Gamestation Pro

[SuperSamyon]

This seems to be everything we wanted the Atari 2600+ to be. My goodness Atari is canabalizing their own market space. If I'm able to dump the homebrew games I purchased into this emulator this is a no brainer for me. 

 

If the community mods can make this device sing, I'm in. 

[Living Room Arcade]

On 9/18/2023 at 9:44 PM, Defender_2600 said:

So, it has already been shown that it is possible to add 2600, 5200, 7800, NES and Genesis games.

 

For 5200 emulation looks like they are using Altirra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you @Defender_2600

 

Jon said he turns the GSP off and on to see this screen, then chooses Micro SD Card, then sees list of ROMS he has installed.

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Living Room Arcade

[Cilantro55]

3 hours ago, SuperSamyon said:

This seems to be everything we wanted the Atari 2600+ to be. My goodness Atari is canabalizing their own market space. If I'm able to dump the homebrew games I purchased into this emulator this is a no brainer for me. 

 

If the community mods can make this device sing, I'm in. 

 

The market for the 2600+ seems to be those with old cartridges or willing to hunt for them... that's more of a niche market.

[Atariboy]

20 hours ago, tkarner said:

I don't know, it's unclear but I get the impression that those USB ports are just for charging the joysticks.

Happily that ended up not being correct.

 

The USB to USB-C adapter that my arcade stick came with (for Neo Geo Mini compatibility, iirc) might actually finally have a use. Looks like how well a controller performs is hit or miss (no way to remap anything here), but probably most people that are buying one of these have a fairly large pool of controller candidates. So for anyone that decides they want to use an alternative controller here, they'll probably not have too much trouble locating one in their collection that's a good match.

 

I wonder if the 8BitDo arcade stick will work on this wirelessly with the bundled USB 2.4g receiver plugged into the Gamestation Pro with a USB to USB-C adapter. 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Atariboy

[phaeron]

11 hours ago, Fred_M said:

I watched these videos too and I am sure that this system is NOT using Altirra. AFAIK Altirra is only available for Windows systems. I am quite sure that you can not buy a Windows system for 99 dollars. In the Genx video you see the Altirra kernel rom mentioned on screen before loading Ballblazer. I think the emulator on the My Arcade is using the Altirra Bios (which is not compatible with many games) in stead of using the original 5200/800 ones. And that is weird, because this is an official licensed product. @phaeron What do you think of this?

 

I haven't had any involvement with this device or company, so I don't know anything other than what people have reported, but yes, most likely they are only using the AltirraOS/5200 ROM. It's unlikely that they would have used the main emulator itself, partly due to platform and partly due to the license.

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 9/20/2023 at 9:51 AM, Fred_M said:

AFAIK Altirra is only available for Windows systems.

This is correct.  Further to that:

On 9/20/2023 at 9:51 AM, Fred_M said:

I am quite sure that you can not buy a Windows system for 99 dollars.

In theory, they could be running Altirra under WINE, or using the Altirra OS ROMs with a different emulator.  The latter would be relatively simple; the former not so much.

 

To my mind, it seems like the smart thing to do would be to use a MAME build with only the drivers needed for the platform.  That brings us neatly on to the following:

On 9/20/2023 at 9:51 AM, Fred_M said:

When Ballblazer starts you hear the same distorted sound as the libretro 800 core. I am sure this console is using the libretro core.

Entirely possible.  They could even be using libretro for the whole thing.  If they are, emulation is gonna suck.  libretro blows, and for a lot more reasons than just that.

 

I'll step down off of the libretro soapbox now.

[Fred_M]

2 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

To my mind, it seems like the smart thing to do would be to use a MAME build with only the drivers needed for the platform.  That brings us neatly on to the following:

Entirely possible.  They could even be using libretro for the whole thing.  If they are, emulation is gonna suck.  libretro blows, and for a lot more reasons than just that.

