynx. It is just too beautiful to be in daily use.

[DEANJIMMY]

10 minutes ago, karri said:

Sounds and looks as a design of Rafał. The same guy who created Dragonfly and the latest SN cart.

 

And the Ada cart for the Lynx. It is just too beautiful to be in daily use.

His stuff is brilliant🤗

As the dragonfly works on the 2600+ a rerelease would create a lot of demand I guess🤔

Maybe an update with WLAN and App😉

[Dbug]

3 minutes ago, DEANJIMMY said:

His stuff is brilliant🤗

As the dragonfly works on the 2600+ a rerelease would create a lot of demand I guess🤔

Maybe an update with WLAN and App😉

I would definitely be interested in getting a card where I could easily test homebrew games and demos, and even give a shot at coding a small something for the 2600 (or 7800, but I've no clue how the 7800 works!)

[xesf]

Finally received mine

[DEANJIMMY]

15 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

The shots are displayed every 2nd frame. If you cannot see them, that means that frames are skipped. No good.

Hmm, I am afraid I've seen something similar (frame skip?).

When playing Solar Storm PAL on the 2600+ I can see my own laser beam disappear from time to time if I hit the fire button very fast (I use paddles on a Multifunction/Mikrohändler with arcade like buttons).

With same cart and controller connected to my 2600 Jr I am not able to reproduce it, no matter how fast I hammer the button.

I played this game quite often on my unmodded 6er connected to same TV and did not spot this before.

[Ben from Plaion]

1 hour ago, Dalton said:

This guy - https://youtu.be/4Spf_Mlpo7o - says he managed to load only the first game from 32-in-1. However, 32-in-1 is marked as "working" on the compatibility list. Probably he expected to see a game menu.

I checked a 32 in 1 cart yesterday in the office and switching the machine off and on plays the next game same as original machine.

[SparkleFork]

23 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

The shots are displayed every 2nd frame. If you cannot see them, that means that frames are skipped. No good.

FIXED!

I have my dad's old Samsung 3D TV which is very cool but getting on a bit. I turned off all the picture enhancement/noise reduction filters and bingo, I can play Battlezone properly.

 

Paddles still don't work as well as I believe they should. Will try it out on my modern TV upstairs at some point which has a gaming low latency mode and see it that improves things.

[Bitsized]

1 hour ago, SparkleFork said:

FIXED!

I have my dad's old Samsung 3D TV which is very cool but getting on a bit. I turned off all the picture enhancement/noise reduction filters and bingo, I can play Battlezone properly.

I am having the same problem with Space Invaders.  I tried removing all of the specialty settings on our Samsung Tv and I still get the disappearing and reappearing cannon fire.  I tried this on two different monitors with the same results.

[Giles N]

On 11/21/2023 at 2:46 PM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

The game is great, no doubt about it. But you keep forgetting the target audience of the 2600+. Which is not us, but casual gamers, who want to relive a bit of their youth. These will mostly jump at big names, but not so much modern at homebrews. 

The audience you mention may be the initial, primary target audience.

 

Companies don’t loose much by thinking a couple of moves ahead, - or don’t loose much by catering also to second- or third- line audiences.

 

Atari’s primary competition in reality isn’t with the Gamestation or 50th Anniversary etc; its with everything else out there in the retro-game market.

 

In Norway, there’s one single retailer which comes up on a 2609+ Google search (of course within Norway), and the 2600+ got one review so far (which accumulates to one single user-review for the entire country), who gave it 2/5 stars for being emulation contra fpga and being somewhat shoddy and a bit unpredictable as to what plays or not.

 

I don’t say this trying to be some mr.Party-killer, but users are actually quite sensitive to what they both buy and get since they drown and swim in retro-stuff… (another thing here; if one buy this just to relive a little bit of youth-memory, well, it may be that those may be the most prone to disappointments on the category of originals-compatibility) 

 

On the note of constructive criticism, getting a firmware update which fixes major compatililty (lets say - 99% of originals)issues as soon as possible (preferably before Christmas or New Year), and deliberately goes for reaching second- and third- line target-audiences with later firmware-updates and more special cart-releases both for 2600 and 7800, is only going to serve Atari’s own interests. 

What I mention here^ , isn’t user-begging for retro-charity.

 

The standards out there are pretty tough, and Atari must chose if they want to impact or do stuff thats just barely hitting the mark, or even will get forgettable in very short time.

