Evening, Atarians. I'm not sure this has got much of a mention so far when we've been chatting cool things 7800 orientated. Anyhow, some other guys were discussing add-on carts for 7800 software featuring the "back catalogue" and homebrew games and this little devil got a mention... YES, it is expensive but check out just what it can do - there is no doubting its quality and features, fellas: The RetroHQ 7800 GameDrive cartridge allows you to play all your Atari 7800 games and homebrew directly from a memory card with many other extras built in! The 7800GD has all the additional audio chips you'll ever need, including 2 POKEY chips for DUAL POKEY music, a YM2151, COVOX audio for sampled sound and BupChip for blasting sampled music. The 7800GD also features a unique RGB video and audio out port on the cartridge itself allowing you to play your 7800 (and 2600) games in glorious RGB using a compatible Mega Drive 2 style video cable!* As if all of this wasn't enough, the 7800GD also allows you to break into your games, save your state, load previous states, enable cheats or just return to the game menu and load another game. And to make all of this even easier, there is also the Mega 7800 which allows you to use Mega Drive and Master System controllers on the 7800 and access game breaking features at the touch of a button! And for the software developers among us, there is a serial port on the side which allows you to upload and run code directly from your PC. 7800Basic has support for uploading to the 7800GD and will have support for using the Mega 7800 within your own homebrew games! Need more info / wanna order: https://www.retrotowers.co.uk/7800-...VPcb8I_QYlg0wpEdUci-jJgxp3-xxN3WLcFe6wQaneLSs
It's a very good device Andy. Made by the same guy who done the SD solutions for the Lynx and Jaguar amongst others. I did think long and hard (oo-er) about it, but I only really play 3 or 4 original 7800 games and for everything else I have the PC emulator and that brilliant little console, the Gamestation Pro But the fact that the GameDrive has RGB output makes it a really good option for people who want to stick only with the original 7800 hardware as the RF output can be very poor. Mind you, If I can't find a bloody Galaga 7800 cartridge at a decent price I might be tempted lol.
Sadly the price means it's more for the die hard fan or someone with a bit too much money to burn...I do love it from the tech POV,the fact that in this day and age that someone has put a lot of time and effort into such a niche thing is great and maybe answers the cost side a little. Not one for me tho, as I have said many a time, I never got into ANY of the Atari consoles no matter how popular or not they were. I was always more of a computer person, the consoles never seemed a jump above what I could play on the various computers I had (as they came out). For me even in the day, I always thought the console Atari made were an afterthought just trying to have a bite of the console market, the 2600 did nothing for me, the 5200 was merely an Atari 800 with analogue controls, the rest as seen by Glenn The 5200 man was easily swapped over to the computer with small changes. The 7800, I just never understood, the very minor differences just never made it a real contender in the market and sure enough, it didn't sell, it just wasn't innovative enough to make waves. Sorry, not trying to rubbish the machines, Atari just did what they did worst, they looked to get a bit of the action with stuff on par with what was already out rather than doing what they did with the Atari 800, and produce a machine that stood out as incredibly powerful and unique.
If the 7800 had come out a couple of years earlier as planned then things might have been different. As it is, the 5200 and it's controller were a very regrettable and costly mis-step for Atari.
I have to admit I don't know the Atari backstory that well, I've never read that much revered book about them. I'm more the product person as opposed to the backroom stuff. Probably one of the reasons I didn't write that Atari book from the Retrogamer people when offered the job. Mind you, the guy who did do it made a pigs ear out of it, it looked nice thanks to Darrens ( the Irish guy)graphic skills, but a lot of the content was either wrong or just made up. We had a huge thread on AtariAge about the book where he took a pop at me for not writing it when asked.. Had the 7800 been out earlier, it might have made a difference, but from a tech POV, apart from dual pokey support it wasn't that different to the Atari 800, different enough for the non ability to just port it over but not a major leap forward. The 5200 was, as you say, a mistake. A very silly mistake born from greed. The Atari decision makers have always tried to suggest their machines are perfect for fields they simply are not suited for. The ST as a PC contender, talk about delusions. Could it do minor office work, yes, did some businesses use them, yes, my old mates Simon & Steve who ran Strategic Software Plus did it all on an ST, BUT it was so limited because all the proper packages were on the PC. I will forever say their finest hour was the Atari 800 and they could have followed that up with what was to become the Amiga, but they screwed that deal.
