rocketfan

Hello and welcome! The Sandisk card should be fine and good choice. I've also used "Microcenter" cards from Amazon with very few problems. I guess the mostl likely issue is you may not have re-formatted the card as a FAT32 filessytem? Most cards come out of the box formatted NTFS, but the Flashbacks won't recognize anything but FAT32.

Yes, please! Some of his games are in there already, but I think a few are missing! I have pulled down a lot of new carts for testing as well, so what I find working will get added to expand the section.

This is all good feedback. That's probably because at some point (maybe one build back?) I pulled it from the Legends flashback which does not have the "two-layer" section setup and didn't fix up the "goto's". That and switching out the emulator globally can be done sometime soon. Maybe it's time to add some games. There are always more good ones!

Thanks @rra I can see looking at the build that those use the "older" pico8 emulator. At some point a standalone emulator "fake08" was added which is compatible with a lot more games. A workaround that will most likely work is to change those games and their artwork to the fake08 emulator. @timdu To do that just change the extension from .p8 to .f8 on the rom file and the artwork files (three total) and ALSO you must edit the all-games.ini to change the rom entry for each game changed. I can't remember why I didn't just change everything over, but maybe a "not broken don't fix it" approach.

@OrangeKryptonite I appreciate your feedback and input! I have been away for a week visiting the in-laws in FL. I don't have AtariAge hooked to my phone or anything, so I was basically "off-grid" haha. In the meantime, I got a PM that one Nexus user who is having trouble exiting Pico-8 on the Flashback 9. It's hard for me to believe it does not work - should be the menu button to exit? I have a vague memory maybe some things like that are finicky on the flashback 9? I have mine stashed again and will dig it out, but just wondering if anyone out there would confirm or deny? Also, I got more feedback on the media/movies. A suggestion was to make a separate download with that "expanded" section. One of my concerns is that the content might get a bit more attention and put the other downloads at risk. Like when the downloads were "disappeared" off AtariAge, that was a big bummer after putting so much work into it. This represents a lot of hours of effort from many individuals in these builds. I hate to risk it for something that a lot of people would not use vs. the games. However, I noticed a bunch of cool old 80's Atari commercials I will add from the "Atari Museum" aspect of the device. Anyway, I'm planning to take a look at the player to see if there's anything I can do in terms of improving the experience and also add those commercials. On the longer movies - I do have the old movie content but I don't think I have it in the final form. I can put it back into a section pretty quickly though. I will probably make a download available but like Brigadoon, the version with the films may only appear temporarily on very special occasions. Stay tuned. 🙂

I just played it, and I really like it! It has a pretty steep difficulty curve as the levels increase. Wavy navy could be a good example as a tutorial for anyone who wants to try out the import capability. The good thing about 8-bit NTSC games (along with 2600 games) is they can be imported and played with no other special edits. importwavy.zip I am attaching a zipped up folder with almost everything you need, including a game description as assisted by the comment from @rra above. The folder does NOT have the rom - which you need. Find your own rom! I suggest find a .xex US version, which is what worked for me. Unzip the folder to the root of your flash drive. Add your rom file to the folder and rename it so it has NO SPACES and also you MUST ADD an extra .gme extension, for example: WavyNavy(1983)(US).xex.gme Start your Nexus modded flashback and enter the Atari 8-bit computer section. Select Import. If all goes well you will now have the game with box art in place in the 8-bit section. I usually take punctuation out of rom names. TBH, a lot of punctuation can work, but spaces and square brackets are definitely verboten, because they cause the menu system in all-games.ini to get out of whack. I have it on my list for the next update to improve the import to sanitize the rom names by automatically removing spaces and replacing square brackets with parens to take away one more manual step.

Look in the XEGS section! The one I have been seeing I never remember playing is Wavy Navy.

