David_P

When you're refuelling to take out the one last bunker you missed on your first pass through the city, and you're in the zone, and your boss calls and you have to take it so you have to abandon your game

A few things I have learned over time: 1. Flying over the water you can safely dip below 20. At least until you crash into a barge or exploding barge. But it is one trick to strafe more things on the ground and not worry about crashing into trees. 2. Enemy planes and the target indicator use the same sprite, so if there's a plane coming, there's no target coming. Alternatively, if there's no plane warning, get ready to drop a bomb. 3. You can speed up and slow down by pushing diagonally top right and bottom left, which might let you get some targets that would otherwise get away. 4. Watch the shoreline, and you'll learn to anticipate which side of the river the runway will appear. 5. Bombing everything runs up your score, but you can be killed by your own explosion if you're below 20, and you also have to spend more time on the ground reloading, which is when you are most vulnerable. 6. Finally, never bomb your own hanger. Your display list thanks you.

Started down the rabbit hole of trying to update all my devices - side, side 2, ide plus 2.0 ver C, ide plus 2.0 ver E, myide cart, installing Antonia (but now need to update the bios there), installing sophia 2 and pokeymax, adding +5v to the pbi, most recent version of APE... finding all the ways those devices can possibly not behave together... ...and a PC keyboard that needs replacing because several keys don't work, so cut and paste is the only way to get a "i" or a "k".

Putting together my new everyday 800xl - Antonia and Sophia 2 are now installed, +5V pbi mod installed (and stopping to verify after each step). Now up to the PokeyMax and wondering: What are the best places to draw the A4, A7 and buzzer lines? Assuming it's just the pins on the Antonia and Sophia boards, but don't want to short anything out by accident.

I suspect not; the original Diamond ROM expects specific banking - designed to be a passthrough and properly share the bus with SDX, RTime 8 and the OSS/ICD language carts.

Quake's more of a nine-liner; Quake 2, on the other hand...

Started with a Supra 300AT (rebranded MPP1000c). Upgraded to a SX212, and then a series of other modems over the years. Right now, still have that original Supra, a pair of XM301s, and a sealed SX212...

Page 6 is an option...

Best Electronics has this to say about the JAE cables: Considered by Best Electronics as one of the very best made 3 foot SIO cables Atari ever made, was the one that was made in Japan for Atari. What makes this Japan made Atari SIO cable better than any others made over the years are two reasons. One the JAE (Japan Aviation Electronics, letter marking on the outer SIO connector shells) 3 foot SIO cables used round female connector metal contacts inside the SIO cable connector body, so each mating SIO receptacle male pin made 100% (360 degree) contact with the female SIO cable round metal connector pin. Second reason is the JAE 3 foot SIO cables have an attached strain relief on the cable ends that prevents the SIO cable (as it goes into the 13 pin connector shells) itself from pulling out of the SIO connector body. Old Atari users (400 / 800 / 1200 computer era) remember that the very early Atari made SIO cables made, the SIO cable end would pull out of the SIO connector body (no internal cable strain relief device) and expose the 13 wires outside / backend of the SIO connector body. If this Atari SIO cable connection was inserted and extracted or moved a lot, the SIO wire connections inside the SIO connector body would end up breaking and you would end up with a bad SIO cable. Best Electronics has a very limited supply of the New Atari JAE 3 foot SIO cables in stock. If you would like one, please specify when you order an Atari 3 foot SIO cable. http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/8-bit_.htm Years ago there was an electronics surplus store in Toronto where they had a bin full of JAE cables... for $1 each. Only bought 5 or so, to my regret... since the store subsequently disappeared

Software 80 columns with Sophia 2 is magnificent.

Nov/Dec 1988 edition. MACAM Newsletter - Nov Dec 1988.pdf

Sept 1988 issue Typo in filename: should be 1988. MACAM Newsletter - Sept 1989.pdf

No, Atari offered no upgrade path beyond 64kB, and sold only the 130xe with over 64kB. Only third parties ever offered upgrades above 64kB.

Quad width players and the missiles underlaid on the screen can also be used to add background colour without needing DLIs.

April/May/June 1988 double edition. MACAM Newsletter - Apr-May-Jun 1988.pdf

Six more editions to go...

Best you can do for 80 columns would be a Flickerterm type solution: 1K for a modified character set, and 2K for the two screens. An 80 column screen = 80x24 = 1920 bytes at a minimum, even if it was a native mode supported by hardware.

I have not been posting to archive.org as well, but will do so.

And vol 1 #2, from March 1988 MACAM Newsletter - March 1988.pdf

My last order into Canada from the US came via UPS, who conveniently collected sales taxes... and charged a fee to do so that was greater than the taxes they collected.

MACAM Newsletter - January 1988.pdf As part of my lockdown cleanup / getting things organized, I'm starting to scan the half dozen or so versions of the MACAM - Montreal Atari Club Atari de Montreal newsletter that I have. Lots of cut and paste from online services, but with a twist - most were also translated into French. This is the very first; more to follow as I scan & combine them (my ADF is single sided).

Thinking about another BEST order later this year... but my Atari budget for the first few months of the year was just spent on a couple of POKEYMax...

Have you gone into BASIC and tried PRINTing to the P4: device yet? Try: 10 OPEN #1,8,0,"P4:" 20 PRINT #1;"GREATEST SINCE SLICED SALAMI" 30 CLOSE #1

Best lists Hardball as in stock - per the addendum, $19.95 or $9.95 for cart only.

There are a few threads where that OS is discussed: