Atari 2600+ Beta Update 1.1 REV 2

[+sramirez2008]

4 minutes ago, DEANJIMMY said:

Mine will be shipped soon and comes with a Hokey... could this make a difference?

Well both of ours have POKEYs. As for HOKEY carts, A.R.T.I., Danger Zone, E.X.O., and Keystone Koppers all have HOKEYs installed and my copies all work/sound fine. 

[RevEng]

10 minutes ago, DEANJIMMY said:

Mine will be shipped soon and comes with a Hokey... could this make a difference?

It shouldn't. Pokey-capable homebrews are detected by the 2600+, and the pokey audio is emulated. This is also how the 2600+ can also play stuff like ym2151 music, even though the cart doesn't actually have that hardware.

[+sramirez2008]

2 minutes ago, RevEng said:

This is also how the 2600+ can also play stuff like ym2151 music, even though the cart doesn't actually have that hardware.

This was a most pleasant surprise when I popped in the 40th Anniversary of Pac-Man Collection. Boy does it sound good!

[John Stamos Mullet]

1 hour ago, Ben from Plaion said:

You were one of my favourite posters here till this let you down. Guess there is no accounting for taste 😉

Why?

 

the smoothing filter makes the edges of the pixels appear accurate, as they would if a genuine 2600/7800 were connected to The same television at its original resolution. 
 

it also blends neighboring colors correctly, similar to the tower toppler issue.
 

upscaling 240p output to 720p directly without smoothing looks like a bunch of legos flying around the screen. Original/Old school consoles never looked like that on any television and still don’t. 
 

specific example: the skyline/sunset color gradient at the top of many Activision games like Barnstorming/keystone Kapers. 
 

with smoothing, it looks like a smooth gradient of color, just like it does on a real 2600 connected to a crt. (Also looks like this connected to any hdtv’s analog/rf input, minus the jailbars and static.

 

from the 2600+ (or any emulator with no smoothing) it looks like individual colored horizontal lines, all blocky. 
 

not that I’m complaining. I love this stupid little thing, and watching the support get better every update. 
 

 

Edited January 25 by John Stamos Mullet

[+sramirez2008]

Btw, thanks again to all involved with the latest updates. IMO, the dumper and firmware are coming along quite nicely. It’s pretty cool to get ym2151 support without having a ym chip à la Dragon Fly multi-cart, since they are no longer in production. 

Edited January 25 by sramirez2008

[Zoyous]

19 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Original/Old school consoles never looked like that on any television and still don’t. 

specific example: the skyline/sunset color gradient at the top of many Activision games like Barnstorming/keystone Kapers. 
with smoothing, it looks like a smooth gradient of color, just like it does on a real 2600 connected to a crt. (Also looks like this connected to any hdtv’s analog/rf input, minus the jailbars and static.

from the 2600+ (or any emulator with no smoothing) it looks like individual colored horizontal lines, all blocky.

I know what you're saying, but a lot of it depended on the CRT you were using. With higher end displays, you could clearly see individual pixels and there was little or no blending with neighboring pixels. However, there was still the distinctive pattern of the shadow mask or aperture grille if you looked closely. (Not that we had something like that when I was a kid - for most of my time with the 2600, I was playing on a 19" black and white TV. Some time around ten years ago I picked up a nice $3000 32" Sony Trinitron for $5 from a second hand store. Patience pays off!)

 

Most TVs did have some degree of color blending going on and that was something developers counted on for certain effects, like you mentioned with the Activision gradient and later on to simulate transparency effects on the Sega Genesis. These days, unless the emulator has a really nice simulation of those artifacts, I will just stick with the clean and crisp LCD look because a half-assed scanline effect hurts my eyes.

 

It's true that the 2600 never looked that crisp. But it's also kind of awesome in its own way, rather artful even if it was never intended/expected to look like that. As always, giving everyone the option to "season to taste" is probably the best course of action, if possible.

[+remowilliams]

Bad simple scanline filters are bad, good complex scanline filters (which do exist) are not.  Same with nicely done phosphor mask effects.

 

Both when done correctly represent how games of the period were actually presented and seen by the vast majority of the population.

[shane857]

37 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Why?

 

the smoothing filter makes the edges of the pixels appear accurate, as they would if a genuine 2600/7800 were connected to The same television at its original resolution. 
 

it also blends neighboring colors correctly, similar to the tower toppler issue.
 

upscaling 240p output to 720p directly without smoothing looks like a bunch of legos flying around the screen. Original/Old school consoles never looked like that on any television and still don’t. 
 

specific example: the skyline/sunset color gradient at the top of many Activision games like Barnstorming/keystone Kapers. 
 

with smoothing, it looks like a smooth gradient of color, just like it does on a real 2600 connected to a crt. (Also looks like this connected to any hdtv’s analog/rf input, minus the jailbars and static.

