2600 Atari 2600 related test results (not 7800!)

[Thomas Jentzsch]

4 hours ago, envytomdead2 said:

Do the coleco carts us different bank switching then the red label versions of the same game?

According to the known dumps, no. All should work.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

15 hours ago, remowilliams said:

 

All games are US Activision copies.

 

R77

Decathalon: does not run - black screen

Space Shuttle: does not run

Robot Tank: does not run

 

2600+

Decathalon: runs

Space Shuttle: runs

Robot Tank: does not run, rolling corrupted HUD as previously posted

 

Thanks. I find the difference between R77 and 2600+ interesting. The running two games are obviously using Atari's standard bankswitching, which is supported by both dumpers. Therefore I suppose that the cart port of the 2600+ is better than the R77 one.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

16 hours ago, chad5200 said:

Talking about Donkey Kong Junior... this one is 8K.

It still should work. No variations which use an unsupported bankswitching are known. 

[DEANJIMMY]

22 hours ago, chad5200 said:

My Donkey Kong Junior cart is the white shell one from Coleco.  As seen here: https://atariage.com/cart_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=151

 

No luck on the 2600+.  I have cleaned it 10 times and very thoroughly each time.

 

Works great on the real 2600... never an issue on the real thing.

 

Can someone else out there confirm that their white shelled Coleco Donkey Kong Junior plays fine on the 2600+?

 

 

 

White Coleco Time Pilot fails too (confirmed by a second player on Forum).

It is NTSC and works on real US Jr.

 

Can test white Coleco Front Line NTSC tonight.

 

Black Coleco Roc 'n Rope works

 

I have only a red lable Dobkey Kong (untested).

[Thomas Jentzsch]

1 hour ago, DEANJIMMY said:

White Coleco Time Pilot fails too (confirmed by a second player on Forum).

Interesting. Either these carts have a physical connection problem or the dumper cannot identify the bankswitching type. In the latter case, getting these  carts dumped would be nice.

[+remowilliams]

Time Pilot (white Coleco case) does not load on the R77 or the 2600+ here.

[chad5200]

10 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

According to the known dumps, no. All should work.

And yet... they don't.

[DEANJIMMY]

3 minutes ago, remowilliams said:

Time Pilot (white Coleco case) does not load on the R77 or the 2600+ here.

Ok, 3 players report white Coleco Time Pilot fails, so does mine.

 

White Coleco Front Line was a bad boy too but I got it working. Cleaning did not remove much dirt really but I developed a feeling on how to slowly insert the cart to feel how it slides in. So inserting it in a gentle way, it started to work but not every time (7/10) like for my Enduro cart).

 

How ever I still fail to get Time Pilot running but one time I got a little rubbish on the top right instead of black screen.

 

Maybe it really should work from a software perspective but fails because of physical connection issues???

 

2600 carts sit very tight in all 2600 consoles, 6er, Jr,... all my carts work on my 3 types of 2600 consoles.

 

They can be moved a little bit in the 2600+ slot.

 

The 7800 has got a similar slot as the 2600+ to support both types 

 

As my Juno first PAL60 fails on my(!) 2600+ (should work) and it fails in my PAL 7800, I should test if Time Pilot maybe fails on my 7800 as well.

 

It would need more testing but maybe my carts failing on my 7800 are prone to fail on my 2600+ because of a similar type of slot.

In the past I put those carts in my PAL 6er, Vader, Jr or NTSC Jr (if NTSC) and they worked right away 100%.

 

But as Time Pilot fails on the R77 as well, I might be wrong with this one... 🙃

 

[tradyblix]

Well we can put it on a Harmony Cart and find out

[Thomas Jentzsch]

1 hour ago, tradyblix said:

Well we can put it on a Harmony Cart and find out

My own tests show than only 4K games work via Harmony cart.  

 

Maybe someone else has more luck? Fingers crossed!

[tradyblix]

2 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

My own tests show than only 4K games work via Harmony cart.  