Thinking about the movie topic this morning. If someone can figure out converting the movies into graphics something like an 8-bit video games I would sure put that in! Like really chunky and pixelated and in 8 colors but with the original soundtrack. Maybe AI could do that - like "Filter this movie so it looks like a cartoon in the style of Jumpman Junior". LOL. That would be cool and might even be a good use for AI! Also, a movie made into an 8-bit game graphics would be super tiny in terms of storage. 👾 🙂

#1 - Karaoke was put back in in the previous update, and is still there in the 1.7 version. TBH, when I dug out my AFB9 it had an old version with some of that stuff on there and made me want to bring it back. Also, in truth I have been having better luck with large uploads, so it's not as much a problem as at one time. The video game related movies are cool in their way, but they massively blow up the size of the build for just a few low quality movies. Also, the playback was lacking controls and they did not play well on AFB98 for whatever reason. In the end, I'm not interested in adding back the films, but you could do it yourself. The video files go in the amv section just like games. I can tell you roughly the type of conversion I was running. Something like this in linux: ffmpeg -i Atari_DigDug.mp4 -vf scale=640:480 -b:v 1000k -ar 22050 CrazyAtariDigDug.mpg I'm sure there are Windows utilities to do the same sort of conversions, but I'm no expert in that world. For widescreen content you would use 720x480 or similar. The .mpg format is compatible with the core, -b:v 1000k sets a really low video bit-rate, and -ar 22050 a lowish audio rate which was needed for smooth playback through the core. #2 that's a tougher question. Now several cores, at least 5200, 7800, Colecovision, let you (optionally) use the fire button of the second controller. That same mod could be added to other cores, but just hasn't. A couple of people have built custom controllers with just an extra button that ties in to a second 9-pin connector which just closes the right pins (8 and 6 I believe) on the second port. Also, if the system type (like Colecovision) does not need the start button, that can be used - although the position is awkward for anything where you have to use it very often. I do find it OK for like the smart bomb in Defender though. For real Atari 2600 hardware you can hook up a Sega genesis pad and use it. I have done it myself - they work! Some folks have done mods to games which allow two button games to be played on a 2600 with those Sega controllers. There is a big thread somewhere here on AtariAge about it. Sadly though, the pads don't come close to working on the flashbacks. I'm not sure why, if the flashbacks work with original Atari Joysticks and Paddles you might think it should work - but it does not. I'm more a software guy. Maybe someone out there understands the hardware and knows why? For one thing though, I think the signal levels from the Flashbacks are just not the same. I try to remember the main goal on Atari flashbacks was not supporting random emulation, but supporting 2600 games using something close to original Atari Controllers and paddles. It's not perfect, but they did pretty well.

BTW, happy Easter out there. Or if you are not into that, then happy first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. 🙂

That's the safest way to get everything working as intended, though I would recommend use a new drive then if you want to pull anything from the old one you always have that option. Example: if you added a bunch of games you just copy the needed files plus cut and paste the related all-games.ini entries. However, if you have done anything major you want to preserve that, then you could pick and choose from the new version using the list below: Download the 1.7 version and unzip it someplace. For actual content and emulation changes copy over only the following from the new distribution to the old.: /startup.sh /emulator /rom /rom_c64 /rom_vic20 /rom_cv /rom_msdos /rom_ps1 And if you want the other theme changes: /rom_arduboy /rom_msx /rom_ jumpnbump I would say the first 6 items on the list above (up to rom_cv) are more or less mandatory for things to work together as expected. After that, totally optional. For example, if you already added some ps1 games it might make better sense to keep what you have and just bring in the couple of new games added.

@magnusfalkirk Yes to what @Batchman said. I grew up with Atari, so I have an irrational love of playing games with Atari Joysticks! Also, the Atari flashbacks have the difficulty switches and now support paddles pretty well. I do a lot of experimenting with emulation on different devices, and IMO these Atari flashbacks do offer a very good experience for Atari 70's and 80's content. However, if I take a console on vacation with me it's usually the Legends Flashback just because it does support a ton more content and plays great with actual Sega (well aftermarket in my case) game-pads. On the Atari units we just made a big effort to restrict most of the sections to one-button content so that if you open up a game you can pretty much be guaranteed you can play with the one button stick. I'd bet with Nexus you have the biggest collection of one-button arcade games ever identified - if that's something to brag about. I still play Arabian sometimes - but then I clear my recently played list. LOL. Some sections (Gameboy) have never really been filled out even to that extent, and some of the newer sections were not filtered so carefully mainly because of time. I happen to really like Colecovision, so when the point was made that some games could be played better with the "up" hack I was sort of really into that idea. 🙂

