WaverBoy

Anyone have any luck yet in getting Atari paddle controllers to work properly on their Retron 77? I’m still on the fence over this one. If paddle compatibility has been sorted, I think I might bite. I want to pick up one of Best Electronics’ refurbished paddle sets with their fancy new pots and have all my Atari paddle concerns be over and done with.

What I want is no bezels, not custom bezels. I want the full 4:3 picture to fill the screen from top to bottom and have black bars on the sides only.

Also, for the Flashback X, is it possible to get rid of the border bezels entirely and just have it look normal 4:3 with black bars on the sides? If not, that’s kind of annoying.

I’m trying to decide which route to go, RetroN 77 or Flashback X. After some initial investigation of this forum and various YouTube reviews, it looks as if both of these systems can be loaded up with ROMs if you update the firmware, with the RetroN 77 much easier to update than the Flashback X which requires multiple steps and additional hardware. Looks like the joystick controllers that come with the RetroN 77 are of better quality than those that come with the Flashback X, and there is also a new Ranger gamepad controller for the RetroN 77 which contains a thumb stick-style joystick and a built-in paddle dial that is a bit stiff but controls the onscreen action very smoothly. OEM Atari paddle controller support on the RetroN 77 appears to be non-functional unless you run it through additional hardware; with the Flashback X it appears to be somewhat functional but jittery, judging from a YouTube review I saw, but that might be because the reviewer’s paddles needed to be cleaned/adjusted. Anyone know if the Atari 2600 trackball controller or driving controllers will work on either of these? Thoughts anyone? So far I’m leaning toward the RetroN 77, but I’d love to hear more arguments for or against either system from the passionate fans and experts here. And neither of these systems support Sega Genesis controllers, correct? Which means that neither the 8BitDo wireless Genesis controllers nor Krikzz’s wireless Genesis controllers will work... will we ever have a perfect wireless controller solution for the Atari 2600?

If I get this installed in my 5200, will it be compatible with my Sony 4K TV? I hear that the Sophia 1 had compatibility issues with TVs as opposed to VGA monitors, so I’m really hoping this new model fixes that.

I’m a bit late to the party here! I just found out about the Retron 77 and it looks like it might be the answer to my HD Atari dreams. So, if I buy the system and update the firmware with the latest community build, I can load as many ROMs onto the SD card as I want, yes? And, is there full proper paddle controller support now? If I use the new Ranger gamepad paddle dial to play Kaboom!, will it work well just plugged into the Retron 77? Or what’s this about running it through an additional adaptor to make the paddle control more accurate?

Looks like the ES mod boards are in stock on their website: https://electronicsentimentalities.com/Assembled Mods.html

Defender is a shooter, though, not a platformer. And yeah, in my article I names Space Panic as a relevant precursor to the platform game, but not a platform game itself. So Space Panic isn’t really a platformer after all... Back to Donkey Kong then!

Crossbow, would you be able to mod my four-port Atari 5200 with the ES kit if I order one from them? And is it also possible to mod it so that I don’t have to worry about the funky power/game switch thingie and huge power brick and can just use a regular power adapter instead? I’ve been dying to bring my 5200 up to at least 1985-level technology.

I’m wondering — are there any industrious geniuses out there who would let me hire them to mod my four-port Atari 5200 with this Sophia board? And which resolution should I get for a Sony 4K TV? And is it possible to mod the 5200 using whatever cables/devices are available so that there is one port coming out of the console that carries both audio and video, that I can convert to HDMI using a special cable or some other gizmo? This is the last console of my childhood for which I haven’t found an HDMI solution, as not only are there no FPGA clones available for it like there are for the NES, SNES and Sega Genesis, there are no clones available at all, not even a regular emulation-based clone like the Retron 77 for the 2600 (I do hear that’s actually a good clone once you update the firmware with the latest community build and I am hot to pick it up).

I tracked the dev down on Twitter, asked if he could update his PSP emulator to include support for the second fire button, and lo and behold, he did!

PSP 2000 with CFW and 64GB micro SD card + adapter is still the way to go for retro emulation on a handheld. Android emulation sucks because of input lag; I have no issues with that on my trusty PSP. And GBA games seem to run fine for me, so I have no need of a GBA + Everdrive. I guess I'll have to live with not being able to play Space Rocks and a few other homebrews and ROM hacks on my PSP until Android emulation can be achieved with little-to-no input lag.

