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Well, my Pico clone cards and switches arrived. Now I just need to wait for my PCBs to get here.

Just an old style bootleg cartridge with a load of pirated games on it. They were beyond my capabilities back in the day, but they definitely existed. This one was obviously larger than most fromm the size and number of games on it. It may have been more of a 90s cart rather than 80s. I can't say that I know anything about this cart specifically.

I ordered mine from PCBWay. I have ten coming in if you'd like to purchase one is mine. Otherwise, their minimum order is five.

It doesn't sound like he's willing, or at least not able, to spend much to upgrade beyond his stock, very basic setup, so I guess it would depend on price. From his replies, I think he may be looking into an SIO2USB cable/adapter and a 64KB upgrade. Those two together would open up a world of opportunities.

I've followed your multiple threads off and on and I haven't noticed anyone criticizing you. We've tried to help and have offered you some very good suggestions. The problem that I've seen is that you've seemed reluctant to take any of the advice that's been given and you've been very reluctant to accept the reality that your current setup is extremely limited and that it is next to impossible to do what you're wanting to do with the current setup that you have. Those of us with knowledge and experience with these machines know that a base Atari 400 or 600XL are the most base machines and are little more than glorified game consoles without any upgrades or extra peripherals, able to do little more than run cartridge or cassette games. @MrFish's suggestion of an SIO2USB device was an excellent suggestion that I didn't think to make earlier just because I haven't used one in years and have moved on to other, more elaborate devices. He is correct though, it is a relatively inexpensive yet elegant option that will allow you to emulate an Atari disk drive with your 600XL, opening up a world of software options to you. Of course, the 16KB limitation of the machine is then going to hurt you. His later suggestion of 64KB upgrade options was also spot on.

Well, of course things could change, but if that's the ballpark, those seem like pretty darned good prices to me.

This is sounding better by the day. Do you have an expected price range for the basic and pro models, or is it still too early for that, or did I miss it altogether? Thanks for all the information. We're waiting anxiously.

I will. Thanks for the advice!

That's a good point. I never thought of that. I just automatically think of buying new.

Yeah, and if we take that approach, then we may not have upgrades like U1MB, VBXE, etc., and I don't think any of us would consider those as going too far, even though they really may be in comparison to our original 80s tech. I'll agree that it's a slippery slope.

Yeah, that's what I've been told. 4K seems like way overkill for anything other than the main playfield screen, which I would like. I've had several people tell me that my CPU looks good, but that I'd probably need to pair it with a 70 level card, maybe a 3070 to get really good performance for a 4K playfield screen. The main thing is that, when it comes to TVs, which is pretty much what we're all using for VP displays, it's getting darned near impossible to find 1080p screens anymore. Not that you can't run a 4K screen at 1080p, but in my experience, at least with gaming monitors, using a display's native resolution is best. Anything less and the display seems fuzzy and washed out to me. Of course, all of the TVs in my house are 4K, and I'm certain I'm seeing a lot of 1080p content on those and I've never noticed an issue, so maybe I'm overthinking it.

Hadn't we already decided on a palette? That's what FJC used for his U1MB plugin, right? I mean, it may not have been sent to candle & company but, unless we find a better one, we've pretty much already decided on the palette.

IMHO, yes, things can go too far. In the example you gave, you said it yourself. The game is actually running on a Raspberry Pi and the cartridge circuitry basically turns the console into not much more than a glorified video circuit. At least that's my take on it.

This is awesome news! So, is this easily flashed to existing boards? I realize the term easily is likely open for debate.

I was beginning to wonder if this post would ever get a reply. Thank you for the information.