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iesposta

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Posts posted by iesposta

  3. Posted

    The current best 2600 emulator, Stella, doesn't get it totally correct.

    An upcoming version will improve the audio reproduction, but of course at the cost of using more processor power.

     

    I read a long text that thoroughly explained the sound generation.

    I don't remember where, but someone here may remember the link.

  4. Posted

    You should photograph the serial number sticker on the bottom, since there were around 8 variations and Bally only made the early 1977 ones, then Astrovision / Astrocade made them.

    Since the box says Astrocade and "produced under license from Bally" or something close to that I can say it is probably not a 1977 Bally Professional Arcade.

    You are trying to sell to a collector, so model / serial number helps.

     

    I can't really guess on a price.

    I have a working Bally Professional Arcade with S-Video adapter.

    The original usually suffered from overheating, but this came with 6 controllers and lots of game carts, so it has been played a lot and working a long time (or the previous owner wouldn't have spent so much money on all those games and extra controllers). It had no original box and was around $230.

    I also have a newer Astrocade model that does not work.

     

    I would guess showing it works would add to the value, but the fact it is new may also sell it.

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    Sorry. That does confuse things.
    Just this sound demo is DPC+ which plays back thru 3.7.2???

    The new Mappy game is CDF bankswitch: Stella 5.0 or greater


    Personally, I would up the basic requirement of Stella to 5.0 or greater. So many things have changed internally since the 3.x series that it's in many ways a completely re-written emulator.

  7. Posted

    I paired a Bluetooth stick to my iPhone 7 Plus.

    It can pair as an iCade stick, or in other ways.

     

    It is a Gen Game S3.

    Link: https://www.gearbest.com/blog/how-to/how-to-connect-gen-game-s3-gamepad-to-android-ios-and-pc-1419

     

    I tried all modes.

    The most I could get out of Mobile Safari is Pause / Unpause works.

    Also twice I had the menu screen selector moving up, but it was stuck in the up, and nothing would stop or change direction.

    One time I had it up in the level selection, and it registered right, but again it was stuck on right, and nothing would stop or change it.

     

    Also each mode has 2 selections. The other selection has the top / bottom buttons change volume, the right shoulder button start / stop iTunes music playback :), and the bottom start / select button exits the application.

  8. Posted

    Nothing planned, just wondering what kind of 2600 game would be best with an analog joystick and four buttons. Think Vectrex controller. Although the Vectrex rarely made use of stick being analog.

     

    The joystick would be both Player 1 paddle controllers, the 4 buttons would be joystick up, down, left, right.

     

    Also it should be a game that needs more than trackball + 1 button, the Trak-Ball game hacks already done are brilliant.

     

    Games with analog stick have the disadvantage of the game having to read both paddles many times per frame.

     

     

  10. Posted

    I connected a Bluetooth keyboard to my iPhone7 Plus.

    It is a Mattias professional keyboard (for Mac).

     

    P does pause. Shift-R does reset.

     

    It has a Return, not an Enter key.

    Shift-Space does nothing.

    Shift-Return does nothing.

    WASD VB and Space does nothing.

    The arrow keys move the browser window up and down a small bit.

     

    I couldn't select or start Draconian after the game plays the "Have you played Atari today?" music.

     

    That's great to hear you like my Dr. Who music.

    Got that whole piece with a bit of value tweaking in the SID2TIA converter. I did a Frogger example that sounds real good at the start music thru Yankee Doodle and the next tune, then it gets real bad.

  11. Posted

    I managed to get a ROM into the emulator using the iOS simulator with some hackery and can reproduce the issue. The break must have occurred when I implemented PCM audio a couple of weeks ago; there is something fishy with the way iOS handles audio suspend and resume. I have committed a workaround that should be live now. However, I couldn't get any audio from the emulator in the simulator, but this may be different on a real device.

     

    EDIT: Just found this buried in Apple's docs:

     

    "Note:[/size] On iOS, the Web Audio API requires sounds to be triggered from an explicit user action, such as a tap. Calling [/size]noteOn() from an [/size]onload event will not play sound."[/size]

     

    I'll have to play with this a bit once I get my hands on a real device, but I guess this is the root of the issue.

    Now it is working like before.

     

    Oh, if it starts without sound, switch to help then switch to emulation. Then the sound is there.

