Thanks for taking the time to watch the video! Check out my Instagram: instagram.com/gregsgameroom/ Every Konami NES Game: ruclips.net/video/AO1qrfzyDtI/видео.html Nintendo NES vs. Atari 7800: ruclips.net/video/OtB1vwTntcs/видео.html Why I LOVE Atari! ruclips.net/video/YE7FbLzMA4Q/видео.html
I've not finished watching the video fully yet, but just a reminder that apparently you do NOT have to power the system off/on to change games. Just hot swap them as it was designed for this so you don't have to wait for the boot startup delay each time.
@@markrotondella4689 Yes as it is against what we did back in the day. But apparently this 2600+ was designed to hot swap the games like this. Otherwise you have to wait for the boot up of the console each time which, takes much longer. So they designed it to shut off the game when you remove the cartridge and when you load up a different game, it will read what was just put in and restart the emulation with the new game.
I wasn’t sure if I should preorder the enhanced edition of Berzerk but after watching your review of the game I’m glad I did. The voicing samples and the diagonal firing from the robots make it feel closer to the arcade version
Nice work doing such a thorough review! And I appreciate your editing style :) I suspect the keypad controllers don't work because they require the joystick ports to set some lines as input and some as output. It may very well be that the 2600+ joystick ports are only capable of input, not output.
This is the best review/look at the Atari 2600+ I've seen. You checked everything including 7800 games and two button controllers. Strange that the Sega Genesis pads don't work as they work on any original 2600. I hope they fix that with firmware.
Holy crap, thank you! I finally found a video where someone plays Xevious on the 2600+! I bought the game the other day and I was worried that it wasn’t compatible, but now I know my cartridge just doesn’t work. Thanks!
@@GregsGameRoom No, that info is just plain wrong. The grooves on the switch shafts are from a turning tool made by machining it on a CNC lathe. They are simply feed lines made by the tip of a turning tool. Very common on all items made on a lathe. I should know, I'm working as a CNC programmer/CNC Machinist/1st Class Machinist/Toolmaker since 1986. Knurling is something completely different since there are two grooves at an angle and cross over in a X or diamond shape along the length of the shaft. Although nowadays knurling isn't very common. If you have an old center punch you might see knurling on the part that you hold or on a barbell / weight bars, grips of darts or a mechanical pencil, to name a few.
Thank you for the detailed review and tear down I really wanted to love this system but already owning an 2600/7800 with mods, Retron77 with cfw and the newest Flashback. I just can’t justify the cost only for its looks.
You have a very nice collection of games, especially the 7800 ones. Thank you for trying out so many games. I was very concerned about Popeye and Stargate. Thanks for confirming.
Best thing to clean cartridge contacts with is hoppe's 9 powder solvent. Just dip a qtip into the bottle, wipe on both sides, get a clean qtip and scrub like you would with alcohol. hoppe's 9 is a copper oxide solvent, and that is what you are cleaning. I used it on all my old cartridges about 10 years ago. I still haven't had to clean them. Just make sure you don't drip solvent into the cartridge, you don't want to dissolve the pcb traces, just the corrosion layer on the edge connector. In other words, be frugal with the solvent.
It looks really good in terms of being a replica, but I am just holding off to see if there are some official or community updates that will really make this into a must-have.
My 2600+ just arrived. I opened the joystick and it's using a really clean nice design with conductive rubber pads and carbon-coated PCB pads like most modern controllers. So there's no old style dome switches in there and they should last many years without touching. If anyone already has a real 2600 and needs a new joystick buy this new one (sold separately I think) because it plays identical to the original but is better quality.
The 16:94:3 is important if you want to hook it up via HDMI adapter to a 4:3 CRT or 4:3 LCD screen. When doing that via HDMI you would actually set it to 16:9 and then in theory it should look notrmal on 4:3 then as it will be desqueezed.
You can usually either take a picture of the chip info and put it into Google lens, it will tell you about those chips. Or just type in the info on the chips and research and then find out about the hose chips. There has got to be some kind of schematic out there for you to modify the 2600+ boards for some kind of additional or augmenting?
Great Video! Hopefully they get some firmware updates for the compatibility issues. It will be interesting to see what the community does with this as they made the Retron 77 WAY better with the Stella Emu update, but still had issues with Jittery paddles. Unless you got the Hyperkin one, but that one was real stiff. Hoping this does well and maybe in the future they will put out a FPGA 7800 pro system console, one can hope and dream.
@@GregsGameRoom yea. Will definitely keep an eye out to see what happens with it and will get it when there is a better firmware or mod build out. They need to get the 7800 compatibility sorted out for the homebrews at the very least.
@@shaky6669 Some of homebrew carts won't ever be compatible with emulation. Many of them currently aren't playable on even my more up to date emulator, but I heard from champ games recently where they said that they would address emulation issues and compatibility issues for Turbo Arcade before release, so there's hope.
The secret has been revealed: inside, it is yet another Rockchip console… just like Powkiddy and Anbernic. You _could_ hack it to run all kinds of other software, but… why would you bother? You'd be better off buying a separate device… even one made with the same Rockchip architecture.
Good review. When I do my own, I might put a link to your review in the description because so far your review has been the most comprehensive and is the only one that has all that video testing which I can’t duplicate because I don’t have nearly as many cartridges nor do I have the 7800 stuff.
They could have made it use the same hardware logic directly. You can do a full hardware emulation using an FPGA, so all the chip details needed to make a real Atari 2600 or 7800 on a chip are out there. Still, this is the best option they've put out since the 80s. It was always disappointing that the Flashback devices lacked a cartridge port.
