juansolo

2024-04-18T08:09:57Z

...and Video Pinball.

March 30

FPGA is an attempt at cycle accurate replication (and preservation) of the hardware. The MiSTer project, and whatever might follow it, is a righteous thing. For me it was the Amiga. I'd been running Amibian but found myself to be utter crap at Shuffle Puck Cafe. I couldn't fathom it, I used to be good at that game. I bought an A1200 and I could play it on that no problem, same with a MiSTer. It all came down to an almost imperceptable amount of lag. I was sensitive to that, other's might not be and are fine with emulation. Both keep these systems alive beyond the availability of the original hardware.

Veering off topic for the person who brought up plasma vs LCD. As an early adopter back in the day, I couldn't handle early LCDs motion. Because they have a persistent image that gets overdrawn by the next frame, they had motion smearing for a long time into their lives. Plasma's picture is built up of several frames that degrade before the next creating a shuttering effect like a CRT or film does giving much smoother motion. This is still a problem with OLEDs, which is why high framerate ones have the option of Black Frame Insertion. Essentially blanking the screen between every active frame to give that shuttering effect.

The current problem I have even with modern LCD's are the ones with matrixed backlights as they create halo's around light items on dark backgrounds due to the relatively low resolution of the LED backlights vs the pixels of the panel. I notice it every time I see one that does it. That said, I have a friend with a couple of very large LCDs, one of which is an early 4K (non-HDR) set that has static backlights and that's got an insanely good picture and motion. It's the only one I've ever seen that I couldn't fault in any way. It's replacement had a matrixed backlight and is HDR. It was blindingly bright and has obviously perfect blacks. But I see those damn halos all the time and it distracts the hell out of me. I much prefer the more natural, if less dynamic, picture of the earlier set.

I still have a plasma... All panel tech has flaws and I utterly dispise 'smart' TVs. I need someone to create a 42" HDR OLED monitor with BFI and VFR and nothing else. But currently all TVs are loaded with processing and online bollocks... I hate all that nonsense with a passion.

March 25

I consider the 7th gen to be the last generation of retro consoles and the 8th to be the start of the modern age. Sure things were introduced in 7th gen that would become the new age like online play and mass storage, but it wasn't the norm yet... Up to and including the 7th gen, you can buy a physical game, put it into a console and you can play it. From the PS3, Wii and Xbox360 onwards, there are digital download games, there is online play through the console providers, there is mass storage to allow for patching post release. Truly that is when modern gaming was introduced and not for the better. Anything before I consider retro, because it's from the previous mentality of the industry. Everything after is still relevant today in terms of how things work.

March 16

We (me and @marauder666) can take a look at it for you if you like. Bob me a PM.

March 15

The 7800 is a bit of a basket case when it comes to it's video output. Couple that to the analogue inputs of modern TVs being the part that they spend the least money on, if they have them at all... RF shouldn't be better than Composite video, if it is something is wrong somewhere. Composite should be a dramatic step up, S-Video should be a fairly dramatic step up from that, and RGB from that. Also many TVs don't even have analogue RF tuners any more, certainly here in the UK. But as I say, the 7800 can be a bit of a basket case on it's own with a lot of inherent issues, which really doesn't help matters.

The best picture you're going to get from the 7800 into a modern TV is a 7800GD's RGB out into something like a RetroTink to get you to HDMI. But that's only if you want to play all your games as ROMs. If you want to play carts, the best the 7800 can output is S-Video, again fire it through a RetroTink to get you an HDMI out. Composite gives you the most compatibility as so many TVs have it still, but as I say, you're relying on their analogue circuitry being good, and an awful lot of it isn't. That said you might get lucky and have a console with a stunning RF picture and a TV that still supports it. If you do, you've really hit the jackpot, because that's becoming increasingly rare these days.

March 8

The software will always be the problem as I doubt Atari own much of it. Personally I think the Atari shone early on (when it's games were often ported poorly to the Amiga) and suffered later in it's life (when Amiga games were often ported poorly to it) so mainly focusing on the early stuff is the way to go. Trying to secure Neochrome and The BIG Demo would tickle most old hand's nostalgia bones. The early discovery and power pack games were a decent selection. No idea if Atari still have the licences for them but there was good stuff there like Gauntlet II, Carrier Command, Eliminator and Starglider in there. I have it in my head that mine had Super Sprint in it too, I think the packs varied, but ST Super Sprint is the best home version of the game by far. Other stuff, The FTL stuff if you could secure it would be a no brainer (Oids and Dungeon Master). Other than that it's gonna be the stuff that the Atari did well that they can get a license for.

EDIT - Looks like the packs varied from region to region, no doubt due to regional licenses. https://www.atarimania.com/pgelstsoft.awp?system=S&type=G&publisher=4570&search=80.97.99.107.&step=25

February 21

1 hour ago, DrVenkman said:

Well, my order from July 7 or so still hasn’t shipped, and that’s only about halfway through the initial Last Chance Sale window. Maybe I’ll have my four carts before spring. Maybe.

Same day as mine and in the same boat.

