Gamestation Pro

[42bs]

On 11/8/2023 at 1:19 PM, smoore said:

Mine arrived yesterday, had a quick blast on Joust and Wizard of Wor - but very disappointed to find out that it can't handle 8-bit files.

 

There must be a way to modify/upgrade the O/S or firmware - just hoping that somebody smarter than me finds a way to do it!

 

 

Got mine today. I am disappointed by the massive lag of the joysticks. Also the paddle is horrible. Playing Breakout is not really possible.

 

I did connect via USB cable not BT, so I thought there would be no lag.

 

Anyone else noticed this?

[SoulBlazer]

9 minutes ago, 42bs said:

Got mine today. I am disappointed by the massive lag of the joysticks. Also the paddle is horrible. Playing Breakout is not really possible.

 

I did connect via USB cable not BT, so I thought there would be no lag.

 

Anyone else noticed this?

I've had no lag at all using the GSP joysticks via USB cable.  Make sure your TV is set to Game Mode and try using a different TV and/or different cable.

The paddle control is....fine.  It's not as perfect as say using paddles would be, but I can play every paddle game well enough with them.  Some games allow you to change the sensitivity settings.

[just_lou]

15 minutes ago, 42bs said:

Got mine today. I am disappointed by the massive lag of the joysticks. Also the paddle is horrible. Playing Breakout is not really possible.

 

I did connect via USB cable not BT, so I thought there would be no lag.

 

Anyone else noticed this?

I do not notice any lag using the controllers wired. Maybe make sure you have the controllers' wireless turned off when you have them wired up. FWIW, I don't find the lag to be massive even when wireless. Also, you can adjust the paddles sensitivity when you launch a paddle game.

[E. King]

5 minutes ago, just_lou said:

I do not notice any lag using the controllers wired. Maybe make sure you have the controllers' wireless turned off when you have them wired up. FWIW, I don't find the lag to be massive even when wireless. Also, you can adjust the paddles sensitivity when you launch a paddle game.

Good idea about turning the switch off in wired mode. I will have to try that to see if it helps as I was having some lag issues even when wired on certain games. Thanks!

[Domeshtan]

I picked one of these things up the other day for the old 70s black and white Atari arcade games mainly and there are quite a few issues in the arcade area.

Super Breakout - I can only get it to play the Progressive type game where the bricks move down. Cavity and Double I can find no way to play. 

 

Basketball. Super sensitive on up and down movement. Supposedly took trackball but the left and right movement is slower and more manageable. 

 

Tournament Table - Again I can only get Breakout to run and none of the other game options. Paddle also "jumps" at a point towards the bottom of the screen. 

 

Drag Race- Seems once you are in gear it can't go back. You can blow your engine at first but once you shift it never happens again. Also very sensitive on steering. 

 

Ultra Tank - Two of the buttons control 1 tank tread. Up and down control the other. Weird to control, but again... No other options for walls or mines, etc. 

 

Warlords - feels like a dead zone kinda in the middle turning the paddle like you need to turn twice as much when in the middle. And yes I am using it wired. 

 

Space Duel- Select is on controller 2 start. Took a minute to figure out. 

 I gotta go for now. (Work) 

But there are issues with some stuff.

[famicommander]

2 hours ago, Domeshtan said:

I picked one of these things up the other day for the old 70s black and white Atari arcade games mainly and there are quite a few issues in the arcade area.

Super Breakout - I can only get it to play the Progressive type game where the bricks move down. Cavity and Double I can find no way to play. 

 

Basketball. Super sensitive on up and down movement. Supposedly took trackball but the left and right movement is slower and more manageable. 

 

Tournament Table - Again I can only get Breakout to run and none of the other game options. Paddle also "jumps" at a point towards the bottom of the screen. 

 

Drag Race- Seems once you are in gear it can't go back. You can blow your engine at first but once you shift it never happens again. Also very sensitive on steering. 

 

Ultra Tank - Two of the buttons control 1 tank tread. Up and down control the other. Weird to control, but again... No other options for walls or mines, etc. 

 

Warlords - feels like a dead zone kinda in the middle turning the paddle like you need to turn twice as much when in the middle. And yes I am using it wired. 