I don’t know if anyone addressed this elsewhere, but my recollection is that the keypad for Star raiders is plugged into player two and the joystick is in player one
Greg thanks for the review mind arives on fri cant wait, Been looking forward to this since i pre ordered it..Been buying up old games just to have them..Thanks for testing an now i know what will work..Cant wait go atari..Looks like there making a come back..
The system looks great but that input lag on the paddle controllers is a huge let down. Circus Atari is my favorite 2600 game and requires a very precise amount of control. Would be incredibly difficult with the way emulation handles the input. It is what it is I guess.
I thought not all of them had the switch. When I bought mine on the Bay of E, I looked for one that had a picture showing the switch. But besides that, does the 2600 even support that kind of input? I thought only my 5200 had actual trakball analog input. For the 2600 - AFAIK - only the paddles (and the 360 spinning driving version) provided analog input. Hmmm…
@Greg's Game Room Please do a followup and leave as a comment trying the games that didn't work in the first half after cleaning. I suspect at least some of them WILL work, but the contact pins were dirty. Please varify this!
@@GregsGameRoom Can you at least please double check on Pitfall 2 really doesn't work and your copy was just dirty? That's my favorite 2600 game and one I'm really looking forward to playing on this.
37:14 The flash is the Toshiba TC58NVG1S3HTA00 TSOP48 chip. It's a 2G-bit (256MByte) NAND flash ROM. It's very curious why they used such a large amount of storage to hold what boils down to an ARM port of a Atari 2600 emulator and not much else. Clearly they are not using the best and most recent emulator code otherwise more games would work. Also, am I the only person who noticed the board has a space for a microSD card slot.... hmmmm ^_^
The vents are there to collect all the dust😂…I can’t figure out why so many consoles have those ridges. People in the 80s really liked making dusting harder.
Pity the 2600+ doesn't work with the Harmony multi cart. Hopefully there's a firmware update to fix it. It should be easy to fix that because the Harmony cart can be put into auto-load single game mode just by putting one rom on the sdcard. But the Harmony cart downloads the rom to memory which takes a couple of seconds after power-on. The problem is the 2600+ is basically a cart dumper so it tries to dump the cart ROM before the Harmony cart has actually loaded it. A simple 3 second delay at power-on would be enough time to allow the Harmony cart to get the game ready and then the 2600+ can dump it to memory and run it. Or alternatively allow the reset+color switches when pressed together on the console to re-dump the cart which would also fix it. But ideally the 2600+ should just run the Harmony cart as-is without having to jump through hoops.
Rockchip makes Arm SOCs. The board with the HDMI port looks like a single board computer. The others are most likely just for I/O. Thanks for the tear down, I’ve been dying to see the guts of one of these!
Thanks for the great video. I am curious if you ever got Smurf to work? I seem to be having the same issue you were with it and the cart was thoroughly cleaned.
Why did they use dip switches on the cartridges themselves rather than just using the game select button right next to the reset button. Or is the setup different on this system. I'm blind so I can't see the setup of the 2600+. Still love your video. I used to be a fairly good video pinball player lol, don't ask me how I did it.
I pre-ordered mine and am looking forward to it. Shame to hear that Pitfall 2 isn't running (which was to be expected) and the Sega Genesis Controller isn't supported, which I didn't expect. Can you tell if PAL and NSTC games run with correct colors on the 2600+? That would be great. I come from Germany and the PAL games here are often significantly more expensive than the NSTC versions. Thanks for your great review 👍😊 Holger
I knew the 7800 homebrews wouldn't work yet but a little concerned about some of the 2600 compatibility (except things such as Pitfall II, which has an extra on-board chips). Hoping for some updates and/or community involvement.
I'm curious if you plug the USB into a PC, is the device recognised? Does anything happen if you plug in a powered USB C hub (eg maybe another way to connect HDMI via a hub with a HDMI adapter)?
I do want to make a guess here. This is going to be hackable. Atari just can't say that due to copyright being held by Activision/Microsoft on a good amount of titles that one can find in rom format. That Micro USB port, and the button on the motherboard? That opens up the strong chance of hackability. With a simple OTG cable, a USB drive (assuming compatibility with a certain brand/size), I could really see the possibility of updates and upgrade packages that could be delivered. What is best, this wouldn't require any major hardware knowhow. Just open it up. find the usb port on the side it is on, plug stuff in, hold button, power on, and boom. Of course, the hard part will come in the awesome work that the software modding community comes in and makes our little Atari 2600+ the best Atari console it can be.
Cheap emulation is fine unless you want an authentic experience. Paying for an emulation machine that includes 10 games seems to be throwing good money after bad experience because many games wont load and the paddles aren't precise.
Will the enhanced berzerk work on an original Atari 2600? The sounds and stuff? Bought a fully refurbished 2600 with power LED and av composite mods and I don’t really want to get the 2600+ since my 2600 looks n runs minty
Does anyone know if it's possible to buy an accurate Atari joystick that has USB connectivity? I've just recently got in to emulation and love having all my old games to play but I'd love to play with an authentic controller. Is there anywhere I can get one, or is there even an adapter that can be used to make the old joysticks work with a USB connection?
I would have sworn origional paddles had 2 buttons; one on each side. No different function but I would swear mine had 2. I'm clearly misremembering but did anyone else misremember?
