[Opening a dialogue for SpartaDOS Source Code]

As I recall from seeing it at the Toronto Atari Fest 30 or so years ago:

 

A board with a '816 CPU with extended RAM, built in SDX, R-Time 8, Basic XL, Action, MAC/65...

[Spartados 3.2d + S-drive Max not booting (kinda)]

Sparta 3.X uses RAM under the OS ROM; so does TBXL.

[SIO cables anyone?]

Which lines are you using?

[What is wrong with the NES version of MULE]

First plot: Food (river)

Second plot: Energy

Third plot: Energy (preferably adjacent to prior plot)

 

Then go wild on Crystite, with potential to buy plain land plot adjacent to food (river) plot for additional food production.  (Nine times out of ten, other people will conveniently over-produce Smithore).

 

And make the computer run up prices on food and energy - also buy out the store on those to make your holdings more valuable, and force the computer to drive up prices.

 

I'm not saying that in a four player game my friends have, on occasion, physically restrained me from participating in auctions because I created artificial scarcity.  Not saying it didn't happen, either...

[What is wrong with the NES version of MULE]

Selling to the store, in theory, depresses market prices (assuming that the market then holds more than is needed for the colony).

[Please help me identify this expansion]

Some odd additional wiring - looks like PB1 on the PIA is tied to ground?

[What is wrong with the NES version of MULE]

With paddles you still require at least one joystick.

 

For the auctions and land grant, people use their own controller.  For outfitting MULEs, hunting the Wampus etc, the joystick gets passed around.

 

So, on an XE/XL, one joystick and a pair of paddles lets you have three players (plus one computer).

[RAMBO XL vs Newell 256k XL]

24 minutes ago, ACML said:

Yes it will load, but try editing a file or create a new one.  Screen is corrupted with Rambo 256K.

Suggests that it's using ANTIC banking for the screen display.

[ShamaXL: external memory expansion and dual Pokey for PBI]

Nice - I see there's both an external power, plus PBI power.

[XEGS Base Unit Upgrade]

11 hours ago, mimo said:

Really nice upgrades.

Do you have a make / model number for the keyboard?

I've got 2 xegs here with no keyboards 

You can roll your own https://ataribits.weebly.com/tk-ii.html, or buy a PS2 to XEGS adapter  https://thebrewingacademy.com/products/tk-ii-xegs-s-ps-2-for-xegs-keyboard-replacement

 

 

[PM graphics movement]

PMG are independent of the underlying playfield.

[6502 cheat sheet]

There was a similar table in ANTIC, except it was sorted in numeric order, and also included the ATASCII symbols - useful for some disassemblies.

 

https://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n9/OP_CODE_FINDER.html

[1090XL remake]

A rank amateur here - but if EXSEL is asserted, wouldn't that override any PORTB bit 7 issue?

[Hopefully a question easily answered]

No, it is another protocol, originally developed for the Spectrum.

 

https://atari8bit.net/projects/software/fujinet-tnfs-server-image/

 

http://spectrum.alioth.net/doc/index.php/TNFS_server

 

[Atari 65XE (130XE) -> 329kb memory upgrade]

If you have a 65xe with ECI, then there are products such as the Turbo Freezer which are plug and pay for battery backed expanded RAM.

[Compiling a new Atari OS...]

I think we all know that the only logical replacement for SelfTest is a game that fits in the 2K of ROM.

[cc65/Atari8: resetting sys on exit?]

22 minutes ago, Rybags said:

Sort of guaranteed restart:

 

sei

lda #$FF

sta portb

sta 580

jmp $e477

 

(sort of) because if the PORTB is set to DDR mode (unlikely) this won't work.

Also might have an amusing crash, if run from RAM below the OS.

[Is there a stand alone high speed SIO driver for the 800?]

SDX will run on a 400/800; but you need either expanded RAM or a very stripped down CONFIG, since there's no RAM hiding under the OS ROM.

[What was your first experience in computer programmimg?]

PILOT on an Atari 400 in grade 6.  The following summer, we got an 800 with 810, 850 and 825 and BASIC and AtariWriter, plus a box of ten 5 1/4 disks.  Bottom pin on the 825 was broken, so we got a 1025 to replace the 850 and 825.

[Computer internal simulation]

Perhaps D-Bug by Electronic Arts?

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-d-bug_1536.html

[how random is RND in Basic and Turbo Basic? (seems to be different)]

On 1/22/2023 at 11:05 AM, TGB1718 said:

Nothing special, just read $D20A

AND #$07

check if Zero -> read again

check if 7 -> read again

else

increment appropriate counter

increment loop counter

exit if reached limit

read again

 

Split into two nibbles, and you may get two dice from each read.

[Help ID Mods to 800 - Omnimon and ??]

PILL was a hardware tool to mark RAM as read only, so you could load cracked cartridges into RAM, set the PILL, then run the cart without fear of copy protection.  That seems like a homebrew controller to crack carts into files, and to load the cart images without the physical cartridge and then run them.

[Need some help with new disks? Working with another drive? yeah, a bunch of stuff]

By default, DOS 2.0S / 2.5 are configured to support two drives only.  Adding more drives increases the number of buffers reserved by DOS, reducing free RAM.

 

Text version of the DOS 2.5 manual is at: https://atariwiki.org/wiki/attach/Atari DOS 2/Atari DISK OPERATING SYSTEM 2.5 Manual.txt

 

PDF version (not certain if it has been OCR'd)) is at: http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/files/Atari_DOS_2.5 _1050_Disk_Drive_Owners_Manual.pdf

[AdvSkelVic65 problem w/ scrolling on Atari8 cartridge]

5 hours ago, Harry Potter said:

AFAIK, neither AtaSimpleIO nor the text adventure code uses the display list.  AtaSimpleIO accesses the ROM print function, though.

Certain vectors in the OS ROM are not supported, and changed between the various iterations of the OS.  This could be a case of using a function whose location changed between the 400/800 and XL OS ROMs.

[Atari Program Development Books]

One of the most useful single page references for the Atari I ever found - Dec, Hex, Char and OpCode for all official 6502 op-codes, from Antic 3/9.

 

https://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n9/OP_CODE_FINDER.html