xefned

Time Pilot didn't work for this guy, either.

He got 4-player paddles working with the 2 2600-dapters, which is great since 4-player simultaneous Warlords is one of the best times you can have with the 2600. I get the whole family to join in a few games every Christmas break. I'm planning to give it a try with the 2600-dapters to get it working on a flatscreen, instead of having everyone gather around a cramped CRT space. The SD card image from that thread is long dead, but it was for an older revision Rpi anyway. Hopefully, I can build a new one of the Raspberry Pi 4. I have a Raspberry Pi 4 and case on the way so I'll report my results in a separate thread.

Count me in with the "paddle lovers." If you opt for a Raspberry Pi build, here's some inspiration for using 2 2600-dapters...

When I returned mine, I got to chatting with the guy at Costco because he seemed interested in the issues. I said, “you'll probably get a lot of returns of this one,” so he knew what to expect. And it’s only fair to warn buyers to think of this as a Myarcade product rather than an Atari product. It's the Gamestation Pro: i.e. the “pro” version of the $24 GameStation NotPro. I'm not on a crusade to stop people from buying it. But they should have a clear understanding of what they’re getting. Less than 50% of the games on this device are Atari games. One of them is Basic Math, which I think is telling.

For Atari 2600 games: For 5200 games: For 7800 games: For Arcade (MAME) games: This is what worked for me: Format card to Fat32 Add samples folder as described in a previously embedded video Name the rom folder with a capital G, “Games” If you’re on a Mac, clean the hidden files with CleanEject or a similar utility, otherwise your your game folder is cluttered with a bunch of unplayable duplicates. Good luck!

Switch your TV to mono mode to get it to come out of both speakers. (Most TVs probably do this automatically when they only receive left-channel audio.)

It's interesting that they're manufactured by PowerA; that's the same company that makes the Atari controllers. Doesn't guarantee compatibility. But if the Atari Modern Controller can be switched into Xbox mode, odds seem pretty good. I'm following this conversation with great interest because now I'm building a Raspberry Pi to be as “Atari-like” as possible. In my short time owning a GSP, I realized I wanted it to play more emulated systems like Amiga and Apple II, the systems I'll probably never own in real hardware.

I'd be tempted to get Atari's Wireless Modern Controller. Even though it's double the cost of the Raspberry Pi one you linked to, it's much less than the $130 one linked in the video. It has a D-pad, has rumble, can play in wired mode if you find lag is a problem, and matches the look of the GSP with matching Atari insignias, and lots of button options... I'm not sure if it's compatible with the Gamestation Pro. But it seems like it should be. The Retro-Bit wireless Genesis-style controllers are also great, but the brand generation mismatch could be disorienting.

Whoops, nevermind. Read first post for availability.

Is there a rom if this in lieu of a physical cartridge?

Hmm, weird. Sport Goofy does not run on my Atarimax 5200 from 2019. Do I have a firmware older than 2013? Or a bad copy of the Sport Goofy ROM? I'm not sure.

Sweet. Thank you. I created an account an added it to a wishlist. Hopefully, it will notify me if they're ever restocked. I searched before you posted and only found a dead link, followed by a dead link, followed by open source github repo, and assumed the only option would be to build my own. Hopefully they'll come back in stock. Thanks again for the tip!

Wow. This looks like the ultimate muti-game unit. I got excited when he said they'd be ready in October. Then I discovered the video is 2 years old. I wonder what ever became of this project? It looks like it should be the biggest news in retrogaming.

