Gamestation Pro

[SoulBlazer]

6 minutes ago, donjn said:

I think we are starting to see a clear picture...Gamestation Pro is kind of a piece of junk. I am glad because I don't want to own both as I am looking forward to the Atari 2600+.

 

I will still defend the GSP as being a very good plug and play.  I have no reason to mod mine, though, as I have a MAME cab and an emulation system for all of the other games.

The joysticks are good, the bonus games are a nuice touch, and it's cheaper then the 2600+.

[just_lou]

2 minutes ago, SoulBlazer said:

I will still defend the GSP as being a very good plug and play.  I have no reason to mod mine, though, as I have a MAME cab and an emulation system for all of the other games.

The joysticks are good, the bonus games are a nuice touch, and it's cheaper then the 2600+.

Agreed.....And a lot of the hate is coming from people that don't even own it. 

[Shannon]

1 hour ago, donjn said:

I think we are starting to see a clear picture...Gamestation Pro is kind of a piece of junk. I am glad because I don't want to own both as I am looking forward to the Atari 2600+.

 

 

I ended up asking my sister to return the one she picked up for me.  I figured it wasn't worth the hassle.   I have way many other options to get my classic fix.  Many of which are far less hassle. 

[donjn]

57 minutes ago, Shannon said:

 

I ended up asking my sister to return the one she picked up for me.  I figured it wasn't worth the hassle.   I have way many other options to get my classic fix.  Many of which are far less hassle. 

Yep. And I don't need to own this thing to know it is not for me. I think it's a piece of junk. This does not mean I am a 'hater". I have done exhaustive research on this product and watched hours worth of testing and videos. And sadly I have started hearing reports of it breaking after a couple weeks or a month of use. I WANT to love this product but there are way too many things I don't like about it. I am surprised @SoulBlazer loves the joystick, I think he is one of the first I've heard that likes it. But what matters is, if he likes it, then great, it's great for him.

 

Find what you like. I like my Atari VCS classic joystick with the spinner that I got working in Stella, and even the Atari 50th Anniversary program for pong, breakout games etc, and determined I really have no need for this system. I am curious what firmware updates if any they will include though.

 

[SoulBlazer]

4 minutes ago, donjn said:

Yep. And I don't need to own this thing to know it is not for me. I think it's a piece of junk. This does not mean I am a 'hater". I have done exhaustive research on this product and watched hours worth of testing and videos. And sadly I have started hearing reports of it breaking after a couple weeks or a month of use. I WANT to love this product but there are way too many things I don't like about it. I am surprised @SoulBlazer loves the joystick, I think he is one of the first I've heard that likes it. But what matters is, if he likes it, then great, it's great for him.

 

Find what you like. I like my Atari VCS classic joystick with the spinner that I got working in Stella, and even the Atari 50th Anniversary program for pong, breakout games etc, and determined I really have no need for this system. I am curious what firmware updates if any they will include though.

 

That's a fair viewpoint.  I've always said from the start that as far as a PURE Plug and Play goes the GBP is the best of the crop I've owned and played.  If you just want to give the system to a old person who grew up with these games and just wants to relieve the past, you can't go wrong with this.

It seems most issues people are having with the system comes from trying to hack or mod it -- which I'm not doing with mine.  Not that I won't at some point, I'm sure, but I have no interest or need to doing so now.

I think for hacking/modding, the upcoming 2600+ will be better suited for that, as long as you don't mind paying the higher price point.

[donjn]

5 minutes ago, SoulBlazer said:

That's a fair viewpoint.  I've always said from the start that as far as a PURE Plug and Play goes the GBP is the best of the crop I've owned and played.  If you just want to give the system to a old person who grew up with these games and just wants to relieve the past, you can't go wrong with this.

It seems most issues people are having with the system comes from trying to hack or mod it -- which I'm not doing with mine.  Not that I won't at some point, I'm sure, but I have no interest or need to doing so now.

I think for hacking/modding, the upcoming 2600+ will be better suited for that, as long as you don't mind paying the higher price point.

I tested the Atari Flashbacks and hated all of them. So if this is better then yes, it may just be the best of the plug and play Atari systems. It may be a low bar but it might also be better. Both can be true.
And yes, your point about an older person who is not an Atari nerd like us is valid, to just fire it up and play.

 

[famicommander]

2 hours ago, just_lou said:

Agreed.....And a lot of the hate is coming from people that don't even own it. 

