I love my 7800!

[Rik]

I just started collecting for the 7800,and I love it.One of the things I love the most,is,it has a PAUSE BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!,its seems so retarded that while playing a game and racking up a high score,you have to go to the washroom,answer door,etc,and lose the game,yes,some games have pauses between waves,but with the pause button,of course,you can pause at ANY TIME,hot damn!.Its the only console I own with a pause button.I'm a little disappointed with the sound quality though,POLE POSITON 2,IS EXACTLY THE SAME SOUND AS ENDURO FOR THE 2600,I expected at least better engine sound,since it was a"7800",but not all games have such weak sound.Must be because of JACK TRAMIEL'S nit picking and skimping on quality,but thats another topic altogether.Does anyone know if MIDNIGHT MUTANTS was made for other consoles?or was just a 7800 exclusive?great game,I have 3 copys,loose,opened box,and a sealed box.

[+HatNJ]

I believe it was exclusive never heard of another console with it

Took me forever to find a new in box one and you got 1 loose 1 open 1 new

Nice find!!!!

 

BTW I love the game fun, indepth as compared to the other 7800 titles

fun to sit down with on cold rainy day in winter or fall

[shadow460]

All the time and frustration spent in collecting is worth it after all. Yeah, PPII's kind of a stinker, but there's worse (Jinks).

[Rik]

All the time and frustration spent in collecting is worth it after all. Yeah, PPII's kind of a stinker, but there's worse (Jinks).

Yes,indeed it is worth it!!!!!

Edited October 15, 2006 by Rik

[Rik]

I believe it was exclusive never heard of another console with it

Took me forever to find a new in box one and you got 1 loose 1 open 1 new

Nice find!!!!

 

BTW I love the game fun, indepth as compared to the other 7800 titles

fun to sit down with on cold rainy day in winter or fall

I got all my MIDNIGHT MUTANTS on E-bay,expensive route,but the quickest way for me to enjoy these raritys.

Edited October 15, 2006 by Rik

[Dauber]

I just got a 7800 recently, and I too am immensely enjoying it! I was kinda bummed that the pause button only works on 7800 games, but hey -- the console is great. Can't say much about the controllers, though -- then again, Atari wasn't exactly the king of controllers...I remember the CX-40 got a lot of flak....then the 5200 came out -- I don't remember many comments about it from then, but I do remember having a helluva time trying to play Pac-Man with it...the 7800 -- better controller than the 5200 but odd placement of the fire buttons....

 

Stuff that I've been digging for the 7800:

Food Fight

Galaga (I used to find this game boring!)

Dig Dug (still prefer the 8-bit version over any other home version)

Ms. Pac-Man

Ball Blazer

and the coolest Asteroids conversion I've ever seen!

 

BTW -- remember, the sound in the 7800 uses the exact same chip as the 2600...which of course makes me wonder why the sound in the 7800 version of Ms. Pac-Man is so much better than that of the 2600 version...but it would definitely explain the Enduro sounds on PPII.

[jboypacman]

Yeah,i got my 7800 earlier this year.I use it to play all my 2600 games on while my 2600 sit out on display on my shelf.There are some great 7800 games out there to play.BeefDrop,Ms.Pac-Man,Food Fight,Donkey Kong,Donkey Kong Jr.,and Asteroids are my favorites.Its sweet to that the 7800 has a pause button.Lots of fun.

[Rik]

I just got a 7800 recently, and I too am immensely enjoying it! I was kinda bummed that the pause button only works on 7800 games, but hey -- the console is great. Can't say much about the controllers, though -- then again, Atari wasn't exactly the king of controllers...I remember the CX-40 got a lot of flak....then the 5200 came out -- I don't remember many comments about it from then, but I do remember having a helluva time trying to play Pac-Man with it...the 7800 -- better controller than the 5200 but odd placement of the fire buttons....

