RamrodHare

It's looking good so far! Are you going to update any of the graphics? The tanks on Tron had an offset barrel, if I remember correctly. I have no idea if that would be something easily changed or not, since it might require other things to be changed in order for the tank to still fire from the barrel. I'm just now learning how to change colors, so the rest is still way over my head. I've been changing some stuff around, graphics wise, just hoping I don't screw up the code on the game I'm using as a learning tool. If it weren't for the members here who are more or less walking me through it, I'd have no clue what I was doing.

OK. Thanks Nukey Shay! I've got a lot to learn, but I feel a little less intimidated by it now. I at least have a basic understanding of the colors and how to find and change them. I have been working on editing the symbols on the sails too. I just haven't been able to decide what to change them to. That part is really straight forward, so I don't think I need any help there.. My question now is, how does collision detection work on this game? For instance, if I make the top row of pixels, "the enemies Hats", wider (just like editing the sail symbols), does the collision detection also change with this, or is there more to it than that? ( I've already tried it, but I'm not sure if it did anything or not, that's why I'm asking..) I also changed the pixels on the enemies so that they climb- "left hand, right hand", as they go up the ladders. Since they aren't centered on the ladders, it's not a huge improvement.

OK, I'm happy to report that, while I don't have much of a grasp on what's going on, I was able to follow along with the instructions to get the desired results. I think my issue is just the fact that I'm not 100% sure what's happening, since I'm not familiar with the code or how it works. What I did figure out, purely by accident, is how to change the symbols on the sails, so that's something, I guess. I understand the concept of the colors and I understand changing the number. The part that confuses me is "Use the Step button to slowly follow the program flow to where LF76B was branched to. In this case, it was a loop...the color value is coming from address LFC2E + the X index of $05, or $FC33 (picture 9)". Where or how, did we come to LF76B? I have a feeling that I'm just not looking at the right thing on Stella. Also, I'm using a newer version 4.7.3, in case that matters. OK. I think what I'm missing is what I'm looking for in the top right corner there. If I keep messing with it, I'll probably figure it out, but if someone wants to add a bit of detail as to how to use what's being shown there, that will probably help me along. I know I'm missing something simple and I'll probably slap myself once I notice it or someone points it out. I just hit another snag. My version of Stella isn't giving me the option to save the rom.... ​* OK, figured it out, you have to use the command prompt on this version.

Thanks! If I can't manage it with these instructions there's something wrong with me. I'm going to give it a try right after I eat (Low blood sugar and computer screens don't mix well.). Thanks Nukey Shay!

Waiting on one to arrive, but I don't know if it's working or not, so I may still be looking, I won't know until after the 29th.

I look forward to seeing the pictures. I would rather have CX40s, but I can live with Gemsticks.

Is it the small rainbow or the big rainbow? Does it come with Joysticks and a power supply?

OK, I got one and it's working, so this is CLOSED.

I knew it was cheaply built, hence the low prices on them now. My goal is to find the best all around joystick for me. I figure that if enough people like one certain stick, it increases the chance of that same one working well for me. All the aftermarket ones I have tried so far, I tried because I got them for almost nothing, so there's no buyer's remorse. I can grab a nice Pointmaster for $10, so even if it was horrible, I wouldn't feel too bad about it, but I think I'll hold off on that, since that would be $10 less I'd have to put toward better joysticks. I think based on the majority so far, a Tac-2 is probably the way I should go, if I can find them for a decent price. I'm really hoping someone who knows about the Tac-2 and the Starfighter will jump in and tell me the joystick is just as good on one as it is on the other. If that happens, I'll be able to grab 2 Starfighter joysticks for the price of one Tac-2 and have them in hand in 3 days. If I have to hold out for the Tac-2, that's fine. Of course, I could go with what already works for me and pick up a set of CX-40s cheap and then put the Gold PCBs in them... It's a tough decision.

