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Nathan Strum

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Posts posted by Nathan Strum

    New(ish) 7800 Games and Accessories announced by Atari and Plaion compatible with the 2600+

    in Atari 2600+

    Posted

    3 hours ago, ChopperCommando said:

    Geez, that looks like a lot of work to save two inches of space....

    It'd make a big difference in a tight space with multiple sets of shelves though. I could've fit another two or three sets of shelves in my space, just by doing that hack. But since IKEA no longer sold them, I couldn't get any more shelves. So doing the hack didn't make any sense. I found the hack a few years too late.

    New(ish) 7800 Games and Accessories announced by Atari and Plaion compatible with the 2600+

    in Atari 2600+

    Posted

    On 2/8/2024 at 9:04 AM, sramirez2008 said:

    I use IKEA bookshelves to display my collection.

    IMG_2743.jpeg

    Nice!

     

    I used to use the IKEA Benno CD/VHS shelves for my games. They worked great because they were so adjustable, and they were just the right depth for boxed games. But IKEA no longer sells them, because nobody (apparently) buys physical media anymore. :roll:  Mine didn't make the trip when I moved, since I didn't have the space for them. Everything I have is in storage bins now.

     

    I always wanted to try this hack with the Benno shelves though. I think when I get enough time to set things up again, I may just scratch-build shelving based on that idea.

    • Thanks 1

    ZPH Streaming & Hardware Updates

    in Discussion

    Posted

    10 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

    ADDENDUM:

     

    While I had the 800XL apart I noticed a wire screwed to the underside of the cartridge port on the top of the case. I assume it's some sort of grounding wire? It looks like it would be scraping the U1MB and possibly touching something random when the case is assembled.

     

    Is it safe to keep it attached?

     

    - James

     

    PXL_20240122_212608543-altered.thumb.jpg.4fda397fb85805c2c2c055757946da22.jpg

    Clearly, it's the WiFi antenna.

     

    Or a lightning arrestor.

     

    </notveryhelpful>

    • Haha 2

    ZPH Streaming & Hardware Updates

    in Discussion

    Posted

    24 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

    FINALLY FIXED!

    You do realize you've doomed yourself by using the word "FINALLY", right?

     

    Never call anything "FINAL". I've "FINALLY" fixed my 2600 more times than I can count. Now I've just come to accept that it's my lot in life to have to continually repair it. Now you are forever locked in a battle with your 800XL.

     

    Dizzy Gillespie was quoted something along these lines, "Somedays you win. Somedays the horn wins. Then you die... and the horn wins." ;) 

     

    - Nathan

    • Like 1
    • Haha 2

    Atari 2600+ Beta Update 1.1

    in Atari 2600+

    Posted

    7 hours ago, larsvonhier said:

    Being a Mac-only guy I´d be interested if in the meantime some solution (other than running Windows on Mac) has been established for the coming firmware update process.

    I'd like to second this request. Not anywhere near as high of a priority as sorting out compatibility and dumper issues of course. But it's something that would be nice to have down the road (and it would make the 2600+ more consumer-update-friendly than dealing with VMs and such).

    • Like 1

    Atari 2600+ Beta Update 1.1

    in Atari 2600+

    Posted

    27 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

    But is that more or less of an insult than directly slagging the 2600+ and it's development team, over and over, day after day, for delivering a "second tier" "low quality" device which has been the oft repeated mantra of certain members here since it's release, despite the fact that it's development team are actively working to improve it with the community's help?

    Excuse me? Kindly point out any posts where I've referred to the 2600+ as "second tier" or "low quality", or where I've been "slagging" the 2600+ or its development team "over and over, day after day".

    • Like 1

    Atari 2600+ Beta Update 1.1

    in Atari 2600+

    Posted

    39 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

    It's laudable and commendable, from a tech perspective; but some of it's also a bit of cheating, if we're being honest.

    Without that so-called "cheating" those homebrews simply wouldn't exist at all, and it's an insult to the developers who choose to leverage more advanced technology to call it "cheating", as that implies what they're doing is somehow easier than programming a game without it. (Personally, I've fully embraced the "cheater" label, because I use graphics software so absurdly over-powered for creating homebrew sprites, it can't be anything other than cheating. Certainly, talent plays no part in it.)

     

    The fact is - homebrew games are made by hobbyists, and they're made the way each hobbyist chooses to make them for the reasons they choose to make them. They do this on their own time, at their own expense, with no promise of compensation. That they sometimes choose to invest their own time and money into producing them on carts for others to play AT ALL is a benefit to the community. It's certainly no way to make a living. Break-even is aspirational.

     

    If, later on, the games they created happen to run on emulation-based systems that were built well *after* the homebrews were published, then that should be considered a bonus. If they don't run, then the emulation systems need to be better.

     

    For the 2600+, this appears to be a priority for Plaion (or Atari... not sure who's driving that particular bus). I'm encouraged that they publicly acknowledge its shortcomings and are working to correct them. And when they have been corrected, I'll be the first person to order one. Or three. Or five. There are a lot of people I'd love to hand one of these to, along with a stack of the games I've worked on over the years. Of course, it would've been preferable to get all of this sorted out before it was ever shipped in the first place. But I'm sure money and/or time (which = money) were the driving force behind it. Given Atari's history, I'm frankly surprised any official effort is being made to improve it. So kudos to those involved.

     

    By contrast, with the RetroN77, Hyperkin just tossed it out there, and it was left up to the Stella team to tackle upgrading the emulation to make it a useful system (when loading games from an SD card). But the dumper was un-fixable so its cartridge support is still limited, and the RetroN77 *still* ships with its original, ancient version of Stella, so it seems Hyperkin has no interest in making that product any better. But for playing ROMs, if you don't mind putting a little work in upgrading it, it's still a viable option.

