Have You Played Atari Today?

[famicommander]

To anybody who bought Atari 50, which should be everybody who likes Atari, they just added a bunch of free games in an update:

• Adventure II (homebrew) – 2600
• Bowling – 2600
• Double Dunk – 2600
• Maze Craze – 2600
• Miniature Golf – 2600
• MotoRodeo – 2600
• Aquaventure (prototype) – 2600
• Save Mary (prototype) – 2600
• Super Football – 2600
• Return to Haunted House (homebrew) – 2600
• Circus Atari – 2600
• Warbirds – Lynx

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

I didn't buy it. They already did compilations on the Atari 8-bit home computers. Only Tak and I like these games anyway.

 

[Viewpoint]

To anybody who bought Atari 50, which should be everybody who likes Atari, they just added a bunch of free games in an update:

• Adventure II (homebrew) – 2600
• Bowling – 2600
• Double Dunk – 2600
• Maze Craze – 2600
• Miniature Golf – 2600
• MotoRodeo – 2600
• Aquaventure (prototype) – 2600
• Save Mary (prototype) – 2600
• Super Football – 2600
• Return to Haunted House (homebrew) – 2600
• Circus Atari – 2600
• Warbirds – Lynx

Yeah I got this update. This is honestly an amazingly well done collection.

 

[famicommander]

Yeah I got this update. This is honestly an amazingly well done collection.

It's honestly the best thing Atari has put out since Tempest 2000

 

[snes_collector]

I wish there was a modern solution for playing Atari 5200. I picked up a collection a few years ago and enjoy playing the games more than I expected but the amount of space the system takes up is nuts. I think I'll sell it all locally sometime in the near future just due to the amount of space in takes up. Here is what I have:

Spoiler:

[/spoiler}

 

[Takumaji]

Atari - A New Hope?

Planned updates include (taken from an AA post by Ben from Plaion):

- 7800 emulation upgrade
- 7800 dumper upgrade to fix reported PAL cart errors and enable homebrew
- 2600 PAL colour palette change to z26
- 2600 dumper upgrade to fix Realsports Boxing, Circus Convoy, CBS RAM Plus and M-Network games
- 2600 difficulty switch reversal
- 2600/7800 auto detect cart region for 50/60hz display

Sounds good so far if you ask me, seems they're aware of most probs and are trying to fix them.

 

[sirlynxalot]

Ya know, seems like they could offer the same guts in a 75 percent scale 7800 shell and easily have a 7800 console offering as well for their 2600+ since it's already designed to be 7800 compatible. Maybe you say that there aren't enough 7800 fans... But I bet there are collectors who would buy both editions even if functionality is identical.

 

[famicommander]

Atari - A New Hope?

Planned updates include (taken from an AA post by Ben from Plaion):

- 7800 emulation upgrade
- 7800 dumper upgrade to fix reported PAL cart errors and enable homebrew
- 2600 PAL colour palette change to z26
- 2600 dumper upgrade to fix Realsports Boxing, Circus Convoy, CBS RAM Plus and M-Network games
- 2600 difficulty switch reversal
- 2600/7800 auto detect cart region for 50/60hz display

Sounds good so far if you ask me, seems they're aware of most probs and are trying to fix them.

They won't say what the 7800 emulation upgrade actually is, though. Unless they change to a completely different emulator they're just putting lipstick on a pig.

And this is all shit that they should have anticipated and fixed before they ever released it. They don't get credit for upgrading their 2023 product to "almost plays as many games as an actual Atari 7800 or 2600" months after they started taking people's money for it. They should have tested every single cart before they even finalized anything. If they have money for hotels, crypto scams, buying AtariAge, buying a bunch of game studios, etc then they should have the money to buy a stack of Atari carts.

 

[Pinball]

It needs to support 7800GD and 2600 Harmony Encore everdrives. Ideally 5200 Atarimax everdrive too. This is the last hurrah for Atari consoles, and we all know it.

 

[famicommander]

It needs to support 7800GD and 2600 Harmony Encore everdrives. Ideally 5200 Atarimax everdrive too. This is the last hurrah for Atari consoles, and we all know it.

Are you high?

They're going to release a slightly different iteration of it every year for the next decade just like they did with the Flashbacks. Hell, this thing is one of at least four piece of shit emulation boxes Atari has released this year alone.

 

[Pinball]

I wish there was a modern solution for playing Atari 5200. I picked up a collection a few years ago and enjoy playing the games more than I expected but the amount of space the system takes up is nuts. I think I'll sell it all locally sometime in the near future just due to the amount of space in takes up. Here is what I have:

Spoiler:

View attachment 69967
View attachment 69968
View attachment 69969
View attachment 69970
View attachment 69971
[/spoiler}

It is amusingly huge. I have a mint example with carts, and also bought a 5200 Atarimax everdrive, but really we need something like the 7800GD with a good (i.e. RGB) AV output. Composite doesn't cut it. Currently my best way of playing 5200 games is Batocera emulation, despite me actually having a sodding 5200 console!