Or, perhaps, all the positivity is coming from people who did zero research and are now trying to justify their purchase to the people who expect decent emulation, decent controllers, and the product to actually contain what the box says it contains.

 

If Atari Flashbacks and Gamestation Pros are considered "good plug n plays" I shudder to think how bad one would have to be before people here actually considered it bad. Because compared to something like the SEGA Genesis Mini or the NES Classic these things are comically bad. Let alone a decent Android TV box, an HDMI cable and controller for any decent laptop or desktop, an Evercade, or a compilation of ROMs on your Xbox or Switch or Steam or Playstation.

 

These devices are pretty much the worst possible way to access Atari ROMs in 2023. You'd have to go out of your way to purchase an older, discontinued device to find poorer emulation than a Gamestation Pro offers. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by famicommander

[Shannon]

I have the Sega Genesis Mini, Nes and SNES Classic and the Sony Playstation Mini.  They all have their pros and cons.  They are certainly easier to setup and hack compared to the gamestation pro at this point.  My biggest issue with the NES/SNES Classic is your kind of limited to using Nintendo based controllers ( the plug ) unless you can find something to connect to the power port that has more than one USB Plug.  The Playstation mini is the USB power limiter.  I forget what the issue with the Sega Genesis Mini was.  It's been a while since I played with the three.

 

But they are all pretty decent.  I'd like to get the Amiga 500 mini.

[Atari8264]

I don't know of anyone that is hacking the Gamestation Pro.  Unless you consider copying files to an SD card hacking.

[Shannon]

2 minutes ago, Atari8264 said:

I don't know of anyone that is hacking the Gamestation Pro.  Unless you consider copying files to an SD card hacking.

 

Well I'm expecting the community to hopefully come up with something like they did with some of the other systems.  So at some point it may be a more credible "hacking" device.

[Domeshtan]

11 hours ago, donjn said:

I think we are starting to see a clear picture...Gamestation Pro is kind of a piece of junk. I am glad because I don't want to own both as I am looking forward to the Atari 2600+.

 

Well, I wouldn't say junk. I wanted it mainly for the 70s black and white arcade games which many probably wouldn't care much about. It has some issues out of the box but a firmware update could fix most everything. It seems to be running a MAME variant since roms work on the micro SD and I got the sound samples to work on things like Zaxxon and Eliminator. My Legends Gamer Pro has options to change controls and sensitivity (as well as tons of other things like dip switch settings for number of lives, difficulty, etc.) That would fix a few games right there if the menus were available. Like sensitivity on the Y axis in Basketball, Steering on Drag Race, etc. 

 

Also I did get the paddle to work with a few games on the micro SD card. 2600 Breakout and Warlords worked but Circus Atari, Street Racer and a couple others didn't. This seems to tell me it can recognize paddle games on the micro SD card IF it has the same ROM name used on the list of included games. (I just added all the ROM images from the games on both of my Atari Flashbacks so I had some already.) So if they just put in a list of all the paddle games that exist (and the variation of known ROM images) the added paddle games should work. 

 

Same happened with arcade versions on the micro SD card. I got Super Breakout and Warlords to work with the Paddle. Warlords was still screwed up with the semi-dead zone in the middle though. Worked fine on my LGP. So if a list of paddle games was included there. 

 

The problems I had with 7800 games was only with homebrew games, but I also had the same problems with other 7800 emulators. 

 

Other half working games (the 70s arcade games missing features like selecting track difficulty on Monte Carlo or selecting Cavity or Double on Super Breakout... I haven't tried the "newest" version of mame but if they work 100% now maybe a custom build could be made geared towards the older games and what the system could realistically handle. 

 

I'Robot and Food Fight (arcade). Not sure why they feel so "drifty". I'Robot plays awesome on my LGP. Let off the stick and you stop dead... Just the way it should be. 

 

It says Firmware version V1.20 under settings in the about menu with options to do a factory reset so things "should" be fixable if they decide to do it.

 

Only other thing that I think that would really help is showing the button layout for the arcade games. 

 

Oh yeah... Ultra Tank. Still need options for walls, mines, bounce shots, etc... But if they could have an option to move your tank like in Combat... It could be so much more playable if they could somehow map it that way. Same with stuff like Gravitar, Asteroids, Space Duel... If we had options to map the buttons and stuff so UP was thrust instead of the buttons.... little stuff like that can make a difference.

