Ouch... some Atari history misinformation in that intro. Atari did not go "bust" in 1984, it was just bought by Jack Tramiel. The original 7800 wasn't even released until 1986. Atari went "bust" in 1996, after a decade of making some of the best 16 and 32 bit computers the planet has ever seen. Maybe you should get some Atari STs for more channel content.
Atari would have gone bust in the mid-80s had Jack not bought them as the video game crash of the early 80s and a downturn in their 8-bit computer line was hurting them. The intro of the Atari ST under Jacks ownership saved them for another decade.
As someone else pointed out, Tramiel only bought one part of Atari, and I think the cursory treatment of the corporate history in this video was entirely appropriate. I also think the workstation market has something to say about "some of the best 16 and 32 bit computers the planet has ever seen" and Atari's own place in history. The ST was a nice product for the price, but Atari never managed to follow up convincingly, trying half-heartedly (if that) with the TT and making such an ineffective play for Unix business that Commodore's own plans seem almost credible in comparison. With an incoherent product strategy and only the Jaguar to take on a fiercely competitive console market, it is actually surprising that Atari made it as far as 1996.
IMO if it's not led by Nolan Bushnell as CEO it's not Atari, there was profound change of vibe with the Tramiel purchase it became, in spirit much more corporate, much more similar to Commodore than it was to the Atari of the 1970s. When most people think Atari they really think about the Nolan Bushnell era, everything after that was simply different companies with the Atari branding. That includes Jack Tramiel's ownership of the original company which efectively became an Atari skinsuit over the Tramiel computer business, same legal entities but completely different souls
Atari caused the crash. That's the only part of the history that is relevant to the rest of us. Most were ignorant or apathetic to Atari computers existing since the overwhelming majority were exposed to Apple II's or Tandy systems, if anything at all. Atari basically stopped existing in any real mind after the 2600, 7800 and what remaining arcade cabinets were still out there.
Atari has two totally different histories after 1984: One for the consumer division which was bought by Jack Tramiel, and another for their arcade division, which has its on convoluted history.
I think the RK3128 is not just "an order of magnitude more powerful" (10x), but over 5 orders of magnitude (10,000x) more powerful than the original Atari 7800 from 1986!
Still not exactly a powerful modern CPU by any modern standards or means. Would've been nice to see something on the Raspberry Pi 5's level instead of a CPU that uses RAM standards 3 generations behind and powers old android smart boxes.
@@megatronskneecap Why in the world would you need a Raspberry Pi 5 to play Atari 7800 games? 2600, 7800, even Lynx games all play absolutely fine on a Raspberry Pi 2.
@@jennika753 Mainly because it would've been nice to hardware hack this thing to some degree and shove a flavour of Linux on it. I guarantee 50% of the interest surrounding it is us nerds wanting a weird desktop hybrid that has the Atari logo on it.
@@megatronskneecap Yeah they tried that and it went belly up because it was too complex and expensive. Look up the Atari VCS 2021 remake. I'm not surprised they kept this simple after that absolute disaster.
@@mindthreatxAt Atari's behest, with Atari's money and of course Atari own or officially licence the copyright for all games, as well as owning the Atari name.
Wonder if Windows is just running scared from a non-FAT/non-NTFS filesystem? Would be interesting to see if you could get further repeating the same "restore" procedure with a linux or MacOS system. I suspect linux might be the better choice here, as with the 7800+ running linux, the filesystem is *likely* ext3/4.
That would have been a different error which specifically mentioned the filesystem. More likely it's a UART device, which wouldn't have drivers under Windows by default.
@@pseudotasuki It's not UART. it's a RockChip device which means it's in Maskrom or RockUSB mode. You just need the RockChip drivers and developer tools installed and you can dump the firmware or flash your own.
I ultra loved Adventure, Desert game and Raiders of Ark and so many others. Six and seven year olds loved these games, and no reason they should ever go away, elderly and disabled can love these too, and retro gamers. It hurts to see you destroy that console.
Atari needs to release an Atari 1040STE or Falcon hobby computer with all the same functionality. Especially some upgrades for using it to edit music. Some people to this day still use the 1040 for creating and editing music. Would like to see an upgrade for the 8bit line as well. Not like the 400 mini. Something with a functional keyboard with a web browser for the XE line.
That shouldn't be surprising, the hardware is more than capable of emulating any 8 bit computer or console without breaking a sweat, and probably several 16 bit consoles too. Why would they change the hardware?
