Should I buy a Starpath Supercharger?

[HDTV1080P]

A PC emulator has better picture quality since one is using HDMI on a modern PC (Also I prefer the keyboard keys over the old style less reliable joysticks). A lot better then RF channel 3/4 and composite video. I do not miss the grainy pictures one bit. When I play Atari 2600 games on the ADAM computer at least I have composite video which is better then RF channel 3 and 4. I also agree that a Supercharger rom image or harmony cartridge with instant loading is better then a manual cassette or audio CD loading. However sometimes I would like to try the old audio CD or cassette method to remember what it was like. I have the original Supercharger with many of the cassettes if I every want to take the time to do this.

Edited September 5, 2017 by HDTV1080P

[Keatah]

Count me among those who does not need to recreate every dance step of setting up a retro game in order to enjoy it in the modern day. I mean, I can see the desire to play games on original hardware with original controllers and all that, but in this case, you're still doing that; the only difference between then and now is that now there are much more convenient ways of loading the software into the hardware.

 

But, we all love retro games, and we all approach the hobby from different angles. Far be it from me to say that somebody should not value this or that simply because I do not.

 

Well yes. I would have killed back then for the ability segue between games AND being able to pack my VCS in a backpack with ALL its games.

 

I recall going through an hour ritual if I packed my Apple II for a WaReZ CoNFereNce. Disconnecting all the peripherals and removing all the cards. Undoing the drives, monitor, speakers.. and more! The guy with the fro at Compu-Shop told me that if I ever take my Apple II in the car or anything, that I should remove the interface cards so they don't bounce around or partly unseat themselves. Heaven help me if I wanted to bring the printer and monitor! As a shit-faced kid I'd be there for 2-hours try'na sort and pack everything.

 

The VCS was little different. I remember having to pick and choose which cartridges I'd take with if I was going to "play Atari" - still an hour's process if you consider a kid having to collect everything and unscrew the switchbox and unplug everything.

 

Today it's simple. Everything fits in a lappy bag and takes but a minute to pack 10 emulated classic consoles and computers for a road trip. Ohhh to have today's infrastructure back in the 1970's!

[HDTV1080P]

So far I have only used emulation programs to emulate a ColecoVision/ADAM system on a Windows PC. Maybe I should one day download a emulation program for other systems like the ATARI 2600.

Edited September 5, 2017 by HDTV1080P

[HDTV1080P]

I imagine the super charger would work fine with a 7800. The problem is, it doesn't physically fit into the slot. There are a tiny number of games that may or may not work in the 7800, but its pretty rare. Most games that are issues are really a 'fit the slot' issue, not an actual problem with compatibility otherwise.

Therefore, both the ATARI 7800 and Coleco Expansion module #1 ATARI 2600 adapter need a cartridge extender type product to use a Supercharger and a few other odd shaped cartridges. How many other ATARI 2600 adapters for other systems and ATARI 2600 clone systems have this problem with the Supercharger?

 

Take a look at the following link. Coleco developed a Cartridge Extender back in the early 80’s to take care of this problem for their own Expansion Module #1 ATARI 2600 adapter. Perhaps we can get a third party company to make a universal cartridge extender to sale to consumers for around $30. This would solve the problem for the ATARI 7800, ColecoVision/ADAM owners, and any other system that has an issue with odd shaped cartridges.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/268800-coleco-cartridge-extender-offical-coleco-catalog-part-number-592114/

[+Gemintronic]

Right now I can only make plain old 4k games in SuperCharger format. So, I end up loading the games I make via PSP as a .WAV file. Too wary to risk ruining old original tape games.

 

I'd say do some research on existing titles before taking the plunge. Not much going on in the homebrew scene.

[Keatah]

The irony is, I doubt very many of us liked loading cassettes back in the day. They were slow and unreliable. If we had the option for something like a harmony cart back then, we would have taken it in a heartbeat.

 

It was interesting and futuristic for first or second time. After that it became drudgery. To a kid, loading cassettes was an eternity.

 

 

So now to be 'authentic' you need the original HW, when most of us back then didn't give a crap about authenticity. We just had no other options.

 

Yeh about that. Today emulation is good enough that it can casually be considered another option, another way to play, another way to collect. It may even be one's first exposure to classic gaming. If emulation was available back in the day I'd have gladly traded the wall of cartridges and sprawl of systems for a tiny stb nuc. To do it all in one box is orgasmic. Shuddering and shaking knowing IT'S RIGHT HERE! ALL OF IT!

[Keatah]

So far I have only used emulation programs to emulate a ColecoVision/ADAM system on a Windows PC. Maybe I should one day download a emulation program for other systems like the ATARI 2600.

 

Well if you're going to do VCS, there is only one option, Emulator Stella. If you want Atari 8-bit rigs, look up Altirra. And for the 7800 you get stuck with MAME or ProSystem. ProSystem is dated. MAME is bloated and has a shitfaced interface.

[alex_79]

The issues with the supercharger and some 7800 consoles isn't mechanical because of the tight cartridge port, but caused by a different timing in some of the signals in a few revision boards, that breaks compatibility with the supercharger bankswitching scheme (and a few third party Atari 2600 games too).

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/164509-2600-compatibility-issues-on-the-7800/
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/147397-the-7800-timing-circuit-demystifed/
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/219081-pete-rose-compatibility-issue/

[Flojomojo]

To a kid, loading cassettes was an eternity.

I only did a little bit of cassette loading as a kid on my 16K TS1000, but the level of nostalgia the Spectrum people in Europe have ... ye gods! How could they sit still while their ugly-ass bargain games loaded? That seems like it would be enough to put anyone off of technology forever.

