Crossbow for 7800 doesn’t work.

[JDubTheGaymer]

I just got my 2600+ today and was trying it out with some 2600 and 7800 games. It saddens me to say that one of my favorite 7800 games, “Crossbow” does not work. It doesn’t recognize when I plug in my XE System light gun and the colors are all off in the game. I’m crushed.

[Dr Karnov]

My PAL 7800 cart of Crossbow works fine (with a joypad, not lightgun)

[JDubTheGaymer]

I have an NTSC cart and the only color that comes up is green. And the light gun doesn’t work when plugged in. They should have released a compatibility list before I shelled out the money for it.

[tradyblix]

I thought lightguns only worked with CRTS ? You have a CRT with HDMI somehow ?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

NTSC Crossbow (Joystick) rom that is in @Trebors rom pack works on my 2600+ through the DragonFly. I've not tested my actual CB cartridge but the ROM did work and I played a complete game without any issues.

 

[Trebor]

On 11/20/2023 at 1:02 AM, JDubTheGaymer said:

I just got my 2600+ today and was trying it out with some 2600 and 7800 games. It saddens me to say that one of my favorite 7800 games, “Crossbow” does not work. It doesn’t recognize when I plug in my XE System light gun and the colors are all off in the game. I’m crushed.

You're not the only one.

11 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

NTSC Crossbow (Joystick) rom that is in @Trebors rom pack works on my 2600+ through the DragonFly. I've not tested my actual CB cartridge but the ROM did work and I played a complete game without any issues.

Considering the mixed results, my theory is there may be more than one valid retail version of the game.   What is the difference though is a mystery, as some things are unanswered. This current version of the ProSystem emulator being leveraged, should not run a game at all if the MD5 doesn't match.  So, I believe the results should be it either works fine or not at all, not the current results.

 

Hopefully the developers of the 2600+ can shed some light, and the source code, in the near future.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

8 hours ago, Trebor said:

You're not the only one.

Considering the mixed results, my theory is there may be more than one valid retail version of the game.   What the difference though is a mystery, as some things are unanswered. This current version of the ProSystem emulator being leveraged, should not run a game at all if the MD5 doesn't match.  So, I believe the results should be it either works fine or not at all, not the current results.

 

Hopefully the developers of the 2600+ can shed some light, and the source code, in the near future.

I tested my actual CB cartridge and it too loaded up and played without any issues on my 2600+. 

 

One thing I've NOT seen mentioned...is that the Pokey emulation isn't right. The counter melody is completely missing from BallBlazer. All other sounds seemed correct however.

 

NO Homebrew have been able to load up as yet and I've only found one graphics hack that would load up. It is one of the Pole Position II graphics hacks that changes your car to blue. That one did load up, but exhibits a lot of graphical corruption in the lower 1/3 of the screen. Odd thing is that the rest of the screen seems to be squished up so you can see everything still. 

 

I've also found that the graphics aren't scaled to a proper 1:1 integer as the pixel will change size in the vertical axis. When playing any games with some verticality to them, you can see the shimmer effect from it. 

 

The output is 720P from the HDMI port, but it still isn't quite standard as my TV doesn't see the signal at first and takes a few seconds to lock onto it. Additionally, my capture device that normally doesn't have any issues with 480P / 720P/ or 1080P sources does NOT like the 2600+ video output and is stuck in pass through mode as a result. So I'm not able to capture any video directly from my 2600+ it seems.

 

[Trebor]

57 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I tested my actual CB cartridge and it too loaded up and played without any issues on my 2600+. 

Indeed, and different outcomes are being experienced.  I'm thinking too it may be a memory bug/leak or something is not being reset properly, perhaps depending what was loaded before it in some cases, again, a mystery for now.

57 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I've also found that the graphics aren't scaled to a proper 1:1 integer as the pixel will change size in the vertical axis. When playing any games with some verticality to them, you can see the shimmer effect from it. 

Another item addressed with JS7800:

Atari contracting someone to port the changes from JS7800 to 2600+ is hopefully something under their 'to do' list.