 

Maybe someone else has more luck? Fingers crossed!

 

Well, I couldn't get the programming tool on a modern mac to recognize my harmony cart today so I was gonna try. But that's disappointing news. 

 

I will try on a windows machine, as the system seemed to recognize the cart but the software stayed red. It hasn't been updated in years tho so I was surprised it still works.

 

I am gonna assume the Windows version will work better. But who knows. Sometimes computers annoy me when they don't work as expected 😕

Edited November 24, 2023 by tradyblix

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I would have thought there exists software e.g. from/for Rockwell chips. 

[omf]

heres my working / non working list

 

boulder dash    ❌

Super cobra arcade    ❌    rainbow stripes
stay frosty 2    ❌    black screen
lem    ✔️
juno first    ✔️
zippy the porcupine    ❌    black screen
panky the panda    ✔️
draconian    ❌    rainbow stripes
starcastle    ❌    corrupt graphics initially then black screen with ringing sound
galaxian    ✔️
minature golf    ✔️
defender    ✔️
kaboom NTSC        ✔️
halo 2600    ✔️
princess rescue     ✔️
defender 2    ✔️
pole position    ✔️
centepede    ✔️
robot tank    ✔️

Harmony cart    ❌

[Charlie_]

Coleco Smurf Rescue doesn't work. It starts but the display is messed up. This is the same behavior as the Retron77.

I feel disappointed and kind of angry as I specifically looked for this game on the compatibility list and it says PASSED.

I then preordered the 2600+. It's my favorite game. I would not have spent the money on this device if I saw it was untested or failed on the compatibility list.

Not feeling great about supporting anything else from this new Atari.

 

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

3 minutes ago, omf said:

heres my working / non working list

 

boulder dash    ❌

Super cobra arcade    ❌    rainbow stripes
stay frosty 2    ❌    black screen
lem    ✔️
juno first    ✔️
zippy the porcupine    ❌    black screen
panky the panda    ✔️
draconian    ❌    rainbow stripes
starcastle    ❌    corrupt graphics initially then black screen with ringing sound
galaxian    ✔️
minature golf    ✔️
defender    ✔️
kaboom NTSC        ✔️
halo 2600    ✔️
princess rescue     ✔️
defender 2    ✔️
pole position    ✔️
centepede    ✔️
robot tank    ✔️

Harmony cart    ❌

No deviation from the expected results.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 minutes ago, Charlie_ said:

Coleco Smurf Rescue doesn't work. It starts but the display is messed up. This is the same behavior as the Retron77.

I feel disappointed and kind of angry as I specifically looked for this game on the compatibility list and it says PASSED.

I then preordered the 2600+. It's my favorite game. I would not have spent the money on this device if I saw it was untested or failed on the compatibility list.

Not feeling great about supporting anything else from this new Atari.

Also a white label?

[Charlie_]

1 minute ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Also a white label?

White cartridge? Yes.

[+remowilliams]

1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

My own tests show than only 4K games work via Harmony cart.  

 

Maybe someone else has more luck? Fingers crossed!

 

I single loaded Time Pilot onto the Harmony cart, works fine in my 7800, not working on the 2600+

 

On the rom size subject - I single loaded Battlezone (8K) onto the Harmony cart, works fine in my 7800, not working on the 2600+  Single loading Berzerk (4K) does work on the 2600+

 

Not looking good for using the Harmony cart in single load mode with the 2600+

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

1 hour ago, Charlie_ said:

White cartridge? Yes.

Can anyone test white Coleco carts with 4K games like Donkey Kong, Mouse Trap or Venture? Do they work?

[ForceInfinity]

For all these Coleco game issues, is this situation like with the Retron 5 where you need dileletric grease to help with the more temperamental cartridge connections?

[chad5200]

46 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Can anyone test white Coleco carts with 4K games like Donkey Kong, Mouse Trap or Venture? Do they work?

