Atari 2600 'game gienie' on element14

[Coolcrab]

New Ben Heck guy made a 2600 game genie. How hard would this be to produce in larger quantities.

 

[ColecoJoe]

Do 2600 games really call out for a game genie

[john_q_atari]

Thanks for posting this Coolcrab! There are some excellent resources and links once I started searching based on this video. It definitely gives me ideas for eventual projects.

[Inky]

I want a 7800 one.

[high voltage]

Personal Game Programmer PGP-1

[Jinks]

Do 2600 games really call out for a game genie

You think they are easy? Lol...

Takes the challenge out by cheating.

[ColecoJoe]

You think they are easy? Lol...

Takes the challenge out by cheating.

Not hard enough to require a game genie but if you can't hack it I suppose it's needed

[+Muddyfunster]

Do 2600 games really call out for a game genie

 

Probably not but you have to admit, purely from a technical perspective, what he's done is pretty damn cool.

[godslabrat]

Very cool from a technical perspective, I agree.

 

Though most of my Game Genie usage came from me trying to beat bosses I couldn't beat, or see levels I couldn't see. Atari games tend to not have those limitations.

[ColecoJoe]

 

Probably not but you have to admit, purely from a technical perspective, what he's done is pretty damn cool.

 

Oh totally. I'm not knocking the dude's output

[hizzy]

I wish he would build an FPGA atari. That game genie is cool!!!

[BassGuitari]

One thing to consider is that while a device like this can be used to make games easier, it could also be used to make games harder.

 

One example of a game that could benefit from this is Defender. Being able to increase the point threshold for extra ships/smartbombs would be very nice--as it is, the game is far too generous to veteran players.

[john_q_atari]

I wish he would build an FPGA atari. That game genie is cool!!!

 

Yes I saw your question on the element14 forum.

 

I ordered the device and am going to try and replicate his build. I need to see if I have an old cart PCB laying around somewhere...

[Lynxpro]

Very cool. Me thinks this could drive sales of CompuMate keyboards if they could be used with this device.

 

Heck, even using one of the keypad controllers would probably be preferable to cycling through with a joystick. Maybe if it plugged directly into the Cheat Cart instead of occupying one of the DB9s on the 2600 just in case the games in question were 2-player and there was an intent to play 2-player at the time...

[hizzy]

 

Yes I saw your question on the element14 forum.

 

I ordered the device and am going to try and replicate his build. I need to see if I have an old cart PCB laying around somewhere...

 

I've ordered the parts, too. I hope this gives me more insight into the workings of FPGA devices.

[Video]

Very cool. I'd love such a thing, it could be used to make games easier for sure, but bitd, I typically used one to make games id mastered harder.

 

Could be handy to see what the breaking point of a game is too. Play something like river raid with unlimited fuel and no hit detection to see how long a game will go before it couldn't be played anymore. Games that roll the score. I could see a developer using it while making a game to assist in level design.

[Nukey Shay]

A question that bothered me when I began making my own codes on the NES:

 

Why bother using "codes" in place of the actual (address+data value) in the first place?? All that does is create another step you have to process. Cheetah FTW.

[CapitanClassic]

A question that bothered me when I began making my own codes on the NES:

 

Why bother using "codes" in place of the actual (address+data value) in the first place?? All that does is create another step you have to process. Cheetah FTW.

i assumed that Galoob / Mad Catz used the codes as a way to obfuscate how the devices worked so that you would have to buy there quarterly code books. Or maybe they believed customers couldnt understand hexadecimal encoding and would be more familiar with alphabetic letters.

http://tuxnes.sourceforge.net/gamegenie.html

 

These days it defiantly seems like a worthless step. Since the codes just translate to address and data value, you should just enter address and data values.

Edited December 10, 2018 by CapitanClassic

[InactiveX]

PEEK/POKE or GTFO!

[john_q_atari]

I am very happy to report that I have successfully built this device and used it to turn the fireballs blue just like in the video!

 

I did cheat a bit by skipping all the intermediate steps shown in the video and just built the device and flashed the existing compiled binary from the provided source code archive. I'll try a few more "cheat codes" next and I guess I will need to play with Stella to figure out how to create some of my own cheat codes.

 

I don't suppose anyone else has built this device yet?

[+Gemintronic]

I am very happy to report that I have successfully built this device and used it to turn the fireballs blue just like in the video!

 

I did cheat a bit by skipping all the intermediate steps shown in the video and just built the device and flashed the existing compiled binary from the provided source code archive. I'll try a few more "cheat codes" next and I guess I will need to play with Stella to figure out how to create some of my own cheat codes.

 

I don't suppose anyone else has built this device yet?

 

Is there a link to the board that connects to the 2600? I think that would be useful for other projects too =)

[Shawn]

I am very happy to report that I have successfully built this device and used it to turn the fireballs blue just like in the video!

 

I did cheat a bit by skipping all the intermediate steps shown in the video and just built the device and flashed the existing compiled binary from the provided source code archive. I'll try a few more "cheat codes" next and I guess I will need to play with Stella to figure out how to create some of my own cheat codes.

 

I don't suppose anyone else has built this device yet?

 

 

Pictures and video of your build?

[john_q_atari]

 

 

Pictures and video of your build?

 

Well I'm not set up to do video, but I can tell you my contraption is ugly. Very ugly. I have a cartridge case to put it in, but I lost the screw so I need to figure out what size screw to buy to replace it. Does anyone know? Anyhow, here is my not so great photo I just took with my not so great camera phone:

[john_q_atari]

 

Is there a link to the board that connects to the 2600? I think that would be useful for other projects too =)

 

I used this one from a seller on etsy. Price including shipping was great.

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/547173068/atari-2600-prototype-pcbs-for-game

[Shawn]