Atari 800 (8-Bit)

[angelobodetti]

Hi All,

James made the video and I asked how people emulate it and I got a few answers. I am trying MESS, Atartirra and Atario 800 but am having no luck.

Anyone have a tutorial or want to lend a hand?

[Zombeaver]

I use Atari800 personally. It's not the most intuitive emulator in the world but it's not too bad either. Try that one out and if you have any trouble let me know.

[angelobodetti]

Do you have some basic instructions? I messed with it yesterday and was struggling.

[Zombeaver]

Start Atari800.exe

Press F1

Go to Display Settings

Go to Video Mode Settings

This is what I'm using:

I also use a custom palette (in Display Settings) but we can get back to that later.

Press Esc twice to get back to the main options screen

Go to Emulator Configuration

Select "Save Configuration File"

You can also enable "Save Configuration File On Exit" but I recommend leaving this off in case you mess something up while changing settings - it won't be saved until you manually save it. It also keeps you from having cartridges or disk images remaining "inserted" after exiting the emulator.

Pres Esc to get back to the main options screen

Select "Run Atari Program"

Navigate to your rom and press enter

If you try to load a cartridge format rom it will ask you to select the cartridge type. This varies by game but "Standard 16 KB cartridge" is what it will be most of the time.

F2 = Option
F3 = Select
F4 = Start
F12 = Warp (fast forward)
F9 = Exit

(I have these bound to buttons on my controller via AHK but again we can get back to that later)

If you're using an Xinput controller (I use a wireless 360 controller) it should be detected automatically and the left joystick should control the joystick in game and A (on a 360 controller) = fire button.

Atari800 works fine via LB too but we need to verify that you can get stuff working outside of that first.

[angelobodetti]

On 3/22/2017 at 9:19 AM, Zombeaver said:

Start Atari800.exe

Press F1

Go to Display Settings

Go to Video Mode Settings

This is what I'm using:

I also use a custom palette (in Display Settings) but we can get back to that later.

Press Esc twice to get back to the main options screen

Go to Emulator Configuration

Select "Save Configuration File"

You can also enable "Save Configuration File On Exit" but I recommend leaving this off in case you mess something up while changing settings - it won't be saved until you manually save it. It also keeps you from having cartridges or disk images remaining "inserted" after exiting the emulator.

Pres Esc to get back to the main options screen

Select "Run Atari Program"

Navigate to your rom and press enter

If you try to load a cartridge format rom it will ask you to select the cartridge type. This varies by game but "Standard 16 KB cartridge" is what it will be most of the time.

F2 = Option
F3 = Select
F4 = Start
F12 = Warp (fast forward)
F9 = Exit

(I have these bound to buttons on my controller via AHK but again we can get back to that later)

If you're using an Xinput controller (I use a wireless 360 controller) it should be detected automatically and the left joystick should control the joystick in game and A (on a 360 controller) = fire button.

Atari800 works fine via LB too but we need to verify that you can get stuff working outside of that first.

So i followed these instructions but nothing happens when i load an .atr rom and if i load the zip i get an error saying cannot load.

Is there a bios or something I need to place?

[Zombeaver]

1 minute ago, angelobodetti said:

Is there a bios or something I need to place?

Yes, they're available on the Atari800 page in Download -> Rom Files. Click on "Original XL ROM" and then "xf25.zip". I'm not sure if this folder is created by Atari 800 by default, but mine are in a folder named "ATARI ROM" in the Atari 800 folder.

 

[angelobodetti]

No luck, I download those filed, created a folder called ATARI ROM and unzipped them into that folder. Still fails when i load a game.

[Zombeaver]

Try opening the emulator and going to Emulator Settings -> Configure Directories -> "Directories With Atari software" and go to [add directory] and press enter. Navigate into the ATARI ROM folder and press space.

I would also advise trying multiple roms... some of them are finicky. Sometimes you have to manually disable BASIC for them to work.

[Zombeaver]

Actually, strike that...

[Zombeaver]

It's in Emulator Settings -> System Rom settings -> find rom images in a directory and then navigate to the ATARI ROM folder, and press space.

[angelobodetti]

did that and still no luck. if i go to 400/800 rom locations rev a ntsc rev a pal and rev b ntsc all say none - should i navigate to a specific file? Custom is mapped to a file

[Zombeaver]

It should populate those automatically once you do the above. Are you sure you actually navigated into the ATARI ROM folder and pressed space? It takes whatever one you're in at the time.

[angelobodetti]

ok got it. Thank you! - i needed to exit and re open. also doesnt seem to work with zip files.

Any special command lines or instructions for launch box?

[Zombeaver]

I use -nobasic as a default command line parameter. BASIC has to be disabled for a lot of games in order for them to work, although there are some that were actually programmed in BASIC (like the game Fury) so for those you can add a custom command line parameter for the specific game and just enter "-". If you set it up this way and you try something and it doesn't work, you can try using "-" and see if it works. Those are pretty few and far between though.

You'll also occasionally run into instances, depending on the region of the rom you're using, where you'll need to indicate that it's NTSC for the colors to display correctly. You can do that by specifying a custom command line parameter of -ntsc.

You could try using zips if you enable the extract option in the emulator entry in LB, but I've never tried it. The roms are tiny so I've got them all extracted.

[Zombeaver]

Oh, and I made this script (you can paste this into the Autohotkey section for Atari 800 in LB) to map a few things to my controller:

#NoEnv

;Option
2Joy7::
   SetKeyDelay, -1, 110
Send {F2}
Return

;Select
2Joy3::
   SetKeyDelay, -1, 110
Send {F3}
Return

;Start
2Joy8::
   SetKeyDelay, -1, 110
Send {F4}
Return

;Warp
2Joy6:: 
   SetKeyDelay, -1, 110
Send {F12}
Return

;Exit
2Joy5:: ;you have to press 2Joy7 first

If !GetKeyState("2Joy7")

Return
send {F9}

Return

 

This makes it so you can do the following with a 360 controller:

Back = Option
Start = Start
X = Select
RB = Warp
Back+LB = Exit Emulator

A is mapped to fire.

You may need to change the number for the 2Joy7 2Joy6 etc to a different number - 2 is the correct one for my 360 controller in my setup. If it's the only controller you use it'll probably be 1.

[angelobodetti]

i have no problem using the extracted files but i get some files with multiple files within the zip - i also get a bunch of different extensions. Is it possible i have an incorrect romset are all of your roms the same extension? if so, what is it?

[Zombeaver]

No, there are a lot of different extensions that you'll encounter for Atari 8-bit games.

I've got .atr, .atx, .com, .xex, and .cas roms. It just depends on the format the game was originally in and how it was ripped.

[angelobodetti]

Ok thank you. Do some of your games have multiple rom files? Not different files for side a, side b, I mean like 3 or 4 files within a zip with different names and extensions. 

[Zombeaver]

Yep, like I said it's just different formats for the same game. I don't have multiple imported into my library though, if that's what you're asking. If you try one and it works, just go with that. .atr is the one I use the most, when it's available.

[angelobodetti]

On 4/6/2017 at 7:02 PM, Zombeaver said:

Yep, like I said it's just different formats for the same game. I don't have multiple imported into my library though, if that's what you're asking. If you try one and it works, just go with that. .atr is the one I use the most, when it's available.

Thank you very much for all of the help - I got it up and running