Atari 7800 / 2600

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NML32
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by NML32 »

@Skooter, thank you. Do you mind if I link to your blog on my A2600 Google sheet for the patched ROMs?
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skooter
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by skooter »

@NLM32, I don't mind. Feel free to link it.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by NML32 »

skooter wrote: Fri Sep 18, 2020 3:14 pm @NLM32, I don't mind. Feel free to link it.
Thank you.
FYI, "Tapper (fixed) - original NTSC version with Omegamatrix fixes" The link requires permission to download the file.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by Pepeart »

I will try it tonight when I get home. Thank you for your help
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by skooter »

Thanks. I just changed the permissions and it should be available for anyone now.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by Pepeart »

Tapper works great!! It looks like turmoil its also 480i. Do you know if its been fixed like tapper? Thank you for your help.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by skooter »

Sorry, my explanation about Tapper was incomplete. The problem isn't the interlaced screen (480i) per se. The problem is that the programmer apparently attempted to make it interlaced but left some incorrect timings. This is the explanation posted by alex_79 in Atari Age forums in 2013:
BTW after looking more closely, the original NTSC version of Tapper seems to purposely enable and disable VSYNC on cycle 41 every other frame. Storing to VSYNC register takes 3 cycles, so the operation starts at cycle 38 which is exactly in the middle of a scanline. This could indicate that the programmer intention was to generate an interlaced signal, albeit the scanline count was wrong and the resulting "fields" had 261.5 scanlines each instead of 262.5 which should be the NTSC standard.
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/19345 ... try2872128

I don't remember any issues with Turmoil on the original hardware, even with 2600RGB + Framemeister/OSSC. I just tried it on MiSTer and it flickers when VBlank Regeneration is on, but works fine when this option is off. This is with the HDMI output.

There was a standard to be followed regarding the usage of VBlank and VSync in Atari 2600 games, as described in the Stella Programmer's Guide, so the game would work on any TV set, according to Atari research. But the programmers would often not follow the standard, either intentionally or unintentionally. CRTs were often forgiven about this, though I remember some poorly programmed games (like Condor Attack) failing even on CRTs (rolling image sometimes). Modern TVs don't like all those non-standard signals, though I don't know the exactly issues with PVMs, since they are still CRTs after all.

Now we basically have two paths: trying to fix each game that is out of the standard or adapting the Atari 2600 core to handle these issues in the best possible way. Either way I don't have the knowledge to handle these tasks. But I believe the second one is preferable, if possible.

As far as I know, Turmoil doesn't have a fixed version.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by Pepeart »

Thank you for the explanation
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by skooter »

One more info: I just checked Turmoil in the Stella emulator and it produces 262 lines all the time. So whatever is its issue on PVMs, it is not the same of Tapper.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by NML32 »

I wonder if someone could figure out why some of the Homebrew games have a messed up scoreboard in the MiSTer core?
The scoreboards look a little better with the latest 20200908 A2600 core but still a little off.

Balloon Trip v3.2
Birds and Beans v2.2
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by commander »

Hi there,

I am a big fan of paddle games and Driving Games for the Atari 2600.
Stella Emulator for PC supports two USB Adapters for Atari 2600 in the past.
It is possible to make it work with mister?

Retronic Design
USB Joystick Adapter
https://www.retronicdesign.com/en/
Driving Controller for Games like Indy 500, Tempest...
Paddle Controller for Games like Kaboom, Warlords...


2600-daptor II
http://www.2600-daptor.com/
Driving Controller for Games like Indy 500, Tempest...
Paddle Controller for Games like Kaboom, Warlords...

Thanks for all efforts in the mister fpga world!!!
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by KremlingKuthroat19 »

I haven't seen it mentioned on the Github wiki on Retromaster's website or on the compatability list but does this core support Starpath Supercharger cassette games? The games seem to work perfectly on the Stella emulator, but I couldn't get any of them to run on MiSTer. I didn't notice any Starpath Supercharger games listed in the compatability sheet like Communist Mutants from Space or Swords of Saros. Also, some games like Escape from the Mindmaster and Party Mix are multi-cassette games so swapping them out should function like swapping out multi-disc games for CD cores like the Sega CD and TurboGrafx-CD.

