Mrshoujo

If the game worked better on the 130XE, then an 800XL with a RAMbo XL 256K Upgrade would run it as well since the memory banking scheme is the same.

When I did sector editing, I used a BASIC program published in COMPUTE! except for the time I edited the font in the Paperclip word processor which I did bit by bit using a joystick with a utility called TRACER.COM. Unfortunately, the disk got magnetically garbled before I made a copy and basically lost a working copy and nobody seems to know what it was as I've never been able to find another good copy.

Those are some worn out solder spots. Yeesh. Best I would do is make a drawing noting where the traces go to each pin and after dropping a socket in, continuity test everything to see what's working and then bodge wire all the broken bits. Use tweezers and a magnifying glass. Small tip soldering iron - pre-tin what you can and use flux. It's not impossible just tedious. Slow and steady wins. Electronic surgery!

I made one years ago. Tis but a simple thing.

But if the disk emulator loads the entire file at once into memory, it would be automatically decompressed. The original file on the storage medium wouldn't be altered until the emulator was told to Save it back out to update it. That's been my experience and understanding with Altirra and SDrive Max. As far as how the format works, it wouldn't require more than a few days of keen observers to figure it out. Or they could ask Bob Puff. I see ATR as the uncompressed version.

I am surprised Bob Puff's Disk Communicator .DSK files didn't become a standard for emulating Atari disks. Doesn't it also encode density information in the DSK files his utility makes?

What?

Actually, as Glenn the 5200 Man demonstrated, 5200 code can run on the 8-bit computers but requires a ROM dump, a patch, and sometimes a Translator OS.

One way to tell is by the size. Atari computer cartridges are smaller than 2600 / 7800 and 5200 cartridges. The label might even say for which Atari systems they're intended for.

If the RAM is continually causing problems, try replacing it. What's the slowest speed RAM a 130XE needs to work reliably? If the RAM is too fast, that would cause problems. If you haven't already, check all circuit lines involving the RAM and addressing. Something's still really flaky if it runs one moment but could crash at any nanosecond.

Why use anything other than SpartaDOS?

Load up a word processor like TextPro. Type KEY OFF[cr] And save it as STARTUP.BAT in the root directory of the boot disk. Basically, any word processor program which works under SpartaDOS and saves straight text files works for this. Also don't use the 1200XL OS for this BASIC XE / SpartaDOS combination. I should get more familiar with Altirra's options but you want to be using the OS for the 600XL/800XL. I don't know if that's OS Rev.B or whatever it's referred to. I believe the 400/800 OS is called REV. A anyway. I do know the 1200XL OS is a whole different incompatible beast.

Do you have extended RAM? Like a RAMbo XL 256k? That's where the BASIC XE extensions load.

Cat related issues?? Just get some Nature's Miracle and clean it. I have a tablet computer someone gave me in exchange for fixing their phone and it reeked of some.. animal's urine. I wasn't exactly thrilled but it's not a total loss. I've had to replace the touch digitizer and it needs a new battery but it still works. It's the detachable keyboard which will need intensive cleaning. I would clean that 410 all the same.

Of course people know of the Easter egg in the 1200XL keyboard test when you let it run all tests. Like how is it supposed to test the keyboard when nobody's there to press keys? 😉

It's better than what I can do. Make the effort and admire the results.

I hesitate a guess but I think that is, along with the label as a clue, a RAMbo compatible 256K RAM upgrade with Omnimon XL as a switchable OS. The previous user made it so it can work as a stock 64K 800XL or as a 256K computer, and with or without Omnimon. The switch when you get a black screen may be turning internal BASIC off but no Self Test. At least it works!

If it can be listed, then it can be modified to work from disk.

Not until I after I'd get an influx of nasty teenagers calling me a monster and raiding the comment section of my blog calling me all sorts of additional nasty crap... I don't need that. Why is there no Edit function? 😞

Arrrgghhjjhjnj!!!!-! Lousy autocorrect!!!! Please someone let me delete that post or edit to correct "jail bar"!!! Holy fricking embarassment!!!! I never meant to put that other word!!!

I'm still perplexed why this is perceived as a problem. I like the "jailbait" look and don't mind it. It gives the video output a distinctive computeristic look. As long as it's not too prominent, I'm okay with however it looks.

I've used a "free" copy of Paint Shop Pro 8.10 Try & Buy since 2004. And have installed it on everything from XP to my Windows 7 desktop. A nice download off a French server might have helped. Just saying. 😉

Doesn't SpartaDOS have a Makeboot utility? Format a disk in SpartaDOS with the file structure, copy the .DOS file to it and then Makeboot? So then it becomes a bootable SpartaDOS disk. I think that's the thing being asked about. You don't run a .DOS file. It's copied to a disk to prepare it for booting.

The equivalent of taking the 1 bit sound channel on the Apple ][ and injecting steroids. 5 voices on the Atari 8-bit!

Actially, the 800XL outputs full color composite video even while using the Monitor port. I have one of those 4 connector cables and figured out how to get composite video and audio on only 2 plugs. Don't use the separated chroma / luma. You can connect them if you really want to by doing the mods everyone knows. I never saw the need.