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Scott Stilphen

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Posts posted by Scott Stilphen

  1. Atari 2600+ My experiences and helpful information

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    6 hours ago, CrossBow said:

    Unless the audio is actually following the movement on the screen properly...it isn't stereo. In Combat, if I move my tank or plane from the left to the right, I expect the sounds to follow suite. But they do NOT. Player 1 sounds are always heard from the left and player 2 on the right.

    The definition of stereo is sound that is directed through two or more speakers so that it seems to surround the listener and to come from more than one source.  It's also referred to as stereophonic sound.  The VCS has 2 sound channel and was originally designed to have 2 internal speakers, with each player having their own speaker.

    What you're describing is audio panning, where a sound starts off in one channel and moves over to another channel.  A lot of albums and movie soundtracks do this, but you can't have one without the other :)  In other words, having a stereo sound system doesn't mean you'll always have audio panning, but audio panning requires a stereo sound system.

  2. Atari 2600+ My experiences and helpful information

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    On 11/22/2023 at 10:13 AM, CrossBow said:

    So my initial thoughts are that I think this is a great first step from this new Atari in trying to appeal to as many audiences as possible. There seems to be a lot more market hype on this 2600+ release than anything else Atari related I've seen in well over a decade and I do believe this will get non retro gamers back and into the hobby. With updates made to the console FW or outright hacking it in the future, I'm sure more games will be made to work and that will increase sales of the 2600+ and home brew along with games second hand. I see all of that as a good thing and it might signal a true actual rebirth for Atari and interest in the hobby.

     

    Though seeing Atari in the news for releasing new games and hardware is nice, as good as Atari CEO Wade Rosen's intentions behind them may be, I see the 2600+ and Gamestation Pro as yet more rushed-to-market fodder.  Since both systems recently came out, I'm guessing they both use the same version emulators.  The 7800 emulator is apparently a version from as far back as 2009.  And if not for the Stella team getting involved, that emulator version would have been much older as well.  So, like the Retron 77 and some of the later Flashbacks, it's likely up to others to figure out how to upgrade them.  But the emulator issues aside, some people are already reporting other issues with them, from conflicting compatibility accounts with certain games, to systems freezing up.  One person even found a loose screw rattling around inside his 2600+.  The dipswitch multicarts are just laughable.  Those were barely acceptable 20 years ago, and 20 years before that, similar pirate multicarts that were commonly found overseas, but they weren't a thing back-in-the-day in the U.S.,and nobody in the U.S. is looking at them with any nostalgia in 2023.  They just make the 2600+ look like the overseas knockoff that it really is.  Why not just sell the 2600+ with hundreds of games built-in, and relegate the cartridge-dumping port as a rarely-used feature, instead of a critical one?  Does the single-sided piece of paper that's serving as the system's manual even mention how to clean the edge connector in cartridges if they don't work?  And given how most people buying this likely won't be involved in online message boards or even be aware of them, will try some old carts, find they won't work, and end up returning the system? (those with a Retron 77, did you find using carts with that to be a similar experience of having to clean cartridges that might otherwise work fine with a real VCS?)  Then you have Atari's campaign of "No cartridge left behind", when the Driving and keypad controllers don't work, and as for the light gun, it wouldn't matter if it did or not because the system only offers HDMI output, so you can't hook up the system to a CRT (unless you get an HDMI-to-RCA adapter.  And oh yeah, you can't plug the system into an AC outlet because no adapter was included.  No, these systems shouldn't have been released as-is, but now that they're out, the community will do all the real-world QC testing that Atari should have done.  Maybe the next version of them will fix some of these issues, but I've been telling myself that over the Flashbacks, and after 20 years of Atari releasing dozens of versions of those, they're still full of problems.  I've said it before and I'll continue to say it - nothing beats having a real system.

     

  3. Atari introduces NEW CARTRIDGE-BASED ATARI 2600+

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    On 9/26/2023 at 3:09 PM, Sabertooth said:

    Here's my use case for the 2600+. On certain games, particularly GCC titles, I lose signal on my HD sets. This is on about 10 different 2600 and 7800 consoles on two 4K sets. All accessible processing on the TV is turned off.

