Who here thinks the Atari 400 mini was a good idea ?

[pjedavison]

8 hours ago, Spanner said:

Its the first time I have seen a official forum supporting this type of device, you would not see English Amiga Board supporting THEA500 Mini and it having its own section, they class it as a emulated device and not a real Amiga, maybe times are changing or maybe because its supported by Atari and has its name on it.

Amiga owners moan about everything though. I can't remember the last time I looked up a game on LemonAmiga and found someone in the comments who actually liked it.

 

I'm joking. Probably.

[Hwlngmad]

21 hours ago, pjedavison said:

Amiga owners moan about everything though. I can't remember the last time I looked up a game on LemonAmiga and found someone in the comments who actually liked it.

 

I'm joking. Probably.

Amiga fanboys (or fangirls) are something else, that's for sure.

[FifthPlayer]

On 3/24/2024 at 8:10 AM, Spanner said:

Its the first time I have seen a official forum supporting this type of device, you would not see English Amiga Board supporting THEA500 Mini and it having its own section

This Atari-centric Board has forums for Commodore 64, Intellivision, Apple II, and plenty of other non-Atari systems.  So a forum for an emulated Atari 400 sounds OK to me.

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, FifthPlayer said:

This Atari-centric Board has forums for Commodore 64, Intellivision, Apple II, and plenty of other non-Atari systems.  So a forum for an emulated Atari 400 sounds OK to me.

AtariAge is one of best retro gaming/computing forums, if not the best, in the world (65,091 members, 5.4m posts). They basically cover everything. Subforums help keep things a bit more sane than they would be otherwise. The400 Mini needed a subforum, otherwise the threads would have been strewn all over the place (and, in fact, already were before the subforum existed). None of the Atari 8-bit computer models have their own subforum. So, in a way, we're separating it out here as something different anyway.

 

[FifthPlayer]

2 hours ago, MrFish said:

AtariAge is one of best retro gaming/computing forums, if not the best, in the world (65,091 members, 5.4m posts). They basically cover everything.

I don't want to be misunderstood - I think it's great that AtariAge casts such a wide net.  I remember advocating for the creation of the Commodore 8-bit and Amiga groups, even though dedicated communities exist for them on the Internet, because AtariAge is big enough to support discussion forums around other retro platforms, but from a slightly different fan perspective.  And I completely agree about the utility of subforums - the The400 forum makes a ton of sense.

[pjedavison]

There's definite value in being able to have a broad perspective on retro gaming. I picked up a C64 "Maxi" and A500 Mini a while back despite being a diehard Atari 8-bit and Atari ST fan, and have been having a lot of fun exploring the games libraries of both. I find it interesting to both explore things that never came out on my platforms of choice, and to compare how some of my favourite games from back in the day turned out on different platforms. I've actually been quite pleasantly surprised in how favourably the Atari versions compared to their rivals in many cases, in both the 8-bit and 16-bit spaces.

[+MrFish]

6 hours ago, FifthPlayer said:

I don't want to be misunderstood - I think it's great that AtariAge casts such a wide net.

I wasn't refuting anything you said: I was agreeing and adding some comments to it.

 

6 hours ago, FifthPlayer said:

I remember advocating for the creation of the Commodore 8-bit and Amiga groups, even though dedicated communities exist for them on the Internet, because AtariAge is big enough to support discussion forums around other retro platforms, but from a slightly different fan perspective.

Yeah, I'm glad they have their own places here. I think they were provided, partly, so they could have somewhere to talk about their machines other than on the competing Atari platform forums.  

 

[Fourteen50]

My 400 mini arrived last week and honestly I’m so chuffed with it. They really captured the likeness perfectly, and the menu interface has been done with love, nodding to the original aesthetics. Preferred 8 bit model? I have to say the XL line was the classiest line of the 80s with the coffee colour scheme and silver accents. Who knows…maybe they can do a limited run in one of the other cases. 1450 anyone  

[Havok69]

Glad I waited. I'm thinking $39.99 is my price point. eBay search set...

[masseo1]

I think it was a good idea. If anything can keep alive these 8-bit treasures and introduce them to a new generation in any capacity is a plus.

I know I could buy a used atari 400, use emulators, but this 400 mini seems a bit more "real", than when I play with the atari 8-bit on my raspberry pi.

I would really love an atari 800 (or even 400) maxi, but Atari just didnt have the sales numbers of the C64.

 

The The 400 mini inst everyone's cup of tea. Maybe its to expensive, maybe it its crap, maybe people don't care?

