Atari 2600 book recommendations (especially for games/reviews)

[Atari 2600 book recommendations (especially for games/reviews)]

See the book "ABC to the VCS" from Rolenta Press for a nice capsule guide to the 2600's output.  It was last updated in 2005, but has a lot of really useful material. http://www.rolentapress.com/

[Anyone have an Epson HX-20?]

I had a HX-20, my mom bought it from a surplus store around 1988, and I remember taking it with me on a class trip and printing out fake biorhythms for everyone.  I've sure it's still around at my parent's house, but I think it wasn't working last time I checked.  It could be a NiCd problem, although I also suspected that I'd zapped the EPROM that's accessible behind an access panel.  Now that I know how to fix such things, I'll have to get it out on my next trip home and see what shape its in.

[Homebrew C64 VIC FGPA - parallels to ARM assist]

If I were making a TIA replacement with FPGA, I'd want it to still feel like the TIA... here's some ideas:

 

1. automatic playfield mode - you could preload left/right playfield bitmaps and colors for each scanline, perhaps using per-pixel color and a higher resolution.  The FPGTIA would automatically replay the playfield on playfield on later screen refreshes, freeing up the 6502 to focus on the players and balls.  I could see this using a page flipping mechanism too so you could load one playfield while not disturbing the display of the current one.
2. player positioning via X register write - instead of having to time in a scanline when to write to HMOVE, you could just directly modify the position register
3. expand to full 256 colors that GITA supports by adding 1 more bit of luminance

[VCS Joysticks]

It's definitely homemade.  The chips you see are two MC14538b Dual Precision Retriggable/Retargetable monostable multivibrators and a CD40106 hex Schmitt trigger.  The hex Schmitt trigger chip is used to turn noisy signals into clean digital signals, so likely is used to reduce the jitter in the four direction signals.  The other two chips are a bit of mystery as you'd normally use one of those to turn a trigger signal (a button press) into a short asserted signal, with it then resetting until the button was pressed again.  Maybe they're paired to do some sort of rapid fire mechanism?

[Atari Monte Carlo Arcade System?]

There a little info at KLOV, but it seems like a combination of low production run and not much collector interest.  I don't think I've ever seen one in the wild.

 

https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8742

[Stella 6 on the R77: the eagle is landing]

On the "no permissions" ... balenaEtcher seems to have problems with recent builds of Windows 10 and having the right permissions to re-write the SD card.  I was able to get around this by right clicking on the etcher icon and running it as administrator.

[FujiNet8000? (Z80-CP/M module)]

While brainstorming other features for the FujiNet hardware, I stumbled upon https://github.com/MockbaTheBorg/RunCPM/, a MIT-licensed CP/M 2.2 emulator that already runs on the ESP32.  Given that the FujiNet already does drive emulation, buffers printer output, and acts like a serial port, CP/M mode is the last bit of functionality needed to do everything that the ATR8000 did.

 

I don't know enough yet about the memory usage of the FujiNet core -- RunCPM needs 64K for the CP/M system memory, plus additional RAM for running the Z80 emulation.  The ESP32 port was done using the Arduino support, so it would need to be ported to PlatformIO as well as changed to use SD card code that FujiNet already has internally.

 

Does this seem viable?  Interesting?

[Paint The City - WIP]

Seems a lot like City Connection!

 

 

 

[#FujiNet - a WIP SIO Network Adapter for the Atari 8-bit]

Reading about the SAM system in FujiNet made me wonder about that audio input and using it as a way to play MP3 files, either from the network or stored on the local microSD card, and having the audio fed in for mixing with the 8-bit's audio output.  It looks like the DAC output from the ESP32 going to the SIO_AUDIOIN line is only 8-bit, so the quality wouldn't be great.  I don't think you'd want the audio data to actually be passed through the SIO bus, as the bitrate to get anything reasonable is too high.

[The first ads for Magicard]

The page from BYTE you show also has an interesting bit immediately above the Computer Magic ad, there's an ad for a surplus computer running a 6507, the same CPU as the Atari VCS.  I'd not heard of any other devices using the 6507 before.

[An Odd Archer Joystick From Canada.]

Electrically, I could see the RC controller standing in for the two paddles you could have hooked up instead of the joystick.  They're on different pins, so there's no conflict -- each paddle fire button maps to one of the joystick directions, IIRC.

 

Also, the TI originally had two joysticks on a single DB-9 port, so maybe the user took one of those joystick pairs, chopped off the sticks, and used that cable to wire up the two controllers.

