jaybird3rd

I'm having a similar problem with my one of my 7800s. The colors are very washed out and the sound is almost too quiet to hear. I know the RF modulator is probably bad (it's touchy; I have to tuck the cable under the unit to make contact), but I'm not strongly motivated to fix it. RF is too much of a pain anymore. Instead, I'm looking to build a composite AV mod for it, which would give me much better results than even a brand new RF modulator would (and would probably be easier than the fix). Here's something I'd love to see from one of the hardware wizards on this site: an assembled, tested 7800 composite/S-Video mod card with installation instructions for those of us who can't read schematics. I'd pay good money for one, especially since I have three 7800s and don't have time to build mods for them all.

I recently became the proud owner of an original Atari Pong coin-op cabinet (serial number AAA-001 in case anyone's interested). I got it at a good price, partially because it's presently not working. The mainboard seems to be getting power because the TV goes blank when I plug it in, but the game never starts. The previous owner had little electrical engineering experience, and only got as far as replacing the large capacitor with a new one before giving up. I'm afraid I'm not much more knowledgeable than he, so I'd like to know if there are any simple things I can try to get it working again. Or, even better, I'm wondering if anyone on these boards is experienced in servicing these units and might be interested in repairing mine (for a reasonable fee, of course). Thanks in advance for your help! (I originally posted this in "Pong, Etc." but figured more people would see it here).

I recently became the proud owner of an original Atari Pong coin-op cabinet (serial number AAA-001 in case anyone's interested). I got it at a good price, partially because it's presently not working. The mainboard seems to be getting power because the TV goes blank when I plug it in, but the game never starts. The previous owner had little electrical engineering experience, and only got as far as replacing the large capacitor with a new one before giving up. I'm afraid I'm not much more knowledgeable than he, so I'd like to know if there are any simple things I can try to get it working again. Or, even better, I'm wondering if anyone on these boards is experienced in servicing these units and might be interested in repairing mine (for a reasonable fee, of course). Thanks in advance for your help!

That's right. The two ports were scheduled to ship at the same time, so while the C64 version was being debugged, Mike Lorenzen (the A8 developer for Pitfall II) used the extra time to add the extra level. But in terms of completing the initial port from the 2600 (not counting the bugfixing stage), the two versions took about the same amount of time. I just found that interesting because Lorenzen had access to David Crane's documented source code (and to Crane himself) for guidance, and even with that advantage, the C64 developer was able to complete the from-scratch version of Pitfall II in the same amount of time. That makes me believe that a homebrew developer looking to port a game to the A8 isn't necessarily choosing the harder path by doing it from scratch (as opposed to trying to reverse-engineer code from the original version and move it over to the A8 platform). Of course, I could be totally wrong here. As for creating a totally new game on the A8, I agree with Sheddy that this is much more difficult, since the developer must perfect the gameplay and artistic aspects of the title as well as contend with coding and debugging. Since it's probably very difficult to come up with a new game that does not "borrow" from previous titles to some extent, as Sheddy points out, I'm just as content to create A8 versions of existing games that haven't been seen on the A8 before, just for the sake of playing them on my favorite computer.

I remember hearing David Crane talk about the development of Pitfall II for the C64 and A8 on Retro Gaming Radio, and his insights on this very topic (porting vs. rewriting) were fascinating to me. Apparently, the 2600 version of Pitfall II was done first by Crane himself, and the ports for the A8 and C64 were assigned to two other programmers working under Crane's supervision. They took two different approaches: the A8 programmer ported the original code directly from the 2600 and made the necessary changes to make it work on the A8 hardware, while the C64 programmer used the original game as a template to write Pitfall II on the C64 from scratch. Crane was curious to see which one could finish his port first, but it turns out that they both got done at the same time! The only advantage for the A8 version was that it was bug-free when it was completed, whereas the C64 version had a whole debugging phase to go through before it could ship. That story made me believe that it's probably just as easy (if not easier) to rewrite the game from scratch on the A8 than to try to work with the original code, especially since most of us will not have access to the documented source code (not to mention the developer) of the original game for guidance.