Another helper from the early days @Fred_M has provided these resources. Not 100% sure these were what was being looked for, but I'm posting here in case they could be useful to anyone. Control_Legends.rar

He says you are welcome! BTW - the release notes didn't give the results of the paddle investigation. GenXGrownup did us a real solid by looking at that, and AtGames for making what improvement they could. Looking at the updated firmware, to me it appeared the paddle linearity fix came with the new retroplayer application (which is the front end for the emulation). So, that part has been brought into the Nexus build and at least for the Flashback X and forward you should see an improvement in your paddle response. I used the GenXGrownup tape with marks on the paddle experiment to convince myself. One change that came with that was to update basically all the paddle games from extension .a26x to the extension .a26p. The .a26p is tied to the newest retroplayer.

Nexus 1.7 is uploaded. Here are the notes from the readme: =========== Changes for 1.7 Nexus March 2024 Add new Sections: Commodore 64 - Classic home computer and rival of Atari 8-bit computers from the 80's with a vast game library. Vic-20 - Early Commodore 8-bit home computer offering with minimal graphics capabilities. Additional Games: -A number of new early msdos games were added. Multiple of these were Atarisoft games added for their historical value. -Added a dozen new Colecovision homebrew games. Mapped up to jump action for two of the games. -Added two ps1 games. Other: -Change Colecovision to use custom Gearcoleco core. Suppports two button games. Difficulty switches bring up number pads. Start is second action by default. Select remembers last selection of number pad and defaults to "1". -Performance of dosbox improved slightly. Sound for early DOS games which used PC speaker made tolerable. -Fix bug in import for square box art as done for PS1. -Fix "10 minute freeze" problem for Atari Flashback 50th anniversary and later. -Using paddles in left hand port and main controller in right hand port for navigation is better supported. Menu will now back you out to the main selection menu. This change unfortunately does not apply to the AFB9. As far as I can tell so far the "10 minute freeze" problem is not happening. I hope it's true for others as well! Like every update lately, the testing is more on the new content. If you see problems please post about it. Special thanks to Dr. Axxon for the new art/themes for Arduboy, PS1, MSX, MSDOS, C64, VIC20, Supervision, and Bump N. Jump!

This is true on a Nexus build, and allows any type of game to be used in /game. But if not using Nexus - just using a USB with some games in /game (and nothing else on the drive) the original extensions for 2600 games would have to be used. Here is some more detailed information on the upcoming Nexus 1.7 build. For Colecovision on Atari flashbacks, games have been switched to the .col extension which is tied to the gearcoleco_libretro core. If for any reason you want to use the original flashback core, you still can by switching games back to the .cv extension. You can now open an onscreen gamepad by switching the left difficulty switch down for player 1 or the right difficulty switch down for player two. If you have selected a button in the gamepad it is "remembered" after the gamepad is closed and used each time you press select. The gamepad button defaults to 1, and so many games can be started just by pressing select on the joystick. Also, games which require two actions can be played three different ways, but by default the start button will activate the second action. For example hit start for the smart bomb in Defender. There are 3 options for the second action which can be set by using the gearcoleco_action2 variable in the /rom_cv/data/retroplayer.ini file. These look like: gearcoleco_action2=start gearcoleco_action2=up gearcoleco_action2=fire2 The first one (start) is not really needed, since it is the default. However, for a game like Omega Race, where you want up, you would have to set it to up. Also though, Omega Race actually needs the actions swapped, so there is another variable for that: gearcoleco_swapactions=enabled So in the file you have this to set it up: [omega-race-1983.col] gearcoleco_action2=up gearcoleco_swapactions=enabled Also though, if you are someone who built a fancy two button joystick that wires to the player two connector, or if you just prefer to keep your second joystick handy for smart bombs in defender, you could set it up like this: [defender-1983.col] gearcoleco_action2=fire2

@Batchman - another important aspect are the file extensions. IIRC stock firmware will only recognize .a26, .A26, and .bin files in the /game folder. So you have a /game folder in the root of your flash drive, and a few files with those extensions then it should register. Infamously both Macs and Windows hide the true file extensions from you by default, so if your file browser is set to obscure those make sure you change the settings so you can see file extensions.