[42bs]

10 hours ago, SoulBlazer said:

I think for hacking/modding, the upcoming 2600+ will be better suited for that, as long as you don't mind paying the higher price point.

If I am lucky, I will own both. If it will be possible to add an SD card slot to the 2600+, I may return the GSP. But so far, the GSP looks like the better deal. It does not seem that there is a way to update the 2600+ firmware. I can see only 4 connectors: HDMI, joystick 1 and 2 and USB for power.

[+Mocotechprfl]

6 hours ago, Domeshtan said:

Well, I wouldn't say junk. I wanted it mainly for the 70s black and white arcade games which many probably wouldn't care much about. It has some issues out of the box but a firmware update could fix most everything. It seems to be running a MAME variant since roms work on the micro SD and I got the sound samples to work on things like Zaxxon and Eliminator. 

 

Please tell me how you got the sound samples to work on Zaxxon! I have the ROMs for Zaxxon and Super Zaxxon but can't get the sound to work! Let me know what I need to do to get it to work, including where to get those sound samples!  It's been driving me nuts!

Thanks in advance!

 

---- Mocotechprfl ----

[Domeshtan]

2 hours ago, Mocotechprfl said:

Please tell me how you got the sound samples to work on Zaxxon! I have the ROMs for Zaxxon and Super Zaxxon but can't get the sound to work! Let me know what I need to do to get it to work, including where to get those sound samples!  It's been driving me nuts!

Thanks in advance!

 

---- Mocotechprfl ----

I think I attacked it from all angles. Lol. I think sample sounds were not working for me at first. I had a zip file of samples in there. I also tried unzipping Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon and putting in an unzipped folder named samples with unzipped Zaxxon sound samples. (Also added one named szaxxon just to be sure). Think I still had problems. Well, after running some MAME games I noticed new folders on the card were created. (Sounds right). So now there was a new unzipped folder named samples. I dropped in unzipped folders of sound samples for some games (Zaxxon included). I think that's what did it. Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon and Future Spy had sound now. Also got Eliminator to work and some others. I don't know if sound samples changed over time but they seemed to work. Where I got the samples? It's been ages. I don't remember.

Edited November 14, 2023 by Domeshtan

[Domeshtan]

Well, I thought I could possibly "cheat" the paddle support for 2600 games on the Micro SD card but it didn't work. I noticed a couple games I had on the Micro SD DID work with the paddles, but only games that were already included on the system. Breakout and Warlords worked with the Paddle off of the Micro SD card for me. The other ones didn't. (Circus Atari, Street Racer, etc.) So I thought " Hmmm... It must be checking for the name of the ROM used. Breakout was named Breakout.a26 and Warlords was named Warlords.a26. I figured if the name matched what it was using on the system on the included games I might be able to rename a few games to Breakout.a26 and Warlords.a26 and the paddle might work. I tried deleating and renaming a couple games. Got rid of the original Breakout.a26 and Warlords.a26 and tried to rename Kaboom! to one of them and tried renaming some other stuff like Circus Atari.a26 to just Circus. I think they didn't show up on the card at all now. I deleated the files off of the card and renamed them outside and copied them over. Well... Kaboom! Had NO controls now. The joystick wouldn't even move the buckets. (Think I renamed that one to Breakout.a26). So it ran but with no controls. The Avalanche demo had no controls as well. I don't think it worked even when it was renamed back to what I had the name originally. I copied Kaboom! back on to the Micro SD card and it had controls again (only with the joystick). So I'm thinking it can run paddle games off of the Micro SD card IF they have the same ROM name used on the system but I'm thinking there must be some sort of checksum type test it needs to pass or you get no controls.

Edited November 14, 2023 by Domeshtan

[+Mocotechprfl]

1 hour ago, Domeshtan said:

I think I attacked it from all angles. Lol. I think sample sounds were not working for me at first. I had a zip file of samples in there. I also tried unzipping Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon and putting in an unzipped folder named samples with unzipped Zaxxon sound samples. (Also added one named szaxxon just to be sure). Think I still had problems. Well, after running some MAME games I noticed new folders on the card were created. (Sounds right). So now there was a new unzipped folder named samples. I dropped in unzipped folders of sound samples for some games (Zaxxon included). I think that's what did it. Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon and Future Spy had sound now. Also got Eliminator to work and some others. I don't know if sound samples changed over time but they seemed to work. Where I got the samples? It's been ages. I don't remember.