 

from the 2600+ (or any emulator with no smoothing) it looks like individual colored horizontal lines, all blocky. 
 

not that I’m complaining. I love this stupid little thing, and watching the support get better every update. 
 

 

I have my mclassic connected to the atari 2600+. The atari games have never looked so good...

[raz0red]

1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

I supplied POKEYs for Froggie and Beef Drop when I bought them from AA in 2019.  The latter does not currently work on the 2600+, but they both work with sound on my 7800.  As we are focusing on original Atari games in this update, I am not pressed for these at the moment.

Sorry, just for clarity, are they not working at all? Or are they working, but without sound?

 

Thanks a lot,

Chris.

[shane857]

6 minutes ago, remowilliams said:

Bad simple scanline filters are bad, good complex scanline filters (which do exist) are not.  Same with nicely done phosphor mask effects.

 

Both when done correctly represent how games of the period were actually presented and seen by the vast majority of the population.

I tried scanlines on the evercade atari 1 & 2 collections. Games look like sh*t. They nailed it on the atari 50 collection thou 💪

[shane857]

Tried some of my problematic 2600 games and the sprites are back. Keep up the good work! 

[Ben from Plaion]

56 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Why?

 

the smoothing filter makes the edges of the pixels appear accurate, as they would if a genuine 2600/7800 were connected to The same television at its original resolution. 
 

it also blends neighboring colors correctly, similar to the tower toppler issue.
 

upscaling 240p output to 720p directly without smoothing looks like a bunch of legos flying around the screen. Original/Old school consoles never looked like that on any television and still don’t. 
 

specific example: the skyline/sunset color gradient at the top of many Activision games like Barnstorming/keystone Kapers. 
 

with smoothing, it looks like a smooth gradient of color, just like it does on a real 2600 connected to a crt. (Also looks like this connected to any hdtv’s analog/rf input, minus the jailbars and static.

 

from the 2600+ (or any emulator with no smoothing) it looks like individual colored horizontal lines, all blocky. 
 

not that I’m complaining. I love this stupid little thing, and watching the support get better every update. 
 

 

I just like it sharp. But I also understand why some people like the effects.

[Cody2000]

11 hours ago, timmah1979 said:

It was tested before I bought it on Monday and ran flawless 

youd be suprised same thing with the tunnel runner cart i mentioned was cleaned tested working shipped to me i played it once game crashed randomly then never worked again as the ram chip failed its very possible the cart died

[Jeffrey the Legend]

I've been trying to get this update going also looking at the original beta update post for instructions and to grab the remaining files from there

So got these:

AtariDumper1.1.0.9.exe

update-012324.img
DriverAssitant_v5.12.zip
RKDevTool_Release_v2.74.zip

From a new unit that I received after a bent pin adventure, I directly did the 1.1.0.9 with the B/W / Game Select combo and update with AtariDumper1.1.0.9.exe . This went fine.

Then tried following the COLOR / Game Reset combo and didn't hear a windows jingle.

Do hear a windows jingle using B/W / Game Reset combo. But that is not per instruction, nor does it give me a "Unknown Device" in Device manager.
Don't see an unknown device with any of these combinations even.

Installed the Driver Assistant. That still does install, but doesn't change anything on the Device Manager I guess.
Running RKDevTool_Release_v2.74 always turns up with "No Devices found" no matter how I boot up.

Now it of course already falls or stands with the COLOR / Game Reset combo not getting to a windows jingle. Looking at HDMI output of the device, no screen comes up, which I don't know if that is normal. When I get a jingle, the screen does come up. So thought I'd bring this up
Tried powering on with COLOR and holding the Game Reset down for like 30 seconds. Then letting go. No screen comes up. No Unknown Device in Device manager or anything else for that matter. RKDevTool still coming up with No Devices Found.

Am I missing a critical step somewhere?

Edited January 25 by Jeffrey the Legend

[TornadoTJ]

1 hour ago, remowilliams said:

Bad simple scanline filters are bad, good complex scanline filters (which do exist) are not.  Same with nicely done phosphor mask effects.

 

Totally unrelated, but I like your Atari ST "Busy" avatar.

[John Stamos Mullet]

59 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said:

I just like it sharp. But I also understand why some people like the effects.

Fair enough. Au natural is nice sometimes, but I miss my buttery smooth color gradient sunsets in Barnstorming.

