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The Ultimate Atari Flashback!


Byte Knight

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  • 2 weeks later...

Do the added console buttons only work with the Stella emulator or are they global across all other emulators on retropie?

 

I haven't had any luck downloading the image and extracting it successfully (Ubuntu 16.04). Can you share the script that you used to get the console buttons working?

 

Thanks!

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Do the added console buttons only work with the Stella emulator or are they global across all other emulators on retropie?

 

I haven't had any luck downloading the image and extracting it successfully (Ubuntu 16.04). Can you share the script that you used to get the console buttons working?

 

Thanks!

 

The Difficulty switches are using a Python script that is running in the background, and are usable only for Stella. But I'd imagine that any non-RetroArch emulator would be able to detect these switches, too. They are ON/OFF-type switches, so outside of being used for 2600 Difficulty settings, I am not sure what other emulator would need such switch settings.

 

The Select and Start pushbuttons are using Adafruit's Retrogame and that makes them available for all emulators; including RetroArch emulators.

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  • 3 months later...

Guess I'm a little late to this party. :)

 

I just saw this thread while reading through the Intellivision Ultimate Flashback thread.

 

I have one quick question. Is there any preference regarding which model of the Atari FB we use? I have 1-5 and can get 6 or 7 if necessary.

 

Thanks,

John

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I would suggest you not use Flashback1 because the case / buttons are different?

 

I just wanted to restate that to use an AtariVox+ takes another device.

And does the USB to TTL have software for the ARM CPU?

You can't just plug it into Stelladapter port 2.

 

The Emulator Stella can drive the AtariVox+. What's needed is a USB to AtariVox+ device.

A small amount were made for developers, but it is a fairly common thing.

There are settings in Stella for AtariVox and com port.

The adapter just changes the USB to TTL signals and the software makes a com port.

 

The "driver"software is already in Mac OS X, and can be downloaded for Win/Linux.

 

I don't see anything about Raspberry Pi under the VCP virtual com port drivers, but the Direct Device Drivers do mention the Raspberry Pi. Also there is open-source libFTDI.

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I have one quick question. Is there any preference regarding which model of the Atari FB we use? I have 1-5 and can get 6 or 7 if necessary.

 

You'll need a FB with forward facing ports for the 2600-daptors to fit, so I'd recommend a FB 4 - current. The FB 2 should be hacked for a cartridge port and not this, and the FB 3 lacks an LED power indicator.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've been working on converting box art that I found online. I never liked using the scrapers because a lot of the art is poor quality. Anyhow, what I wanted to ask is this...

 

Does anyone know if there is a way to have the boxart image in Emulationstation rotate or alter between the front and back of the box every 'x' number of seconds? I'm only asking because I noticed there can be some important info on the back of the box such as the Sears games that list the various settings to choose for specific gameplay difficulty or settings. Currently, it appears ES only shows the single image of the front box art. If there is a way to swap between the two automatically every 5 or 10 seconds that would be great, or if there is some sort of key we could press that would switch a game box art from the front to back manually when we highlight a specific game in the list that would work also.

 

Any info is appreciated.

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The gamelist.xml file links the rom and image, but I don't know if there is a way to do what you are wanting.

 

You may want to go to the RetroPie forums and ask over there: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/

 

For my Inty build, I am not displaying the boxes. I am displaying the overlays instead, so you have a moment to see it before you start the game. This is helpful for when you are traveling and don't have the overlays with you.

Edited by fdr4prez
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  • 6 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

I just downloaded the image via the link above (posted Oct 7). I extracted it fine and copied it to a newly formatted SD card, but when I try to boot the Raspberry Pi, I get the four raspberry icons and nothing else.

 

I think the hardware is good because Im installing Raspbian on it as I type this. I even reformatted the same SD card and put NOOBS 2.4.4 on it for the install.

 

Here are my questions based on what I think might be wrong:

- Is there anything special I need to do to put the image on the SD card?

- How long should I wait on powerup for something to happen?

