Have You Played Atari Today?

[zaneiken]

Does anyone know if this new release of Berserk is the same as the voice-enhanced Berserk hack that's been available on AtariAge forever?

 

[Takumaji]

No, it's more enhanced and also has arcade-correct colours. Robots can shoot diagonally now and there are the voice samples.

 

[Arcademan]

No, it's more enhanced and also has arcade-correct colours. Robots can shoot diagonally now and there are the voice samples.

The game that the robots could shoot diagonally was called Frenzy, the nasty-ass sequel to Berzerk
Berzerk:

Frenzy:

 

[Takumaji]

Thanks for the info, Arcademan.

The new Berzerk Enhanced is great, the diagonally-shooting robots really up the ante in later levels, you have to be way more careful when approaching them which makes clearing a room much more challenging and fun for me. Firing speed of the robots gets faster and faster, up to a point when you are greeted with a deadly and fast hail of laser blasts from all directions when entering a room. Random placement of robots also causes hilarious situations when the engine places a couple of robots right next or above/below you. Quick reflexes will help to clear the room in an instant in this situation but do a wrong move and you're dead in half a second. Love twitchy games like that.

As it has been mentioned, there was an enhanced unofficial version before, it was released by Atariage in 2002 and made by Mike Mika. The hack mainly focussed on added voice samples which were missing in the official release, also the colours were corrected. The new enhanced version has more to offer than this but if you're mainly in the for voices, the hack is great if you can get it for a decent price.

 

[smokey]

Thanks for the info, Arcademan.

The new Berzerk Enhanced is great, the diagonally-shooting robots really up the ante in later levels, you have to be way more careful when approaching them which makes clearing a room much more challenging and fun for me. Firing speed of the robots gets faster and faster, up to a point when you are greeted with a deadly and fast hail of laser blasts from all directions when entering a room. Random placement of robots also causes hilarious situations when the engine places a couple of robots right next or above/below you. Quick reflexes will help to clear the room in an instant in this situation but do a wrong move and you're dead in half a second. Love twitchy games like that.

As it has been mentioned, there was an enhanced unofficial version before, it was released by Atariage in 2002 and made by Mike Mika. The hack mainly focussed on added voice samples which were missing in the official release, also the colours were corrected. The new enhanced version has more to offer than this but if you're mainly in the for voices, the hack is great if you can get it for a decent price.

But both carts don't work on a A7800 ? that is my way to play these games

 

[Takumaji]

But both carts don't work on a A7800 ? that is my way to play these games

If you're referring to A7800 the emulator, well, I'm not familiar with Atari emu, maybe fami could help you here.

If with A7800 you mean the original machine, Berzerk Enhanced works flawlessly on it, Mr Run And Jump does not, at least not on mine (PAL unit, UAV modded).

 

[smokey]

If you're referring to A7800 the emulator, well, I'm not familiar with Atari emu, maybe fami could help you here.

If with A7800 you mean the original machine, Berzerk Enhanced works flawlessly on it, Mr Run And Jump does not, at least not on mine (PAL unit, UAV modded).

I meant actual A7800 . Crap I do most of my A2600 gaming on that beast. Don't have an AV modded 2600 yet

 

[Pinball]

 

[Pinball]

7800 GameDrive - Retrotowers.co.uk

www.retrotowers.co.uk

Mega 7800 - Mega Drive Controller to Atari 7800 Adapter - Retrotowers.co.uk

The RetroHQ Mega 7800 is a controller adapter which allows you to use your Master System and Mega Drive controllers with your Atari 7800 or 2600

www.retrotowers.co.uk

 

[Arcademan]

Thanks for the info, Arcademan.

The new Berzerk Enhanced is great, the diagonally-shooting robots really up the ante in later levels, you have to be way more careful when approaching them which makes clearing a room much more challenging and fun for me. Firing speed of the robots gets faster and faster, up to a point when you are greeted with a deadly and fast hail of laser blasts from all directions when entering a room. Random placement of robots also causes hilarious situations when the engine places a couple of robots right next or above/below you. Quick reflexes will help to clear the room in an instant in this situation but do a wrong move and you're dead in half a second. Love twitchy games like that.

As it has been mentioned, there was an enhanced unofficial version before, it was released by Atariage in 2002 and made by Mike Mika. The hack mainly focussed on added voice samples which were missing in the official release, also the colours were corrected. The new enhanced version has more to offer than this but if you're mainly in the for voices, the hack is great if you can get it for a decent price.

