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RetroN 77


jeremiahjt

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It's currently a problem if a ROM uses paddles, but the properties aren't set as such.  Modifying the properties is easy on a PC version of Stella, but not so much on the R77.  In any event, this mostly won't be a problem in the final 6.1 release, since paddles will be auto-detected most (all?) of the time.

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1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Sounds like it should work. I suppose the 2600-daptor is configured for paddles and Stella has "Paddles" defined as controllers for the games you are testing?

That's what I'm wondering - I haven't configured anything in Stella in the Retron77. Do I need to go into configuration settings for the paddles to work through the 2600daptor? I'm not too familiar with Stella so can you point me out to where I would go in settings to do this in the Retron77? Do I need to connect a mouse or keyboard, or can it be done with the joystick?

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26 minutes ago, stephena said:

It's currently a problem if a ROM uses paddles, but the properties aren't set as such.  Modifying the properties is easy on a PC version of Stella, but not so much on the R77.  In any event, this mostly won't be a problem in the final 6.1 release, since paddles will be auto-detected most (all?) of the time.

I see. So for now there's no easy way to go into Stella's settings in the Retron77 to adjust certain games for paddles through the 2600daptor?

 

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If it's a game that Stella already knows about, then no setup should be needed.  If it isn't, then you'll need a keyboard attached to go into the settings and manually set things.  It's also possible to generate the settings on a PC version of Stella, then copy them to your SD card.

 

But the final release will hopefully make all this moot, since Stella will autodetect paddle games.  Obviously this will need testing, and we'll be releasing another beta soon to do that.

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1 hour ago, stephena said:

If it's a game that Stella already knows about, then no setup should be needed.  If it isn't, then you'll need a keyboard attached to go into the settings and manually set things.  It's also possible to generate the settings on a PC version of Stella, then copy them to your SD card.

 

But the final release will hopefully make all this moot, since Stella will autodetect paddle games.  Obviously this will need testing, and we'll be releasing another beta soon to do that.

That's odd. I tried Breakout in the Retron77 with the paddles attached with the y-cable and 2600daptor, but the paddles weren't working. They work with the latest Stella on my PC. I just tested them.

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So if I open the commands box using the 4:3/16:9 button, and select settings, under game settings (left port/ right port) -  If I set those to paddle, is that setting the paddles to work with the y-cable and 2600-daptor? If I select OK, is that saved only for that one game, or is that changed for all games until I go back and set it back to auto-detect?

 

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Okay, I got things working. I reinstalled the community image and started the system up with the paddles already plugged into the y-cable, and they were detected and work fine now. No jitter, either. They work fantastic! If there's any paddle lag it's not noticeable on my setup.

 

 I adjusted the "TV mode" setting using only the joystick for navigation, and it's a global setting so all games now display how I like which is great. I found setting "TV Mode" to "Composite" really emulates the look of how I remember it long ago. Considering it's playing on my 55" 4k TV, it really looks fantastic with the phosphor blur, scan lines and composite settings. For those who like a cleaner look, S-Video or RGB of course looks better, but something about that "Composite" setting really calls back to how it looked long ago.

 

Edited by fiudr
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On 1/8/2020 at 3:30 AM, fiudr said:

Okay, I got things working. I reinstalled the community image and started the system up with the paddles already plugged into the y-cable, and they were detected and work fine now. No jitter, either. They work fantastic! If there's any paddle lag it's not noticeable on my setup.

Paddles should work via the R77 ports too.

 

But probably not as good as via USB. The hardware produces not very good results, which we are trying to compensate with the paddles dejitter and other code.

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It's a shame they dropped the ball on the paddles with the hardware. Thankfully there is a workaround with the USB though.

 

Has anyone had any issues with the front buttons? My unit is brand new and so far the buttons work fine, but they sure do feel cheap, and I read a comment somewhere that one of their buttons had fallen off. Since the buttons are used frequently to turn the unit on and off, and select and start games, they need to hold up to lots of use. They look and feel cheap compared to the rest of the unit. The switches on the Flashback X look and feel far better.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
52 minutes ago, Mkitz28 said:

Can the Retron 77 play the Harmony cart? I tried to look for the answer but can't seem to find it in the thread. 

There's not really much reason for it to. If you update the RetroN 77 to the latest community build, Stella can run anything the Harmony cart can, and you can load any ROMs you want onto the RetroN's SD card and organize them in folders however you want.

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8 hours ago, Nathan Strum said:

There's not really much reason for it to. If you update the RetroN 77 to the latest community build, Stella can run anything the Harmony cart can, and you can load any ROMs you want onto the RetroN's SD card and organize them in folders however you want.

Does Galagon and other cdw+ games work?

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  • 2 weeks later...

