Atari 5200: New version of Atari800 (Beta): two triggers (Moon Patrol!!!), hat start and exit buttons
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@future.child It's hard to explain.... let me give a few examples by game.
Missile Command - Pretty much any direction you press the cursor is immediately at the edge of the screen in that direction. You are unable to slowly move the cursor anywhere in the middle of the screen.
Super Breakout/Kaboom! - Same thing pretty much, except it's only on the horizontal axis. You're almost immediately left or right whichever way you press the joystick.
Centipede - The only game in the whole bunch that could be considered barely semi-playable. You can go all directions like Missile command, but at least it's a little slower so you can see the movement instead of the immediate cursor to the end of the screen movement like in Missile Command.
EDITED TO ADD: Just FYI, I've completed testing on the official 5200 games and there are no issues other than the ones we had before that I've already mentioned. So good news is you didn't break anything.... at least on the 5200 :)
EDIT2: BTW... did you notice this thread I made? https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/10406/making-premade-gamelist-xml-with-xtra-media-collections/5
I put a release for the 7800 with a preconfigured XML and tons of artwork and videos and other Xtras. I'm going to put one together for the 5200 as well when we're done here and I'm finished testing games. (No Roms/bios included). I'll have datfiles in them to build a romlist that will work with the setup, although for the 5200 you'd need to rename them by hand likely because all of my roms were headered to automatically run with Allitra.
Not sure if you know anything about scripting XML stuff, but you seem handy with code. If you could help automate the process for me I could start working on larger systems like the NES and SNES. (Read the thread if you're interested)
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@Used2BeRX The new version has been uploaded with numerical 4 and 5 support.
Same installation procedure, new config parameters:SDL_JOY_0_DIGIT_4=10 SDL_JOY_0_DIGIT_5=11As for testing: if it works in one rom it will work for other roms as well, so no need to test them all, just pick a few at random.
For the sensitivity problem, I get your point, the cursor movement is way too fast for gameplay.
I have no real experience with the 5200 (i was a 800xl kid back then).
Was missile command playable with digital joystick or did it need analog input (trackball, mouse, analog joystick) ?
I think the 5200 had a digital joystick, but am not sure.
On the 800xl missile command is well playable with digital controller.I do not think this is easily fixed, i will dig deeper in the code and see what i can do.
In the meantime you can map a mouse input to joystick1 to have it playable.Edit: I just found out the 5200 had analog joysticks, this emulator uses a mouse as input for this.
I think it will be quite difficult to have native analog controls.
I'll keep digging in the code too see if it can be done, don't hold your breath as it may take a while (if ever). -
@future.child The 5200 was actually an analog controller. I think it might have been one of the first. It was horribly designed, and I remember when they stopped selling them my dad had to buy an entire new system when our controllers broke. Then those broke as well and we never got to play it again.
You had to ask about the one game of the list that I didn't have though, huh? :) I never played Missile Command on the 5200. All of the others I had though, and they all played fine with the standard controller. I'm assuming that it did work though, since you asked about an analog controller and the 5200 controllers were analog.
I appreciate you looking into it. :)
EDIT: Beautiful add again. 4 and 5 work. Just breezed through the 3rd level of Miner 2049er with it. :)
I was going to say that either I've gotten a lot better at games or playing this without the 5200 controllers is just so much easier, but then I took the radioactive drink right above where you start in the 5th level and felt like an idiot.
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@Used2BeRX So far i have been unsuccessful implementing analog controls, as far as i can tell the original version was built on the idea of using the mouse as analog input, i think i am on the right track though.
For the time being i created another version with the possibility to adjust the joystick speed.
Same installation procedure, new configuration parameter:JOY_SPEED_ADJUST=8Accepted values are 0 to 9 (the higher the number the slower the movement will be), to disable this option just remove the parameter or place any other value.
As far as the radioactive drink in Miner:2049er: i think the manual said Bounty Bob was allergic to martini's ;-)
I cant even count how many times i made that same mistake. -
@future.child Awesome. I can't get to it right now, but I should be able to check it out by this weekend. I think you're on the right track. I can't find the message I got from somebody on another forum who knows a bit about Atari emulation and he mentioned something about using the mouse for analog too.
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@Used2BeRX I'd guess he'd have the same conclusion, that mouse input is used for analog input.
In the source code there is a bit of code mapping mouse movement to the atari's input ports (POKEY_POT_input).