@@mindthreatxI doubt they intend to bring out an Atari ST, TT or Falcon, it's a huge step up from making relatively straightforward consoles. It would still be emulation, and almost certainly focused on games, not making it midi compatible.
DUDE! Combat! my neighbor in NewUlm Germany back in the mid 1980s had a 2600 and Combat. i tried to play that atari every chance i got. Combat, pitfall and E.T. are the games i remember he had for sure. the good ol' days.
One of the cool thing Atari did was make the new accessories compatible with their original systems. I can use the wireless controllers with my original 7800 along with GameDrive flashcart.
It seems that it’s still incompatible with extra chips on cartridges. It would be great to run more advanced 2600 and 7800 games that use additional sound chips, like the excellent Rikki & Vikki, which requires a special sound chip. Crystal Quest also appears to be missing the Pokey chip (optional in the retail version sold on AtariAge). An Atarivox embedded in the hardware would also be nice.
I am glad to see someone take this apart. I wanted to see them do this with the last batch of retro game systems. You couldn’t get anybody to even tell you what chip were in them. Regardless, this would be fun to hack around with. it would be nice if they were able to take advantage of some of the cartridges that have unique features. But a rom dumper isn’t going to actually work with something like the Supercharger.
Think the idea was for them to source 10k of these suckers and use it for their entire line of re-creations, so far the Atari 400, 2600 and now 7800. Surely the ST, Falcon, Jaguar and Lynx are next.
The atari VCS is super marked down for black friday and they must be clearing out old stock or something. $80 for the system or $100 for it with two controllers. Picking one up for the holidays! Should be a fun little mini PC / game console for the price. hope they dont discontinue the VCS!
That's basically the controller that came with the 7800 when they released it in Europe. That one was wired which Atari also sells a new version of on their site. I think they added a removable thumb stick to avoid being accused of copying Nintendo.
Atari would be wise to pick up the hint, and release a Jaguar controller with both the OG plug, and a USB port. It would sell well with those that emulate Coleco, Intellivision, Jaguar, and the 2600 for those games that need a keypad to play.
It would be pretty cool to have a system which could automatically dump your cartridges to ROM files. And better yet, something with modular cartridge adapters so you could use it with different systems.
Since the ROM dumper is a separate PCB, I'm wondering how long it will be before retro hardware enthusiasts figure out how to make interchangeable boards or even a board with modular cart adapters, like you suggested. The PCB layout looks really simple. Shouldn't take long at all for a dedicated person with the right skill.
I would think a third party will come up with that. ROM dumping is often seen a way to p*rate games, so i dont think Atari will encourage such a feature.
Best 2 players games ever I played my old 2600 with daughter for about 8 hrs and the game play still stands up today. Most fun we had combat and air combat.
256Mb of RAM sounds small by today's standards. However, it's over 65,000 times more RAM than the 7600, and over 2,000,000 times more RAM than the 2600!
PS: That the I/O boards are separate from the (very underpowered if good enough for this application) logic board makes me wonder about potential hacks... ...at the least I would hope somebody will find a way to run ROM images from that hidden USB port, if not replace the logic board entirely.
Tempted! Though I dropped a lot of money on that Kickstarter reproduction/upgrade Atari netdevice from about six years ago, and I have hardly ever turned it on. But being able to use my collection of cartridges might make it more fun to turn on.
I guess. But how many 7800 games existed, and how many were actually comparable to NES titles? Most any game I've seen looks C64 level at best. Perhaps even alike to the VIC-20. And the sound, it's the same sound chip as on the 2600, awful stuff.
About 13 or so new carts. About 5 relatively new games, Space Duel, Asteroids Deluxe, Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest, Frenzy, Berserk. One brand new game port, Bounty Bob Strikes Back. Repro carts for 7800: Food Fight, Ninja Golf, Fatal Run, 2600: Real Sports multi select, M-Network multi select, Epyx multi select. Caverns of Mars. Around $30 per cart.
If the 7800 plus had low power FPGA chip then I could understand why the console would cost over $100. But $130 for an emulator console that only comes with one game? There is something wrong with the pricing.
you can put real carts in it , that's why its that price , I can do all this on pretty much any emulation device , but if you like collecting carts , this is great
Dude… it is $130…. This is about as low as it gets for something like this. If I were to make this the components and boat runs would be $200 minimum. That is without the nice shell which, to be fair, is minimal cost for mid to high volume runs. The price point is right….pretty low, actually.
