Experimental 2600+ Firmware

[DEANJIMMY]

3 hours ago, LS650 said:

I'm 57, and I managed to figure it out...

Hell, I thought it was actually pretty easy.

I did it plenty of times up and down, it works very well and is quite easy to do🤙

 

The only critical moment is the windows driver installation, which could cause problems, especially if an Evercade was upgraded on same machine.

 

Once you got the driver installed, it is a piece of cake😊

 

Almost 53 but I feel like I am 60😉

[Thomas Jentzsch]

38 minutes ago, littaum said:

Maybe Atari can provide that retro-experience of having to swap out a ridiculous amount of media to install a large program like the last few versions of Microsoft Office that could be installed from dozens of floppy disks.

Swapping dozens of floppy disks was my thought too. Though I remembered doing backups that way.

 

Some should do the math for the 2600+ based on 128K carts.

Edited April 23 by Thomas Jentzsch

[JetmanUK]

I'm still in my 40s (just!), so maybe I'm still a baby (🤣) but I thought that the update process was a piece of cake.

My only suggestion was that instead of having to read a website or PDF file the instructions could be in the app itself and prompt you along the way, but really, it was easy.

 

Surely anyone who wants to play a games console, even a 2600, is into tech in at least a low level way, it is tech! So I can't see many people struggling to update the console, maybe I'm underestimating my own technical ability and I'm a genius... But I don't think so. 

Edited April 23 by JetmanUK

[John Stamos Mullet]

7 hours ago, LynnInDenver said:

I can actually, honestly, see his point... it's TWO pieces of software, with written instructions on a website. To us, it's not complicated... to anyone else, who's only ever dealt with Windows Update, it's hella complicated (two reboots, two different switch configurations), is fraught with issues dealing with various computer USB configurations, and is well beyond what most other devices on the market ask you to do. Even the MiSTer update process is fewer manual steps.

 

I do hope that the official (not beta testing) firmware update is a single program that walks you through the process of doing this, and that the update process on the 2600+ itself after that becomes "the machine will do the first update, and then be more capable of running through the multistage process automatically".

This product isn’t tageted at people who aren’t already capable of reading a single page of instructions. Shit, every original Atari 2600 game came with a multi page manual of instructions. 
 

doing this update is less complicated than playing Raiders of the Lost Ark

[shane857]

3 hours ago, DEANJIMMY said:

I did it plenty of times up and down, it works very well and is quite easy to do🤙

 

The only critical moment is the windows driver installation, which could cause problems, especially if an Evercade was upgraded on same machine.

 

Once you got the driver installed, it is a piece of cake😊

 

Almost 53 but I feel like I am 60😉

Yes. I had an evercade driver installed and had to right click on the driver, select update and navigate to the driver exe. Everything was fine then.

[shane857]

22 hours ago, Mr. Christmas said:

And honest to heck and back guys, you shipped it with the difficulty switches backwards.  That should have been patched a week later.

To be fair. @Mr. Christmas has a fair point. The Atari 2600+ was released with the difficulty switches reversed. Surely this should have been spotted and corrected before the official release? Yes, it was fixed, thou what about people who have bought this console with no knowledge of this forum and further updates and still on the original firmware... 🤔

[shane857]

8 hours ago, Sean_1970 said:

If they released an update that could be installed from a cart that would be pretty neat.

If that was possible. "That's a fcukn great idea!" 

[MrChickenz]

4 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

How many carts do you want to swap for the update?  

 

The firmware is by several magnitudes larger than the largest cart the dumper can handle.

Thomas, I believe you can do it with three carts! 😆

[Trebor]

4 hours ago, shane857 said:

To be fair. @Mr. Christmas has a fair point. The Atari 2600+ was released with the difficulty switches reversed. Surely this should have been spotted and corrected before the official release?

Also to be fair, the 2600+ supports both the 2600 & 7800.  Under the original 7800 hardware, the Difficulty Switch settings are physically reversed from the 2600.

