Atari 7800

3 Articles

Atari Announces The Atari 7800+ Nostalgia Console

August 21, 2024 by 21 Comments

Following the trend of re-releasing every single game console as some kind of modern re-imagining or merely an ARM-SBC-with-emulator slapped into a nice looking enclosure, we now got the announcement from Atari that they will soon be releasing the Atari 7800+.

It’s now up for pre-order for a cool $130 USD or a mega bundle with wired controllers for $170 and shipping by Winter 2024. Rather than it being a cute-but-non-functional facsimile like recent miniature Nintendo and Commodore-themed releases, this particular console is 80% of the size of the original 7800 console, and accepts 2600 and 7800 cartridges, including a range of newly released cartridges.

On the outside you find the cartridge slot, an HDMI video/audio output, a USB-C port (for power) and DE-9 (incorrectly listed as DB-9) controller ports, with wireless controllers also being an option. Inside you find a (2014-vintage) Rockchip RK3128 SoC with a quad core Cortex-A7 that runs presumably some flavor of Linux with the Stella 2600 emulator and ProSystem 7800 emulator. This very likely means that compatibility with 2600 and 7800 titles is the same as for these emulators.

Bundled with the console is a new 7800 cartridge for the game Bentley Bear’s Crystal Quest, and a number of other new games are also up for pre-order at the Atari site. These games are claimed to be compatible with original Atari consoles, which might make it the biggest game release year for the 7800 since its launch, as it only had 59 official games released for it.

Given the backwards compatibility of this new system, you have to wonder how folks who purchased the 2600+ last year are feeling right about now. Then again, the iconic faux-wood trim of the earlier console might be worth the price of admission alone.

Working With Old High-Voltage EPROMs Is Fussy

March 31, 2023 by 19 Comments

EPROMs, those UV-erasable memory chips of the 80s and 90s, once played a crucial role in countless electronic devices. They’ve become relics of a bygone era, but for enthusiasts of vintage electronics, the allure of these light-sensitive devices remains strong. Today, we’re diving into [Kevin Osborn]’s nostalgic journey as he uncovers the secrets of old EPROMs loaded with Atari 7800 code.

[Kevin] used to work at General Computer Company, which produced the Atari 7800 and several games for the system. Thus, he had a handful of old carts and development EPROMs sitting up in his attic along with an old console. Recently, he decided to try and uncover what was on the EPROMs and begun an investigation. They wouldn’t run in his Atari, and he quickly realized why: the EPROMs weren’t cryptographically signed, so the system wouldn’t load them. Continue reading “Working With Old High-Voltage EPROMs Is Fussy” →

An Atari Graphics Chip, Ready For You To Build

November 10, 2019 by 27 Comments

The most notable of the home computer and console hardware from the 8-bit golden era didn’t get their impressive sound and graphics from off-the-shelf silicon, instead they relied on secretive custom chipsets to get the edge over their competitors. Unfortunately for vintage gaming aficionados, those chips are now long out of production and in many cases there’s little information to be had about their operation.

Which makes discovery of the schematics (PDF link) for the “Tia Maria” graphics chip found in the Atari 7800 console an unusual occurrence, and one which should be of special interest to the emulation community. They can be found alongside the rest of the Atari Museum’s 7800 information.

That such a useful document is available at all is due to a lucky find in a dumpster following the demise of Atari, when a treasure trove of documents was discarded. It seems that the existence of these schematics has been known within the Atari community for some time, and we expect before long this information will find its way into FPGA implementations of the 7800; especially since the system features nearly complete backwards compatibility with the massively successful Atari 2600.

When that happens we hope we’ll be able to bring it to you, but it’s not the first time someone’s made an Atari on an FPGA.

Via RetroRGB

Header image: Bilby [CC BY 3.0]