These ports (2 per controller 1 for x, 1 for y) have an input range from 0 to 228 where 114 is centre position.
My attempts to map the analog joysticks axis-es to these ports result in very erratic movements, probably because there exists some passing on of the original joystick data.Meanwhile I have also begun testing other emulators (kat5200 and atari++, unfortunately altirra is windows only) but so far analog input is not what i expect.
Kat5200 has analog controller support but when it is enabled the cursor returns to the center of the screen when joystick is centered (very annoying during gameplay) and atari++ also uses mouse as analog input.
Maybe mess will allow for analog input, ill try that one when i get arround. -
@future.child Good news and bad news.
Missile Command, Centipede and Super Breakout are completely playable with this fix!
The bad news is that when you have any value other than "0" any game that doesn't use the mouse is completely non responsive.
We're on the right track. Is there any way to only launch this for the games that use it? If that's possible it would be cool if it could be taken a step further to have a different value per game. 8 seems really good for Super Breakout and Missile command, but it's a little slow for Centipede.
As always, thanks again for your awesome work FC.
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@Used2BeRX
The easiest way to have different configurations per rom is to create separate launchers.You would create additional configuration files (i.e. atari5200_custom1.cfg and atari5200_custom1.cfg) and edit emulators.cfg like this:
atari800="echo %ROM: -\ % > /dev/null;/opt/retropie/emulators/atari800/bin/atari800 -config /opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/atari5200.cfg -cart %ROM%" atari800_custom1="echo %ROM: -\ % > /dev/null;/opt/retropie/emulators/atari800/bin/atari800 -config /opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/atari5200_custom1.cfg -cart %ROM%" atari800_custom2="echo %ROM: -\ % > /dev/null;/opt/retropie/emulators/atari800/bin/atari800 -config /opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/atari5200_custom2.cfg -cart %ROM%"When launching a rom you'd get a message asking to press a button to change setting.
There you can choose select emulator for ROM () and select atari800_custom1 or atari800_custom1. -
@future.child Nice. I didn't know you could do that. I was wondering why I had an option to switch between 5200 and 800 like that even though they both used the same emulator. Now I know the answer to that. I'll give it a shot later.
Did you happen to look into the issues with Pengo, Pole Position and Galaxian? The other guy I was talking to says that the emulator incorrectly detects the presense of the trackball and switches to trackball mode with those games. Galaxian is playable once a bug works itself out, but it's impossible to play Pengo and Pole Position.
Other than that I don't think there are any more issues, at least with the 5200. There's some games with too many keypad buttons to play on a joystick, but I doubt anybody that liked RealSports Football hasn't moved on to Madden or at least Tecmo Bowl by now.
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@Used2BeRX I've looked into the "Pengo, Pole Position and Galaxian" issue.
It has been referred too in this thread, i have tried the fix suggested in post #5. but it did not work.I'm still poking around in the source code to see if anything can be done but for now it's only playable if you select mouse as input for joystick in the emulator menu.
When i have news i will post an update.
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@future.child Sounds good. I'm going to see if anything I can do with the configs can handle this too. Some settings do not save in the emulator, so that might not work, but if you can get proper control on these games by simply choosing to use mouse input than it might just be a matter of using a "poleposition" config line and saving the Mouse option.
But there is still going to be a problem when it comes to up/down shifting in that game. Could I ask one more quick favor that you just add the rest of the numpad buttons to the emulator and let me know what values would essentially leave them unused for most games? That way for the Pole Position config I can map the up/down gearshift to the stick as well as have the fixed mouse support control.
If you would be interested in having these different configurations when I'm done, just say the word. I'm going to be releasing an entire 5200 pack at some point on the other site I hang out with that has all the artwork and videos too, but thought you might want these configs if they work after I make them just to save you the hassle.
EDIT: This is infuriating. I can't get the emulator to boot anymore. It keeps kicking me right back to the romlist. I even re-installed it twice. I think something might have gotten jacked up in my config file again, but I don't see how since I've been diligent about backing things up.
Do you know of any other files somewhere that might be causing me some conflicts? I'd like to reset everything if possible.
EDIT2: Yeah. I don't know what happened, but it's completely broke for me now. Nothing I do seems to get the emulator working anymore.
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@Used2BeRX Bummer.....
I can't think of anything other than checking the emulators.cfg to see if you are pointing to the correct config file (also check the path) and maybe starting with a fresh config file.
Since you chose a different emulator per rom you may want to revert those back to default.
