AtGames Fall 2017 Flashback and Portable Lineup

[carlsson]

If new paddles are made, and they're backwards compatible with older systems (perhaps even a toggle switch between 500K and 1M, if that is possible?) it would open up additional sales. The aftermarket for hand controllers to various N* and S* branded systems seems to be lucrative enough, but if nobody yet makes paddles in a similar fashion that is an available market.

[Atariboy]

AtGames has been making backwards compatible paddles for years.

[Flojomojo]

Currently out of stock, and higher priced than I'd personally like, but yeah -- and they seem to be good enough.

 

http://www.atgames.us/ATARI-Paddle-Controllers-for-Atari-Flashback-Console-ARC200.htm

[carlsson]

I may have misunderstood how potentiometers work, but it almost sounds like AtGames' paddles have too high resistance if the effective range is just a small twist. I've read other threads before about using Commodore paddles (nominally 500K ohm) on Atari 2600 (nominally 1M ohm) and how not the entire playable area would be covered but with more fine control of the area the paddle responds to, and in this case it sounds like the opposite.

 

Regarding the price it seems to be a lot of difference in price (and availability) between the US and Europe. On eBay.com I found second hand paddles starting at $8-10, some even tested and cleaned. On eBay.uk I couldn't find anything below £15 = $20. Of course shipping adds in, but compared to $30 for the brand new set of paddles, your "premium" would be twice of mine compared to what used ones would cost.

[Flojomojo]

Yes, double the price ... but it's not housing we're talking about, it's cheap toy accessories. If I run into some nice ones I'll send them your way in exchange for some Marabou chocolate.

[+GoldLeader]

Considering the state of Most used paddles, I just think it's very cool you can buy New ones!

[atarifan88]

Considering the state of Most used paddles, I just think it's very cool you can buy New ones!

 

When they are in stock! I've tried to buy these even when they say in stock and my order has been cancelled because of inventory errors on At Games part!

[Bill Loguidice]

I have an update about the Atari Flashback 8 Gold: Activision Edition. Some of you will not be happy. It will "only" have 120 games on it, same as the standard Atari HD model. The difference is is that many of the other third party games will be replaced by 19 more Activision games, so 39 Activision games in total versus the 20 on the regular Atari HD. So obviously that makes the decision a bit tougher.

[AtariLeaf]

Do you happen to know what games are getting swapped out?

[Atariboy]

Does AtGames really think that they have some customers that will buy both editions just to get every game? Or is this decision coming from somewhere else, like contractual limitations that can't be discussed?

 

Frankly, if I'm torn between the two lists, the only result that could happen that I hadn't planned on is just waiting a year for 2018 for hopefully something better to be released by AtGames. I wouldn't want to buy both models and if there's games that I'm very fond of that are exclusive to each version, I probably won't be able to satisfactory settle on just one of the two.

 

I hope it's some of the more lackluster games from the Atari Flashback 8 Gold Edition that are replaced. May I suggest killing off the useless Tempest prototype for starters?

Edited August 15, 2017 by Atariboy

[Bill Loguidice]

Do you happen to know what games are getting swapped out?

 

Not yet. I do know what's getting swapped in on the Activision side and it does include some cool Imagic stuff. Until it's 100% finalized though, there's no point in sharing anything.

[Bill Loguidice]

Does AtGames really think that they have some customers that will buy both editions just to get every game?

 

Frankly, if I'm torn between the two lists, the only result that could happen that I hadn't planned on, is just waiting a year for 2018 for hopefully something better to be released by AtGames. I wouldn't want to buy both models and if there's games that I'm very fond of that are exclusive to each version, I probably won't be able to satisfactory settle on just one of the two.

 

I hope it's some of the more lackluster games from the Atari Flashback 8 Gold Edition that are replaced. May I suggest killing off the useless Tempest prototype for starters?

 

I don't think they expect anyone to necessarily get both, although I'm sure a very small percentage will. I still think the Activision one will be the one to get, although I do agree it will suck to potentially lose a favorite title or two. The Activision list is very cool, but I don't know as of yet what's being replaced beyond the new Frogger and Space Invaders ports.

[Atariboy]

Thanks Bill

 

While good games, I can live with those two being replaced since they're not even true 2600 games. I hope the 2600 substitutions don't include any gems like Centipede though.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Atariboy

[Bill Loguidice]

OK, here's a quick update. The fixed reviewer units should go out at the end of this month. The Sega and Atari HD units will likely not get to the general public until the first week in October. The Activision HD might be in November. Obviously the release schedules slipped a bit due to the fixes and enhancements made, but that's certainly better than shipping substandard products.

[Flojomojo]

Good is better than fast!

 

In the meantime, here's something interesting to play with:

Two fans have reportedly fixed the AtGames Genesis audio issues A decade-old problem solved with a hex editor?

 

When we talk about Genesis clones, everyone always remember a very known issue: the audio. Companies like AtGames have been releasing Genesis clones for a decade and nearly every release has the been hampered by poor sound quality.

