Byte Knight Posted March 3, 2015 Author Share Posted March 3, 2015 Setup / Instructions in the first post were updated. I had the combo keys for pause, reset, and exit wrong. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SoulBuster Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I received my upgrade a couple of days ago and finally had time to check it out last night. 1. The video clarity is the best I have seen on any retro gaming system. It does not appear the video is stretched on HD TVs either. I did have turn over-scan off on my TV in order to see the entire menu. 2. Moving around in the configuration menu took me a little to realize how to do things, but became apparent. 3. I was able to set up the WIFI and copy over all the additional ROMs without any problems. I think additional instructions would help. For instance, where to find the IP address of the unit as it did not show up in my router's attached devices list. If you drop down to the Linux command line you get the IP address. 4. There is a scrape function for downloading missing cover art and descriptions from the internet. Your ROM files need to be named accordingly or this function will not find it. Unfortunately it did not find most of the previously unreleased titles and none of the homebrews. But there is a way to add these manually. I have not done this yet, but will. I played Treasure of Tarmin for a few levels. It is an impressive little unit and it does not overheat. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 3. I was able to set up the WIFI and copy over all the additional ROMs without any problems. I think additional instructions would help. For instance, where to find the IP address of the unit as it did not show up in my router's attached devices list. If you drop down to the Linux command line you get the IP address. The easiest way to find your IP is to hit F4 and exit to command line. Next transfer your roms and and when done type in "emulationstation". You have to restart emulationstation after you add the roms anyway, so it doesn't really slow you down. Check out the updated instructions in the first post - you can put games on it via USB as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 Working on my 12th upgrade now. Any other takers? I've got several leftover parts from my own various Flashback projects. These parts are NEW. PM me if interested. Intellivision Flashback Controllers - $20 shipped. Sam's Club Overlay Set - $7.50 shipped. Flashback Power Supplies - $10 shipped. Also, I've got a few of the original circuit boards from the FB. Let me know if you need one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Here's a comparison of the Intellivision Flashback vs the Ultimate Intellivision Flashback including game selection, gameplay, and sounds. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JefeJet Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 I also had the opportunity to have Byte Knight do an upgrade to my Flashback and I wanted to post my impressions of the unit. The setup document was easy to follow and I soon had an Intellivision controller in my hand playing Deadly Discs for the first time in decades. As the other posters have said, the colors, sounds and feel of the games being played in the jzIntv emulator are spot on. The original Flashback's primitive menus and sometime spotty emulation are laughingly comparable to the experience of playing the Ultimate Flashback. Yes, the upgrade could be considered expensive, but I found it completely worth the money. I would be shocked if a Gen2 Intellivision Flashback even comes close to this unit. I really, really can't help myself with the comparison.. But, the Ultimate Flashback is the closest thing to the real thing. Now, if I could just get my damn overlays to show up.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcasa Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 (edited) Here's a comparison of the Intellivision Flashback vs the Ultimate Intellivision Flashback including game selection, gameplay, and sounds. Interesting comparison, the classic biting sounds effects from Cloudy Mountain are so wrong in the Intellivision Flashback, however, its color reproduction seems more faithful to the original console. Is there a way to tweak the jzIntv emulator color palette? Edited April 1, 2015 by dcasa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 Interesting comparison, the classic biting sounds effects from Cloudy Mountain are so wrong in the Intellivision Flashback, however, its color reproduction seems more faithful to the original console. Is there a way to tweak the jzIntv emulator color palette? Yeah, I'm not sure how much you can really compare colors in that video - I took the video with my Macbook (which you can see in the reflection) and the games were being played on a cheap TV... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCF_93 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 (edited) Hi Folks, First post. I purchased two of the Intellivision Flasback Upgraded units. As a life-long fan of the system, this offering really is aptly named and addresses 99% of the flaws that exist in the 'stock' unit. It is the ULTIMATE Flashback unit. I've tested both units and they are exactly as described and I got them back in less than two weeks. I couldn't offer a higher recommendation! LCF Edited April 4, 2015 by LCF_93 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucifershalo Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 I bought one, and what a pleasure easy to plug and play beautiful HDMI output fast and easy to add roms with a USB stick 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikeguychicago Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Is there a way to get the game screen to appear in the original 4:3 aspect ratio on HDTVs? I'm not sure I like the stretched and squashed screens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Is there a way to get the game screen to appear in the original 4:3 aspect ratio on HDTVs? I'm not sure I like the stretched and squashed screens. One of these days/weeks/months/years I'll get to this. I got as far as getting the Pi. After a few months, we determined that yes, it boots. A month after that, got another SD card for it... FWIW, some TVs may let you directly set aspect ratio. Now, here's a fun idea (at least for me, personally).... The TV I have has a RS-232 port on the back. You can use that port to control the TV. A few years ago I started writing a library to do just that... So... USB<>RS-232 stick + a little bit of code to tickle the TV to set the aspect ratio when starting the emulator! Nifty in theory, but perhaps there are other, simpler, more generic ways to do this sort of thing w/o talking to the TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byte Knight Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 Is there a way to get the game screen to appear in the original 4:3 aspect ratio on HDTVs? I'm not sure I like the stretched and squashed screens. Yes, it's quite easy do this - just a simple change in the command line to run jzintv. However, after playing the games full screen at the 16:9 ratio, it's hard to go back to the old 4:3 ratio... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbellanca Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 I'd been wanting to make my own Raspberry Pi Intellivision with RetroPie and EmulationStation ever since I first heard about the Pi, but other life stuff just kept getting prioritized higher and couldn't find the time to do it. So, since everyone here seems to have already done the heavy lifting, I decided to get a Flashback and send it to Byte Knight for his upgrade service. Well, I just got my Ultimate Flashback upgrade back from Byte Knight a week or so ago, and LOVE it. It plays just like the old Intellivision tucked away in my closet does, with proper sounds (unlike the actual Flashback). I easily got it hooked up to home network, transferred my ROMs from my Mac, and got my ECS ROMs working as well. It "scraped" my ROMs to get the metadata info for almost all of them (minus home-brews and some random ones), including box art and other info. The physical upgrade itself seems pretty solid. Before I got it back, I was hoping that the controller ports, power, and HDMI wouldn't feel loose or flimsy, and they don't - there was clearly some good thought and effort that went into doing this. In fact, I'm so happy with it that I'm planning on having a second one done to give as a gift. Very pleased with it. I think the only thing I need to do to make it perfect is transfer the right CFG files for a half dozen of my ROMs that need them for jzintv to work (finally found them thanks to this thread: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/203179-config-files-to-use-with-various-intellivision-titles/). And I'd like to see if there's a way to change the jzintv command line for certain ROMs to only enable ECS for those that need it. I think you can do that with EmultaionStation... execute a different script by ROM... or build some logic into the script that already runs... or something...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Recently got my system from Todd and I want to say it rocks... just repeating points already made, great video clarity, nice menu system, and the hardware looks great. Todd was extremely helpful with feedback when I had initial difficulties setting it up. A few points: 1) Do not use an HDMI multiswitch adapter. Mine sent back a signal that the TV had insufficient resolution, but plugging the same HDMI plug directly into the TV worked fine. 2) .rom files seemed to work better than .int files 3) My one disappointment at this point is that I can't find a way to plug other old school controllers into the DB9 port, or USB joysticks into the USB port, for directional controls... that would have made this perfect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 (edited) Recently got my system from Todd and I want to say it rocks... just repeating points already made, great video clarity, nice menu system, and the hardware looks great. Todd was extremely helpful with feedback when I had initial difficulties setting it up. A few points: 1) Do not use an HDMI multiswitch adapter. Mine sent back a signal that the TV had insufficient resolution, but plugging the same HDMI plug directly into the TV worked fine. 2) .rom files seemed to work better than .int files 3) My one disappointment at this point is that I can't find a way to plug other old school controllers into the DB9 port, or USB joysticks into the USB port, for directional controls... that would have made this perfect! in the /boot/config.txt you can fix the hdmi problem. It is switching to composite before your tv recognizes it. You can use atari 2600 and coleco and coleco flashback controllers in it. Just hold down side button 1 on the controllers while powering up. Once you see the raspberry shows up on the screen let go of the side button. Or red button if using an atari joystick. You can use a genesis controller as well but only the (a, b or c??) Only one of the button works. If he used vision adapters instead of an ultimate pc interface then nothing else will work. But i dont think you can exit the game your playing with those either without a keyboard. Edited June 21, 2015 by pimpmaul69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Thanks so much! Because the direct input works so well, I will not be altering the config file for my multiswitcher.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Thanks so much! Because the direct input works so well, I will not be altering the config file for my multiswitcher....it wont change how it works directly if you alter it just so you know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Still having trouble with the joystick thing It doesn't seem to matter what is plugged in at startup (INTV or INTV and 2600) or what I press at startup (INTV button or 2600 button or both), it doesn't seem to work with the games Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 in the /boot/config.txt you can fix the hdmi problem. It is switching to composite before your tv recognizes it. You can use atari 2600 and coleco and coleco flashback controllers in it. Just hold down side button 1 on the controllers while powering up. Once you see the raspberry shows up on the screen let go of the side button. Or red button if using an atari joystick. You can use a genesis controller as well but only the (a, b or c??) Only one of the button works. If he used vision adapters instead of an ultimate pc interface then nothing else will work. But i dont think you can exit the game your playing with those either without a keyboard. Still having trouble with the joystick thing It doesn't seem to matter what is plugged in at startup (INTV or INTV and 2600) or what I press at startup (INTV button or 2600 button or both), it doesn't seem to work with the games Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 (edited) Still having trouble with the joystick thing It doesn't seem to matter what is plugged in at startup (INTV or INTV and 2600) or what I press at startup (INTV button or 2600 button or both), it doesn't seem to work with the games what buttons do you press to exit a game and go back to the gamelist? Edited June 21, 2015 by pimpmaul69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug0909 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 sorry about the double post... 6 and Enter exits games and gets me back to the game selection screen, as per the instructions, works fine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Are you holding down button one before you power up? Cause you need to. If he used vision daptors then you would have to have switches wired to them and installed on the back of the flashback Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 Also if you open it up and took a pic i could tell you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 (edited) And i am talking about having the other system controller plugged in not the intv controller on bootup Edited June 21, 2015 by pimpmaul69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.