Atari Flashback Portable FAQ and Compatibility List

[SS]

By the way, what brand/size SD card are you using?

Ha ha! I actually found an almost 10 year old 512mb Kodak card in the back of a drawer the other week. I joked "This will come in handy" at the time but, whatta you know, it actually did!

[Inky]

I was playing Tapper earlier, and the full bottom bar was missing from the screen.

[JeffIrok]

Thanks FlojoMojo for the updated zip file! I just got my portable today and this came in handy!

 

I ran into the same luck as SS - I had an old 512MB card hanging around from a digital audio recorder I bought years ago (I replaced it with a 4GB immediately so never used the 512GB!) It worked like a charm!

[orion1052003]

Yes, it was the folder Willie uploaded with 516 games. It doesn't show those "extra" files on my mac, but they appear when I load up the SD card. I tried dot clean, and nothing happened. Do you have to specify the directory path if you are already in the 'GAME' folder directory? I loaded up TERMINAL in OSX 10.7.5 and found the GAME directory, and just typed dot_clean.After erasing the SD, and copying from computer, the files were still the same.

 

I know nothing, and these UNIX commands were very helpful:

 

pwd- tells what directory you are in

ls- lists your files

[orion1052003]

ATARI Flashback Portable BOX

Edited December 4, 2016 by orion1052003

[orion1052003]

ATARI Flashback Portable MANUAL

 

 

AtariFlashbackPortableM.pdf

Edited December 4, 2016 by orion1052003

[orion1052003]

I noticed in TURMOIL you can't grab the eggs on the left side of the screen, but you can get them on the right side of the screen. Can't say the game works right in the portable, although it appears to at first. In "Bobby Goes Home", or "Bobby Gehts Heim", there are jacked up artifacts, including an aurora borealis of junk when he reaches the home at the end of a level.

 

There are 60 games, and 8 paddle games and 4 trackball games included in the Flashback Menu. If they took these out of the menu, they would appear more to know what they are doing. That leaves you with 48 games. The trackball games are typically played with a joystick on a real Atari, but it is pretty bad, at least debatable. but no room for paddle games, they are terrible and unplayable with the d-pad!!

 

Tempest is a proto that is pretty bad as it was unfinished, and used a joystick, but should have used paddles, of course.

 

Paddle games on Atari Flashback Portable (and 7?) 1.Astroblast 2. Pong Sports 3. circus atari 4. demons to diamonds 5.Breakout 6.super breakout 7. blackjack 8.night driver

 

Trackball games (Joystick games that worked when I plugged in the Atari trackball) 1. Centipede 2.Millipede 3.Crystal Castles 4. Missile Command

 

It supports 103 pages of SD card menu, I think the same as the brother system SEGA ARCADE ULTIMATE. (They should have made the top and bottom plastic brown instead of gray)

 

(The manual I scanned it for you all myself, I sure get tired of uploading everything in .bmp, and having to delete it all, change it to .jpg, and re-upload it. support for .BMP images on here would be convenient.)

 

The Flashback Portable comes with the box, 16 page manual, USB charging cable, and the unit. It does not have a charger plug for the wall, so you have to buy a chager head for the usb cable or charge from a computer. It does not come with an A/V cable, and I assume that it does not work like on the SEGA portable. (meaning you can only connect to old CRT tvs with RCA jacks, but not new TVs with RCA jacks or old or new projectors with RCA jacks.

Edited December 4, 2016 by orion1052003

[orion1052003]

So if the thing is limited to 103 pages of menu, does anybody know how much memory the system allocates or is usable out of an 8 gigabyte card? Willie's Folder is about 3.3 megabytes and goes to 103 pages. My folder was 21.6 megabytes with 1,900 ROMS and the FIRECORE system went to the letter 'E' and ended at 103 pages. Maybe somebody should post what SD cards not to buy. The older cheap $5 ones seem to work so afr, and I think when I tried newer ones on the SEGA they did not work.

[garyd97]

Has anybody gotten squeezebox to work? Mine loads with a blank screen.

[Asaki]

So if the thing is limited to 103 pages of menu, does anybody know how much memory the system allocates or is usable out of an 8 gigabyte card?

9*103=927

 

Maybe somebody should post what SD cards not to buy.

I try to stick with Sandisk or maybe Kingston, I rarely have issues.

 

For a lot of devices, unless they explicitly state that they support SDHC, I'll use something 2GB or smaller. It doesn't seem like stores sell those anymore though, and getting them from eBay seems like a bit of a gamble.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Asaki

[ls650]

Thanks to everyone working on these lists....

