[To shield, or not to shield?]

On 1/20/2024 at 4:36 PM, mytek said:

For those that have no intention of ever using the RF output, and instead will be using a monitor (Composite or S-Video), or one of the analog/digital variants (VBXE, Sophia, or LumaCode), and you don't care about that HAM radio operator across the street - there is no need to keep the shield.

That HAM operator - she's two doors to the north, actually...

[THE400 Mini]

2 hours ago, zzip said:

5200 will be awkward for sure.   But I can't ever recall playing paddle games on Atari 8?   I'm sure there's a few.

 

MULE can use paddles, as long as there's one joystick available.

[What Atari games have the most satisfying ending to them?]

4 hours ago, reifsnyderb said:

MULE!  

QFTT!

[SpartaDOS through cart]

https://corei64.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=444

 

[Best racing game on 800xl]

Multiplayer (including online): 8-bit Slicks

 

https://8bit-slicks.com/

 

[-]

16 hours ago, MrFish said:

If that's an ambition (though by the rating, I'm not sure it's even so good for that)

 

The more-casual approach is probably what most people are interested in: Morse Code Translator

 

I thought the Bacon cipher would be a little more interesting: I was expecting my text to be converted into various size pieces of bacon -- but no

 

Why would I conveniently go to a website when I could instead download an ATX, load it on to a modern mass storage device for an Atari, boot my Atari, fiddle with BASIC, then spend hours learning a long forgotten obsolete skill solely to read a post on an online forum?

[-]

I think there's a better option.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-morse-code-tutor_13296.html

 

[Altirra - Print PDF That Correctly Shows Special ATASCII Characters]

ANALOG (#35 I think) had the G: driver that would print ATASCI, GR.8, and even custom character sets.

[Does anyone have Chompelo from Dynacomp?]

45 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

Now I just need to find that space shuttle simulator in BASIC (it was instruments only, but still awesome), it used the border to indicate orbital stage (blue was launch, black was space, etc.), text was white on black, and the stick was rendered with player/missile graphics...

 

-Thom

Was that a commercial product, or type in?  About what time frame - want to keep my eyes open next time I'm skimming scans of old magazines.

[A8PicoCart - UnoCart on a Raspberry Pi Pico]

58 minutes ago, manterola said:

I think that my Atari 800 with OS-A is booting up "too fast" and maybe the RP2040 is not ready yet. After pressing reset if work (kind of work). I read that something similar was going on with 2600 version when used with some TIA versions.

 

As I recall, there's a similar issue with FujiNet; the shorter boot time on the 400/80 means the device hasn't sufficiently initialized when the computer attempts to boot.  The solution tere is an external power supply - not really an option for a cartridge.

[W65C02 on R1 of the Advanced PCB Remake For the Atari 800XL --- YES, it works! :-)]

1 hour ago, reifsnyderb said:

 The console keys are already broken out to make it easier to play MULE without having to install the board in a case.  🙂   (I suppose the console key pads could find other uses as well.)

 

 

I for one am relieved that MULE compatibility remains the critical test for all your hardware hacking.

[Custom OS, what's available and why to use? (130xe, Antonia 4MB, and SDrive-Max)]

52 minutes ago, Larry said:

No, never thought of it.  I've probably got it, but do you have a link in case I don't?  Many years ago, we had a demo at our user's group meeting of the wip Turbo 8/16, and I remember that the SIO sound was faster.  Not like a Happy track buffer, but a little faster.  It would be neat to test the OS and see if I really detect that.  Of course, the interleave could play into that.

I think I found this here on AtariAge and saved it... there's two versions of the OS,  few 90K ATRs and various other bits of info.

