fluxit

The cartridge slot. As opposed to a rom file stored on the sd card. The hardware that manages carts has less compatibility than if you use a rom file directly, in which case the only limit on compatibility is Stella itself.

In case nobody else has done so, I just confirmed that the 'black screen with no cart plugged and no games directory' is an issue on R77 6.1.1.

I just did some testing and was not able to confirm an issue here, with or without a default configuration. Maybe you just didn't have a good connection or your 2nd joystick is iffy. What type of controllers are you using?

Assuming it's been written correctly, an sd card either works with the R77 or it doesn't. Are you talking about physical cartridges? It's unlikely that the update would affect cart compatibility much one way or the other so far as I know. As for the graphics, you'll have to be more specific. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. You don't need the original firmware in order to use the updated firmware sd card image. This is the most current release for the R77. The file that you want is sdcard.img, which you write to the card with an sdcard writer such as balenaEtcher. Cart compatibility is unlikely to be affected much by the update. What you do get is better emulation, and better rom compatibility.

Is this a new Retron 77? Did carts work before you installed the update? Have you taken a look at the contacts in your cart slot to make sure that they are intact?

In a nutshell, I'd say that if you are looking to play paddle games with the Ranger, you're likely to be disappointed. It does function as a paddle, but not very well. On the other hand- as a gamepad type controller it is quite comfortable with good button action and an okay thumbstick, plus it can be switched between right and left handed functionality. Also, keep in mind that it has been engineered to be light as opposed to strong, so don't expect it to survive a quick trip to the wall or a hard floor.

If your controls are reversed, it's because you took too long to destroy the enemies.

Yes.

I chose "strong," "armor," "heal." It seemed as though the bottom bad guy could only be hit by stomping on his head. Is that supposed to be the case? Oh, yeah- I'm playing in Stella.

They are only supported as ROMs. Those carts are not supported.

There shouldn't be. If the Retron boots without a cart, your cart slot is in working order, the slot and cart are clean enough, and the cart is supported by the dumper it should just work.

I'm glad you got it working. Yeah, I've just been upgrading my Stella as opposed to rewriting my image, and wouldn't have thought of booting without that directory. If you'd tried a supported cart(I'm not sure about Stella's Stocking) it might have actually worked without a games directory. I'll have to try renaming my games directory and seeing what happens here.

ROMs go in /games. My only other thought is- have you tried a different hdmi cable? You might have a bad one, and the R77 seems to be particular about which cables it 'likes,' as well.

Did you have a working Retron77 before attempting the upgrade? There's nothing magic about the cart dumper. If you don't get Stella's launcher without a cart in the slot, a cart is not going to work. Harmony isn't compatible with the R77. It doesn't 'run' the Harmony, it just tries to dump it as though it was a regular cart. You have to put your games on the SD card once you get your firmware working. If I were you, I would try another SD card if available, or writing the image using a different computer if available.

My spinner is based on an inverted optical mouse board with a chunk of light foam rubber as the "encoder wheel." It works well for Pole Position and TX-1.

What I see is that you are being pursued by the big flying saucer, which shows up pink on your radar. If it comes within range it will cause you to lose a life. Running away doesn't work, because while your ship is faster than the saucer when accellerated, there's no way to determine what path might be safe as you can't see obstacles at speed until you collide with them. Control is 4-way only. Small alien ships and asteroids(?) can be shot while onscreen, but they don't maintain their positions when off-screened, so lining up your shots is very difficult. The graphics and sound are somewhat compelling, but the game play is not enjoyable. Just about any change to this game could have made it better. It's kind of a shame, really. I don't have a bottom 10 games list, but this would probably be on it.

I can't really answer your first question as I never had an ST. As for the second question I would definitely recommend a 2600-daptor. They are pretty bulletproof in my experience. I'd be surprised if they don't work with Hatari, but I can't say for sure. Here's the AtariAge thread for them.

Airlock seems like one of those games that was never played by anyone outside of the group of programmer(s) and testers before release. Seriously, though- have someone who's never played the game or read the manual try to figure out what it is going on in the game. I'll bet that few can manage it, mainly due to the invisible floor timer. It seems like you are dying for no reason. The torpedoes look like little people. Functionally, there's no point in having the torpedoes not kill you directly, as there are few circumstances where the delay they cause will not kill you. I like the death screen. Too bad it's much better than the game itself. So much hate out there for Sssnake. Not that it isn't largely deserved, but I will say that BitD I remember getting at least 30 minutes of enjoyment out the game playing along with a friend who had it. As others have said, I don't have any real desire to play it again, but there are plenty enough games in the 2600 catalog that are worse than Sssnake, IMO.

Is it normal to see the error "A later version is already installed" when trying to install 6.1-1 with 6.1_rc1 installed?

If you haven't already, you'll probably want to upgrade your firmware to this version. Yes, you do need to keep the SD card inserted. No the roms are not included. You place them in a folder called games in the root directory of your SD card.

I'd never thought about the type of flying those jet pilots would have to be doing to cross the screen like that. Now I feel bad about shooting them down.

Seeing as how they apparently wirelessly connect to an AtGames system dongle that plugs into your TV, I'm guessing that they wont work.

Hmmm. Is that in the options? I don't see it. I've gone over every single list and tab a few times at least.

There's a small control inconsistency in the launcher UI. I don't know if it can(or should as I'm not sure what's intended) be fixed by simply remapping or not. A 9 pin joystick plugged into the front ports allows one to select a game line by line by using the up and down directions, or page by page using left and right. The same is true of a USB keyboard's cursor keys. With a wireless USB controller on the other hand, the left thumb-stick works as expected in the UI, but the dpad will only do line by line. Left and right on the dpad in the UI does nothing. FWIW, the right thumbstick doesn't do anything at all in the UI. I see from "jstest" on my computer that the Mayflash adapter I'm using maps left thumbstick to axis 0 and 1, dpad to axis 4 and 5, and right thumbstick to axis 2 and 3 respectively.

My experience mirrors Keatah's. I played up through level 3 on Sentinel with my desktop computer. Sentinel is actually fairly playable on the R77 even, by firing "tracer rounds." Shooting Arcade on the other hand severely limits your ammo, so you can play it on the Retron, but games are short.