Experimental 2600+ Firmware and Dumper

[JetmanUK]

4 minutes ago, swlovinist said:

I have the latest official update installed, but want to check out this update now that Pitfall II works.   I did not see instructions on how to install this update.   Is it an easy process and do people here recommend it?   

Super easy, just follow the instructions on here:

 

And the files from this thread.

 

It's well worth it, so many improvements. 

Edited May 28 by JetmanUK

[+swlovinist]

Just now, Dionoid said:

Yes, this update is highly recommended. The update process is the same as for the official update (although that wasn't a final update).

Thank you for the clarification.    I want to get the most out of my 2600+ and having Pitfall II working is a huge bonus.  

[tradyblix]

8 minutes ago, swlovinist said:

Thank you for the clarification.    I want to get the most out of my 2600+ and having Pitfall II working is a huge bonus.  

yeah you have to get on 1.1x-r3. They need to just like. make it the official 1.1 at this point, it's dissuading people from using it the way they have so many confusingly named versions now. 

I've been using "experimental" firmware for months of gaming at this point, just release it. software's never done anyway, you can always release a 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 etc. Plus, this needs to be on new devices that are shipped. 

[shane857]

I think an official new update needs a simplified method thou...

A lot of people are having issues installing the actual driver with an evercade driver all ready installed...🤔

[Striker667xbl]

2 hours ago, swlovinist said:

I have the latest official update installed, but want to check out this update now that Pitfall II works.   I did not see instructions on how to install this update.   Is it an easy process and do people here recommend it?   

This is the first update I've done... and I can attest that you WANT this update. 😁

 

I personally  had trouble getting the .exe files working. I had to run them "the old fashioned way" through cmd prompt for some reason. I'm sure it's something weird for 1% of people heh. Something poetic about updating a 2600 using Dos commands.

[Bitsized]

I'm a self-described "MAC-whiner" here on these threads. Even tho there was talk that there would be a MAC update, I had the opportunity to obtain a PC and updated it this weekend.  I haven't used a PC in over 20 years, and I found the process fairly easy. This was my first time doing any updates and I found the tutorial from GenXGrown up was helpful in the process.  

 

[JetmanUK]

14 hours ago, shane857 said:

I think an official new update needs a simplified method thou...

A lot of people are having issues installing the actual driver with an evercade driver all ready installed...🤔

My opinion is that the update process is pretty simple. The dumper being an exe is nice, perhaps the firmware update could also be a one click exe too, that would make it extremely simple.  Perhaps one front end app that brings both parts together in one place?

 

Like I said, I find it easy anyway... However I too have had issues after I installed Evercade drivers too. I now use two separate computers for the 2600 Plus and the Evercade. I think this is more of a Windows driver issue than the fault of Atari or Blaze though. 

Edited May 29 by JetmanUK

[JetmanUK]

36 minutes ago, Bitsized said:

I'm a self-described "MAC-whiner" here on these threads. Even tho there was talk that there would be a MAC update, I had the opportunity to obtain a PC and updated it this weekend.  I haven't used a PC in over 20 years, and I found the process fairly easy. This was my first time doing any updates and I found the tutorial from GenXGrown up was helpful in the process.  

 

This is good to hear, I'm sure It was well worth your while to do so. Jumping from stock 1.0 to the latest Experimental is quite a large leap. 😊🤟🏻

[Trebor]

50 minutes ago, Bitsized said:

I'm a self-described "MAC-whiner" here on these threads. Even tho there was talk that there would be a MAC update, I had the opportunity to obtain a PC and updated it this weekend.

What was actually stated is from this post:

Quote

Recently I've got someone looking at the re-writing the whole update process from scratch with the view to make it a more seamless, more professional branded process including Windows, Linux and MAC platforms. He says its all theoretically possible and has looked through everything, reported back deep feedback and made progress in compiling, but till I go through it and do it myself its all theory and ideas.

 

If only I could just wave a magic wand and have these things resolved I would. I always think about what the hell I can do to make things better as quickly as possible...then I realise the guys Albert kindly introduced me to... Chris, Mike and Fred, these guys have no peers in their fields, have improved everything they have touched with the 2600+ and I just need to encourage further co-operation.

 

Kind of the same story with the factory that makes the hardware and the guy looking at the update.

 

[tradyblix]

So I was playing Pitfall 2 last night (This is so cool lol) and I noticed that the sound does seem to have a fair number of "pops" and "clicks" occasionally and maybe even some distortion playing the main theme song which changes everytime you pick up gold bars. I'm not sure if this is normal or not for Pitfall 2 ? It kind of reminds me of the issues the original 2 firmwares had with Pitfall 1 making a clicking sound.... 