 

Space Duel- Select is on controller 2 start. Took a minute to figure out. 

 I gotta go for now. (Work) 

But there are issues with some stuff.

Congrats, you've officially done more product testing than anyone who actually had anything to do with the release of the product. Atari should pay you.

[SoulBlazer]

I totally agree they should have included manuals with the games on the GBP.  Or at the LEAST more detailed instructions on how to play the game.  I've had to look some up on the net cause I didn't know how to play or what the controls were.

It just feels like a very cheap plug and play.  I still think it's a GOOD plug and play, but I question if 'we' are the main market for it.

However, the controllers are very good, it's a very hackable system, and it makes for a cheap emulation system.

[Atari8264]

I've been using AtariAge.com for the manuals which are needed to know what the game numbers are and how to play those 2600 games.

[Domeshtan]

Got a few minutes more now so here are a few other issues I noticed on it... 

Night Driver- Not sure how they have things makes for shifting and stuff. I finished my game and presto... The high score was zero. I'm like "what the...". I found out later I could hit the B button and it showed up. So they must have the difficulty switch mapped in there some how. Was supposed to be three possible settings. 

 

I'Robot- The movement feels "drifty". Like the longer you move in a direction the longer it takes to stop when you let go. I know the original was kinda analog but playing with an 8 way digital stick where you stop immediately plays sooo much better. I have it on my At Games Legends Gamer Pro. 

 

Food Fight- Arcade one feels weird like you kinda move circular moving around. Think like how your ship turns in Time Pilot. Yeah, kinda like that. I know the original was analog again but it plays much better on the included Atari 7800 version with the simple 8 way controls. 

 

Playing stuff like Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Gravitar, etc feels weird because thrust and shield type stuff are mapped to the other buttons. Awkward but kinda playable. 

 

Monte Carlo- I think this one is missing difficulty settings again if I got the right game. Like it says easy on the screen but can't change it. 

 

Issues abound but there are still plenty I like. Sky Raider is cool for the visuals for its time. Avalanche gets plenty of love. A little Dominoes for old school "Surround" action. Fire Truck took a little getting used to. 

 

The 2600 games seem fine and the paddle works better on them. 

 

Adding games paddles don't work unless it was on the list already before.

No Kaboom! *sniff*

 

It's hit and miss but I still will get use from it.

[+jgkspsx]

Bad stuff so far:
 

The controller keeps cutting out using wireless and I'm only sitting like 6 feet away.

 

World Rally's framerate and sound is atrocious. I made a comparison video with the infinitely superior Evercade version:

(Watch at 60 Hz to really see the difference.)

 

Arcade paddle has no sensitivity and the default sensitivity is bad. Avalanche is unplayable. Super Breakout arcade isn't great but at least it's playable.

 

I can also only play Progressive in Super Breakout arcade 😕

 

Quantum is nearly unplayable due to the way they mapped the trakball to the digital joystick.

 

They don't have phosphor turned on in Stella and some games don't look right as a result.

 

Some bizarre omissions in the game selection. Why not Maze Invaders??

 

It seems like there are missing button mappings in Meebzork and I end up stuck at this screen:

 

Sky Raider is interesting tech wise but no fun. Also it's kind of a grotesque game about bombing civilians. I'm glad it's included as a matter of preservation but I can't imagine playing it much.
 

Good stuff:
 

Cloud 9 and Runaway are fantastic games. I don't know why they weren't released before.

 

2600 games seem fine other than the phosphor and paddle games control decently.

 

5200 Frisky Tom played well and looks better than it did in videos. I still don't think they licensed it properly lol.

 

There are some really interesting and new to me games in the bonus games. I enjoyed Bad Street Brawler and Dash Galaxy. 

[+jgkspsx]

On 11/1/2023 at 1:19 PM, SoulBlazer said:

Speaking about Activision, it's REALLY weird the Gamestation Pro has ONE Activision game on here -- Boxing.

Is there a reason they could get away with using this one game?

There are some really questionable inclusions:

 

Boxing - Activision

Frisky Tom - Nichibutsu

Road Runner - Atari Games/Warner Bros

Space Raid - RainbowVision hack of Activision's Megamania

 

The last one is a bootleg so I can't imagine they could have licensed it if they tried. The first three are possible to license, but did they really do it...?

