Atari2008

I've never opened up a console so I'm not comfortable checking out the controller pot, but I'm not sure if that's an issue though. I've never had any problems with the stock 5200 controller being pulled in one direction or another. Unless this is something that only comes into play with the Wico? All this drama with the Wico has made me appreciate the stock sticks even more.

Both of the switches are locked so that it does self center and it does, except when I push the joystick up, then it just sits in the up position. I'm using a stock 5200 controller for the keypad. The 5200 controller looks pretty centered to me but I'll try messing around with that see if I can get it to work. What I don't get are the two red switches on the side labeled with an -X- and a -Y-. What settings are those supposed to be on? Thanks! It sounds like the up/down switch didn't lock properly. Try unlocking it and then center the joystick and relock it. The X and Y sliders on the side are trimmers for adjusting the center of the stick. Usually you want them to be centered and you tweak them a little if you stick tends to go to one direction too much. Mitch I've tried everything, it just doesn't seem to work. I would try with another 5200 controller but unfortunately my 2nd controller doesn't work. Thank you for your help though, I guess next time I'll be more selective of whom I buy classic gaming stuff from.

Both of the switches are locked so that it does self center and it does, except when I push the joystick up, then it just sits in the up position. I'm using a stock 5200 controller for the keypad. The 5200 controller looks pretty centered to me but I'll try messing around with that see if I can get it to work. What I don't get are the two red switches on the side labeled with an -X- and a -Y-. What settings are those supposed to be on? Thanks!

So I was trying to enhance my 5200 experience (although I've been doing alright with the stock 5200 sticks), and I thought I was getting a deal on a Wico with Y-cable on eBay which the seller claimed works, and of course it doesn't! I'm so mad because I was excited to try out a different joystick on the 5200 but I'm also mad because I should've known better than to get something on eBay. It's so weird because the fire buttons work but the joystick doesn't, I tried it with Berzerk and the man just moves in various directions without me moving the joystick at all...in Pac-Man he just goes left and down and that's about it...the character movements don't correspond to where I move the joystick. And the stick doesn't self-center if I push up, it just stays there. This sucks. Going to try to get my money back although I doubt it...it says no refunds, no guarantees. ARGH!

I think the 2600 is better than most classic consoles.

This is something I've been thinking for a long time, and that's that the 7800 is more similar to other 3rd generation consoles like the NES and SMS, and the Colecovision is more similar to 2nd generation systems like the Intellivision. The CV is a great system, was awesome in its time, and as a result ended up with a great software library that people enjoy today. Truth be told, I enjoy the CV's game library far more than I do the 7800's, but this doesn't deny the technical superiority of the 7800. I mean the 7800 could have competed better against the NES if Atari's programmers were pushed to do so...the CV would've had no shot against the NES. The 7800 could pull of games like Scrapyard Dog and Midnight Mutants, I doubt the CV could do those. Unfortunately, given the situation at Atari at the time, the 7800 didn't end up with as memorable a library as the 2600 or 5200. For me though the more important thing is enjoying what these systems have to offer and what's to come with new homebrews. This rehashing of the past doesn't really seem productive and involves so many what if's, who's to say what would've happened. I'm just enjoying these classic system and what they still have to offer now.

Bingo. I had maybe a total of 25 games by the time I stopped playing the 2600 in the late 80's when I whored over to the NES fulltime. Only reason I eventually had that many is cause I got my cousins games after he stopped playing atari right when the NES came out so in a sense I had 2 collections. Some where doubles also on really popular games like asteroids,ect. This is true. The NES was my first system and looking back I don't think I owned more than 10 games for it. Games were expensive and so one game had to last a long time. And yes I rented far more than I owned, going to the video store and getting an NES game for the weekend was routine.

Wow I just watched the video that you posted on YouTube and I see what a difference the Channel F II sound makes. I had been playing Pac-Man on MESS using the original Channel F audio and the intro song to the level sounded horrible, but it sounds great in this version. I'm going to have to download the modified MESS so I can play this with the sounds the way they're supposed to. This game is a masterpiece on so many levels....great work!

Wow! This game is awesome. Very addicting and the music is tight! Great work.

LOL

1. Games: Great ports of classic 80s arcade games. 2. Graphics: Games look much closer to their arcade counterparts. Colors are bright and vibrant. 3. Sound: Nice audio, capable of voice synthesis. 4. Controllers: Unreliable and non-self centering BUT able to accomodate left-handed and right-handed players whereas almost every other controller of the era seems to accomodate right-handed players. Also, one of the first systems (or the first?) to have the pause button on the controllers. 5. Sysem Design: The 5200 just looks cool; slick and rather simple design with all major functions on the controller.

I dunno, I think low-res with only a few colors describes it pretty well. LOL that's a good way to describe that fuzzy glow all the games have.

Agreed! Curiosity let me to try a sampling of Channel F games and for the most part I was unimpressed, which makes sense given the time the system came out and the fact that they were first. Then I tried this Pac-Man port and couldn't believe that the Channel F was capable of it. Even the title screen is nice. You should also do a search on this forum for another game that e5frog is working on called International Karate. That one too is very impressive.

