7800 Atari 7800 PAL related test results (not NTSC!)

[Dr Karnov]

What I have is just an early beta, and my understanding is they are just testing the 50hz/60hz autodetect and everything running in 1080p. 

[JetmanUK]

Just now, Dr Karnov said:

What I have is just an early beta, and my understanding is they are just testing the 50hz/60hz autodetect and everything running in 1080p. 

Fair enough, there is a line of things to sort and it's not easy, so I am grateful that they are starting on the right path with some work anyway. Thank you. 

[Dr Karnov]

It's seems to me like they are commited to the platform for the longer term, not just with updates but they've said that there are new carts and peripherals coming next year

[JetmanUK]

1 minute ago, Dr Karnov said:

It's seems to me like they are commited to the platform for the longer term, not just with updates but they've said that there are new carts and peripherals coming next year

Well, I'm all in! I bought all the new stuff, dug out my old carts and have purchased a ridiculous amount of old carts off eBay too. 

 

Top fixes for me:

Better compatibility

Better colour pallette

A/B fix

7800 Joystick buttons fix

Faster loading (if possible, although hot swapping helps with this)

Driving Controller compatibility (unlikey, I know 🤣)

 

Not sure why we are going to 1080p, perhaps it scales better on most TV's but I'm not sure the difference would be perceptible. 

[Dr Karnov]

2 minutes ago, JetmanUK said:

Well, I'm all in! I bought all the new stuff, dug out my old carts and have purchased a ridiculous amount of old carts off eBay too. 

 

Top fixes for me:

Better compatibility

Better colour pallette

A/B fix

7800 Joystick buttons fix

Faster loading (if possible, although hot swapping helps with this)

Driving Controller compatibility (unlikey, I know 🤣)

 

Not sure why we are going to 1080p, perhaps it scales better on most TV's but I'm not sure the difference would be perceptible. 

For me, definitely PAL 7800 compatibility is what I'm looking forward to the most, because I've got quite a few carts not currently supported 

[ukaskew]

Received the 2600+ for Christmas from my family you knew how ridiculously excited I was to play my favourite old 7800 games that I still have from when I was a kid.

 

Have to admit it was hard to hide the disappointment when none of my favourites worked. Xevious just gave me a garbled green/brown screen after loading, Commando gets oh so close but just keeps resetting to the title when you press a button, and Choplifter just went to a black screen.

 

Explained to them that they probably just need a clean (although all worked fine when I had a brief chance to try them on my 7800 on an old CRT at a friend's house a few weeks ago) as Commando and Choplifter were showing ok on the compatibility list and I'd seen somebody playing Xevious on YouTube.

 

I'm in the UK so have PAL carts. I'm a bit disappointed that there is no official acknowledgement of the PAL issue, took me some time to find it in this forum despite the 2600+ being officially sold in the UK. As it stands the compatibility list is fundamentally flawed.

 

My family have offered to return it but I see from here that there is talk of an update that may resolve these issues. Do we know if this is definitely happening, and when we're likely to see it released?

[DEANJIMMY]

10 hours ago, ukaskew said:

Received the 2600+ for Christmas from my family you knew how ridiculously excited I was to play my favourite old 7800 games that I still have from when I was a kid.

 

Have to admit it was hard to hide the disappointment when none of my favourites worked. Xevious just gave me a garbled green/brown screen after loading, Commando gets oh so close but just keeps resetting to the title when you press a button, and Choplifter just went to a black screen.

 

Explained to them that they probably just need a clean (although all worked fine when I had a brief chance to try them on my 7800 on an old CRT at a friend's house a few weeks ago) as Commando and Choplifter were showing ok on the compatibility list and I'd seen somebody playing Xevious on YouTube.

 

I'm in the UK so have PAL carts. I'm a bit disappointed that there is no official acknowledgement of the PAL issue, took me some time to find it in this forum despite the 2600+ being officially sold in the UK. As it stands the compatibility list is fundamentally flawed.

 

My family have offered to return it but I see from here that there is talk of an update that may resolve these issues. Do we know if this is definitely happening, and when we're likely to see it released?

These are known issues and they will be fixed.

@Dr Karnov tested a lot on Beta SW and Commando, Choplifter PAL will work. Please check his posts.

No date given yet but the update will happen very soon, so keep your 2600+ 🤗

Edited December 27, 2023 by DEANJIMMY

[Zap1982]

10 hours ago, ukaskew said:

Received the 2600+ for Christmas from my family you knew how ridiculously excited I was to play my favourite old 7800 games that I still have from when I was a kid.

 

Have to admit it was hard to hide the disappointment when none of my favourites worked. Xevious just gave me a garbled green/brown screen after loading, Commando gets oh so close but just keeps resetting to the title when you press a button, and Choplifter just went to a black screen.

 

Explained to them that they probably just need a clean (although all worked fine when I had a brief chance to try them on my 7800 on an old CRT at a friend's house a few weeks ago) as Commando and Choplifter were showing ok on the compatibility list and I'd seen somebody playing Xevious on YouTube.

 

I'm in the UK so have PAL carts. I'm a bit disappointed that there is no official acknowledgement of the PAL issue, took me some time to find it in this forum despite the 2600+ being officially sold in the UK. As it stands the compatibility list is fundamentally flawed.