    My favorite TIA music:

    MusicSalvotheme.bin

  12. Posted

    Interesting. I do not own an iOS device, so I have never tested on iOS before. However, I have yet to see an android device that is capable of running the emulator flawlessly. If iOS is indeed capable of running 6502.ts full speed, than that's great news :D

     

    Yes, iOS at 1Ghz like iPad 3 can't get full speed, put iPhone 7 with throttle off is way too fast. I could only launch programs that started immediately like song demos.

    This worked fine until the addition of CDF just recently.

    Are you saying that the starting a ROM the emulation starts up in "paused" mode? This definitely shouldn't happen, the emulator starts up running and only enters "paused" if paused manually. Was there a version that worked? I'll have a look at this at work next week --- we've got several iOS testing devices there. I gave it a brief spin in the iOS simulator, but couldn't get a ROM uploaded there.

    Trying CDF, or any normal .bin, now starts saying "paused", and nothing will un-pause.

    I had considered this before, but I was under the impression that mobile devices were not powerful enough to run the emulator, so I didn't think it wort the trouble. If modern iPhones can run it full speed, then I've got a reason to reevaluate :) My next target is to provide an embeddable version of the emulator, but I promise to look at touch controls after that.

     

    Downloading ROMs from Dropbox, MEGA, or iCloud Drive was working great.

  13. Posted

    iPhone 7 and greater is capable of running 100%

     

    Javatari has on-screen touch controls, but doesn't do DPC+ or CDF.

     

    This new version (and the StelleratorDev) starts as "paused", and touching "resume" doesn't start things on iPhone.

     

    Please consider adding touch screen controls as I use my iOS devices to develop 2600 games.

  14. Posted

    These boards are still collecting dust. ;P

     

    I would use it for my Dr Who from Berzerk game hack for lots of on cart speech samples.

    Except for the fact that currently it is out of ROM in the "game Bank" where I bank switch to another 4K to play a sample, then it has to return back to the "game".

    I'm too ameteur to hack move game code.

    Omegamatrix was doing all the expanding and moving and improving to 32K but he left the scene.

     

    To to use the whole 256K for one game would take a long time to make 1 game with depth.

    Better for 2 or 4 different simpler game ideas or compilation.

     

    Using the Titlescreen Kernel for in-game play screens with multi-sprite bB 1.0 Kernel might make a good game better.

    I planned to use Titlescreen Kernel in 2600 Astroblast for the "Ship Refuel Docking" part, but it's limited as a Kernel for gaming but it can move a Sprite up from the bottom controlled by the joystick up to a 48 or 96 graphic that could return with a success or fail variable back to the bB game.

    Titlescreen Kernel in my bB DPC+ DK 2600 Arcade is the "How high?" Screen and slightly hacked to call 1, 2, 3 or 4 monkeys and the different score 150m under said monkeys. That's another not-used-for-Titlescreen use.

  15. Posted

    I intended to post:
    SOUND
    I love the in-tune DPC+ 3-channel sound as much as good TIA sound.

    With the statement that each method has good/bad.
    TIA good = how sound effects were designed.
    TIA bad = harsh, missing notes.

    DPC+ good = in tune 3-voice.
    DPC+ bad = scratchy, low fidelity.

    But keep in mind this console was made for late 70's CRT TV's with a small, mono speaker, which make the "bad" sound and blocky graphics a moot point.

    People, you're looking and listening too closely!

    That said, I had lots of "wow" moments, like Yars' Revenge upscaled to 720p with scanlines added, at 90 inches diagonal, through an amplifier with powered large subwoofer that shakes your bones, the walls and the sofa! That's some wow FUN! :-D

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    I understand the scratchiness. Pitfall II and Chetiry are two games that use this mode exclusively. I haven't noticed much difference between Pitfall II on original cart vs Harmony either.

     

    Really unique sound effect, the scratches give the game a vintage vibe. In all honestly I don't think you could ask for better sound quality considering its 15kHz 4-bit, even if you employed a smart dithering algorithm, which would eat up a lot of ARM time.

     

    I love the in-tune sound as much as good TIA sound.

     

    It is amazing and brilliant that it can do 3-channels using 1 TIA channel, all by only changing 1 volume register.

    That is, only the volume is changing, with a value of 0 to 15, and the output is 3-channel in-tune sound?!

     

    The programmers can get it a little better: example - "Stella's Stocking" - and that does not even use DPC. All done in the software display kernel. 2-voices for each 2 channels, for 4 voice music.

    And "Better Than Pitfall II v8". (Right and Left Difficulty A uses higher notes)

    Better Than Pitfall II Music V8 (2007) (John Payson).bin

     

    And whatever happened to 4A50 bank switching?

