Jetboot Jack

Ordered, due tomorrow! sTeVE

I tried to use JzIntv and I kinda failed. If I used the standard z0-7 screen settings I cannot find one that is either sharp and centeted full screen (or 4:3) or non blurry because it's not a good pixel match to my screen. Trying to use a custom resolution in z????x????,? format just made the emulator crash :-( I did not get to creating config files, that seems quite easy had I got a screen display that was acceptable. I took a look into the custom keyboard layout - it seems rather baroque as a way of doing it, but there were some examples that I think if was happy with the display I would pursue. So I am now looking for some more information with regard to the screen resolution settings or investagting other emulators like MESS (gulp).... sTeVE

Wow - thanks for all the information, I feel the need to give this a proper go!! sTeVE

righto - that makes sense, seems easy to extend and eliminates the separate per rom files so that makes it quite tidy. I will do some windows experimentation with JzIntv this weekend to see if I can get things working better - at least try some cfg files and get those non-standard games working and try and sharpen the output if it is to replace Nostalgia in my setup Is it easy to create custom keyboard mappings - I like to use Xpadder to parse joystick to keyboard from non-retroarch emulators? sTeVE

OpenEmu does indeed use a memory map cfg file, it's just a little different than the JzIntv ones - one file called "knowncarts.cfg" which is inside the "Bliss.oecoreplugin" package - which selects memory mapping settings based not on file name: C047D487:Info:Beauty and the Beast:Imagic:1982 C047D487:ROM:4800:2000:16 Which does not look like the md5 hash for the rom... sTeVE

I have tied JzIntv, Boss and Nostalgia under windows I find all ahem problems that make them problematic I see poor image quality with JzIntv - perhaps I am not configuring it correctly, but it always appears slightly smooth scaled whatever resolution I set, which I dislike... Also with JzIntv the non Intellivision carts require individual ???.cfg files to set the memory mapping correctly which is a bit of a pain too - makes it fiddly. I have great picture quality and no need to setup the mapping files with OpenEmu - it just works... However I need it under windows so I will have another go with JzIntv mr_me! sTeVE

I can't really supply definitive information - I use Splashtop for all my general remote desktop access across my devices. I am satisfied with it's performance - it is much better than M$ remote desktop in my experience, less lag, better screen refresh, better image quality. But I have never stress tested it as a games solution, at best I have dabbled with it, and was impressed with the results. But if games/emulation is the primary use, I would recommend investigating software designed to achieve this such as steam in home streaming or nvidia gamestream solutions. I have used Steam Streaming from my PC to my Mac Laptop to play a fair few titles, both steam specific and those non steam games installed and added to the steam menu - but I cannot say I have done more than try a few emulators like Stella. It's good, really good, but I cannot say 100% perfect - it's streaming, it is affected by network bandwidth and interference - even with my rather over spec'd PC (Kaby Lake i7, 32GB and GTX 1080) it's not perfect - nearly perfect wired, less perfect on WiFi... I have not used, but hear Moonlight works well for NVIDIA equipped systems - it can stream specific apps, it works with controllers, you can add any app to it, it can also stream your whole desktop... sTeVE

Just to add to this - there is no emulator that makes this more simple than OpenEmu - especially as Intellivision emulation is pretty dreadful on all other platforms, I've been trying to get good coverage under Launchbox front end on Windows and it REALLY not fun :-( SpiceWare's exhaustive guide is 100% accurate, but just for completeness this is the official information: https://github.com/OpenEmu/OpenEmu/wiki/User-guide:-BIOS-files sTeVE

Fantastic, thanks for the information Trebor I have been playing with the latest Stella ones, but his looks super thorough - I will import those and take a look! sTeVE