 

This sounds of course harsh now, but cutting through mediocre standards will only make everything easier later.

 

If the case is that its squarely not technically (or financially) possible - well thats another cake, and Atari must jot down some notes for what to get right next time.

 

I really want one myself, just for easy use with modern TVs, but its meaningless if many original classics and modern gems just won’t work.

 

Then I’d be stuck with using only original hardware.

 

And I also want these to work, so I can sell superflous carts thats accumulated over time through me buying packs/lots on eBay, and through that it could be that some old-school folks will pick up on Atari retro gaming again.

 

2600- and 7800- stuff aren’t at all heavily represented on the biggest Norwegian net-trading place compared to Sega, Nintendo and Sony.

 

It could be that the situation may be similar in other countries.

 

And if Atari want to sell alot of retro-gaming things, they need to be good at it, not just making it to the usual core-fans.

 

- - -

 

On Monday I seriously considered picking one up, but felt I needed to know this will have broader compatibility. And I hope it will. I find it very encouraging that it seems the work on firmware-updates is systematically progressing.

 

But I just don’t see any meaning in stopping there, if larger sets of game-categories also can be made to work, even published by Atari themselves.

 

Impacting the retro-game scene, rather than just hanging around there, will have to have that extra cost to it in effort and costs.

This long comment is as much a general comment everything 2600+ as some afterthought on why I’d like to see Rikki and Vikki compatibility happening in some future firmware-update.

 

It’s sort of - sure, those classics first.

But why stop there, if the goal is to grow in the retro-gaming market…?

[Brad_from_the_80s]

How does one pause a 7800 game?  The Color/B&W switch seems not to do the trick.  Is there a way to pause or did they just not think about that?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

7 hours ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

How does one pause a 7800 game?  The Color/B&W switch seems not to do the trick.  Is there a way to pause or did they just not think about that?

Have you tried the B/W switch? Maybe switching twice?

[Dbug]

8 hours ago, Giles N said:

In Norway, there’s one single retailer which comes up on a 2609+ Google search (of course within Norway), and the 2600+ got one review so far (which accumulates to one single user-review for the entire country), who gave it 2/5 stars for being emulation contra fpga and being somewhat shoddy and a bit unpredictable as to what plays or not.

I had mine preordered at Elkjøp, I did not put a review yet because I was waiting for a firmware update to fix the issues with the PAL games.
I found it unfair to consumer to give it a 5/5 considering that most 7800 PAL games are not working properly, but I would find it unfair to the people making the device to tank it with a 3/5 if that is an issue that can be fixed by a simple firmware update .

[SparkleFork]

12 hours ago, Bitsized said:

I am having the same problem with Space Invaders.  I tried removing all of the specialty settings on our Samsung Tv and I still get the disappearing and reappearing cannon fire.  I tried this on two different monitors with the same results.

I believe Motion Plus was the culprit. I found it in the TV settings under "Picture" and then all the way down to "Picture Options". I went back and turned all the other filters back on except for it and it still works.

[Giles N]

7 hours ago, Dbug said:

I had mine preordered at Elkjøp, I did not put a review yet because I was waiting for a firmware update to fix the issues with the PAL games.
I found it unfair to consumer to give it a 5/5 considering that most 7800 PAL games are not working properly, but I would find it unfair to the people making the device to tank it with a 3/5 if that is an issue

Ah - another one from Norway. Sorry if I hadn’t picked up on that before. 
 

I also think its fair to keep in mind, many buyers don’t take the category of ‘later firmware-updates’ into account at all.

Many buy (will) it, and go with what comes right out of the box.

The reviewer gave it 2/5, and I being here think it very likely (now) that they’ll be able to make firmware-updates that’ll make it much more functional, so I wait around to buy it ‘til that happens. I think. I may buy one to test it and post here, but I don’t know whether what they need is more testing-info rather than just time for firmware developement.

Anyway, if this will an easy way for retro gamers in Norway to collect the best games for 2600 and 7800, bypassing all the stuff about PAL/NTSC and crt-tvs and 110-240 scalers etc, it may suddenly become doable enough for those who’ve filled their SMS, NES, MD and SNES shelves already but want to have a more complete retro-collection.

 

Was the 2600 too early a thing to get a market in Norway?

Did the 7800 actually have a market?

