Super-Genius! Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Here is a sneak-peak at the Flashback2. I have to tell you, it is really an excellent product! I plugged it into a 1702 monitor and the colors are so vibrant! The colors are impeccable, sounds perfect and games play exactly like the originals. The menu system is easy to navigate and use. The joysticks are great!! Did you think you would ever see a NEW Atari joystick? They look the same, but the internal design is MUCH better than the old ones. Of course my first matter of business was voiding the warranty by taking it apart! Below is what I found!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maibock Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 These are out already?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 (edited) Looks like the 5v regulator is simply floating, no heat sink. Guess the current stays low enough. Wonder how much juice Pitfall 2 through a cart connector would draw? Does using three single sided boards really save much money compared to a one piece double sided? Seems like the assembly costs with all those jumpers would negate it. There's also a lot of surface mount components. I could see where the caps are still needed, but the Michelle chip should have had capability for pullup resistors, FPGAs do. Edited July 12, 2005 by jsoper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 How did you get this so early? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 (edited) EDIT: Aha! I think I may have found the cause of the double post bug... if you "Preview Post", stop the browser, then preview again, it posts the first couple hundred bytes of your message. Edited July 12, 2005 by Bruce Tomlin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 (edited) Looks like the 5v regulator is simply floating, no heat sink. Guess the current stays low enough. Wonder how much juice Pitfall 2 through a cart connector would draw? Does using three single sided boards really save much money compared to a one piece double sided? Seems like the assembly costs with all those jumpers would negate it. There's also a lot of surface mount components. I could see where the caps are still needed, but the Michelle chip should have had capability for pullup resistors, FPGAs do. I'm sure this doesn't take much current at all. The 7805 only needs a heat sink if you run lots of current through it. I'm sure it can take 250ma with no heat sink, no problem. And it's not three single-sided boards, it's one single-sided board with clever saw cuts. I'm impressed. And only two dozen or so jumper wires. I'm sure that in quantity, a single-sided board costs a LOT less than a double-sided board with plate-through vias. The jumpers can be inserted by the parts placement robots. I like how the ROM was done. It's a blob chip on a surface-mount daughterboard, which should make it easier to remove/disable for cartridge slot/handheld mods. It looks like 0.05" pin spacing, which is big enough for a regular soldering iron and 30ga wire wrap wire. They even went to the trouble of including the color/BW switch on the back. Edited July 12, 2005 by Bruce Tomlin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Bruce - Glad you like it :-) Hey Mark - I was wondering what that big bulge was when you were leaving my office... here I was thinking you were just glad to see me Mark received a full production preview unit to examine for some testing purposes. Corey of 8bitclassics will also have a full production unit on display this coming weekend at the Video Game Summit. Curt Looks like the 5v regulator is simply floating, no heat sink. Guess the current stays low enough. Wonder how much juice Pitfall 2 through a cart connector would draw? Does using three single sided boards really save much money compared to a one piece double sided? Seems like the assembly costs with all those jumpers would negate it. There's also a lot of surface mount components. I could see where the caps are still needed, but the Michelle chip should have had capability for pullup resistors, FPGAs do. I'm sure this doesn't take much current at all. The 7805 only needs a heat sink if you run lots of current through it. I'm sure it can take 250ma with no heat sink, no problem. And it's not three single-sided boards, it's one single-sided board with clever saw cuts. I'm impressed. And only two dozen or so jumper wires. I'm sure that in quantity, a single-sided board costs a LOT less than a double-sided board with plate-through vias. The jumpers can be inserted by the parts placement robots. I like how the ROM was done. It's a blob chip on a surface-mount daughterboard, which should make it easier to remove/disable for cartridge slot/handheld mods. It looks like 0.05" pin spacing, which is big enough for a regular soldering iron and 30ga wire wrap wire. They even went to the trouble of including the color/BW switch on the back. 890401[/snapback] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Bruce, Another thing to note - I made sure all of the contact points for the cart were kept close to the Michele chip so that if someone wants to do a portable with cart slot, they can saw the board in that area and retain most of the needed key solder points to lessen their work in making it a portable. Curt Looks like the 5v regulator is simply floating, no heat sink. Guess the current stays low enough. Wonder how much juice Pitfall 2 through a cart connector would draw? Does using three single sided boards really save much money compared to a one piece double sided? Seems like the assembly costs with all those jumpers would negate it. There's also a lot of surface mount components. I could see where