I hated starting in a room and getting shot by a robot before you could even think about moving. Frustrating enough in Berzerk, triple it in Frenzy. Worse were the reflective white walls because there's nothing better than shooting and killing yourself. The wall dots on Frenzy are shoot away so not only can you cheat shooting the enemy, they do it to you in spades!

 

[Takumaji]

I hated starting in a room and getting shot by a robot before you could even think about moving. Frustrating enough in Berzerk, triple it in Frenzy. Worse were the reflective white walls because there's nothing better than shooting and killing yourself. The wall dots on Frenzy are shoot away so not only can you cheat shooting the enemy, they do it to you in spades!

The close placement of robots to the player or of the player to the electrified walls can be frustrating if a good run gets ruined by it, that's why I made it a habit to keep the fire button pressed when a new room starts to prevent running into a wall or robot. Of course that's not always helpful if there are shots coming in, gotta be on yer toes.

7800 GameDrive - Retrotowers.co.uk

www.retrotowers.co.uk

Mega 7800 - Mega Drive Controller to Atari 7800 Adapter - Retrotowers.co.uk

The RetroHQ Mega 7800 is a controller adapter which allows you to use your Master System and Mega Drive controllers with your Atari 7800 or 2600

www.retrotowers.co.uk

Thanks for the link, it's sold out again.

Would be nice if you could post your first impressions here.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Tank Pong is the greatest game ever made.

 

[Pinball]

Just to confirm that the 7800GD and Harmony Encore don't work on the 2600+. You get the message game failed to load. Pretty disappointing. I'm going to use the 7800GD with an original 7800 and MegaDrive 2 RAD2X HDMI connector (OSSC doesn't work with 7800GD).

The 2600+ is a great disappointment and I won't be using it, although the accessories will be useful. I guess the hedge fund sharks who own Atari now want to sell remake carts along with blank PCBs.

 

[Takumaji]

The 2600+ is a great disappointment and I won't be using it, although the accessories will be useful. I guess the hedge fund sharks who own Atari now want to sell remake carts along with blank PCBs.

Apart from that crazy 10-piece Atari 50 remake collection for 1000 bucks, some more remakes have popped up in the Atari shop, like Fatal Run and Dark Chambers for 7800 and more 2600 stuff for hefty prices. All of them except Berzerk Enhanced and Mr Run And Jump are labelled as "USA Exclusive".

Yeah, it's all quite disappointing. I like that you can buy new original Atari sticks and paddles now and also love the new Berzerk and Mr Run And Jump, even though the latter doesn't run properly on my 7800, but overall, I was hoping for a more proficient approach by people who know their shit when it comes to Atari and their history, they did a lot of things right with the Atari 50 collection, after all. There are compatibility problems which could have been prevented with proper testing, both the 2600 and 7800 were released word-wide so the PAL-incompatibilities (more than half of the PAL-versions of 7800 games don't work even though they are listed as working) is not acceptable.

 

[Pinball]

I totally agree- a really piss poor effort by so-called Atari, no less. I would be ashamed if I worked for Atari and produced this poorly functioning old emulator-based junk. Good God. The only plus for the 2600+ is that is was only £99.99 with lots of accessories, and it has an Atari logo that lights up.

I've therefore been testing my original PAL 7800 with the 7800GD (after updating the GD's firmware). Many of the NTSC games don't work although do load e.g. Klax. Other major issue is getting any AV output from the cart's MegaDrive 2 socket. I getting nothing with SCART -> OSSC -> HDMI, and nothing with RAD2X -> HDMI, despite RAD2X incorporating Retrotink. So I had to do an RF connection on a TV that still tunes analogue TV. Funny to see 1 channel pop up.

So the 7800GD still has a lot of issues to resolve, I think.

How do you get AV output from the 7800GD MegaDrive 2 socket? I know the Retrotink 5X Pro works, but with a house full of OSSCs I'd like to avoid having to buy that just for the 7800!

 

[Pinball]

This is what I tried, which apparently some folks can get to work. Does it have firmware to update??

 

[Takumaji]

Sorry, can't help you here, I would use the GD with a MD2 cable on a small Trinitron or one of my Commodore 1084S CRTs, don't have OSSC, Retrotink or any of that stuff yet.

 

[Pinball]

Thanks. Funnily enough, I tried it on a 1084S monitor today, composite cable. Didn't work.

 

[Takumaji]

Thanks. Funnily enough, I tried it on a 1084S monitor today, composite cable. Didn't work.

Was the picture black and white or did you get no output?

I would use a SCART/RGB version of the MD2 cable.