@@g4z-kb7ct I barely played Coleco back in the day as I only knew 1 kid who had one. Maybe my memory is confused with stærri 7800 as I did own one. Another possibility is I just remember wrong. I even thought the Atari paddle plug & play I have had 2 buttons but I was wrong on that too 😂 I even thought I remembered playing it left handed (control in right hand, hitting button with right thumb & steering with left hand) but nope I couldn't have. Mind blown as my memory is generally better on details like that.
I honestly don't se the point of producing an emulated clone of the 2600/7800 that isn't compatible with all the games and original hardware. I mean, what's the point of having a cartridge port if you can't just plug in any Atari game? And how is it that they can't emulate some of the games? Atari 2600 emulators have been able to play pretty much the entire library of games for years now. I could see if maybe some of the games with extra hardware in the cartridges, like Tunnel Runner or Pitfall II didn't work, but Robot Tank? There's really no excuse for that. And if they were going to include support for analog paddles, why couldn't they do it properly? Do you seriously expect me to believe that it's just too difficult for modern electronics and programming to do something that a system made almost half a century ago, with mostly off the shelf parts, can do?
Look at it this way. For me, there's only a handfull of games across these 2 systems that have the replayablity / nostalgia that makes them worth playing. Those I already play via emulation on hand helds already so I know I won't play ones I don't enjoy much or that annoyed me as a child. Other than Pac Man Collection and Pitfall II, there's not much he tried here that didn't work that I care about. I can play Food Fight, Stargate and Ms Pac man 7800, that's important to me. Also, theres a chance we will get upgrades to this from either Atari or 3rd party sources. Also am I the only person that noticed that debris on the Ms Pac Man cart as he pulled it out ? looked like a sticker ?
I'm not really impressed. I was lead to believe it would be just like an old Atari system, but it looks like it is emulation, and that half of the peripherals and game carts don't even work. Not good enough IMO.
@@SaanMigwell the 2600+ has issues with certain old cartridges. Only brings one controller. I'm sure the games that do work play well. But I tell you, the GSP is more bang for your buck.
@@Neotron2001 I appreciate it. I'm going to probably grab one on pay day. I have the 2600+, I was disappointed, mainly because only about 25% of the carts I have play on it. I'm just a young genxer that likes my retro games.
@@SaanMigwell , dude, it has a built in micro SD card so you can download and play ROMs from multiple platforms. It brings 2 controllers with built in paddle knobs. The controllers are wireless, although I use them with USB-C cables. That way I'm not wasting $ on batteries since the controllers are not rechargeable. But I'm telling you, I got it this past Christmas at Kohl's for $90 and it is a great little unit.
Interesting gambit on Atari's part: it's hard to fail when your target demographic is single men over 50 with excessive disposable income. As a sexually active neophyte of 45, I wouldn't buy it myself, but, clearly, it's an empty nester's delight.
Very good video, but not greatly impressed, but no real surprise. I think it would generally be better for people to save their money, run the Stella emulator, and spend the money on a quality joystick or something else. The lack of output to any kind of CRT is a huge disadvantage, although I realize a lot of people are using LCD's (which greatly affects the experience). Several game titles as you've shown aren't working. They'd probably nearly all run with the regular Stella emulator, and most of the home brews. Stella adds a bunch of extra features, such as emulation of the Super Charger So many copies of classic joysticks today don't feel like the originals. The stiff movement is how parts are often copied today. The same with arcade joystick re-issues. Really annoying, so I use only classic original controllers. The CX-40 joysticks were not stiff like that when new. I owned several. Been a classic video game fanatic since getting my Atari Sears Pong in 1975 I still have. The paddle controller issue most likely has something to do with the LCD screen. I played an Arkanoid machine this past weekend with LCD, and the frame-rate didn't feel right Yet, I run some spinner control games on a spinner in my MAME cab on a CRT monitor and their perfect. I doubt the issue with the paddles is do to the emulation. I bought a USB adapter for classic Atari controllers, but haven't got my paddles working yet. Hoping I missed a setting in Stella. Perhaps that is about the only advantage I see to the hardware is ease of use, and the physical form of it, but it's still not the original. I'm surprised the 10 in 1 cartridge requires jumper changes rather than an easy menu to select with the joystick. And some really classic titles like Air Sea Battle, an original VCS game, should be included. All and old, save your money. I've seen worse, but there are better options such as Stella on a PC or collecting the original system.
Excellent full review, by far the best I've seen yet. Watched a few 10/15 min "reviews" that just don't cover enough. This video is how it should be done! Will definitely be checking out more.. oh and recognise you from the Daily Woo.. lol unrelated to this video 😅 Great work mate.
Just saw you on Adam the Woo's channel. I do love me some retro systems! I still have my 1979 Atari 2600 from my childhood, which my father stored in a closet for 2 months before Christmas and, of course, I already knew he bought it. I feigned ignorance when I opened the present, and he still doesn't know that I did that. I'm 50 years old this year. Dad is 85! :) Thought I'd give you a sub.
I don't think i got the Atari but a cheaper imitation system which had the atari games built in. Not sure what it was called but it had a cowboy on the box?
Great video! Can you test these other titles? Burger Time Gyrus Frogger II Omega Race Pinball Frostbite Worm War I Airlock Saboteur Sea Hunt Aqua Venture Conquest of Mars Elevator Age Raptor Ruby Q Space Taxi Amoeba Jump (Homebrew) Save Mary (Homebrew) Yars Return (Homebrew) HERO (Homebrew) Ninjish Guy (Homebrew) Stay Frosty 2 (Homebrew) Lead (Homebrew) Ardvark (Homebrew) Galagon 7800 (Homebrew)
You might know this already but you're driving your tube too hard. You can see the vertical retrace. This will wear out your tube much quicker and give you a poor picture overall. But there might not be much life left and that's why you've got it so high, I dunno.
