13 replies to this topic

[Metal Jesus]

Atari's 7800 gaming console is often misunderstood, slightly flawed, and yet a lot of fun to collect for. This week, I review the history of the 7800, show some gameplay footage and celebrate 8-bit gaming goodness!

Getting MESS to emulate 7800 carts was pretty rough... One minute I was able to play Food Fight and the next, it wouldn't even start. So frustrating.

[Zedex]

Cool video. My local retro game store has a few of these, I might check it out sometime. Right now my focus is on classic computers.

[graywest]

Nice review - thanks!!

[GroovyBee]

I think you need a new palette file for your emulator. The colours look a bit out to me.

[Metal Jesus]

GroovyBee, on Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:55 AM, said:

I think you need a new palette file for your emulator. The colours look a bit out to me.

Getting MESS to work was a bit of a chore, especially after being spoiled with more user friendly programs like MAME & Stella. I'll look into the palette settings/files. Thanks for the heads up!

[Underball]

Why would you even bother with MESS for the 7800? Just use Prosystem. it's the most updated and accurate 7800 emulator there is.

[thegoldenband]

Underball, on Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:36 PM, said:

Why would you even bother with MESS for the 7800? Just use Prosystem. it's the most updated and accurate 7800 emulator there is.

Has an OS X or Linux version been released? If not, those platforms are still in a MESS.

(I realize the OP said he's using a "PC", which usually means Windows.)

BTW I like the video!

[Goldfish]

Good video Metal Jesus

[Trebor]

Nice review MJ. Sorry you had so much trouble with MESS. Not sure if you are using an older version. Current version is 0.144u6. In the last couple of years MESS has really improved with both its 7800 color palette as well as incorporating the HLSL options found in MAME. You have so many great tweak settings to make your display, even on a modern LCD, look like an old CRT TV including brightness, RGB values, contrast, scanlines, and a slew of other setttings.

Sound emulation wise, especially POKEY, I found to always be better under MESS than ProSystem (At least respecting all the currently publicly released official and unofficial verisons). Graphically it has some small corruption in a couple of games (Top of Centipede), to really bad (Kung-Fu Master). Additionally, unfortunately, a few of the homebrews either keep cycling at the Atari logo screen or don't function correctly. Thankfully, the vast majority of both original release and self published titles run great.

I'm attaching a few quick screen caputres with some HLSL settings enabled, including screen curve. I'm hoping for both the few bugs found in MESS 7800 emulation to be ironed out eventually, and for better graphic options and sound under ProSystem.

[Trebor]

A few more captures under MESS for those interested:

[Metal Jesus]

it's cool how MESS emulates screen curvature! Those are great screenshots. Thanks!

[davyK]

I was able to capture 7800 footage by running it through a VCR with composite out to my capture card. it worked quite well - check it out..

http://www.youtube.c...bed/UTUHK0Q7hkw

Edited by davyK, Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:58 PM.

[Random Terrain]

Don't watch the video! He is trying to brainwash you with Illuminati hand signals!

[GKC]

This is great. I'm looking to pick up a 7800 and after searching YouTube I was shocked by the lack of 7800 videos or reviews. Not sure the reason for the lack of videos on it. You would think that the Jaguar, which has numerous youtube postings, would be more obscure than the 7800 but I guess not???