Rick Thornquist

Yup. Bought one eons ago. Tried every which way to get it working - no dice. Hmm... you got me curious. I may have to dig it out and give it one more try. - Rick

Finally got the chance to play Barrage but came across something strange. Using the TI joystick, I cannot get the target to move diagonally. It just refuses to do it - it will only go vertically or horizontally (yes, Alpha Lock is up). I then tried a Wico Command Control adapter thingy along with a regular Atari joystick. With that, diagonals work fine. What the hay? - Rick

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Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I'm looking forward to giving these a try. - Rick

Just a straightforward question: What are some of the best simultaneous two player games for the TI? I have two joysticks on the thing, I want to use them! - Rick

Lots of great suggestions. Thanks, everyone! - Rick

Having finally set up my vintage computer collection (an Apple IIGS, Atari 65XE, Commodore 64, Tandy Color Computer 3, and TI-99/4A), I'm looking for a way to impress first time visitors. I was thinking that running some games on attract mode would be cool. Now I'm looking for games with the best attract mode for each machine. My question: Which game on the TI has the best attract mode? Marks will be awarded for not only for coolness, but also how familiar the game is to vintage computer people. - Rick

Wow, looks awesome. So looking forward to trying it! - Rick

Great stuff! - Rick

Just wanted to post a quick update: I received my SAMS, installed it, and it works great. I then installed the Horizon Ramdisk, configured it, and it works great as well. Thanks to everyone for your help! - Rick

After getting help from both the guy that builds the boards and the one that sells them, I guess I have to get one! The order has been placed. Thanks to all for your help. - Rick

Ksarul - Ah, got it. It looks like change notice #3 doesn't apply to me as my board uses 6264LP chips. Lucky me. I'll still probably do change notice #1, the reset thing, as it's pretty simple. I'll also do the resistors on the batteries as that's also pretty simple. One last question, if I may: I was going to get the Fetzner 1mb SAMS memory board in order to get a much needed 32K expansion. Will this conflict with the HRD+ at all or should both cards co-exist peacefully? Thanks for your all your help on this. - Rick

Can you tell me which of these changes are important? I scanned through the HORIZON RAMDISK - User Operating Manual - 3 May 2020, but couldn't find any reference to any changes required for the HRD+ to work with the current version of ROS. - Rick

Thanks for all the info, Ksarul, I appreciate it. I'll check it out and see what I can do. - Rick

Continuing the story from my last post... I got the Flex Cable Interface, crammed it into my PEB, and tried the floppy drive. It works! No expansion memory required! Of course, it doesn't do much without the memory, but that's another adventure... Along with the Flex Cable Interface, I got a Horizon Ramdisk. Not having dealt with this thing before, I did some research but still have some questions. I've attached a picture of it for your edification. 1. What model is this? My guess is HRD+, but you all are the experts. 2. How much memory is on this? There are 24 x HM6264LP-12s on it, so I'm guessing 192KB? 3. I haven't been able to find any manual for this. Is there a scanned manual available for this model? 4. I know this is a dumb question, but... When I got my PEB, I didn't get the memory expansion. Is there some way I can configure 32K of RAM in this thing to work as expansion memory? I know this may be a pipe dream, but if it has that capability it would save me from having to track down a Memory Expansion card. I'm ordering some batteries for the thing and will no doubt will have more questions when I get to the point of installing and configuring it. Thanks! - Rick

Thanks, Schmitzi! - Rick

A few months ago, I acquired a PEB with a Disk Controller card and a floppy drive. No Memory Expansion, no RS-232 Interface and, most importantly, no Flex Cable Interface. I've always wanted a PEB and it was cheap so I grabbed it, though it's not much use without the missing cards. Recently I came across a local guy who has a Flex Cable Interface for sale. Here's my question: if I get the Flex Cable Interface, will I be able to see if the PEB floppy drive works by using, say, the Disk Manager 2 cartridge? Or will it not work without some kind of memory expansion? I know I'll need a memory expansion to do anything useful, but right now I'm just looking to see if if the drive works. - Rick

I just bought an SF314 Floppy Drive for my 1040STf. I plugged it in, booted the machine up, and was ready to revel in the glory of two floppy drives. Unfortunately, there was no reveling. When I tried to read from the drive, the LED just blinked for a split second and then I got the message "Drive B: is not responding...". D'oh! I'm far from an electronics wizard, but I can use a multimeter (barely). I checked the voltages coming in from the power supply to the back of the drive case: 13.18V and 5.02V (I realize that I may be getting spurious readings by checking the power supply without a load). I then checked the power connector going into the drive mechanisms itself: 8.80V and 4.51V. I figured that the drive motor needs 12V and 8.80V probably isn't cutting it. To confirm, I ran a floppy power cable from a PC and left everything else connected to the 1040STf. It worked! I again checked the power connector going into the drive mechanism: this time it was 12.1V and 5.05V. Here's my question: Can anyone guess why I'm only getting 8.80V when I use the Atari power supply? There is some circuitry on the logic board that the power goes through, some transformers and capacitors, before it gets to the drive - could that be the cause? Here's a picture of the logic board, and a the relevant page from the SF354 service manual (which, from what I understand, is pretty similar). https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18477511/Atari%20SF314%20Logic%20Board.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18477511/Atari%20SF354%20Power%20Supply%20Diagram.jpg Any help on this would be appreciated! Thanks! - Rick Thornquist