the caps are still needed, but the Michelle chip should have had capability for pullup resistors, FPGAs do. I'm sure this doesn't take much current at all. The 7805 only needs a heat sink if you run lots of current through it. I'm sure it can take 250ma with no heat sink, no problem. And it's not three single-sided boards, it's one single-sided board with clever saw cuts. I'm impressed. And only two dozen or so jumper wires. I'm sure that in quantity, a single-sided board costs a LOT less than a double-sided board with plate-through vias. The jumpers can be inserted by the parts placement robots. I like how the ROM was done. It's a blob chip on a surface-mount daughterboard, which should make it easier to remove/disable for cartridge slot/handheld mods. It looks like 0.05" pin spacing, which is big enough for a regular soldering iron and 30ga wire wrap wire. They even went to the trouble of including the color/BW switch on the back. 890401[/snapback] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Yes. We love you Curt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinball22 Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 *hugs Curt* Now when is it the rest of us can get one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maibock Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 I mean really, How cool is that? A commercial product with the hobbyists in mind as well. Can't wait to get one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+johnnywc Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Awesome!!! Any review on the new games, in particular Pong, Yars' Return, Lunar Lander, Space Duel & Caverns??? Thanks!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Thag Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Very nice! It was really cool to hear that Infogrames/Atari actually listens and learns from their mistakes. I'll definately be getting one of these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 Awesome!!! Any review on the new games, in particular Pong, Yars' Return, Lunar Lander, Space Duel & Caverns??? Thanks!!! 890485[/snapback] Don't forget Asteroids Deluxe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 man i cant wait to get one of these and try space deul among many others! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vb_master Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 (edited) I am going to get this, and make a portable! Curt, how do you attach the cart slot, can you get some pics? Edited July 12, 2005 by vb_master Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehenciak Posted July 12, 2005 Share Posted July 12, 2005 but the Michelle chip should have had capability for pullup resistors, FPGAs do. 890349[/snapback] Depends on the process used to fabricate the chip as well as available standard components. FPGAs pack all those goodies in the I/O structure for maximum flexibility given all the silly IO standards they have to support these days! If you had to design an IO structure by hand with pullups,cost might have won out (a typical custom layout of a simple structure like this can run up to $50K + risk even if designed in the Far East). Risk would be low though since you don't need anything precise for a pullup and a poly resistor would be fine. However, if they were available, then, well, maybe in Rev. 2 they could be added. This thing looks too friggin cool...has anyone started beating it up with lots of different games? Just curious, what is the frequency of the clock on the FB2.0 ... there is an external crystal there ... I suspect a 4 * NTSC / PAL clock based on my adventures ! Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Okay... I'm going to have to get one of these things. Or two. One to play, one to hack. Very, very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Yep. I'm most likely down to get 2 as well. One to keep/play and one to hack. I want to make a portable 2600 with a 5" screen or bigger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 The joysticks are great!! Did youthink you would ever see a NEW Atari joystick? They look the same, but the internal design is MUCH better than the old ones. 890334[/snapback] How about some joystick photos to see the new design? Thanx! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SpiceWare Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Okay... I'm going to have to get one of these things. Or two. One to play, one to hack. Very, very cool. 890626[/snapback] My thoughts as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy the Atarian Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 This reminds me that I need to drop by my local Wal-Mart and Target and find out when they expect to get these in. I haven't been this excited about a hardware release in a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow460 Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Think I may hafta buy one of these. When it's not in use, I'll use the sticks with my 7800. Someone should have the 20 new games avaiable on cart soon enough, which will also work in the 7800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panamajoe Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 I definitly want to get one or two of these! But: do i have to import them, or will they come to europe in a PAL version?? Any info on that?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iguana Posted July 13, 2005 Share Posted July 13, 2005 Mine is on order thanks to 8 bit clasics 'WHen 8 was enouph". Got to love those contests!!! I am really looking forward to getting my hands on it too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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