The 400 mini suits me just fine. I am having fun! I am playing some really cool games, I am delving into Atari basic, slowly delving into Action, and Assembly.

[+LS650]

2 hours ago, masseo1 said:

I know I could buy a used atari 400, use emulators, but this 400 mini seems a bit more "real", than when I play with the atari 8-bit on my raspberry pi.

I agree: I can and have emulated Atari 8-bits on my Win laptop, but having a console format sitting on the coffee table connected to my large screen TV seems just a bit more comfortable and "old school".

Quote

 

The The 400 mini inst everyone's cup of tea. Maybe its to expensive, maybe it its crap, maybe people don't care?

The 400 mini suits me just fine. I am having fun! I am playing some really cool games, I am delving into Atari basic, slowly delving into Action, and Assembly.

 

I like it a lot - but I'm not blind to the Mini's flaws.  The console itself I am happy with.  I'd give it a 10/10 but the 5200 control inputs is a fly in the ointment.  I'm hoping they get that straightened out with firmware.

 

The CX-stick, though: ai yi yi.  How they could put it out as-is and then tell people, "Oh just don't press too hard and you won't get those false diagonals"...?
I don't experience that issue myself, but the stupid Ring buttons are an idea that seems great but proves to be terrible in practice.  I've turned them off and use the Function keys on my USB keyboard instead.

[Razzie.P]

I think it's a good idea, but sadly the poor execution of it just hurts the image of retro games as a whole.  I would love to see older consoles being remade and performing 100% like they should.  But not many of these mini gadgets do that.  People who are newly introduced to older games though these things often come away with a "how the hell did you play this garbage" first impression and move on.

[+Torq]

I think it's a good idea, and I'm definitely enjoying mine.  I wound up buying two (one each for two separate rooms) - and the second one was purchased after I'd had a good play with the first.

 

The unit itself, aesthetically especially, is great.  It definitely adds something to the overall experience for me versus, say, the Gamestation Pro (which I also like).

 

Yes, there are some software issues (included game images, some odd speed/color shifts in some cases), controller support/remapping is a bit odd*, and the input handling for the 5200 is unusable.  All of those elements are fixable; just remains to be seen if/when they get addressed - though I'm not in an big hurry.

 

A few minor firmware update/QoL changes, such as being able to put USB media games on the carousel, additional remapping options, different setup defaults, would be nice.

 

The CXSTICK is a bigger issue.  While I've had no problems with mine, other than some adjustment time during which I was constantly hitting buttons on the ring and re-starting my game (etc.), there obviously are issues here.  I can think of several ways to address the ring buttons (some software, one hardware)**.  The actual behavior/response of the stick will require hardware changes I expect.

 

Overall, though, I think I've enjoyed it the most due to it having the effect of drawing me back in to the Atari 8-bit world.  To the point that I'm building some tools for that space - which are  biased, right now, to things the 400 Mini really needs, such as bulk-config file generation, fingerprinting disk/cart/file images, directory splitting/limiting etc.  It's got me re-exploring programming for the platform - something I used to do a ton of as a teenager (I'm surprised how much I retained ...).  And THAT has me exploring an SD-Drive MAX & FujiNet setup with a US-spec physical machine ... just have to find the right unit (mine were all PAL).

 

---

 

*The SDL gamecontrollerdb.txt remapping would be a lot easier if the main repository for such things had a clear list of values and definitions for each possible input/mapping.

**One of which is I'm building a "proper" arcade style stick, themed off the CX40 (won't be the same form-factor of course), which will separate out the ring buttons (and/or make them defeatable).

[Spanner]

On 4/15/2024 at 8:25 PM, Torq said:

I think it's a good idea, and I'm definitely enjoying mine.  I wound up buying two (one each for two separate rooms) - and the second one was purchased after I'd had a good play with the first.

 

The unit itself, aesthetically especially, is great.  It definitely adds something to the overall experience for me versus, say, the Gamestation Pro (which I also like).

 

Yes, there are some software issues (included game images, some odd speed/color shifts in some cases), controller support/remapping is a bit odd*, and the input handling for the 5200 is unusable.  All of those elements are fixable; just remains to be seen if/when they get addressed - though I'm not in an big hurry.

 

A few minor firmware update/QoL changes, such as being able to put USB media games on the carousel, additional remapping options, different setup defaults, would be nice.

 

The CXSTICK is a bigger issue.  While I've had no problems with mine, other than some adjustment time during which I was constantly hitting buttons on the ring and re-starting my game (etc.), there obviously are issues here.  I can think of several ways to address the ring buttons (some software, one hardware)**.  The actual behavior/response of the stick will require hardware changes I expect.

