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remowilliams

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4 player Pong blues...

 

What is going on with, "Video Olympics" for 4 player games? The Retron 77 will not play 4 player pong games, this occurs with both the cartridge and the ROM loaded on the SD card:

The problem is... ... THERE STRIPED PLAYERS ARE MISSING!

I don't understand. "Video Olympics" was a launch title, it is one of the oldest and most beloved cartridges for the 2600, how could Hyperkin mess this up?

Not only do the paddle controllers plugged into the right controller port do nothing in 4 player games, the paddle sprites for players 3 and 4 on the screen (denoted by their striped pattern) are not on the screen!

How can the Hyperkin not draw players 3 & 4?

How can a 2600 clone system not be able to handle Pong?

 

These games featuring 3 or more simultaneous players all work fine on the Retron 77:

- Warloads (4 simultaneous paddle players)

- Steeplechase (4 simultaneous paddle players)

- Black Jack (3 simultaneous paddle players)

- G.I. Joe Cobra Strike (3 simultaneous players = 2 paddles & 1 joystick)

 

"Street Racer" will also not function in 3 and 4 player modes.

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4 player Pong blues...

 

What is going on with, "Video Olympics" for 4 player games? The Retron 77 will not play 4 player pong games, this occurs with both the cartridge and the ROM loaded on the SD card:

The problem is... ... THERE STRIPED PLAYERS ARE MISSING!

I don't understand. "Video Olympics" was a launch title, it is one of the oldest and most beloved cartridges for the 2600, how could Hyperkin mess this up?

Not only do the paddle controllers plugged into the right controller port do nothing in 4 player games, the paddle sprites for players 3 and 4 on the screen (denoted by their striped pattern) are not on the screen!

How can the Hyperkin not draw players 3 & 4?

How can a 2600 clone system not be able to handle Pong?

 

These games featuring 3 or more simultaneous players all work fine on the Retron 77:

- Warloads (4 simultaneous paddle players)

- Steeplechase (4 simultaneous paddle players)

- Black Jack (3 simultaneous paddle players)

- G.I. Joe Cobra Strike (3 simultaneous players = 2 paddles & 1 joystick)

 

"Street Racer" will also not function in 3 and 4 player modes.

Garbage in, garbage out. Retron77 is a hot mess. It's also the last emulator + cart dumper console I ever buy...

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4 player Pong blues...

 

What is going on with, "Video Olympics" for 4 player games? The Retron 77 will not play 4 player pong games, this occurs with both the cartridge and the ROM loaded on the SD card:

The problem is... ... THERE STRIPED PLAYERS ARE MISSING!

I don't understand. "Video Olympics" was a launch title, it is one of the oldest and most beloved cartridges for the 2600, how could Hyperkin mess this up?

Not only do the paddle controllers plugged into the right controller port do nothing in 4 player games, the paddle sprites for players 3 and 4 on the screen (denoted by their striped pattern) are not on the screen!

How can the Hyperkin not draw players 3 & 4?

How can a 2600 clone system not be able to handle Pong?

 

These games featuring 3 or more simultaneous players all work fine on the Retron 77:

- Warloads (4 simultaneous paddle players)

- Steeplechase (4 simultaneous paddle players)

- Black Jack (3 simultaneous paddle players)

- G.I. Joe Cobra Strike (3 simultaneous players = 2 paddles & 1 joystick)

 

"Street Racer" will also not function in 3 and 4 player modes.

 

Warlords is far more popular than Video Olympics. Hyperkin probably only tested Warlords.

 

I totally forgot about that controller combination on G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike. Loved that game...wish there was a 5200 version of it! Same with Jedi Arena!

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The issue with "Video Olympics" and "Street Racer" on the r77 is simply that, in the internal Stella database, those two games have paddles set for the left controller port, but no settings for the right one (which then defaults to joystick).

Unfortunately, as stated before, the r77 doesn't provide any means to change the settings for a game not already on the database or, like in this case, which needs different or additional settings.
You have to use a PC to edit the settings file.