Hi everyone, I am looking for an AKI interface for my XEGS so I can finally get rid of this mushy Atari keyboard and replace it with a nice PS/2 keyboard! I found out about this interface after I stumbled upon the designer's web site, but I haven't had any luck contacting him. Building one myself is probably within my means, but since I don't have a PIC programmer, I have no way to program the interface's CPU. I know several of you have used/built this interface before; does anyone know where I can obtain a preprogrammed PIC (or preferrably a complete interface)? Thanks in advance for your help!

You know, that's an interesting idea. I've been looking into getting into A8 development myself, and in thinking about how I would handle commercial distribution (assuming I create something someone else would want), I considered offering two options. The more "expensive" one would be to offer the product on a real cartridge, and the "cheaper" one would be to offer a PC-format 3.5" floppy diskette with a binary version of the product on it (for use with an emulator or the APE PC-Mirror) as well as a bootable .ATR version (for transfer to a real 5.25" diskette). That would allow the user to enjoy the cost savings of buying magnetic media instead of cartridges, it would avoid the trouble of obtaining reliable 5.25" floppies for distribution, and it would give the user the freedom to use the software any way they want. Not sure what the technical difficulties might be in offering the same game in both formats (especially for large bankswitched cartridge games), but perhaps it's an option worth considering. There might even be enough room on the disk after that to bundle an emulator with the game (assuming that doesn't violate any licenses), or even electronic documentation/extras.

Wow, a debug version would be great! I'd appreciate an updated executable also! Big thanks to everyone for the feedback and the encouragement. Just to clarify, though: I'd never attempt a whole game in Atari BASIC; I only planned on using it for testing and to get better-acquainted with the hardware in the beginning without dealing with assembly. That might not be necessary, though, since I've been reading through the tech docs I have and am getting a better feel for the hardware. Between learning 6502 assembly and the A8 hardware I've still got LOTS of questions, but you've all got me started in the right direction. One more question (and I hope I'm not breaking any forum rules here): would you recommend using a disassembler to attempt to learn from the source code of working games, or is that more trouble than it's worth? Most of the source I've gotten from the disassemblers I've tried branches all over the place and is a little hard to follow.

Happy New Year Everyone! I decided to FINALLY follow through on my longtime ambition to develop games for the Atari 8-bits, after I discovered AtariAge last year. I've read elsewhere on these forums about the desire to attract new A8 developers, and I'm prepared to answer the call as best I can. Based on recommendations I've seen here and elsewhere, I've already started by putting together a collection of hardware, software, and books, which includes: - Several computers (two 800s, two 800XLs, a 600XL, a 130XE, and an XEGS) - Three 1050s and the APE / ProSystem software (running on a dedicated machine) - XEP-80 with monochrome composite monitor and AtariWriter 80 (useful as a source editor?) - Atari's Macro Assembler (the disk-based version) - Rodnay Zaks' Programming the 6502 and Advanced 6502 Programming - Lance Leventhal's 6502 Assembly Language Programming and 6502 Assembly Language Subroutines - De Re Atari and Atari's Technical Reference Notes (OS User's Manual and Source Listing and the Hardware Manual) I started this topic because I'm looking for advice from more experienced A8 developers on where to start (I'm currently a Computer Science student but I've never attempted 6502 Assembly before). Is there anything I'll need that I don't already have? Would you recommend starting on a platform other than the Atari 8-bits? Should I begin with BASIC and move on to Assembly later, or is it better to just start out with Assembly? I've looked over the books on www.atariarchives.org, but most of them seem to be written for assemblers I don't have (the Assembler/Editor cartridge, MAC/65, etc.) Can I still use them? Thanks in advance for your advice, and my apologies if this sort of thing has been posted before (I'm a n00b).