Jstick

Maybe, but they're wayyyy ahead of themselves in marketing, so it all balances out.

Nice, I'm going to try this version out as I've never properly sat down to figure out the original, despite owning it since it was originally released... Thanks!

Exactly! Why anyone purchasing a book on the history of a particular video game would want to hear about Mr. Robinett's current political opinions baffles me. I don't care if he writes a full chapter that is 100% in line with my personal beliefs, I don't want to hear it. The space is better used for discussion of the actual topic, the thing that paying readers are interested in. Anything outside of that belongs in a blog post on a website.

I'm going to hazard a guess that the tiny (and dying) niche of original vcs fans here is actually not the target market, and that this 'preview' is aimed at a younger audience who: a) are gamers who are mostly ignorant of the history of the hobby before they were born, b) read (or watched) Ready Player One, and c) enjoy having virtue signalling injected into every aspect of their life.

I have an NTSC 2600 Jr. that has graphical issues with Spider Fighter. I found a post here where this was corroborated by others and someone made a fix patch for the PAL version (but not NTSC unfortunately). I believe the issue was related to a later version of the TIA. There were a few other problematic games listed in the thread as well, if I remember correctly.

Hey, it's me!

Interesting, is there a list of VCS games somewhere that includes country of manufacture?

I was cleaning a bunch of old carts today and was shocked to find this on my copy of Parker Bros. Reactor: I had a look over the rest of my Parker Bros. carts, but all the rest had either no indication, or were made in Malaysia, etc. Does anyone know of any other 2600 games that were manufactured in Canada? (Or even where the Parker Bros. Canadian factory might have been?)

Honestly, now that the ROM limit has been lifted, there is really no need for Harmony support as it would be easier to run games straight from the SD card.

There’s a reason that the RF and power cables on a 2600 are extremely long, while the controller cables are short

He IS able to simply add it in the 2nd image file. Read this again: He would simply prefer to wait until Hyperkin release the code instead, as it is their product and they are providing support to users.

Simple, they wanted to hit the ‘7/7’ release date. Marketing wins again

I find this fascinating, because my favourite game sounds come from that era as well: pinball machines, arcade games, early home consoles. I still find these sounds interesting to listen to today, but I’ve always wondered if this is simply due to their association with happy memories of playing the games, or whether there is some intrinsically satisfying quality to the raw bleeps and bloops that has been lost in modern games.

Kevtris has already made a 2600 FPGA core for the NT, so it would just need a cart & controller interface added.

When it comes to the 2600, I'll always prefer choosing a game to play via the ritual of browsing through hardware carts and picking one out (vs. scrolling through a list of ROM titles), regardless of the mysteries inside the black box

I don't see rubber feet as a way to aid playing on the table, but rather for protecting the table when you set the controller down on it

I think it's great that these two different hardware solutions are appearing concurrently, with one focused on ROMS and the other on carts. It means there is some competition to advance the state of the modern day Atari, but allows room for both devices to exist without stepping directly on each other's toes.

I love Pressure Cooker, it was one my favourites as a kid (along with Frostbite, another game I feel doesn’t get the recognition it deserves). Anyway, the key to bouncing ingredients away is not to press the button to reject an ingredient, but rather to ALWAYS keep the button held down until you are about to catch an ingredient you need. That way you can focus strictly on maneuvering your chef.

If all you want is an emulation solution to play ROMS then no need to wait for the Flashback 9, there is no shortage of low cost computers/consoles/hobby boards/devices that can run Stella and use original controllers with an adapter. I think using original carts is really the unique gimmick here, and there is a decent possibility that compatibility can be improved over time.

I believe the substrate in Activision carts tends to be thinner than in Atari manufactured games.

For the 2600? Anything other than a CX40 feels wrong to me. I recently bought an upgraded pair from Best Electronics and while it took a bit of playing to get used to the feel (the domes click like microswitches) they are now my preferred sticks, the stock version feels ‘mushy’ in comparison. The silicone boot replacement is also nice and improves the comfort and feel, even if it doesn’t look quite right (matte vs. the shiny rubber of the original). Other than that, I find the SNES pad perfect for 16-bit era games, and the Sony DualShock is my preference for PS1 and up. (Oh, and an arcade stick for M.A.M.E., etc.).

But where is the Retron ‘77?

This is something Hyperkin need to get on immediately (if they haven't already); many folks will be buying the Retron '77 because they want the ease and peace of mind of a plug & play solution and don't want to mess around with OS or emulator settings.

I have no experience with it, but you could try looking into this: https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=fluidsynthwrapper It looks like it can handle soundfonts and has a wrapper for VB.