downloading games to the 2600

[Trip2018]

I was thinking, what if there was something like the harmony cart, only instead of reading from an sd card it read from a subscription website via wifi, almost like the sega channel , except if your not subscrbed you would have access to free demos and betas.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

Not sure what the advantage would be. Most of the developers here distribute WIP and finished game roms for download already and dumping them onto an SD is less of a hassle than connecting the 2600 to wifi would be.

[Trip2018]

To have access to the games all at once

[davyK]

there was a service like this way back in the day.

 

I do believe the company ended up becoming AOL.

 

Google "GameLine" for details.

[atari181]

To have access to the games all at once

Game ROMs are easily available here and other sources.

[BigO]

To have access to the games all at once

That'll probably fit on a 256MB SD card in the Harmony.

[SignGuy81]

I think it would be a great idea to have access to all games at once like you mentioned if games were just coming out left and right like on Xbox or PS but for the 2600 I would think just a Harmony cart should do. Unless you expand on this idea perhaps and we have friends list we can chat with, game hacks where we can play 2 player games online with a friend, etc. Then maybe. Who would host the server for this?

[+KaeruYojimbo]

That'll probably fit on a 256MB SD card in the Harmony.

 

My games folder checks in at just over 35MB. That's every commercial NTSC release plus every homebrew ROM that's been made available and tons of WIP games and prototypes.

 

If you want them "all at once," you can download Rom Hunter's collection here. Unzip the archive, copy the games you want to your SD and play them whenever you want. Take your 2600 to a friend's house? Your games are still there!

 

As a way to distribute games, it's not practical at all. And that's not even getting into the legal and ethical problems with distributing copyrighted material on a paid subscription service.

 

Two player support over wifi? That's something worth looking into.

Edited January 14, 2018 by KaeruYojimbo

[RamrodHare]

To have access to the games all at once

The Harmony Encore already has all the games availible at once. You just download a complete set and put them on the SD card and there they are, ready to play.

[davyK]

yep...Harmony is the way to go.

 

Every game ever made , and likely to be made , on one cartridge. It's a superb piece of kit.

[pacman000]

This makes me wonder... Has anyone tried making homebrew games for the Gameline?

[atari181]

This makes me wonder... Has anyone tried making homebrew games for the Gameline?

huh? The Gameline service has been shut down for over 30 years. What do you mean?

[BigO]

Does the Gameline have extended memory or any other special features that would make a Gameline specific game a thing?

 

As best I can tell, it ran standard, otherwise available cartridge games licensed from game producers.

[Inky]

Wasn't someone working on a cart that had WiFi or bluetooth enabled for wireless transfer of roms to the 2600?

EDIT: Found it.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247229-atari-2600-cartridge-with-wifi/?p=3401835

It appears the user lost interest in the idea.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Inky

[alex_79]

Does the Gameline have extended memory or any other special features that would make a Gameline specific game a thing?

 

As best I can tell, it ran standard, otherwise available cartridge games licensed from game producers.

In this very old post from the Stella mailing list, Kevin Horton says that a guy put up a gameline server in the '90s and he hacked several original games to work with the device, including the "Magicard". So apparently games can use the gameline ram.

 

[pacman000]

Thanks alex_79, that's what I meant. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

Neat to know someone did set up a homemade server for Gameline cartridges.

[Trip2018]

I can see that your trying to convince me that harmony is superior and in some ways it is, but the reason I came to this idea was because I didn't want the labor of downloading every rom out there, not to mention the questionable legality of it. So when a new home brew is released it will just be there to download and play.

[atari181]

I can see that your trying to convince me that harmony is superior and in some ways it is, but the reason I came to this idea was because I didn't want the labor of downloading every rom out there, not to mention the questionable legality of it. So when a new home brew is released it will just be there to download and play.

There really isn't much labor downloading the ROMS you just download a collection of all the ROMS and add new ones as they come along. As for the legality of it, the same rules would apply to someone setting this up and they would need to acquire the rights to sell those games via gameline.

 

Really would make no sense for any community this small. There just wouldn't be the demand for anything like that.

[RamrodHare]

I can see that your trying to convince me that harmony is superior and in some ways it is, but the reason I came to this idea was because I didn't want the labor of downloading every rom out there, not to mention the questionable legality of it. So when a new home brew is released it will just be there to download and play.

So, it's too much "work" to download a full rom set and put it on a micro SD card to play on the Harmony Encore?

If that's the case, how do you even manage to get out of bed in the morning?

As far as the legality, If it worries you that much, then just buy all the games on actual carts.

Once the card is loaded with all the roms, it's not a big deal to add a new homebrew when it comes out.

I feel like you are trying to reinvent the wheel and that's not going to happen. People are perfectly happy with the Harmony Encore and there's no reason why they shouldn't be.

You're trying to convince people there's a problem when there isn't one.

[atari181]

So, it's too much "work" to download a full rom set and put it on a micro SD card to play on the Harmony Encore?

If that's the case, how do you even manage to get out of bed in the morning?

As far as the legality, If it worries you that much, then just buy all the games on actual carts.

Once the card is loaded with all the roms, it's not a big deal to add a new homebrew when it comes out.

I feel like you are trying to reinvent the wheel and that's not going to happen. People are perfectly happy with the Harmony Encore and there's no reason why they shouldn't be.

You're trying to convince people there's a problem when there isn't one.

 

I would guess he is just new to the Atari/homebrew scene. I am sure he thought that he would have to download each game individually.

I don't think he is trying to bad mouth the Harmony, but doesn't really know how to use it.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

Someone would have to maintain the pool of available games. He just wants someone else to do the work for him.

 

I can't imagine a service like this being very cost effective. Licensing costs for the commercial games would be too high and the user base too small to spread the cost out. For the price of a subscription you could just buy the homebrews you like.

[RamrodHare]

He just wants someone else to do the work for him.

 

atari181 may be right. It's possible that he just doesn't understand how the Harmony works.

However, I've been seeing a lot of posts on game forums where people are too lazy to hunt down the games they want. Like they are somehow entitled to have everything handed to them without having to do anything on their own. I'm not saying that's what's happening in this case, but it has become more common lately.

[Keatah]

However, I've been seeing a lot of posts on game forums where people are too lazy to hunt down the games they want. Like they are somehow entitled to have everything handed to them without having to do anything on their own. I'm not saying that's what's happening in this case, but it has become more common lately.

 

They want it like how smartphones do it. Touch an icon and the game you're thinking about magically appears.

[pacman000]

I don't think downloading a ROM to an SD card is too much work; I just think it would be cool for someone to get a Gameline system working.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

atari181 may be right. It's possible that he just doesn't understand how the Harmony works.

However, I've been seeing a lot of posts on game forums where people are too lazy to hunt down the games they want. Like they are somehow entitled to have everything handed to them without having to do anything on their own. I'm not saying that's what's happening in this case, but it has become more common lately.

 

I wasn't sure at first if by "all at once" he meant he didn't want to download all the games individually or if he thought the Harmony could only hold one game at a time. It seems more like he just doesn't want to go through the "hassle" of downloading the games himself and wants an Atari 2600 version of Netflix. To make it really Netflix-like though, whoever runs it would have to randomly remove popular games.