 

Overall, though, I think I've enjoyed it the most due to it having the effect of drawing me back in to the Atari 8-bit world.  To the point that I'm building some tools for that space - which are  biased, right now, to things the 400 Mini really needs, such as bulk-config file generation, fingerprinting disk/cart/file images, directory splitting/limiting etc.  It's got me re-exploring programming for the platform - something I used to do a ton of as a teenager (I'm surprised how much I retained ...).  And THAT has me exploring an SD-Drive MAX & FujiNet setup with a US-spec physical machine ... just have to find the right unit (mine were all PAL).

 

---

 

*The SDL gamecontrollerdb.txt remapping would be a lot easier if the main repository for such things had a clear list of values and definitions for each possible input/mapping.

**One of which is I'm building a "proper" arcade style stick, themed off the CX40 (won't be the same form-factor of course), which will separate out the ring buttons (and/or make them defeatable).

Yes I totally Agree, I have loads of old consoles and computers plus I collect Mini Consoles now so they are great, my first one was THEC64 Mini PAL in 2018, it got me to create PCUAE in 2020, at the time I never knew anything about Linux, only skinning Linux Mint, or how they worked, I wanted to add games to its carousel and no one else was doing it so I did and that how PCUAE started, it was the first console I pre ordered, I have now THEA500 Mini, THEC64 Mini NTSC, THEVIC20, Capcom Home Arcade, the Atari2600 Plus(I got that because of how good the CHA was and I knew who PLAION was Koch Media, they published Back To The Future The Game in 2010 too...  I have that on PC DVD and yes they do still publish games like Atari do) and now THE400 Mini, and hope there is more to come... , more Mini's, no room for Full Size...  I even at one point made my own THEC64, I called it THEC64 Frankenstein, I made it because I could not get one at the time so built one...

I could not help but see your signature about the gamecontollerdb.txt file, I did make something in PCUAE that reads the GUID of the second joystick plugged in, it would show it on the screen and then sends it to a file called `testjoys.txt`
This is what's in the file after it read the joystick:

03000000790000001100000010010000,USB Gamepad

so you could make a GUID out of it for the gamecontollerdb.txt file in THEC64 so the joystick or controller would work in THEC64/THEA500 and now should work on THE400 Mini too, it was so it would make the right GUID that works on the RGL machines, its better to make the GUID on the machines that going to use it, that way they work, they all use the same SDL txt file, it here if you want to look, the post is abit old now, but it still should work in PCUAE, it has the SDL2 Gamepad Tool too in PCUAE, its under now: `PCUAE-USB-Drive\options\c64_a500_sdl_controllers`, hope it helps...  look here... https://thec64community.online/thread/640/edit-game-controller-joystick-pcuae

Edited April 16 by Spanner

[Marc Fiorillo]

I'll start off by saying that I have not bought a 400MINI, and unless the price tag comes WAY down (as in clearance), I'm not totally interested in it.

 

I think it is a great concept that is poorly executed:

First of all is the controller...it should have been fully tested before release.  I know Jon from GenXGrownUp came up with a clever fix, but I shouldn't be tearing a joystick apart upon purchase to fix it.  Also, all the extra buttons on the controller should have been put on the console instead.  To me, this is just too clever by half.

Secondly, this is released on the heels of the GSP.  MyArcade could have added A8 compatibility to the GSP and Atari could just call it a day.  The fact that wasn't done makes me see this as a cynical way to make more sales on another device.

Then we have the issue with 5200 compatibility.  #1, the GSP already has it.  #2, To get full 5200 compatibility, analog joysticks with the Start/Pause/Reset buttons and the numeric keypad are really needed, and it doesn't look like there are even plans for it.  With that major flaw, I might as well stick to the GSP which has the same flay, but  I can have a much larger library of games there than with the Mini.

I think I would rather have a mini SD card then a USB drive to put games on.  It's just more ergonomic than having a USB stick always sticking out of a USB jack.  Speaking of USB, I do think it was a good idea to allow USB keyboards to plug in.

And the big elephant in the room...physical media.  I think the 2600+, at its higher price point has proven that people own and like physical media.  If I were able to plug my XE carts into the mini, I would have bought one.  The idea of being able to plug our old physical carts into something new and modern that can plug into a TV via HDMI is an absolute plus for many of us Atari fans.  I would have paid more for that ability.  And since this was a computer, a jack for a cassette deck or disk drive would be icing on the cake.

 

I hope someone is listening from Atari and is looking to try again with the above in mind.  I really do want to see Atari succeed, but this wasn't the right console.