[Flojomojo]

So if the thing is limited to 103 pages of menu, does anybody know how much memory the system allocates or is usable out of an 8 gigabyte card? Willie's Folder is about 3.3 megabytes and goes to 103 pages. My folder was 21.6 megabytes with 1,900 ROMS and the FIRECORE system went to the letter 'E' and ended at 103 pages. Maybe somebody should post what SD cards not to buy. The older cheap $5 ones seem to work so afr, and I think when I tried newer ones on the SEGA they did not work.

The folder I posted is 52 pages, many fewer ROMs, and way smaller in size. You might want to format that card, download the romset again, and load it up anew. After writing files to the card, be sure you eject it safely. If you're on a Mac you might want to run dotclean on the directory in the SD card before loading it up. If it still looks weird, zip it up and PM it to me, and I'll try to test it for you. I'll share what I see, and clean out dotfiles if necessary.

[Flojomojo]

Did you leave Berserk in there? The reason I ask is I found a workaround to get the bullets to fire. I posted this fix in the compatability thread.

I just pulled the card out to fix that mistake, and I noticed that Berzerk actually is in there. I guess I like that game too much to leave it out, even with a flaw. The "no fire zone" is not a dealbreaker for me. That is such an iconic Atari VCS game and it needs to be on everything. I can zone out and play this for ages.

 

Nope but you can put it back. :-)

Bunny Berzerk is in there though.

One of these statements is a lie, and two others are true.

[TheEditor]

I am using a 128mb Lexar in one unit and 128mb PNY in another, same ROMs on both. I has one unit and a friend has the other. No issue with it displaying the game list, 98 pages but it does not show them alphabetically which is odd. I may format the card and reload it as I had games in the folder then added more.

[atarifan88]

I just pulled the card out to fix that mistake, and I noticed that Berzerk actually is in there. I guess I like that game too much to leave it out, even with a flaw. The "no fire zone" is not a dealbreaker for me. That is such an iconic Atari VCS game and it needs to be on everything. I can zone out and play this for ages.

 

One of these statements is a lie, and two others are true.

 

I agree and feel the same way about Asteroids, although I must say, I am playing the Asteroids DC+ hack on my SD card because I love how much more challenging it is!

[SS]

 

I agree and feel the same way about Asteroids, although I must say, I am playing the Asteroids DC+ hack on my SD card because I love how much more challenging it is!

 

I have been playing "Asteroids DC+" rather than the built in version too. It plays *so* much more like the arcade version. I bought a cart of it years ago too.

[orion1052003]

@ Flojomojo, (The folder I posted is 52 pages, many fewer ROMs, and way smaller in size.) Although I got 103 pages, when I ran Dot_clean in the 'Terminal' app in macosx, It reduced down to 52 pages like yours. There were all these 'extra' files showing up, only on the flashdrive, after being copied without them visible on the hard drive. Like ._space.bin, ._space.bin, and space.bin. THe menu list looked ugly and was quadrupled or whatever in size. So I learned a few Unix command line commands.The menu looks way nicer now.

[Dan Iacovelli]

saw that keystone kapers works have anybody tried my hack of it laserman 2k3 on the portable, haven't brought mine yet maybe after xmas

[+SpiceWare]

Does the original Stay Frosty (from Stella's Stocking) work on it? Standalone ROM's here.

[Arenafoot]

Does the original Stay Frosty (from Stella's Stocking) work on it? Standalone ROM's here.

I just bought mine today.....and was wondering the same thing............... will have to try it.

[+sramirez2008]

Finally pulled the trigger. $34.23 including tax after 20% off at Bed Bath & Beyond. I'm in the Atlanta area for work this week and found mine at a location near the Lithonia Mall (if anyone is interested). They also had several Flashback 6 and 7's for sale.

 

 

 

[+sramirez2008]

Does the original Stay Frosty (from Stella's Stocking) work on it? Standalone ROM's here.

 

Man I hope this game works. -Thanks Darrell.

[mmervine]

Does the original Stay Frosty (from Stella's Stocking) work on it? Standalone ROM's here.

 

Just tried it. No, it does not work.

[+sramirez2008]

 

Just tried it. No, it does not work.

 

[Arenafoot]

Does the original Stay Frosty (from Stella's Stocking) work on it? Standalone ROM's here.

 

 

 

Man I hope this game works. -Thanks Darrell.

just tried it.....it doesn't load at all :-(

 

other homebrews I've tried:

21Blue - works perfect

2003 AA Greeting Card - works perfectly

2005 Mini Game Cart - all games work

Alien Pinball - will not load

D.K. VCS - will not load

DK Arcade 2600 - will not load

Doom Patrol - will not load

Laserman 88 - plays but can't control the ship

Laserman 2K3 - works perfect

Spies in the Night - works but the clock is messed up

The Deep - will not load

Wall Jump Ninja - works perfect

Edited December 8, 2016 by Arenafoot