Muzz73

I want to laugh at some of these ebay listings, but they really aren't funny. Amusing, sure, but not funny...

Monty Hall!!! And to think I gave mine to a buddy for his collection! Whoa!

ebay listings like these drive me bananas. Some goof buys a box of Atari stuff $20 at a garage sale or flea market and puts it up there for some ridiculous amount, thinking he's struck gold. Ugh...

I am very interested in an Incognito. I posted on another thread, asking if anyone ordered extra ones just to see the run happen, but didn't get any responses. I'm hoping to get lucky once the boards actually arrive into peoples' hands. So I should be alright on the CPU thing, but what about the RAM? Is the difference between 48K and 64K crucial on the A8, like it is on the Apple ][+?

Hey, all... I've had 600XL & 800XL machines for years, but never owned an Atari 800 before. Thankfully, I have one on the way and am pretty stoked about it. I do have a question or two, though, and any help would be appreciated. First, my 800 has the 6502 CPU, not the 6502C. Is this going to cause a compatibility issue for me at some point? Next thing is... the 48K of RAM. My 800XLs came stock with 64K (as 800XLs do) and I had my 600XL upgraded to match, so I've never given much thought as to whether or not I could run something, nor have I paid attention to which of my games will run under 48K and which required 64K. Is this also going to be a problem? I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go... Thanks in advance!

^^^ That's what I read somewhere... the entire software library for the A8 (world wide) is just under 4GB, so you ought to do fine with that. I grabbed some 3GB CF Microdrives off of ebay last year, new, for $8 each and free shipping. I use one with my MyIDE2 (similar to the SIDE) and it runs like a top.

O...M...G... Hey, I have an odd question... how difficult would it be to enable Veronica to work in the right cartridge port on an 800?

Why not try it with a 65XE board? It's a bit smaller than the 1200XL's MoBo, uses the same type of low-profile keyboard that the XEGS uses and no having to hack it up to make the keyboard work. Those boards are still plentiful. B&C has the keyboard for $40 (new) and the motherboards for $75 (also new) in their ebay store. Or you can get a new 65XE from Best Electronics for $115 and cannibalize the parts from it. I know that's extra money out of pocket, but there would be less adapting of hardware and you wouldn't have to hack up a couple of 1200XLs to do it.

I'm sure you'll have fun with all of them, but my personal favorites are Mr. Do!, Fort Apocalypse, Boulder Dash II, and Spy Hunter.

That was really cool! I remember there being BBS parties back in the 80's where a bunch of Commodore people would bring in 1541s, daisy chain four of them off of a single C=64 and there was a simple copy program that could be loaded into the 64's RAM and removed from the drive. You would then put your source disk in drive 8, blanks in 9-11, wait for the copying to start, then you could unplug the 64 and go do something else with it, watching the drives copy to and from one another without having a computer attached. Being that I was like 14 at the time and only had the datasette drive, I thought it was pretty neat.

As far as the compatability issues with JiffyDOS being rare, I'm not sure I'd agree. I don't use it, myself, mainly because our user group's C=128 uses it and almost nothing works with it at all. When someone goes to fire up a program to demo, the machine stops part way through the loading process and we have to power the 128 down, switch off the JiffyDOS ROM, power it back up and begin the SSSSLLLLOOOOOWWWW booting process all over again. I'm not kidding, this is like 4/5 programs. I'm not just saying this because I prefer the A8, and I have never had anything but stock drives on any of my systems, but I have never seen anything on the C=64 or C=128 that was anywhere near the speed of a stock 1050 or a stock Apple Disk ][. If I had, I'd be on it like a hobo on a hot dog!

Remember that CF drives/cards use FAT32 formatting. If you use anything else, the drive will give you fits. I don't know if this is related to your specific problem or not, but I thought it might be worth checking into.

IIRC, most IIgs games ran in 512K and up to 1MB, so if you had 1.25MB, you'd probably be fine if you ran GSOS 5. GSOS System 6 requires more resources, though. Yes, the IIgs uses a specific RAM card that is not compatable with anything else. And no, GSOS is not a multitasking OS. You'd have to use GNO/ME (UNIX for the GS), but you really shouldn't attempt that unless you have at least 4MB RAM, a hard drive and an accelerator.

Oh yeah, I loved my real IIe better than my IIgs, for sure, I'm just trying to give ianoid options.

