Over on the AtariAge forums a new beta version of the first firmware upgrade for the Atari 2600+ has been released. While this is not a final release, there are enough changes to warrant upgrading if you have had some issues with games.
I have briefly tried the beta firmware with a few games that were not working before, most of them are now working and some with the correct palette colours for PAL region.
There is a full guide on how to install the beta firmware update on the AtariAge forums here.
Here is the full list of changes:
2600 Changes
Dumper:
- Fix for Realsports boxing
- Enable Circus Convoy to boot (Also requires 1.1 Emulator update)
- Enable CBS Ram Plus cartridge to boot – Omega Race tested (booster grip not tested), Tunnel Runner and Mountain King not tested (Also requires 1.1 Emulator update)
Emulator:
- Change PAL colour palette to z26
- PAL / NTSC cartridge auto detect to display at appropriate 50 or 60hz
- Reversal of Difficulty Switches
7800 Changes
Dumper:
- Support for unknown cartridges (linear and bank switched)
- Removed clashing NTSC/PAL cartridge entries from known list (now handled as “unknown”)
- Increased maximum cartridge size
- Increased dumper read timeout (support larger cartridges)
Emulator:
- Fix for swapped controller buttons
- Pause support via Color/B&W switch (may behave inconsistently depending on cartridge)
- Significant updates to Pokey sound chip support
- Support for additional Pokey configurations (@4000, @800, @450, etc.)
- Yamaha YM2151 sound chip support
- Support for 7800 expansion module (XM)
- Updated palettes (contributed by Trebor @ AtariAge)
- Partial cartridge hash detection (compatibility with dumper)
- Cartridge probing for Pokey and YM sound chips (compatibility with dumper)
- Cartridge header database with entries from known carts
- Improved cartridge header support
- Compatibility with larger bank switched cartridges
- Maria double buffered line RAM support
- Maria background color fix
- Maria color kill support
- Maria PAL display area fix
- Overall improved cycle accuracy (including Maria)
- Added support for several new opcodes
- Z flag fix when in decimal mode
- Multiple memory map fixes
- RIOT interrupt mirror fix
- Force PAL mode controller escape sequence
