r/atari • u/Visual_Perception69 • 2d ago

ELI5: Emulation based systems

Late to the party here. A lot of people have talked about the new 2600+ and 7800+ being emulation based systems. What does this exactly mean?

Is it that the systems:

  1. Have an entire library of 2600/7800 games in them and the cartridges basically select the game?

or

  1. The system loads everything from the cartridge into memory and then plays the game.

Edit: I have an original 2600 JR. I was looking into new joysticks and paddles and the Atari website had a bundle with a console that seemed more economical so I figured I would ask.

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u/KingCourtney__ 2d ago

It means they do not contain the original hardware. It is possible to hardware emulate using specific chips but these are probably just SBCs using software to emulate.

3

u/Jezzamk2 1d ago

I believe it is an ARM chip and it is running an emulator.
It isn’t really a “real Atari 2600 / 7800”, it is just pretending to be one.
It has got a selection of built in games and you can run additional games that come on a cartridge. It will play the original cartridges, not just new ones.
As it is a games console and didn’t have accessories such as tape or disk drives, internet etc. then from the perspective of an average user it is as good as a “real 2600/7800”. Purists will disagree, but it isn’t aimed at them.
I have a The 400 which uses a USB stick to load games. It is not as good or flexible as the original but is fine for playing the games.
I will be getting the 800XL which has a proper keyboard and is almost as good as the original, but underneath is still an ARM chip with emulation software (probably a version of Stella)

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u/Guilty-Plan8208 1d ago
  1. The Plus consoles dump the rom and runs them in retroarch. Thats it. There's no menu or anything. So pretty much plug and play. There's some threads on AtariAge where you can setup the atari 2600+/7800+ to boot PCUAE and load roms but i never got it to work correctly on my 7800+. I keep mine on stock firmware and just enjoy using what cartridges i have. Hoping for a flash cart to become available for the 7800+ since used games are getting expensive.