Alectmc Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Hi everyone! I'm a little new to the AtariAge forums. I recently purchased Pac-Man Collection for the 7800 and am excited to get my hands on it, but I had a question. What happened to the POKEY homebrews which required you to send in a POKEY chip to be made? I understand not having POKEY homebrews with the POKEY chip already installed when you purchase it, but why the removal of the cartridges where you supply the POKEY to be installed? I'd love to get a copy of Pac-Man Collection with a POKEY that I can supply if/when they ever return! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 They are temporarily unavailable for ordering, as of the last batch I built for customers, a good number of them did not work upon receipt. They did work on the 7800 system I tested them on, but apparently failed on several customers' systems. Until we can resolve this, they will not be available for ordering. We have designed some new 7800 boards and are in the process of testing them. ..Al 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 4 minutes ago, Albert said: They are temporarily unavailable for ordering, as of the last batch I built for customers, a good number of them did not work upon receipt. They did work on the 7800 system I tested them on, but apparently failed on several customers' systems. Until we can resolve this, they will not be available for ordering. We have designed some new 7800 boards and are in the process of testing them. ..Al The 7800 hardware being so erratic and ununiform is a real PITA. Do you know if it's a game PCB or Pokey chip problem? Specifically, is it the FPGA Pokey causing the problem or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 1 minute ago, Shawn said: The 7800 hardware being so erratic and ununiform is a real PITA. Do you know if it's a game PCB or Pokey chip problem? Specifically, is it the FPGA Pokey causing the problem or something else? It has nothing to do with the POKEY. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 2 minutes ago, Albert said: It has nothing to do with the POKEY. ..Al OK. Whatever it might be, I hope all is well ASAP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 1 hour ago, Albert said: It has nothing to do with the POKEY. ..Al Need me to test some stuff on my 7800s here or is there anything specific that can be recreated for testing that I might be able to cobble together? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 3 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said: Need me to test some stuff on my 7800s here or is there anything specific that can be recreated for testing that I might be able to cobble together? I have a slew of 7800 systems, including one or two "evil" 7800s, so I should be good there. I'll be testing the second round of prototypes soon once they arrive. I'd be glad to send you some built-up prototype boards to test once I've done my testing. ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGHMW Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 This makes me think twice on having gotten my 7800 on eBay back last week if it had these kinds of issues I just might turn around and resell it. BUMMER!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 26 minutes ago, BIGHMW said: This makes me think twice on having gotten my 7800 on eBay back last week if it had these kinds of issues I just might turn around and resell it. BUMMER!!! Nah, don't do that, most everything works fine on the 7800. I don't run into this issue TOO often, and certainly not on the scale I saw recently with this batch of POKEY games (which use a unique, more complex board that I don't use for other games). There are some 7800s that are...finickier than others, to be sure, but that's a small subset of 7800 systems overall. Even some Atari and third-party games had issues running on some 7800 systems, hence Atari continually tweaking the damn system during its short lifespan. There are many fun games on the 7800, and even more so with the great (and growing) 7800 homebrew library. Lots of fun games coming in 2021 as well!! ..Al 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 3 hours ago, BIGHMW said: This makes me think twice on having gotten my 7800 on eBay back last week if it had these kinds of issues I just might turn around and resell it. BUMMER!!! You want THIS GUY to WIN?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 4 hours ago, BIGHMW said: This makes me think twice on having gotten my 7800 on eBay back last week if it had these kinds of issues I just might turn around and resell it. BUMMER!!! The issues you are hearing of are very isolated. From what I read of your postings you plan on strictly getting an SD cartridge so you will not have much worry about how other cartridges behave. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alectmc Posted October 19, 2020 Author Share Posted October 19, 2020 On 10/18/2020 at 11:27 AM, Albert said: They are temporarily unavailable for ordering, as of the last batch I built for customers, a good number of them did not work upon receipt. They did work on the 7800 system I tested them on, but apparently failed on several customers' systems. Until we can resolve this, they will not be available for ordering. We have designed some new 7800 boards and are in the process of testing them. ..Al I see, guess that’s what can happen to 35+ year old technology! Still awesome that homebrews are still released for Atari’s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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