Tac-2 joysticks are getting mentioned a LOT. That makes me want to grab at least one of them to try out. The thing I'm noticing though, is the price. It's almost up there with the Competition Pros. However, the Suncom Starfighters are much cheaper. Does anyone here have both? If so is the Starfighter as good as the TAC-2? Do you know if the internals for the joystick are the same? I'm also considering the Slik Stik, since I can easily source the necessary parts to bring it back to "new" condition for a lot less than I can grab a Tac-2 for. OK, your post was , well, interesting. I haven't heard anyone say much about the Pointmaster, but if you are being serious about thinking it's that good, then I'm tempted to get one to try out. The price on them is extremely cheap, even for new old stock. So, if you are kidding, tell me now, so I don't waste my money on one.

So, I've been watching review videos and reading about quite a few different joysticks that were/are availible for the 2600. Different people have different opinions on what they like and why they like them. I'm sure threads like this have been done over and over, but some people may have gotten different controllers or changed their mind since the last time a similar thread was started. What I'd like to gain out of this is a little bit of insight into "WHY" people like one joystick/controller over another, so that I, or others, can possibly put that information to use while searching for our own "favorite" controller. I know nostalgia plays a large role in some people's decision and that's fine, but for this thread, I'd rather we all stick to the actual features and design of the joystick. In other words, the things that make it work well. I'll start with the controllers I have in my possession right now. The Atari CX-40. In standard form (no upgraded parts), It seems to have a little more play in the joystick than I'd like. Also, it really doesn't have a definitive stop position. I'm sure I push it much harder than I need to, because there's no feedback telling me the switch has been activated. These things have held up to 30 or more years of abuse and most of them still work. Anytime your hand wears off the factory paint and the joystick is still working, that's a win in my book. The Atari Flashback Joystick. This one had me on the fence for a while. I liked the feel of it more than I liked the CX-40, because there was just a bit of feedback letting me know I had activated the switch. Also it took less force to move, but at the same time, it had more play in it. I used this joystick for a while though. The build quality isn't great, but I feel like these would last if you don't get carried away and break the stick off. Epyx 500XJ. This one had good reviews from a lot of people, but I'm not sure I will ever be one of them. It does have nice clicky switches and almost no play in the stick. The issue I have with it, is the placement of the fire button and the size of the controller. The fire button feels awkward. This may be due to the placement, I'm more used to using my thumb, or it could be that I have a hard time holding it well due to it's size/shape. I can't knock it's build at all. The set I have are in great condition despite their age and how many hands they passed through before I ended up with them. The Wico, Command Control (Bat). This is another one with a lot of people standing behind it. It's well built and has the added feature of using the standard fire button on the base, or switching to the one on the end of the joystick. I really wanted this one to be my favorite, but after using it, I just wasn't sure about it. I felt like it was too large overall and the throw of the stick was more than I wanted. It just ended up feeling a little clumsy and awkward. If you like actual arcade controls, this one has that feel. I just don't think it has the precision I want when playing. Modified NES gamepad (For 2600 or 7800 with both fire buttons working). This was meant to be the go to controller for me, since it has a nice precise directional pad and very responsive fire buttons. In the end, it turned out that it wasn't as comfortable as I remember. I hadn't held one in over 20 years, so my memory of it being comfortable were either wrong or my hands are just too "OLD" to use it. I even went so far as to add a tiny ball top joystick to the D-pad to see if it would be easier on my thumb, but it didn't help. Modified SMS gamepad (again, 2600 or 7800). Another try at making a gamepad that I remembered as being comfortable to use. The D-pad is really sloppy on the Sega Master System controller. There's no precision at all with it. The basic shape is the same as the NES, so it just didn't agree with my hands. 7800 Prolines. I wasn't a fan of them at first, but they started to grow on me. I shortened the sticks on them, which lessened the throw. This was a big improvement. The stick and the buttons have a nice tactile click to them, so you don't just keep forcing it like on the factory CX-40s. I haven't used these for extended periods of time, so I'm not sure if they would cause my hands to cramp up, but I'm guessing they would, just because of the odd shape and the fact that my hands aren't happy with NES or SMS controllers anymore. There's not a lot to say about the paddle controllers really. I guess if I were to make one point about them, it would be that the "Gemini" paddles are stiffer feeling than the Atari ones. That means for me, the Gemini ones are more precise, but there are many factors to this. My Atari paddles may be more worn or the pots may be different in the Geminis. My advice on the paddles is, don't pay any attention to my experience with the ones I have, since it may not apply to all the paddles out there. The driving controllers and keypads I have, haven't seen much use, so I don't even have an opinion on them. Now, Here is what I consider to be my favorite Joystick/controller, right now... It's the CX-40, but not in it's factory state. I'm talking about the ones I've upgraded with the Best Electronics Gold PCBs, new fire buttons, springs,boot rings, boots, and new handles. I don't want to sound like an advertisement for Best Electronics, but it's hard not to, if you've tried out their Gold PCBs. However, i didn't buy the other parts from them, since I found a much better price for upgrade kits (everything but the PCB) on eBay. I actually had a small issue with one of the Gold PCBs, but it was easily corrected with a couple of emails to Brad (Best Electronics), It's not even important enough to go into detail about, since it was probably a one in a million issue.. What makes the new PCBs so nice, are the new domes. The old ones didn't click and were kind of mushy feeling to me. Of course they were old, but I don't think the original dome contacts were much better new.The PCB feels more substantial and there's a nice thick plastic layer that keeps the domes from "walking", then a thinner protective layer on top that adheres to everything, making a nice enclosed set of switches. As far as the gold coating goes, I know it's important, but it has nothing to do with how the controls respond. Once I had the joysticks reassembled with the new parts, there is almost zero play in the stick. There's a nice click in each direction and when you press the fire button. It's extremely easy to tell that you've activated the switches. I'm sure these are better than they ever were, even when brand new. I have around $40 total in the two joysticks, not counting the initial cost, which was basically zero, since they came with my 2600. If you have an old set, I feel it's worth $40 to rebuild them, but I don't know if I'd feel as good if I spent much more than that. Keep in mind, I'm on a fixed income, so $40 to me is equal to $100 for most people. Best Electronics sells NEW CX-40s with upgraded PCBs, but I couldn't justify spending that much when I already had a pair of them here that I could rebuild for less money. Now, that's my opinions on joysticks and controllers. I want to hear from other members here. I'm always willing to try a different joystick if it's something I can hunt down for a reasonable price.

