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Atari Flashback X Custom Firmware for USB roms and boxart


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yes, those numbers are the numbers of frames the core is skipping. thats why you never see the galaga arcade startup grid or other arcade games grids, rom checks and sprite garbage power on screens, i think.

Edited by Draxxon
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Ive got Moero TwinBee for the Nintendo Famicom Disk System running in the LFBD folder using the Nestopia core. (.fds extension)

Side note:

I just ordered this. I didn't know our boy @Bill Loguidice wrote an AFB8 Prima games guide?
Also didn't know they still made strategy guides, lol. j/k

download.jpg

Edited by Draxxon
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Starting to look into a possible AFB9 overclock update.  First I've been trying to recreate some notes I should have made when I fiddled with this for the AFBX!  ? Part way there on that at least...

 

One thing that is needed, but I don't seem to have - a FW image for the AFB9/AFB9Gold which includes the "resources" partition.

 

This is where the "Operating Performance Points" or OPPs are defined on these systems for the Linux Kernel and where rmr_md (trailblazer of all this, AFAIK) made the original clock modification to the Legends flashback.  However, the AFB9 custom FW I have does not include that partition.   (The updates only usually carry the partitions which will be modified.)

 

 

I know people took time to dump ALL the partitions on AFBX within the last few months - was that ever done for AFB9?  Or could there be a "full FW" available from atGames?

 

Anyone have such a FW?

Edited by rocketfan
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AFB9 Standard Full~.7z
 

I hear ya, It's all I know of. I just right click and extract with 7zip, but, i have no clue what Im doing.

 

We've had dr, baby, eye appointments all last week, you name it. I have it all boxed up and ready to go. I will do it Monday.
I'm still moving slow as shit. It's been what? two weeks since I blew my knee out. for those that dont know. I can walk on it,

but they dont want me to. It gets better every day.

Edited by Draxxon
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Yeah that is just either the data partition or the root partition I think, now that I actually extracted it.  I would have to compare these to a whole img file to make sure though.

Well it's good to hear you are walking.  Thats a plus!

I have been dealing with GERD this past week, so I have been a little under the weather myself.

 

Edited by MrFister
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3 minutes ago, Draxxon said:

if the control files dump the /rom and /emu parts, couldnt they be rewritten to dump the other /parts?

That would be my theory also.  But not sure.  That would be a question for a more linux savvy person like Brad or RocketFan.

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10 minutes ago, Draxxon said:

well first we have to know what those parts are called like /data; or is there a way to dump all */parts?

 

i dont know. maybe. trying to figure out how to not have to solder a port.

You could always get the partition names from either the package text file (If it is Included), or from the Parameter file.

These are the partitions in the 9 standard:

 

  • uboot.img
  • misc.img
  • recovery.img
  • boot.img
  • resource.img
  • kernel.img
  • rootfs.img
  • rom.img
  • emulator.img
  • data.img

 

The 9 Gold looks Identical partition wise.

Some of those could also be in the .sqsh extnension also.

 

Edited by MrFister
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Something I noticed with the NEXUS pack on the FB9 Gold: the Select button doesn't seem to be mapped.  At first I thought it might be my controller having an issue, but even the console switch does nothing.

 

I noticed it when trying to select a different game option when testing the Kung-Fu Combat game that Ed Smith and I had been working on.  Then I remembered it did that with the previous NEXUS pack too, but I just hadn't thought much of it.  Maybe that's why I couldn't start some 7800 games too.

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im guessing your select button/switch works if you run stock with no card?

 

something is different between the 9 and X versions and must still need fixed. On the standard 9 i tried select to bring up the OSK for a800 I thought. does that not work on the 9 gold either? I'll get the standard 9 hooked up and check.

 

 

Edited by Draxxon
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Ok, so... I put NEXUSv4.4 on a clean sd card for the AFB9 standard ed.

 

select button and switch does NOT work for a2600.

 

It DID bring up the a800, ody2 and cv on screen keyboards.
It DID add coins to bubble bobble mame arcade.

it DID switch difficulties on centipede for a7800. Fire button started the game.

 

i also turned music off in the nexus /rom hub, and saved it, and it was off whenever i returned.

 

so select button for a2600 is broken across both afb9s, that sucks, hopefully fixable w/o needing new CFW. thank you, Kevin. I appreciate you!

 

Edited by Draxxon
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You win this time, RetroN77!!

first clip is AFB9, second is AFBX and third is the R77.

 

the "player 1" and "stage 1" did not look glitchy like that on any version on my TV. Just in the capture. I'm no Scorsese.

 

 

Edited by Draxxon
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3 hours ago, Draxxon said:

so select button for a2600 is broken across both afb9s, that sucks, hopefully fixable w/o needing new CFW. thank you, Kevin. I appreciate you!

Yes, thank you Kevin for the feedback - I suspect this is because I switched the retroplayer for A26 to "retroplayer.l" at some point recently when I was trading it back and forth with Draxxon.  I am hoping switching it back to "retroplayer.9" in the runcommand script will resolve this.  The reason to use retroplayer.l is that it shows substantially better performance esp. on games where the sound "is laggy" and helps get Stella6.1 at least close in performance (along with me drastically reducing the sound sampling rate). 

 

2 hours ago, MrFister said:

Here is a 9 standard img (AR3050) I built from a partitions dump from a 9 standard.  Haven't been able to test it because I lack a 9.