 

It’s a sense memory thing, as that was the first non-pack in game I ever had when I got my Coleco Gemini for Christmas in 1982. 

Edited January 25 by John Stamos Mullet

[Ben from Plaion]

24 minutes ago, Jeffrey the Legend said:

I've been trying to get this update going also looking at the original beta update post for instructions and to grab the remaining files from there

So got these:

AtariDumper1.1.0.9.exe

update-012324.img
DriverAssitant_v5.12.zip
RKDevTool_Release_v2.74.zip

From a new unit that I received after a bent pin adventure, I directly did the 1.1.0.9 with the B/W / Game Select combo and update with AtariDumper1.1.0.9.exe . This went fine.

Then tried following the COLOR / Game Reset combo and didn't hear a windows jingle.

Do hear a windows jingle using B/W / Game Reset combo. But that is not per instruction, nor does it give me a "Unknown Device" in Device manager.
Don't see an unknown device with any of these combinations even.

Installed the Driver Assistant. That still does install, but doesn't change anything on the Device Manager I guess.
Running RKDevTool_Release_v2.74 always turns up with "No Devices found" no matter how I boot up.

Now it of course already falls or stands with the COLOR / Game Reset combo not getting to a windows jingle. Looking at HDMI output of the device, no screen comes up, which I don't know if that is normal. When I get a jingle, the screen does come up. So thought I'd bring this up
Tried powering on with COLOR and holding the Game Reset down for like 30 seconds. Then letting go. No screen comes up. No Unknown Device in Device manager or anything else for that matter. RKDevTool still coming up with No Devices Found.

Am I missing a critical step somewhere?

Did you install driver assist from its app or did you update the drivers via device manager?

 

Because the app just doesn't work even though it says it's installed. It must be done via device manager

[MysticSword]

I posted this in another thread, but I figured I'd also post it here in case it's of help regarding non-compatibility (Smurf Rescue, which had the same issue for me on the original 2600+ firmware versions) and compatibility (Robot Tank) with these two games I have after doing the firmware updates.

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, raz0red said:

Sorry, just for clarity, are they not working at all? Or are they working, but without sound?

Beef Drop gives a scrolling rainbow (see below,) while Froggie works but has no sound.  I should amend: Froggie's in-game sound does not work, but I have caught it croaking when it starts up (unfortunately, the screen mode change between loading and starting the game forces my projector, even though I have it set to only use HDMI, to search for an active input.  This means I miss a lot of start-up action, like the Atari Age logo and jingle on some games.)

 

I am going to pull around an HDMI monitor to see if there is any difference.

 

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 minute ago, OLD CS1 said:

Beef Drop gives a scrolling rainbow (see below,) while Froggie works but has no sound.  I should amend: Froggie's in-game sound does not work, but I have caught it croaking when it starts up (unfortunately, the screen mode change between loading and starting the game forces my projector, even though I have it set to only use HDMI, to search for an active input.)

 

I am going to pull around an HDMI monitor to see if there is any difference.

 

I suspect your copy of Beef Drop in this case similar to several others are on Melody boards and this is the same result I get from most of the more modern homebrews that are on Melody boards.

[MrChickenz]

How soon might we see a update for (NTSC) consoles that are lagging a bit

[+splendidnut]

Beef Drop is a 7800 game, so it wouldn't be on a Melody board.

[Jerry0720]

On 1/24/2024 at 1:41 PM, Ben from Plaion said:

Hello all,

 

Many thanks for all the feedback on the Christmas update.

 

We have a revision of the firmware as well as a repost of the latest dumper software attached to this post. 

 

We've made the decision to roll back to a 60hz only output for the time being so that the missing sprites issue doesnt effect PAL cart owners. Now that the 7800 emulation and cart compatibility is in a good place, attention now focuses on 2600 emulation. We have the intention of resolving the 50 60hz issue and want to re-introduce it as well as rectifying high CPU usage that maybe affecting some 2600 games as noted in the original 1.1 beta update thread. Thanks especially to @raz0red and @RevEng for all the fantastic support. Another technical whizz has offered support on 2600 homebrew compatibility and we hope to make further advancements there in a future update.

 

2600 fixes

 

• Donkey Kong Jr - Coleco (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle - Coleco (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Masters of the Universe - Mattel (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Burgertime - Mattel (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Bump n' Jump - Mattel (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Robot Tank (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)

 

I'm interested if owners of Coleco white cart rev 3 and M-Network games not listed above can confirm cartridge compatibility with this latest build.