I returned my Gamestation Pro after only 3 days. I watched a lot of videos beforehand, so I knew what to expect re: downsides. No folders in SD card, awkward placement of B and C buttons, etc. But it was still disappointing, even knowing the downsides in advance. No one mentions how bad the controller lag is. It made Warlords a less-than-optimal experience. But it's even worse with MAME games. The controller lag made 3 Wonders virtually unplayable, not to mention the jump button at the top of the stick. The good stuff: LED lights on the stick and console are super cool. The console is nice and heavy. It feels much more robust than you'd expect. It makes it easy to play Atari games with the family on a 720p HDMI plasma. Decent MAME support. The bad stuff you already know from YT vids: All SD ROMs are jammed into a single menu (no subfolders.) No Activision titles Lotta non-Atari filler titles in those 200 games. The bad stuff you might not know: No support for DPC+ or CDFJ+ games, so forget about playing the Gizzle Wap or your favorite Champ ROMS. Lag: you're gonna need to purchase a USB-C male to USB-C male and use the controller wired. (I'm assuming this fixes the lag; I didn't try it.) “Basic Math” is one of the included titles—i.e. nobody's favorite Atari memory. These bad points aren't so terrible. But not using a recent version of Stella (and including Basic Math) reminds me that this product was not designed by Atari lovers, and probably shouldn't have the Atari logo on it at all. I paid a premium for that sweet, sweet licensed logo. It's best to think of the Gamestation Pro more as a Piko Interactive multigame unit with cool sticks that also plays a few Atari titles, and you'll be less disappointed. It's a solid *buy* if they blow them out at $39.99 next year, or when they turn up on the used marketplace. I predict it won't be long.

Many thanks! I just updated my VecMulti without having to hunt for a PC. You made my work this evening much easier.

Electro_sparkles, thanks for making this available. You're amazing!

Hello fellow time traveler. I am from the future, and this was very helpful. Congratulations on your successful build. I'm building mine in the apparent present. I'm also from the past, here to let future travelers know that the direction of your PS2 connector in the above picture is, in fact, correct—unintuitive as that may seem. (The Dupont header and PS2 header are cleverly routed on the board to be 180˚ from one another.)

I'm glad my necro-bump was actually useful. Bosconian is easily my most-played game on the 5200. I use it as an example of why people need a 5200. Amazingly, in the past couple weeks, Janusz made a “Final Version” for 64k XL machines with background music and possibly improved graphics:

(I know your question is old.) I think it's technically not possible to put this on cartridges. The only 2 solutions I know about are Albert's service, and Joe's DIY PCB, and both of those max out at 32k. I would like to try for a friend who does not have an AtariMax, but I think it's impossible.

If anyone's wondering, the Tiny AVR Programmer from SparkFun works perfectly with the instructions Dr. Venkman posted in this thread. Both of my ATTiny micro-controllers were flashed perfectly on the first try.

Thank you friend. Your last sentence led to my breakthrough moment. ”Am I getting 5v to this thing?” Nope. Here's the cable I built. Some of you might spot the error immediately; contact #12 is not pinned on the Atari cable—the pin that carries the voltage! So I re-soldered it with an Alibaba NeoGeo cable and everything works perfectly now! Thank you all. Hopefully this warning will be helpful to others.

Wow, thanks for all these helpful tips! This forum rocks, as do you my friend. I'm determined to conquer this so the more things I can try the better. My pots measure 4.5k in circuit. That seems like it could point to a problem. (Unless that's normal somehow?) Interestingly, the text on the side is completely illegible, which is very different from the picture at SparkFun of the same model #. (Com-09032.) I got this one from Mouser. EDIT: Measured out of circuit: 8.8k on the horizontal, 9.2k on the vertical. So that's probably not the problem. I also checked continuity on the jumpers. Removed the 220nF caps, measured them out of circuit. Replaced them with ceramic 220nF. (I had polyesters in there before.) Also tried a different Digital Pot IC and a different ATTiny85 programmed on the same day. Next: I'll try re-programming the ATTiny with a different programmer since I used a non-standard/non-approved one.

Checked, and double-checked! Thanks for that suggestion. There was some talk in this thread about some digital pot IC's being bad. Could that problem cause the values to read down in the 1 - 20 range?

My suspicion is that I probably didn't program the chip correctly, because everything else appears correct. No cold joints, correct cap values, etc. I used the Tiny AVR Programmer from SparkFun, and the instructions that Dr. Venkman posted in this thread. It *appeared* to work and didn't give me any errors, but that seems to be the most likely culprit. I ordered a TL866 yesterday just because the ATTiny is my prime suspect and I have very little experience with such things. Once it arrives (from China) I'll give it another go. Hopefully I can erase this one and re-flash it. Thanks for chiming in!

Here are my values with Pete's Diagnostics. (I had to use a regular Atari controller to navigate the menu and launch Pete's, then I plugged in the SMBaker to get these values.)