Also check if your bios files have not become corrupted.
Maybe you could do a complete atari800 uninstall from retropie setup, reboot and then reinstall as last resort ?Anyway, i just posted a new update which has support for numericals 6 ~ 0.
new config parameters :SDL_JOY_0_DIGIT_6=12 SDL_JOY_0_DIGIT_7=13 SDL_JOY_0_DIGIT_8=14 SDL_JOY_0_DIGIT_9=15 SDL_JOY_0_DIGIT_0=16 -
@future.child I figured it out!
Kinda bittersweet news for me. I've pushed the Pi Zero to its limit and that limit is pretty underwhelming for sure. All of the work I've been doing on the side making artwork packs work with it and making gamelist.xml files that will point to them finally took its toll. I can't even have that setup for just Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800 and LYNX without "breaking" the Pi. I hadn't even started any of that with systems like NES, SNES and Genesis........ Bummer.
After I renamed all the gamelistxml files to revert to name only game lists I was able to start the 5200 emulator again.
I'll start with your new upload and start working on making new configs. I hadn't even begun any of that since I couldn't even start the damn thing before :)
I'll let you know how it goes.
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@future.child Here's where we're at now. Centipede, Missile Command, RealSports Tennis and Super Breakout work great.
Kaboom! and Castle Crisis now have another issue though. For whatever these reasons the range of movement is very tiny now. You are pretty much just stuck in the starting position and you can move it a tiny bit either way instead of to the edges of the screen like you're suppose to be able to.
EDIT: Pengo works!!!!!!When I have a Pengo.cfg set up for "JOY_SPEED_ADJUST=6", I can get it to work by going into the emulator options and choosing "Controller Configuration - Mouse Device - ST Mouse".
I can't figure out how to save that setting for the ST Mouse.
This still doesn't fix the Galaxian flake out or have any noticible effect on the car control in Pole Position.
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@Used2BeRX For Kaboom! and Castle Crisis could you try to remove the line "JOY_SPEED_ADJUST=" entirely.
This is because with setting of 0 there still is a tiny adjustment, when not having this line the setting is completely disabled. -
@future.child That won't work. The emulator automatically adds the line if you remove it.
Do you think I could put a value of 11 to negate it? I won't be able to check on it for a while.
Any ideas for how to save the ST Mouse for Pengo, or how to get Pole Position working?
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@Used2BeRX Could you check if in your config autosave is set to 0
CFG_SAVE_ON_EXIT=0This could be the reason for the config being overwritten by the emulator.
And Yes, setting 11 (or any other value except 0 ~ 9) disables adjustment to the joystick speed completely.
Keep in mind though the joystick adjustment is a temporary "fix" until i can get true analog controlls to work as intended.Edit: The mouse mode is not configurable trough the configuration file, you can however edit the emulators.cfg file to add -mouse with one of these parameters: off/pad/touch/koala/pen/gun/amiga/st/trak/joy.
In your case it would be like :
atari800="echo %ROM: -\ % > /dev/null;/opt/retropie/emulators/atari800/bin/atari800 -mouse st -config /opt/retropie/configs/atari5200/atari5200.cfg -cart %ROM%" -
@future.child Yeah. It was set to "1" for autosave. I'll change it when I have a chance and see if those other two games work. I'll give that configuration for the mouse a shot too.
I'm not sure if you really need to get "true analog" if that's going to be a huge struggle for you. As long as you choose the correct number for your "temporary fix" it seems to play very well to me. It's just a matter of seeing if we can get those last 4 or so games to work.
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@Used2BeRX well if you do have those last roms working correct maybe you could post a tutorial for those that want to have the same.
i will still try for true analog, mainly because it's a learning experience for me and when (or if) working will also be of benefit to the community.
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@future.child said in Atari 5200: New version of Atari800 (Beta): two triggers (Moon Patrol!!!), hat start and exit buttons:
For Kaboom! and Castle Crisis could you try to remove the line "JOY_SPEED_ADJUST=" entirely.
This is because with setting of 0 there still is a tiny adjustment, when not having this line the setting is completely disabled.So I was thinking about this one. If I did that, wouldn't it just have the same problems as before we did anything where the speed is just so fast that it's still unplayable?
These games need the slowdown fix for the speed of the controls, but for some reason on these two it keeps you in a very small window of movement from the starting position instead of the full screen when you have the JOY_SPEED_ADJUST line in there.
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