Display issues with my Atari 7800??...

[dave4shmups]

In trying to decide which Atari 2600 and 7800 games I want to buy, I use Stella and Prosystem to emulate the games first. I have an Atari 7800 with this adapter:

http://www.atariage.com/store/index.php ... ucts_id=42

which is supposed to give you a better picture then just RF. But the games never look as good (in terms of brightness of color) then they do on Stella! For example, before deciding I wanted the game, I emulated 2600 Galaxian on Stella. I got it today in the mail, and the colors are no where near as bright as they are in Stella. Same with 7800 Galaga on Prosystem emualtor-the title is gold on Prosystem, which looks fantastic, but it's green on my 7800.

The folks on the Atari Age forums tell me that green is the normal color for the title screen in this game, and that Prosystem has "color issues", but I'm wondering if my 7800 doesn't-or if I should get it modded for AV. (Or just get an already modded 2600.)

What do you all think?

[Damocles]

Well dave, keep in mind that you are comparing a relatively ancient console hooked up through RF to an emulator displaying a picture on a (i'm assuming) nice CRT or LCD monitor. Hardware does age...

[dave4shmups]

Well dave, keep in mind that you are comparing a relatively ancient console hooked up through RF to an emulator displaying a picture on a (i'm assuming) nice CRT or LCD monitor. Hardware does age...

True, although that adapter that I mentioned does give a nicer picture then the RF "box" type connector. Someone on the Atari Age forums just suggested that I adjust the tint on my TV screen; perhaps that will work.

It's mostly an issue with 2600 games. I could always get one of those 2600's that have AV, and built in games, with a hacked cartridge slot, but I bought the 7800 partly to kill two birds with one stone.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Well dave, keep in mind that you are comparing a relatively ancient console hooked up through RF to an emulator displaying a picture on a (i'm assuming) nice CRT or LCD monitor. Hardware does age...

True, although that adapter that I mentioned does give a nicer picture then the RF "box" type connector. Someone on the Atari Age forums just suggested that I adjust the tint on my TV screen; perhaps that will work.

It's mostly an issue with 2600 games. I could always get one of those 2600's that have AV, and built in games, with a hacked cartridge slot, but I bought the 7800 partly to kill two birds with one stone.

What's really interesting is that Atari Corporation back in the late 1970's decided that it would be in their best interest to release the Atari VCS (Video Computer System -- which was later renamed the 2600 when the 5200 SuperSystem came out in 1982) with just an RF Switch Box setup rather than an RCA Composite Video jack. Most television sets back in those days only had the RF input. It wasn't until the early 1980's that the latest CRT-based TV monitors had the optional RCA Composite Video input jack built in. S-Video would be later in the future as two seperate inputs -- Chroma & Luma inputs (as early of January 1986) which later merged into a single S-Video input jack for easy of use (the current S-Video jack connector that exists today). ^_~

A few of the 2600 game titles such as Activision's "Robot Tank" won't work on the 7800 ProSystem hardware due to needing the 2600 hardware to run properly.

The Atari 7800 was released in limited quanities back in 1984 -- I remember seeing one at my local Sears' video game department -- very peciluar looking gaming console for it's time. Atari Corp. decided to re-release the 7800 in 1987 to go head-to-head against the NES and Sega's SMS console wars and lost big time anyways.

The upcoming announced 16-bit powered Atari Panther gaming console was slated to have backwards compatibility with Atari Lynx games + it's own line of exclusive games but was cancelled (a possible 1991-1992 release date was in the works) while the 64-bit powered Atari Jaguar was pushed forward instead -- and the rest is history. Of course, the Atari Jaguar would be the last official console from the old Atari Corp. to be released in November of 1993 at a MSRP of $249.99 USD. Had the Atari Jaguar been better marketed, perhaps the old Atari Corp. would still be in business today instead of an old gaming relic of the early 1990's video game console wars. ^_~

And will the new Atari company (used to be known as Infogrames -- a French owned software developer) that exists today ever bring out a new gaming console? ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[antron]

I never was happy with the way my 2600 looked, until I put something like this in it:
http://www.8bitdomain.com/about7800.php

Add:
but it looks like a lot more work than their 2600 mod.

[dave4shmups]

I never was happy with the way my 2600 looked, until I put something like this in it:
http://www.8bitdomain.com/about7800.php

Add:
but it looks like a lot more work than their 2600 mod.

Yeah, soldering brings back bad memories of 7th grade shop class. (Seriously! ) Thanks anyhow!