@Batchman I was just reading your problems. Could you be using a thumb drive over 32Gig? I believe that's the largest supported. Not having other ideas at the moment. I did once have one of the micro-USB to USB splitter things go bad, but it sounds like your Nexus build was recognized, so that must be working.

Nexus 1.7 is very close! Our mysterious supporter, mentor and past Mortal Kombat champion provided various new section art I have incorporated. On the Colecovision front, I had some time this week, so I wound up taking the on-screen number pad code from the Intellivison core and hacking it into a very specialized Gearcoleco core for the Atari flashbacks. So this is the first time (I think?) a different core is going to be in use for the Legends Flashbacks vs. Atari Flashback. CoolCV is perfectly suited to the Genesis Pad of the Legends Flashback, whereas the hacked Gearcoleco core currently provides what's needed to play two-button games on the Atari flashback. That said I feel like (but would have to try them side by side?) the overall sound emulation of CoolCV seems a bit better. Gearcoleco is still a step up from the original Flashback core though. There's some behind the scenes activity on the topic, so it may get juggled again at some point, just depends. So far, I have been play-testing two button games. @MrChickenz - Omega Race and Space Fury work perfectly fine (IMO) with the up direction on the joystick for thrust. So, essentially I'm into a testing/documenting phase, and primarily I need to find time to circle back around and try things on an AFB9.

@Batchman and all - I did make some headway understanding the state of paddles as far as I can. I'm not clear why you can't do anything with paddle games with Nexus. On my anniversary edition I'm not having that trouble and did not even before starting the experiments - though when I started paddle performance was not as good as it can be in some ways. I think @TampaBay makes a good suggestion to test. Also, if anyone is lurking out there who can play paddle games with Nexus on an Atari Flashback 12 please let us know! Also though, I will be making some improvements to the build before I release 1.7 which I feel very strongly will help with paddle linearity and general quality of life when using paddles. One of the tricky things for me is I still want to maintain a single build for everything from the Flashback 9 through the 12, so once I get things in place it will take some testing to make sure it's all good. PS - For anyone in the market - there are a couple of flashback 9's on shopgoodwill at $10 (before shipping) with auctions ending in a little bit and no bids.

So, I have heard of this "ten minutes freeze" on newer units, but always thought it must have to do with the overclock. On my own Anniversary Gold unit I tested Nexus a little but mostly used it stock then put it away and kept using my Flashback X for Nexus. However, at this point I reproduced it and I would say it has NOTHING to do with overclocking. I posted similar over in another thread, but here is my attempted workaround. For anyone with an Anniversary/11/12 Atari flashback you may want to try this patch on your Nexus drive assuming you have seen that lockup effect. I would be glad to hear if others are definitely seeing that issue and if the patch improves things for others. Drop the serialinput and the retromenu.anniversary files in your /emulator folder - don't rename them 🙂. Replace startup.sh at the root of your drive. If the test fix is working, then when you boot it should appear like the "stock" theme for about 15 seconds, then re-start with the Nexus theme. For me it appears to help, but I have not done a lot of testing. If I hear positive feedback, then I'll think about whether a more elegant fix is even possible. Still going to dig into paddle issues... tenminutepatch.zip

@JeremiahBlack I'm not sure I have figured it out, but I finally dug out my Anniversary edition and this does seem to help. If you want, you can give this a try. I would be very interested if it helps. tenminutepatch.zip In my experiments, and much to my surprise - my Anniversary edition would freeze when running Nexus at almost exactly 10 minutes after boot. This happened no matter if I was in a game, or if I just booted to the menu. The patch contains a couple of files to drop in the /emulator folder and a replacement startup.sh for the one in the root of your Nexus flash drive. When you boot it should appear like the "stock" theme for about 15 seconds, then re-start with the Nexus theme. It almost seems as if there's a "watchdog" effect in play, whether intentional or accidental I have no idea. Starting the anniversary menu system momentarily is seeming to resolve it on my device. Hopefully it will help for others. Please let me know any feedback.

