Forrest

I really enjoyed the interview - brought back a lot of memories. I would not have enjoyed programming on my Atari 800 without Bill's Insight Atari column in Compute magazine. I remember I used that orange BASIC XL cartridge so much, I wore out the contacts (solder plated), and was able to later upgrade to one of the black cartridges with gold plated contacts which still works. Bill got it right with his closing statement in the interview - I have not known any computer as well as the Atari 800 since then - thanks Bill.

What are those two large and one medium size white boxes visible in the 1st and 4th pictures?

You mentioned an intermittent connection when you touched the joystick cable. This leads me to believe the connector on the joystick needs investigation, or the USB cable should be replaced. Is there any debris in the connector? Does the USB cable fit tightly in the USB connector on the joystick? It should fit tightly, and does on my black Legacy Engineering USB Atari Joystick.

http://www.allelectronics.com is typically a good place to find project boxes, but not in this case. They sell 1 box that fit's your size requirements, but it's $24.50. http://www.amazon.com has a good deal on the iCade Core Arcade controller for the iPad $17.99 new. The iCade has an arcade joystick, 8 buttons and a bluetooth controller that works fine with an iPhone/iPad, but not much else. Considering the low price, you could buy the iCade, rip out the bluetooth controller and replace it with your own electronics or a Rasberry Pi. I recently bought one and am working on mounting the Rasberry Pi now - there's plenty of room on the left side of the cabinet. Google Porta Pi Arcade for more info on how to connect a joystick and buttons to a Rasberry Pi.

Unless you interested in writing very low level software, such as a device handler, I would skip the Technical Reference Notes entirely. However I highly recommend De Re Atari - it's very will written, and I remember reading it cover to cover.

SheepShaver is one popular emulator for running System 7.x - 9.x. SheepShaver works best with OS8.5 or 8.6. More info http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/mac_emulation I've had mixed results with SheepShaver - some apps work, but some graphics intensive programs don't. Networking is not well supported in my opinion. Prices for old 68K Macs is very low - this might be your best option for true compatability. If you want trouble-free operation with VGA monitors, try to find a later 68040 based Mac such as the 660AV or 840AV. With a Mac-VGA adapter, you'll be able to display 640 x 480, 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768.

Has this adapter been tested under OSX 10.6.x? What were the results?

The only reason Apple didn't go bankrupt last decade is iPhone and iPad. And actually iPod generation 1 and 2 were so-so audio output quality, inferior to some rivals and the video and camera on the first three generations of iPhone are pure shit from 3 years behind Sony. So I'm sorry to burst your bubble but in the 80s they made crap computers (inferior to Amiga and ST in 85, so crap) and in the 90s they priced themselves out of the market with their non multitasking one mouse button rubbish OS and in 2000s they made hardly a dent into the Wintel PC market share of 97% despite the best advertising and billions of dollars in profits from iPhone and iPod and their new glitzy OS X. And the iPad is yet another piece of crap, and doesn't do anything that a Pentium 3 600mhz Fujitsu Siemens ST3400 tablet PC couldn't do better 5 years ago and at least it doesn't run some stupid toy operating system too....but it will sell very nicely I'm sure. Some dumb bitch at work just bought one for a lot of cash for a start...might have to bring in my 50 bucks second hand ST3400 I got off ebay with 80gb HD and every TVshow I like stored on it Like Nintendo who were almost bankrupt by Sony, they leaned hard on shitty pokemon and puke-o-vision original gameboy sales lol ditto with Apple and iPhone/iPod. The LC4 and then PowerPC Quadra years were very draining on Apple's finances. NEITHER Apple or Nintendo deserve to be here, it's all a style thing and inferior hardware. And like the iPad, that Fujitsu Siemens ST3400 has 10 hours of battery life, wakes from sleep in 1 second, can play back HD movies and has 250,000 applications available for it - half of which are FREE right? There a very good reason Apple has sold more than 3 million iPads in the past 5 months - they're better than anything else on the market. Only a fool wouldn't agree.

Your right about Dave tossing out the Spectre 128 - sorry about that. I had purchased a Spectre GCR right around that time, and had fun using it. I had it connected to a MegaST 2 (upgraded to 4 MB) driving a Viking Moniterm monitor (1280 x 960 resolution) and an Atari SLM804 laser printer. Great stuff to create my Atari club (JACS) newsletter.

$249 for a Magic Sac! I'm not sure they were that expensive when new. I was at the WAACE Atarifest many years ago and saw David Small demo the Spectre GCR - it was very impressive. At the end of the session, he asked if anyone wanted a Magic Sac. He then started tossing them out to the crowd! These were functional units, minus the Apple ROM's, and he was giving them out. Push it forward - that was Dave's mantra.

You may find my old article on how to connect an ST to a Sony TV (CRT) helpful Atari ST to Sony TV Short answer - connect the vertical sync and horizontal sync together with two resistors and two diodes as described in my article.

Atari800MacX works well and is updated regularly http://www.atarimac.com/atari800macx.php

I have the same problem on my Intel Macs - I posted about it here (post 373) http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/131503-an-atari-joystick-this-christmas/page__st__350 The only fix right now is to leave the joystick unplugged while booting up, and plug in the joystick after the desktop appears.

Why not just use the Composite Video connection on your TV. There shouldn't be much difference in picture quality between Composite and S-Video.

FYI I noticed a problem with these joysticks affecting Macs running OSX 10.6.x The problem is Intel Macs running Snow Leopard will NOT boot if the joystick is attached at bootup. I've seen the problem on both a Mac mini and a MacBook. The solution right now is to plug in the joysticks AFTER you see the desktop. The joystick will then work fine, using USB Overdrive. Curt is aware of the problem and is trying to fix it. I know it's very unnerving not having your computer startup - which is why I'm posting this info.

How would this work? Are you referring to a SIO-USB cable to connect the keyboard to the PC (or Mac)? Or would this require ripping apart an 8-bit Atari to plug something into the flex keyboard connector? What is the ballpark price?

It's already been done - it's called a Flashback 2.

Received my four joysticks this week. They work great. Thanks

FYI Gamestop sells the Gamecube power adapter for $9.99 or you can guy a refurbished Gamecube system (including the power adapter, cables and 1 wired controller) for $29.99

Well my joysticks promised by the end of May never arrived Has anyone else received their joysticks in May, June or July?

Your welcome - glad the info was still useful after all this time.

I didn't want to hijack this topic, so I've uploaded the Sony cable article separately under it's own topic. Hopefully it's useful to someone.

I've attached an article I wrote for the May/June 1987 issue of ST Potpourri newsletter for JACS, describing how to build a cable to use a Sony RGB monitor with the Atari ST. The monitor and cable are still working after 22 years Atari_ST_to_Sony_Monitor_cable.pdf

I found the cable construction article I wrote for the JACS newsletter in May, 1987. I will scan and upload it later today.

Many years ago when I was learning how to connect an Atari ST with a Sony KV20-XBR monitor (an RGB monitor with composite sync), I found the solution to connect the two was fairly simple. It involved connecting Hsync and Vsync with a switching diode and one or two resistors. Sorry I don't have the exact schematic - but I used this cable for years with a MegaST (no RF modulator).