    Can CDF do what 4A50 did easier and better?

    If it was hardware that never was built, DPC+ is hardware that never was built. It's emulated.

    Sorry, I digress. Blame Cosmic Stardust...

    • Like 1

  17. Posted

    Agreed that the pops from DPC audio are from updates not happening perfectly every 76 cycles.

     

    There's also a "fuzz" type aliasing sound that I hear with 2600 soft-synth when a few instruments are playing. I'm not sure if that's just a matter of samples exceeding the Nyquist limit, or the limited bit depth.

     

     

    I even tell myself that in TIA Audio, just going from Volume 0 to a note WITH a volume is physically going to "push out the speaker cone" and there may be a pop.

    I like to keep the volume where it last was, and silence by making the Channel = 0, but then I'm weird, I mean... I look at things in different ways. Yeah that...

     

     

    P.S.

    Thanks for the wallpaper, Nathan!

    It's much more cost-effective getting a Desktop Picture, then getting a full-size poster printed up and buying a plastic frame to hang it, although I wouldn't give up my Space Rocks or my Star Castle Posters! (Star Castle I had to buy the poster-size myself when AtariAge switched to the smaller, folded, in-box poster.)

  18. Posted

    I am sure this can be improved over time.

    supercat's orig routine had a beautiful tone with vibrato.

    Adding in updates during ARM processing time degraded things a small amount. Apparently any skipped Audv0 updates will cause a scratch or noise.

  19. Posted · Edited by iesposta

    I just played Starmaster, one of my favorite Activision games.

    Turn it on and you get a 1 channel, 5 note, Star Trek-like "tune" that goes up 4 notes and down on the last note which is WAY out of tune.

    Complete the whole game mission and you get the same tune with the same "sour" last note.

     

    Wow.

     

    And I put the entire Bosconian 2-channel start music and 2-channel high score end music, and didn't fall on any "off" or "sour" notes.

    Hard to believe they are both on the same system with the same sound limitations!

    Note: Draconian is plain TIA sound, not the in-tune 3-voice DPC "Pitfall II" method.

     

    Those early programmers REALLY had no musical talent.

     

    It wasn't until the 2-channel Ms. Pac-Man start tune that I remember saying, "Wow, that's excellent. Sounds like the arcade machine!"

     

    P.S. Bump N Jump is excellent also.

  20. Posted · Edited by iesposta

    Hi,

     

    I am going to order a Harmony Cart in the next couple of weeks and would like to know first if it works on the Atari expansion unit for the Colecovision. If it doesnt, i do have an Atari 2600 i can use it on, but the Colecovision with the Atari expansion takes up less space.

     

    Cheers

     

     

    The Harmony Cart works on the Colecovision Expansion Atari, including Supercharger multi-load roms, recent homebrew games, and fun original games with updated graphic hacks like Galaxian that looks like Galaxian.

    http://atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=233648

     

    http://atariage.com/forums/topic/154984-hack-project-thread-galaxian-arcade-double-dragon-xenophobe-etc/?p=1898721

  21. Posted

    I found the Tiny Arcade at a Cracker Barrell store (restaurant).

    They only had Galaxian and Space Invaders.

    All of them would not "demo", with some having the "tab" and others without.

    Made sure the two I picked worked and did not have a drained battery!

     

    If I had to pick 2, it would be these cabinets.

    Knowing each has all 4 games, I'll probably mod the Space Invaders and keep Galaxian stock.

     

    Funny that they used to mod real Galaxian machines to play other games.

    MAME will report "Donkey Kong" (Scramble hardware).

  23. Posted

     

    When I add the game to the store, I should add links to some of the speech so people can hear it. :D

     

    ..Al

    I heard one YouTube reviewer playing Draconian in Stella just ASSUMING that Stella was emulating the ArariVox+!

    A wrong assumption but speech was never done during gameplay before on a 2600 game.

  24. Posted

    @ 48:00 - Edit: hmm, the time selection for playback seems to be inconsistent so you may need to go before/after this time.

     

    https://player.fm/series/retro-junkies-network/podcast-96-pleiads

     

    I just imagine Draconian on a store shelf with an add-on sticker saying, "It talks! *No additional hardware required."

     

    Marketing.

     

    Podcast correction. 2600 RAM. They said a quarter Kilobyte!

    It's half a quarter Kilobyte, or 1/8th_K, or 128 Bytes.

    • Like 1
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