Mrshoujo

2 Things come to mind. Drive may be ever so slightly out of alignment. Drive speed might not be ideal. With the heads being clean, that's the next thing I'd check. Also make sure the voltages on the PCB are good.

I love Copymate! I had it as my #2 disk in my system floppy disk box. It'll even use extended RAM for double density disks and read everything in 1 go. And at US Doubler speeds. Of course people probably knew that anyway...

Umm.. No, the disks available at Archive Org can be directly downloaded. You have to go to the link for each item where it says Show All Files for that depository item and any of the files in the list can be downloaded. You don't convert a torrent. It's just another protocol to downloading files which requires a Torrent Client. I recommend uTorrent 2.0.4. (Aka Micro Torrent - it's got a small file size hence the name) It's an older version without the bloatware but works for me. But like I said, the Archive Org files are directly downloadable. Post a link and I can likely find it.

We need someone to make an FPGA POKEY replacement.

It's unsecured. I told Mobile Chrome on Android to go ahead and grab it. Firefox would complain probably but would grab it.

Re: Protected BASIC program listing.. I'm sure users know what this is. The Variable Name Table has been zeroed out or removed in some way and Atari BASIC obviously doesn't need the names to run a program as it has the tokens they created. If it was made a feature to help authors protect their code, it's rather sneaky. I've used a program a few times which scans the SAVEd program file and rebuilds the Variable Name Table, creates new names, and writes that back out. I don't recall the name or author, but that's what you need when fixing that. Simple thing.

Absolutely nothing wrong with Twitter. Your apprehension is irrational.

Atari BASIC uses strings like 1 long array. It's how you use them which matters. It's rather powerful when you get the concept. An entire 1024 character string can be set to all the same character by 1 line and happens lightning fast. Each character is 1 byte as opposed to numerical variables which take 6 in BCD. In order to use a string variable, you have to DIM it first. Atari BASIC just works like that. Not unlike some programming languages where you have to declare all variables and their types. When reading from a list in DATA, everything can be read as a string, but only numbers can be read as numbers. You can mix types, like a number and a text string. Just have to keep them straight. Yes, ?CHR$(125) is Clear Screen. I was using Altirra and I don't know the keypress to make that character appear. I need to get a guide and print it.

I took the liberty of revamping your code. I did this with TurboBASIC, but it's Atari BASIC. Just explaining for FOR NEXT loop formatting.

I never created a V.1.5. Anyone can do a 1.5. I did a 1.7 to buck the trend. ? I still wonder how my game appeared in other places.

Go ahead and remove V.1.0. A few of the puzzle screens are unsolvable which 1.7 fixes. As far as I know, the Phoenix user group (not NADJAH) was the only place who would have had V.1.7 and yes, it's not compiled TurboBASIC as by then I figured out a small machine language subroutine which helped tremendously and a filename sort wasn't working right when compiled. It still runs under TurboBASIC. If you use the title screen from the user group disk as the thumbnail, that would look best. ?

Which reminds me to ask again... This page http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-push-it_4178.html?version=4178 ...stiil hasn't been updated with my ATR of Ver.1.7 which I posted previously in another thread and you've seen by now. How long does it take?

One thing I'm curious about. When it comes to copy preventative disks, is anyone patching the boot process to unprotect the software? I feel there are 2 groups on this issue - I'm in the group who would rather see the protection removed than perpetuate the protection as at this point in history it's not necessary anymore. But there's the group who would prefer to see the protection itself intact so perhaps it can be studied as to how it worked. Unprotecting it solves problems for drive emulation, I would think.

If you're replacing power supplies, I would recommend the ones from The Brewing Academy. I got one for my 64k 600XL and it works just fine. Hard to believe that little wall wart is the modern replacement for those huge bricks! Switching power supplies would have made life a lot better back in the 80s.

Not that it was FORTH on the 8-bit which did it, but the coin op game GORF was written in FORTH. The person who wrote it was working on a GORF 2 sequel game when the crash happened and still had the 8 inch floppies the work in progress was stored on. However, it's unlikely to ever be completed as the disks may be unreadable now and the development system used no longer exists. Still, preservation for preservation's sake...

H.E.R.O. is one of a few Activision games I beat back in the day at 1,000,000 and have the patch, too. Should still have a film camera photo (maybe). I found it quite easy.

What did I use most often... 1) Textpro 4.0+ I word processed like a mother with that. Escape sequences to control the Epson RX-80 printer to print tiny text and print on anything. Translated manga for years with it. Added a tiny driver to use a joystick to move the cursor around. 2) SpartaDOS X ARC, among its amazing features which leads to 3) TurboBASIC XL 1.5 Just an amazing BASIC on the Atari 8-bit. 4) Antic Music Processor An improvement over Lee Actor's Advanced Music System 2 sequencing software. Added lyrics in a later version. Not even professionally written Music Construction Set nor The Music Studio could touch it. Hell, Music Studio was so pitifully crippled. 5) DeTerm / Bobterm I used these terminal programs a LOT. I doubt I remember how to use them now but I used them daily. BobTerm was helpful in transferring files to the ST via null modem in disk full batches quickly. Honorable mention: *) Micropainter / Atari Artist There were several things I asked of my 8-bit. Information processing. Making music. Printing. Capture real world images. And drawing with my Touch Tablet. Still have the tablet. I think it came without the cartridge or software but I had a binary loading executable which did the job. I remember spending a week typing in all 8,000 numbers to save SpeedScript 3.0 out of Compute! Magazine and save it successfully to tape which eventually was copied to disk.

Does anyone remember Chipmunk? This software had a database of unprotecting a copied disk so it ran. I bought Brøderbund's Sky Blazer and Chipmunk patched its boot process but it patched out the cool musical animated intro. At least I had a backup copy.

This uses the keyboard click channel as a 5th sound channel, yes? I saw one video on YouTube doing this and I haven't been able to find it again.

Crackpots looks like it should be a paddle game. I know it isn't but it plays like a reverse Kaboom! game. Maybe it should have that option.

The capacitors may be showing their age. They can't handle bright images which require a lot more charge than dark or moderately lit screens.

Option key is for disabling built in BASIC. All Atari 8-bits will try booting anything first before going to BASIC. After loading a DOS, then R: handlers will get loaded off 850 or PR Connection, but is usually triggered by an AUTORUN.SYS. Oddities in this process include modems like the 1030 which has a built in terminal program sent down the SIO. I've seen this work once and rarely again. Most people use other terminal software. The first test I would do for XL / XE is nothing hooked up, power on and see if READY comes up. Then power on with disk drive with Atari DOS with DUP and Option held down. That's basic functionality at least. Good luck!

The 2 rectangular supplies on the left are the repairable ones. Open these up and check the capacitors then get numbers off the voltage regulators. They'll be bolted to heat sinks. They should be 7805 or close variant. Pick up some Arctic Silver thermal paste if you plan to swap them out. Basically give them a check on components and voltages. Any other supply which puts out an AC voltage is just a step down transformer and should be safe. The drives, aside from cleaning and lube, might need new belts and speed adjustment. 300 rpm or close enough! Just need to locate the adjustment pot on the board in case you need to do that.

Really? I've done it in the past on various dented objects and using the proper size tool, obtained good results. Oh well.

If one part is dented, then just remove it, flip it over, and use the butt end of a plastic screw driver handle to push it out and flatten it on a hard surface. Use some metal polish to shine it up. If you want a brushed aluminum look, not sure what to tell you. Might as well replace the red power on LED with another color to customize it while you're at it!