David_P

There are numerous I2C parts that could meet that bill - some are available on boards already ,needing only to plug in to the Atari and have some software written. For example, http://www.futurlec.com/Mini_DS1307.shtml or http://www.futurlec.com/Mini_PCF8583.shtml are $7.90 each, and would require a D9 F connector and a 5 connector to plug in to your Atari. All you need then is the I2C work done by Gus Assman and HiassofT; see the thread at http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=135092.

There's an added benefit of universal accessibility - if you can get online, you can access your data. Useful when you're half-way across the country and discover that your flash drive was left at home. Or that the CD-R just got scratched and the media is falling apart. As well, many people keep backups at the same site as the computer with the data - fine if the computer crashes, not so good if the house burns down.

Realistically, no hobbiest is going to be purchasing in those quantities. The MIO II production run was in the dozens; who would buy one hundred cart connectors to keep around the house "just in case"? (Unless they were going to make the cart-switcher to end all cart-switchers...)

(Yes, I see the date of the original post). Prior to working for Infocom, Brian Moriarty was with ANANLOG magazine, and wrote numerous pieces of software for the magazine - in fact, he worked there with Tom Hudson.

Core Wars? For the Atari 8? There goes any free time I might have had for the next few months...

If you can scan in the articles as well it my give clues about which characters were mis-printed. Or are the articles at atariarchive.org?

Well, since you're already on the PBI, add an IDE interface... and Ethernet... and a real-time clock...

This does speak to one concern I have - if 4.42 was updated, it shouldn't be 4.42 anymore. Changing the name, even to "4.42a", it would let people know that there has been an update. Please note, though, that if the only complaint I have is about the version number you must be doing things incredibly well!!!

Looking at the MPP PBI experimenter's board, I came up with a concept: Use all 16 bits on the add-on PIA for banking, and bank 16k blocks using EXTSEL (for A15 high AND A14 low AND the PIA A control line high). By my math, that should give a maximum of 16k * 65,536 banks, or 1,073,741,824 bytes (maximum). Hmm... given that DDR2 RAM is about $20 for a 1 GB stick, that's starting to look tempting...

Atari had custom made ROMs, so there are no drop-in replacements. Pinouts can be found at: http://www.atarimax.com/jindroush.atari.org/achroms.html

Fair enough - I can understand the appeal of maintaining a single hardware standard to support. Just a Q, that's all.

Has there been any thought to replace the EPROM with an EEPROM? Easier to reprogram in the field for those without access to a reliable EPROM burner. Mind you, you'd probably want a jumper to disable writes, just in case...

There's also a Gumby stereo upgrade that includes a PS2 interface - see http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=330300131963 for a bit more information. Mine is enroute...

Is there a comprehensive list of carts and devices addressed through the page at $D700? With the conflict between Maxflash 8Mb carts and RTime-8 carts, it would be useful for hardware developers to have a reference to ensure new devices do not conflict with older ones.

For those interested: Looks like there are some cart connectors available on Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Connector-Card-Edge-30...p3286.m20.l1116 Connector - Card Edge - 30 Pin - 3 Pieces Item location: Batavia, Illinois, United States Quantity: More than 10 available Card Edge Connector - 30 Pin - All Brand new - Larger quantities are available -- J45 Price is $6 per lot, plus shipping

Are there any compelling reasons why this would not work with an XEGS?

Further to my last: http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/mirror/www.atar....com.pl/aki.htm gives a good overview of the AKI interface.

Try these links - translated using google: http://translate.google.ca/translate?u=htt...en&ie=UTF-8 http://translate.google.ca/translate?u=htt...en&ie=UTF-8 Not certain ifthey're exactly the same, but should provide a bit more information...

May I ask your source for PBI to 50 pin cables?

The ultimate will be using a USB CX-40 with an Atarimax USB cart...

There were also likely a few sent to 3rd party software houses; in the mid 90s I seem to remember Supra cleaned house and sold off a 1090 (in the pre-eBay days) along with the rest of their Atari stuff. Those also (eventually) grow legs and wander away. (Edit: poor typing)

Two items of note on Ebay related to this thread: (1) Someone's listed an original SDX with manual with RTime 8 (no cart case) with manual. eBay Auction -- Item Number: 360121272416 The version of SDX is not indicated. (2) There are 30 pin connectors for sale on Ebay as well. I believe they're compatible with Atari carts. $6 for 4 connectors. eBay Auction -- Item Number: 140217872852 Hope these are of use / interest to some folks around here. (*Edit: My typing sucks! *)

For those interested in a PS2 interface, look at http://sbc.rictor.org/io/pckbavr.html ; it's an ATTiny26-based PS2 keyboard interface. While designed for a parallel port, with a little work it could be adapted to POKEY.

The XEP-80 is less than ideal, given that (a) it requires additional hardware, and (b) it's driven through a serial connection on a joystick port. One option might be to look at Clay Halliwell's Flickerterm, where two screens are switched on and off, using 4 bit wide characters in GR.0 - giving 80 columns, 40 per screen. It looks better on NTSC than PAL, I suspect, as you're getting 20% more rotations per second. However, since you're only managing 2K in screen display vice the 8K for any of the 80 column modes using a GR.8 screen, speed should be better.

Muy gracias. Merci beaucoup. And thank you very much!