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Homebrew compatibility?


oceanix42

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3 minutes ago, oceanix42 said:

Are all homebrews compatible with the 2600+?

 

No.  That's a no for some retail era games too.   On a cellphone so it's hard to type.  I'm sure someone will point you to Ataris tested/untested list.

 

This is an emulator in a box.  Expect at least the basic advantages and disadvantages of a Retron 77 without community firmware.

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That's what I heard but wanted to confirm. Well, that's another Atari product I'm not purchasing, rather just get a third 2600 from ebay. Though for collectors' sake, I might pick one up second hand in the distant future.

 

A note to Atari: IF you are going to do something like this, put an actual 6502 chip in the box, better yet, an FPGA...it's cheap, not difficult, and you can have it work with everything. Anyway, keep trying though!

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2 minutes ago, oceanix42 said:

That's what I heard but wanted to confirm. Well, that's another Atari product I'm not purchasing, rather just get a third 2600 from ebay. Though for collectors' sake, I might pick one up second hand in the distant future.

Yep, and once you buy that 2600 and then HDMI mod it so you can use it on a modern TV, you have a great system...

That is awesome...

 

Some people just want something simple to plug in and work.   And don't necessarily need 100% compatibility (and heck, some 7800's don't play all 2600 games (or at least easily because of some cart designs, so 100% is tricky).  

 

And this is an option for those...

 

More options are good.  But that doesn't mean that those options will work for everyone! ;-)  And that is fine...

 

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1 minute ago, desiv said:

Yep, and once you buy that 2600 and then HDMI mod it so you can use it on a modern TV, you have a great system...

That is awesome...

 

Some people just want something simple to plug in and work.   And don't necessarily need 100% compatibility (and heck, some 7800's don't play all 2600 games (or at least easily because of some cart designs, so 100% is tricky).  

 

And this is an option for those...

 

More options are good.  But that doesn't mean that those options will work for everyone! ;-)  And that is fine...

 

I don't disagree :) but my marketing strategy mind is at work...and things aren't adding up LOL oh well. I love that this is even a thing and hope it continues.

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25 minutes ago, oceanix42 said:

I don't disagree :) but my marketing strategy mind is at work...and things aren't adding up LOL oh well. I love that this is even a thing and hope it continues.

The target market is the same people who bought every single version of the Atari Flashback, and the same people buying all these new MyArcade devices. People that just want more boxes with Atari logos to put on the shelf no matter how bad they are at playing Atari games. If this thing cost twice as much and played half as many games as the compatibility list indicated there would still be the same number of people here defending it, saying maybe if this one sells well enough they'll release a good one next year. 

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Here's a crazy idea:  somehow get an insider to talk Atari into allowing bare metal homebrew carts for the system.  AtariAge and AtariAge members could make sweet ARM based games.  The 2600+ becomes the actual, real, not emulated 2600+ system.  Could probably use many of the development tools the Evercade does.

 

Anyone know of a high ranking AtariAge and Atari employee that can get this blessing?

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3 minutes ago, 0078265317 said:

Maybe somebody here can dump the home brew carts and we can start a collection.

Assuming the original programmers are OK with it...
Might be good to see whether some of the original programmers come up with an alternate method to get the ROMs.
Either just offering them or a digital purchase option...

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Most homebrew cartridges should work.  It's mainly the newer ARM-based games that are the issue.  Most of those are Champ Games... who have the ROMs available for purchase.  They also have Demo ROMs available. 

 

Champ Games website:

https://champ.games/

 

Now you just need a way to load them onto the 2600+.

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On 9/27/2023 at 7:02 PM, oceanix42 said:

Are all homebrews compatible with the 2600+?

 

The Atari 2600+ uses ProSystem 1.3e emulator for 7800 games.

 

@Trebor tested 110 games for 7800 under ProSystem 1.3 Core via RetroArch. Most are 7800 Homebrews games, including some on sale in the AA store.

