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7800 Emucoder

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Posts posted by 7800 Emucoder

  3. Posted

    I've mellowed on this through the years ... life in software development. It could be awful developers or inexperienced developers, but it also could be partly the constraints. If the Tramiels said, "we want this done in four weeks and in a 48K cart", they may have cut a lot of corners to make it happen.

     

    Betchya someone like Bob or Mark could come up with a version that's more like the Apple II release if so inclined.

    I'm mostly referring to Choplifter, actually. It's playable, but compared to the wonderful SMS version which came out before it, it is terrible. Big, dumb looking ugly sprites. very little detail. One level. Boooo!

  4. Posted

    True enough, but the people who did the 7800 of Karateka also did Hat Trick and Choplifter for the Atari 7800.

    So they made 3 awful ports. :-D

     

    What I normally do is play Karateka on the PSP version of Prosystem, turn the FPS limit off, and it runs at around 72FPS, which is actually perfect, and the lag is non-existent.

  5. Posted

    Not true. Apple was founded in 1976 and Atari was founded in 1972. Steve Jobs worked at Atari in 1975 also. You can say his stay at Atari helped Steve Jobs founding Apple based on what Steve Wozniak did with breakout with the pay Steve Jobs got from Atari besides the other things Jobs and Wozniak for starting Apple Inc.

    Fine.

     

    But Apple started before the VCS was released, and in 2013 they are still one of the biggest players in the home computing market, whereas Atari hasn't even been a bit player for close to 30 years.

     

    Atari's glory years lasted from 1977-1983. Apple's lasted from 1984-2013+. They aren't even remotely comparable.

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    What would be really cool would be to hack the 7800 NTSC bios so that it has a built-in game like the PAL one, and so it was something other than boring Asteroids. Maybe Xevious, or Joust. or Donkey Kong. or Ninja Golf.

     

    or Pole Position II.

     

    Or put a socketed slot for that EPROM so people could change it to whatever they want.

  9. Posted · Edited by 7800 Emucoder

    Funny thing about Tower Toppler was that it was released in Canada, whereas Atari Canada essentially abandoned the 7800 outright around this time. I think they did TOWER TOPPLER, CROSSBOW and DARK CHAMBERS, but nothing beyond that came out in Canada. I remember trying to order games that I read about like IKARI, SCAPYARD DOG and MIDNIGHT MUTANTS because they were on Atari's order list. Atari took my money order, but told me the games were out of stock and wouldn't refund the difference. Had to substitute.

     

    Let me tell you, FIGHT NIGHT was not a substitute when you wanted IKARI WARRIORS. :-)

     

    TOWER TOPPLER I ended up buying in stores.

    I don't know that it was just a Canada problem. I live in Boston, MA and I was around 15 when the 7800 came out so I used to scour all the local games and toy stores for new releases and many of the later games like you mentioned never made it to store shelves here.

     

    Besides the Evil Eleven launch games, I think the only ones I ever saw make it to store shelves were One on One, Summer Games, Winter Games, Hat Trick, Jinks, Choplifter, The Absolute Entertainment games, and Froggo games.

     

    Most of these latter releases I never actually saw until I found this website in the early 2000's.

  10. Posted · Edited by 7800 Emucoder

    Wow, that audio mod is way over complicated. You are better off using the audio method 2 from this AV mod: http://atari7800.org...od/7800_mod.htm

     

    Mitch

     

    the one I explained is even simpler than that. Instead of soldering two new resistors at 6.8k and 18k to those points, just clip the already existing 6.8k and 18k resistors right there on the motherboard at their top posts (towards the back of the console) and solder them together three. You don't even really need the 1uf cap. the resistors are already there on the board. just use those.

  13. Posted

    In my composite mod, I clipped the top connections(towards the back of the console) of both R5 and R6 from the board, leaving the bottom posts still attached to the board (the ends facing the joystick ports), and soldered the clipped ends of the resistors together, and this constitutes my audio signal. This gives perfectly mixed audio between TIA and POKEY.

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    I know there are a few homebrew cart makers on here, so I'm looking for recommendations on EPROM burners for 7800 games for those who've used them. There are so many great hacks and unreleased or out of print homebrew 7800 and 2600 games out there, and I'd really like to learn how to make my own.

     

    Thankz.