Thanks for the video. would love to see a further teardown showing those extra PCB's - it's clear that the bottom one (two) for the switches, the middle one the cart reader and rear connectors. I bet some enterprising individual could easily create a replacement Blue PCB for a seameless raspberry pi (or other board) based Atari2600+ ......Imagine a CM4 (or forthcoming CM5) adaptor that just manipulates the data lines on the two header sockets on that processor board.! Is there much more space in the case?
The system has a Rockchip ARM CPU, so it's already essentially a Raspberry Pi. The two hacks would be: * Load custom firmware * Add WiFi With that, you could emulate a much larger library of games. Any game that works with a one-button joystick should be playable, whether for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari 800, C64, or even arcade machines should be playable. Just have the firmware have a load-from-WiFi option if there's no cartridge inserted. If adding WiFi doesn't work, custom firmware could use a cartridge with a SD card.
To me, aside from the system itself, good quality new authentic joysticks and paddle controllers being available again is good for people who own an original 2600.
Very informative! When they release this with an SD card slot, I will buy it. Otherwise, I'll buy a flash cart. I would rather have every game in coax quality on original hardware for half the price and use Stella which is free for HD. A lot of the fun in exploring Atari is the weird or licensed titles. I love Atari and have 100+ games, but I'm not paying for a console that can't play the entire library in 2023.
@@GregsGameRoom I'm thinking it will be accessed through USB too, but they plan to update firmware which may hinder the ROMs. The minis all came with amazing libraries playable for hundreds of hours that the 2600+ doesn't at a lower price and it isn't like Flashbacks haven't had SD slots before. This one is just easier to play smart and wait, even if the product is cool.
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I've not finished watching the video fully yet, but just a reminder that apparently you do NOT have to power the system off/on to change games. Just hot swap them as it was designed for this so you don't have to wait for the boot startup delay each time.
Ah, good tip!
That will feel weird :P
@@markrotondella4689 Yes as it is against what we did back in the day. But apparently this 2600+ was designed to hot swap the games like this. Otherwise you have to wait for the boot up of the console each time which, takes much longer. So they designed it to shut off the game when you remove the cartridge and when you load up a different game, it will read what was just put in and restart the emulation with the new game.
@@IvoryTowerCollections never tried it because i still dont have that many games
I wasn’t sure if I should preorder the enhanced edition of Berzerk but after watching your review of the game I’m glad I did. The voicing samples and the diagonal firing from the robots make it feel closer to the arcade version
Nice work doing such a thorough review! And I appreciate your editing style :)
I suspect the keypad controllers don't work because they require the joystick ports to set some lines as input and some as output. It may very well be that the 2600+ joystick ports are only capable of input, not output.
Awesome job, Greg! The tiny but "real" boxes are really cool and fit better on "Media" shelves than the original sizes
Yeah they were a nice surprise!
Really nice review and testing. Gone are the days of fighting with broken RF switch adaptors.
True. Even on an unmodified system you can get an RF to coax adapter.
This is the best review/look at the Atari 2600+ I've seen. You checked everything including 7800 games and two button controllers. Strange that the Sega Genesis pads don't work as they work on any original 2600. I hope they fix that with firmware.
Thank you!
Here in the UK, when I was a kid, my Dad use to rent games from the local petrol station for my 2600. Great review.
Holy crap, thank you! I finally found a video where someone plays Xevious on the 2600+! I bought the game the other day and I was worried that it wasn’t compatible, but now I know my cartridge just doesn’t work. Thanks!
The metal grooves on the switches is called a knurl (in manufacturing). Great review! I'm really looking forward to receiving mine.
Thanks for the info!
@@GregsGameRoom No, that info is just plain wrong. The grooves on the switch shafts are from a turning tool made by machining it on a CNC lathe. They are simply feed lines made by the tip of a turning tool. Very common on all items made on a lathe. I should know, I'm working as a CNC programmer/CNC Machinist/1st Class Machinist/Toolmaker since 1986. Knurling is something completely different since there are two grooves at an angle and cross over in a X or diamond shape along the length of the shaft. Although nowadays knurling isn't very common. If you have an old center punch you might see knurling on the part that you hold or on a barbell / weight bars, grips of darts or a mechanical pencil, to name a few.
Thank you for the detailed review and tear down
I really wanted to love this system but already owning an 2600/7800 with mods, Retron77 with cfw and the newest Flashback.
I just can’t justify the cost only for its looks.
How do you mod them? What mods did you do? What are "cfw?" And "flashback?" And "retron77"? " Thx
Great Review! Awaiting my Atari 2600+ arriving tomorrow! Thanks for uploading this fun and honest review, cheers..... from Ireland.
You have a very nice collection of games, especially the 7800 ones. Thank you for trying out so many games. I was very concerned about Popeye and Stargate. Thanks for confirming.
Thanks, I wanted to try as many games as possible.
Best thing to clean cartridge contacts with is hoppe's 9 powder solvent. Just dip a qtip into the bottle, wipe on both sides, get a clean qtip and scrub like you would with alcohol. hoppe's 9 is a copper oxide solvent, and that is what you are cleaning. I used it on all my old cartridges about 10 years ago. I still haven't had to clean them. Just make sure you don't drip solvent into the cartridge, you don't want to dissolve the pcb traces, just the corrosion layer on the edge connector. In other words, be frugal with the solvent.