Brain, I've been using kat5200 even more over the last few days, on both Windows and OSX, and it is very solid and stable - nice work, great to see another multi-os emulator being developed! One thing I have found is that I get some odd palette behaviour. If I use the default NTSC palette then I get good colors in all games, but weird colors in Pole Position - mint green sky and purple instead of red. If I use a PAL palette I get good colors in all games, but weird colors in Ballblazer - blue grid and dark sky I have tried several versions of each game and the results are the same for all BUT - using the Nabuko52 palette all games look correct-ish - I find that palette is a bit "bright" in the dark colors, but it works and I'm not a cycle exact perfectionist, just like playing old games on my big TV sTeVE P.S. I also see weird colors on the mario sprite in the updated versions of Donkey Kong that have been created by darryl1970 - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/249885-atari-a8-donkey-kong-hack/

Are you still having problems? If so it sounds that somehow you are losing files - you could see both "._????.bin" as well as "????.bin" files in the same folder, both the ???? bits will be the same name. If you see just "._????.bin" files and no matching "????.bin" file, you or some program you are using has deleted the original. sTeVE

It worked - the pads a more much better under windows and OSX now, I was gonna try on RetroPie - but I have moved away from using it... sTeVE

Brian, I've just started using kat5200 - and I am really liking it - especially as I game on both OSX and Windows, since there are no native OSX emulators with working audio for the 8bit computers!!! The only addition I would like is a little more support for OS selection and extended memory configurations - that aside the automatic cartridge recognition makes this an emulator of choice when used with front ends like lunchbox or attract mode!!! sTeVE

I'd just like to re-iterate what Flojomojo said - I use Splashtop to stream to laptops, i-devices etc etc. It is massively superior to using M$ remote desktop - no configuration, games are full playable with a good network and I have found NO software that won't work so far - all emulators etc. Moonlight is also around, which is a great alternative to official steam streaming if you have the right hardware...

It's just a duff cartridge.... sTeVE

That Radarscope became Donkey Kong is rather well known - it's not a matter of ripping, they were re-purposed deliberately as the many dozens of accounts describe.... sTeVE

Designing and programming are two different things - coding duty does not conflate with creating the idea or the gameplay beats always... sTeVE

I have never seen a region specific XEGS cart - all the ones I have, have sold or seen are all identical save for the odd sticker (like XL compatible stars or Thunderfox's complete blurb replacement)... sTeVE

Sorry to not follow this up earlier and seeing all the theories, sad to see that it's a bum cart, but like I said in post 2 the Thunder Fox cart is NTSC or PAL compatible, the tape version is not - just to avoid confusion as the original post said: "Is it possible that this is a PAL version? This game was released as NTSC, right?" The cart version is the same sold in all territories and works on standard and U1MB enhanced hardware PAL and NTSC - tested as I have a couple of copies and various ROM files via SD2SIO, all work just fine... sTeVE

The cart is the NTSC conversion, the original tape was PAL only - Noel did not do the NTSC/Cart conversion himself I seem to remember, that was handled at Atari's request by a third party.. My cart runs on my PAL (stock 130XE and 800XL) and NTSC (1200XL with U1MB and stock XEGS) systems just fine... sTeVE

Loved that game - there are some great Apple to Atari conversions - don't forget the sublime Bandits too!! sTeVE

The ._ files are not renamed bin files they are totally separate meta data files for the os... Editing their names will not turn them into bin files... sTeVE

I'll give it a go then - thanks! sTeVE

What is weird is that with RecalBox on Raspberry Pi all my 8Bitdo bluetooth controllers work flawlessly and they have not been upgraded - they reconnect every time, reboot or not... So if those guys can make it work why not others? With this new firmware does the controller reconnect to RetroPie? sTeVE

As a Mac fan it pains me to say I would recommend Windows for those systems Keatah... Altirra is a wonderful emulator for 400/800/XL/XE/5200 FSUAE for Amiga VICE for Commodore 8bits from PET to 128D I use LaunchBox as a FE and it is super slick and hides the mess that is Windows 10 from view! And I recommend a PS4 controller via bluetooth for controls - just the best D-Pad! sTeVE