Atari 2600+ Compatibility Testing at PRGE!

[Albert]

First, we will have five Atari 2600+ consoles setup at the AtariAge booth for everyone to try out!  We'll have a variety of games running on these systems, including one dedicated to homebrew games, one dedicated to paddle games, one for a variety of classic games from "back in the day", and two systems showing off new Atari releases (such as Berzerk Enhanced).

 

Second, we invite people to test your Atari 2600 and 7800 cartridges on our Atari 2600+ consoles and help Atari improve the compatibility of the 2600+!  If you have a game or games that haven't yet been tested on the 2600+, you can test them and report to us the results of your testing.  This includes original games Atari and third-parties, as well as homebrew games.

 

We want to record these results, so please find someone from AtariAge or Atari to witness you testing your games or games.  If a game fails, we will want to test it on an 2600 or 7800 console to verify that the game does work.

 

Thanks in advance for everyone's help!

 

 ..Al

[+littaum]

I'll bring a box of games that have been marked as untested!

[+Nathan Strum]

I'd be happy to test for them, if they wanted to send me a unit so I didn't have to drag 200+ carts with me to Portland.  

[TrekMD]

This is cool.  Nice way to involve the community too!

[DEBRO]

Hi there,

 

Could someone report back on the B/W switch on the 2600+? Is it a toggle switch like the power switch or does it “spring” like the SELECT and RESET switches?

 

If it toggles, then how does the PAUSE feature function for 7800 games produced during its retail life and homebrews? If it “springs”, then how does it function for 2600 games that utilize the B/W switch? Space Shuttle seems to be the poster child for this test.

[+littaum]

8 minutes ago, DEBRO said:

Hi there,

 

Could someone report back on the B/W switch on the 2600+? Is it a toggle switch like the power switch or does it “spring” like the SELECT and RESET switches?

 

If it toggles, then how does the PAUSE feature function for 7800 games produced during its retail life and homebrews? If it “springs”, then how does it function for 2600 games that utilize the B/W switch? Space Shuttle seems to be the poster child for this test.

 

The B/W switch toggles.  I'll bring back my Commando/One-on-One carts back today (do not have Space Shuttle with me) and try out the black/white switch to see if I can get it to pause - but I'll have to admit my only experience with the 7800 "Pause" feature is with testing black and white/color switching on 2600 carts by holding it down.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to possibly trigger a pause within the next 2 1/2 hours before I head in I'm all ears.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

10 minutes ago, littaum said:

If anyone has any suggestions on how to possibly trigger a pause within the next 2 1/2 hours before I head in I'm all ears.

Didn't a double toggle cause a pause?

[DEBRO]

Thank you @littaum for the reply and testing.

3 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Didn't a double toggle cause a pause?

@Thomas Jentzsch is correct. Going from COLOR -> B/W -> COLOR should put a 7800 game in pause mode. 
 

This would work for games that look for a proper debounce to trigger a pause. If the game does a check for B/W only (i.e. a press vs. proper debounce) then switching to B/W should trigger a pause. 

[+littaum]

On 10/15/2023 at 6:53 AM, DEBRO said:

Thank you @littaum for the reply and testing.

@Thomas Jentzsch is correct. Going from COLOR -> B/W -> COLOR should put a 7800 game in pause mode. 
 

This would work for games that look for a proper debounce to trigger a pause. If the game does a check for B/W only (i.e. a press vs. proper debounce) then switching to B/W should trigger a pause. 

 

..back from PRGE and currently processing the backlog of requests.

 

When I arrived on Sunday (while waiting in line to get in I got some nice video of the Unipiper rolling by greeting everyone with some morning bagpipes), the first thing I did was talk to David Paige from Atari and mentioned that the AtariAge forums were interested in seeing if the pause capability on a 7800 game works.  So we went over to a 2600+ and I put my copy of Motorpsycho in and hooked up a 7800 compatible controller for play.  While the game was going I tried switching from Color to B&W (leaving it there), switching from Color to B&W to Color very quickly, then switching from Color to B/W to Color slower.  Basically various timings on the toggling of the Color/B&W switch.  But I was unable to get the game to pause.  We then went over to a real 7800 and tried it there, and when pressing the Pause button it worked (I will have to admit, in the 33 years I've owned a 7800 -- I never actually pressed the pause button to pause a 7800 game before).  David made a note of it as an item to look at. 

 

I downloaded a copy of the ProSystem emulator (which I believe is what the 2600+ is using at the moment?) to see how that handles it.  From the emulator itself you can either use Ctrl+P to pause or use a hotkey (and I was able to make that work).  If it is a case of mapping an input switch to one of these hot keys, perhaps the Color/B&W switch can be mapped to this hot key?  If there's an option to just have B&W be pause and color be unpaused that would be my vote - toggling of the switch to pause and unpause might require some extra dexterity and for the target audience I think you would want to make using it as simple as possible.  

  

 

I will say the folks that I talked to from Atari (Ben Jones, David Paige, and the tall fellow whose name I unfortunately forgot) were all nice people, have a passion for gaming and are interested in making the best product they can.  From a mechanical design perspective it is a nice unit.  Yes, they do work for a company trying to make a living (as do most if not all of us), but I think they understand the pre-existing community is a strength to draw from and work with.

 

[+S.D.W.]

I had the same impression, I think the community is very important to them. I know some people have thrown shade at the current incarnation of Atari by saying they aren't the "real Atari"... well who was? Bushnell's Atari? Warner's Atari? Tramiel's Atari? Hasbro's Atari? Personally I think the company is in good hands now. These folks seem to love what they are doing and the 2600+ is a really great product. Can't wait to get one.

[+bent_pin]

1 hour ago, 917k said:

I had the same impression, I think the community is very important to them. I know some people have thrown shade at the current incarnation of Atari by saying they aren't the "real Atari"... well who was? Bushnell's Atari? Warner's Atari? Tramiel's Atari? Hasbro's Atari? Personally I think the company is in good hands now. These folks seem to love what they are doing and the 2600+ is a really great product. Can't wait to get one.

Looking forward to mine; it's my big Christmas present for this year.

[Zonie]

The 2600+ looks cool. I just didn't care for the long bootup and game loading time...

[Albert]

2 minutes ago, Zonie said:

The 2600+ looks cool. I just didn't care for the long bootup and game loading time...

You can more quickly swap carts by removing them without turning the 2600+ off first.  Same goes for dip-switch carts, you can change the dip switches while the cartridge is in the system and power is on, and it'll switch to the new game fairly quickly.

 

 ..Al