Different colors would probably make me more interested in buying carts. I don't have anything against black (It's usually one of my favorite colors). It's just that having 60 or so carts, all black, getting another one isn't that exciting, but if every one of them was a new color, that would be interesting. If I could buy empty carts in different colors, I'd probably reshell some of my favorite games and make new labels for them. As it stands right now, I'm probably going to sell off most of my carts, since I have a Harmony Encore. I'll still hold on to my favorites, just in case colored shells become availible.

Kids are cool like that. Enjoy the time you have with them. They grow up fast.

Thanks! That looks NICE! I think it was really just the boat that was giving me a headache. I've got a bunch of games you hacked and they all look SO much better than the originals. I really like this game, but I feel like it needed a few tweaks. The colors being the worst complaint. I really want to learn how to do some simple hacks myself, like changing colors, modding player shapes (your pirate, or whatever he is) and tweaking collision detection (like expanding the "HIT" area on this game to make it a little more forgiving). I'm just using this game as my starting point, since it's one I like. Right now though, I just want to focus on learning how to change the colors. I'd like to eventually have the knowledge to program a simple game (or at least hack an existing one.) Before I joined the forums at AA, I had an idea about hacking Berserk into a Dr. Who game. Of course once I started doing some searching, it turned out it had already been done (and quite well I might add). Do you use Stella for your hacking or something else? I'm interested in learning how to do things with Stella, but I'd never even used it until a couple of days ago (after CDS mentioned it) and I have no clue where to start. I hope to hear back from Nukey or CDS, but my online hours don't overlap theirs, so if you have any pointers, I'd be interested in reading them. Thanks again for the color fix! Someone has probably posted a "How to" on changing colors and stuff, but my searches haven't pulled anything up, so if anyone has a link to them, that would be helpful too.