I will second that! Smurf is one of my favorite Colecovision games and I enjoy the 2600 version very much as well. A 5200 version would've rocked, and added a much needed adventure game to the 5200 library.

I agree that if there is an RPG gap in the Genesis library it makes sense that homebrews will mostly be RPGs. For me that's one of the many things I like about homebrews, is their ability to expand and diversify the library of a classic console. Plus I think it's nice to have deep games that players can invest their time on. That said Beggar Prince looks awesome!

1. Smaller Size: Although the 5200 is great too look at it's immense size makes it difficult to work with on a daily basis especially if you just want to play a quick game, and the console overall takes up a lot of space. It would've been nice if Atari had released the 5200 Jr. 2. Durable, self-centering joysticks. 3. Compatibility with 2600/7800/Genesis controllers for more controller variety like the 2600. 4. End labels on catridges. 5. Original Games: The 5200 without a doubt has great arcade conversions but is short on truly original titles. The 2600, Intellivision, and Colecovision all had games unique to their systems.

This has been gone over before but you have to open the system to change it. Just any rca cable wont do. It has a short center pole and a regular one wont sit properly and will be loose. Find an rca cable with a short center or what I do is I use heavy duty RCA or Monster brand rca cable and cut the center pole down with a dremel. Also if the connector itself i long it wond let the top go back on. An rca type cable that has a 90degree end is easiest to use. Alos when I have this problen I take the rf shield off the board and use a small buffer wheel on a dremel to clean the oxidation off the area where it makes contact with the shield. Hope this helps. Sorry about that I probably should've done a forum search. Thank you for your suggestions, I didn't realize that changing the RF cable on a 2600 is this involved. I've never used a dremel so I think I'll probably just get a 2600-specific RF cable which should make it a lot easier. I'll do a search on the forum so people don't have to repeat themselves, thanks!

I've noticed that the image from my 4-switch woodgrain 2600 is not as clear as that from my 5200 or 7800. I've noticed it more in bright colorful games like Pitfall II, there seems to be some noticeable fuzziness in the picture it looks like lines or boxes of lines in the background. Nothing that gets in the way of gameplay or distorts the images, its just a bit distracting and things don't look as sharp. I'm not sure what the issue is although I know that I've never changed the RF cable since I've owned it (25 years), could it be time to replace the cable? I see the cable comes from inside the system, will I have to unscrew it and swap in a new one? Will any ole RF cable from Radio Shack do or is there a 2600-specific cable? Thanks!

It's amazing what programmers today can do with classic systems to push them to their limits. I just noticed in the photos that with Videocart 26 and now 27 the Channel F has two classic arcade games in its library.

Thank you! I hope I can finally see the overlays in MESS, I'm curious to see how it'll affect the overall mood of the games.

It's real. You can download it here and play it on MESS: http://www.veswiki.com/Homebrew:Pac-Man

That's awesome! I've played this game in MESS and it's very impressive for a Channel F game. Who would've thought that it could pull off Pac-Man and with many touches that are faithful to the arcade too.

I found the Vectrex Thrust video, but I'll have to wait till I get home to watch it since I'm at work. Although I haven't been able to dedicate a chunk of time to playing Vectrex on MESS I did check out a few games just to see what they look like and although they looked different from anything I've seen I wasn't completely blown away. Then I saw a clip of the Angry Video Game Nerd playing Star Trek on the Vectrex and it looked completely different. It was full of bright colors and smooth animation. Definitely cooler that what I've seen on MESS. I wanted to test some games out on emulation just to get a feel for the gameplay since the Vectrex is an expensive proposition and completely new to me. I never even knew what the Vec was... until I went to a gaming convention around 5 years ago. I played it for the first time and INSTANTLY fell in love with it. I thought it was the coolest thing there and promptly went home and bought one from ebay. And then traded for one here. I believe I got it from Crazy Climber. I ended up selling it off with around 20+ games, and then re-bought everything later on when I found a deal with 20+ games all boxed. Now I have almost everything. (aside from homebrews... and vecflash. I need one of those). point of the post: try one out in person first, and you will see its charm! It would be cool if I could try one out in person. I don't know of any video game conventions in the NYC area, although there are talks of doing a Penny Arcade Expo in NYC next year which I hope will provide an opportunity to play classic systems, although that is a year away. There's a classic games shop that has a Vectrex, not sure if they'll hook it up and allow me to play but I can always ask. I'll find out how much they sell it for although I almost hate to find out...their prices are pretty high. Although its just on emu, I've been impressed by Minestorm and found the voice synthesis in Spike (and the characters) to be cool.

I was thinking I should feel lucky that at least I get to play the games, besides I figured if I had the console I probably wouldn't have all the overlays anyway, so this is closer to the real experience. But it would still be nice to see the colors. The games I've been able to run with no problem, although this guide is for an older version of MESS it's still fairly accurate: http://www.atariage.com/7800/emulation/mess_tutorial/ Hope that helps!

I've followed the instructions from the MESS Vectrex installation tutorial from Atari Age, and while I've gotten the games to play, I can't get the overlays to show. I'm using the latest version of MESS, version 0.127. I've tried almost everything, leaving the artwork zipped, unzipping it, nothing works. They're all in the appropriate .png format as well as being named exactly as the game files. Has anyone else experienced this?