Microbc

Does anyone know if the new paddle controllers for the 2600+ will work on the Retron 77?

This is how I decided to handle the paddle issue. I ended up using the latest community build for joystick based games and I created a separate SD card with the original build that allowed additional games just for paddle games. I just switch cards when I want to play a few paddle games. It works great with the Retron paddle controller hooked up directly to the 77. No additional cables or adapters needed. sure it is a pain to switch cards but it works out fine for me.

This is how I decided to handle the paddle issue. I ended up using the latest community build for joystick based games and I created a separate SD card with the original build that allowed additional games just for paddle games. I just switch cards when I want to play a few paddle games. It works great with the Retron paddle controller hooked up directly to the 77. No additional cables or adapters needed. sure it is a pain to switch cards but it works out fine for me.

Suspicious_milk, Wow, you are such a dbag. I recently purchased my 77 and have had no involvement in this project or with any forum members other than coming here to learn more about the 77. You once again show your pettiness and ignorance by trying to make it sound like you did this for the benefit of others. I am certain that you are an entitled, self-centered narcissist who feels the world owes him. Also, that was a nice touch using the homophobic statement to end your post in an attempt to insult me and the developer. I remember using those tactics when I was about 9 years old. I’ll bet anything that you will continue to use the community build for non-paddle games (current and future) without ever admitting it. If you ever do admit it, you will whine about something just because you are you and can’t help yourself. You must be a very strong man to carry around that massive chip on your shoulder. As I stated at the beginning of this post…. Wow, you are such a dbag.

Suspicious_milk, if you feel that the firmware supplied is best for your needs, why not just stay with that. You download a custom firmware that is being developed and provided for free and then you complain when it doesn’t work as you feel it should. The team that works on this do it out of love for the Atari 2600 and love of programming. I’ll bet that virtually everyone who uses their firmware understands and appreciates all the time and effort that they put in, I certainly do. If you are so lazy that you can’t be bothered to read through threads to try to resolve and issue, why would you EVER decide to use a product that is always in development. Your anger should actually be focused on Hyperkin for releasing a product with little follow up support and not on the talented group of enthusiasts who help us all get more enjoyment out of a product with many limitations out of the box. You should publicly apologize for your childish, rude behavior or just go away and leave this forum to the people who understand what a benefit is is to have this custom firmware available from such dedicated enthusiasts.

Thanks Thomas! I won’t keep messing around with it until the next update comes out. I’m a 60 yr old who had a 6 button years ago and love being able to play on a modern TV with the Retron 77.

I haven't been able to find a way to make the image utilize a larger partition when writing it to the card. I wonder if that can only be done when the original image was created (based on the size of the card it was written to)?

I have attempted to adjust the Range (connected to the left port) but haven't been able to get it where it needs to be. I know part of it is my lack of understanding exactly what each of the possible adjustments actually do. I'll keep playing around with the setting as I am sure a combination of setting will be found and make the games more playable. The main issue I continue to have is that when I turn the paddle to move the cursor to the right, just before it reaches the farthest right part of the screen, it "jumps" to the right and actually enters the border/frame of the right boundary.

Hi Rodney, Zipping some of the files would make the libraries smaller but I was hoping to be able to take advantage of more of the capacity of the card. I thought there might be a way to expand the partition that writing the image creates but as of yet I haven't been able to find a way to accomplish that.

Thanks! That should help a lot. I will now see if I can get the Ranger paddle working more smoothly.

Which docs are you referring to? I have looked at the Stella manual but I can’t figure out how to switch between the top tabs in the advanced setting on the Retron77 to access what I need to adjust. I didn’t see anything in the manual specific to navigating the top tabs on the Retron77.

On my Retron77, original Atari paddles aren’t reliable but the Retron Ranger works in all paddle games pretty well. The only issue is that when moving the paddle to the right it will jump quickly to the right edge in about the last half inch of movement. When Turing to the left it doesn’t do this and is very smooth. is there any particular setting in Stella 6.6 that I can adjust to smooth that out?

I have a number of 2600 libraries that I wanted to keep on the card but they exceed the available space on the card once the image is flashed. I realize that I will have many duplicates on the card but I like to keep the libraries on there in the format I have them set up. I have tons of hacks and homebrew along with all the originals and when I try to put what I have on the card I come up a little short on space. You would be amazed by how many variations there are on Atari 2600 roms and I like to mess around with all of them!

Not really. It seems that the .img file for the Retron77 formats and writes the image on any SD card at the size that the image was created at. Since it is a bootable SD card after writing the image, i suspect that the partition tools treat it as a 79MB card. I can create a second partition on any card I try but that partition is not accessible from Stella on the Retron77 (but is accessible from Stella on a Windows PC). I have used partition software to expand SD cards that were not bootable but I can't find anyway to expand the cards I have tried in the Retron77. I know that FAT32 formatted cards have a 4GB limit and it would be nice to get the .img on a 4GB partition. I have a number of 2600 libraries that I wanted to keep on the card but they exceed the available space on the card once the image is flashed.

I have tried a number of format utilities including WIN32 Disk Imager, balenaEtcher and SD Associations Disk Formatter. I have also tried a number of partition tools including Window 10 built in tools, Partition Wizard, Partition Guru, and GParted. I can add a second partition in the unused space but can't expand the partition so that it can all be seen by Stella on the Retron77. If I were running Stella on Windows I believe that I could switch to the other partition on the card (E: and F:) but the Retron version will only allow me to see the file system on the image and not switch to the other partition. I had hoped that I could flash the card and then create a single larger partition to use the entire card. Maybe it isn't even possible!

Hi AtariSphinx, I just tried it out. Same results (only 79MB card size after flashing the image file). I guess I would need a partition utility (tried several, none worked) that I haven't found yet (if this is even possible)! Thanks again!

Thanks AtariSphinx! I will give that a try.

I have the latest Stella image for the retron 77. I formatted the card as FAT32 and used Win32diskimager to write the image to the card. Added roms and everything works fine. My question is, I am using a 16GB SD card and when I write the image it becomes a card with only 79MB of space. Is there any way to expand the partition to make it the full 4GB that FAT32 supports? I tried using a partition manager app and it won't let me do it. If this is the wrong place to post this I apologize. please direct me to the best place to ask this question. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks