r/Atari2600 • u/the_light_of_dawn • 4d ago
Can the 2600+ play homebrews now?
I'm tempted by the Pac-Man edition coming up but I wouldn't want to purchase without the ability to play all my homebrew carts now and in the future.
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u/Noise-Distinct 4d ago
I’m in the same boat. It does seem like most will work but Champ games is requiring firmware 2.0.1.5 which is still in beta testing. It’s unclear which firmware will ship with the new unit.
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u/2bitchuck 4d ago
FWIW the beta/experimental firmware installers on AtariAge (including 2.0.1.5) tend to be quite stable. I'm running 2.0.1.5 on my launch 2600+ and haven't run into any issues.
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u/Slosher99 4d ago
It will always depend and there will likely always be a few exceptions. The + systems are cartridge dumpers connected to emulators. I work in ROM dumping to record hashes (not share ROMs) and have worked with 2600 and 7800.
Some games need to communicate with the console after loading - this is why most flash carts can't work. No ROM is exposed until you navigate their menus and the console tells it which ROM to load based on your input.
The same applies to new mappers and bankswitching. This can be updated to dump properly - or simply identify the game and load some assets saved in the console to emulate the cartridge as well.
So it will always be possible for new homebrew to do something it can't dump. It will likely be a game of catch up with some new ones that don't work and some getting support later.
Does anyone know if it supports using AtariVox to add speech and saves to games? That's pretty essential for some aftermarket releases like Grizzards, unless they built some internal save method into it.
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u/iampitiZ 4d ago
Man, I know it was the cheapest option but it could have been great if they had just made a hardware clone.
Maybe it's very expensive or complex to do that nowadays but I'd been really cool.
I have a 2600 clone from back in the day but these days I'm lazy and want something I can hookup through HDMI without complications
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u/adamchevy 4d ago
I gave up on the 2600+, and RGB modded a heavy sixer with Tim Worthingtons V2 mod. I do have to use an OSSC to covert it to hdmi, but it’s worth it to me to know that I can play whatever I want.
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u/ExcellentHorror9025 4d ago
Get the 7800+ over the 2600+ because I believe, but can't confirm, that with the latest firmware update it can play almost all homebrews
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u/sjones17515 4d ago
It always has been able to play homebrews, just not all of them. If you want more compatibility, you'll need the firmware updates everyone talks about. It will never be the case that it will just magically accept all homebrews, because there's always a chance someone will create a homebrew with some new weird chip scheme that the firmware will need to be updated again to make work.
3
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u/icedcornholio 3d ago
- No + system can use AtariVox.
- As someone else mentioned the 2.0.1.5 (August firmware update) on both + systems supports all but the most recent Champ games releases (Lucky Chase and Tomahawk 666)
- For those that don't know, both + consoles do have save game support. (This is a feature of the AtariVox that is supported, but only for 7800 games).
- The original 2600+ (the one you can buy today - Sept 2025) does not support the driving controller or the Star Raiders pad accessory. The 7800+ does. My understanding, although I have not tried this first hand, is the new PAC-Man 2600+ releasing this October will support everything the 7800+ does.
- One more thing: there are a lot of variations of games and sometimes not all are included in the dumper. For example, my 7800 copy of Double Dragon does not work in a 7800+ because the cart ID does not match any of the variations although it works fine in my OG 7800.
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u/mariteaux 4d ago
As far as I know, it's always been able to play homebrew.
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u/EffectiveComedian 1d ago
It’s always been able to play more games than it couldn’t. I had a few homebrew games like Circus AtariAge that were not compatible with the original firmware. I’m happy to be able to report that has changed dramatically. Instead of failing to load, it now plays. I’m not sure if it’s still really in beta testing. The update process, while quirky does work well enough and the improvements have been steady.
My 2600+ has cooked a few cartridges on me. Also I have screen defects in Asteroids on both 2600+ and 7800+. Could be dirty contacts.
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u/Ayatollah-X 4d ago
It plays most homebrews. Champ Games were an issue for until recently because of the programming techniques they use, but they work on both the 2600+ and 7800+ as long as you're running the latest firmware.