Well, in the video the presenter puts an SD card in the Gamepro with a NES game and the game starts 🤣

 

Video starts at the moment the presenter is loading the Zelda game

[Living Room Arcade]

15 minutes ago, Fred_M said:

Well, in the video the presenter puts an SD card in the Gamepro with a NES game and the game starts 🤣

 

Video starts at the moment the presenter is loading the Zelda game

In the Q&A, he said that the paddles don't work with games that you install on the SD card.  

Edited September 21, 2023 by Living Room Arcade

[JPF997]

Can someone sell me on this thing? It looks nothing like an Atari, it feels like just another AT Games flashback console with a different name,  only about 130 games are actual Atari games the rest are generic free games, the controller's have this obvious third party controller look to them, nothing about this system makes me want it over the 2600+ that's also coming out very soon (if anyone says it's better because it has 200 built-in games just remember that you can buy the 2600+ and the Atari 50 collection, get a similar amount of games and a much better product overall).

[donjn]

9 minutes ago, Living Room Arcade said:

In the Q&A, he said that the paddles don't work with games that you install on the SD card.  

So that kills Kaboom and Crackpots, you can only use them for Breakouts, Warlords, etc.

[donjn]

1 minute ago, JPF997 said:

Can someone sell me on this thing? It looks nothing like an Atari, it feels like just another AT Games flashback console with a different name,  only about 130 games are actual Atari games the rest are generic free games, the controller's have this obvious third party controller look to them, nothing about this system makes me want it over the 2600+ that's also coming out very soon (if anyone says it's better because it has 200 built-in games just remember that you can buy the 2600+ and the Atari 50 collection, get a similar amount of games and a much better product overall).

Well, you sound like you have your mind made up.

• If you DON'T have cartridges laying around and want to play the full library, you can add your own roms.
• For us older people, you don't need your reading glasses and tweezers to select games via that horrible dip switch idea on the 2600+ 10 in 1 cart.
• Some of us are used to hitting START and SELECT via a joystick, as your setup might have the console further away from you.
• The convenience of having a built-in paddle is nice.
• It can play 2600, 7800 AND 5200 games which is great. I'm tired of the 5200 being the red-headed stepchild of Atari.

 

[JPF997]

4 minutes ago, donjn said:

Well, you sound like you have your mind made up.

• If you DON'T have cartridges laying around and want to play the full library, you can add your own roms.
• For us older people, you don't need your reading glasses and tweezers to select games via that horrible dip switch idea on the 2600+ 10 in 1 cart.
• Some of us are used to hitting START and SELECT via a joystick, as your setup might have the console further away from you.
• The convenience of having a built-in paddle is nice.
• It can play 2600, 7800 AND 5200 games which is great. I'm tired of the 5200 being the red-headed stepchild of Atari.

 

I'm not saying it's a bad product by any means, it looks to be of good quality, it just feels like something we've already seen a million times before, the 2600+ just has this unique feel to it, it's hard to describe, i guess it just doesn't feel like it's just another soulless flashback console if you get my meaning.

[donjn]

10 minutes ago, JPF997 said:

I'm not saying it's a bad product by any means, it looks to be of good quality, it just feels like something we've already seen a million times before, the 2600+ just has this unique feel to it, it's hard to describe, i guess it just doesn't feel like it's just another soulless flashback console if you get my meaning.

I didn't say you said it was bad lol.

You asked someone to sell you on it and there you go. That's the best I can do.

I will say it takes up less space and does have that Atari Junior or Raiders of the Lost Ark, and ET silver and red boxed look to it.

 

But yes its hard to beat the look of the 2600+.

But oddly, it might feel weird plugging a 7800 cartridge into a system that looks like a 2600. I mean, if we ARE talking authentic here.

 

Whereas the Gamestation has that early 80's look I mentioned earlier that works for the late 2600, 5200 and 7800.