3 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Same - how many games did you order if I may ask? I wanted to order more but could only afford 3.

To keep mine under control I limit my orders to $400... Being in the UK, that doesn't go quite as far as I'd hope. There were loads I had to pass up on. I've been wanting to put in a similar sized order since the PRGE stuff went up, but I'd rather get these in my hands before I send another $400 into the ether until 2025.

February 16

6 hours ago, groundtrooper said:

When did @juansolo do the build your own option.

I thought that tep quit offering them mainly because of supply and sourcing reasons. 🤷🏻

It was a few years ago now I think. It wasn't so much build your own, it was populated apart from the POKEY. All I had to add was that and the cart shell. I think he had a tiny handful of boards left and mentioned it somewhere so I sent a PM and he sent me one that way. I don't think he ever officially offered it as a service, but I think at the time one or two of us managed to snag one this way.

EDIT: Found the thread, it was 2020

February 14

1 hour ago, Zonie said:

I think I posted this before, but if this was sold as a kit with the board, socket, chip, and labels...

That's how I got mine, but I'm not sure if tep392 has any left or does that any more. I essentially got the board, labels and manual. Soldered a POKEY onto the board and put it into a 7800 cart shell. Was a most pleasant and awesome transaction.

February 13

Something I rarely see brought up when discussing emulation vs FPGA is that FPGA is essentially hardware preservation.

With the best will in the world, original hardware will eventually become untennable. CRT's will likely be first, but ultimately with failures and shortage of original parts, consoles and computers will join them. What the FPGA does is replicate a machine at a hardware level. Cores can be ported to other FPGAs and they're the same as they were. Emulation on the other hand, as the machines it runs on get old, will have to be ported or rewritten for current hardware.

No problem I hear, but this has already bitten Nintendo in the arse with hardware as young as the N64. Their original releases on newer hardware utilised an emulator written in house, and it was good. However the people who wrote the emulator left Nintendo and as consoles moved on generationally, the emulator was ported and it got progressively less accurate and worse (there's a video Modern Vintage Gamer did on this) to the point that current ports on Nintendo hardware, done in-house by Nintendo with all their resources, aren't good. Currently a N64 core is being worked on for Mister and once done the N64 will essentially be preserved despite Nintendo...

February 13

37 minutes ago, umjammercammy said:

Sorry to be a bother but did anything ever come of this? Anywhere I can purchase or download this BIOS? Thanks.

https://github.com/7800-devtools/7800OpenBIOS

As far as I'm aware it was planned to be sold by AtariAge, but after the acquisition by Atari, I'm not sure that's even possible anymore because of Kiloparsec using ported assets.

I downloaded it and put it on an EPROM along with the region-free Asteroids BIOS to make my NTSC 7800 even more ridiculous by having a switchable BIOS. FWIW, there's a bit of slowdown with Kiloparsec on a PAL machine but that seems to work also. Though that machine is back on it's Asteroids BIOS now, I just popped it in there to test it.

February 13

22 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

That's most of the problem. the 7800 potential audience is already tiny. Now if you exclude all the folks who are happy with what they are already using - (Original 7800 w/ video mod, Emulation boxes of various types, Retropie, etc.) it gets even tinier. Then add on the cost of an FPGA console... it would need to be a labor of love with no expectation of profit, and very likely a losing money venture.

In a nutshell, yup.

February 13

18 minutes ago, Stephen said:

If we're going for dreams / wishes, and wanting a 7800 FPGA, let's just jump in and do it. Can we get the XM upgrade thrown in?

In the FPGA world, quite easily.

But as I mentioned before, someone would need to have the will and the means to do it, and to accept that the market for it will likely be smaller than that for a cheap emulation box. Analogue to date have targetted way more popular consoles, I doubt it'd be worth their time, but they absolutely have the means. Collectorvision made the Phoenix (which I would also buy if I could, despite having a modded Coleco with SGM), which is essentially what I would want (it's a Coleco + SGM in FPGA), in theory the market for that was probably even smaller. No idea if they made it pay or not, but again, they likely have the skills to make it happen.

https://collectorvision.com/phoenix/index.html

February 13

2 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

All I know is that if an FPGA 7800 existed, I would buy it. I don't care if it says A N A L O G U E or A T A R I, I would buy it. I wouldn't care if it cost $600, I would buy it. I might be a sliver of a slice of a niche of a cult following of a subset of a tiny group, and I won't speak for anyone else, but I would buy it.

Done right, I'd be there with you. The 2600+ offered less compatability than the real deal and I have an RGB modded 2600 and an S-Video modded 7800 that can play all releases as they stand and multicarts so there was just no reason for me to buy one. An FPGA 7800 Atari with cart loading as per Analogue and Phoenix would be something else. It could (and should) have XM hardware on board. Allowing the XM carts (only PMC & DK XM currently if I remember correctly) to work and that would allow for more, cheaper carts in the future that didn't need Pokeys on board and what have you. Given space on the FPGA there's no reason why it couldn't have other options also in that regard. Give it digital and analogue outputs (not everyone wants to plug them into a panel), and make sure it has full support for all controllers and it would offer something that currently no modded console or a Mister currently can.