    The Retron77 mostly worked for this but is incompatible with certain legacy carts, homebrew, the XP line and 7800 carts. While I would have preferred an FPGA solution for homebrew/SD cart compatibility, I appreciate the effort here.

    I'm not sure the 2600+ will be any better:

    "The 2600+ outputs a 720P signal. Although it seems this isn't quite a standard 720P signal as my TV takes a second or two to lock in and show the output. Also, my capture device in the game room usually has no issue with 480P, 720P, and 1080P sources. But it does NOT like the 720P from the 2600+ and stays in pass through mode. So I'm not currently able to get any direct captures from the 2600+ output."

    The 2600+ also has its share of issues running certain legacy carts - both VCS and 7800, and the version of the Prosystem 7800 emulator is apparently at least 14 years old and won't run any hacks or homebrews.

  5. Atari 2600+ My experiences and helpful information

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    20 hours ago, CrossBow said:

    Yeah I was surprised when he title music was coming out of different channels in the game room and when the game played and the sounds were following the fireballs etc. First actual true stereo 2600 game I guess? Although I hear that Skeleton+ has the same actual stereo in the game.

    The homebrew games I know of that have stereo audio are:

    A-VCS-tec Challenge
    Medieval Mayhem
    Skeleton+
    Synthcart
    Toyshop Trouble

    https://www.ataricompendium.com/faq/faq.html#hardware16

  7. Atari 5200 Voice Synthesizer Module

    in Atari 5200

    Posted · Edited by Scott Stilphen

    The voice module was first mentioned at the Summer 1982 CES show in Chicago.  RS Baseball was first mentioned in the March/April 1983 issue of Atari Age magazine, but makes no mention of it having voice. Matthew Hubbard did the initial programming for the game, before leaving for Activision.  Jim Andreasen took it over.  Keith Hayena mentioned at CGE2K7 that consultants Larry Car (sp?) and Andy Barber (sp?) devised a method to insert digitized sounds into a program, and Hayenga used it to add voice to the game.  Programmer Frank Hausman was able to adapt a voice compression algorithm developed by Electronic Speech Systems into the game.  According to the V1N6 March/April 1983 issue of Atari Age, this was to be available in April for $31.95, but it didn't appear for sale until the Sept/Oct issue for $28.95.  Michael Current says it was released November 1983: https://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/wci_games.html

    Whether or not an actual voice synthesizer module was being developed or not, we don't know.  Atari had the habit of announcing a lot of things back then that ended up being vaporware (5200 keyboard, expansion module, etc).  I'm sure the voice module was talked about in-house, especially since the Intellivision had one in 1982, as did the Odyssey2.  Remember, Atari's Marketing was looking to one-up Mattel's Intellivision with the 5200, which is why the controllers were designed the way they are, with having a keypad and a "360 degree" joystick, which was deemed far superior to the Intellivision's 16-position pad controller.  But it took Atari a year from announcing a VCS Adaptor to finally releasing it, and it's possible that if a voice module was being worked on, the development of RS Baseball being delayed to add voice into the game probably convinced someone within Atari that the module wasn't needed if voice could be done in software.  Besides, Mattel's Voice Module wasn't the runaway success it had hoped for:

    https://history.blueskyrangers.com/hardware/intellivoice.html

     

    5200_ad.jpg

    5200_baseball.jpg

    5200_berzerk.jpg

     

    eg_oct82.jpg

  8. Which model of the Atari VCS/2600 do people usually prefer ?

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    On 9/30/2023 at 12:07 PM, TrekMD said:

    Survival Island and Sword of Saros are the ones you could mail order that were artless and boxless..  There are now sleeves for those cassettes and box art as well that has been created. 

     

    Here's the cassette case art that is fan created for both...

