Danno

Precisely why I DIDN'T buy one. MESS and Prosystem and EMU7800 do a far better job than teh Flashback did. Now I'm asking this simply becasue I like BOTH the 7800 and the 2600, but if it's going to be 2600 only, I'm not going to waste my money. I can get a 2600 on ebay or from any number of online dealers for $20-$30 and it's the real deal. But 7800's tend to go for a little more ($50-$75) and I'm trying to get an honest opinion.

No it doesn't.. that isn't 7800 code. They are ports to the "NES on a chip" hardware. If you're going to get snippy - you might want to read what you quote. I said GAMES not CODE. I merely asked if theFlashback 2 was going to be 7800 compatible as well. The First flashback was MARKETED as playing 5 "7800 game titles". I merely wanted to know if they were going to continue with this trend, or if they were going to limit it to 2600 games only. Curt still hasn't said whether it would or it wouldn't. All he said was that it would be compatible with 2600 binaries. a Real 7800 IS COMPATIBLE with 2600 binaries. He never said yes or no. And I didn't ask you, I asked Curt, since he's the onyl one who would ACTUALLY know.

What do you mean "also"? Running on a NES core, the first flashback can't handle 7800 binaries either. Besides with Curt saying "the system can run 100% 2600 compatible binaries", he absolutely excludes 7800 binaries with that as they definitely aren't 2600 compatible. Greetings, Manuel The first flashback runs 5 7800 games. Are you not aware of this?

This is kinda what made me think of the iPod. I mean seriously - how many iPod users are ONLY using iTunes and paying for the mp3's they dump onto their players? And with the classic gaming industry, it's not anywhere near as bad as the mp3 controversy, becasue these games have already sold millions. It's not like it's going to cut into anyone's profit margin.

1. Companies don't market to people they don't think can afford their product. You don't see ads for Abercrombie & Fitch or Banana Republic on Billboards in the Bronx or South Central LA or Trailer Parks in the Midwest. 2. You're right the word "dumb" wasn't there. But the fact that you cited a specific age demographic of people as not capable to handle a USB port on a device just SOUNDED dumb. Sorry if I misinterpreted your insult.

System will run 100% 2600 compatible binaries. So no 7800 capability? Did you ever succeed running a 7800 binary on a 2600? Greetings, Manuel Flashback 1.0 used 7800 games ported to "NES on a stick". It would stand to reason that Flashback 2.0 might also have 7800 capability, afterall, 100% 2600 Binaries WILL RUN on a 7800.

And I think if you look at the sales numbers vs. price point for the iPod (and consquentally the price point for ALL Apple products) you will notice that there is no way in hell that most 16-25 year olds can afford an iPod. the Target is the working young professional, early 20's to late 30's. But more 40 year olds can afford an iPod than 16 year olds. At any rate my point was that if the Flashback 2.0 has some sort of USB connectivity to it, it won't be any more difficult to use than an iPod. Sure there will be a minority of Dolts who rampage through the packaging wiht out RTFM and end up getting frustrated by their own impatience, but the majority of people who purchase this product will take to it rather easily. I also thought the comment about "A bunch of dumb 40 somethings" was rather idiotic, considering that is the majority demographics HERE at Atariage.

The iPod Demographic is every man, woman and child on the planet who likes music. iPods and similar mp3 playing units are the fastest selling, most popular electronic gadgets on the planet today. and much of the target audience for Retro Gaming is 40 Something, is is the demographic for iPods.

System will run 100% 2600 compatible binaries. Curt So no 7800 capability?

I know. I mean seriously, all these iPods that people aren't able to use.... atariPod. LOL.

While what you say is true - that doesn't mean those "100% original binaries" haven't also had copy protection added to them. All it means is that the game code hasn't been altered or ported to another platform.

Atariage's Rom's section is but a fraction of the entire 2600 collection.

This seems unlikely to me since they are still letting AtariAge give away the ROMs for free... ...for now, at least... this could change before the launch of the Flashback, remember, they made AtariAge pull a bunch of games from the store, too when they sold the first Flashback My guess would be a USB port, or USB cable that you would plug into your PC that would allow a limited amount of roms to be added when purchased from their website. This would be the CHEAPEST implementation of this feature and we know how COST is more important than QUALITY. Not that I'm complaining. Being able to use Roms is a great idea. But I guarantee you they will NOT be compatible with straight up Roms. It will most likely require roms PURCHASED from their website that have a special encryption or header on them to prevent users from being able to use generic roms. So who's going to get in line for the first Flashback 2.0 Mod-Chips?