 

Test Results:

- 20 games = Black screen

- 6 games = No audio / No music / No sound (POKEY or TIA)

- 36 games = Works with issue:

graphic issue

graphic corruption

speed / timing issue

enemies absent

player will not move

sound issue

POKEY notes incorrect

- 1 game = Needs light gun support (Sentinel)

- 49 games = Works without issue

 

Spoiler

Test Results under ProSystem 1.3 Core via RetroArch:

 

7ix = Works without issue
1942 = Black screen
2048 = Graphic issue throughout
A.R.T.I. = Black screen
A Roach in Space - Part 2 = Works without issue
Ah Zombies = Graphic issue throughout
Alpha Race = Works without issue
Apple Snaffle = Some graphic corruption after screen scrolls
Arkanoid = Black screen
Armor Attack II = Works without issue
Asteroids Deluxe = Speed/Timing Issue present
Astro Blaster = Works without issue
Astro Fighter = Works without issue
Attack of the Petscii Robots = Black screen
Baby Pac-Man = Graphic issue pinball screen
Beef Drop = POKEY sound not present, enemies absent, player will not move
Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest = No POKEY music or TIA sound effects present
Bernie and the Cubic Conundrum = Graphic issue throughout
Bernie and the Tower of Doom = Black screen
BlocDrop = Works without issue
Block'em Sock'em = Black screen
BonQ = Works without issue
Cannon in D - D for Defense = Work without issue
Cartesian Chaos = Graphic issue throughout
Crazy Brix = Brix display incorrectly
Crazy Otto = Works without issue
Danger Zone = Graphic issue throughout
Death Merchant = Graphic issue throughout
Donkey Kong PK = No audio
DopeWars = Graphic issue throughout
Dragon's Cache = Works without issue
Dragon's Descent = Works without issue
Dragon's Havoc = Graphic issue throughout
Drelbs = Works without issue
Drone Patrol = Black Screen
Drunk Witch = Works without issue
Dungeon Stalker = Works with issue
E.X.O. = Black screen 
FailSafe = Works without issue
FlappyBird = Works without issue
Freeway = Graphic issue throughout
Frenzy (w-Berzerk) = Works without issue
Froggie = Some POKEY notes incorrect
Frogus = Black screen
Galaxian = Plays without issue
Game of the Bear - Polar Opposites = Works without issue
Get Lost = Works without issue
Ghosts'n Goblins = Graphic issue throughout
Graze Suit Alpha = Works without issue
Harpy's Curse = Black screen
Harry's Hen House = Works without issue
Heartlight = Works without issue
I.C.B.M. = Graphic issue throughout
Jacks or Better = Graphic issue throughout
Jr Pac-Man = Works without issue
K.C. Munchkin = Works without issue
Keystone Koppers = Black screen
Klax = Black screen
Knight Guy - Quest for Something = Works without issue
Knight Guy in Low Res World - Castle Days = Works without issue
Knight Guy on Board - 30 Squares of Fate = Works without issue
Legend of Silverpeak = Black screen
Lunar Patrol = Graphic corruption throughout

Meteor Shower = Works without issue
Millie & Molly = Black screen
Missing In Action = Graphic issue throughout
Moon Cresta = Works without issue
Ms. Pac-Man Twin = Works without issue
Ninjish Guy - Perilous Island = Works without issue
Oozy the Goo - Gaiden = Works without issue
Pac-Man - Energy Drink Edition = Graphic issue with sprite bottom of maze
Pac-Man Collection - 40th Anniversary Edition = Black screen
Pac-Man Collection - 40th Anniversary Edition (Short Mazes) = Black screen
PentaGo = No POKEY sound and graphic issue throughout
Pirate Cove = Works without issue
Plink = Graphic issue throughout
Plumb Luck DX = Works without issue
Plutos = Graphic issue throughout
Poetiru = Works without issue
Pong = Graphic issue throughout
Popeye = No POKEY sound and graphic issue throughout
RatTrap = No POKEY sound and graphic issue throughout
Rescue On Fractalus = Black screen after starting game
ReZolve = Works without issue
Rikki and Vikki (No Music) = Works without issue
Rip-Off = Works without issue
Robbo = No sound
Robots Rumble = Black screen
Santa Simon = Works without issue
Scramble = Sound issue
Sentinel = Needs light gun support
Serpentine = Black screen
Sick Pickles = Works without issue
Sirius = Works without issue
Slide Boy in Maze Land = Works without issue
Space Duel = Speed/Timing Issue
Space Invaders = Works without issue
Space Peril! = Graphic issue throughout
Space Race = Graphic issue throughout
Spire of the Ancients = Graphic issue throughout
Super Circus AtariAge = Works without issue
Super Pac-Man = Works without issue
T:ME Salvo = Works without issue
Touchdown Challenge = Graphic issue throughout
Tunnels of Hyperion = Works without issue
UniWarS = Works without issue
Wasp! = Works without issue
Wizard's Dungeon = No background sound and graphic issue throughout
Wordle = Graphic corruption - letter selection area
Worm! = Works without issue