[Domeshtan]

Ok, I did a few tests so far with my At Games Legends Gamer Pro for comparisons to see how things turned out. I can be a bit more forgiving towards the Gamestation Pro on a few things now. I tried a few different cores on a few games. I mainly use a 2003+ custom core with sound sample support I think it is for games I want to play with a trackball for the spinner stuff, otherwise you are controlling paddle and steering wheel stuff with a joystick which is never good. 

 

Avalanche turned out fine and I got about the same results but had to turn down the sensitivity on movement. 

 

Basketball- Yeah... The up and down movement was crazy sensitive just like the Gamestation Pro. I don't know if that's normal but it's still way easier playing with a trackball as intended. Turning down the y axis sensitivity it plays nice on the LGP. 

 

Night Driver I can't figure how the buttons are mapped on it yet either. Like I can only see the analog settings. I think it has something to do with a possible custom save setup in the core I'm using. 

 

Tournament Table- Yeah, I can only access the Breakout game out of all the options. The old 2003+ core with the custom save stuff the game is pretty unplayable like no paddle movement.... Trackball or joystick. I tried a 2016 core and only could get the Breakout game to work again... Using the joystick. Yeah, quite unplayable that way. 

 

Ultra Tank- Tried a 2003 core that has a custom set up for dual joystick control. The dual joystick support worked fine. (Plays like Battle Zone controls and fire was mapped to the A button which works fine) But again like the Gamestation Pro you could only play the empty field with the shots you can steer. No options for walls, mines, invisible tanks, bounce shots... 

I tried a 2010 core and I could change the wall, mine, invisible tank stuff etc but looked like they only had tank controls for the player 2 side you could map. Couldn't get stuff to work. Player 1 only had options to map the fire button. 

I tried a 2016 core and I couldn't configure anything and nothing seemed to work for controls. 

 

Drag Race - Seemed to work better as I think more buttons got used to map the gears. I could find one to "blow your engine" again so you could shift down again. Also the steering sensitivity was crazy high again but with my LGP I could tone it down. Gamestation Pro you get what you get. Just harder to steer but both were very sensitive. 

 

So from what I am seeing so far, if the Gamestation Pro is using something like a MAME 2003 type core it looks like some of these games were not figured out all the way possibly or the controls (like Basketball) are just that way and are harder to play with a joystick. I haven't tried out every core I have but the major ones I have are like 2003, 2010 and 2016 and variations.

[Atariboy]

19 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Sky Raider is interesting tech wise but no fun. Also it's kind of a grotesque game about bombing civilians. I'm glad it's included as a matter of preservation but I can't imagine playing it much.

What Sky Raider is this?

 

The black & white Atari classic that I recall has you attacking war factories, transmission lines, bridges, oil depots, etc.

[Shannon]

7 hours ago, Domeshtan said:

Ok, I did a few tests so far with my At Games Legends Gamer Pro for comparisons to see how things turned out. I can be a bit more forgiving towards the Gamestation Pro on a few things now. I tried a few different cores on a few games. I mainly use a 2003+ custom core with sound sample support I think it is for games I want to play with a trackball for the spinner stuff, otherwise you are controlling paddle and steering wheel stuff with a joystick which is never good. 

 

Avalanche turned out fine and I got about the same results but had to turn down the sensitivity on movement. 

 

Basketball- Yeah... The up and down movement was crazy sensitive just like the Gamestation Pro. I don't know if that's normal but it's still way easier playing with a trackball as intended. Turning down the y axis sensitivity it plays nice on the LGP. 

 

Night Driver I can't figure how the buttons are mapped on it yet either. Like I can only see the analog settings. I think it has something to do with a possible custom save setup in the core I'm using. 

 

Tournament Table- Yeah, I can only access the Breakout game out of all the options. The old 2003+ core with the custom save stuff the game is pretty unplayable like no paddle movement.... Trackball or joystick. I tried a 2016 core and only could get the Breakout game to work again... Using the joystick. Yeah, quite unplayable that way. 