    SurvivalIslandCase.png.9201a3bc881081eb47e2d2003eda0c9d.png

    SwordofSarosCase.png.de8ad6b8f5320fef858b70ffd8ffc4e7.png

     

    That Sword of Saros box art was originally created for Excalibur, which was later renamed Dragonstomper:

     

    page 8.png

  10. SOLD: Complete Atari 5200 Super System package!

    in For Sale

    Posted · Edited by Scott Stilphen

    Everything has been tested and works.  Includes:

    original 4-port model system (with box and original foam packing!)
    power supply (w/ box)
    TV switch box
    2 joystick controllers (tested and working!)
    1 custom paddle controller!
    Trak-Ball controller (with manual, box, and original foam packing!)
    24 cartridges!  List:

    Centipede (boxed)
    Countermeasure
    Defender
    Football (w/ manual)
    Frogger (boxed)
    Galaxian
    Joust (w/ manual)
    Kangaoo
    Missile Command
    Moon Patrol
    Ms. Pac-Man (boxed)
    Pac-Man (boxed)
    Pole Position
    Popeye (boxed)
    Q*bert (boxed)
    Qix
    RealSports Baseball (w/ manual)
    Space Dungeon
    Space Invaders
    Soccer (w/ manual)
    Star Raiders
    Super Breakout (boxed)
    Vanguard
    Wizard of Wor

    The protective plastic is still on the aluminum name plates on both the system and Trak-Ball controller!  Price $350 plus shipping.  PM me if interested, thanks.

     

     

     

     

  15. Lost Credit: The Secret Atari Heroes of GCC

    in Atari 7800

    Posted

    Here's the list that was shown in the video.  Doug seems to claim VCS Choplifter, 7800 Millipede, 7800 Track & Field, and 7800 Adventure were done.  7800 AtariLab is also interesting in that it notes Dave Crane worked on it.  I'm guessing this was similar to the AtariLab modules that were done for the Atari 800, which were designed by David Egolf of Dickinson College.

     

    gcc_list_1.jpg

    gcc_list_2.jpg

  16. Video Chess

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    AFAIK the bug has never been confirmed.  The latest take on this is the color cycling routine fooled people into thinking the computer was cheating and moving pieces.  When the computer stops thinking and the board returns, the color-cycling routine will be running and some pieces can become invisible, and it appears board positions have changed.  As soon as you move the controller, they all reappear.

    https://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/easter_eggs/vcs/26videochess.html

  17. Atari introduces NEW CARTRIDGE-BASED ATARI 2600+

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    4 hours ago, alex_79 said:

    Just to add another example: "Custer's Revenge" (lots of 2600 "porn" games in that list!) is listed twice! The second time referred as "Swedish Erotica: Custer's Revenge". One is marked as "pass", the other as "untested"....😄

    lol I missed that one.  I'm surprised people on AA aren't holding that Atari PR rep to task more about that list, besides one person (and as soon as he started asking some serious questions and voicing some notable concerns, the rep stopped replying to him).  I guess most people are fine spending $130 for another emulator box that doesn't support everything... when there's plenty of original systems around. 

  18. Atari introduces NEW CARTRIDGE-BASED ATARI 2600+

    in Atari 2600

    Posted · Edited by Scott Stilphen

    Which homebrews even use the Aria pcb?  I can find very little info about that, or even a photo of it, only that it exists.

    The Harmony and I think even the Krokodile can be configured to act like a single game cartridge, but how many people are going to be willing to reflash the BIOS on their carts to do that?  I mean, if you already have those carts, you have a real system to use them on 🙂

    The compatibility list that Atari has on their site had some odd/incorrect entries.  They're currently only claiming 3 carts don't work on the 2600+:

    RealSports Boxing
    Super Cobra
    Texas Chainsaw Massacre

    RealSports Boxing is a 16K game that uses Atari's standard F6 bank-switching.  Not counting Atari's 16K carts that also used the SARA chip, here's a list of all the other 16K carts that use F6 bank-switching:

    Acid Drop - pass
    BMX Air Master - pass
    California Games - pass
    Commando - untested
    Crossbow - pass
    Double Dragon - pass
    Double Dunk - pass
    Fighter Pilot - pass
    Ghostbusters II - pass
    Ikari Warriors - pass
    KLAX - pass
    Midnight Magic - pass
    Millipede - pass
    MotoRodeo - pass
    Pete Rose Baseball - pass
    Pick 'N' Pile - pass
    Rampage - pass
    River Raid II - pass
    Road Runner - pass
    Sentinel - pass
    Solaris - pass
    Summer Games - pass
    Super Action Pack - untested
    Super Baseball - pass
    Tomcat - The F-14 Fighter Simulator - untested
    Track & Field - pass
    Winter Games - pass
    Xenophobe - pass

    Atari notes that out of those, all but 3 passed, with 3 being untested.  So what's different about RealSports Boxing?

