David_P

So close. POKEY is $D200; $D209 is STIMER (W) / KBCODE (R). RANDOM (R) is $D20A.

An artist from just outside Ottawa Ontario did this mock-up of an Atari cell phone (circa 1983). Enjoy.

For the record, I strongly disapprove of shutting down M.U.L.E. instead of playing a complete game.

Some info on the HDD here: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-drives-hdd/seagate/ST157N-0-49MB-3-5-HH-SCSI1-SE.html

By default that should work. External power is needed for 400/800 computers despite +5V on the SIO plug due to the boot time for the 400/800 being too short for the FujiNet to boot; on the XL/XE computers, the longer OS boot gives the FujiNet enough time to boot itself.

Best Electronics has NOS, though the owner is a bit of a character.

As I recall, at least some early EA releases checked for OMNIMON and refused to boot if it was detected. The issue was noted in the ANALOG review of (I think) MULE and Archon.

Planetary Defense

It's been a while, but as I recall, yes, boot, init the RD, install a DOS on it, swap from the menu, reboot from the MIO.

BobTerm uses all RAM and does not use BASIC. Try booting without BASIC; the 8K it's occupying should be occupied by the program.

Yes, you can boot off a MIO RAMDISK.

The detailed SDX programmer's guide is at: https://sdx.atari8.info/sdx_files/4.49/SDX449_Programming_Guide_EN.pdf

The mighty XM301 modem, with its earth-shattering 300 baud of online power.

The MUX used a modified OS and cart port connections via ribbon cable; maaybe check out the docs on that for some guidance?

Wild idea: battery backup for the mosaic RAM bank, for a persistent RAMdisk even after a powering down / rebooting? When my MIO is connected to one of my 800xls, the ability to keep the RAMdisk even after I crash is a great feature.

The XE and XL lines have two character sets built in, the second one containing European characters. Not available on the 400/800, though.

Atari ROM Checker is your friend. https://www.wudsn.com/productions/atari800/atariromchecker/help/AtariROMChecker.html

SDX permits you to remap drives using the MAP and SWAP commands, similar to what the MIO does.

If you have a computer with an XE compatible RAM upgrade with ANTIC banking, you could do this, and reduce the footprint in main memory. However, you then run risk of interfering with DOSes that may want to use the RAM. There's no kernal-level memory management inherent in the Atari OS. If you are running SDX, there is a memory manager you can call, however, while I believe you can reserve a full bank via SDX, you cant specify that it be an ANTIC-bankable bank. And you're then locked in to SDX for your program. (And besides, SDX already has its own 64 and 80 column drivers)

The challenge of a software based 80 column mode on the Atari is its RAM footprint - you lose about 10K of RAM for the screen, character set and device handler.

My guess is that it's a solderless internal 256K upgrade for an XL. The socket would go under the PIA.

When I had a similar issue, I crated a new user on the computer, and somehow logging in as that new user worked for updates.

Looks like a SIO drive emulator so you get the old school BEEP BEEP as you boot the game

Gauntletak (aka Gauntlet) http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-gauntlet_2170.html

UPS charges fees for just about everything when shipping to Canada from the US. Their brokerage fees on Standard shipping are, um, "significant". https://www.ups.com/ca/en/shipping/zones-and-rates/customs-clearance.page And the Canadian Post office charges a fee for collecting sales tax.