It looks really good in terms of being a replica, but I am just holding off to see if there are some official or community updates that will really make this into a must-have.
It has updateable firmware so not if but when.
My 2600+ just arrived. I opened the joystick and it's using a really clean nice design with conductive rubber pads and carbon-coated PCB pads like most modern controllers. So there's no old style dome switches in there and they should last many years without touching. If anyone already has a real 2600 and needs a new joystick buy this new one (sold separately I think) because it plays identical to the original but is better quality.
My vintage Atari joystick literally has the same rattling sound.
Thank you for this review and for covering all the bases!
The 16:9 4:3 is important if you want to hook it up via HDMI adapter to a 4:3 CRT or 4:3 LCD screen. When doing that via HDMI you would actually set it to 16:9 and then in theory it should look notrmal on 4:3 then as it will be desqueezed.
Sounds about right.
You can usually either take a picture of the chip info and put it into Google lens, it will tell you about those chips. Or just type in the info on the chips and research and then find out about the hose chips. There has got to be some kind of schematic out there for you to modify the 2600+ boards for some kind of additional or augmenting?
It's nice to see the 2600 + plays original cartridges but does the original 2600 play the new games
Yep! Check the chapters in the video!
I saw it shortly after I had time to watch your video without family interruptions. Awesome review
Great Video! Hopefully they get some firmware updates for the compatibility issues. It will be interesting to see what the community does with this as they made the Retron 77 WAY better with the Stella Emu update, but still had issues with Jittery paddles. Unless you got the Hyperkin one, but that one was real stiff. Hoping this does well and maybe in the future they will put out a FPGA 7800 pro system console, one can hope and dream.
I bet this one will be amazing after the modders get ahold of it. I like the look of this console way better than the Retron 77!
@@GregsGameRoom yea. Will definitely keep an eye out to see what happens with it and will get it when there is a better firmware or mod build out. They need to get the 7800 compatibility sorted out for the homebrews at the very least.
@@shaky6669 Some of homebrew carts won't ever be compatible with emulation. Many of them currently aren't playable on even my more up to date emulator, but I heard from champ games recently where they said that they would address emulation issues and compatibility issues for Turbo Arcade before release, so there's hope.
Really good review, thank you so much for this!
Thanks for watching!
Great review. I'm so hyped. Now I have to wait until Christmas ;)
Whoever thought you could unwrap a new 2600 at Christmas?!
Great video. Really good to see a bunch of games tested. I have to say though, you sure hold a joystick strangely!
hah, that’s because I was trying to get the joystick onscreen with the game.
@@GregsGameRoom i know, just messing. :D
Have to say this was a great video. You didn’t just do a surface dive like others.
Glad you appreciated it.
The secret has been revealed: inside, it is yet another Rockchip console… just like Powkiddy and Anbernic. You _could_ hack it to run all kinds of other software, but… why would you bother? You'd be better off buying a separate device… even one made with the same Rockchip architecture.
Good review. When I do my own, I might put a link to your review in the description because so far your review has been the most comprehensive and is the only one that has all that video testing which I can’t duplicate because I don’t have nearly as many cartridges nor do I have the 7800 stuff.
Great review! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for watching!
They could have made it use the same hardware logic directly. You can do a full hardware emulation using an FPGA, so all the chip details needed to make a real Atari 2600 or 7800 on a chip are out there. Still, this is the best option they've put out since the 80s. It was always disappointing that the Flashback devices lacked a cartridge port.
Disassemble the new and old joystick, you will see new modern electronics that control the games. Big difference from the original.
You do know there are HDMI CRT TVs for playing light gun games on, don’t you?
I don’t know if anyone addressed this elsewhere, but my recollection is that the keypad for Star raiders is plugged into player two and the joystick is in player one
I had it plugged into controller port 2. No dice.
Sorry about that
Star raiders was one of my faves on the 2600
I've found that og paddles were jittery on the plus although they're perfect on an original system
Greg thanks for the review mind arives on fri cant wait, Been looking forward to this since i pre ordered it..Been buying up old games just to have them..Thanks for testing an now i know what will work..Cant wait go atari..Looks like there making a come back..
Sounds like you’ll be busy with those games!
@@GregsGameRoom What would be cool later on is if atari lets colecovision run on the system id love to play that old dnd game my friend used to have.
Brilliant job mate! Thanks 🤜🤛
The system looks great but that input lag on the paddle controllers is a huge let down. Circus Atari is my favorite 2600 game and requires a very precise amount of control. Would be incredibly difficult with the way emulation handles the input. It is what it is I guess.
If the paddles lag this much, it seems likely that the other controllers also lag 😞
On the Atari Trakball, there should be a switch on the bottom to change it from joystick to trakball mode.
Hm, don’t remember seeing that but I’ll check!
I thought not all of them had the switch. When I bought mine on the Bay of E, I looked for one that had a picture showing the switch.
But besides that, does the 2600 even support that kind of input? I thought only my 5200 had actual trakball analog input. For the 2600 - AFAIK - only the paddles (and the 360 spinning driving version) provided analog input. Hmmm…
@@nickpalance3622 My 2600 supports the trakball.
I really hope they make a new trakball for the atari 2600+
This system definitely needs some firmware updates for controllers and game support in the future. But it looks like a sweet system for modern setups
Yeah it’s good now, but it can be great (for an emulation system.)
@Greg's Game Room Please do a followup and leave as a comment trying the games that didn't work in the first half after cleaning. I suspect at least some of them WILL work, but the contact pins were dirty. Please varify this!
