hunmanik

I see. Perhaps, the owner might be willing to supply a pic of the underside label of the case for this unit? It would still be really helpful (well, interesting to me) to be able to mate the insides of this unit with the information that would be on the serial number label. It would tell us where it was made/assembled (Hong Kong by Chelco, Hong Kong by Atari-Wong, or Atari Taiwan), and probably also the date of assembly/manufacture. Guessing those particulars from the insides is, as far as I can tell, still a bit speculative.

Nice! Would you be willing to post a pic of the underside label, where the serial number is? There may also be an assembly date stamped there (I hope). I think your unit was probably made in Taiwan, looking forward to finding out. (Most 600XLs were made in Hong Kong.)

In the various Applied Engineering catalogs from the time period that I'm finding online, they were always proudly stating that they only designed products for Apple. So this does seem like an interesting mystery.

​Watching!

I just noticed it recently myself.. ANALOG #9 p17: "Atari is also producing a rom-based word processor Word-Wise" I concur, I think it has to be an earlier name for what was announced and released as AtariWriter. This was also when Timewise was announced, so for a time they seem to have been planning Timewise, Wordwise...

I've done some of this in the FAQ (now section 8.16). I've tried to cover both commercial and non-commercial. Another place to know about: http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/ Plenty of room for more complete information!

Not that one specifically, but others with the same bottom side labeling are unremarkable when viewed from the top. Standard NTSC 65XE case (no ECI). I believe 65XE units made in Mexico by Sistemas Inteligentes are from 1985-1987. Other "Made in Mexico" units have different underside labeling, which I believe indicates they were made by Atari (México) Fabricante, S.A. de C.V., which we know was established in 1987 (Atari SEC filings). Later still, 65XE units for Mexico appear to have been imported from Atari "U.S." Corp. by Atari de México, S.A. de C.V. (stickers on some 65XE boxes), so I believe those indeed would have been from Taiwan. I think that Grupo SITSA and Sistemas Inteligentes were sister companies operating at the same location, which were both acquired by Atari in 1987, creating Atari de México, S.A. de C.V. and Atari (México) Fabricante, S.A. de C.V., which both continued to operate at that same location. Evidence is sparse, but this scenario would account for everything I've seen so far.

also at that address...

I suggest it is short for: Sistemas Inteligentes, S.A. de C.V.

Never seen one like that before. Many DK carts were sold without a proper label, like this (I just found this image on the web, but I've got one like it too). I wonder if there's a connection between those and your example.

Added, thanks!

Hypothesis: most of our confusing results do NOT have to do with: 400/800 vs XL/XE hardware 400/800 OS vs XL/XE OS Missile Command ROM versions CX22/CX80 versions (all official schematics of these from Atari are the same, so I've always been skeptical of the widely held belief that there are incompatible versions) But rather, variations among mice, including different versions of the STM1 mouse. I have not found documentation of differences among STM1 mouse versions, just that there are more than 8 or 9 different versions, with many different hardware variations inside. A true trackball reading software routine on the Atari would be expected to work with all CX22/CX80 trackballs, and in some cases may also turn out to work with at least some STM1 or compatible mice. This would describe what we see with Missile Command.

Note that I was trying to indicate that the retail box containing 5 of them never shipped (as far as I can tell). Individual CX8111 disks are readily available because one each shipped with DOS 2.0S. (And also Home Filing Manager, and perhaps other titles.)

Also: https://archive.org/stream/AtariHarryStewart/Atari%20my%20major%20projects

Looks to me like the "DOS 3" project also mentioned by Brian Johnston. (Which I still suspect was a whole different project from the released DOS 3.) I would guess 1981.

On my 130XE my brown cart Missile Command in trackball mode works perfectly with both my STM1 mouse and my CX80 trackball in trackball mode.

I agree. Here are pics I saved from somewhere else, that show what I think is a 1990, version 4.0, cartridge based version of the Turbo DOS 2.5 from 1989 in the first post of this thread.

Goes with the Top Drive 1050 upgrade from Poland, I believe? Looking forward to a more expert response!