 

Not a great showing for the 7800 Homebrews to state the least. Best we can hope for is Atari integrating the updates readily available via JS7800 posted sources, which several from the community have assisted with updating.

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, 0078265317 said:

 

Work would be needed to support homebrew mapper schemes with my dumper. Currently, my dumper in theory supports all the classic 2600 mappers (in practice it's only been tested with two, and there are probably bugs), but for any different mapper one would have to add code. (One could add code to auto-detect the new mapper, but I would be worried that this could break the auto-detection for one of the classic mappers, which are my priority. Probably a better solution would be to add code for the homebrew mappers that need to be manually set.)

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On 9/28/2023 at 12:18 PM, 0078265317 said:

Maybe aomebody here can dump the home brew carts and we can start a collection.

Yeah, don't do this unless you want to discourage homebrew authors from continuing to develop new games in the future.  In other words, please respect homebrew authors' wishes on this front.  And certainly do not discuss dumping and sharing binaries for homebrew games here on AtariAge.

 

Thank you, 

 

 ..Al

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On 11/14/2023 at 3:37 PM, Judge Mental said:

Will Star Castle homebrew or anything 2600 or 7800 bought from Atariage be compatible with the Atari 2600 +?

Many games will run, not all of them, but we are working on improving compatibility on this front. The biggest battle will be over Melody-based games, but we're confident we will ultimately be able to get those to work as well.  We are working on a "Atari 2600+ Community Compatibility List" and should have an initial version posted soon (both here and on Atari.com).  Ben from Plaion and I are currently working on getting most of the AtariAge 7800 homebrew games working, and I'll solicit help from the community in getting non-AtariAge 7800 homebrews running as well. 

 

 ..Al

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On 9/27/2023 at 12:23 PM, desiv said:

Yep, and once you buy that 2600 and then HDMI mod it so you can use it on a modern TV, you have a great system...

I don't like modding my vintage Atari systems.

I use a $3 coaxial RCA Adapter to get my old Atari consoles working with a modern TV.  As far as I know, modern televisions can still tune into channels 2.0 and 3.0 just fine.  At least all of mine can.

https://console5.com/store/gold-plated-premium-coaxial-rca-to-f-type-converter.html

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On 9/27/2023 at 1:09 PM, Gemintronic said:

 

No.  That's a no for some retail era games too.   On a cellphone so it's hard to type.  I'm sure someone will point you to Ataris tested/untested list.

 

This is an emulator in a box.  Expect at least the basic advantages and disadvantages of a Retron 77 without community firmware.

I believe that @Albert confirmed that some of them did work, just none with melody boards. It has been discussed in other threads.

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On 11/15/2023 at 10:14 PM, Albert said:

The biggest battle will be over Melody-based games, but we're confident we will ultimately be able to get those to work as well.

:o I can’t wait to see Space Rocks, etc., running on the 2600+. Btw, has anyone tried the 7800 homebrew Asteroids Deluxe? I’d like to know if it’s currently compatible with the 2600+.

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4 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

:o I can’t wait to see Space Rocks, etc., running on the 2600+. Btw, has anyone tried the 7800 homebrew Asteroids Deluxe? I’d like to know if it’s currently compatible with the 2600+.

It doesn't currently work with the systems that are shipping, but it does work on newer firmware. :)
 

  ..Al

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