A quick tour of The400 Mini, a miniaturised take on the classic Atari 8-bits!
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- The400 Mini is a new mini console that is a great starting point for exploring the Atari 8-bit's unique capabilities and lineup of games. Now the thing is out there in the wild, let's take a look at what's included and what it can do!
0:00 Introduction
2:41 The games carousel
6:30 System options menu
11:15 Media Access
12:29 Per-game settings
17:22 Running a recent game (Binary Parasite)
18:35 Programming in BASIC
20:11 No inverse video?
21:00 Saving a BASIC program
22:41 Running a cartridge program with a disk inserted
25:32 A sound test with "Instrumentarium"
28:28 Multi-disk games
32:06 Hope for future improvements
33:35 Cropping issues in programs that use the overscan area
35:34 Closing thoughts
#atari8bit #the400mini #atari400 #atari800 #retrogaming 
Игры
Update on the cropping issue for anyone curious: you can edit the .cfg files The400 Mini creates on your USB stick on your PC, and doing that allows you to push the settings beyond the limits in the menu.
For an authentic Atari display with the full overscan border, open the .cfg file for the game in question and update the following lines to read the following:
display_start_line = 0;
display_height = 240;
display_width = 336;
Tested on Bosconian and it allows the full status bar to be visible.
Don't open the Game Settings menu on The400 Mini again afterwards, though, as that will reset the values to their limits. So set up your control mappings before you do this!
One Easter egg I noticed: the .cfg files are all time-stamped for 1979.
I'll be receiving mine this afternoon and I'm quite looking forward to it.
BattleZone and Missile Command alone were worth the price for me.
I've been making do with Atari800MacX which is our version on the Altirra emulator, but it has on screen disk drives, tape and cartridge slots, also function keys.
I'm delighted that you can save files to the USB stick!
I'm bugged that the keyboard in non-functional (not even the function keys?!) and that cartridge slot cover is purely cosmetic. External keyboards are never quite right.
That CX Joystick with all the extra buttons all over it is far too busy for me. Just give me a good old CX$0 joystick as my preferred game controller. At least I still have one of mine and a USB adapter that will let me use it with my emulator.
Fortunately I got all my old Atari stuff back that my brother-in-law took when I moved to California thirty years ago.
The 1200XL is wonky, my trusty 800 seems OK but the keyboard doesn't work at all, but the Atari 400 I bought used for $20 (because I always thought it looked cute) works just as well as it did when I bought it!.
My disk drives aren't working and most of my accessories have one thing wrong or another.
My dozen or so cartridges work well, as do my joysticks and one of my teak balls still work fine.
That keyboard really isn't that bad to use, especially considering it still works after all these years.
I fot a FujiNet peripheral which gives me some wi-fi access and the ability to read and write to a micro SD card.
I'm having more fun with this old 400 that I ever expected I would.
With this new 400 Mini I'll finally get a clear picture on my big screen TV!
It's a nice pairing with the new Atari VCS I received yesterday.
They say if you connect the Classic Joystick from the Arati VCS to the 400 Mini it reveals two new games on the 400 Mini, Breakout and Warlords, both games that require paddle controllers. Twisting the stick on the Classic Joystick emulates a paddle controller.
My old paddle controllers now skip around way too much so my Super Breakout cartridge sits unused, but Amazon will let me preorder Atari "CX30+" paddle controllers that are due to be released May 24th!
Tonight I'll be partying like it's 1982!!
Hi Pete. Sorry I disappeared for a bit. Mine has come this afternoon so I know what I will be doing tonight! Of course I will be watching you as well...lol
A good overview of the machine, it's capabilities, and limitations. Definitely I imagine firmware updates will further improve upon things, but what you get out of the box looks quite capable. Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to this series and your review of various games or software soon enough.
Just received mine yesterday. Definitely better to use it on a smaller HDMI-compatible screen to ramp down the blockiness like the TVs in use at the time. ( I had a tiny Sony Trinitron colour portable - it still works 40+ years later but only with rf of course) The Atari joystick supplied feels stiff but precise compared to my other CX40 sticks but it becomes easier with practice. Boulderdash is the best game to get accustomed to the new joystick!
Ah, yes! I just got a small screen to use with these machines. It does HDMI and AV, which actually looks better with my old Atari 400.
AND it doesn't tie up my TV!
Some folks on the AtariAge forums have found if you loosen the screws on the stick slightly, it makes it a little less stiff.
I mostly prefer bezels for arcade games since they often had art and instructions bordering the screen, so putting them in feels more authentic to me. On everything else, I'd rather have a regular borderless image.
Can’t wait to plug mine in later today and side-load Space Dungeon onto it! Going to need to figure out a way to comfortably use two joysticks at once or simulate that with a third party dual stick controller, however.
You used to be able to get plastic mounts to put two joysticks in at once. There was definitely one for the 5200 itself, but don't know if there was one for the classic CX stick.
@@ThisIsPete yep, and I think Space Dungeon came with one of those, too. I don’t have it, unfortunately, so it feels very awkward to play!
Mine will be here today, or so I hope. I’d love to see how Alternate Reality does on it.
A few observations I've since made:
1. I use NTSC mode for my games, as I grew up with NTSC. A few of my games, like Nadral and Henri, don't work right in NTSC mode. However, if you don't do any configuration on these games, it will still load them in PAL mode even if I have it set to NTSC.
2. The 400 Mini does not support .atx files, which a lot of my games are, and a lot of the games you get from AtariMania are. I have found alternative sites that have .xex versions, which are supported. On the upside, BASIC and cassette titles are pretty ouchless when it comes to running on this thing.
3. I can't get The Eidolon working. I got Koronis Rift and Ballblazer working, but The Eidolon crashes.
4. Side-loaded versions of Boulder Dash work better than the one included.
When I got it, I thought it might be an amusing novelty. Instead, I'm quite delighted with this mini-console, which has a lot of capabilities for a device like this, and I feel it was money well spent.
I skip this one, but i admit it's looking cool
Max USB capacity and what ROM types?
Dunno on max capacity, but given you can fit every piece of Atari 8-bit software ever comfortably into less than a gigabyte (probably) it doesn't really matter. I use a 16GB stick, just because that was cheap. Needs to be FAT32 formatted with a Master Boot Record, but most USB sticks ship that way these days anyway.
File types accepted are .xex Atari executable, .atr disk image, .car .bin and .rom cartridge images and .cas cassette image files.
The full manual is at retrogames.biz/support/the400-mini/manuals/ -- check that for full details.
Wow, amazing thanks for the reply I've got a 32gb drive somewhere and loads of xex files on my fujinet, I think I'll look to buy a 400 mini soon to sit alongside my retron 77!!