 

[Pinball]

.

 

[Pinball]

It's honestly the best thing Atari has put out since Tempest 2000

Tempest 2000 and Defender 2000 are my favourite games on the Jag. Minter has something to do with this :-)

 

[Takumaji]

They won't say what the 7800 emulation upgrade actually is, though. Unless they change to a completely different emulator they're just putting lipstick on a pig.

And this is all shit that they should have anticipated and fixed before they ever released it. They don't get credit for upgrading their 2023 product to "almost plays as many games as an actual Atari 7800 or 2600" months after they started taking people's money for it. They should have tested every single cart before they even finalized anything. If they have money for hotels, crypto scams, buying AtariAge, buying a bunch of game studios, etc then they should have the money to buy a stack of Atari carts.

Agreed, but it's the sign of the times, let's release something and fix shit later on coz we can. Maybe they were aware of *some* of the problems but wanted to get the thing out for the holiday season or simply as you said didn't do enough testing.

Either way, it's good to see some problems getting fixed, let's see what comes next. Call me a goob but I still have a gleam of hope left.

 

[Pinball]

I think it's good if they are still fixing stuff.

 

[Pinball]

Atari - A New Hope?

Planned updates include (taken from an AA post by Ben from Plaion):

- 7800 emulation upgrade
- 7800 dumper upgrade to fix reported PAL cart errors and enable homebrew
- 2600 PAL colour palette change to z26
- 2600 dumper upgrade to fix Realsports Boxing, Circus Convoy, CBS RAM Plus and M-Network games
- 2600 difficulty switch reversal
- 2600/7800 auto detect cart region for 50/60hz display

Sounds good so far if you ask me, seems they're aware of most probs and are trying to fix them.

"7800 dumper upgrade to fix reported PAL cart errors and enable homebrew".

Does this mean the 7800GD will work?

Edit: I read the official firmware thread on AtariAge. The GD will probably not work.

When will there be a scheduled firmware update for the 2600+?

I see that there are several people testing carts and showing what the 2600+ can and can't play. Is there going to be an scheduled update for the 2600+? Just wondering if there is a date scheduled. Looking forward to playing my 2600+ more!

forums.atariage.com

 

[famicommander]

"7800 dumper upgrade to fix reported PAL cart errors and enable homebrew".

Does this mean the 7800GD will work?

No

 

[Pinball]

It's a shame, as nowadays it's very easy to play perfect emulations for free e.g. a Batocera build, particularly for old systems. My 2600+ is boxed up again now, and won't be used again. The original 7800 is still out though, and using the 7800GD HDMI works great with a RetroTINK 5X Pro, and SCART works too with an RGC lead.

 

[Takumaji]

It's a shame, as nowadays it's very easy to play perfect emulations for free e.g. a Batocera build, particularly for old systems. My 2600+ is boxed up again now, and won't be used again. The original 7800 is still out though, and using the 7800GD HDMI works great with a RetroTINK 5X Pro, and SCART works too with an RGC lead.

Don't wanna sound like an Atari apologist but I can tell from my own experience that building a convenient emulator box that accepts original carts and controllers and runs the games without having to interact with an OS or extended settings is more complex and error-prone than simply downloading an emulator with a couple of ROMs and running the lot from your desktop.

Most of the problems with the 2600+ seem to be centered around the memory mapping process after the cart contents have been dumped to RAM, this also is one of the issues that cause compatibility problems with the GD. In other words, it's not possible at the moment to run a menu-driven SD/multicart on the machine, that's why they added DIP switches to their 10-in-1 and 4-in-1 multicarts, after all.

From what I've read on Atariage, batari, the man behind GD, is looking into ways to solve the problem on the GD side, otherwise parts of the 2600+ firmware would have to be rewritten.

I for myself will wait for the update before writing the thing off.

 

[Takumaji]

Small PAL region update:

So far, the reprints of various 7800 titles have been limited to US-only shipping addresses, now they're going to release them in PAL regions as well. Three games have been announced so far, Fatal Run, Food Fight and Ninja Golf, for €29.99 each. Available on Amazon and other places. Preorders are open, release date is May 24th.

 

[famicommander]

Ninja Golf is fuckin' rad.

Good version of Food Fight too.

 

[zinho]

This thread has inspired me to play the Atari comp on Switch, also I think Tak is the man. My favorite game on it is Pong but it’s hard to find an opponent. Think I’ll play some Food Fight then. Sweet. But why did I rip the label out of my Frogger cart to make it more sleek?? Damn

 

[Takumaji]

fami,

I'm thinking of preordering Fatal Run, original PAL carts are quite expensive now, you rarely see them popping up for less than 100 bucks.

I would really love to have a PAL version of Robotron.

zinho,

you may also give Basketbrawl, Centipede and Dark Chambers a try. The latter is some sort of precursor of Gauntlet with great gameplay and high replay value (at least for me). Try clearing all the dungeons, will give you a nice challenge.