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Atari Flashback 9 FIRMWARE for adding games to SD card


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How long does it take for the firmware update to install? I picked one up yesterday, fired it up once to check it out, put in the SD card and it has been at the "AtGames" boot screen for almost 10 minutes.

 

Okay, I figured that part out... I had forgotten to put the SD card in. Now I just cannot get it to run the firmware update file. I will try a different SD card.

 

EDIT: Different SD card is working. A while back I picked up a bunch of 256MB unbranded microSDs for stuff like this as I could not waste any of my larger SD cards. They work great for most things, including the Flashback Portable. The FB9 Gold does not like it, at least for the firmware update, but a 4GB SanDisk SD is working fine.

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Very nice. The FB9 menu is a bit awkward and response is sloooow, but playing all these games is great. Thanks to @Flojomojo and every who has put work into this. The only thing I can think of which could make this better would be the ability to play 7800 games.

 

Considering it uses Stella 3.9.3 that 7800 support is not going to happen. Only games that require post Stella 3.9.3 don't work so there are only few of them. I made a thread for couple of 2600 games that don't work : http://atariage.com/forums/topic/287603-atari-fb-9-games-that-dont-work-only-a-few/

Edited by thetick1
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  • 1 month later...

Very nice. The FB9 menu is a bit awkward and response is sloooow, but playing all these games is great. Thanks to @Flojomojo and every who has put work into this. The only thing I can think of which could make this better would be the ability to play 7800 games.

+1

I'm just overjoyed with how this is working out, apart from how bad the menu response time is with the wireless joystick. It has taken some effort, my FB9 didn't like my 8gig SD card, had to trek over to Gamestop and thankfully they had a $1.98 4gb card that it likes. Then I got all turned around on what format for the Roms (for the FB9 it's NO spaces, but upper/lowercase and symbols seem ok, just no spaces at all), confused after having worked the Portable and other stuff. But now that it's all straightened out, very happy with it.

And I like the Gold; even when the SD card's not in there, the selection is really impressive (Tutankham FTW!). Now if only they had a controller that was suuuper responsive and tight like the 8bitDo M30 2.4ghz is on the Analogue Sg...and the menus were quicker to move through, and there was box art loadable for SD roms...it'd be perfect, basically.

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+1

I'm just overjoyed with how this is working out, apart from how bad the menu response time is with the wireless joystick. It has taken some effort, my FB9 didn't like my 8gig SD card, had to trek over to Gamestop and thankfully they had a $1.98 4gb card that it likes. Then I got all turned around on what format for the Roms (for the FB9 it's NO spaces, but upper/lowercase and symbols seem ok, just no spaces at all), confused after having worked the Portable and other stuff. But now that it's all straightened out, very happy with it.

And I like the Gold; even when the SD card's not in there, the selection is really impressive (Tutankham FTW!). Now if only they had a controller that was suuuper responsive and tight like the 8bitDo M30 2.4ghz is on the Analogue Sg...and the menus were quicker to move through, and there was box art loadable for SD roms...it'd be perfect, basically.

 

Response is fine for wired joysticks.

Edited by thetick1
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  • 2 weeks later...

Paddles will be supported in Atari flashback 13 GOLD DELUXE MEGA ULTRA EDITION v3.

 

I just bought an atari flashback 9 gold because I heard it was able to be modded.

 

I'll just put Dintar's pac-man on it, and call it a day.

Edited by KAZ
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Response is fine for wired joysticks.

Plugged in some wired joysticks of my own, and the menu is still verrrry slow and a pain sorry to report. So maybe it's just my system.

But that said, I really like that you can use wired joysticks of your choice along with the wireless controller for resetting the system without having to get up and hit the reset button on the console.

 

Anyone have best recommendations for Atari 2600 controller extension cables?

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Plugged in some wired joysticks of my own, and the menu is still verrrry slow and a pain sorry to report. So maybe it's just my system.

But that said, I really like that you can use wired joysticks of your choice along with the wireless controller for resetting the system without having to get up and hit the reset button on the console.

 

Anyone have best recommendations for Atari 2600 controller extension cables?

 

I'm old, stubborn and nostalgic. For me part of the Atari experience is grabbing a pillow and sitting on the floor right in front of the TV. Using wireless controllers from the couch is just too modern and not the Atari experience, but that is just me I guess.

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Just ordered an atari flashback 9 gold from ebay,

 

Which firmware should I use ?

 

The official one ?

 

or the one attached to the start of this thread ?

If you install the one attached here, you are then able to install the ‘official’ firmware to patch a couple of issues and retain the functionality of the firmware here.
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Hi!

 

I just upgraded my Atari Flashback 9 to the latest firmware, version 2.something something, over 60Mb Download. Copied and applied and everything seems like before, but I guess it was worth it.

 

Now I'm just wondering if someone can recommend a link to some compatible games? I followed the link at the beginning, and download a zip file. It seemed to have a ton of games, but only a few worked.

 

I think the zip file was geared for the Atari portable?

 

Anyways, would greatly appreciate if someone could point me to a better link. It will be cool to play Bezerk and Artillery Dual once more... :)

 

Thanks eh!

 

G

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7thSun,

You will need to edit the filenames to remove spaces. This was mentioned in page 1 of this thread. I've used a batch renaming program to remove the spaces from the game pack in the Atari portable thread, and all the games I've tried work fine.

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7thSun,

You will need to edit the filenames to remove spaces. This was mentioned in page 1 of this thread. I've used a batch renaming program to remove the spaces from the game pack in the Atari portable thread, and all the games I've tried work fine.

 

Hi Forrest,

Yes, I had read that filenames with spaces might cause issues, so I only tried to play games from the SD Card that had short names with no spaces or special characters, and well it didn't go over very well. Just thought maybe not all these games work for the 2600 Gold...

 

Thanks!

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So here is a question (probably stupid), if the original Atari 2600 used 4K (4*1024=4096B) game cartridges, how come some ROM/bin files are well over that?

 

For instance the Atari 2600 ROM for Vanguard is 8K uncompressed. How will that work if it shouldn't be more that 4K? Or is it not bound by the 4K hardware limit of old?

 

Thanks!

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So here is a question (probably stupid), if the original Atari 2600 used 4K (4*1024=4096B) game cartridges, how come some ROM/bin files are well over that?

 

For instance the Atari 2600 ROM for Vanguard is 8K uncompressed. How will that work if it shouldn't be more that 4K? Or is it not bound by the 4K hardware limit of old?

 

Thanks!

 

Any game larger than 4k used a scheme called bank switching which allowed the 2600 to access more than 4k worth of data. Although the 2600 is still limited to accessing up to 4k at once.

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I see files up to 16K in size, and my Atari Flashback can play them all.

 

I recommend you rename the files as suggested

Yupp, I just went to another site, downloaded only the games I wanted (~10), copied them to the card, and everything is fine.

 

Thank you!

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Any game larger than 4k used a scheme called bank switching which allowed the 2600 to access more than 4k worth of data. Although the 2600 is still limited to accessing up to 4k at once.

 

Awesome! thank you for the technical explanation! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Any chance this firmware update and its features will be standard on the next Flashback console release?

The SD Card still probably won't work out of the box for legal/copyright reasons - hence the purpose of registering and downloading their firmware. Not much farther AtGames can take the FB line. Cartridge slot? Stella emulator upgrade? Paddles? Open Source/Customizable Menu?

 

Home arcade consoles/cabinets seem to be what's on their minds now.

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