 

[famicommander]

Atari has no incentive to release a good device. If you go to AtariAge and point out the Gamestation Pro or the 2600+ suck, you'll be berated by a hundred idiots who will always buy anything with an Atari logo on the box no matter what. The same people who bought the shitass Atari Flashbacks 10 times in a row on the promise that "we really fixed the paddles this time, believe us" (spoiler: they never fixed the paddles).

The Atari fans say Atari should be commended for releasing these devices, and they're going to fix them with updates eventually anyway, so how dare you point out obvious flaws.

 

[Pinball]

Was the picture black and white or did you get no output?

I would use a SCART/RGB version of the MD2 cable.

I got no picture at all, probably as the output of the 7800 is RF, and the 1084S monitor is composite in (I realised this but thought I'd try anyway). I didn't have a composite lead to try with the 7800GD output. I did get 2 TVs to work with the RF signal, tuned for analogue TV, but crap picture of course.

You are spot on about SCART, as only the MD2 -> RGB SCART worked, when connected directly to a TV. It didn't however work when connected via OSSC -> HDMI, nor did a RAD2X MD2 -> HDMI work.

Basically, anything requiring signal processing didn't work. Something to do with sync issues. Apparently, the RetroTINK 5X Pro works as it has frame buffering that compensates for flaky/variable sync rates, making it the gold standard, whereas OSSC fails with flaky sync with older systems, as it has no frame buffering. I've bought a tink as my new go to scaler, therefore, although in fairness OSSC has worked with everything else I've got, pretty much.

 

[Takumaji]

I got no picture at all, probably as the output of the 7800 is RF, and the 1084S monitor is composite in (I realised this but thought I'd try anyway). I didn't have a composite lead to try with the 7800GD output. I did get 2 TVs to work with the RF signal, tuned for analogue TV, but crap picture of course.

You are spot on about SCART, as only the MD2 -> RGB SCART worked, when connected directly to a TV. It didn't however work when connected via OSSC -> HDMI, nor did a RAD2X MD2 -> HDMI work.

Basically, anything requiring signal processing didn't work. Something to do with sync issues. Apparently, the RetroTINK 5X Pro works as it has frame buffering that compensates for flaky/variable sync rates, making it the gold standard, whereas OSSC fails with flaky sync with older systems, as it has no frame buffering. I've bought a tink as my new go to scaler, therefore, although in fairness OSSC has worked with everything else I've got, pretty much.

This sounds like my journey to get the 7800 running on a decent monitor, somehow these old machines have a weird sync output. My 7800 is UAV modded, which means it has S-Video and stereo RCA outs and came with a HDMI adaptor and RGB SCART interface that also outputs Composite (it's a weird lil' device, never seen something like that before). Neither the RGB SCART interface, nor Composite fully work on any of my CRTs, I get a picture but it's b/w. The only monitor which accepts the signal is an old Dell 4:3 LCD PC monitor, picture quality is decent, although I'd much prefer a CRT.

Also tried a straight RF connection (works but pic is meh), connection via TV modulator (a Philips model, used it to watch TV on the 1084S, works, but...), various adaptors, even HDMI on a LG LCD (works, 7800 games look decent, 2600 games look like crap for some reason). I was close to shelling out big time for a NEC 4D multisync/multinorm monitor to solve the prob once and for all but then decided to stick to playing the 7800 on the Dell, it's good enough, I think I've put enough money and effort into it for now.

Also heard good things about Retrotink, gonna get me one of them one day, the CRTs won't last forever.

 

[Pinball]

BTW in case of interest I did some digging for the best romsets, and the following seem to be the most definitive (thanks to Mitch on AtariAge for the links). The fact that they include all the PAL versions of the games (as well as NTSC) is important for me, as the NTSC games just don't work properly on my PAL 7800:

7800 here - http://7800.8bitdev.org/index.php/Trebors_7800_ROM_PROPack
2600 here - http://www.atarimania.com/rom_collection_archive_atari_2600_roms.html

 

[Viewpoint]

BTW in case of interest I did some digging for the best romsets, and the following seem to be the most definitive (thanks to Mitch on AtariAge for the links). The fact that they include all the PAL versions of the games (as well as NTSC) is important for me, as the NTSC games just don't work properly on my PAL 7800:

7800 here - http://7800.8bitdev.org/index.php/Trebors_7800_ROM_PROPack
2600 here - http://www.atarimania.com/rom_collection_archive_atari_2600_roms.html

Dude Legit I didn't know about these sites. Thanks for posting this.

 

[Pinball]

Archive.org is also a great source for roms. The 'ultra romsets' for 7800 and 2600 have the most games.