 

7800 fixes

 

• A.R.T.I. (Pokey sound fixed)
• Asteroids Deluxe (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode 
• Asteroids Deluxe (Escape sequence for hidden game, both buttons + right for 3 seconds, immediately on load)
• Crazy Brix (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Danger Zone (Pokey sound fixed)
• Diagnostic Test Cartridge (Now loads correctly)
• Double Dragon (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• E.X.O. (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9, Pokey sound fixed)
• Karateka (PAL) (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Keystone Koppers (Pokey sound fixed)
• Klax (may load now, unverified)
• Millie & Molly (Pokey sound fixed)
• Moon Cresta (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Pac-Man Collection (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Pole Position II (Course select screen fix)
• Popeye (Fixed freeze on game start, 1.3c version)
• Possible Mission (may load now, Dumper 1.1.0.9, unverified)
• Rampage (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Scramble (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Space Dual (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Space Invaders (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Tower Toppler (Composite smoothing)
• Xevious (PAL) (Palette update, less brown)

 

Instructions for updating remain the same as the Christmas update

 

 

Many thanks and I hope to further bring more updates to optimise the experience of the Atari 2600+

AtariDumper1.1.0.9.exe 5.26 MB · 84 downloads update-012324.img 68.85 MB · 96 downloads

hi Ben. Image 12324 would not work for me.  It told me the file was corrupt. Can you help me please?

 

[jnagy13]

On 1/24/2024 at 1:41 PM, Ben from Plaion said:

Hello all,

 

Many thanks for all the feedback on the Christmas update.

 

We have a revision of the firmware as well as a repost of the latest dumper software attached to this post. 

 

We've made the decision to roll back to a 60hz only output for the time being so that the missing sprites issue doesnt effect PAL cart owners. Now that the 7800 emulation and cart compatibility is in a good place, attention now focuses on 2600 emulation. We have the intention of resolving the 50 60hz issue and want to re-introduce it as well as rectifying high CPU usage that maybe affecting some 2600 games as noted in the original 1.1 beta update thread. Thanks especially to @raz0red and @RevEng for all the fantastic support. Another technical whizz has offered support on 2600 homebrew compatibility and we hope to make further advancements there in a future update.

 

2600 fixes

 

• Donkey Kong Jr - Coleco (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle - Coleco (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Masters of the Universe - Mattel (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Burgertime - Mattel (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Bump n' Jump - Mattel (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Robot Tank (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)

 

I'm interested if owners of Coleco white cart rev 3 and M-Network games not listed above can confirm cartridge compatibility with this latest build.

 

7800 fixes

 

• A.R.T.I. (Pokey sound fixed)
• Asteroids Deluxe (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode 
• Asteroids Deluxe (Escape sequence for hidden game, both buttons + right for 3 seconds, immediately on load)
• Crazy Brix (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Danger Zone (Pokey sound fixed)
• Diagnostic Test Cartridge (Now loads correctly)
• Double Dragon (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• E.X.O. (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9, Pokey sound fixed)
• Karateka (PAL) (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Keystone Koppers (Pokey sound fixed)
• Klax (may load now, unverified)
• Millie & Molly (Pokey sound fixed)
• Moon Cresta (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Pac-Man Collection (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Pole Position II (Course select screen fix)
• Popeye (Fixed freeze on game start, 1.3c version)
• Possible Mission (may load now, Dumper 1.1.0.9, unverified)
• Rampage (now loads, Dumper 1.1.0.9)
• Scramble (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Space Dual (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Space Invaders (PAL), now correctly starts in PAL mode
• Tower Toppler (Composite smoothing)
• Xevious (PAL) (Palette update, less brown)

 

Instructions for updating remain the same as the Christmas update

 

 

Many thanks and I hope to further bring more updates to optimise the experience of the Atari 2600+

AtariDumper1.1.0.9.exe 5.26 MB · 88 downloads update-012324.img 68.85 MB · 98 downloads

This is great! I was able to do the first Christmas update, but not this one. I did have an issue with the first one where on the Update itself, when trying to find the Atari 2600+ under Other Devices in the Device Management folder, I could not find it. I had updated my Evercade and that is what it showed up under. So I selected that and was able to complete the first firmware update. This one is giving me the same problem, only this time, under Other Devices, nothing says Unknown Device or Evercade? So I am unable to download this update. Has anyone else run into this issue or know another way to fix it? 

[+LS650]

6 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:

I just like it sharp. But I also understand why some people like the effects.

It's funny.  BITD people complained the video was too fuzzy and blurry, and now people complain the video is too crisp and sharp!