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Viso

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Posts posted by Viso

  1. Posted

    Thanks for the info! I looked over the schematic, but I'm having some trouble understanding it. I'm nor sure where the analog signal is generated. It looks like the signals are going to pins 4 & 5 on J2, but I don't understand how the signal is being made.

     

    In any case, supplying a pulse input would not be my first choice. The microcontroller I'm using will be fairly busy, at lest for my abilities, making a time sensitive output difficult to manage, and I'd need four.

     

    I'm working on some other possibilites, like using a different part that can handle the current, or a cheap microcontroller dedicated to the task of doing the timing.

  2. Posted

    What is the minimum resistance that can be observed with a paddle controller? It is measurable between pins 7 & 5 and pins 7 & 9.

     

    I'm asking because I'm working on a way to emulate paddle controllers with a digital device. If the resistance can go under about 2.7k Ohms, then I have a problem with too much current. If it stays above, everything gets easier.

  4. Posted

    quote
    . . . Do you have another Ballbalzer or a Commando cart that you can try? These are the only two 7800 carts that use the onboard Pokey chip. . .  
    Does this mean that what appears to be low quality digitized audio from the intro to Jinks is not generated by a sound chip in the cartridge? Ir does it use something other than a Pokey?

  6. Posted

    I posted this in the 2600 fourm, but I wanted to make sure readers of this fourm didn't miss it.

     

    I'm working on an adapter gizmo that will connect to an Atari 2600 or 7800 console, probably NES, too, and will read data from a regular Playstation controller (that last part works now; tested with DualShock 2, digital and analog modes). I want to make it so that the player can customize the controller setup and save at least 16 customized settings.

     

    So, what kinds of things would you want to customize with such a setup? How could a Playstation controller provide the perfect input for your favorite Atari games? Maybe have an axes flip? Macros? Press triggers when moving a stick, while another stick acts like a regular joystick?

  7. Posted

    I'm working on an adapter gizmo that will connect to an Atari 2600 or 7800 console, probably NES, too, and will read data from a regular Playstation controller (that last part works now; tested with DualShock 2, digital and analog modes). I want to make it so that the player can customize the controller setup and save at least 16 customized settings.

     

    So, what kinds of things would you want to customize with such a setup? How could a Playstation controller provide the perfect input for your favorite Atari games?

  8. Posted

    The 7800 plays VCS games much the same as a VCS with the exception of the few games that won't work in the 7800. From what I've read, the compatibility problems are mostly (only?) with newer post-1984 7800 units. Glad I got a mid-1984 unit :-)

     

    FYI, the 7800 includes the same TIA found in the 2600's, and the same sound chip. So, these parts work pretty much the same.

  10. Posted

    quote:
    Originally posted by Thunderbird:

    Too bad that most other recent space battle games have been pretty to look at but SUCKED gameplay wise. The sucky play caused low sales which makes publishers shy away from proposed ports of BattleSphere.

    So they make some space battle game for a current and popular console, publicize it, sell it for $50 a copy, and it flops. Meanwhile, this Battlesphere thing is made for a supposedly dead and forgotten console, sells for $160 new, even more used, and there aren't enough copies to go around. But, no, it can't be that popular or good.

  11. Posted

    It sounds like the SMS had the greatest CPU performance, but with graphics intensive (for the time) games, that doesn't mean much by itself. It also looks like the 7800 should be able to compete very well with the NES on graphics, but it was sufficiently odd to prevent this from being obvious.

  13. Posted

    It seems doubtful to me that a company could start making new 7800 games. A company would want to make a profit, and if it was making games with full-time employees, it may well have to pay $45k to $60k per year salaries to one or two people. It could be done part-time, but then you have to convince people to make the games in their spare time. I think most people willing to do that are already making the games.

  14. Posted

    quote:
    Originally posted by Nukey Shay:

    This has been brought up before. I don't believe that it's possible without a very high transfer rate (which in the end, would be spendier than a CC/SC). You are referring to a cable with NO RAM at either end, correct? Just a cable from computer to VCS, and the software does the rest?

    The latency would likely prove to be a more constraining factor than data rate. If the device was connected by USB, for example, the data rate would be fast enough, but if the computer took too long to send back the correct response, all time sensitive operations, like graphics, would be screwed on the 2600. Furthermore, many people out there who would use this are running Windows 9x or ME. If their computers tried to multitask, the maximum latency time may be exceeded and kill the game on the 2600. It is the same problem CD writers have, but the nature of the game data prevents using the buffering that has helped out the CD writers.

     

    I did think briefly about trying to get something like Dallas Semiconductor's TINI module to emulate 2600/7800 cartridge RAM & ROM. TINI could load the data from an FTP or HTTP server over ethernet. It would even be possible to write 2600 & 7800 software to select the game. But I have no clue how to emulate the RAM & ROM, latency issues still need researching, and it would altogether be too difficult for me to consdier working on alone.

  15. Posted

    I haven't been happy with either the Proline or the joypad from Atari, so rather than get something else I decided I would fix the problem with modern hardware. I'm working on an adapter that will use an unmodified Playstation controller and translate that input into something an Atari console can use. While I'm at it, I've decided that I should add custom joystick configuration, right keypad emulation (Star Raiders), paddle emulation (rather difficult), and a few more things.

     

    It is rather ambitious, but I think it is possible. Maybe it'll work next month. I'll get back to making it now.

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