February 13

11 hours ago, selgus said:

I too, get many of my POKEY's from BallBlazer cartridges.

Likewise. I mainly use them for A8 stereo mods and repairs, a couple went into Dragonflys and another couple into stand alone cartridges. Sadly the times of being able to pick them up for less than £20 a pop are getting looking like they've past and I recently turned the last one in my stash into a Drelbs cart.

February 8

There's no reason there couldn't be. It would take someone to have the will to do it, then they'd have to convince people to buy it (it wouldn't be as cheap as the 2600+). Which is all well and good but the 2600+ exists and people seem happy with the compromises of that. For people that don't want to compromise, you can still buy a real 7800 and mod it. Or indeed if carts aren't your thing, you can run a Mister. Plenty of options out there.

February 7

That'll do it, consign that to the bin.

I'd personally send it to @-^CrossBow^- and let him give it a once over, and sort it for a new PSU. It's probably easier than ordering from Best in all honesty Plus you'll no longer be tied to the bespoke PSU should you have problems down the line.

February 7

Did you use the supplied PSU or something else? Magic smoke is usually power related...

It's probably fixable, but if there was smoke, something's gone pop. Wrong polarity power will take out caps (dramatically) and other things. Too much power will take out the regulator and potentially the caps depending on what they're rated at. Something may have failed and/or become a short. It's an old machine with old components, this sort of thing happens. I had the RIOT randomly shit itself in mine for example. Nothing else wrong with the machine, it was just it's time. Replaced it with one from a donor machine and it was back to life.

It being in storage brings in the environment as being a potential factor. Was it stored in a warm dry environment or somewhere cold and damp? The latter will be extremely detremental to kit over a long period of time. Likewise time itself. Things become brittle, things dry out, things leak, things rust. Creatures get in and make it their home, etc.

As with all fault finding now, you'd start with power. Multi-meter on the PSU, is that doing what it's supposed to? Definitely do not use that PSU on anything else until that's verified. Ideally when there's doubt with a PSU of this age, it's best to just swap it out with something high quailty and modern as the old PSUs are more often than not sealed in resin. Just got an old Coleco PSU for example that tested and worked perfectly, not used in years. Got it out again the other day to use it and it's bulged massively so during that testing something was definitely not right even though the voltages looked fine coming out of it. Can't repair it because of the resin, so that went into the bin. Gotta be careful with old PSUs...

Then it's take it apart time and work through the power section to the regulator and make sure everything is doing what it should. Most likely it's something there that's gone bang.

Shame you're in the US, I'd have just had you send it over and we'd have taken a look. Buying old spares/repair consoles and computers is what we do for fun. Also as a note to people with dead machines, please don't bin them. Even if they're not fixable there are parts on them that can be salvaged and used to bring back other dead machines. Either stick it on eBay as a spares/repair machine if you want a few bucks, be honest and detail what happened. Or donate it to your local solder jockey. They'll likely cover cost of postage to them. I certainly would.

January 31

On 1/6/2024 at 9:46 PM, FuzzyWuggzy said:

I'm sorry to necro, but this is so awesome! If it isn't too much to ask, would you consider releasing the schematic or layout files for this? I would design one of my own from the link you provided but your buffered circuit with the pre-calculated resistor values sounds like it'd work a lot better.

I have a sad French 7800 (by sad I mean it came with no screws and there's a massive crack in the upper shell) that's lost its RGB daughterboard so I composite modded it a few years back, but can only get a monochrome image out of it. I'd love to scrap that and get S-Video out of it.

Thanks.

You could send it our way and we can S-Video mod it for you. Bob me a PM if you're interested.

January 28

Nothing leaking, it's just old flux. You can clean it off if you like with IPA and some patience.

January 26

To be fair, we were all thinking it...

January 18

Yup, the PAL consoles can be really bad (not all are, but we've had a lot that were) when it comes to small weak pads and poor quality solder. Making desoldering a more difficult task than it is on an NTSC console. In those cases I still replace the buttons. But I just cut the legs at the switch, then heat the pad with the leg in and pull each one out individually with tweazers. Very little chance of damaging the board doing it that way. No point in risking trying to get the thing out in one piece when I'm just going to bin the switches regardless.

January 16

37 minutes ago, THX-1138 said:

ZX Spectrum will probably be next, again, because of its popularity in the UK.

I'm genuinely surprised that it hasn't been done. The humble speccy was huge in the UK and parts of Europe. The games of course would be the issue, there's tens of thousands of the things and licensing them would be a complete nightmare.

January 9

10 hours ago, Lauren Tyler said:

Makes sense. Will the ROMs ever be made available?

For the games that have been removed; Champ Games sell all their games physical carts and ROMs on their store (https://champ.games/store). Muddyvision you can get Lewis' pulled games from him via PM as ROMs. Bob posted all his pulled games in a single thread for anyone to download. The rest comes down to what the individual developers want to do. Find the threads that pertain to the games you're interested in, if they were released as a ROM they may be there. If they were released as a demo ROM, post and ask them if they are available to buy the full release as a ROM.