 

I remember friends telling me, when I was around 11-12, they’d played a console with a better version of Hang On than SMS itself had (I figure it must have been Motor Psycho) and also some girls telling me that what I drew for a little cartoon/series thing on school, looked like a horror-game they or their brothers at home had played (must have been midnight mutants, going by the perspective). So the 7800 must have been known by some. But I hardly remember seeing it featured in the stores back then.

 

Anyway, - I’d like to be able to give it a fair user review.

So I’ll just wait to see if some firmware update will come around to sort out the worst problems…

 

And in the review, I can say, yes out-of-box, it does this and that, but get the latest firmware-update and it’ll become so much better…

 

I hope that happens…

Edited November 24, 2023 by Giles N

[Ben from Plaion]

2 hours ago, Giles N said:

Ah - another one from Norway. Sorry if I hadn’t picked up on that before. 
 

I also think its fair to keep in mind, many buyers don’t take the category of ‘later firmware-updates’ into account at all.

Many buy (will) it, and go with what comes right out of the box.

The reviewer gave it 2/5, and I being here think it very likely (now) that they’ll be able to make firmware-updates that’ll make it much more functional, so I wait around to buy it ‘til that happens. I think. I may buy one to test it and post here, but I don’t know whether what they need is more testing-info rather than just time for firmware developement.

Anyway, if this will an easy way for retro gamers in Norway to collect the best games for 2600 and 7800, bypassing all the stuff about PAL/NTSC and crt-tvs and 110-240 scalers etc, it may suddenly become doable enough for those who’ve filled their SMS, NES, MD and SNES shelves already but want to have a more complete retro-collection.

 

Was the 2600 too early a thing to get a market in Norway?

Did the 7800 actually have a market?

 

I remember friends telling me, when I was around 11-12, they’d played a console with a better version of Hang On than SMS itself had (I figure it must have been Motor Psycho) and also some girls telling me that what I drew for a little cartoon/series thing on school, looked like a horror-game they or their brothers at home had played (must have been midnight mutants, going by the perspective). So the 7800 must have been known by some. But I hardly remember seeing it featured in the stores back then.

 

Anyway, - I’d like to be able to give it a fair user review.

So I’ll just wait to see if some firmware update will come around to sort out the worst problems…

 

And in the review, I can say, yes out-of-box, it does this and that, but get the latest firmware-update and it’ll become so much better…

 

I hope that happens…

We're of course planning a software update taking into consideration feedback provided here on AA and elsewhere. Naturally we want it out asap, but its not that an easy of task. Within the next week or two I'll post here on what the plans are.

[Brad_from_the_80s]

10 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Have you tried the B/W switch? Maybe switching twice?

I did.  No dice.  I think having to switch twice would be kinda clumsy.  Would be nice if flipping to B/W is pause and flipping to Color is resume for 7800 games.

[Brad_from_the_80s]

I think on any software update you all will of course want them to have re-tested potentially hundreds of games to make sure there are no regressions, so on that basis alone it can only come so quickly.  And they will have to prioritize certain issues and features over others.  I'll be interested to see where we're at in a few months time.

[Albert]

13 minutes ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

I did.  No dice.  I think having to switch twice would be kinda clumsy.  Would be nice if flipping to B/W is pause and flipping to Color is resume for 7800 games.

Ideally it wouldn't matter what position it was in initially, but toggling it should cause the 7800 to pause or unpause, depending on what state the system is currently in. 

 

 ..Al

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

I think on any software update you all will of course want them to have re-tested potentially hundreds of games to make sure there are no regressions, so on that basis alone it can only come so quickly.  And they will have to prioritize certain issues and features over others.  I'll be interested to see where we're at in a few months time.

That may be so. And it may take several firmware-updates to get things at the highest potential this unit can achieve.

Yet, it is built around PC-hardware and there exists quite alot of emulation-information, guess, both right here (AA) and ‘out there’ on the net. This gives at least a good/logical starting-point as to what have worked before and not. 
 

 

[tradyblix]

I wouldn't mind pause, mainly for Solaris. (not a 7800 game tho so - oh well) 

 

It's not a feature I care too much about, way more interested in getting some more games working

Edited November 24, 2023 by tradyblix

[Dbug]

3 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:

We're of course planning a software update taking into consideration feedback provided here on AA and elsewhere. Naturally we want it out asap, but its not that an easy of task. Within the next week or two I'll post here on what the plans are.

I'm a software developer myself, I understand the time it takes to get updates done, tested, validated, etc... obviously ASAP is good, but better late than broken