Any plans on Starpath Supercharger implementation?
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by dshadoff »

I'm not sure about Sega CD, but TurboGrafx-CD has no multi-disc games.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by NML32 »

KremlingKuthroat19 wrote: Tue Sep 22, 2020 12:16 pm I haven't seen it mentioned on the Github wiki on Retromaster's website or on the compatability list but does this core support Starpath Supercharger cassette games? The games seem to work perfectly on the Stella emulator, but I couldn't get any of them to run on MiSTer. I didn't notice any Starpath Supercharger games listed in the compatability sheet like Communist Mutants from Space or Swords of Saros. Also, some games like Escape from the Mindmaster and Party Mix are multi-cassette games so swapping them out should function like swapping out multi-disc games for CD cores like the Sega CD and TurboGrafx-CD.

Any plans on Starpath Supercharger implementation?
The MiSTer A2600 core doesn't support Supercharger games. I think the Starpath games on cart use the AR Bankswitching that isn't currently supported. There are a couple Starthpath games on the compatibility sheet.

No ADC support to load tapes. It would be nice to have Supercharger support one day.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by KremlingKuthroat19 »

dshadoff wrote: Tue Sep 22, 2020 12:32 pm I'm not sure about Sega CD, but TurboGrafx-CD has no multi-disc games.
That's good to know regarding TurboGrafx-CD not having multi-disc games. The Sega CD has a few multi-disc games and it's easy to switch to them on the fly as long as they're in the same folder. The Atari 2600 has a few Starpath Supercharger games that have multi-discs that need to be swapped out when you reach a certain point in the game like Escape from the Mindmaster. If Supercharger support comes in the future, it'd be best to handle the cassette swapping like the Sega CD core handles disc swapping.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by KremlingKuthroat19 »

I saw the Atari 2600 got an update today adding a second fire button. I'm so glad to see that the Atari 2600 core keeps getting love since we just got pause button support recently too. I hope that one day it'll be as mature as other cores like the SNES and Genesis cores.

Anyways, I have a feature request. Some Atari 2600 games use both the Black and White switch as well as the difficulty switches as additional buttons. This excellent articles goes into detail on the functionality of the B&W switch: http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/201 ... 00s-b.html

TLDR: The B&W Switch has special functionality for these select games:
-Space Shuttle (engine controls)
-Cosmic Ark (turn on/off star field on some cartridges)
-Fantastic Voyage (pause)
-Solaris (inverts planet horizons)
-Mouse Trap (removes playfield)
-Starmaster (brings up Galactic Chart)
-Beany Bopper (pause)
-Flash Gordon (pause)
-Spacemaster X-7 (pause)
-Secret Quest (brings up Status Screen and password)

Obviously the use of a pause button is redundant, but some games like Secret Quest, Space Shuutle and Starmaster are essential to the playability of the game.

Also, the Difficulty switches don't only affect the difficulty of the game, but they also change certain settings according to this thread:https://atariage.com/forums/topic/18858 ... gs-a-or-b/

Moon Patrol, Pengo and Phoenix's music is turned on or off with the Difficulty switches. I know there are other examples of the Difficulty switches acting more as buttons for certain games than switches.

I bring this up because Stella allows you to map the B&W and Difficulty switches to buttons. I prefer to map these switches to all four shoulder buttons. It just makes things easier. Is it realistic to add the B&W and Difficulty switches as buttons as well as a switch within the core menu? I was impressed with how quickly pausing was added to the core, but I just wanted to know what the feasability of this feature is please. It could either possibly be implemented by having difficulty A being one button and difficulty B being another button or you could make the switches one button that pressed once is difficulty A and pressed again is difficulty B. I don't want to make this post too long, but is this feature likely to happen?
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by skooter »

@KremlingKuthroat19
I suggest you add this feature request to the Atari 2600 core GitHub. That's what I did with the pause button one. There it i's more likely to get more developers attention. I also think this is a needed feature and second your request.

I'm also considering suggesting optional stereo sound for the earlier games and homebrews that support it. The original Atari 2600 project would include stereo speakers and a few earlier games were projected to take advantage of them. Though they removed the speakers for the initial release, they kept the TIA with two separate audio output, so it's an easy mod in real hardware, and most emulators also support it.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by KremlingKuthroat19 »

skooter wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2020 3:52 pm @KremlingKuthroat19
I suggest you add this feature request to the Atari 2600 core GitHub. That's what I did with the pause button one. There it i's more likely to get more developers attention. I also think this is a needed feature and second your request.