 

My family have offered to return it but I see from here that there is talk of an update that may resolve these issues. Do we know if this is definitely happening, and when we're likely to see it released?

I have just tested my 7800 carts, I am in UK also. Problem may be slightly worse that we thought.

 

Xevious - garbled screen

Food Fight - nothing but blackness

JOust - nothing but blackness

Choplifter - nothing but blackness

 

Now for the concerning part.. these games "work" - well... not really....

 

Planet Smashers - works, can't shoot!

Crack'ed - works, can't shoot!

Jinks - works, paddle can't be flipped (presumably the can't shoot problem described above as same button)

Also the paddle immediately drops to the floor when I am not moving in a direction.

 

I tried my Junior's proline controller (believe that is the same as the 7800) and had the same results..

 

So no 7800 gaming for me yet.. 

 

I mean I will wait to see if the Patch happens and if it doesn't fix it all then I will be putting the 7800 stuff back on eBay where it came from.

 

[chad5200]

19 minutes ago, DEANJIMMY said:

No date given yet but the update will happen very soon, so keep your 2600+

They really need to release this firmware update soon so we can stop hearing about these same issues over and over.

 

[Zap1982]

Oh and if you want a laugh, my 2600+ has now stopped working 😂😂 Amazon return started, I'm just having the money back and will play the new games on my Sears.. 

[Dr Karnov]

34 minutes ago, Zap1982 said:

I have just tested my 7800 carts, I am in UK also. Problem may be slightly worse that we thought.

 

Xevious - garbled screen

Food Fight - nothing but blackness

JOust - nothing but blackness

Choplifter - nothing but blackness

 

Now for the concerning part.. these games "work" - well... not really....

 

Planet Smashers - works, can't shoot!

Crack'ed - works, can't shoot!

Jinks - works, paddle can't be flipped (presumably the can't shoot problem described above as same button)

Also the paddle immediately drops to the floor when I am not moving in a direction.

 

I tried my Junior's proline controller (believe that is the same as the 7800) and had the same results..

 

So no 7800 gaming for me yet.. 

 

I mean I will wait to see if the Patch happens and if it doesn't fix it all then I will be putting the 7800 stuff back on eBay where it came from.

 

I've been testing the beta firmware and I can confirm that PAL Choplifter, Joust and Food Fight all work perfectly.

 

On the shipped firmware, the 2 buttons on 7800 are mapped in reverse, so on the update that's fixed so you can play games like Planet Smashers with a one button controller.

 

I don't know the date that the new firmware will be released, but I believe it will be pretty soon

[Avenger75]

I don't know if big kids like us are very patient 🤨 with their christmas gift, but maybe this Beta firmware could be available on Atariage now.

I think that many PAL owner of 2600+ would be happy to use their cartridge, even on 720p TV  with a beta firmware.

[tradyblix]

3 hours ago, Avenger75 said:

I don't know if big kids like us are very patient 🤨 with their christmas gift, but maybe this Beta firmware could be available on Atariage now.

I think that many PAL owner of 2600+ would be happy to use their cartridge, even on 720p TV  with a beta firmware

You should be able to play a good majority of them even now, no need to wait

[DEANJIMMY]

For a 7800 PAL gamers V1.1 is a huge step, so I am happy with that beta 😊

Hope they sort out the 50Hz frame skip stuff on the 2600 side, so they can release it as an official load.

 

All of my original PAL 7800 carts work and the TV info says 50Hz.

 

The only exception ist Karateka PAL (who cares?). It still fails but will be fixed by next dumper update.

 

In Commando and Middnight Mutants I see flicker at a few positions in the games during scrolling.

It has been the same on V1.0 for Midnight Mutants, so it is related to prosystem emulation and not been addressed yet.

 

My NTSC homebrews work without issues:

Astro Blaster, Astro Fighter, Armor Attack II, Frenzy, bnQ, Dungeon Stalker, Beef Drop

 

Pac Man Jr 7800 PAL works without issues.

 

The folowing PAL 7800 homebrews work with the escape sequence*

Asteroids Deluxe, Space Duel, Scramble, Space Invaders, Pac Man Collection, Crazy Brix, Moon Cresta

 

Paddles on the 7800 prosystem emulation currently not supported!

 

*From V1.1 on you can push emulation into PAL mode by pressing A+B and down on your pad for 5 seconds.

This must happen when the game starts (first graphics or black screen in case of Asteroids and Space Duel).

For my games I retrived the md5 hash value via another debug load for the developer so they will start in final release without escape sequence.

As I do not have Crystal Quest PAL yet, it might need the excape sequence too, if the auto detection might fail and md5 hash is unknown.

Wondering if I could/should change my order to NTSC but I expect it to run at least with the escape sequence...

 

Edited January 5 by DEANJIMMY

[RadiATIon]

Ms PacMan 7800 PAL works now without issues with V1.1 beta, beforce screen crashes

Donkey Kong 7800 PAL, Donkey Kong Junior PAL and Mario 7800 PAL works fine with V.1.1 and V1.0 but the colours are better on the 1.1.