This includes the resources partition.

This is untouched.  Hope this helps.

Yes, awesome!  The tricky part is that I can't test it.  What is in the ultimately in the resources partition is the Linux "device tree" in .dtb form which AFAIK is an ARM linux thing - like all the android TV boxes and tablets use it.  Some of the hacker tools I used to mod the stuff came from the Android TV box/tablet guys on a web site called "freaktab.com" believe it or not!  MrFister - one thought is I can get it unpacked, mod the stuff the way I think, finish writing up my notes and pass it all to you?  Then you could build it into a FW to test on Draxxon's 9 when you get it?  I'm still worried the device tree on the 9 gold will be different though - because the wireless support may be enabled in there someplace.

 

2 hours ago, Draxxon said:

You win this time, RetroN77!!

Yes, the Flashbacks are barely scraping by, but as you said - at least the games can be played.  Really only two things were done - using the retrolplayer.l and drastically reducing the audio sampling rate to the bare minimum.  What is strange to me is that other cores use 48Khz (the original rate from Stella6.1) with apparently no sweat.   One difference I know is the Retron77 uses the full emulator.  It does not use a libretro core or libretro front-end like our retroplayer.  So, it does the actual low-level interaction with the hardware for graphics and audio, when on the flashbacks that is all in the hands of the retroplayer.  It looks to me that the way the core is implemented is a bit different than the A800 core.  It seems like it is passing audio every N lines of video that get processes instead of passing "all the audio" then "all the video" for the frame like I see being done in the A800 core.  So, the last two things I can think to do:

1) Mod the code so the audio is passed all at once like in the A800 core.

2) Try to build the full emulator and get it to run on the device - like on the retron77.

Both of those are pretty not trivial compared to the little hacks I have been doing!  BTW - does anyone know what HW the Retron77 is  - it's not an ARM device is it?

 

BTW - Thanks for the comparison - cool to be able to see the difference!

 

Edited by rocketfan
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59 minutes ago, Velvis said:

I'm going to try and dig into getting paddles to work with Mame games. What version of mame is on it? And is it Android?

It's ARM Linux and I guess very Android like - but not actually Android as far as I can tell.  The MAME core with the mapping menu support (Like on Warlords in the Atari Arcade section) is mame2000 which uses a  mame0.375b reference ROM set. 

 

I did some reading on paddles with flashbacks.  There seems to be a lot of effort and disappointment involved!  It seems like the original paddles don't work as well as ones specially modified with different pots.  I like the wooden ones a guy built himself in this thread - wish he would sell those!  I wonder if that type paddle would work better on AFBX?

 

If you can get ANY movement in the mame2000 game (like Warlords) then possibly your best bet is focus on the Analog Controls setup menu.  The Paddle Speed and Sensitivity numbers in there may need to be adjusted radically - like I remember changing the 10 default for speed to 75 or 85 to get a trackball to operate at an acceptable speed.  I never found any very good guidance - just trial and error - and I don't know the range for that value.

 

IMO the best way to have good "paddle emulation" is if a future Flashback supports more like a USB mouse or trackball "HID Device".  (HID device support might also allow keyboard support and playing text adventures etc. on Atari800).   Then you could use a spinner or trackball to emulate a paddle.  That seems to be what atGames has done on the Legends Ultimate and you can play actual original pong on it pretty well.  Unfortunately those spinners are pretty expensive.  In olden days I used a Logitech Trackman Marble on a PC based MAME system (before they had a USB interface!) and it worked great for games like Tempest once the sensitivity was set right.  https://g.co/kgs/kh5TYD

 

Edited by rocketfan
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1 hour ago, rocketfan said:

Yes, awesome!  The tricky part is that I can't test it.  What is in the ultimately in the resources partition is the Linux "device tree" in .dtb form which AFAIK is an ARM linux thing - like all the android TV boxes and tablets use it.  Some of the hacker tools I used to mod the stuff came from the Android TV box/tablet guys on a web site called "freaktab.com" believe it or not!  MrFister - one thought is I can get it unpacked, mod the stuff the way I think, finish writing up my notes and pass it all to you?  Then you could build it into a FW to test on Draxxon's 9 when you get it?  I'm still worried the device tree on the 9 gold will be different though - because the wireless support may be enabled in there someplace.

That sounds good.  I have a buddy that lives near by and I will see if he will let me borrow his 9 gold again.

I borrowed it once before I got my X deluxe and knew how to mess with the firmware.  So I never thought about dumping it.

I will try within the next couple of days.

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NEXUS v4.5 (Update Only)

This fixes the select button and switch on Atari 2600 games for the AFB9 and AFB9Gold

emulator.rar

 

 

I've been messing with Game & Watch and other LCD handheld games. (gw_librtero.so, .mgw) So far a few games don't display correctly. They have the error that happens on the LFB with mortal kombat and other midway arcade games, screen is skewed diagonally and the horizontal hold is jacked up.

Edited by Draxxon
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Genesis Flashback HD (2018) Game Manager | Page 8 | GBAtemp.net - The Independent Video Game Community

 

so ive know about this for awhile, and someone mentioned it in the AFB9 CFW thread. I don't know... I don't feel

it has much to offer to spend time making it work for the AFBs. If they would have got the scrapper working for 

game info maybe. But, I don't see that ever getting finished, I could be wrong.

GenesisFlashbackGameManager.zip

Edited by Draxxon
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