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Jstick

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Posts posted by Jstick

  2. Posted

    This fixed version includes:

    (1) Pit / Feet Fix - You can continue pushing UP while exiting a pit without falling back in.

    (2) All Neocomputer fixes from 2013, BUT with the default / Color mode with ORIGINAL difficulty and energy scoring (i.e., energy reduced for walking, running, or hovering, and leftover energy added to score at the end of a round), and B&W mode with their easier difficulty (energy) option.

    (3) Ninja ET only with 3 candies given to Elliot, and 3 held by ET at the end of a round.

     

    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!

  3. Posted

    this isn't about "black and white" and othering ("us vs them"). In fact, much of the resistance to that post is the opposite of that. Video games is something we all have in common, and that's what we should be celebrating

     

    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.

    • Like 3

  4. Posted

    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.

    • Like 2

  5. Posted

    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.

  8. Posted · Edited by Jstick

    I was cleaning a bunch of old carts today and was shocked to find this on my copy of Parker Bros. Reactor:

     

    post-36374-0-97555000-1532211078_thumb.jpg

     

    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?)

  9. Posted

    I sure hope they add support for the Harmony cart and homebrews.

     

     

    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.

    • Like 3

  10. Posted

    Aging gamers in their 50's and 60's aren't going to be getting up out their chair just to swap carts.

     

     

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

  11. Posted

    If the only difference is the removal of the ROM limit, why was he able to add 3.9.3 over 3.7 at first, and unable to simply add it in the 2nd .img file?

     

     

    He IS able to simply add it in the 2nd image file. Read this again:

     

    Note that when I get home, I can create 'firmware' that includes updated Stella and updated frontend in about 5 minutes. I could (can?) then release it.

     

    He would simply prefer to wait until Hyperkin release the code instead, as it is their product and they are providing support to users.

     

     

    The proper solution is for me to send my changes to Hyperkin and have them integrate it into a new firmware release. Nothing is broken here, or being done wrong, etc. The only issue is one of timing and communication. And it is being worked on ...

    • Like 6

  12. Posted

    Am I the only one who wonders why they released the Retron 77 if it still had plenty of bugs in it?

     

     

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

    • Like 2

  13. Posted

    mom bought a 2600 back in 1982 or so and I used to like some of the game sounds.

     

     

    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.

  14. Posted

    rumor mill has it Kevtris is working on a new Analogue console, most likely a Sega. And after that? What's the fourth best selling console pre 3d? Hmmm, could it be Atari 2600? :grin:

     

     

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

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    Even if this R77 goes to Stella 5.x, it will *STILL* have compatibility issues because of dumping. I strongly believe this dumping nonsense is just that, nonsense!

     

    As games become more sophisticated, more and more tricks are going to be used, tricks that don't lend themselves to dumping in the first place. Besides, if you're dumping a cart, you're not really playing it anyways. You are fooled into thinking you're playing it. Look. If you bypassed the cartridge-insert detection subroutine, and pulled the cart out, it'd still play! Kinda stupid if you ask me.

     

    Another interim and patchwork solution, in the grandest of traditions, is to simply read what it can of the cart, generate a mini-checksum, and look it up in a database. This database then retrieves the ROM and presents it to the emulator!

     

    If you think about it it isn't much different than the shenanigans going on in there now..

     

    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 :)

  16. Posted

    You could drop rubber feet to save money in the fixed version.

     

    I need and use rubber feet on controllers I use on a table. I look for ones to buy that have all 4 rubber feet.

    For example, the 5 button Starplex controller with the 79 Atari Asteroids button layout is best used on a surface and needs to not slide around. Same with the Vectrex console's controller.

     

    For small children I could picture them being shown how to use the RetroN 77 Controller on a coffee table, which is only possible if it doesn't slide around. They will soon try holding it as they will see everyone else using it that way.

     

    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 :)

  17. Posted

     

    We should have official announcements in August, so I don't want to trump those with too much detail, but the HD unit will use a proven open source emulator and you will indeed be able to very easily add your own games. So if you need confirmation, consider it confirmed.

     

    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.

  18. Posted · Edited by Jstick

    I find the need to press the button to push an ingredient away somewhat needlessly confusing/complex

     

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    It's becoming more and more evident to wait and see what AtGames brings to us with the Flashback 9 and go from there. If they have switched to Stella and have added an SD cart slot with no ROM limitations, then that will be the clear winner for me.

     

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

     

    Are Activision cartridge pins notably different from Atari cartridge pins? Different pitch, height? I know that Activision never protected their carts with the plastic shroud, so they may not work because their pins are more likely to suffer from corrosion and dirt.

     

     

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

  21. Posted

    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.).

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    Appears to be the same insert design as Atari. Wonder if the Atari insert would work.

     

     

    I was wondering how similar it was as well

     

    old insert works. I had to take the tiny nipples off each leg of the old white insert but it does work.

  24. Posted

     

    I had the same issue, also fixed by re-imaging the card. Menu fine, in the emulation, nothing.

     

    When I checked the card, the Stella directory was completely corrupted with odd filenames and the settings file "STELLARC" could not be opened.

     

    I also had an issue where I lost sound and fire function, again re-imaging the card restored it.

     

    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.

    • Like 5
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