Atari 800 (8-Bit)

[Zeaede]

On 4/6/2017 at 11:30 PM, Zombeaver said:

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.

 

I would actually prefer a simple guide setup like this for all systems emulators possible for launchbox with pictures and not just only videos

Would save time

Edited April 9, 2017 by Zeaede

[heelsinc]

Thank you for posting this.  It made what what seems like a difficult set up super easy!

[Zombeaver]

No problem! Yeah, Atari800 is a great emulator but it can seem a little overwhelming at first.

There are a lot of great (and weird) Atari 8-bit games; and as a C64 nut I found it interesting comparing cross-platform games between them.

[Evil_Orko]

great guide - so much easier than the videos.  works perfectly first try - thanks, Zombeaver!

[Manuel Leiria]

There's an Atari 800 core as well. Do you know if it's possible to load disk sets directly through command-line? I haven't found anything on that.

[Zombeaver]

Yes, I've converted over most of my stuff to the RA core rather than standalone at this point.

I'm not sure what you mean by "disk sets". You mean multi-disk games? I don't actually have any Atari 800 games that are more than one disk currently. There doesn't appear to be a disk management section in the quick menu for the core.

[Manuel Leiria]

In the Atari800 core I have a disk management section, where it's possible to add multiple disk images (.atr) to switch between. It's even possible to save the list as a config and to load it, but I wanted to have that be loaded with the atr image as well. You need to press F1 to access the emulator menu, not the core options (sorry if I wasn't clear).

[fromlostdays]

After 8 years in the retrogaming scene, I just played my first atari 8bit game. Thanks Zomb!

[Zombeaver]

6 hours ago, Manuel Leiria said:

In the Atari800 core I have a disk management section, where it's possible to add multiple disk images (.atr) to switch between. It's even possible to save the list as a config and to load it, but I wanted to have that be loaded with the atr image as well. You need to press F1 to access the emulator menu, not the core options (sorry if I wasn't clear).

Right, I was aware that was there as I've used standalone for quite some time, but I meant that in the RA UI there doesn't appear to be a section for disk management (Quick Menu -> Disk Control). A number of other cores have this like Beetle PSX, but there doesn't appear to be one for the Atari800 core.

As far as what you're wanting to do, I'd probably just do it via Additional Apps. Add the individual disks as additional apps and use the list config as the default. As far as doing both at the same time... I'm not sure. As I said, I don't actually have any multi-disk Atari 800 games in my library at the moment.

5 hours ago, fromlostdays said:

After 8 years in the retrogaming scene, I just played my first atari 8bit game. Thanks Zomb!

No problem! There's actually quite a bit of good stuff out there. Check out the "Lucasfilm Games" (prior to Lucasarts) stuff if you get a chance. I'm a C64 nut and a lot of those games were some of my favorites as a kid - especially Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus, and I was somewhat surprised to find they were actually better on the 800. That's the platform they were originally made for before being ported to the C64. Cavelord, Dimension X, Orc Attack, Rainbow Walker, Stealth, and Yoomp! are some other random recommendations. A lot of interesting and weird indie games out of Poland too.

[Zombeaver]

@Manuel Leiria So I did a little testing with disk sets. What seemed to work best was to actually save it as a save state and then load the state as the "rom" in order to load the set on launch. I haven't been able to figure out how to load the standard "Disk Sets" via command-line in either standalone or RA; I could only get them to work by manually loading it via the UI (F1 -> Disk Management -> Load Disk Set). However, you can accomplish the same thing with save states without having to do that.

Load up the game, go into the Atari 800 menu via F1, go to Disk Management, add your disks in to D1, D2, etc.

Go back to the main menu and go to Save State:

Save it somewhere and name it after the game title.

Then set that file as your "rom" in LB:

When you start the game, it'll load all the disks that you added into Disk Management. This works in both standalone and RA, but it's easier do in RA because in standalone you need to specify the -state command line parameter for it to load it from command line.