Questions... are the new carts playable on original hardware? And. Can that cartridge port rom dumper board be connected to another sbc and used to just dump data?
You CAN access the motherboard, but there isn't much point. You CAN upload roms onto it. You CAN use it to dump your cartridges as well. It defeats the purpose of doing those things and reduces the system to "just another emulation station." I see the appeal to having an "original all-in-one" though.
The main problem with the device is that the more advanced games that use custom hardware will not work properly unless they implemented some hacks that detect them and then simply deploy an internally stored ROM instead of trying to read the modules ROM, like Pitfall 2 and its graphics enhancer chip. Regarding hackability, search for the UART and the device will be yours. 😁 Educated guess, an UBOOT loader one can interrupt and then send the kernel new boot parameters to directly boot into a busybox.
Pitfall II (and any games that use the DPC/DPC+) are now supported with the updated firmware. It's only the CDFJ-enhanced carts that do not work - and there's maybe a dozen of games that use it. They're working on the support. And then there's also Rikki&Vikki, which also still does not work. The vast majority of games work well.
They already did one. Atari 2600+. They're $110 on Amazon. Edit: Though unless the price gets reduced significantly (or there's a firmware update to add the 7800 emulator), there's really no reason to get one now that this is available. The hardware is nearly identical.
I saw someone else review this and it took a long time (20 seconds or more) to load the ROM. My guess was it was dumping the ROM, but he didn't tell us if it took a long time every time a given cart was inserted or just the first time. What was your experience?
They really should make an Atari Jaguar version but like upgraded or something. Maybe it can be a hybrid system, part Jaguar and part Atari computer. The thing I want to see in particular is the Jaguar part especially be all on an FPGA instead of emulation. I think the Jaguar got too much trouble because it was too complicated for programmers at the time. Two CPUs at once? 1990s programmers did not know how multi-core or multiple CPU programming worked. These days they're more comfortable with it. It's still a chore but there's a lot more resources and ways of handling it.
I can imagine someone adding the SD card slot and making it dump the ROM to that so they don't have to use the cartridge every time. I just don't know how difficult either of those two things would be since sometimes commercially sold items like that have somethings disabled. As for poking around in the Linux on it you may be able to attach some sort of clip to the chip. It would be awkward making it stay in place long enough to read it maybe.
Fun. Interesting tidbit is that some of the current guitar modeling units use Rockchip ARMs for their processing. Headrush I know does and I think another one or two brands.
Thanks for the video, a cool little device. Some observations: -If the goal of such a box is to recreate the feel of using an old console over running an emulator on a PC, the load times are far, far, too long. -While it's good to be able to directly run old cartridges for that feel, if an emulation box can't use ROM files that's a deal breaker IMO. -Hopefully nothing that can't be fixed with a firmware update...
That's not the point of the product, it's meant for collectors who already have atari games and those who are interested in starting an atari collection to have a means to play them without the hassle of getting a CRT TV in good condition or getting converters to have it work on modern TVs and being able to use original controllers. There's other consoles you can use if you just want to slap som rons on and play, and Atari themselves sell one of them, the Atari 400 Mini.
Not quite the same. the I/O board has some changes for better support of some rarer controllers, like the driving controller or keypad. Also paddle controller support should be improved. And the cartridge port was updated as well.
The default emulator for the 7800 is Windows only, so I have to guess it runs on a compatibility layer on Linux. It's been reported that Rikki & Vikki doesn't work on this console so it would have to be some quirks of that emulation plus Linux compatibility.
You were so close when you had the main board hooked up to your PC via USB. All you had to do was go find the correct USB driver for the Rockchip SoC and you woulda been in business... hmmm... maybe you knew that already, because you pulled back so quick it didn't seem like you were sincere about checking out the hardware like that. Perhaps you felt like that would be crossing a line with the new Atari since they were generously providing this to you... or maybe it was a dog-whistle to those who would infer the next steps...
I want to see more of this too!! I like this video and how you made this video. I’m kind of curious to see mods on this console 😂 like running different emulators for some odd reason
Hopefully Atari makes this new version of the Atari 5200 also. But if they do please make the old controllers for that system. Those were the best controllers and the games looked identical to the Arcade games.
now we need this type of thing for the Dreamcast. since theres already indie developers making new games for the Dreamcast I would love for Sega to make new Dreamcast and drop several new games for it. including the whole Online aspect for it too.
I just feel weird about using a system that uses such a setup. It's no different than a Retron5. I can do the same thing on my PC, RPi, or even use a Flashback 50 cart on my N Switch.
okay now this is creepy. I literally just looked up for an atari emulator like 5 seconds ago and now the first thing in my subs was this video. Stop spying on me Sean.
so windows 11 cant detect a linux formated usb? odd... i wounder if a linux system could see it? nar that would be silly, using the knowlage it has linux on it that could only be seen by another linux os, who woulkd wanna be that smart.
This video got really interesting at the 8:00. There has to be a Windows driver for that board. But now I'm wishing you tried to check out the file system with a linux computer. Maybe you will??? :)
Nintendo needs to do something similar with the NES. Release the NES console with HDMI and dog bone controllers along with their top 20 games on cartridges.
Ouch... some Atari history misinformation in that intro. Atari did not go "bust" in 1984, it was just bought by Jack Tramiel. The original 7800 wasn't even released until 1986. Atari went "bust" in 1996, after a decade of making some of the best 16 and 32 bit computers the planet has ever seen. Maybe you should get some Atari STs for more channel content.
Atari would have gone bust in the mid-80s had Jack not bought them as the video game crash of the early 80s and a downturn in their 8-bit computer line was hurting them. The intro of the Atari ST under Jacks ownership saved them for another decade.
As someone else pointed out, Tramiel only bought one part of Atari, and I think the cursory treatment of the corporate history in this video was entirely appropriate. I also think the workstation market has something to say about "some of the best 16 and 32 bit computers the planet has ever seen" and Atari's own place in history.
The ST was a nice product for the price, but Atari never managed to follow up convincingly, trying half-heartedly (if that) with the TT and making such an ineffective play for Unix business that Commodore's own plans seem almost credible in comparison. With an incoherent product strategy and only the Jaguar to take on a fiercely competitive console market, it is actually surprising that Atari made it as far as 1996.
IMO if it's not led by Nolan Bushnell as CEO it's not Atari, there was profound change of vibe with the Tramiel purchase it became, in spirit much more corporate, much more similar to Commodore than it was to the Atari of the 1970s. When most people think Atari they really think about the Nolan Bushnell era, everything after that was simply different companies with the Atari branding.
That includes Jack Tramiel's ownership of the original company which efectively became an Atari skinsuit over the Tramiel computer business, same legal entities but completely different souls
Atari caused the crash. That's the only part of the history that is relevant to the rest of us. Most were ignorant or apathetic to Atari computers existing since the overwhelming majority were exposed to Apple II's or Tandy systems, if anything at all. Atari basically stopped existing in any real mind after the 2600, 7800 and what remaining arcade cabinets were still out there.
What do you mean they went "bust"? Their website is still up, do you mean they stopped making game consoles like Sega did?
Atari has two totally different histories after 1984: One for the consumer division which was bought by Jack Tramiel, and another for their arcade division, which has its on convoluted history.
Didn't they get taken over by the same Liverpudlian guy that ran Xbox during the 360 launch for a while?
I think the RK3128 is not just "an order of magnitude more powerful" (10x), but over 5 orders of magnitude (10,000x) more powerful than the original Atari 7800 from 1986!
Still not exactly a powerful modern CPU by any modern standards or means. Would've been nice to see something on the Raspberry Pi 5's level instead of a CPU that uses RAM standards 3 generations behind and powers old android smart boxes.
@@megatronskneecap Why in the world would you need a Raspberry Pi 5 to play Atari 7800 games? 2600, 7800, even Lynx games all play absolutely fine on a Raspberry Pi 2.
@@jennika753 Mainly because it would've been nice to hardware hack this thing to some degree and shove a flavour of Linux on it. I guarantee 50% of the interest surrounding it is us nerds wanting a weird desktop hybrid that has the Atari logo on it.
@@megatronskneecap ya like when i got win98 running in dosbox on my nintendo wii.
@@megatronskneecap Yeah they tried that and it went belly up because it was too complex and expensive. Look up the Atari VCS 2021 remake.
I'm not surprised they kept this simple after that absolute disaster.
Atari should be commended for the amount of effort especially the attention to detail for this console.
*Plaion
@@mindthreatxAt Atari's behest, with Atari's money and of course Atari own or officially licence the copyright for all games, as well as owning the Atari name.
The SD card slot could be used to play Atari ROMs that are on an SD card. It would be interesting to upgrade and test this.