Curt - if you're paying attention - I have one question. Is this going to be a 2600 or 7800 based system? The reason I ask is that I'm toying with the idea of buying a 7800 again, but wondering if I should just save my money and buy a Flashback 2 when they hit the store.

Not yet. a previos version worked, but it was old, from back in November.

That sounds pretty cool. Although I have to disagree about the latency issue. I have a pretty speedy machine (Athlon XP 2800+, Gig of ram, 100 7200 rpm Gig hd) but videe capture latency through my Hauppague capture card is still awy to slow to be usable for video game input accuracy. Admittedly the card sucks though. I also have a Tascam Pro Audio card with 8 inputs and 8 outputs for Multi-track recording, and although I can get it pretty close on the latency, It becomes far more unstable, and will drop out altogether on occasion. I just use the Mixing board's monitor out put rather than monitoring from the cards' output.

So what screen size does it display the overlay at? Is it NTSC standard 480i or is it interpolated up to another resolution? Does it display it in a window in the OS, or is it treated as a separate computer diplaying at fullscreen? Not to take this thread off course, just curious.

He didn't know what a .rar format file was. I was merely using logic and reason. Better to err on the side of safety, than encourage people who aren't very techincally inclined to crack open their 7800's and go soldering crazy. Not to mention - if it is an input on his ATI card he was referring to, then it is a capture port, which will have a significant amount of video and audio latency, especially if it's an off the shelf video card, and not a professional video capture device. That kind of latency would make the games essentially unplayable, as the the video updates would be seconds behind what is ACTUALLY happening in the 7800.

guaranteed, one of them was a "friend" of teh seller, throwing out fake bids to drive up the selling price. I hate that crap, but I know at least one person who does it all the time. Thankfully, he's not into selling Atari stuff.

Something tells me you shouldn't be doing this mod unsupervised. That S-Video port on your ATI card is most likely an OUTPUT for you to plug your PC into a TV, NOT an INPUT to plug things into your computer. If you plug your newly modded 7800's S-video OUTPUT into an OUTPUT on your PC, you're probably going to need a New 7800, and maybe even a new PC. Show of hands for those who think TIW should pay for the shipping to have his 7800 video mod done by a trained professional for the Safety of all those living in or near the continental United States? *raises both hands*

You wouldn't want to use a Stelladaptor with ANY 7800 emu, never mind this one when Greg addes joystick support. The Stelladaptor doesn't support the 7800's dual fire button setup, so games like Karateka, Choplifter, Commando, or ANY games that required the use of dual fire buttons would be unplayable with the Stelladaptor.

I too have noticed the Karateka story scroll bug - and it's one that always get's brought up on the MESS board when Atari 7800 bugs are being discussed. I believe I even remember someone in MESS development mentioning that it IS related to the timing of the clock in One on One. This Emu DOES support command line functions. I set it up to work with the GameEx front end last night, and it runs just fine. The onyl thing I would change would be that once you go to Fullscreen mode, the default is that the menu is hidden, whereas now as it is, the default is that the menu is shown, and you need to press escape to hide it. Beef drop has changed SOOO many times, becasue it's being worked on constantly by Ken. I think Greg might have had a previous incarnation that he actually got working.

Actually - it's more like the 800/5200 documentation is abundant, and making an emu for it is simpler, whereas the 7800 was shrouded in encryption mystery and not well documented or supported even by Atari when it was in production. But on a physical comparison, the 5200 is far inferior. Unfortunately, the 7800's capabilites were never realized. As far as the Mac. - well If I were into doing anything on a computer that goes beyond buying off the shelf, overpriced software, I wouldn't ever use a Mac. When I think Mac, I don't think Open Source.

Well - you see that's the difference. IBID may have coded it, but Atari released it, so they set the development schedule and the budget, even if they didn't actually code it. Although yeah - IBID did do a piss poor job with both of those games. I mean look at Impossible Mission. Aside from the fact that there's a glitch with finishing the came, the 7800 Version is nearly identicl to the C-64 version. It's the GLARING inconsistencies in game quality that kept the 7800 from selling well.

As someone who owned both, let me tell you - as much as I am A HUGE 7800 buff, the SMS beat it and the NES hands down in every category except software library size. Choplifter on the SMS had MUCH better graphics, and 3 completely separate and different levels, the 7800 version had just one level, and the sprites were huge clowny-looking things. the 7800 may have been capable of more and better, but the fact is, that never happened. IT had GREAT arcade ports, and a few truly enjoyable games, whereas on the SMS EVERY game was truly well done. I mean seriously - SMS had Afterburner, Shinobi, Outrun, and quite a few others that were damn near arcade perfect. Atari couldn't even get more than one board in Choplifter?