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RetroN 77


jeremiahjt

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The absence of the 7800 though is a disappointment. Even if the stock CX-40 lookalike was only compatible with single button 7800 games and we had to plug in our own controller for the rest into the legacy controller ports on it, we're not looking at much of an extra expense, hardware wise.

 

 

Agreed. I'm not surprised, but I am very disappointed.

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I haven't heard anything yet, but it's still early days I guess, and we will see what happens. I'm certainly not concerned at this point, as the project only just appeared a little while ago, so they're probably still hip-deep in all sorts of work, issues, etc.

Who is the Stella team? I thought you were part of it?

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It was. The Flashback 2.

See my post 30 in this thread why, and what went wrong:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/266544-retron-77/?p=3782273

 

I immediately thought of FB2. But that project was of a different scope and market. It doesn't get a lot of details right. Switches, cart port, software upgradeable, physical size, video outputs, quality of materials and construction.. Things like that.

 

---

 

I was thinking more along the lines of a modern VCS that could be put next to a classic VCS and you'd never know the difference.

Edited by Keatah
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They've posted a video on Facebook about this.

 

https://www.facebook.com/HyperkinGames/videos/1380516251983467/

 

 

Good video - thanks for posting it. A few positive takeaways:

 

• The final will have all of the console switches

• They're testing it with as many cartridges/peripherals as possible

• They're paying attention to these forums

 

So... with that in mind:

 

• I'd suggest they PM some of the collectors here (and Albert), and offer to send them a prototype to test cartridges/peripherals on. They'll have access to games too rare to easily obtain.

• Closely follow the thread for the new Stella core. Hopefully, that's the one they'll be using.

• For the controller: leaf switches. Fire button on the left. I'd happily see this as a premium, optional extra. :)

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The video made me more excited for this. I had the same thought that they should send a couple test unts out. Would be curious if the supercharger and Kidvid would work. If they need volunteers I could put my hundreds of games and many controllers to the test. :)

 

I was thinking the same thing, "I wonder if my SuperCharger will work with this one?"

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• Fire button on the left.

 

 

Actually - I retract that. Better still - design the controller so it can be ambidextrous. With an easy-to-open case where you can simply switch a few wires around, and just turn the whole thing 90° (as you can with the original Atari joysticks).

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Stephen is more or less the Stella "team" for more than 10 years now. With a very few people helping occasionally.

 

Yes, that's true, but I still haven't heard from anyone. I guess they may have contacted Brad Mott, the original developer of Stella, but he hasn't been actively involved with the project for 10 years or so. If they did contact him, I think (hope?) he would have contacted me by now ...

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The discussions about not having all the switches making all the games not fully compatible and hopes for adding in the 7800 reminds me how even the 7800 doesn't have full backwards compatibility because the 7800 pause button is just the color/bw switch going from color to bw when pressed and then back to color again when released. So, it can't be kept in the bw position. That is why if someone is into both the VCS and 7800 while wanting full compatibility with all games owning both is required. Therefore, if one was to start with the idea of recreating a 7800 with an added color/bw switch while still having the pause button by only one being used based on if it is in 7800 or VCS mode then that would be adding something we haven't had a before. Or in VCS mode the color/bw switch would be activated and the pause button too but the pause button changes function to being like a VCS pause mod. It would be the first fully backwards compatible 7800. Especially if it is also compatible with PAL games.

A lot of VCS homebrews that use the B/W switch as a pause function are comatible with both models. Press B/W to pause. A long press and hold will unpause the game when the input is released, but a quick press and release, the game will remain paused until the second press and release. Sans any signal bounce on the 2600 models, this method works well regardless of if you are playing on a 7800 or 2600.

 

Let us not forget that some 2600 carts just don't cooperate on certain 7800 revisions for whatever reason, so always good to have a spare. Robot Tank comes to mind specifically. Also my 7800 rejected Reindeer Rescue as well.

 

So yes, any newly created 7800 clone system should address compatibility issues with 7800 and 2600 software. An FPGA implementation could simply swap cores when it detects 2600 games, why Kevtris decided to use separate 24- pin and 36-pin slots for 2600/7800 games, that and a proper 7800 connector could not be fabricated easily.

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Press B/W to pause. A long press and hold will unpause the game when the input is released, but a quick press and release, the game will remain paused until the second press and release. Sans any signal bounce on the 2600 models, this method works well regardless of if you are playing on a 7800 or 2600.

The method I know is, that the 7800 is detected at startup and different code is executed for pause.

 

Which games use the method you describe?

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I wish someone would sell a machine that plays carts for the 2600, 5200, 7800, Jaguar, and Lynx. An all-in-one Atari console would be an instant buy, especially if it was FPGA based. I know...I'm dreaming. But it's fun to dream.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

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They've posted a video on Facebook about this.

 

https://www.facebook.com/HyperkinGames/videos/1380516251983467/

They really need a Hi-pass filter on that microphone to nuke the bass. The acoustics in that expo were terrible. I could barely hear the man speaking over the whoomph, whoomph, whoomph of the background...

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Actually - I retract that. Better still - design the controller so it can be ambidextrous. With an easy-to-open case where you can simply switch a few wires around, and just turn the whole thing 90° (as you can with the original Atari joysticks).

Or just, you know, add a second fire button. That's easier than rotating the whole stick... :P

tac2.jpg

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Or just, you know, add a second fire button. That's easier than rotating the whole stick... :P

tac2.jpg

 

 

Yep - that would work, and I think that would be preferable to the centered ones Darrell posted (those look very uncomfortable). I was thinking more from a cost standpoint, for keeping one button.

 

 

If they're thinking gamepads, the best gamepad I owned was one by Gravis.

 

Besides being very comfortable and responsive, it had two big plusses:

  • It's truly ambidextrous, just by flipping it around (you changed preferences in the control panel)
  • It had a little screw-in thumbstick, which made it infinitely more controllable

Downsides?

  • It wasn't USB (I had a Mac version that was ADB), so you had to adapt it to work with newer computers, assuming the driver still worked
  • The thumbstick was plastic and could snap off (although the base it screwed into was metal)

Pictures!

 

post-2641-0-74829000-1497565636.jpg

 

post-2641-0-10738800-1497565636.jpg

 

Now... if they made something like this, but with a metal thumbstick, USB, and made the buttons assignable (so you could have Select and Reset on the controller, plus support for 2600 games that use Genesis controllers, etc.), I'd buy one in a heartbeat. Plus, the same controller could work on a 7800 version of the console.

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