    39 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

    The fact that they don't run on an emulation based system, because the emulation is written to mimic the original 2600's capacities, and not hardware based hacks that didn't exist when teh 2600 hardware was designed, doesn't make the emulation lesser. 

    All ARM games run in emulation. We develop them using emulation. We likely *couldn't* develop them without emulation. The 2600+ *doesn't* mimic the original 2600's capabilities, or it *would* run ARM-based games out-of-the-box. Those games are *not* hardware hacks. As far as any legit 2600 is concerned, an ARM-based game is just another cartridge. That's all it sees. But the 2600+ does *not* interact with those cartridges the same way a real 2600 does.

     

    From a development standpoint, chasing emulation is pointless, because the emulation can and will change. It's always a work-in-progress because even on 45+year-old hardware, new things are being discovered about what its capabilities are. Emulation has to change, since it's very dependent on what sort of hardware it is attempting to run on. Real, original hardware does not change. That has to remain the target for the emulation to match, and the standard by which games should be programmed. Programming a game to work around the existing idiosyncrasies currently present in the 2600+ may result in a game that's unplayable on it later, when the next firmware update is rolled out. But a game that works on a real 2600 now, will always work on a real 2600, and anything built to that standard.

    • Like 13
    • Thanks 1

    Atari 2600+ Beta Update 1.1

    in Atari 2600+

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, Ben from Plaion said:

    Having said that what do I do when champ games solders a Nvidia 4090 chip to a cart and an original 2600 can suddenly play Crysis at 4k.

    Not likely. John will be the first person to admit he's terrible at soldering. ;) 

     

    I appreciate the efforts being made to make the 2600+ on par compatibility-wise with original 2600s. I hope they're successful.

    • Like 2

    Atari 2600+ Beta Update 1.1

    in Atari 2600+

    Posted

    1 hour ago, TornadoTJ said:

    All this is making me want to send in one of my 7800s to get an HDMI port installed. Last time I checked though, this mod doesn't pass sound from the Pokey.

    If it's the same guy who did the one I had to gut and replace, I would highly recommend against it. You'd be far better off getting an S-Video mod installed, then adding a proper external scaler (such as a RetroTink). You'd get far better results.

    List of ALL arcade ports?

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    18 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

    If anyone is interested, from the Atari Compendium page, I added a few more games to my home arcade list.  

    Nice update - thanks for doing that!

    18 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

    Does anyone know where I can download the ROM for Cosmic Avenger (2016 homebrew)?  

    Cosmic Avenger never made it past the early proof-of-concept stage, as the project turned into the Champ Games ports of Scramble and Super Cobra. I don't think a ROM was ever publicly released - there was little more than a scrolling background.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

    List of ALL arcade ports?

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    For Sky Diver, Atari produced both the arcade and 2600 versions. So it *could* be considered a home version of the arcade game. Whether or not Atari was trying to entice people to buy the 2600 version as an actual port of the arcade game is something I can't answer. I don't recall that being a selling point for the 2600 until Space Invaders. Then bringing home arcade games became the reason many people bought 2600s. I think a lot of early 2600 games were made simply because they *could* be made, and Atari already owned the trademarks from the arcade side. I bought Missile Command along with my 2600, because it was an arcade port. But at the time, I had no idea Combat was based on Tank. I don't think I'd ever seen a Tank cabinet.

     

    As for Frogs and Flies/Frog Pond, and other games clearly influenced by arcade titles, I think it's all subject to ones own interpretation whether it's "arcade" or not. How close is the gameplay? Is it a spot-on copy of the arcade game? Then it would at least fall into the "influenced by" category. But without an attribution stating that it was licensed from Gremlin, it's not official.

    THE BIG CHRISTMAS 2600+ GIVEAWAY COMPETITION!

    in Atari 2600+

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

    Yet?

    Still. ;)  

     

     

    Here's what I'd like to see: Man Goes Down completed and released. Cart + box + printed manual, available through AtariAge. (If Atari wants to do a foil-stamped, embossed, limited collectors edition thing, that's great - but make the game available and affordable in a standard edition for the rest of us, please.)

     

    The programmer - Alex Herbert - had some health issues years ago, and disappeared from the scene. While we've never been able to contact him, Atari might have the resources to do so. Packrat still carries his Vectrex titles, but I don't know if they're in contact with him, or if their agreement with him is just pre-existing from a long time ago.

     

    Atari would need to get Alex's blessing (or that of his family, if necessary) to complete the game on his behalf, then pay another homebrew programmer (or team of them) to finish the game. Ideally, this would be an established homebrew programmer with attention to detail and a commitment to quality (I'd recommend Thomas, for starters).

     

    Reasons for this particular game:

    • Man Goes Down is an excellent, fun, original game. On its own merits, it deserves to be finished up and released. It very nearly made it.
    • It would speak volumes about Atari's commitment to the homebrew community by celebrating Alex's work and going the extra mile to see it properly completed (and compensating him for it).
    • It has consistently been requested more than any other homebrew game that I can recall. Despite it now being nearly 20 years, people are still asking about it (including earlier in this thread).
    • This July, it will be 20 years since the game was originally announced. I can't think of a better tribute than completing it for its anniversary.
    • Alex contributed a great deal to the early work done on the AtariVox, and Man Goes Down makes terrific use of it. This would be an opportunity for Atari to add support to the 2600+ for the AtariVox. Maybe even design and sell a little external companion speaker for it.
    • The label artwork is already finished (selected by Alex as part of the contest linked earlier). I was lucky enough to have my work chosen, and I'd be glad to work with Atari to provide the necessary files for the printed materials. The manual is about 75% complete.
    • A disassembly of Alex's Vectrex game Spike Goes Down, might offer some guidance for completing the game.
    • Like 13
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