Earlier this year Brazilian tech company TecToy released their new Mega Drive to celebrate 30 year of partnership with SEGA. While this version is better than previous clone consoles, it shares the same Red Kid 2500 processor that has been used in AtGames systems, which means it has audio issues, as well.

But a recent discovery has been made by two fans Neto and Rafael Müller named that could completely fix the audio issues in the AtGames and TecToy Genesis systems.

The recent TecToy Genesis contained a file called md.bin on its packaged SD card. This file sends instructions to the processor to tell it how to execute the games. After a month of digging into the bin file and system, the duo made some interesting discoveries.

Most importantly, they discovered that the clock speed was wrong, which was reportedly the reason the Red Kid 2500 processor had bad audio. Adjusting the clock speed to the correct setting got the sound at about 85-90 percent accuracy of the original Genesis.

Upon hearing this news, fans began messaging TecToy requesting that the company implement this as an official update, and surprising enough, TecToy has announced that they’ll do just that.

Neto and Rafael didn’t stop their work with the TecToy Mega Drive, though. Because it and the AtGames’ Genesis clones and handhelds share the same processor, the two were able to implement this fix on one of their handhelds.

This is pretty impressive work that the duo were able to solve a decade-old problem by using a hex decimal editor and Assembly. Neto and Rafael deserve a lot of credit for fixing a problem that big companies did not have the courage to fix.

If you want to try this fix, take the following steps:

1. Download the latest firmware for the new Mega Drive;
2. Inside the file, you will have two files the MDI.BIN (New Mega Drive) and Neto_Boot_Loader.BIN (Portable Mega Drive);
3. Place the Neto_Boot_Loader.BIN file in the GAME folder and through the MD Play menu load it through the SD option;
4. From now, all the functions will be the same as the new TecToy Mega Drive with all the benefits of applied patches.

Unfortunately, I can't get it to work on my white 2016 USA AtGames Genesis portable, aside from loading the debugger. It looks like you should be able to rename ROMs and run them through this modified menu so they would sound better, but someone smarter than me will need to see if it works on anything we non-Brazilians might have.

Even if you get it going, I suspect it would only work on the SD card games, which means no save states. The Phantasy Star games were the most impacted by craptacular sound and music, in my opinion, and they're loooooong multi-session games that need a save function to be fun.

[Tanooki]

I can't tell the difference in their video as it still seemed off as it always was, but if it just was the recording and it's that much better hopefully ATGames has the courage to take their work and throw a fix out there for people with the existing units and applies it if needed to the future if the 2018 models just don't go android/emulated anyway like the HD unit coming shortly.

[Bill Loguidice]

I tried that fix on my 2017 model as well and had the same issue as Flojomojo. It's already being internally checked at AtGames to see if they can find out if something like that would actually work. It would be nice if that indeed proved a simple improvement before the more dramatic changes planned for 2018 are put into place.

[Tanooki]

All the best Bill as I hope your team has the ability to take what's in there and use it. I'd even go pick up a second hand unit on the cheap and patch it if that happened. The audio bothered me the most over the saving issue since I have little time for RPGs (but would have been nice for Mega Man.)

[FifthPlayer]

I certainly can live with a delay if it means that we get a better quality product.

 

Is there an ETA on the updated game lists for the Atari HD and Activision edition consoles? It's pretty clear I'm going to have to do a title-by-title comparison to decide which one to get.

[Bill Loguidice]

I certainly can live with a delay if it means that we get a better quality product.

 

Is there an ETA on the updated game lists for the Atari HD and Activision edition consoles? It's pretty clear I'm going to have to do a title-by-title comparison to decide which one to get.

 

That Atari HD is the same list. The Activision HD I'm still getting confirmation on.

[Bill Loguidice]

Just checked. It is just Frogger and all the Taito games that are missing from the Activision HD. I'm not at liberty to reveal the additional Activision+Imagic games as of yet. As soon as AtGames releases it publicly, we can discuss further.

[Atariboy]

I can only think of Space Invaders, Jungle Hunt, Frontline, and Polaris for Taito games. With Frogger, that's only five games rather than 19.

 

Is that all that's really missing?

Edited August 17, 2017 by Atariboy

[Bill Loguidice]

I can only think of Space Invaders, Jungle Hunt, Frontline, and Polaris for Taito games. With Frogger, that's only five games rather than 19.

 

Is that all that's really missing?

 

Removing Frogger and all the Taito games gets me 3 games over 130, so 133. I'm trying to track down whether it's actually 133 or there are more games that need to be removed.

[Flojomojo]

Just curious, is this a technical issue, a business issue, or a combination?

 

I'm wondering if there is there a cap on the number of titles that will fit in ROM or in the menu.

[Bill Loguidice]

Just curious, is this a technical issue, a business issue, or a combination?

 

I'm wondering if there is there a cap on the number of titles that will fit in ROM or in the menu.

 

There is sometimes a cap (moreso on the Sega SD hardware), but that's not really an issue here. As we've discussed before, the business stuff can be crazy with what is and isn't usable on what, for what fee, etc.