Is there a version of this ROM that will work in the PSP2600 emulator? I can't get the currently available ROMs to work. Might it be possible to make a ROM version that will work on it? I'd be willing to donate $20 toward such a venture. I mainly use my PSP for my Atari gaming these days, and I haven't bought a Harmony cart yet. I'm betting a lot of we PSP retrogamers would be most grateful if this could be accomplished! :-)

You were correct about my Mac settings; I switched it to show all file extensions and was able to change the extension properly to .a26 so that it no longer shows as a .bin file, thank you. However, it still doesn't show up in PSP2600. I downloaded the last ROM you posted that already had the .a26 extension; that doesn't show up either. Nor does the ROM for Space Rocks I downloaded, even after properly changing the file extension. Perhaps these games just aren't compatible with PSP2600. :-(

The Beast Invaders hack works, but it would be nice to be able to play the original game with the double shot. Renaming the file using the .a26 file extension doesn't work; my MacBook still says it's a bin file when I highlight it, and it doesn't show up in the emulator. Any ideas? Thanks for your help!

Unfortunately the 2600 emulator for PSP must require the .a26 file extension for ROMs, as that's what all the other 2600 ROMs in the emulator have, and this .bin file isn't showing up in the emulator. I tried renaming the .bin file extension to .a26, but it didn't work. Thoughts?

Thank you SO MUCH!!!

Hi all, I'm trying to map controls for Krull using MAME4ALL on my PSP 2000. I've figured out that, after the first three FIREs that are set to Auto Off, this is what the FIRE numbers correspond to: FIRE 01 = move left FIRE 02 = move up FIRE 03 = move down FIRE 04 = move right FIRE 05 = fire left FIRE 06 = fire up FIRE 07 = fire down FIRE 08 = fire right I tried mapping 1-4 to Joystick Push and 5-8 to square, triangle, circle and X, but it doesn't work. If I map 1-4 to square/triangle/circle/X and 5-8 to Joystick Push, then I can move with the buttons and fire with the D-pad, but obviously the opposite setup would be far more desirable. Anyone have any ideas on how to get these Krull controls mapped properly?

So, I was wondering, that good old double-shot hack for Space Invaders for which you hold down the reset switch before you turn on the console...is there any way to replicate that in the PSP2600 emulator?

Hi all, With the 5200 as the selected system, I can't figure out how to map the second fire button. In the control configuration, there's only a selection for Fire, not Fire 1 and Fire 2. So, in Defender, I can't fire smart bombs, only the laser cannon; in Countermeasure, I can't fire, I can only aim the turret; and so on and so forth. Anyone have any ideas? Surely there must be a way to do this; I can't imagine the creators of this emulator wouldn't realize you'd need to be able to map both fire buttons, as they have different uses in some games. Also, I don't suppose there's a way to map the player 2 joystick to the four PSP fire buttons in order to play Space Dungeon and Robotron...? Thanks in advance for any help!

Thanks guys! Mr. Longhorn, I'll be getting in touch with you soon. :-)

I'm looking to get a 2600 modded for composite video and dual-channel audio, as I just don't have it in me to do it myself...can anyone make any suggestions? Atari2600.com sells modded 2600s with S-video output, but I'd rather have both S & composite video or only composite, in case I need to hook it up to a monitor that doesn't have S capability. Thanks in advance!

Yes...details? Pretty please with cream and sugar on it?

I think they were vintage. Thanks for the offer of yours, although I'd really like to find one with a logo. There's gotta be one out there...

Or can people consider any console made previous to the NES in these conversations? NES fanboys and their revisionist history really irk me. The disrespect of previous systems amazes me. This garbage does not happen in other hobbies. Marvel is a better company but people still are found of D.C. and other comics of the golden era. 1952 Topps was an Amazing set but people still care for Goudy and the T206 cards. Yet with this hobby most NES collectors are posers who barely know what an Atari 2600 is. And they have no clue what a Colecovision, Intellivision, or Odyssey 1 + 2 is. Hey now...I know this is an Atari forum, but it's possible to love both, which I do. Sometimes I feel like playing Atari, sometimes I feel like playing Nintendo (and Nintendo consoles after the NES don't qualify as "playing Nintendo", thank you very much). I grew up with both. My parents shelled out $139.95 in 1981 for my woodgrain 4-switch. They shelled out much more than that the next year for my Atari 5200. I spent my hard-earned pizza delivery money on my NES in 1988 (can't remember the amount offhand...what were those going for when they were new?). Great memories. I like the Sega Genesis too, but didn't have one of my own back in the day...played it at friends' houses sometimes.