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The issue with "Video Olympics" and "Street Racer" on the r77 is simply that, in the internal Stella database, those two games have paddles set for the left controller port, but no settings for the right one (which then defaults to joystick).

Unfortunately, as stated before, the r77 doesn't provide any means to change the settings for a game not already on the database or, like in this case, which needs different or additional settings.

You have to use a PC to edit the settings file.

 

 

Actually, this still seems to be true for the latest Stella code. Can you list the game variation that needs 4 paddles? I can then update the internal database in the main codebase.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I just found that it is game variation 5 and above. This will be fixed in Stella Git in a moment.

 

And before anyone blames Hyperkin for not testing this ROM, note that the ROM properties for this ROM have been incorrect for almost 20 years! Nobody bothered to inform anyone on the Stella team for the past 2 decades that the properties were in error, so I don't think Hyperkin can be blamed for missing this one.

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Changes are now in Git. To whoever is maintaining this community build, if you do another one, consider pulling 'stella.pro' from the main repo to the r77 branch, and recompile. At least we will pick up the changes done over the past few years. PM me for more details on how to do this.

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So just checking in here briefly, has there been a build update since the release of the Retron 77? The last one I put in made the thing a lot more useful. :D

 

Gaming store says these are selling extremely well, and the Atari cartridge backstock is really selling a lot quicker than before. At least that is good to hear.

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Unfortunately RetroN 77's lacking controller support does not depend on Stella. So there is nothing which can be fixed by Stella here.

 

 

So, does that mean Hyperkin would have to update the Retron77 firmware to add controller support? Doesn't their engineer post here on AtariAge?

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Good on you. Cartridge dumpers + emulators on half-baked hardware is a miasmatic mismatch.

Your posts sound like a broken record. :)

Nonono, he's too coherent. A real broken record sounds more like this:

...tridge dumperz /tridge dumperz /tridge dumperz /tridge dumperz /tridge dumperz...

 

...zemulatoz/zemulatoz/zemulatoz/zemulatoz/zemulatoz/zemulatoz/zemulatoz/zemulatoz/zemulatoz...

 

...half bac/on half bac/on half bac/on half bac/on half bac/on half bac/on half bac/on half bac/on half bac/on...

:rolling:

Important thing to remember is the sample always loops once every 1.8 seconds (or 1+1/3 seconds if playing a 45rpm) so it helps to have a beat measure that's close to this time constant... 8)

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So, does that mean Hyperkin would have to update the Retron77 firmware to add controller support? Doesn't their engineer post here on AtariAge?

 

They stoped caring after it turned out that more work was needed. They are a horrible horrible company.

I like the console, I really do and it would be great If they put some more work into it.

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Oh Hyperkin, Atgames... they have people that are on here, we find out fixes, we hack games to work on the systems and do they listen? Nope.

 

I'm pretty well done with the specific systems that don't have close to 100% emulation. In truth, why do we need them when regular emulators exist for free? More often than not the cute shell they come in just becomes a home for a raspberry pie board.

 

They don't want to listen to us? Frack'em. I guess they don't need our money.

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I see a few people saying they should do this and that, so why don't they do it themselves?

 

I think the r77 is a great device for what it is, made better with the community build. It is not perfect, but no mid to low price range device is.

 

Does anyone know if there is a HDMI mod for the original system that could be done? that would allow for full compatibility.

 

Edit: Just googled saw some types and ways to get something like that to work.

Edited by Zaltran
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I really don't understand the hate for the retron 77. I recently got one and like it so far. Granted, my library is small but it plays all my games.

It is because people want a system that is FPGA or has the latest version of Stella. Unfortunately, what many don't seem to want to acknowledge is that these solutions are far too expensive for the mass market right now. If a system were made that satisfied the core users of Atati Age, it would be awesome, but the sales would be very limited.

 

By all accounts, the R77--not unlike the much bashed Flashbacks--has sold extremely well. As an Atari fan, I am thankful for these consoles as they perpetuate and expand the Atari userbase and maintain awareness of the 2600.

 

Now if we can get a version that plays 7800 games as well, I'm all in.

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