- Do I need to have all the buttons and adaptors plugged in? Right now its just the Raspberry Pi, SD card and HDMI cable going to a monitor.

 

Any other thoughts? Thanks!

Edited by Smokeless Joe
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Further weirdness:

 

On my Mac (macOS 10.13.1), when I download the zip file, the zip file is automatically unzipped and I get an img file that the system can mount. Then I copy over the files from the mounted img to the newly formatted SD card.

 

On my Windows 10 system, the default unzip program and 7zip both fail to unzip the zip file. WinRAR will unzip it, although it pauses for a long time at 99%. But then I get a file corrupted message when attempting to mount the img. This happens even if I copy THE SAME zip file that my Mac automatically unzips.

 

What am I missing?

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Further weirdness:

 

On my Mac (macOS 10.13.1), when I download the zip file, the zip file is automatically unzipped and I get an img file that the system can mount. Then I copy over the files from the mounted img to the newly formatted SD card.

 

On my Windows 10 system, the default unzip program and 7zip both fail to unzip the zip file. WinRAR will unzip it, although it pauses for a long time at 99%. But then I get a file corrupted message when attempting to mount the img. This happens even if I copy THE SAME zip file that my Mac automatically unzips.

 

What am I missing?

 

Try burning the zip file directly to the SD card using Apple Pi Baker on your Mac. That's what I use.

 

The image only works with the Pi 2&3.

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Apple Pi Baker is really cool, but I get the same thing when I try to boot from the microSD: 4 Raspberry icons in the top left corner of a black screen. I even let it sit for an hour or so, just to be sure I wasnt being impatient.

 

My Pi says Raspberry Pi 3 Model B V1.2, so that seems okay.

 

Im wondering if its looking for some hardware. I dont have anything else plugged in except power and the HDMI cable. Im hoping to get a Flashback 4 for cheap from craigslist, but I still need to order the 2600-daptors. I was kinda hoping to test the software before I go all in with everything else.

 

Are there any files that needs to be configured before I try to boot?

 

Thanks!

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Apple Pi Baker is really cool, but I get the same thing when I try to boot from the microSD: 4 Raspberry icons in the top left corner of a black screen. I even let it sit for an hour or so, just to be sure I wasnt being impatient.

 

The SD card image is definitely bad - I just tried it out myself. Something is corrupting the file during the compression process. I'll try compressing it with something else besides Finder on my Mac and post a good image soon.

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The SD card image is definitely bad - I just tried it out myself. Something is corrupting the file during the compression process. I'll try compressing it with something else besides Finder on my Mac and post a good image soon.

 

 

Cool! Well, not cool the image was corrupted, but thanks for looking into it!

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Ok, this SD card image should work better here:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yw8j8mncbpcxgjg/UAFBpublic.zip?dl=0

 

The link in the first post has been updated as well.

Well, shucks, now its even worse.

 

My Mac no longer automatically unzips the file. No problem, ApplePi-Baker can read zip files. However, once its done putting the contents of the zip file on the microSD card, my Mac reports it can no longer read the microSD and asks if I want to initialize it. I dont initialize it, put it into the Pi and...

 

Two different monitors report no signal. I double checked with a known good microSD and the Pi is plugged in correctly and working.

 

Any other ideas?

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Thanks to fdr4pres, I've got the console buttons working through the GPIO port. So, there's no need to mess around with the 2600daptor ports, and 4-player paddles now work! I'm still doing some testing, so give me a little time to update the image.

 

 

Unfortunately there aren't enough buttons on the Atari Flashback console to have separate Select, Reset AND a Quit button, so the decision was to make a combo out of the two existing buttons, and isn't that the default method on the standard Atari FB to quit the games?

If you want to install your own switch that would be for quitting, please let us know and we can help you with removing the combo setting and configuring the new third button in the Pi.

 

Hi Byte Knight & fdr4prez,

Could you advise where I can find the scripts/code for getting the console buttons to work please?

I'm currently struggling with my own RetroPie setup and would like to incorporate this as I'm in the process of butchering a FB4 with a Pi!

 

Many thanks :)

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