I have these White Cartridge Coleco games.  These all work in the 2600+:

Carnival (4K)

Donkey Kong (4K)

Mouse Trap (4K)

Smurf Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (8K)

Venture (4K)

Zaxxon (8K)

 

This White Cartridge Coleco game does not work in the 2600+:

Donkey Kong Junior (8K)

 

[tradyblix]

5 hours ago, remowilliams said:

 

I single loaded Time Pilot onto the Harmony cart, works fine in my 7800, not working on the 2600+

 

On the rom size subject - I single loaded Battlezone (8K) onto the Harmony cart, works fine in my 7800, not working on the 2600+  Single loading Berzerk (4K) does work on the 2600+

 

Not looking good for using the Harmony cart in single load mode with the 2600+

 

Well, good. I couldn't get it's software to work with mine anyway, maybe my cable, tried both mac and windows. All the games I care about would be 8k anyway. Time to seek em out on ebay. 

[Diewaldo]

I now also tested all my Atari carts with the following results:

 

Not working:

Stargate (PAL)

Circus Convoy (PAL)

 

Working:

32 in 1 (PAL)

Defender (PAL)

Dig Dug (PAL)

Joust (PAL)

Galaxian (PAL)

Pitfall! (PAL)

Solaris (PAL)

Mario Bros. (PAL)

Atlantis (PAL)

Demon Attack (PAL)

Cosmic Ark (PAL)

Battlezone (PAL)

Moon Patrol (PAL)

Space Invaders red label (PAL)

Space Invaders black label (PAL)

Jawbreaker (NTSC)

F-14 Tomcat (PAL)

Titlematch Pro Wrestling (PAL)

Keystone Kapers (PAL)

 

Interestingly enough, the 32 in 1 cartridge works better for me than on original hardware. The Roms on this cartridge are not all purely PAL but there are some hacks of NTSC-games on there as well wich I cannot get to display on my modern TV with either a composite modded 7800 through a Scaler and an original 2600 jr. through HF on my modern 4k TV. The 2600+ has no problems doing this.

 

For me this is a big deal because the 2600 jr. with this cartridge was the only thing I had for playing video games when I was young. I could not afford anything else and it really is (for me) the epitome of Atari gaming. I am so happy that I can replicate that feeling again with the Atari 2600+ again!

 

It could only be better if there would be variant with the 2600 jr case design (hint hint). 😁

[Thomas Jentzsch]

2 minutes ago, Diewaldo said:

I now also tested all my Atari carts with the following results:

 

Not working:

Stargate (PAL)

Circus Convoy (PAL)

 

Working:

32 in 1 (PAL)

Defender (PAL)

Dig Dug (PAL)

Joust (PAL)

Galaxian (PAL)

Pitfall! (PAL)

Solaris (PAL)

Mario Bros. (PAL)

Atlantis (PAL)

Demon Attack (PAL)

Cosmic Ark (PAL)

Battlezone (PAL)

Moon Patrol (PAL)

Space Invaders red label (PAL)

Space Invaders black label (PAL)

Jawbreaker (NTSC)

F-14 Tomcat (PAL)

Titlematch Pro Wrestling (PAL)

Keystone Kapers (PAL)

All, except Stargate (which theoretically should work) are expected results.

 

Can you give Stargate a good cleaning and try again? Also, can you check the cart on real hardware?

[Diewaldo]

1 minute ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

All, except Stargate (which theoretically should work) are expected results.

 

Can you give Stargate a good cleaning and try again? Also, can you check the cart on real hardware?

I cleaned Stargate with Isopropanol and a Q-Tip twice yesterday. I only get a garbled screen or a black screen and then loading failed.

 

The cart works on an composite modded Atari 7800 PAL and an unmodded Atari 2600 jr. PAL with no problems at all.

 

However I wouldn't rule out that the cart might be damaged. It is not one of my original carts but I bought it from Ebay and the general condition of the case doesn't lead me to think it was handled with much care.