[Adventure -- Why Was it Never Ported?]

On the Atari 8-bit computers, I think some of the Roklan games, like Journey to the Planets, are a nice expansion of the idea, but with more graphics and variety.

[AtGames Officially Unveils Legends Ultimate Home Arcade (full-size machine)]

Frustrated... I'd intended on ordering the Legend Gamer Pro from my reservation, but spaced on the deadline and now it's gone.  I guess this just means I'll be able to wait and see how it's reviewed now then order a later batch.

[Atari Flashback vol. 3 PONG - No Sound]

When I was testing different TVs, I found some chipsets didn't handle the PCM audio format those sticks output. It's likely a TV issue that would be solved by plugging into a different set.

[PlusCart (an inexpensive DIY WiFi multicart)]

Before I make an order from JLCPCB, does anyone in the USA have an extra PlusCart board they'd be willing to sell?

[Old pictures of our Atari 8-bit setups]

I had the Graphix AT SIO-to-Centronics interface.  Details at http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/3rdparty/Printing/Xetec/

[Old pictures of our Atari 8-bit setups]

I found some old photographs of my Atari 130XE setup from around 1987 when I was in middle school.  I had my old 1050 and a new XF551, a SX212 modem, and Star NX-10 printer.  I also had a 1020 plotter, but its not in these pictures.  The little portable computer is a Epson HX20 that my Mom had bought from a surplus store; I remember taking it on a class field trip and printing out lots of fake biorythym reports for my classmates on our long bus ride.

 

 

 

[Weird modification in Atari 2600 Video Pinball]

This is likely a pirate cart. People would copy the ROM chips in Atari carts onto EPROMs and user these homebrew carts to play the backups. That lever mechanism is called a zero-insertion force socket and is used to hold the chips if place during use.

[Flashback 9 Gold Wireless BT Version?]

Looking at the FCC filings for this (see https://fccid.io/2AMTQ3650ATARI), the device uses a proprietary GFSK modulating scheme, not Bluetooth.  Since interoperability wasn't needed, this is likely a much lower cost solution that something needing Bluetooth certification/licensing.

[S-Video & Composite - Can u Have Both?]

It's pretty trivial to recombine S-Video into Composite in a cable or adapter. It's just trying the two video signals into one line with a capacitor. See https://www.nutsvolts.com/tech-forum/question/converting-s-video-to-composite-video

[AtGames Officially Unveils Legends Ultimate Home Arcade (full-size machine)]

I just got an interesting note from AtGames -- I don't have the Legends Ultimate due to space considerations, but I did reserve the Legends Gamer, which is a $200 version that doesn't include case and monitor, but instead has a HDMI dongle and wireless control box.  More info at https://www.atgames.us/collections/productline/products/legends-gamer-standard-edition-reserve-now
 

Quote

 

Dear Customer,

 

Thank you for your reservation towards a Legends Gamer. We have great news! The Legends Gamer will be shipping out to everyone on our reservation list by the first week in August. We will send out an email towards the end of July for all reservation holders to complete payment. Even better news, for everyone who placed a reservation for the Gamer, you'll automatically be upgraded to the Gamer Pro at no extra cost! 

 

The Gamer Pro has the same great features as the Gamer, but adds a built-in arcade-quality trackball! That's an additional $50 value. It's our way of saying thank you for your patience and continued support. And, as an even bigger way of saying thanks for your early support of the Gamer, we'll be providing 10 free hours of BYOG time, as well as a coupon code for 70% off Pinball Arcade by FarSight Studios on Steam via Direct2Drive (D2D). 

 

Happy gaming!

 

 

[Atari 2600 Rom, Ram and Screwdriver/Coax replacements]

For learning 2600 programming, see the programming forum here. There's also a book, Making Games for the Atari 2600 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4DSRIZ/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_8-b1EbV9TNKKN

[Atari 2600 Rom, Ram and Screwdriver/Coax replacements]

The 2600 doesn't have a built-in ROM chip, that's always supplies by the game cartridge.  The 128 bytes of RAM are part of the 6532 RIOT chip.

[The Internal Magic of Activision Dragster question]

 

is the original topic on the apps.  There's also a video of David talking about it at

 

 

I know I'd purchased both of these, but I don't think I've got it around anymore except maybe on old iTunes backups.

 

[Audio Out from Cartridge]

It would only work if there was an external sound chip on the cartridge and the game was programmed to use that.  We already have an external sound chip in projects like the AtariVox, but that connects to a joystick port instead of the cartridge slot.