Dr. Getter

It should have a slight impact on overall performance. It's probably almost nothing, but every millisecond counts when playing arcade style games at high difficulties.

Right now, standard Raspbian that came included in the package (my micro SD card had NOOBS installed). Storage space isn't really a problem for me, after all Stella and the game library will have room to spare. Ideally, I'd like to make the Pi start from the command line interface. Or even better, make it so that Stella autoruns on startup. I'm sure there are commands that'd let me do that, I'll have to look at some guides, or forums.. ehh, there's no hurry.

Oh, I know I'm overthinking it. But this project serves multiple purposes at once. By the end of it, not only will I have a small emulation box that'll let me play any VCS game I want, but I'll also have learned (hopefully) some things about Linux, and how it works. This is my first time using this OS, after all. I don't have much time for it at the moment, though. University sucks up a good chunk of my time, plus there's a convention I'm going to in a week, and I need to get things ready.. I've tested the Pi, everything seems fine. Tested the keyboard my dad lent me to use with the Raspberry, no issues there as well. Next, I need to install Stella and do some performance and total latency tests, see if I need to change OS or not (or run things in Terminal, that may suffice). And then I'll start putting the games on, and in the following months I'll be getting some more peripherals, original controllers and adapters. That's roughly the plan.

So, I finally got my Raspberry Pi. First things first, I need the best OS for the task. I'm gonna be browsing lists of operating systems for the Pi, but if anyone has any experience on the subject matter, let me know. I guess I'll need something light. The faster the Pi runs, the better. Maybe even a command line-based OS, if it exists? Stella opening as soon as I turn the computer on would be a nice feature, too..

Hi all, I'm soon going to buy a Raspberry Pi 3 and turn it into an Atari 2600 emulation system. I already have a pair of joystick controllers, but I'll need adapters t use them on my system. I already know about the 2600-daptor and 2600-daptor II, I know they work great, and I'm going to get me some of those in the future, once I acquire paddles and driving controllers. But for the time being, I thought two of these might be enough for the time being: http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=70&osCsid=ebbd334c24342ad9ccbbab011d5b7ad1 These are the RetroUSB adapters, they only work with Joysticks, but that's also all I have right now, and over 90% of the VCS games used Joystick controllers, so I don't think I'll be getting bored anytime soon. Does anyone own one of these? Have you tried them? How good are they (say, compared to other adapters), have you had any issues with them? Do they work fine with Stella?

Thanks Phoenix. So, that's using HDMI. If I were to output in composite, the video signal would be generated and sent to the TV practically instantaneously, right? Then my question now is, can Stella receive a controller input, process it and then generate video, all in less than 17 ms (1 frame)? Mhm, maybe I should ask to the Stella developer directly, what do you say?

Back from the holidays. I did some research while I was away, I even read through all the pages in Kevtris' FPGA thread. This project is slowly taking shape in my head, I now have a better idea about what I'll need and wont' need. I do have some questions though, I'd appreciate it if someone could answer them: 1) first one is about the RetroUSB Atari 2600 controller adapter (DB9 to USB) I've read somewhere in the forum that it only works with Joystick controllers, is that true? http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=70&osCsid=9a2d61bd37ba4f7d31b1642d532eecc9 Also, how does it compare to the 2600-daptors? Performance-wise I mean. I know the 2600-daptors send data to the PC at 1000 Hz, is there more delay with the RetroUSB adapter or is it just as good? 2) Lag. I want to know if someone has already done what I'm going to do. Installing Stella on a Raspberry Pi, running nothing else, and using HDMI for output (although this one isn't necessary, since the Pi also has composite out) how much lag will there be, between me pressing a button and something happening on the screen? I'd need a rough estimate in milliseconds. I know Stella is good, but I don't know how good. 3) lastly, usb controllers. This has been asked in the past by other people as well, so if I'm annoying anyone, sorry I know about the Retrobit joysticks (and I know a lot of people has had problems with them) and I also know about Syzygy's ones (but the site and store seem to be inactive). Both seem like a no-go for me, based on customers' reviews and opinions. So, is there anyone else making usb atari joysticks? I don't need them, since I'll be getting adapters for original controllers, I'm just curious.

I don't know if this question has been answered already, but does the 2600-daptor (or 2600-daptor II) work with the Track & Field controller? I'm guessing the T&F controller works like a joystick with 2 missing buttons, so in theory it should work without any problems, right?

I ended up sending a message directly to Mr. Spice, he said his AtGames paddles worked well with Stella, indistinguishable from regular paddles. Very happy to hear it Also, I've recently found out about Best Electronics, and their gold PCB joystick upgrades. I've only tried Flashback joysticks so far, how do they compare to regular CX-40 controllers?