 

 

 

[LatchKeyKid]

1 hour ago, JPF997 said:

Can someone sell me on this thing? It looks nothing like an Atari, it feels like just another AT Games flashback console with a different name,  only about 130 games are actual Atari games the rest are generic free games, the controller's have this obvious third party controller look to them, nothing about this system makes me want it over the 2600+ that's also coming out very soon (if anyone says it's better because it has 200 built-in games just remember that you can buy the 2600+ and the Atari 50 collection, get a similar amount of games and a much better product overall).

If you have classic cartridges and want to feel like you're (but not actually be) playing off of them with original style joysticks, then the 2600+ is probably a better choice for you especially if they're offering that game collection available on the machine from day one (no idea about the price comparisons between the two though).   It all comes down to how important slotting in those cartridges and using era appropriate joysticks are for your immersion/nostalgia.  For me, I'm more interested in this one because my interest is more in playing games under the same hardware restrictions (with the occasional cartridge hardware boost depending on the game) but with the modern conveniences of a multibutton joystick and all digital ROMs.   I don't mean any of this derisively or sarcastically either as I fully admit those aspects are important to many gamers so no shame in prioritizing them.

[+jgkspsx]

*edit* I am up past my bedtime.

 

I want to point out again: this is the largest collection of Atari arcade games EVER released, with several games that have never been legally available before.
 

The 2600 selection is as good as possible considering the first-party limitations. The 5200 selection is meh, but what can you do without a number pad. The 7800 selection is disappointingly small but what’s there is good.

 

And the bonus games include a number of fantastic games, of which at least two were released on the Lynx, two were released on the Jaguar, and one is a terrific Atari Games-published arcade game.

[JPF997]

1 hour ago, jgkspsx said:

*edit* I am up past my bedtime.

 

I want to point out again: this is the largest collection of Atari arcade games EVER released, with several games that have never been legally available before.
 

The 2600 selection is as good as possible considering the first-party limitations. The 5200 selection is meh, but what can you do without a number pad. The 7800 selection is disappointingly small but what’s there is good.

 

And the bonus games include a number of fantastic games, of which at least two were released on the Lynx, two were released on the Jaguar, and one is a terrific Atari Games-published arcade game.

So how does this machine stack up to the best flashback consoles in your opinion (flashback 2, x, 50 anniversary edition)

[+jgkspsx]

1 hour ago, JPF997 said:

So how does this machine stack up to the best flashback consoles in your opinion (flashback 2, x, 50 anniversary edition)

We won’t know until more exacting reviewer tries one, but none of those systems play arcade games or anything besides 2600, so it’s not much of a comparison.

 

I have heard that the Flashback machines don’t work well with paddles or driving controllers, but I haven’t played them. Then again we don’t know how good these paddles are either.

[Blinky]

On 9/20/2023 at 4:08 AM, tkarner said:

I get the impression that those USB ports are just for charging the joysticks.

The internal pictures that are available on the FCC site tell otherwise. Looks like they support usb 2.0 data (you can see the data pair tracks just above the the USB connector going to the connector at the top left)

[nopaybob]

I see these popping up on eVay.

Who has these in stock, preferably to go pick up?

[LatchKeyKid]

13 minutes ago, nopaybob said:

I see these popping up on eVay.

Who has these in stock, preferably to go pick up?

Are they in stock for immediate shipping there or just preorders too?

[nopaybob]

5 minutes ago, LatchKeyKid said:

Are they in stock for immediate shipping there or just preorders too?

immediate shipping

[watcherxp]

Found this morning at Costco for 79.99!

[nopaybob]

1 hour ago, watcherxp said:

Found this morning at Costco for 79.99!

Must be in store only

[watcherxp]

29 minutes ago, nopaybob said:

Must be in store only

 

[LatchKeyKid]

3 hours ago, watcherxp said:

 

I don't see it listed online as available in store either (though admittedly I don't know if that's normal for Costco as I've never searched their site for a specific product).