 

Stuff that I've been digging for the 7800:

Food Fight

Galaga (I used to find this game boring!)

Dig Dug (still prefer the 8-bit version over any other home version)

Ms. Pac-Man

Ball Blazer

and the coolest Asteroids conversion I've ever seen!

 

BTW -- remember, the sound in the 7800 uses the exact same chip as the 2600...which of course makes me wonder why the sound in the 7800 version of Ms. Pac-Man is so much better than that of the 2600 version...but it would definitely explain the Enduro sounds on PPII.

ATARI released "super games"for the 7800,carts that had an extra chip inside them for better sound,graphics,BALL BLAZER was one,not sure if ms pac-man was one of them though.

Edited October 16, 2006 by Rik

[kenfused]

ATARI released "super games"for the 7800,carts that had an extra chip inside them for better sound,graphics,BALL BLAZER was one,not sure if ms pac-man was one of them though.

Well "super games" was mostly a marketing term. Many super games had RAM or POKEY on the cart but some did not. MS. Pacman is only a 16K ROM cart so nothing too super about it except it is a pretty good port, but probably could have been a lot better with more ROM at least in appearance.

[shadow460]

From what I understand the 7800's hardware being a little more capable has something to do with better sound coming from the TIA. I'm not sure how that works, but it seems that several 7800 titles have better sound than their 2600 counterparts. Others, inexcusably, have worse.

 

IIRC, most 2600 games still pause in the normal way, i.e., between lives or levels, between players' turns, etc. A few used the TV Type switch, so to get those to pause you'll need to hold down the Pause switch on the 7800 (handy, I know.)

[EricBall]

Only Ballblazer and Commando included POKEYs.

 

Good TIA sound & music is really dependent on the skill & artistry of the programmer.

 

And the POKEY isn't much better than the TIA. Sure it has four channels and wider frequency divisors, but it's the same LFSR based waveforms.

[Atarifever]

Only Ballblazer and Commando included POKEYs.

 

Good TIA sound & music is really dependent on the skill & artistry of the programmer.

 

And the POKEY isn't much better than the TIA. Sure it has four channels and wider frequency divisors, but it's the same LFSR based waveforms.

My Ballblazer game doesn't have any sound. I'm assuming that has something to do with the POKEY thing right? ANy quick fixes for that.

[Dauber]

Ball Blazer uses POKEY only for music, though, n'est-ce pas???

[Schmutzpuppe]

Only Ballblazer and Commando included POKEYs.

 

Good TIA sound & music is really dependent on the skill & artistry of the programmer.

 

And the POKEY isn't much better than the TIA. Sure it has four channels and wider frequency divisors, but it's the same LFSR based waveforms.

I don't think so.

The highpass filter makes a big difference and don't underestimate the wider frequency range and number of channels.

IMHO the Pokey is far superior even if I have to admit that the step from TIA to Pokey is more an evolution than a revolution.

[Schmutzpuppe]

Ball Blazer uses POKEY only for music, though, n'est-ce pas???

I guess it's Pokey only.

[supercat]

And the POKEY isn't much better than the TIA. Sure it has four channels and wider frequency divisors, but it's the same LFSR based waveforms.

 

The biggest limitation of the TIA sound is the use of 5-bit frequency dividers without any power-of-two prescalar. The 2600 sound capabilities could have been improved enormously with the addition of four NOR gates and the deletion of an inverter and a passgate.

 

On each audio channel, take /SCORE and NOR it with AUDCx.0. Take that and NOR it with a copy of A(phi)1 taken before the last passgate and inverter. Use that in place of A(phi)1 for the counter associated with the channel.

 

The effect of this would be even-numbered AUDCx modes would be one octave lower than they are now. Since most such modes are redundant, this would double the tonal range of the TIA with a net addition of 6 transistors and 3 resistors.

 

Actually, the effect could probably be achieved with the addition of four passgates and nothing else, but such a design might be a little dodgy.