That's one of the issues that was mentioned to me. This weekend I am going to dig out my 50th anniversary edition and I will take a look at the paddle stuff along with other concerns on the preliminary 1.7 drive I have set up.

I am happy to say I heard from an old friend of our project who has provided some greatly improved section art I will drop into the next Nexus version. Awesome! One other thing that would help (hint to our friend) is the customized background art for the new sections, and in particular c64 and vic20, but maybe (?) for ps1, arduboy, msdos as well. I mean like the .../res/images/bkg_launcher.png files and so on. so far I didn't figure out how I could replace the background piece to keep the Nexus theme consistent. I also heard some other feedback of some issues. 🤔 I will check into it before pushing out a Nexus 1.7 and see if I can figure anything out. My best guess is it relates to using the retroplayer from older Atari flashbacks on the newer units.

The "March Edition" for the "Legends Ultimate Flashback" build for the AtGames Arcade Legends Flashbacks has been uploaded. Here are the abbreviated release notes. =========== Changes for March 2024 Add new Sections: Commodore 64 - Classic home computer and rival of Atari 8-bit computers from the 80's with a vast game library. Vic-20 - Early Commodore 8-bit home computer offering with minimal graphics capabilities. Additional Games: -Many shareware games were added to each of the 2600 home brew, 8Bit Computer, and 7800 sections. -A number of new early msdos games were added. Multiple of these were Atarisoft games added for their historical value. -Added two ps1 games. Other: -Change Colecovision to use coolcv core. Audio seems to be a bit better. Button mappings made to work better for two button games. -Performance of dosbox improved slightly. Sound for early DOS games which used PC speaker made tolerable. -Import game capability updated with better feedback as from the most recent Nexus/Atari flashback build. -Fixed "restore bezels" function, which had been broken for the Legends Ultimate Flashback builds. -Fix bug in import for square box art as done for PS1. -Slight reorg of main rom section: handhelds in featured, consoles under console, computers under arcade. Hopefully I didn't have anything too broken in there. As usual it's impossible to test everything. On the other hand, every single C64 and Vic-20 game was tested and worked, but even with those some change may have broken something since it was tested. Please post here if you do see a problem, as I will now be moving these sections over into the next Nexus build. I did not test every VIC-20 Mega-cart game. Some probably need keyboard, but the few I tried did work. On the Vic-20 Mega-cart, you can do a reset (hold the reset button in the lower left for 10 seconds) in the on-screen keyboard to get back to the Mega-cart's main menu. Like MSDOS, for C64 and Vic-20 you will need to use the on-screen keyboard a lot in order to start games and so forth. For the Legends Flashback use the "Z" button to bring up the keyboard. On C64 a lot of the hacker introductions require a space bar (which has been mapped to start button) to skip to loading the real game, but then most require you to specify Y/N about whether you want cheats enabled. Some use the fire button. I would always test saying I want "high score mode" not "trainers" and to "reset high scores". For Vic-20 games, a lot require F1 to start, so if in doubt try that at the game intro screen. Sound is not perfect on C64, but it is fairly good and varies by game. The switch to the Coolcv core for Colecovision was a last minute thing. I don't know where the original core even came from - it's not a standard retroarch core so I'm guessing it was from the stock Arcade Legends Flashback firmware. Anyway, the sound synch with that core was always a little off to me, which you could tell when playing Galaxian. The Coolcv core definitely works better in that way, and I also like the way it handles the number pad better. It appears Coolcv is not open source though, which is a bummer because it means I can't mod it as needed for the Atari Flashback Nexus build.