 

Has anyone else noticed this ? I wonder how long Pitfall 2 was actually played for when it was "got working". 

Edited May 29 by tradyblix

[John Stamos Mullet]

22 minutes ago, tradyblix said:

So I was playing Pitfall 2 last night (This is so cool lol) and I noticed that the sound does seem to have a fair number of "pops" and "clicks" occasionally and maybe even some distortion playing the main theme song which changes everytime you pick up gold bars. I'm not sure if this is normal or not for Pitfall 2 ? It kind of reminds me of the issues the original 2 firmwares had with Pitfall 1 making a clicking sound.... 

 

Has anyone else noticed this ? I wonder how long Pitfall 2 was actually played for when it was "got working". 

I played a complete game and never noticed a single pop.

[tradyblix]

9 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

I played a complete game and never noticed a single pop.

Cool, thanks for the feedback. I'll see how it goes over time I guess. 

[Bitsized]

3 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

This is good to hear, I'm sure It was well worth your while to do so. Jumping from stock 1.0 to the latest Experimental is quite a large leap. 😊🤟🏻

Yes, completely well worth it.  It's like getting a new device.  When they figure out the controller situations, it will feel like that and more (+) 

[Dionoid]

2 hours ago, tradyblix said:

So I was playing Pitfall 2 last night (This is so cool lol) and I noticed that the sound does seem to have a fair number of "pops" and "clicks" occasionally and maybe even some distortion playing the main theme song which changes everytime you pick up gold bars. I'm not sure if this is normal or not for Pitfall 2 ?

The sound of Pitfall II is digitized, which was groundbreaking for the 2600 at that time. But even on an original 2600, the distortion is always noticeable to me.

On my 2600+, Pitfall II plays great. Of course - just as on the original hardware - there is some distortion in the music.

 

And I agree with you that they should release this version. I've been playing it for a couple of days, and every cartridge I tried just worked and played great.

[John Stamos Mullet]

4 minutes ago, Dionoid said:

The sound of Pitfall II is digitized, which was groundbreaking for the 2600 at that time. But even on an original 2600, the distortion is always noticeable to me.

On my 2600+, Pitfall II plays great. Of course - just as on the original hardware - there is some distortion in the music.

 

And I agree with you that they should release this version. I've been playing it for a couple of days, and every cartridge I tried just worked and played great.

The music distortion in Pitfall II is intentional. It's designed to sound like a synth, with cymbals clashing in the background over the digitize drumbeat.

 

What Tradyblix was referring to was audio popping, which can happen in emulation when the host machine isn't fast enough to accurately emulate the audio stream efficiently. In previous iterations of the 2600+ firmware, similar pops were heard on other games, including the original Pitfall!

 

however, so far this report of popping on Pitfall II appears to be isolated to his specific console.

[Dionoid]

4 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

What Tradyblix was referring to was audio popping, which can happen in emulation when the host machine isn't fast enough to accurately emulate the audio stream efficiently. In previous iterations of the 2600+ firmware, similar pops were heard on other games, including the original Pitfall!

 

however, so far this report of popping on Pitfall II appears to be isolated to his specific console.

In that case, @tradyblix can you make a video of what you're seeing and hearing? 

Edited May 29 by Dionoid

[RevEng]

13 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

In previous iterations of the 2600+ firmware, similar pops were heard on other games, including the original Pitfall!

The pops in Pitfall! when using the previous firmware were due to the game leaving the speaker cone in a non-neutral position (i.e. the AUDC register is 0, with AUDV non-zero) which didn't jibe well with the RetroArch integration's idea of silence. It wasn't a performance thing, though we certainly did everything we could to goose the performance.

[John Stamos Mullet]

14 minutes ago, RevEng said:

The pops in Pitfall! when using the previous firmware were due to the game leaving the speaker cone in a non-neutral position (i.e. the AUDC register is 0, with AUDV non-zero) which didn't jibe well with the RetroArch integration's idea of silence. It wasn't a performance thing, though we certainly did everything we could to goose the performance.

the performance increases in this latest build are fantastic.

[MrChickenz]

3 hours ago, tradyblix said:

So I was playing Pitfall 2 last night (This is so cool lol) and I noticed that the sound does seem to have a fair number of "pops" and "clicks" occasionally and maybe even some distortion playing the main theme song which changes everytime you pick up gold bars. I'm not sure if this is normal or not for Pitfall 2 ? It kind of reminds me of the issues the original 2 firmwares had with Pitfall 1 making a clicking sound.... 

 

Has anyone else noticed this ? I wonder how long Pitfall 2 was actually played for when it was "got working". 