It may already support SD card option. Solder on a generic SD socket and pop in SD card with a standard ROM to see what happens
Wonder if Windows is just running scared from a non-FAT/non-NTFS filesystem? Would be interesting to see if you could get further repeating the same "restore" procedure with a linux or MacOS system. I suspect linux might be the better choice here, as with the 7800+ running linux, the filesystem is *likely* ext3/4.
That would have been a different error which specifically mentioned the filesystem. More likely it's a UART device, which wouldn't have drivers under Windows by default.
@@pseudotasuki It's not UART. it's a RockChip device which means it's in Maskrom or RockUSB mode. You just need the RockChip drivers and developer tools installed and you can dump the firmware or flash your own.
I absolutely loved my 7800 back in the day. Just seeing this new machine is bringing back all sorts of great memories.
I ultra loved Adventure, Desert game and Raiders of Ark and so many others. Six and seven year olds loved these games, and no reason they should ever go away, elderly and disabled can love these too, and retro gamers. It hurts to see you destroy that console.
You have your 4 uart pins for a shell right on the board. You have touched those pins several times with your hand while holding the board.
This is why there are fresh chew marks on my work keyboard. None on the home keyboard - it's a Model M, too precious to chew on.
thanks for showing us the inside and explaining how it works, very cool
Atari needs to release an Atari 1040STE or Falcon hobby computer with all the same functionality. Especially some upgrades for using it to edit music. Some people to this day still use the 1040 for creating and editing music. Would like to see an upgrade for the 8bit line as well. Not like the 400 mini. Something with a functional keyboard with a web browser for the XE line.
I would definitely buy a modernized version of the Atari 800 with fully functional keyboard and slots.
Note how the Atari 2600+ and Atari 7800+ have the exact same SoC, RAM, and flash..
That shouldn't be surprising, the hardware is more than capable of emulating any 8 bit computer or console without breaking a sweat, and probably several 16 bit consoles too. Why would they change the hardware?
@@another3997 i think its like the NES ans SNES mini. I recall that they ran on the same SoC, RAM and flash too
Atari now needs to release new recreation of the ST, TT and Falcon.
I just hope it's fully MIDI compliant. They could be the Behringer of MIDI but they're seemingly dragging feet if so
@@mindthreatxI doubt they intend to bring out an Atari ST, TT or Falcon, it's a huge step up from making relatively straightforward consoles. It would still be emulation, and almost certainly focused on games, not making it midi compatible.
DUDE! Combat! my neighbor in NewUlm Germany back in the mid 1980s had a 2600 and Combat. i tried to play that atari every chance i got. Combat, pitfall and E.T. are the games i remember he had for sure. the good ol' days.
every old console should have a version of this. thanks for the vid!
We got a 7800 after the 5200, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Played a lot of pole position, pacman, mario bros, and super breakout.
Waiting for the mandatory "Running Haiku on an Atari".
We need a Bad Apple demo ported to Atari 7800.
It's great that they went with the Euro 7800 style controllers
It's not great. I've tried using those controllers. They're terrible. The button placement does not follow the range of motion of a human thumb.
One of the cool thing Atari did was make the new accessories compatible with their original systems. I can use the wireless controllers with my original 7800 along with GameDrive flashcart.
It seems that it’s still incompatible with extra chips on cartridges. It would be great to run more advanced 2600 and 7800 games that use additional sound chips, like the excellent Rikki & Vikki, which requires a special sound chip. Crystal Quest also appears to be missing the Pokey chip (optional in the retail version sold on AtariAge). An Atarivox embedded in the hardware would also be nice.
Ninja golf is pretty dope.
I am glad to see someone take this apart. I wanted to see them do this with the last batch of retro game systems. You couldn’t get anybody to even tell you what chip were in them.
Regardless, this would be fun to hack around with. it would be nice if they were able to take advantage of some of the cartridges that have unique features.
But a rom dumper isn’t going to actually work with something like the Supercharger.
Yes! We finally have the European controllers here in the states!
to be honest even that Rockchip is overkill for the atari , i bet they could have gotten away with a much lower spec SoC.
Think the idea was for them to source 10k of these suckers and use it for their entire line of re-creations, so far the Atari 400, 2600 and now 7800. Surely the ST, Falcon, Jaguar and Lynx are next.
Atari probably got it at a good price point, and found it easy to develop for, considering that many free ARM based emulators around.
The atari VCS is super marked down for black friday and they must be clearing out old stock or something. $80 for the system or $100 for it with two controllers. Picking one up for the holidays! Should be a fun little mini PC / game console for the price. hope they dont discontinue the VCS!
it's just a Black Friday sale, along with lots of other things. I don't think it's much indication of anything.
