Best HD Atari 2600 solution — RetroN 77 or Flashback X?

[WaverBoy]

I’m trying to decide which route to go, RetroN 77 or Flashback X. After some initial investigation of this forum and various YouTube reviews, it looks as if both of these systems can be loaded up with ROMs if you update the firmware, with the RetroN 77 much easier to update than the Flashback X which requires multiple steps and additional hardware. Looks like the joystick controllers that come with the RetroN 77 are of better quality than those that come with the Flashback X, and there is also a new Ranger gamepad controller for the RetroN 77 which contains a thumb stick-style joystick and a built-in paddle dial that is a bit stiff but controls the onscreen action very smoothly. OEM Atari paddle controller support on the RetroN 77 appears to be non-functional unless you run it through additional hardware; with the Flashback X it appears to be somewhat functional but jittery, judging from a YouTube review I saw, but that might be because the reviewer’s paddles needed to be cleaned/adjusted. Anyone know if the Atari 2600 trackball controller or driving controllers will work on either of these?

 

Thoughts anyone? So far I’m leaning toward the RetroN 77, but I’d love to hear more arguments for or against either system from the passionate fans and experts here.

 

And neither of these systems support Sega Genesis controllers, correct? Which means that neither the 8BitDo wireless Genesis controllers nor Krikzz’s wireless Genesis controllers will work... will we ever have a perfect wireless controller solution for the Atari 2600?

Edited June 7, 2020 by WaverBoy

[WaverBoy]

Also, for the Flashback X, is it possible to get rid of the border bezels entirely and just have it look normal 4:3 with black bars on the sides? If not, that’s kind of annoying.

[+fdr4prez]

For the FB-X, look here for bezels and whatnot:

 

 

[WaverBoy]

25 minutes ago, fdr4prez said:

For the FB-X, look here for bezels and whatnot:

 

 

What I want is no bezels, not custom bezels. I want the full 4:3 picture to fill the screen from top to bottom and have black bars on the sides only.

[Wizzard]

I own Flashback X deluxe and despite it is nice looking, it is not so good thing. If you are satisfied with the bundled games, it could be fine, but if you want to play own games, it is not so straightforward. You can load an SD card, but the games are without the graphics and adding the graphics is quite complicated. It also have some small lag. I ordered Retron 77 cause I prefer simple Stella interface. Retron also has 4:3 switch which Flashback does not have.

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Wizzard