 

Ultra Tank- Tried a 2003 core that has a custom set up for dual joystick control. The dual joystick support worked fine. (Plays like Battle Zone controls and fire was mapped to the A button which works fine) But again like the Gamestation Pro you could only play the empty field with the shots you can steer. No options for walls, mines, invisible tanks, bounce shots... 

I tried a 2010 core and I could change the wall, mine, invisible tank stuff etc but looked like they only had tank controls for the player 2 side you could map. Couldn't get stuff to work. Player 1 only had options to map the fire button. 

I tried a 2016 core and I couldn't configure anything and nothing seemed to work for controls. 

 

Drag Race - Seemed to work better as I think more buttons got used to map the gears. I could find one to "blow your engine" again so you could shift down again. Also the steering sensitivity was crazy high again but with my LGP I could tone it down. Gamestation Pro you get what you get. Just harder to steer but both were very sensitive. 

 

So from what I am seeing so far, if the Gamestation Pro is using something like a MAME 2003 type core it looks like some of these games were not figured out all the way possibly or the controls (like Basketball) are just that way and are harder to play with a joystick. I haven't tried out every core I have but the major ones I have are like 2003, 2010 and 2016 and variations.

 

 

Good catch.  I had forgotten that they did not fix Night Driver by adding gear controls until way later in MAME.  So this is essentially a quality control issue.  The guys who put this together should have tested it better and possibly considered removing titles that had poor or impossible conttrol.

 

[Atariboy]

My enthusiasm for this is deflating rapidly. I think I'm going to hold out for it to be steeply discounted at this point.

 

I hope the Atari 2600+ delivers.

[Atari8264]

The GSP creates a config file for each arcade game on the SD card. Is it possible to run the zip file for these games and edit the config file to change the controls?  And could the aspect ratio be changed for some games too?

[just_lou]

3 hours ago, Atariboy said:

My enthusiasm for this is deflating rapidly. I think I'm going to hold out for it to be steeply discounted at this point.

 

I hope the Atari 2600+ delivers.

I'm completely satisfied with mine, but I'm just a 55+ year old reliving my youth. IMO, the system is better than any of the Atari Flashbacks I've owned. For me, just being able to play hours of the arcade versions of Zaxxon and Gorf  like I did when I was 16 makes it worth the price of admission. 🙂

[famicommander]

"Better than an AtGames device" is like saying it's better than letting Mike Tyson uppercut you to the groin.

[CapitanClassic]

18 minutes ago, famicommander said:

"Better than an AtGames device" is like saying it's better than letting Mike Tyson uppercut you to the groin.

Do you mean an AtGames device, “out of the box,” since the Nexus project makes many of the Legends / AFB X into decent emulation boxes. The only better device would likely be a Raspberry Pi (which requires more setup), or a PlayStation Classic.

[famicommander]

6 hours ago, CapitanClassic said:

Do you mean an AtGames device, “out of the box,” since the Nexus project makes many of the Legends / AFB X into decent emulation boxes. The only better device would likely be a Raspberry Pi (which requires more setup), or a PlayStation Classic.

...or just running an HDMI cable from pretty much any modern desktop or laptop to your television, or install custom firmware on one of many gaming devices that are already commonplace, or get an Android TV box, or one of those cheap Chinese boxes you see on every online retailer. It's 2023. There are countless ways to play ROMs. You would have to actually try pretty hard to do worse than this Gamestation Pro or an Atari Flashback.

Edited November 12, 2023 by famicommander

[the4thman]

It's not a perfect device, but I really like the feel of the joysticks. I like them better than the loose feel of the classic joystick on the new Atari VCS. 

 

To me this one does a great job on Atari 2600, 5200, and 7800 titles.

 

And yes I too wish it played A8 titles, but for what it is I'm happy with it. Plus I like the look of it too.

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by the4thman

[Domeshtan]

Here is a video of my findings playing the Gamestation Pro showing the issues I brought up. 

 

 

[+Mocotechprfl]

I bought mine at Costco.com as I have a membership. Got it within a couple of days. You do need a membership to get a username and browse the catalog. 

 

Here's the link.

https://www.costco.com/my-arcade-atari-gamestation-pro.product.4000198589.html

[+Mocotechprfl]

Duplicate 

[donjn]

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+.

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by donjn