I'm also considering suggesting optional stereo sound for the earlier games and homebrews that support it. The original Atari 2600 project would include stereo speakers and a few earlier games were projected to take advantage of them. Though they removed the speakers for the initial release, they kept the TIA with two separate audio output, so it's an easy mod in real hardware, and most emulators also support it.
Thanks for seconding my feature request Skooter :D. I added feature requests for the Switches being mappable as buttons and for Starpath Supercharger support: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Atari2600_MiSTer/issues.

I think these two features and obviously the compatability improving over time will make the Atari 2600 core perfect.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by redsteakraw »

Okay so I tested the latest release and Tapper works well on my flat panel with origional vsync and on my CRT tv it has a slight jitter to the image but is fully playable just a bit distracting. The decombing works great and makes some games look even better than they did on native hardware. This looks like a good release!
Fear is the mind killer!
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by FatSlob71 »

All the Starpath Supercharger Games Do Not work on this core :( DragonStomper etc just garble the screen ?
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by skooter »

I noticed Entombed is kind of "bumpy" with scrolling problems.

I captured the problem in this video:
https://youtu.be/4pkMy8BrR_I?t=122
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by kathleen »

Is anybody already tried Pitkat on the A2600 core ? I cannot get it running on my side it even crash the core
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/308669-pitkat/

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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by kathleen »

Forget about, I got the answer to my question :-) I've just seen a video on YouTube from NML32 showing the game runing on the Mister.
So now need to figure out what happens on my set-up :-)

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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by NML32 »

kathleen wrote: Wed Oct 28, 2020 8:29 am Forget about, I got the answer to my question :-) I've just seen a video on YouTube from NML32 showing the game runing on the Mister.
So now need to figure out what happens on my set-up :-)
Change the extension to e7
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by kathleen »

Thank you so much, will try

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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by KremlingKuthroat19 »

Just wanna thank you guys for implementing my request for dedicated buttons for the B&W switch and the P1 and P2 difficulty switches. It works great! Also, adding stereo support was a nice feature I didn't expect.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by JWDog »

Hi Mister friends, I am having trouble with Deadly Duck being jittery, any ideas on the video settings to fix, or is anyone else having this issue with this game? Please help. Thx.
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by kathleen »

Just tested and same issue here. Whatever the options (Vblank, De-com, Aspect etc) I have graphic problems (jumping up and down by few pixels and seems to be a bit faster than the original.
Edit : According to the videos I saw on the net the speed seems to be correct. It is a nervous game.

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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by JWDog »

The Mister Atari2600 Compatibility Sheet is awesome that NML32 created, however I am curious if there is a way to have like an .ini files or something to somehow setup the video, audio settings, etc (core settings) for individual roms? so it is a more automatic process... just curious

I know you can setup the core settings at start in the mister.ini thx
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Re: Atari 2600

Unread post by gordonfish »

I was trying Jr. Pac-Man for Atari 2600 on my MiSTer and while other ROMs all seem to run fine (including regular Pac-Man), Jr. Pac-Man seems to have a strange issue, where pellets do not disappear when they are eaten. The same rom works fine in Stella and RetroArch on my computer; the pellets correctly vanish upon being consumed.

I have enclosed some screenshots (taken using the win+prints-creen keys on a keyboard - I can also take a photo of the monitor if requested.)

Has anyone else noticed this, and could anyone confirm this on their MiSTer?

Thanks,
-gfish


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brief summary of my set up:

MiSTer_20201106
Atari2600_20201106.rbf
Jr. Pac-Man (USA).a26, 36c29ceee2c151b23a1ad7aa04bd529d, matching the one in the list at https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Atari2600_MiSTer
Output: HDMI to 1080p TV that I otherwise use as a secondary monitor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachments
20201118_165906-Jr. Pac-Man (USA).png
20201118_165906-Jr. Pac-Man (USA).png (658 Bytes) Viewed 22002 times
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20201118_165901-Jr. Pac-Man (USA).png (698 Bytes) Viewed 22002 times
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20201118_165849-Jr. Pac-Man (USA).png (663 Bytes) Viewed 22002 times
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20201118_165846-Jr. Pac-Man (USA).png (699 Bytes) Viewed 22002 times
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20201118_165843-Jr. Pac-Man (USA).png (716 Bytes) Viewed 22002 times
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20201118_165916-Jr. Pac-Man (USA).png (650 Bytes) Viewed 22002 times
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