alex_79 Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, SmartSped said: Is there a better alternative for playing carts on a modern TV? I honestly don't know. I haven't investigated. I know there's lots of other choices for NES games but haven't really dug into Atari systems. I'm not aware of any modern solution if you want to play actual cartridges. Probably an original console with a good A/V mod installed (preferably with s-video or RGB output) and an upscaler specific for retrogaming is the best option at the moment. Quote Is there a known hardware mod that can be applied to the Retron 77 to enable expanded support? Would that even be feasible? A simple mod could be to wire a on/off switch between pins 12 and 24 of the cart connector. This might (slightly) increase compatibility: closing the switch would signal the R77 that a cart is in the slot, if it failed to automatically detect its presence. The other limitations (limited supported types and wrong type detection) would still apply, though. Note that I don't have a R77, so I haven't tried this myself. Edited March 11, 2022 by alex_79 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted March 11, 2022 Author Share Posted March 11, 2022 (edited) 19 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: The cartridge is dumped and a ROM file is created on the SD card. Which is identical to the file in any ROM collection. And then this file is put into Stella. There is zero difference between emulating the new dump or the collection file. As I've stated previously, I know how this all works. I'm not an idiot. But I prefer the nostalgia of inserting the cartridge and playing it that way even though it's not playing directly from the cartridge. There's a very old school feel about plugging in a cartridge and playing it that way rather than scrolling through modern menus and loading through a GUI. Don't get me wrong, I have all the ROMs installed too but I'd like to get use out of my old cartridges. Edited March 11, 2022 by SmartSped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted March 11, 2022 Author Share Posted March 11, 2022 12 minutes ago, alex_79 said: I'm not aware of any modern solution if you want to play actual cartridges. Probably an original console with a good A/V mod installed (preferably with s-video or RGB output) and an upscaler specific for retrogaming is the best option at the moment. A simple mod could be to wire a on/off switch between pins 12 and 24 of the cart connector. This might (slightly) increase compatibility: closing the switch would signal the R77 that a cart is in the slot, if it failed to automatically detect its presence. The other limitations (limited supported types and wrong type detection) would still apply, though. Note that I don't have a R77, so I haven't tried this myself. Thanks for the pinout. I may try this soon and see what it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted March 11, 2022 Author Share Posted March 11, 2022 1 hour ago, alex_79 said: A simple mod could be to wire a on/off switch between pins 12 and 24 of the cart connector. This might (slightly) increase compatibility: closing the switch would signal the R77 that a cart is in the slot, if it failed to automatically detect its presence. The other limitations (limited supported types and wrong type detection) would still apply, though. Note that I don't have a R77, so I haven't tried this myself. I decided to temporarily jumper pin 12 and 24 and this did increase compatibility as seen here with Miniature Golf. Maybe I'll install a switch sometime. Thanks for the heads up 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Can you still load the games from the SD card with the jumper always in place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted March 11, 2022 Author Share Posted March 11, 2022 Just now, alex_79 said: Can you still load the games from the SD card with the jumper always in place? Negative. Black screen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Yep. You need a switch, else it thinks there's always a cart in there, so it dumps the non-existing cart and sends the resulting rom to Stella. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted March 11, 2022 Author Share Posted March 11, 2022 14 minutes ago, alex_79 said: Yep. You need a switch, else it thinks there's always a cart in there, so it dumps the non-existing cart and sends the resulting rom to Stella. Question: Would the only issue this jumper cause be that Retron 77 always thinks there's a game in there? Would there be any issues with any other games? I was thinking of adding some sort of switch that activates only when a cart is physically pushed into the socket. Similar to how GBA detects older Game Boy games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_79 Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 A switch that's activated by inserting the cartridge is the best solution if you can find something that fits. The games that work without the mod have those two pins connected internally, so the jumper simply becomes redundant, but it doesn't have any ill effect. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted October 4, 2022 Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 Zaxxon, Dragster, Breakaway IV, and Air Raiders added to the list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Lundström Posted November 12, 2022 Share Posted November 12, 2022 Hi! Does anyone know if the catridge home brew game "Deepstone Catacomb" works on the Retron 77 system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted November 14, 2022 Author Share Posted November 14, 2022 I haven't tried that one, Patrik. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KaeruYojimbo Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 On 11/12/2022 at 10:27 AM, Patrik Lundström said: Hi! Does anyone know if the catridge home brew game "Deepstone Catacomb" works on the Retron 77 system? Nope. It's 32k and Melody enhanced, 2 things the Retron 77 doesn't like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 6 hours ago, KaeruYojimbo said: Nope. It's 32k and Melody enhanced, 2 things the Retron 77 doesn't like. That's only correct for the original firmware. The community edition has no problem here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KaeruYojimbo Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 5 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: That's only correct for the original firmware. The community edition has no problem here. He was asking about the cartridge, which doesn't work. I don't doubt that the ROM would work with the community build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 12 minutes ago, KaeruYojimbo said: He was asking about the cartridge, which doesn't work. I don't doubt that the ROM would work with the community build. Sorry, missed that. Thanks. And yes, since the cartridge slot is only a lousy gimmick, only a few modern homebrew cart will work in it. And since DC is an ARM game, it definitely won't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted November 17, 2022 Author Share Posted November 17, 2022 Adventures of Tron and Laser Gates added to the list. Both work fine with the Retron 77. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 25, 2022 Share Posted November 25, 2022 You are really wasting your time here. Which bankswitching type a game uses, is known (there exist extensive lists for the original games) or can be looked up in an emulator. And whether a physical cart of the remaining games work in the R77 slot depends on how it got produced. Even if your cart works, that only means "some" carts of the game work. In the end, IMO it absolutely makes no sense to invest any effort into such a list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted November 25, 2022 Author Share Posted November 25, 2022 1 minute ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: You are really wasting your time here. Which bankswitching type a game uses, is known (there exist extensive lists for the original games) or can be looked up in an emulator. And whether a physical cart of the remaining games work in the R77 slot depends on how it got produced. Even if your cart works, that only means "some" carts of the game work. In the end, IMO it absolutely makes no sense to invest any effort into such a list. I think you're forgetting that not everyone knows to look up bakswitching type. To people searching Google for a compatibility list, this is really the easiest option for them. I get: You don't like the Retron 77. You've mentioned it numerous times, lol, and I hate that my post triggers you so much, But please back off and let me continue my list, dude. Thanks. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted November 25, 2022 Share Posted November 25, 2022 1 minute ago, SmartSped said: I get: You don't like the Retron 77. You've mentioned it numerous times, lol, and I hate that my post triggers you so much, But please back off and let me continue my list, dude. Maybe you should know that I am member of the Stella team. 😁 And I only dislike the R77 cart slot, because of its lousy, not fixable implementation. Which leads to all kind of expectations, even anger towards the Stella team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted November 25, 2022 Author Share Posted November 25, 2022 1 minute ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: Maybe you should know that I am member of the Stella team. 😁 And I only dislike the R77 cart slot, because of its lousy, not fixable implementation. Which leads to all kind of expectations, even anger towards the Stella team. Well I appreciate your contributions to the development of Stella. Just know I don't have any expectations of you to fix what isn't fixable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhodgeshvs Posted November 30, 2022 Share Posted November 30, 2022 Hello. Do any of you know if the Hyperkin retro 77 is region free? Will it play most PAL carts?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmartSped Posted December 1, 2022 Author Share Posted December 1, 2022 3 hours ago, mhodgeshvs said: Hello. Do any of you know if the Hyperkin retro 77 is region free? Will it play most PAL carts?? It will work with both Pal and NTSC carts with some limitations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tripled79 Posted December 4, 2022 Share Posted December 4, 2022 Thanks for this. I just bought Breakout. Hope it works. I've had issues with Stella 6.6 working with my Retron 77 so I went back to the original software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted December 4, 2022 Share Posted December 4, 2022 2 hours ago, tripled79 said: I've had issues with Stella 6.6 working with my Retron 77 I suppose you experienced crashes, right? Then you should have a look at this thread and try the first community version which I linked in the last post. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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