That controller design is actually pretty crisp. Much better than the original.
That's basically the controller that came with the 7800 when they released it in Europe. That one was wired which Atari also sells a new version of on their site. I think they added a removable thumb stick to avoid being accused of copying Nintendo.
Atari would be wise to pick up the hint, and release a Jaguar controller with both the OG plug, and a USB port. It would sell well with those that emulate Coleco, Intellivision, Jaguar, and the 2600 for those games that need a keypad to play.
Atari was bought by Jack Tramiel and was fairly successful with their 16bit line for many years. Get your facts in order.
Here's to hoping we get a Jaguar+ and a Lynx+.
It would be pretty cool to have a system which could automatically dump your cartridges to ROM files. And better yet, something with modular cartridge adapters so you could use it with different systems.
Since the ROM dumper is a separate PCB, I'm wondering how long it will be before retro hardware enthusiasts figure out how to make interchangeable boards or even a board with modular cart adapters, like you suggested. The PCB layout looks really simple. Shouldn't take long at all for a dedicated person with the right skill.
I would think a third party will come up with that. ROM dumping is often seen a way to p*rate games, so i dont think Atari will encourage such a feature.
Best 2 players games ever I played my old 2600 with daughter for about 8 hrs and the game play still stands up today. Most fun we had combat and air combat.
256Mb of RAM sounds small by today's standards. However, it's over 65,000 times more RAM than the 7600, and over 2,000,000 times more RAM than the 2600!
PS: That the I/O boards are separate from the (very underpowered if good enough for this application) logic board makes me wonder about potential hacks...
...at the least I would hope somebody will find a way to run ROM images from that hidden USB port, if not replace the logic board entirely.
Tempted! Though I dropped a lot of money on that Kickstarter reproduction/upgrade Atari netdevice from about six years ago, and I have hardly ever turned it on. But being able to use my collection of cartridges might make it more fun to turn on.
Besides nostalgia, is there any real appeal to these old Atari systems? I find anything before C64 quite boring.
@@masterkamen371 The Atari 7800 came after the C64 and it's more comparable to the NES
I guess. But how many 7800 games existed, and how many were actually comparable to NES titles? Most any game I've seen looks C64 level at best. Perhaps even alike to the VIC-20. And the sound, it's the same sound chip as on the 2600, awful stuff.
Fun… but did they also release some cartridges, or do we need to get them used?
About 13 or so new carts. About 5 relatively new games, Space Duel, Asteroids Deluxe, Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest, Frenzy, Berserk. One brand new game port, Bounty Bob Strikes Back. Repro carts for 7800: Food Fight, Ninja Golf, Fatal Run, 2600: Real Sports multi select, M-Network multi select, Epyx multi select. Caverns of Mars. Around $30 per cart.
@@bigfootontherocks Amazing. Thanks!
Prediction before watching video: generic ARM board running free emulators.
Reality exposed by video: generic ARM board running free emulators.
If the 7800 plus had low power FPGA chip then I could understand why the console would cost over $100. But $130 for an emulator console that only comes with one game? There is something wrong with the pricing.
Yeah, especially if it was OTA flashable firmware so it can emulate other consoles, such as the Nintendo and SEGA.
Tell that to people paying scalper prices for the NES mini
A decent amount of engineering effort went into the hardware to interface with real cartridges and controllers
you can put real carts in it , that's why its that price , I can do all this on pretty much any emulation device , but if you like collecting carts , this is great
Dude… it is $130…. This is about as low as it gets for something like this. If I were to make this the components and boat runs would be $200 minimum. That is without the nice shell which, to be fair, is minimal cost for mid to high volume runs.
The price point is right….pretty low, actually.
Personnaly, i prefered the aesthetics of the 2600 with the front panel woodgrain. Maybe they could release a special 2600++ edition? :)
Questions... are the new carts playable on original hardware? And. Can that cartridge port rom dumper board be connected to another sbc and used to just dump data?
install the rockchip drivers silly goose
Still, a neat console.
the aspect ratio switch on the back is a nice touch
Rockchip's have a boot mask mode that usually starts when a button is held. There's then a tool to write memory and execute that.
And now I so wish Mattel would bring back the original Intellivision, complete with controllers. Maybe we should email them the request?
Atari ownes Intellivision now.