I'm really glad you posted this! I went into the menu on my TV and did some fine tuning and as if by some sort of magic, the lines are gone! I adjusted a few different things to get the desired effect. I still have really nice colors and brightness, just without the lines. Luckily my TV has some very handy settings, some of which I just discovered while randomly tweaking things tonight. I had no idea that my modern HD LED TV had adjustments for horizontal and vertical position and size. No more slight shift to the right due to the AV mod. Now the picture is perfectly centered and stretched to fit the "4:3 box" my TV uses when not in widescreen mode. I would have probably went the rest of my life without messing with the "Advanced" settings on this TV. I remembered messing with some of them when I first got the TV, but I went online and just did a google search for recommended settings & my TV model, since I was in a hurry to use it and had zero interest in reading the manual.. Once I set everything that one time, I never messed with it again. Now that I've seen how much stuff there actually is to mess with in the advanced settings, I'm gonna have to read through the manual and find out what some of it does.

Thank you for hacking the colors for me. I am VERY interested in being able to do this myself. Stella is completely new to me. I'm eager to learn though. There are quite a few games that I would really like to change the colors on. If it's not too much trouble, I'd really appreciate any info on the process that you can give me.

I know eBayers in other countries aren't all out to scam people, but I've ran into more than my fair share of them, so I tend to steer clear of anything from certain countries. I always check feedback thoroughly before buying ANYTHING. The only time I buy from other countries is if the item can't be found anywhere else for a reasonable price or if it is so cheap that I'm willing to risk the aggravation. Most of the time now, I set my searches to only show items in my country. If I don't find what I'm looking for, then I'll expand the search, but I always contact foreign sellers first, just to see how they reply to questions. If they are willing to ship to another country, they need to be able to communicate with people who live there. If they can't understand your language, then they aren't going to be of much use if something goes wrong either before or during shipping. Also, if they walk around questions without ever answering them, that's a bad sign..You can usually weed out the scammers, but it's not 100% foolproof.. A good example of something to look out for, sellers telling you they will send you a "Free" gift before shipping your item. I ran into this from a seller in China. I specifically told them I didn't want a free gift, I just wanted my item and expected the tracking number they provided to be for that item. A little over a month goes by and I get an envelope from China with my tracking number on it. Inside was a sticker and a thank you card. I emailed the seller and asked what that was and where my item was. I got a response, probably translated by google. It made little sense, but more or less was telling me to wait up to 60 more days for my item to arrive.(That would have placed the transaction outside of the 90 refund window.) I emailed them back and asked for the tracking number for my item, they sent me the tracking number from the envelope. I tried once more to contact them for the correct tracking number and their response was that tracking was too expensive for my item, so only my free gift had tracking. By this time I was ready to fly to China and beat the seller senseless. Instead, I filed a complaint with eBay and sent them a photo of the envelope and what was inside. I got a refund, but the experience made me not want to deal with foreign sellers.

I'm not sure about those, but I really enjoyed the old DC comics that came with some of the 2600 games. I still have a few of them. After doing a bit of research on the ones you mentioned, I think the price is based on collectable value. As far as something to read, I'm not sure they would be worth the price. Keep in mind, that's just my opinion. Also, if you really just want to read them, I'm sure you can find free downloadable copies with a bit of google magic.