Thanks for the answer. My Flashback joysticks have wires, so no problem. I've checked the AtGames website, they do make repro paddles but they only sell within the US, and I live in Europe, so.. That's from their main website though. They sell their items on Amazon as well, I've been reading some reviews of the paddles and they're mixed. From what I've read though, it seems that the majority of the complaints are about shipping and mailing delays (this was back in 2012/2013 though, maybe they solved this problem) and the fact that the paddles are laggy and unresponsive when used to play games on a Flashback 4. However, some reviewers said that this was the Flashback's fault, not the paddles': when tried on original hardware, the repro paddles delivered, and worked perfectly. In fact, one of the people who said so was Darrell Spice Jr., he's made a pair of homebrew games for the system and I trust him. So yeah, I'll try to get a pair of them. EDIT: Oh wait, he said they worked perfectly with original Atari 2600 consoles. But I need to use them on my pc! Well, Stella is very good right, as far as emulators go, right? If something works well on the original hardware, it should work well in Stella too. Guess I'll find out. I just hope that those problems were only caused by the faulty emulation on the Flashback consoles.

I've been doing some research on Atari 2600 controllers recently, because of a project I'm starting in 2 months or so. And I have a few questions for you guys, that no doubt know a lot more than I do on the subject matter. 1) Let's start easy: the CX-50 Keyboard Controllers, the Star Raiders video touch pad and the Kid's Controller are practically the same thing, there's only external differences right? 2) The trackballs. I've seen 2 different ones, the CX-22 and the Pro-Line. And correct me if I'm wrong but, not counting hacks, there are no original 2600 games that support the trackballs in "trackball mode", right? They only work when the trackballs behave like joysticks, is that right? 3) This one's about Wico joysticks, the Command Control ones. They are high-quality controllers, I've heard, with metal base and stick, and internally they use leaf switches. I've seen how leaf switches work, and they seem very easy to repair, if they ever malfunction. So I'm asking Wico owners here: how good are these Joysticks? I think they look cool, and maybe I'll buy one (or two) in the future, but give me some feedback first. 4) I own a pair of Atari Flashback 3 Joysticks. They should work just like regular CX-40 Joysticks, right? 5) I've seen sites selling new reproductions of Atari joysticks. Is anyone making repro paddles out there? 6) This one is less important, but I'm curious: can you use joysticks to play Indy 500? Or does it only work with racing controllers? Well, that's all for now. Also, tell me if there's some other controller that I should check out, I like controllers

Thanks Flojo, I'll be sure to check his work out. But I don't want to use my Flashback 3's case, for aesthetic reasons: I already know, approximately, how I want the machine to look like. I think I'll have the case 3D-printed, not bigger than the Pi itself, and it'll have to look like a 6-switch model (not the one with the rounded front edge though, the one with the straight one) it will have less ridges on the top, it won't have controller sockets, no cartridge port, which means the gaps between the 6 fake switches will all be the same, and it'll just have openings where they need to be (USBs, power, HDMI.. in fact, I think those 3 are enough). I want it to look familiar, yet strange at the same time. And the Flashback 3 just won't do. I don't mind the size, but I don't like the front, and the buttons are.. don't know how to feel about them. They lack simmetry and the B-W/Color one is missing. Thanks anyway.

I do have a tablet though, and we also have a "family laptop" so I'm covered as far as basic needs and internet navigation go. Ehh, don't worry about the RetroPie, cause I know I'll tackle that too sooner or later. Seems too handy to be ignored, hehe.

I actually did try Stella a few years ago on my pc, I love that emulator. It's so.. neat? I guess? It looks polished, and it works very, very well. Oh, and I forgot to mention this in the first post, but my pc is going to bite the dust relatively soon, I'm afraid. Apparently the graphics card has some problems, and this is a laptop so there's not much I can do about it. One day the screen will stay black and that'll be it. Might take some weeks, some months or even years, I don't know. I just know that my pc won't last forever. Which is why I thought of the Raspberry Pi. It is a simple machine (well, compared to a regular pc at least) and it should also be reliable. And even if it isn't, it's not very expensive, so it's pretty much what I'm looking for. I'd make back ups of the game library on muliple SD cards and/or USB drives, just to be safe. I want to be able to play on the thing years, maybe even decades from now, so I think the Raspberry Pi is the better solution. I mean, even if the Pi broke down, I'd just have to buy another one, pretty inexpensive. If the SD card failed, I'd just take the back up one and pop it in, no problem. Now, why did I choose emulation instead of going the purist route? The short answer is that I'm not a purist, hehe. In my opinion, unless you're doing so for nostalgia, there's no reason to buy an old (in this case, very old) system. Components slowly degrade overtime, there's going to be less and less copies in working condition the more time passes, that means that remaining ones are going to be more and more expensive.. same goes for the games, many are still "cheap" and easy to find, but what about the rarer ones? As Frank Cifaldi said, these games are out of print, and have been out of print for many years now. If there were ways to purchase new, even digital copies of these games I'd do so. In fact, I kinda already did, but take for instance Atari Vault on Steam. It contains 100 or so games, almost all of them for the Atari 2600. And they're all games made by Atari, I think. No 3rd party. No Activision games, no Imagic games, no (lol) Mystique games. I see emulation not just as a way of reliving the past, but also of preserving it.

I've heard about Retropie. But I kinda want to keep it for another project.. another time, maybe. I really want to start with a Stella-only machine, even if that probably doesn't make sense to many of you, sorry that way I'll be more focused.