 

 

Turbo_816.zip

[Custom OS, what's available and why to use? (130xe, Antonia 4MB, and SDrive-Max)]

11 hours ago, Larry said:

I've found a few compatibility issues with almost all replacement OS.  Reverse Basic is highly compatible, but some software still chokes on it.  The 800 replacement OS's (for XL/XE models) work quite well, and Omniview XL/XE is the most 800 compatible and useful I've found.  A fast math package can be helpful.  It rarely causes issues of "too fast" execution.  Fast SIO is usually extremely helpful, and @HiassofT is the best I've used.  Omnimon is very nice if you want to jump into programs and look around and change things.  But always leave one OS slot for the plain vanilla stock XL/XE OS.  In my Antonia I have the following:

 

Stock XL/XE

Fast Math

High speed SIO (HSIO)/Reverse Basic

Omnimon XL/XE

Omniview XE

@drac030's 65816 OS (for his 65816 Basic)

MyBios (for @mr-atari's MyIDE-II)

RDos (with an 800 OS + an older version of MyDos in rom that provides an additional 4K free memory)

 

 

Have you been able to try the DataQue '816 OS with Antonia?

[A8PicoCart - UnoCart on a Raspberry Pi Pico]

Anyone doing cart port experimentation should order a bunch of these:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/236819-xlxe-cartridge-slot-breakout-pcb-board-file-spares-available/

 

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/wsJBXURh

[Thinking of getting a new Atari 800XL board made....]

4 hours ago, reifsnyderb said:

It's a flash ROM.  Specifically a readily available SST39SF010. 

With 128K available, is that four 16K OSes and eight 8k cartridges?  Or can it be configured to offer a 16K cart as well? (Or does that get too complex?)

 

https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/sst39sf010a

 

[Thinking of getting a new Atari 800XL board made....]

Power to the PBI?

[Atari Writer vs SpeedScript 3.0]

25 minutes ago, Mathy said:

Hello guys

 

I've got AtariWriter+ here somewhere.  Never used it much, because somehow we're not compatible.  I typed in T:Edit from ANALOG Computing and used that a lot.  Plus DaisyDot for printing, first II then III.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

I traded an XE-80 for a registered copy of DDII.

[using Atariwriter with Epson FX-80 printer]

Atarimania appears to be down right now, but once it's back up:

 

http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-printer-driver-construction-set_18544.html

 

[Bitsofthepast.com status]

30 minutes ago, COREi64 said:

I'm not sure if these other cartridges you're talking about had the exact same footprint as the SpartaDOS X board.

 

COREi64

As I recall, Diamond GOS and Express! used the same cart, with the GAL programmed to respond to a different address range on the CCTL line.

 

 

EDIT to add link.

[Database source code?]

Micromiser Turbobase I believe is in BASIC, and there's a ZIP file of the disks in the thread above.

 

[Calling All 800s!]

How many people regret selling off their original 800, only to have later bought a replacement?

[XEGS cart compatiblity list]

14 hours ago, Wilheim said:

I read the list, and afaik I’m almost sure that archon, Blue Max and Karateka can run with 32k ram.

"Standard" configurations are 16K / 48K / 64K; the number of in the wild 32K machines is small.

[What works on 800?]

There's a 4Mb solder free upgrade for the 800...

[found a potentially usable basic spreadsheet program for the 600xl...but not written in Atari basic]

20 hours ago, SoundGammon said:

Could Speedcalc be put on cartridge/rom?

 

If memory serves, it is 8K. 

 

Would work great with a 16K ram 600XL!

 

But it might have to be modified for cassette usage.

Several things would have to be done:

 

It would have to be reviewed to ensure it checks available RAM and doesn't make any assumptions about being on a 48K/64K machine.

It would have to be reviewed to ensure it doesn't do any dynamic rewriting (some programs are self modifying, which fails when you try to write new values to ROM).

It would have to be reviewed to ensure it can accept C : as a save / load data location.

It would have to be compiled into the cart space (whether 8K or 16K or some banked arrangement).

 

Even if that's all possible (and DataQue did do that, modifying B-Calc into an '816 compatible cart) the 16K of RAM would still not give a great deal of free space. The OS fills everything up to the top of page 5 (1.5K gone).  If you don't load a DOS, that's where free memory can start.  The screen display needs another four pages (another 1K).  You've now got, best case scenario, 13.5K of RAM available.

[found a potentially usable basic spreadsheet program for the 600xl...but not written in Atari basic]

You could look at some of the SD solutions, and try LiteDos - which would give you a bit more RAM to play with even if you don't upgrade beyond 16K.

 

http://www.mr-atari.com/Mr.Atari/LiteDOS/