    Super Cobra is an 8K game that uses Parker Brothers' E0 bank-switching.  All of PB's 8K games use this same bank-switching method:

    Frogger II: Threeedeep!
    Gyruss
    James Bond 007
    Lord of the Rings, The: Journey to Rivendell
    Montezuma's Revenge
    Mr. Do!'s Castle
    Popeye
    Q*Bert's Qubes
    Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - Death Star Battle
    Star Wars: The Arcade Game
    Tutankham

    The only other cart that uses that bank-switching is DSD Camelot's Tooth Protectors.

    Which brings us to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  TCM is a 4K game!  How the hell does this not work, when Wizard Video Games only other VCS cart, Halloween, is noted by Atari as working?

    The list is rife with errors, so it's questionable as to how accurate the info is.  As someone on Atariage mentioned, there's several rare and valuable carts listed as testing good (Air Raid, Gamma-Attack, Save The Whales, etc), as well as several overseas pirate variations, but they didn't have access to a copy of Star Wars Death Star Battle or The Arcade Game to test?  All the Starpath Supercharger cassette games are listed as untested, but the Supercharger itself is not listed.

    Scraper Caper is listed, which is a vaporware title!

    Atari's Signal Tracing cart is listed, even though it's not a game but rather a diagnostic tool.

    Sentinel is listed as working, but this is a light gun game and thus the gun won't work on any (LCD) flat-screen TVs!

    Rob Fulop's Actionauts is listed as untested, but again it's 4K.

    The Back To School Pak is just a combo BASIC Programming and Brain Games package (along with keypad controllers), and both games are listed separately (and marked as passing).  We know the keypads don't work on the Retron77, so is that going to be an issue with the 2600+?

    The Racing Pak is another combo Indy 500 and Slot Racers (along with a set of Driving controllers).  Again, both games are listed separately and marked as passing.  Are the Driving Controllers an issue?

    Single Xonox carts are listed as good, but double-ender carts are marked as untested.  For example, they claim Chuck Norris Superkicks and Ghost Manor work (separately) but are marked untested as a combo cart?  LOL Yeah, there's no difference. They're all 8K games and all use Atari's standard F8 bank-switching.

    A pirate game like Mafia is listed untested, but "Gangsta Alley" (Gangster Alley), is listed as passing.  It's a 4K game, so any pirate variations of any 2K or 4K games should work.

    I could list more examples, but suffice to say this list of theirs just reeks of being thrown together by someone who isn't knowledgeable about the system's library of titles, and the testing results just don't make much sense.  If you test one F8 or F6 cartridge and it works, then they should all work.  If not, then there's a timing issue with the cart dumping aspect, as you mentioned there is with the Retron77.  I'll attach a quick list of the incompatibility issues between the Retron 77 and 2600+ that I've compiled from other folks:

    https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/documents/retron77_atari_plus_incompatibility_list.zip

    Part of the problems with the Retron77 was it shipped with an old version of Stella.  Once people started upgrading the system with a newer version, more of the games started to work.  Luckily the system has a USB port which allowed for this to be done.  What we don't know (yet) is if the 2600+ has one as well.  If it doesn't, it might be possible to open it up and mod it to have one.

    Atari's whole "No Cartridge Left Behind" claim is just begging someone to sue them over the fact the 2600+ can't run every cartridge, especially since they're already claiming 3 won't.  There was recently a lawsuit with a vinyl company who claimed they offered a "1-step process", which they didn't.  A class action lawsuit was filed and a settlement with the customers reached:
     
    https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/if-you-purchased-a-mobile-fidelity-sound-lab-original-master-recording-or-ultradisc-one-step-vinyl-record-the-mofi-records-you-could-get-a-payment-from-a-class-action-settlement-301867709.html

    My advice to Atari is, either do some serious testing and come clean with any and all incompatibility issues with the 2600+, or sit back and wait for the lawyers to come knocking.