I probably will do another video if a new firmware is released.
@@GregsGameRoom Can you at least please double check on Pitfall 2 really doesn't work and your copy was just dirty? That's my favorite 2600 game and one I'm really looking forward to playing on this.
This console could've been the best one if it were compatible with homebrews and the rest of the library as well.
37:14 The flash is the Toshiba TC58NVG1S3HTA00 TSOP48 chip. It's a 2G-bit (256MByte) NAND flash ROM. It's very curious why they used such a large amount of storage to hold what boils down to an ARM port of a Atari 2600 emulator and not much else. Clearly they are not using the best and most recent emulator code otherwise more games would work. Also, am I the only person who noticed the board has a space for a microSD card slot.... hmmmm ^_^
The vents are there to collect all the dust😂…I can’t figure out why so many consoles have those ridges. People in the 80s really liked making dusting harder.
Pity the 2600+ doesn't work with the Harmony multi cart. Hopefully there's a firmware update to fix it. It should be easy to fix that because the Harmony cart can be put into auto-load single game mode just by putting one rom on the sdcard. But the Harmony cart downloads the rom to memory which takes a couple of seconds after power-on. The problem is the 2600+ is basically a cart dumper so it tries to dump the cart ROM before the Harmony cart has actually loaded it. A simple 3 second delay at power-on would be enough time to allow the Harmony cart to get the game ready and then the 2600+ can dump it to memory and run it. Or alternatively allow the reset+color switches when pressed together on the console to re-dump the cart which would also fix it. But ideally the 2600+ should just run the Harmony cart as-is without having to jump through hoops.
Rockchip makes Arm SOCs. The board with the HDMI port looks like a single board computer. The others are most likely just for I/O.
Thanks for the tear down, I’ve been dying to see the guts of one of these!
Love your video! Does it connect to the internet?
That was some serious lag you showed earlier. No one can ever hope to get any high scores with that kid of lag. Especially on paddle games. A shame.
It was more noticeable on the paddle games. Hoping a firmware update corrects it a bit.
@@GregsGameRoom surely so. How long has Atari 2600 emulation been excellent, as far as lag goes? 20, 25 years maybe?
@@EngineHeadCW more like 15. But I know the ProSystem emulator they are using for 7800 games is from 2009 so that tracks.
Thanks for the great video. I am curious if you ever got Smurf to work? I seem to be having the same issue you were with it and the cart was thoroughly cleaned.
I noticed there’s no instructions on Mr. run and jump, so what do you do if you’ve never played it before
The instructions are in the title. lol
I also noticed no instructions for Bezerk @@GregsGameRoomI never played it
Why did they use dip switches on the cartridges themselves rather than just using the game select button right next to the reset button. Or is the setup different on this system. I'm blind so I can't see the setup of the 2600+. Still love your video. I used to be a fairly good video pinball player lol, don't ask me how I did it.
Awesome review! Makes me want one!! Lol
Thanks buddy!
Is that beautiful wood grain finish made of laminate or is it made of wood veneer?
I pre-ordered mine and am looking forward to it. Shame to hear that Pitfall 2 isn't running (which was to be expected) and the Sega Genesis Controller isn't supported, which I didn't expect. Can you tell if PAL and NSTC games run with correct colors on the 2600+? That would be great. I come from Germany and the PAL games here are often significantly more expensive than the NSTC versions. Thanks for your great review 👍😊 Holger
I don’t have any PAL games to test, but I heard they do work.
Love your vids.
Thanks!
Indy 500 with the original steering controls????
Could it possibly be that some of the games that failed may have just needed cleaning?
It's possible. If it read, "Loading Game Failed" I figured it was the system and not the cart.
I knew the 7800 homebrews wouldn't work yet but a little concerned about some of the 2600 compatibility (except things such as Pitfall II, which has an extra on-board chips). Hoping for some updates and/or community involvement.
They are working on 100% compatibility
How do you get the original ATARI 2600 to work on a newer smart TV?
Do Mr. Run and Jump and Berzerk enhanced work on the original 2600?
I'm curious if you plug the USB into a PC, is the device recognised? Does anything happen if you plug in a powered USB C hub (eg maybe another way to connect HDMI via a hub with a HDMI adapter)?
Haven’t tried.
the 4 in 1 cartridge works on the old consoles? thanks in advace
Were there no options to add scan lines?
Do you know if the Star Wars the Empire strikes back game from Parker Brothers worked on the system?
I am jealous. I am still waiting for mine.
I do want to make a guess here. This is going to be hackable. Atari just can't say that due to copyright being held by Activision/Microsoft on a good amount of titles that one can find in rom format. That Micro USB port, and the button on the motherboard? That opens up the strong chance of hackability. With a simple OTG cable, a USB drive (assuming compatibility with a certain brand/size), I could really see the possibility of updates and upgrade packages that could be delivered. What is best, this wouldn't require any major hardware knowhow. Just open it up. find the usb port on the side it is on, plug stuff in, hold button, power on, and boom. Of course, the hard part will come in the awesome work that the software modding community comes in and makes our little Atari 2600+ the best Atari console it can be.
I’m sure hacks are coming. But I wonder how much flash memory it has? Even a tiny amount would be enough for the entire 2600/7800 library.
@@TheExistentialNerd if Atari can't get their finger out to fix issues, the community surely will.
Cheap emulation is fine unless you want an authentic experience. Paying for an emulation machine that includes 10 games seems to be throwing good money after bad experience because many games wont load and the paddles aren't precise.