There doesn't appear to be a hotkey for the "Rotate Disks" function, so you'll still have to go into Disk Management and do that when needed (Alt+D -> R -> Enter -> Esc), but at least this way it loads all the disks from the beginning without having to manually "Load Disk Set".

[Manuel Leiria]

Great solution Zomb, will definitely try this when I get home. I can do without a rotate disk function, but it's like you say, at least this way I have easy access to the disk set. Thanks for taking your time with it, I was almost done trying it.

[Tempest]

So I'm using atari800 core in retroarch through Launchbox. Problem is, I use config files per system (i.e. -c config\atari5200.cfg) in order to change overlays, shaders, etc. on multi system cores. However, in this particular core it's different because it saves a config file on root dir (.atari800.cfg) and when I use the command -c config\atari5200.cfg it bypasses the .atari800.cfg file, and the core fails to detect bios paths, etc.

Anyone had this problem? Or am I missing something?

[neil9000]

@Zombeaver, I was about to reply, then I noticed the thread its on.  

[Zombeaver]

59 minutes ago, Tempest said:

So I'm using atari800 core in retroarch through Launchbox. Problem is, I use config files per system (i.e. -c config\atari5200.cfg) in order to change overlays, shaders, etc. on multi system cores. However, in this particular core it's different because it saves a config file on root dir (.atari800.cfg) and when I use the command -c config\atari5200.cfg it bypasses the .atari800.cfg file, and the core fails to detect bios paths, etc.

Anyone had this problem? Or am I missing something?

This is an interesting problem. I do the same thing for things like Master System/Genesis/CD through Genesis Plus or Game Boy/GBC through Gambatte; but I hadn't actually encountered this for this core because I only use the Atari800 core for Atari 8-bit games (not 5200), but I can see how this would definitely be a problem if I did.

If there was a way to specify an override via command-line (as in, it's not one that's just loaded simply because it's in the RA\config\[core name] folder because it's a per-core\per-game override) you could append changes that way, but I don't believe there's a way to do this (I asked in the RA Discord, and radius said there wasn't a way to do it), and if you were to simply make a per-core override for it, it would apply to all content loaded with it, whether 8-bit games or 5200 games. I think your only real option would be to create a per-core override with the settings you want one of the two platforms, and then if you're really adamant about a separate overlay/shader for the other, you'd have to create per-game overrides for all the relevant games with the shader/overlay specified. That'd be a pain in the ass, but it would work at least.

Cores that create/use their own non-RA configs are non-standard, and considered "sloppy" - probably for reasons just like this one.

[DOS76]

Not much experience with this but can't you just rename a cfg and then use the commandline for your custom named cfg

[Zombeaver]

Yes, but the core itself creates/uses it's own config - .atari800.cfg - that's independent of standard RA configs. It creates it in the base RA folder. And when you specify a RA config via -c "config\name.cfg", it's not loading any of the necessary stuff from that config.

[DOS76]

ah so they need to add sub cfgs

 

[Zombeaver]

They need to just convert the external config that the atari800 core uses into internal core options. Overrides basically are sub configs, but that's complicated by the fact that the core covers multiple platforms, similar to how Genesis Plus GX covers Genesis/CD/MS.

[dugan26]

Hi - 

Sorry for posting this question in multiple threads but Zombeaver you seem to know this system the best.

I got my atr files working fine as stand alone using this emulator does this work with Launchbox?

[sundogak]

14 minutes ago, dugan26 said:

Hi - 

Sorry for posting this question in multiple threads but Zombeaver you seem to know this system the best.

I got my atr files working fine as stand alone using this emulator does this work with Launchbox?

Yes, LB works with Altirra or in your case the Atari 800 Emulator.   The emulator you are running isn't Altirra, it is just running the Altirra OS.  There is a separate Altirra Emulator here. 

LB is agnostic on emulators so if it can run via command line then will run in LB.