PITFALL 2 works great! I’m having No issues at all! Maybe it’s your speakers. Is the sound coming through your TV or a set of speakers?

 

Edited May 29 by MrChickenz

[NicodemusLegend]

18 hours ago, Striker667xbl said:

This is the first update I've done... and I can attest that you WANT this update. 😁

 

I personally  had trouble getting the .exe files working. I had to run them "the old fashioned way" through cmd prompt for some reason. I'm sure it's something weird for 1% of people heh. Something poetic about updating a 2600 using Dos commands.

I wonder if you're having the same trouble I had. My computer needs me to go into the "Properties" and check an "unblock" security option before it will let me run EXE files I've downloaded. Once I figured that out, I was fine.

[JetSetIlly]

20 minutes ago, RevEng said:

The pops in Pitfall! when using the previous firmware were due to the game leaving the speaker cone in a non-neutral position (i.e. the AUDC register is 0, with AUDV non-zero) which didn't jibe well with the RetroArch integration's idea of silence. It wasn't a performance thing, though we certainly did everything we could to goose the performance.

How have you handled the Pitfall silence value in that case? In my own experimentation, I've found that it's a case of keeping the audio buffer full with data from the emulation (which depends on adequate performance). Do you change the expected silence value for certain games? If so, how are you doing that?

[Striker667xbl]

1 hour ago, NicodemusLegend said:

I wonder if you're having the same trouble I had. My computer needs me to go into the "Properties" and check an "unblock" security option before it will let me run EXE files I've downloaded. Once I figured that out, I was fine.

I couldn't find a box for that option.. but it did make me think to have windows check compatibility. Windows put in in Win8 mode and now it works fine..🤷‍♂️

Thanks for the suggestion. 

[tradyblix]

1 hour ago, MrChickenz said:

PITFALL 2 works great! I’m having No issues at all! Maybe it’s your speakers. Is the sound coming through your TV or a set of speakers?

 

It might well be my speakers. I've only had time to play it once so far, and I had to clean it before it would load, so it might have been a one time bad connection. It's not a big deal, in any event. Just wondering. Pitfall 2 is so much more advanced than Pitfall 1.... 

[tradyblix]

2 hours ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

The music distortion in Pitfall II is intentional. It's designed to sound like a synth, with cymbals clashing in the background over the digitize drumbeat.

 

What Tradyblix was referring to was audio popping, which can happen in emulation when the host machine isn't fast enough to accurately emulate the audio stream efficiently. In previous iterations of the 2600+ firmware, similar pops were heard on other games, including the original Pitfall!

 

however, so far this report of popping on Pitfall II appears to be isolated to his specific console.

So yeah the "distortion sound" I was referring to is probably that as it's closely related to the theme tune. I did get a couple "clicks" or "pops" at one point, but they're weren't continuous, like with the first game.  I'll keep an eye on it and report back if I can find a way to replicate it. Also it could totally be something one off, or something in my speaker setup, I am using this in a Dolby Atmos HDMI ARC Setup. 

Edited May 29 by tradyblix

[tradyblix]

2 hours ago, Dionoid said:

In that case, @tradyblix can you make a video of what you're seeing and hearing? 

After work, I'll have some time to play it and if I can get it to happen again, I'll post a vid. I was just kinda wondering if maybe there were some issues with it, but sounds like not. 

 

I've had several experiences this week where I thought a game didn't run (Like Stellas Stocking) but it just needed to be inserted a few times and then started working - then it started working okay on every insert. Since the game was brand new, I can only assume it's something about conductivity... that seems to be the main issue with certain games. but I guess I just want to say don't give up if you can't get it going even after a few attempts. (unless the game is known to not work). It's a bit hit and miss which leads to weird "cargo-culting" like behavior on my end like "I have to partially insert it" or "I have to move it to the left on insert" and none of those things seem to have been consistent, what does work is just, try, try again, clean, try again, clean, etc. 

 

Everything is still working great tho so there is nothing wrong with the console it's just a bit finicky, for various reasons. And I am using a combination of new homebrew carts (I think they're new) and 40 year old carts, so not too surprising. 

 

I will say tho, it seems like once you get em running they're good to go, except for a few activision carts that always give me issues. In any event, The behavior of the dumper, ie, try, give the no cart inserted message, try again after 5 seconds or so, load, etc, is much better than originally where it would just stop working sometimes or you didn't know what had happened, etc. It's about as good as it's going to get, methinks, the whole process is prone to errors. 

 

But then there are some carts where they load no problems first time everytime so... a variety of variables in play I guess. 

Edited May 29 by tradyblix