Atari 7800:Game Incompatibilities

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2600 Games with Issues

Although the Atari 7800 was designed to be backwards compatible with all Atari 2600 games, in actuality there are some 2600 games which will not boot or function properly on certain revisions of the 7800 hardware. Earlier consoles from the initial 1984 run and shipped during 1986 (consoles with an expansion port) seem to have the least issues, with later consoles having more problems. Listed below are some of the 2600 games which are known to have compatibility problems on later versions of the 7800.

  • All Tigervision games are incompatible with all 7800s due to the dust cover posts poking out too far, preventing the game PCB from actually making contact with the cartridge port
  • Arcadia Supercharger add-on games
  • Robot Tank
  • Space Shuttle
  • The Activision Decathlon

Many of these incompatibilities can be fixed by removing a capacitor which forms part of a timing circuit, which was added to the system's motherboard during 1987. Removing this capacitor may also break compatibility with a few other 2600 games, namely Dark Chambers and Kung-Fu Master. Both of these games in particular have (arguably superior) ports on the 7800 however.

PAL Games with Issues on NTSC 7800

Note that the BIOS on NTSC 7800 consoles must be replaced with a different one that does not perform the encryption check, otherwise no PAL games will even boot. This issue does not apply to flash carts such as the Concerto as they clear the encryption check.

Also note that most PAL games will have the screen shifted down as they were reprogrammed to take advantage of the extra resolution PAL offers over NTSC. Some games that function correctly may also have slightly different colors due to the NTSC and PAL MARIA graphics chips having different color palettes.

These games were tested on a 1984-built NTSC 7800 using a Concerto flash cart.

Game Title Issue Severity
Ace of Aces Rapidly flickering title screen, major graphical glitching during gameplay Unplayable
Alien Brigade Resets every few seconds on title screen Unplayable
Ballblazer Major graphical glitching, runs too slow Severe
Barnyard Blaster (No further testing performed due to lack of light gun) ?
Baseball Entire screen flickers Severe
Basketbrawl No sound on title screen, plays too slow, major graphical glitching during gameplay Severe
Centipede Plays too slow Moderate
Choplifter Plays too slow, flickering colors during gameplay Severe
Commando Crashes to black screen after title screen Unplayable
Crack'ed Flickering colors during gameplay Moderate
Crossbow No issues other than the screen being shifted down Minor
Dark Chambers Graphical glitching when scrolling vertically Moderate
Desert Falcon Plays too slow, major graphical glitching Severe
Dig Dug Sound is too fast, gameplay is too slow, top half of screen flickers Moderate
Donkey Kong No issues other than the screen being shifted down Minor
Donkey Kong Junior No issues other than the screen being shifted down Minor
Double Dragon Boots to black screen Unplayable
F-18 Hornet Boots to vertical colored bars and droning sound Unplayable
Fatal Run Sound is too fast, flashing colors and major graphical corruption Severe
Fight Night Flickering colors, crashes when gameplay begins Unplayable
Food Fight Flickering graphical glitching, plays too slow Moderate
Galaga No issues other than the screen being shifted down Minor
Hat Trick No issues N/A
Ikari Warriors Flickering graphical corruption, plays far too slow Severe
Impossible Mission Flickering colors, crashes to black screen when entering a room Unplayable
Jinks Sound samples on title screen are just random noise, major graphical corruption Severe
Joust Crashes immediately, only displays copyright info on title screen Unplayable
Karateka Boots to black screen Unplayable
Kung-Fu Master Crashes to screen with corrupted graphics after title screen Unplayable
Mario Bros. No issues other than the screen being shifted down Minor
Mat Mania Challenge Corrupted title screen, droning sound during gameplay Moderate
Mean 18 Ultimate Golf Graphical corruption when anything moves, glitched sound Moderate
Meltdown Sound is too fast (No further testing done due to lack of light gun) ?
Midnight Mutants No issues other than the screen being shifted down Minor
Motor Psycho Boots to black screen Unplayable
Ms. Pac-Man Screen is extremely jumpy, plays too slow Severe
Ninja Golf Severe graphical corruption during gameplay Severe, almost unplayable
One-on-One Basketball Flickering colors on game selection screen Minor
Planet Smashers No issues other than the screen being shifted down Minor
Pole Position II Flickering background, plays too slow Minor
Scrapyard Dog Crashes when gameplay begins Unplayable
Sentinel Corrupted graphics, flickering background (could not test further due to lack of light gun) ?
Super Huey UH-IX No issues other than the screen being shifted down Minor
Super Skateboardin' Flickering background, plays too slow Moderate
Title Match Pro Wrestling No sound Moderate
Tomcat: The F-14 Fighter Simulator Flickering background, corrupted graphics on carrier, crashes when plane takes off Unplayable
Tower Toppler Boots to black screen Unplayable
Xenophobe Crashes at title screen Unplayable
Xevious Graphical glitching at top of screen, uneven frame rate Moderate

NTSC Games with Issues on PAL 7800

All NTSC games have some graphical glitches on the botttom of the screen due to the higher resolution of the PAL MARIA. Some games that function correctly may also have slightly different colors due to the NTSC and PAL MARIA graphics chips having different color palettes.

These games were tested on a 1991-built PAL 7800 using a RetroHQ 7800GD flash cart.

Game Title Issue Severity
Ace of Aces Rapidly flickering on the title screen and during gameplay Unplayable
Asteroids Runs way too fast to be playable and has some graphical glitches mid-screen at times Unplayable
Ballblazer Some graphical glitching on the top screen. Runs for a bit but crashes randomly Unplayable
Donkey Kong Runs way too fast to be playable Unplayable
Donkey Kong Junior Runs way too fast to be playable Unplayable
Double Dragon Crashes to black screen after the title screen Unplayable
Mario Bros. Runs way too fast to be playable Unplayable
Pole Position II Flickering background, plays too slow Minor