You CAN access the motherboard, but there isn't much point. You CAN upload roms onto it. You CAN use it to dump your cartridges as well. It defeats the purpose of doing those things and reduces the system to "just another emulation station." I see the appeal to having an "original all-in-one" though.
The main problem with the device is that the more advanced games that use custom hardware will not work properly unless they implemented some hacks that detect them and then simply deploy an internally stored ROM instead of trying to read the modules ROM, like Pitfall 2 and its graphics enhancer chip.
Regarding hackability, search for the UART and the device will be yours. 😁
Educated guess, an UBOOT loader one can interrupt and then send the kernel new boot parameters to directly boot into a busybox.
They're using existing emulators, so they'll presumably work so long as there's some way to recognize the presence of that hardware.
@pseudotasuki some hardware makes it hard to extract a good rom, especially on the 2600, wenn you need to use a hack to have enhancing chips.
Pitfall II (and any games that use the DPC/DPC+) are now supported with the updated firmware. It's only the CDFJ-enhanced carts that do not work - and there's maybe a dozen of games that use it. They're working on the support. And then there's also Rikki&Vikki, which also still does not work. The vast majority of games work well.
the king is back from the dead,I really wanna see a remaster of the Atari 2600 now
They already did one. Atari 2600+. They're $110 on Amazon.
Edit: Though unless the price gets reduced significantly (or there's a firmware update to add the 7800 emulator), there's really no reason to get one now that this is available. The hardware is nearly identical.
@@pseudotasuki Thanks,i personally prefer the atheistic of the 2600
5200 what about that one
Huh, I knew of kioxia from some really high end storage gear but yeah I guess they're in to everything. A spinoff of Toshiba.
I don't know if you mention it but the 7800+ /IS/ an emulator. It's not a hardware re-implementation of the 7800.
Ok, so it has to be an actual cart that you can play? Or can you use like the 7800 Everdrive at all???
You should use that warranty song in every relevant video. I love it!
I saw someone else review this and it took a long time (20 seconds or more) to load the ROM. My guess was it was dumping the ROM, but he didn't tell us if it took a long time every time a given cart was inserted or just the first time. What was your experience?
Depending on the size of the game, it takes at least a few seconds up to 20-30
They really should make an Atari Jaguar version but like upgraded or something. Maybe it can be a hybrid system, part Jaguar and part Atari computer. The thing I want to see in particular is the Jaguar part especially be all on an FPGA instead of emulation. I think the Jaguar got too much trouble because it was too complicated for programmers at the time. Two CPUs at once? 1990s programmers did not know how multi-core or multiple CPU programming worked. These days they're more comfortable with it. It's still a chore but there's a lot more resources and ways of handling it.
That would be cool.
is that a burn mark on the flex cable or is it just marking so that people know which way it goes?
I can imagine someone adding the SD card slot and making it dump the ROM to that so they don't have to use the cartridge every time. I just don't know how difficult either of those two things would be since sometimes commercially sold items like that have somethings disabled. As for poking around in the Linux on it you may be able to attach some sort of clip to the chip. It would be awkward making it stay in place long enough to read it maybe.
Will they release a new 5200?
Fun. Interesting tidbit is that some of the current guitar modeling units use Rockchip ARMs for their processing. Headrush I know does and I think another one or two brands.
Thanks for the video, a cool little device. Some observations:
-If the goal of such a box is to recreate the feel of using an old console over running an emulator on a PC, the load times are far, far, too long.
-While it's good to be able to directly run old cartridges for that feel, if an emulation box can't use ROM files that's a deal breaker IMO.
-Hopefully nothing that can't be fixed with a firmware update...
That's not the point of the product, it's meant for collectors who already have atari games and those who are interested in starting an atari collection to have a means to play them without the hassle of getting a CRT TV in good condition or getting converters to have it work on modern TVs and being able to use original controllers. There's other consoles you can use if you just want to slap som rons on and play, and Atari themselves sell one of them, the Atari 400 Mini.
From what I've heard, it has the same exact insides as the 2600+ They just released a new outside shell with updated controllers.
Not quite the same. the I/O board has some changes for better support of some rarer controllers, like the driving controller or keypad. Also paddle controller support should be improved. And the cartridge port was updated as well.
I would have thought so, but seeing this video I see that it's a complete redesign.
@@PG-gs5vb Hello. I recognize you as the great Atari 8-bit developer from AtariAge Were you involved in development of the 7800+ hardware or software?
great review, thank you!!
6:52 would be rad hooking a serial cable to to those pinouts on the lower left.
