Dave2600

Hi Zooang, it's possible that there is actually nothing wrong with your paddles. I'm not sure where you are located, but assume you have PAL 2600s, since in another thread you mention that you also have a PAL 7800. Here is an observation I made with a PAL 6 switch 2600 and the original CX30 paddles, but I imagine it is still relevant to your situation with the new CX30+ paddles. I have 2 versions of the Circus Atari Cartridge. One is PAL the other. NTSC. When I play the NTSC version on my PAL 2600 there is jitter, when I play the PAL version on my PAL 2600 there is no jitter; the paddles are smooth. Notice that the 4-1 cartridge that comes with the CX30+ paddles has NTSC versions of the games. So what you are experiencing is probably the same thing I am, NTSC game on PAL hardware induces jitter. I don't know why this is, possibly a timing issue, but it's definitely a thing. Just tried it out with my NTSC Breakout cartridge on my PAL 2600 and I have the same jitter as you. With PAL Breakout the paddle is stable. If you have a harmony cart and ROM Hunters ROM collection you can compare other NTSC vs PAL version paddle games too.

Thinking back to that time, I tend to agree that is was Pac-Man that first took the shine off the Atari for me. It made me start to doubt its capabilities. I think it reinforced in my mind the widening gap between actual arcade games and the 2600. Until then my young mind just imaged the differences were artistic rather than technical. If the home brew Pac-Mans we see today had existed then, I think my confidence in the platform would have lasted much longer. As it was, in the UK, home computing was starting to really take off and it wasn't long before I'd moved onto a Commodore 64 and never looked back for many a year. I entered my Atari dark ages, to borrow a term from the Adult Friends Of Lego community.

OK, thank you. I've been away myself. Hope you had a good weekend too.

Ok, I've had a chance to test the ROMS spacerocks2022519_PAL60.bin and spacerocks2022519_NTSC.bin. Unfortunately these both still have the problem with hit detection, whereas batari's previous spacerocks_Harmony_fix.bin does work correctly in this respect and fixed the problem.

Thank you again. I'm extremely impressed with this game and it's wonderful to be able to play it on my original childhood Atari console. Asteroids get back in your box! ? Will be getting the physical cart once the new store is open and shipping to the UK.

I am pleased to confirm that the spacerocks_Harmony_fix.bin ROM has fixed the shot detection problem. It now plays perfectly. You're a good crowd around here. Thank you so much for looking into this.

Thank you for the reply. I searched for similar issues being reported and found nothing, so it's obviously not a common problem at all. I've tried the spacerocks20121129_PAL_encore.bin ROM, but it is more apt to crash on my system (shortly after a game is started), than the spacerocks20121129_PAL.bin ROM. Not sure if that is suggestive of anything. Using the latter ROM I haven't experienced crashes for a while now. The shot hit detection is weird though and makes the game quite hard to play. It's not every shot, or even most shots, but quite noticeable, particularly for the large saucer and medium narrow waisted asteroids. The saucer in particular allows shots straight through it most of the time. Likewise the shots from the saucer rarely hit the player, again passing through. And yet on Stella these ROMS perform flawlessly. I've given the harmony cartridge and console contacts a clean, but it's not changed anything. Thank you again for your time. If other people with the same spec as me (6 switch PAL and harmony encore) aren't having similar problems, then I suppose I might have a hardware issue of some kind, that is being exposed by this scenario. Are there any usual suspect components that might interfere with this sort of operation? I've recently recapped, replaced the voltage regulator and cleaned up the power switch on one console and in every other respect it works great. Dave

I'm in the UK playing on two PAL six switch 2600s. When I play space rocks (spacerocks20121129_PAL.bin) on either console via a harmony cartridge (PAL BIOS 1.06 50), the hit detection for the player's shots is poor, with many shots just passing straight through the targets. Is this an known problem with the ROM on PAL machines, or do I perhaps have a hardware problem in the consoles or harmony cartridge? Space Rocks does sometimes crash on me too (on both consoles) leading to coloured lines on screen and needing a restart of the machine. Other times it seems stable for a session. No other games on harmony or actual cartridges that I've tried have a problem though. When playing the same ROM through Stella on my PC the shot detection is spot on, so I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't work properly on my actual hardware. I wanted to get a Space Rocks cartridge, but this is putting me off (this and the fact that sales are unfortunately down for the UK at the moment). Thought perhaps this might be a 50Hz timing issue affecting collision detection, but I really don't know. The game periodically crashing is a worry too. Anyone with similar hardware had a similar experience? Your thoughts would be appreciated, thank you.