Atari 7800 Thread

[TrekMD]

I agree with you that Asteroids is one of the best home ports of the game.  As for the POKEY, they couldn't fit it into the board because they wanted to maintain the 2600 compatibility.  Their plan was to add it to carts and GCC had even planned to make a chip as good as the POKEY (if not better) that would be cheaper than the POKEY.  That would have made it practical to add it to all the carts.  Unfortunately, this was when the Tramiels bought Atari and they scrapped the whole thing.

[TrekMD]

I'm waking up this thread.  I attended PRGE in 2016 and there was a panel where Steve Golson, from GCC, spoke about the Atari 7800 and what they intended for the system.  I thought it was a very interesting panel because I think things could have been different in the video game world had the system been released as intended in 1984.  It's a "what if" scenario now but this panel was quite interesting and I found it today on YouTube.  Here it is.  Enjoy!

[davyk]

Excellent video that. Answers some questions I had about the 7800; particularly the poor sound.

[TrekMD]

Cool, glad you learned something about the 7800 from the video.  Clearly, they had different plans for it but that's not what happened because of the sale of the company and the delay in the launch of the system. 

[TrekMD]

I just watched this and wanted to share it.  Maybe it'll start some chat about the 7800...

[davyk]

Would really like a 7800 version of the Harmony - the 7800 homebrew scene over at atariage is creating some really great titles.

[TrekMD]

They have been working on one for some time now, but having difficulties because of the varied 7800 hardware.  I hope they don't give up!

[davyk]

There's an expansion module too but I'm not keen on that as it means the machine isn't a 7800 any more. Don't see the point of that.

[TrekMD]

The expansion module does not change the system.  It adds hardware that was intended to be in carts (POKEY, RAM, etc) to the one module so that games can be made that take advantage of those without having to sacrifice Ballblazer or Commando carts. It was even planned by Atari but never released.

[davyk]

If that's the case then fair enough.  My Ballblazer POKEY is in my Asteroids cabinet.....but I still have the POKEY it replaced. There's a very good chance it is OK because I only changed it thinking it had failed when in actual fact it was getting dodgy voltage from the failing power supply.

I really should swap it in again but I can't be bothered. 

[davyk]

Anyhow - 7800 Asteroids is still the best home Asteroids game around ignoring emulation. I still play it.  The 7800 picture looks better on the CRT I got to replace the one that died on me.

[TrekMD]

It sure is!  I love that version because of the two-player modes on it also! 

[davyk]

Yeah - the Centipede port shares those same 2P modes.

[TrekMD]

Very true!  Another feature unique to the 7800 on that game.

[Spector]

Would really like a 7800 version of the Harmony - the 7800 homebrew scene over at atariage is creating some really great titles.

Didn't Chad Schells Cuttle Cart II act like a Harmony cart? It came out many years ago and allowed you to upload all your 7800 and 2600 games onto the cart to be played on a real 7800. And I bloody well had one!! Why on earth did I get rid of it... 😑