I noticed at https://archive.org/details/Rustad_Atari_8bit there's a second, similar memo from August 10, 1984. I thought it should be posted here next to the August 3 memo. August 10, 1984 TO : Phil Suen FROM: V. Wu RE : XL Project Status Report SYSTEM ACHITECHTURE Microdisk Drive - After a meeting with John Honig, George Nishura defined the pin/interface specification. It is a DIN connector with 14 pins. MUFFY - Dave Sovey designed the MUFFY simulator and Michael Wooding is building it. In the event that Wooding is assigned to another project, Songly Mu will be able to bring it to completion. Peter Atesian has indentified a vendor that will commit to a schedule of Sept. 20; however, a purchase order will need to be issued. Randy Hoopai is entering the MUFFY schematic into the MENTOR system. KERI - Peter Atesian informed me that ASG is developing a test program for KERI. However, the Note from the previous status report is still a primary concern. DOCUMENTATION SCHEDULE - enclosed with this status report. FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATION - The 1450 specs is on the VAX; and it can be modify for the XL product. Randy Hoopai will be generating the XL specs. MANUAL - Phil Suen will determine whether under the new guideline, the project is responsible for the manual. SCHEMATIC - Sonly Mu is continuing the drafting of the schematic. It is still waiting on the MUFFY pinout specification that will be finalized on Aug. 15. Randy Hoopai and Gary Rubio will help to enter the schematic onto the MENTOR system. PARTS LIST - this will be generated when the schematic is finished. BOX & PACKING MATERIALS - same as the manual SYSTEM SOFTWARE DISK FIRMWARE - Mike Barall finished writing the 8049 firmware. It cannot be tested until the 6502 disk handler is written. OS - It was decided to put a FMS (DOS routines) in ROM. Mike Barall is commited to having a working OS by Oct. 31 and Tom Brightman will continue to keeping the Data General as the development tool. "Working" OS is defined as one that can be demostrated to the customers. TEST SOFTWARE(S) - John Hinman is designing a complete test program for MUFFY. NOTA BENE The initial pacing item is the availability of MUFFY. Once MUFFY is available, then the pacing item will be the system software. KERI and MUFFY will have to have test programs and equipment to qualify them during production. Currently, Peter Atesian said that we do not have the equipment of testing a 68 pins device.

Re-listened to the Rustad interview just now, thanks! And, outstanding! I guess I didn't appreciate the hack involved when I heard him explain it the first time. So, the tones for 1030 tone dialing are generated by POKEY using its 4-bit PCM Volume Only mode, and the 1030 manages to pick up the sound as noise over the SIO audio INPUT line, SIO pin 11. It sounds like they almost had to come up with unique routines for each computer model, or at least the 1200XL needed a different implementation for its unique sound circuit characteristics. As to why not on the 400... Not enough audio output signal leakage onto the SIO audio input line on the 400 would seem the most likely explanation. Does 1030 tone dialing work on XE computers? It seems like it would almost be a fluke if it does. It would depend on how similar XE sound circuitry is to that in the earlier machines.

In the 1030 Modem Owner's Guide Atari states (page 7; pdf page 9): If you have an Atari 400 Home Computer, you cannot use the tone (push-button) dialing feature to dial from your computer's keyboard. What is unique about the 400 to result in this limitation? Since I understand that POKEY generates the tones for tone dialing for the 1030, does this reflect something unique about the way POKEY is connected in the 400? Related question is, does POKEY generate the dial tones for the 1030 in a similar way to its generation of the Mark and Space tones for recording to cassette? That is, using two-tone mode to produce sound over SIO serial data out pin 5? I barely grasp how two-tone mode for cassette recording works as it is, and now I'm further trying to understand how two-tone mode would be applied to generating a full set of dial tones.

This is from Page 6 magazine issue number 1 (last page). Different spelling, same Calisto?

A couple years back I constructed what I think is a very comprehensive collection of R: handlers, but I don't have anything I can recognize as being for the U-CALL. Another possibility is if it were distributed with a complete communications program with built-in handler. But I don't know of a program like that either. So I'm hoping someone can post or share any original software, or original documentation, that goes with the U-CALL.

Do we have an answer to the original question? What software or type of R: handler would work with the U-CALL? Was it distributed with software?

Next early newspaper ad appearance for Adventure: Chicago Heights Star Herald Ad Visor July 10, 1980 279381337.pdf