     

     

     

  19. Atari introduces NEW CARTRIDGE-BASED ATARI 2600+

    in Atari 2600

    Posted · Edited by Scott Stilphen

    On 8/23/2023 at 2:58 PM, RickR said:

    I guess the waiting point for me is knowing if something like the Harmony cart will work on this new 2600+.  If no, I don't think it's the right device for me.  But I still may pull the trigger on it anyway just because it is so cool.

     

    Harmony carts won't work with it because they use an ARM processor (not simply because of bank-switching like Pat mentioned in his video).

    https://forums.atariage.com/topic/354589-atariage-atari-qa/?do=findComment&comment=5311745

    Same goes for every cart that uses either an Aria or Melody pcb. 

    The system also won't run any original games that include extra hardware (Pitfall II with the DPC, CBS games that have a RAM Plus chip, etc) - 'super chip' games:

    https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/articles/longevity/longevity.html

    It also won't run any carts using unique bank-switching beyond common methods like Atari's F8.

    Something else about the 2600+ that's now been confirmed by a member of the Stella emulator team - like the Retron77, it's running the Stella emulator, however Atari is not paying the Stella team for use of it:

    https://forums.atariage.com/topic/354589-atariage-atari-qa/?do=findComment&comment=5312604

    The 2600+ was developed by a game developer called Plaion: https://newatlas.com/games/plaion-atari-2600-plus-console/

    Unlike say MAME, Stella is free to be used by anybody, but the fact that Atari is now selling it w/o compensating the Stella team for it, coupled with the fact that Atari is keen on selling repackaged original VCS games like Outlaw and Yars' Revenge for between $50-$100 only reminds me of how far removed from the original Atari Wade Rosen's Atari is.  Considering how Atari has recently buying up IPs of other companies (https://forums.atariage.com/topic/350947-atari-acquisition-megathread-stern-nightdive-accolade-m-network-and-now-atariage/), they could have easily compensated the Stella team.  Those who have kept the VCS alive for me are all the homebrew programmers - everyone from Ed Federmeyer, Bob Colbert, and Harry Dodgson to Andrew Davie, Thomas Jentzsch, and John Champeau.  Those are the people worth supporting.

  20. Atari XP Physical Releases - Atari Releasing New Atari 2600 Game Cartridges!

    in Atari 2600

    Posted

    On 8/4/2023 at 9:21 AM, Sabertooth said:

    It doesn't appear so. They did involve Tim in the creation of the key art for the VR game Pixel Ripped 1978. It would be cool if they used the same approach for the XP line.

    "TrogdarRobusto" is an Atari rep.

    https://forums.atariage.com/topic/354589-atariage-atari-qa/page/24/

    "Tim is actually helping us source artists now for new key art. We usually do two illustrations per game, so we have an alternate for special physical versions. Atari created key art, we need to return to that standard from the golden era. That is a big focus, and important to me personally. We may not always nail it, but we are trying. "

  21. Atari introduces NEW CARTRIDGE-BASED ATARI 2600+

    in Atari 2600

    Posted · Edited by Scott Stilphen

    The Berzerk Enhanced Edition is NOT the same as Mike Mika's Berzerk - Voice Enhanced version that he released in 2002.  The new version offers robots with diagonal shooting.

    The system is most certainly running an emulator.  The CPU is the same as used in the Retron77, which means the 2600+ has all the same incompatibility problems as the Retron77.  This also means flash carts like the Harmony and ARM-based homebrews won't work.  Also, the games listed on Atari's compatibility chart marked as 'untested' very likely don't work.  In other words, it's just another Retron77, with the additional feature of being able to run 7800 carts.  It's odd that the system is compatible with 7800 carts, yet the only joystick being sold is the standard (1-button) model.

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