Will the enhanced berzerk work on an original Atari 2600? The sounds and stuff? Bought a fully refurbished 2600 with power LED and av composite mods and I don’t really want to get the 2600+ since my 2600 looks n runs minty
Yes! ruclips.net/video/VKUQiImtRws/видео.htmlsi=T8YwN350D1Blyq5P&t=2324
@@GregsGameRoomthank you!
That’s basically a raspberry pie with emulator
Looks like it, not hard-ware based. Then all the games would work.
Does anyone know if it's possible to buy an accurate Atari joystick that has USB connectivity? I've just recently got in to emulation and love having all my old games to play but I'd love to play with an authentic controller. Is there anywhere I can get one, or is there even an adapter that can be used to make the old joysticks work with a USB connection?
Does anyone know how I could get tron game to work with a track ball?
I would have sworn origional paddles had 2 buttons; one on each side. No different function but I would swear mine had 2. I'm clearly misremembering but did anyone else misremember?
All Atari paddles only ever had 1 button. You maybe confusing them with the Colecovision joystick controllers which had 2 buttons.
@@g4z-kb7ct I barely played Coleco back in the day as I only knew 1 kid who had one. Maybe my memory is confused with stærri 7800 as I did own one. Another possibility is I just remember wrong.
I even thought the Atari paddle plug & play I have had 2 buttons but I was wrong on that too 😂
I even thought I remembered playing it left handed (control in right hand, hitting button with right thumb & steering with left hand) but nope I couldn't have.
Mind blown as my memory is generally better on details like that.
The spase invaders lanfded on you lol.
Yeah I was too busy yapping!
Do you absolutely have to have a 7800 controller to play the 7800 games?
Not for most games.
Thanks.
Must have demon attack
Probably the best 2600 game ever. I know I was way better at it at 9 years old than I am 40 years later
I honestly don't se the point of producing an emulated clone of the 2600/7800 that isn't compatible with all the games and original hardware. I mean, what's the point of having a cartridge port if you can't just plug in any Atari game? And how is it that they can't emulate some of the games? Atari 2600 emulators have been able to play pretty much the entire library of games for years now. I could see if maybe some of the games with extra hardware in the cartridges, like Tunnel Runner or Pitfall II didn't work, but Robot Tank? There's really no excuse for that.
And if they were going to include support for analog paddles, why couldn't they do it properly? Do you seriously expect me to believe that it's just too difficult for modern electronics and programming to do something that a system made almost half a century ago, with mostly off the shelf parts, can do?
Emulation is always dodgy. Funny thing is that it uses an open source version of Stella which should be pretty accurate by now.
Look at it this way. For me, there's only a handfull of games across these 2 systems that have the replayablity / nostalgia that makes them worth playing. Those I already play via emulation on hand helds already so I know I won't play ones I don't enjoy much or that annoyed me as a child. Other than Pac Man Collection and Pitfall II, there's not much he tried here that didn't work that I care about. I can play Food Fight, Stargate and Ms Pac man 7800, that's important to me. Also, theres a chance we will get upgrades to this from either Atari or 3rd party sources. Also am I the only person that noticed that debris on the Ms Pac Man cart as he pulled it out ? looked like a sticker ?
Will this work Sega megadeive gennis 8 butdo wireless controller
The Retrobit one kinda works. Dunno about 8bitdo.
I'm more interested in finding out if the Hyperkin Ranger works on it. Because it's my favorite JS
I prefer the design of the heavy sixer than this one.
I'm not really impressed. I was lead to believe it would be just like an old Atari system, but it looks like it is emulation, and that half of the peripherals and game carts don't even work. Not good enough IMO.
It is emulation. I wish it was FPGA, but that would double the price of the system.
And also homebrew games don't work either. We already know that multicarts won't work
The Atari 2600 GSP provides a better gaming experience. The 2600+ is only for nostalgic aesthetics.
I don't know, the games the 2600+ does play plays better than the gsp. The gsp is still solid though.
@@SaanMigwell the 2600+ has issues with certain old cartridges. Only brings one controller. I'm sure the games that do work play well. But I tell you, the GSP is more bang for your buck.
@@Neotron2001 I appreciate it. I'm going to probably grab one on pay day. I have the 2600+, I was disappointed, mainly because only about 25% of the carts I have play on it. I'm just a young genxer that likes my retro games.
@@SaanMigwell , dude, it has a built in micro SD card so you can download and play ROMs from multiple platforms. It brings 2 controllers with built in paddle knobs. The controllers are wireless, although I use them with USB-C cables. That way I'm not wasting $ on batteries since the controllers are not rechargeable. But I'm telling you, I got it this past Christmas at Kohl's for $90 and it is a great little unit.
Thanks for convincing me this console is hot garbage.
Interesting gambit on Atari's part: it's hard to fail when your target demographic is single men over 50 with excessive disposable income. As a sexually active neophyte of 45, I wouldn't buy it myself, but, clearly, it's an empty nester's delight.
weird flex. you're 45 and still bragging about sex to nerds while delivering a backhanded compliment ? ok
Its overpriced Garbage that Feeds on our Nostalgia Feelings... I think for over $100 bucks it should of come with 2 controllers and a power brick.
I grew up as a kid in the 70s. I'm just going to say it. The Atari games sucked.
You must have been one oddball kid.
I knew a good game from crap. I spent my paper rout money elsewhere.@@WoodlandGoblin2030
@@larrym5120So what games were you playing in the 70s?
Very good video, but not greatly impressed, but no real surprise.