[HDTV1080P]

The issues with the supercharger and some 7800 consoles isn't mechanical because of the tight cartridge port, but caused by a different timing in some of the signals in a few revision boards, that breaks compatibility with the supercharger bankswitching scheme (and a few third party Atari 2600 games too).

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/164509-2600-compatibility-issues-on-the-7800/

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/147397-the-7800-timing-circuit-demystifed/

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/219081-pete-rose-compatibility-issue/

 

So was it both a physical fit in the slot issue and a timing issue for some cartridges, because a earlier post by another individual said it was a problem with some of the plastic cartridges?

[zzip]

I only did a little bit of cassette loading as a kid on my 16K TS1000, but the level of nostalgia the Spectrum people in Europe have ... ye gods! How could they sit still while their ugly-ass bargain games loaded? That seems like it would be enough to put anyone off of technology forever.

 

We actually had to leave the room while my friend's Atari 410 loaded a game, because the vibrations from walking around on the floor seemed to affect it and mess up a 15 minute load. Of course he put his Atari on the floor like a game console, so that didn't help. Not to mention all the programs I wrote that I saved to tape that were later unrecoverable. So to me cassette = pain & frustration, and not something I'm nostalgic for.

[alex_79]

So was it both a physical fit in the slot issue and a timing issue for some cartridges, because a earlier post by another individual said it was a problem with some of the plastic cartridges?

The cart port is problematic with some third party games (e.g imagic carts), I don't remmeber if the Supercharger is affected too (I modded the cartridge port of my 7800 a long time ago)

 

 

Edited September 5, 2017 by alex_79

[Keatah]

 

We actually had to leave the room while my friend's Atari 410 loaded a game, because the vibrations from walking around on the floor seemed to affect it and mess up a 15 minute load. Of course he put his Atari on the floor like a game console, so that didn't help. Not to mention all the programs I wrote that I saved to tape that were later unrecoverable. So to me cassette = pain & frustration, and not something I'm nostalgic for.

 

I saved all my TRS-80 Pocket Computer programs to cassette back in the day, naturally. I also took the time to print them out in 2" wide cash-register paper - that was the size of the printer. Some programs are 2 meters long! Sometimes only 1 or 2 BASIC statements per line. At the time I didn't know I was making a real backup, on different media, stored separately and "away" from the cassettes. I just wanted to sit and watch the printer print.

 

Worse that could happen is the cassettes don't work and I'd have to type them in again. But at least they are still there. All the model rocket programs, the modified Lunar Lander game. My text adventure about going to the bathroom and taking a shit. My countdown timers and EVP analyzer. My bicycle speed record log. Shit I typed in. And more.

 

Once I open this stuff up again, it's gonna be a blast of nostalgia!

[Flojomojo]

I kinda-sorta wanted the Timex Sinclair printer, but it was thermal paper, and I don't know if it would have lasted a year, let alone until now. Was yours ink, impact, something else?

[Keatah]

Real dot matrix, ribbon ink + impact pins. Should last hundreds of years.

 

---

 

Some thermal paper, the silver type, will last hundreds of years too. The silver kind in some early printing calcs, arc'd and burned away the electrically conductive silver coating with high voltage, thus creating contrast. All the arcing and sparking was fun to listen to on AM radio.

 

The yellow type got real hot and and burned the paper too I think. Don't know the longevity.

 

The shit they use today fades after less than 10 years. Got receipts from 2012 that have reverted back to all white. This paper is also a cancer-causing agent. Especially in women and fat-assess, something to do with Estrogen markers. So you want to wash hands after handling it.

Edited September 5, 2017 by Keatah

[Flojomojo]

You wash your hands, I don't need any receipts.

[Keatah]

The printouts I have are for the 1st Pocket Computer 1. It may be interesting to note that the Pocket Computer 2 printer uses tiny ball-point pens. It's 4 color plotter in a 2 cubic-inch space. And it draws each character/word just as if you'd hand print it. Cool to watch.

[Flojomojo]

You just reminded me of a weird old device I had, it was a typewriter and a plotter that used ballpoint pens.

http://munk.org/typecast/2016/11/19/the-handwriting-drawing-typewriter-brother-type-o-graph-bp-30-with-user-manual/

It could make simple graphs and line-by-line word processing. Innovative, clever, and pretty useless by today's standards.

[Video]

Even a compatibility list for 7800 won't help,there is multiple versions with different compatibility. An example would be, I have koolaid man, it works fine on one of my systems, but goes batshit crazy on the other.

 

Super charger is hit with a double whammy for fitting. The cart is to big, and the standoffs (for opening the 2600 dust cover) are actually part of the board, preventing a good contact between the system and the cart edge. While not part of the circuit board the standoffs prevent my xonox double enders from working as well.

[Atari Dogs]

Here it is. The store found some more games.

[TrekMD]

That is a nice collection. It even has Party Mix. Has the SuperCharger been retested using a 2600?

 

By the way, I wrote an article about the SuperCharger in the latest issue of The Retrogaming Times: http://www.classicplastic.net/trt/

[boxpressed]

Didn't people use the Supercharger as a kind of Harmony cart before the Harmony cart or Cuttle cart?

[Keatah]

Back in the day? Not really. Not as I remember it.

 

You kinda can today because there are about 60 conversions of standard games.

[Turbo-Torch]

Didn't people use the Supercharger as a kind of Harmony cart before the Harmony cart or Cuttle cart?

 

Yep, probably more than 20 years ago by simply using a program to convert .bin files to wav. The Supercharger worked with many 2K and 4K games as is. For the games that don't work, there is a fairly easy mod using a few bucks worth of Radio Shack parts that allows all the 2K and 4K games to work.

 

I burned a bunch of games on CDs and used my Sony Discman. Select the track for the game you want and a perfect load every time.

[bohoki]

cool he has frogger how much for the lot currently cause you could probably get $100 for frogger on the ebay if you wanted