4 hours ago, shane857 said:

Yes, it was fixed, thou what about people who have bought this console with no knowledge of this forum and further updates and still on the original firmware... 🤔

People with consoles under the original firmware with the Difficulty Switch settings reverse, may actually try flipping the switch to the other setting if not receiving the expected result. They would probably put 2 + 2 together and figure out the switch settings are reversed. 

 

One of the internal dialogue for such an individual, may go something like this:

 

"Hey, my Space Invaders ship is still fat, but I have the Difficulty Switch in the correct position...

Hmmm...

Okay, let me try flipping the switch over...

Yes, that fixed it!  I guess the switch is mislabeled or set reversed.

All I have to do is remember that fact going forward...

Or maybe I'll check online to see if others are experiencing the same thing...

There could be a system update for it."

[kjames_s_2000]

I would agree the difficulty settings are just something that works itself out.  From the factory (with default firmware), the difficulty switches were set so that the games registered a default difficulty of 'B' even though that didn't match the physical imprint on the back of the console.  To be honest, I didn't even look at the back to see what the physical imprint 'A/B' was (my old eyes need a magnifying glass for that).  I just played on oblivious to it all.  It wasn't until I upgraded to the beta firmware that I noticed the reversal.  I was playing Superman and unexpectedly Lex and henchmen were uber-fast and Lois didn't automatically appear when I got clocked by Kryptonite.  I was able to deduce that the game now registered a difficulty switch setting of 'A' and only then messed with the switches.

[MrChickenz]

Double post 

Edited April 24 by MrChickenz

[+D Train]

On 4/23/2024 at 10:09 AM, sramirez2008 said:

It’s so easy…

 

I see your caveman and raise you

 

 

[Mr. Christmas]

On 4/22/2024 at 9:05 PM, John Stamos Mullet said:

There is an update coming soon that is pretty close to complete. If you spent 5 minutes reading the forum instead of spouting off you would have seen that. Also - the difficulty switches were fixed like 4 updates ago. 
 

the updates couldn’t be easier. You plug your 2600+ into your console, and put the switch on b/w and hold down one button the run a single program to update the cart dumper. 
 

then turn it off, put it back on color mode hold down reset, turn it on, and run the tool to dump the latest firmware.  It takes all of 2 minutes tops, and only requires reading. It’s not complicated.

Your angry aggression about this is not a good look for the community at large.  People don't know to come to the Atariage forum.  It's not like a slip was included telling buyers to do so.  It also doesn't matter that someone can "figure out" the switch issue, it's that it makes the product look sketchy.  The update process requires two different programs and multiple resets with no directions in the programs how to use them.

 

I'm not saying that I can't figure it out, people, I'm saying that it needs to at least be one unified program.

[Mr. Christmas]

On 4/23/2024 at 7:57 AM, LS650 said:

I'm 57, and I managed to figure it out...

Hell, I thought it was actually pretty easy.

You, sir, are a 57 year old with a long extensive history here.  You're not who I mean.  I should have said "a typical 60 year old."

[John Stamos Mullet]

3 hours ago, Mr. Christmas said:

Your angry aggression about this is not a good look for the community at large.  People don't know to come to the Atariage forum.  It's not like a slip was included telling buyers to do so.  It also doesn't matter that someone can "figure out" the switch issue, it's that it makes the product look sketchy.  The update process requires two different programs and multiple resets with no directions in the programs how to use them.

 

I'm not saying that I can't figure it out, people, I'm saying that it needs to at least be one unified program.

One could say the same about your approach here, coming completely out of the blue to register an account here to brag about your credentials as a "journalist", and then trashing a product because you're too old to figure out the directions. Not exactly a great look for journalistic integrity/impartiality either. More like the current day "TMZ" style of journalism. Unsolicited and disrespectful.

[Mr. Christmas]

15 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

One could say the same about your approach here, coming completely out of the blue to register an account here to brag about your credentials as a "journalist", and then trashing a product because you're too old to figure out the directions. Not exactly a great look for journalistic integrity/impartiality either. More like the current day "TMZ" style of journalism. Unsolicited and disrespectful.