I think it would generally be better for people to save their money, run the Stella emulator, and spend the money on a quality joystick or something else.
The lack of output to any kind of CRT is a huge disadvantage, although I realize a lot of people are using LCD's (which greatly affects the experience).
Several game titles as you've shown aren't working. They'd probably nearly all run with the regular Stella emulator, and most of the home brews.
Stella adds a bunch of extra features, such as emulation of the Super Charger
So many copies of classic joysticks today don't feel like the originals. The stiff movement is how parts are often copied today. The same with arcade joystick re-issues. Really annoying, so I use only classic original controllers. The CX-40 joysticks were not stiff like that when new. I owned several. Been a classic video game fanatic since getting my Atari Sears Pong in 1975 I still have.
The paddle controller issue most likely has something to do with the LCD screen. I played an Arkanoid machine this past weekend with LCD, and the frame-rate didn't feel right Yet, I run some spinner control games on a spinner in my MAME cab on a CRT monitor and their perfect. I doubt the issue with the paddles is do to the emulation. I bought a USB adapter for classic Atari controllers, but haven't got my paddles working yet. Hoping I missed a setting in Stella. Perhaps that is about the only advantage I see to the hardware is ease of use, and the physical form of it, but it's still not the original.
I'm surprised the 10 in 1 cartridge requires jumper changes rather than an easy menu to select with the joystick. And some really classic titles like Air Sea Battle, an original VCS game, should be included.
All and old, save your money. I've seen worse, but there are better options such as Stella on a PC or collecting the original system.
Excellent full review, by far the best I've seen yet. Watched a few 10/15 min "reviews" that just don't cover enough. This video is how it should be done! Will definitely be checking out more.. oh and recognise you from the Daily Woo.. lol unrelated to this video 😅 Great work mate.
Thanks! Appreciate the kind words.
Just saw you on Adam the Woo's channel. I do love me some retro systems! I still have my 1979 Atari 2600 from my childhood, which my father stored in a closet for 2 months before Christmas and, of course, I already knew he bought it. I feigned ignorance when I opened the present, and he still doesn't know that I did that. I'm 50 years old this year. Dad is 85! :)
Thought I'd give you a sub.
Appreciate it, thanks!
I don't think i got the Atari but a cheaper imitation system which had the atari games built in. Not sure what it was called but it had a cowboy on the box?
Great video! Can you test these other titles?
Burger Time
Gyrus
Frogger II
Omega Race
Pinball
Frostbite
Worm War I
Airlock
Saboteur
Sea Hunt
Aqua Venture
Conquest of Mars
Elevator Age
Raptor
Ruby Q
Space Taxi
Amoeba Jump (Homebrew)
Save Mary (Homebrew)
Yars Return (Homebrew)
HERO (Homebrew)
Ninjish Guy (Homebrew)
Stay Frosty 2 (Homebrew)
Lead (Homebrew)
Ardvark (Homebrew)
Galagon 7800 (Homebrew)
im impressed that you still have your original 2600 from when you were a children.
Yeah, I get too attached to things!
You might know this already but you're driving your tube too hard. You can see the vertical retrace. This will wear out your tube much quicker and give you a poor picture overall. But there might not be much life left and that's why you've got it so high, I dunno.
Thanks for the video. would love to see a further teardown showing those extra PCB's - it's clear that the bottom one (two) for the switches, the middle one the cart reader and rear connectors. I bet some enterprising individual could easily create a replacement Blue PCB for a seameless raspberry pi (or other board) based Atari2600+ ......Imagine a CM4 (or forthcoming CM5) adaptor that just manipulates the data lines on the two header sockets on that processor board.!
Is there much more space in the case?
There’s a lot of room inside there.
The system has a Rockchip ARM CPU, so it's already essentially a Raspberry Pi. The two hacks would be:
* Load custom firmware
* Add WiFi
With that, you could emulate a much larger library of games. Any game that works with a one-button joystick should be playable, whether for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari 800, C64, or even arcade machines should be playable. Just have the firmware have a load-from-WiFi option if there's no cartridge inserted. If adding WiFi doesn't work, custom firmware could use a cartridge with a SD card.
To me, aside from the system itself, good quality new authentic joysticks and paddle controllers being available again is good for people who own an original 2600.
I'm pretty positive that Micro USB port is a data port and I don't think it well be even a month until someone found a way to hack it
Very informative! When they release this with an SD card slot, I will buy it. Otherwise, I'll buy a flash cart. I would rather have every game in coax quality on original hardware for half the price and use Stella which is free for HD. A lot of the fun in exploring Atari is the weird or licensed titles. I love Atari and have 100+ games, but I'm not paying for a console that can't play the entire library in 2023.
Well, the Mini consoles don’t have SD card slots. I bet it can be accessed through that USB slot.
@@GregsGameRoom I'm thinking it will be accessed through USB too, but they plan to update firmware which may hinder the ROMs. The minis all came with amazing libraries playable for hundreds of hours that the 2600+ doesn't at a lower price and it isn't like Flashbacks haven't had SD slots before. This one is just easier to play smart and wait, even if the product is cool.
Check the board.... it does have an microSD slot, only it's not populated.... ^_^
Really great review much more in-depth than other "reviewers" thanks so much 🥂
Thank you! I tried to answer as many questions as I could think of!
Nija golf was a game my gram bought me new but I only had a 2600
I figured Pitfall 2 cart wouldn't work, same as the R77. The paddle lag looks disappointing. Uh oh. I just made your upvote count a scary number!
The usb needs 5V 1A iff somebody wants to know it