I was on board till I found out it was not FPGA...
if I want to use software emulation, I will use my PC
Looking at all that empty space in this shell and the components, all I can think is "this thing wants to be modded".
"reverse mergers. I don't even know what that means!" xDD
You should have hooked the other boards back to the CPU board, power it via USB C like normal, and THEN do the USB to the PC.
Will it run the Pitfall 2 cartridge which has custom video hardware. I would say no.
It can run Pitfall II which has a DPC chip. The DPC chip is emulated in the 7800+
Try connecting it to a Linux distro. Windows might not recognize the file system
The default emulator for the 7800 is Windows only, so I have to guess it runs on a compatibility layer on Linux. It's been reported that Rikki & Vikki doesn't work on this console so it would have to be some quirks of that emulation plus Linux compatibility.
Can you plug it in and boot from it like a USB OS installer?
enjoyed the review and hardware breakdown
The number of videos I watch, that I stop watching when ads start after a few minutes, is massive. This was one of many
Takes only a couple seconds to install an ad blocker
@ On a TV? Thought not
A fellow X230 user :)
I wish Nintendo would do this. they could have slots for each cartridge. maybe even a dvd player/wii reader?
I really like my 2600+, so I don't feel the need for me to buy a 7800+. I probably will anyways though.
Atari's not really marketing this to existing 2600+ users. It's just another option for new customers.
@@will_it_work New customers for something that's based around nostalgia... Makes sense.
that's cool and all but can you fit an M4 Mac inside it?
Paddles available?
You were so close when you had the main board hooked up to your PC via USB. All you had to do was go find the correct USB driver for the Rockchip SoC and you woulda been in business... hmmm... maybe you knew that already, because you pulled back so quick it didn't seem like you were sincere about checking out the hardware like that. Perhaps you felt like that would be crossing a line with the new Atari since they were generously providing this to you... or maybe it was a dog-whistle to those who would infer the next steps...
M4 mac inside when
Forget that I was a full Mac Pro!
I was hoping for a Power PC G5 board. Lol.
@@rmcdudmk212All of the free space would be a heatsink.
When they figure out how to put the power button on the top/front
@@grandork180It's on wires, so outside of the Apple case it is relatively easy to reroute.
I want to see more of this too!! I like this video and how you made this video. I’m kind of curious to see mods on this console 😂 like running different emulators for some odd reason
Thats pretty cool for beaing new
Nintendo and Sega needs to this as well consoles that can play existing games and games should be re releases in cart form.
Hopefully Atari makes this new version of the Atari 5200 also. But if they do please make the old controllers for that system. Those were the best controllers and the games looked identical to the Arcade games.
now we need this type of thing for the Dreamcast. since theres already indie developers making new games for the Dreamcast I would love for Sega to make new Dreamcast and drop several new games for it. including the whole Online aspect for it too.
ARM and not FPGA?
ARM's technically better in the sense that it can be run off a literal potato
So... Did anyone get their 7800+ that they ordered months ago? Or were they only shipped to RUclipsrs...
says out of stock???
Loved this video!
I just feel weird about using a system that uses such a setup. It's no different than a Retron5. I can do the same thing on my PC, RPi, or even use a Flashback 50 cart on my N Switch.
But can you put Linux on it?
Edit: nevermind it's a Linux SOC
dos it run Linux ... yet ?
okay now this is creepy. I literally just looked up for an atari emulator like 5 seconds ago and now the first thing in my subs was this video. Stop spying on me Sean.
so windows 11 cant detect a linux formated usb? odd... i wounder if a linux system could see it? nar that would be silly, using the knowlage it has linux on it that could only be seen by another linux os, who woulkd wanna be that smart.
LOL
The same as what's in the 2600+ which is why I didn't buy it - I already have that.
This video got really interesting at the 8:00. There has to be a Windows driver for that board. But now I'm wishing you tried to check out the file system with a linux computer. Maybe you will??? :)
I'm surprised he doesn't have ext4fsd.
Looks very repair friendly!
And, perhaps more importantly, HACK friendly. I'm eager to see what the retro community comes up with for mods, hacks, and add-ons!
Can it play 5200 games?
So I'm waiting an Atari Lynx III
Nintendo needs to do something similar with the NES. Release the NES console with HDMI and dog bone controllers along with their top 20 games on cartridges.
Attempting to buy it since I have a bunch of 2600 cartridges. It's a preorder from Amazon Canada and I haven't had good luck with that in the past