K.

[John Stamos Mullet]

3 hours ago, Mr. Christmas said:

You, sir, are a 57 year old with a long extensive history here.  You're not who I mean.  I should have said "a typical 60 year old."

A typical 60 year old isn't going to be interested in a retro gaming console either. Someone looking at this and understanding what is different between the initial release of this system, and the original (like the difficulty switches, etc) takes the knowledge of an Atari fan, who by their nature is going to invariably be a techie into gaming who won't have much trouble with the update process. Atari has a solid niche market, but it's a pretty specific niche. Mostly Gen-x and younger, techie, retro. Not many retirees who could barely program the clock on their VCRs in the 80's are going to be into this system, much less know about Atari history.

 

You seem to be advocating for a market that doesn't really exist.

 

[Mr. Christmas]

Honestly it's like there's some prevailing attitude of "if you didn't fall out of the womb knowing what I spent years to know" combined with "nothing new is worth spending years to learn you are all idiots" mentality going here.

 

Sun and Moon there really is no Generation X.  There's just old Millennials and Young Boomers.

[John Stamos Mullet]

51 minutes ago, Mr. Christmas said:

Sun and Moon there really is no Generation X.  There's just old Millennials and Young Boomers.

[JetmanUK]

Hold on, did this guy just say here's no Generation X, and call me a Boomer or a Millennial?! 😡🤬

 

Gen X-ers are different, we have many of the best traits of the generations either side of us, with little to none of the bad ones. This is why we may appear anonymous or invisible as we are not as annoying and much more chilled.

 

Trolling confirmed, and not even clever trolling, just rude!

[Jstick]

3 hours ago, Mr. Christmas said:

there really is no Generation X

[CPUWIZ]

I love self entitled people who complain about free stuff, they usually don't last long enough to be a real nuisance.

[Sean_1970]

2 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

Hold on, did this guy just say here's no Generation X, and call me a Boomer or a Millennial?! 😡🤬

 

Gen X-ers are different, we have many of the best traits of the generations either side of us, with little to none of the bad ones. This is why we may appear anonymous or invisible as we are not as annoying and much more chilled.

 

Trolling confirmed, and not even clever trolling, just rude!

Given how narrow the Gen-X window has become (I’m guessing so the boomers can count Obama amongst them so they had one good President to contribute), it’s not an unreasonable position. “Remembers when Atari made consoles” hardly seems like a definition of a generation to me. I don’t even know what the supposed marker is now - born in the 70s? Remembers hearing Bohemian Rhapsody on the radio in Primary school?

[Sean_1970]

9 hours ago, Mr. Christmas said:

 

I'm not saying that I can't figure it out, people, I'm saying that it needs to at least be one unified program.

Agreed, but given it’s still beta there’s time for that. The “buy cheap PC” crowd can do one, however. I’d sooner landfill my existing 2600+ and buy a new one with updated firmware than buy a new computer to update it. Of course if it doesn’t fix keypad support I have zero incentive to do either 🤷‍♂️

[JetmanUK]

31 minutes ago, Sean_1970 said:

Given how narrow the Gen-X window has become (I’m guessing so the boomers can count Obama amongst them so they had one good President to contribute), it’s not an unreasonable position. “Remembers when Atari made consoles” hardly seems like a definition of a generation to me. I don’t even know what the supposed marker is now - born in the 70s? Remembers hearing Bohemian Rhapsody on the radio in Primary school?

Gen X is 1965 - 1980. Perhaps this is a cultural difference, here I don't feel like it's narrow.

I think, like I said, Gen X appears less visible as we don't have the standout negative trait that people judge all of a generation by. For example if I said Racist or Snowflake, you would know which generation I'm talking about. 

 

Perhaps ours should be 'Gamer', still not negative, we just can't help it. 😋🤟🏻