  16. Posted · Edited by 7800 Emucoder

    That is relatively easy to fix. There are two tint/pot adjust in the upper center portion of the 7800 board. The top one (below the cart port) adjust the Maria (7800) color palette hue/tint values the one beneath it adjust the TIA (2600).

     

    Only real word of caution is that they are both pretty sensitive. Even a slight adjust will alter the palette, but you are free to turn clockwise and counter-clockwise as much as desired until you get the palette just right.

    That pot doesn't actually adjust proper Tint/Hue values in the conventional Green ~ Red tint adjustment manner. It adjusts Color BIas, so even very slight adjustments alter the color bias tremendously. It turns Brown to Blue and Green to orange. it's not really a good way to adjust tint.

     

    The problem with the green push on the newer revision 7800s is the values of the resistors in the Luma ladder. Too strong Luma in the signal skews the overall color balance toward green. Too much chroma skews a bit red, but mostly it just over saturates the picture with color, and colors tend to bleed and smear.

     

    What I typicially do in video modded 2600's and 7800's is replace the Lum0 Lum1 and Lum2 resistors in the Luma ladder with 10k or 5k potentiometers and tweak them until it looks better.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    I'd like to see comparison shots, too. I've only ever owned a 7800, so I don't know what I'm missing. Maybe it'd be worth my while to pick up a VCS too.

    7800 Emucoder, what specific mod did you perform/install?

    it's essentially the same as the "easier 7800 Composite mod", but in the 2600 you need to change the values on the Luma resisitors to compensate for lack of brightness. I will do a picture blog of it in this thread later, and then show comparison photos of the 7800 vs. 2600.

  20. Posted

    So has anyone ever investigated if it's possible to re-configure or replace certain resistors or otehr components in the 7800 to make the colors in 2600 games appear correctly?

     

    I just recently finished up a composite video mode in my recently acquired 2600 jr, and man - I forgot how much different and washed out the color was in 2600 games on the 7800. I mean, really really bad.

     

    Anyone?

  21. Posted

    I never did, and never will.

     

    I have no interest in hording overpriced "collectables" to sit on a shelf in some protective casing. I like playing video games, particularly retro games. If I can acquire the original system and carts/discs to play them in their original format for little to no money, great. If not, there is always emulation. I've gotten a lot of my stuff from the swap area at the town dump in my town for free.

     

    For the games that I do acquire, I do so for the sole purpose of hooking them up and playing them. If I'm not going to actually play it, I'm not buying it. So I have no need for the ultra rare games like Video Life or Chase the Chuckwagon, which absolutely suck to play. That's one of the beauties of emulation - you get to find out if games suck without having to buy them.

     

    I have no need for boxes, and care not about the condition.

     

    Typically I will tear apart classic consoles to video-mod them for use on newer TVs.

  22. Posted · Edited by 7800 Emucoder

    I would recommend the composite mod sold by vintagegamingandmore.com. I've used them to upgrade my 7800 to composite out, and it works great. Their order page only has a selection for preassembled boards, but in the description they mention that you can purchase an unassembled board.

    I used this circuit in my new 2600. It's the same as the "easier 7800 Composite mod" from the thread in the 7800 forum. Unfortuantely as-is it produces less than stellar results in the 2600. I needed to adjust the Luma Resistor values to get the overall brightness levels anywhere near passable.

  23. Posted

    I need to stop looking at the arcade code, because I feel compelled to make more updates. I've just figured out the logic for how DK throws the barrels and the crazy barrel probability so I going to have to implement it. :) Just finished the US rack order a couple days ago so It's switchable between Japanese and US order with the player 2 A/B switch. :)

     

    Had one bug that took me hours to find. I really need a usable debugger. I would love to have the functionality of the Atari800win debugger.

    AWESOME.

  25. Posted

    So I'm now the proud owner of a functioning 2600 jr "small rainbow" console. I really do like the slick styling if the Junior, especially the small rainbow version. Never really liked the old 70's porno font/wood paneling/radiator grille models.

     

    Anyway, I'm wondering which DIY composite mods folks would recommend here. I've searched a bit, but most threads on this subject are inconclusive or have links to no longer existing external web links.

     

    I'm not interested in S-Video mods of any kind, because none if my 3 televisions support s-video. And I'm not planning on getting one that does.

     

    Also, I prefer the true DIY projects where I build it myself, as opposed to the $30 eBay boards pre-populated with >$5 worth of parts.

     

    Thanks

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