my 70 year old aunt wants an Atari Flashback but it has to have Demon Attack

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Thought you all might enjoy my request for advice.

My 70 year old aunt played Demon Attack TONS with me when I was a kid and now she wants to relive that with her grand children. She has an HDTV but lives in a small farming town in England so I was thinking no problem, just order an Atari FlashBack X and plug it in!

Except the X doesn't come with Demon Attack and they are mostly listed as Unavailable these days.

The Flashback 8 Gold has Demon Attack but just as nearly impossible to find.

 

So, on behalf of my aunt, does anyone have an easy recommendation? I don't think she could wrap her head around a Raspberry Pi, "easy" is the requirement here. Easy to connect, easy to navigate, easy to get to Demon Attack.

[Trinity]

.

 

 

Edited June 29, 2021 by Trinity
Bad idea

[Swami]

2 hours ago, ComputerSpaceFan said:

Thought you all might enjoy my request for advice.

My 70 year old aunt played Demon Attack TONS with me when I was a kid and now she wants to relive that with her grand children. She has an HDTV but lives in a small farming town in England so I was thinking no problem, just order an Atari FlashBack X and plug it in!

Except the X doesn't come with Demon Attack and they are mostly listed as Unavailable these days.

The Flashback 8 Gold has Demon Attack but just as nearly impossible to find.

 

So, on behalf of my aunt, does anyone have an easy recommendation? I don't think she could wrap her head around a Raspberry Pi, "easy" is the requirement here. Easy to connect, easy to navigate, easy to get to Demon Attack.

How much are you looking to spend? They're not crazy expensive but not dirt cheap on eBay. Sometimes you can get a really good deal on Craigslist. I got a NIB Intellivision Flashback for $10 last year on Craigslist.

[Fred_M]

There are some good deals on a Flashback X or a Flashback 9 on Ebay UK. They don't have Demon Attack like you said, but it is quite easy to put it on the Flashback. Just read the Nexus and the Legends Flashback community project threads in this forum. ?

[Atariboy]

If the Hyperkin Retron '77 is still available new (And I believe it is), that's a solid choice that sounds like it will be cheaper than the AtGames options these days.

 

With the Retron, you don't even need to update Stella with the latest build if you're just dropping a single rom on there. Just remove the SD card and put the Demon Attack rom on it and you're good to go. And while it runs counter to what any Retron '77 owner would do here at AtariAge, I'd argue that if she really just wants Demon Attack, definitely don't update Stella for her since the increased freedom with the many options and the repurposing of some of the console buttons will be likely to just cause confusion for a casual player.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Atariboy

[+MrZarniwoop]

8 hours ago, ComputerSpaceFan said:

So, on behalf of my aunt, does anyone have an easy recommendation?

The Atari Flashback X (including Deluxe version) can access ROM files from an OTG USB adapter. You may need to upgrade the firmware on the Flashback X if it's 2019 original. You can then run Demon Attack on the Flashback X from a ROM file on a USB flash drive or SD card in a USB adapter.

 

Or, the Atari Flashback X/Deluxe can easily be modified to run Draxxon's Atari Nexus which includes all of the 2600 games released, including Demon Attack, plus homebrew games, plus many other consoles (5200, 7800, 8-bit computers, etc.) plus arcade games plus other platforms entirely. It's pure amazeballs.

 

I would also think the RetroN 77 is a good choice, in that if you buy a cheap used Demon Attack cartridge, it should work as it's a plain 4K cartridge! You could alternatively just put the Demon Attack ROM file on an SD card.

[+stephena]

4 hours ago, Atariboy said:

If the Hyperkin Retron '77 is still available new (And I believe it is), that's a solid choice that sounds like it will be cheaper than the AtGames options these days.

 

With the Retron, you don't even need to update Stella with the latest build if you're just dropping a single rom on there. Just remove the SD card and put the Demon Attack rom on it and you're good to go. And while it runs counter to what any Retron '77 owner would do here at AtariAge, I'd argue that if she really just wants Demon Attack, definitely don't update Stella for her since the increased freedom with the many options and the repurposing of some of the console buttons will be likely to just cause confusion for a casual player.

And if you want to get a little creative, you could edit the startup script to always launch Stella with Demon Attack, if you're sure that's all that will ever be needed.  Demon Attack is a game that won't really benefit from the newest version of Stella anyway.  But sticking with the old one, you will lose TV effects and the scrolling will be choppy.  And I think there might have been a 'joystick stopped working' bug in the Hyperkin-supplied Stella that was only fixed with the latest releases.  Honestly, I forget the details now.

[Draxxon]

Look around and find an AFB9 or X on deals. (I found a new in box AFB9 for $20 at the flea market about 2 weeks ago.)

The Nexus Pack even has Demon Attack for the Atari 2600 and the Odyssey2.

Its also a Karaoke Machine now as well. 

Otherwise I see the new Amber colored Retron77 is out. It's great for Atari2600 games, but thats it.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Draxxon

[Draxxon]

If all you want is demon attack, I would get this if I was you. I wouldnt run it stock with a handful of games but instead use the community build and add all the games you want. Its a bare bones Stella menu and that will be great for Grandma, easy to figure out. Looks like its $67 new.

Amazon.com: Hyperkin RetroN 77: HD Gaming Console for Atari 2600 (Retro Amber) - Not Machine Specific: Video Games

Edited June 30, 2021 by Draxxon

[Rodney Hester]

To be fair, the sticks (in my experience) on the Retron are a lot more solid than those on the Flashbacks as a whole - for that reason alone, I'd also advocate for that.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Huge thanks to one and all, I think my aunt is going for the Retron 77. That's the easiest approach.

I should have mentioned I live six thousand miles away in Canada so modifying any console before she gets it was not really much of an option.

Retron 77 will likely win the day.

Thank you to all who made recommendations on this one.

[Swami]

45 minutes ago, ComputerSpaceFan said:

Huge thanks to one and all, I think my aunt is going for the Retron 77. That's the easiest approach.

I should have mentioned I live six thousand miles away in Canada so modifying any console before she gets it was not really much of an option.

Retron 77 will likely win the day.

Thank you to all who made recommendations on this one.

I also assumed you wanted something new as a gift for her. If you have to open it up and mess around with it, might as well get a used FB8 Deluxe which has it plug and play out of the box. 

[Krathoon]

I it funny how it is such a pain to get an old Atari game working. Some of these games must have licensing issues.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Definitely not.