OK, I couldn't make and progress on my own. Would anyone be kind enough to work on the colors for me? My issue is that the boat and background are too bright and it gives me a migraine when I try to play it for more than a few minutes. If someone could make the boat shades of brown and possibly do something with the sky, it would be great. If the promise of a couple of dollars by Paypal will help, I can do that. I just have to run to the bank and deposit some cash in the morning. Also, if anyone is interested in making a few bucks here and there, I might have some other games I need the colors tweaked a bit. I'm guessing most people either have the rom or can download it easily. If not, let me know and I can send it to you.

There are a couple of guys here on the forums doing custom labels, but if cost is a factor, you might want to look into finding a scan of the original label, save it on a flash drive or SD card and check with a local print shop to see what it would cost to have one made. The print shop I use, charges by the sheet when it comes to adhesive labels. I have mine made on weatherproof paper and they can even do laser cutting. The last thing I had printed was a bunch of replacement stickers for vintage R2-D2 figures and 2 sheets (which made 48 or so labels) costed me $4. I just noticed that's an AtariAge game. Try contacting Albert, I'm sure he can help you out.

So Far I've been having a lot of fun with almost all of the homebrew games I found on AtariAge. Follow this link http://atariage.com/software_search.php?SystemID=2600 Once you are there, scroll down to the search area. For "Rarity"- select Homebrew, then check the box for "Has ROM" and click search. This will give you a list of homebrew games that have downloadable roms. There are tons more out there, but it takes some searching. I have used Youtube and Google with great success. Also, you will run into a few really nice games that you can't get the roms for, but if you contact the developer and ask them about getting a copy of the rom, most will either give you a copy or sell you one for a reasonable price. I suggest you offer to pay them, even if they give you the rom for free. The developers put a ton of time and effort into making the games and it's only right that we offer them something in return. In your title, you mention "small developers" (Edit: I realized you may have meant games released back in the day by actual companies, if so, I'm sorry for rambling on about homebrews and homebrew developers.) . The thing to remember is that almost all of the people making games for the 2600 are just regular people. They aren't part of a company and they aren't getting paid for the time they spend working on games for us to enjoy. Most make the games on their own or with help from a few other people on the forums. Even those who end up putting their games on Cartridges aren't making anything. They might make a few dollars for each sale, but that's nothing when you think about how many hours they spend creating the game, some spend year perfecting a game before they officially call it "done".. I didn't come here to preach, but somehow it turned into that. My point is, these guys work hard to make these games and they deserve something in return, be it money or just a sincere Thank you.. So, when you download a rom, that a developer was kind enough to provide for you, take the time to send him a message and tell him how much you appreciate him working on the game and offer him a few dollars, it's the least we can do considering we wouldn't have any new games if it weren't for the people who make them for us.

No problem man! You deserve the compliments. If there's one game I'm really excited about seeing finished, it's this one.

I know you are busy, so if you find the time to get high scores on there, that would be amazing, but It's a great game that I'm going to be playing either way! Thanks again for making a really awesome Dr. Who game!

I respect your decision on saving that feature for people who buy the cart. I really like the look and concept of Thrust+, I'm just having a hard time getting the hang of it. I did finally get Scramble to save my score. It turns out I just wasn't getting enough points. once I hit 10,000, the saves started working. As for Go Fish!, I ended up trying one more version and that did it. I tried 3 different ones that didn't work and then I saw one more version that I didn't think I had tried yet. It turned out to be the one that works! From what I can tell, every game I have that is supposed to save is now saving correctly. Some games just had too many versions out there. It was a lot of trial and error finding the ones that worked. I have to say though, this savekey is amazing. I keep coming back to the same games and p[laying them over and over to beat my high score. I really don't see why there aren't more games out there with this feature.

The next Atari I get will probably be left original, since I haven't seen a significant improvement with the cheap AV mod. The only thing it did was remove the "snow". I might go back and redo the one I have now, using the UAV mod, since it seems to be a much better option without a lot of added cost.