I got three 1050s in a big box of Atari stuff that I bought from a friend (also had two dead 800XLs, a dead 130XE and an 800XL that was practically brand new, but we're talking storage here). Two weeks later, I found a boxed 1050 at a church rummage sale and couldn't pass it up. So, for all intents and purposes, I had four 1050s on my 1200XL right away. When I learned that my 1200XL was kind of uncommon, I switched to the almost new 800XL and donated the 1200XL to my friend's collection, but that's another story...

I had a IIgs for years and loved it! I agree about the RAM card, though... I'd hold off on that until you figure out that you really need one. I had a GS Juice 4MB RAM card that gave me an odd error once in a while. I had the card tested, the RAM tested separately and my motherboard tested and none were found to have any problems. Since there wasn't much in the way of IIgs software out there, anyway, I just pulled the RAM card out and ran it as a 256K IIe for several years. It was great, because the IIgs used ADB (a year before the Mac did), so you could make it into a really slick enhanced IIe-type setup with a much nicer keyboard & mouse/trackball setup than you could get on a real IIe.

I remember reading somewhere that the cassette tape drive on a Tandy CoCo was faster than a 1541. I don't know if it's true or not, but it wouldn't surprise me! You know something that's kind of funny? I started on a C=64 with a datasette drive, so the 1541 was like a dream when I first got it!

I probably should have been clearer on this; my 800XL had a stock 1050 (four of them, actually) and it skunked the 64C no matter what. Many times as fast on its worst day. Now, a C=128 with a 1571 in 128 mode would be interesting, since it has a burst mode that is supposed to be really fast, but I'd wager any A8 with any 5.25" drive would probably still beat it.

I had some friends who got an Atari 400 when they were discontinued by Atari. Their dad brought it home from the electronics counter at Long's Drugs circa 1983. I believe that, after closeout price and a mail-in rebate from Atari, they said it came out to like $79 or $99 (something like that). I was in awe.

I was a Commodore guy before I was an Atari guy (at least as far as computers were concerned) and have owned more C=, Apple and Atari 8-bit machines than I even care to get into. I ran the games Drol, Karateka and one or two others for side-by-side comparison on loading times, animation and gameplay. As far as load times on the games are concerned, my personal observations are: my 800XL/1050 was usually fastest, my 64C/1541C was always, BY FAR the slowest and my Apple IIe/Disk ][ was somewhere in the middle. I even stuck an EPYX Fast Load cartridge in my 64C and my IIe was still faster at loading and saving. My 800XL was almost always noticeably faster than my IIe, and both smoked the Commodore even with the Fast Load.

If you don't mind an internal IDE to CF setup, you can get CF microdrives dirt cheap now. I got some 3GB microdrives off of ebay, new (in package) for $8 each and free shipping. An actual spinning hard disk with the convenience of CF. I popped one into my MyIDE2 and it works like a charm. Miniscule power draw compared to a 2.5" drive, too.

When I was in junior high school (almost 30 years ago), my dad and I joined a Commodore User Group in Santa Cruz, CA (we used to meet at the Aptos library). It seemed that every time we went, people had a lot of questions about GEOS and, being newcomers, we kept asking what GEOS was and nobody would talk to us. The president would start talking about some software that he wanted to show, somebody would butt in and start and argument and they'd squabble away for sometimes 10-15 minutes straight and often argued more than once per meeting. I left after 2-3 visits. My dad probably lasted 2-3 more. Now we (my dad, myself and now my son) are members of the Fresno Commodore User Group and everything is much nicer! Though the primary focus is definitely Commodore, they don't mind if we talk Atari here and there, because with Tramiel and Miner being involved with both companies, we're all in it together and everybody gets along. I certainly wish there were more retro-computing user groups than there are, but they are a dying breed, I'm afraid...

I picked up a used 1200XL at a thrift store for $25. I ended up switching to an 800XL and donating the 1200XL to a friend's collection.

I'm 41 until March and although I loved the A8 platform the first time I saw it (about 8 or 9), I didn't get one of my own until I was 25 or 26. Now I have several and will not part with any of them! And as far as us having really never grown up is concerned, I quote Jason Reuben (co-creator of Keef the Thief) - "You're only young once, but you can be immature forever."

I'm 41 until March and although I loved the A8 platform the first time I saw it (about 8 or 9), I didn't get one of my own until I was 25 or 26. Now I have several and will not part with any of them! And as far as us having really never grown up is concerned, I quote Jason Reuben (co-creator of Keef the Thief) - "You're only young once, but you can be immature forever."