I do have a \samples folder from the MAME 2003+ references but I still think I'm missing some sound files from that folder that are preventing some games with sound from working like Zaxxon.

 

Edit. I figured it out by using my internet Google Fu skills. I found the corresponding sound ZIP files for Zaxxon, Super Zaxxon, Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong Junior. I placed them as their straight up ZIP files to the \samples folder and made sure they had the exact same ZIP name as the ZIP game name under \Games. One thing I found is that the sounds for Zaxxon and Super Zaxxon are identical. So I copied the zaxxon.zip sound file to another sound file called szaxxon.zip. All 4 games have sound now and I learned something new in the process for any game that doesn't have sound!

[nopaybob]

Get it open box for 60

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196080844091

 

[Domeshtan]

Well I downloaded and ran the newest version of MAME on my laptop and the issues with some of the half working games seemed to be fixed. Super Breakout had options for all 3 games under another menu, Ultra Tank had all of the features for walls, mines, bounce shots, invisible tanks, etc and mapped the controls to a generic Xbox one controller I picked up. Works sweet. Tournament Table had all the options available. So basically the problem games were figured out eventually. The question is... How hard is it to make a new build that would run on the GSP hardware? I have no clue on that but if the games were figured out and they don't need that much horsepower to run it should be possible to have fully working versions of those games I would think if they trimmed out all the stuff that would never run decent and had some control options for sensitivity and button mapping. Is it major surgery to make something like that due to the processor it's using?

Edited November 14, 2023 by Domeshtan

[Dutch_88]

I still haven't decided on whether I want to get this system. On the one hand it looks great, but on the other there seem to be some issues with it. 

 

Moreover, the system has these bonus, non-Atari games that I don't need on an Atari system. I know games can be added through an SD-card, but supported systems don't include SNES, does it? 

 

Anything else I am missing? What are the absolutely great aspects of this device? I'd like to hear... 

 

Also... would the Atari Flashback 50th Anniversary be a better deal? 🤔

[SoulBlazer]

3 minutes ago, Dutch_88 said:

I still haven't decided on whether I want to get this system. On the one hand it looks great, but on the other there seem to be some issues with it. 

 

Moreover, the system has these bonus, non-Atari games that I don't need on an Atari system. I know games can be added through an SD-card, but supported systems don't include SNES, does it? 

 

Anything else I am missing? What are the absolutely great aspects of this device? I'd like to hear... 

 

Also... would the Atari Flashback 50th Anniversary be a better deal? 🤔

Okay, I admit that I really like the GSP, but I can point out the pro's and con's from my eariler review:

PRO'S:
Great plug and play system, if you just want to use it
Good joysticks that include a paddle and the ability to play games on several systems.
System looks nice, most games have save support, good selection of games which include a bunch of Piko Interactive ported and new 8 bit/16 bit games
Good price

CONS'S:
Adding additional games can be hit or miss and has some issues, and as of now the system can't be updated or hacked
Paddle control is good but not AS precise as dedicated paddle.
You need a third party controller with a D-Pad to play many of the Piko games

Systems that people have confirmed they have added games for:
NES, Genesis, Game Boy (all flavors), all Atari systems minus Jaguar, Game Gear (and I THINK I saw Lynx also?)

Systems people can not get to work:
SNES, N64, Playstation, Staturn

The Flashback system (and the stand alone Atari 50th Anniversary Collection) are also very good, but I don't think it's fair to compare those to the GSP.

I think the MUCH better comparison would be with the GSP and the upcoming Atari 2600+.  It looks like you can do a lot more hacking/modding on that system (which is more in line to the interest of people here on the site) but you pay more money for it.

It really just comes down to what you want of the GSP and what you plan to do with it.

[TrekMD]

Mine arrived today!  They never sent me tracking info, so I was not sure when it was arriving.

[Domeshtan]

Now that is light-years better! Tried adding a few of the old artwork files on a couple games to the Micro SD card. This is how it should have looked on the included games. At least the option for it.

[Domeshtan]

Warlords turned out a little screwed up but I think the reason is that it is emulating the color version with the artwork. I'm pretty sure the one that had the nice background art was running a black and white version. Maybe some colors turn up invisible running it this way. Color version had no background artwork.

[Domeshtan]

Yes, I think this system is starting to look a little better.

[xboxiso]

How did you add the bezels to arcade games? They look really cool.