While testing the Stella 6.1rc1 release for the Retron 77 on my LCD TV(I usually use my CRT through an HDMI converter) I found something strange.

 

First of all, the R77 booted up to Stella's launcher, and everything seemed fine until I tried to run a game.  The TV said "No Signal" and showed a black screen.  I tried another game and the same thing happened.  Enduro showed a flash of game screen followed by blackness and again "No Signal."

 

I didn't see how it could be the case, but seemingly 6.1rc1 was incompatible with my TV while the previous R77 release had no issues.  That didn't make any sense to me, so I tried removing the HDMI powered switch from between the R77 and the TV.

 

Now games would display and everything seemed fine.  Games looked and played as they should so far as I could tell, until... Missile Command.  Every other interceptor missile that I would fire(almost) would be invisible, both during travel time and its explosion.  It didn't seem to matter if that second missile was fired immediately after the first, or if there was a pause between- it would be invisible.  It didn't matter if the missiles(and explosions) were gone from the screen, that next missile would be invisible if the previous one had been visible, and vice versa.

 

I thought perhaps I had just not noticed that this particular ROM had issues, so I tried other NTSC Missile Command versions.  All but one had the same issue of alternating invisible interceptors.  I tried PAL versions, and the problem was not present on any of the PAL ROMs.

 

Since I had yet to update Stella on my desktop, I did that and tried 6.1rc1 on my desktop machine with the offending ROMs- the issue was not present on my desktop machine with Stella.

 

I'd not noticed the issue with my other TV and the Retron 77 either.  That was when I remembered that I was using a different HDMI cable on one TV verses the other.  On the LCD I had simply used the cable that came with the android TV box that's usually plugged into that port on my TV to connect the R77 as well.  It turned out that that was the problem.  When I retrieved the cable from the CRT and used it with the LCD, Missile Command was no longer missing any missiles.

 

Really strange.  I didn't notice anything else out of the ordinary with the 'bad' HDMI cable and Stella.

 

I guess it just goes to show you- just because it seems that an HDMI cable is compatible and working with a particular device, doesn't mean that it actually *is* working correctly.

Edited by fluxit
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  • 4 months later...

I’m a bit late to the party here! I just found out about the Retron 77 and it looks like it might be the answer to my HD Atari dreams. So, if I buy the system and update the firmware with the latest community build, I can load as many ROMs onto the SD card as I want, yes? And, is there full proper paddle controller support now? If I use the new Ranger gamepad paddle dial to play Kaboom!, will it work well just plugged into the Retron 77? Or what’s this about running it through an additional adaptor to make the paddle control more accurate?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I recently bought Retron 77. I went trough hell to get the console. Pretty disappointed to find out that my Elgato capture card can't record the sound from Retron 77. I went trough hell to get the console but If I knew this issue was the thing i probably wouldn't have made the purchase. Even more disappointed Hyperkin doesn't support the console enough to make an update or patch to solve this issue. My last hope was when I heard about the community build for the Retron 77. I went full noob and tried to burn an image of the community build file to the micro sd card using balenaEtcher. That was unsuccessful, error message read; "Unable to record image file, please contact balena Etcher support" ore something like that. Being the noob that I am I used the Retron 77 micro sd card for this. Not only did I not get the community build, now Retron 77 can't even start the menu. I can't even play Atari 2600 games on it let alone record footage with sound. Please help!

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Try formatting the card using Windows' format option.  Make sure that you choose the correct drive so you don't format your hard drive.  Then write the firmware image with Balenaetcher again. 

 

If it still doesn't work, buy the smallest capacity replacement card you can find and try again.  You may need a different card reader/writer for your computer as unfortunately many writers do not work well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am considering buying a Retron 77 because I want to be able to play the more recent homebrews from champ games and play the paddle games again.  After reading the recent posts, is it preferred to connect a set of paddles to a 2600 daptor and a Y-cable into the USB to get them to work properly or can I just use the R77 ports.  I have a new set of paddles with no jitter that I bought and was wondering if they would work fine directly into the unit without having to buy additional connections?

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On 1/9/2020 at 5:02 AM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Paddles should work via the R77 ports too.

 

But probably not as good as via USB. The hardware produces not very good results, which we are trying to compensate with the paddles dejitter and other code.

I got my Retron 77 and tried the paddles after upgrading to Stella 6.2.1 and they are not working when plugged into the front of the system.  I started up the console with the joysticks plugged in so I could navigate to the paddle game I wanted to play and pushed the button to start the game.  Then I switched to the paddles, but the game would not recognize them.  Do I need to start the console up with the paddles plugged in for them to work?  I was concerned I wouldn't be able to navigate the game menu with the paddle if I did that?

 

One more questions.  Would I be better getting the usb powered y-cable with the 2600 D9 adapter for the paddles to get them to work?

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