Neo-Rio

Ha!... well the keyboard keys are coming up white after their retr0brite bath. Much like the XE keyboard keys The case is going to take a little longer... but I can see the original colour under the hood.

I think for casual gameplaying then an SIO2SD device and an AtariMax flashcart will let you play pretty much everything, including the cartridge based games if I'm not mistaken. Some games don't work without OS-B (from the 400/800 machines), and some games require extra memory. To get around these issues, you'll need an Ultimate 1MB upgrade - but that will require some hacking of your computer with a soldering iron.

Do all floppy disk based games have to be loaded from the built in drive A? I ask because if I can get an SD floppy drive emulator plugged in as a second drive, I get to keep by internal drive without having to mod the Atari out too much and still play all the games from the second drive. Will definitely look into RAM upgrades and the TOS switcher kits in the meantime.

I must have 1.02 then, as it reads 1986,1987 for me. As for hard disk support... roughly what percentage of games have been modified for Hard drive usage? ...or is gaming largely a disk based, or disk drive SD card emulated based pursuit?

There's a Commodore 64 version of Ninja as well. Very similar (in fact, almost identical) to the Atari version.

It sounds like if you got your old motherboard and modded it with an Ultimate 1MB upgrade board, you would get it working again. After all, it replaces both the OS ROM and the MMU with cabling into the unit.

Yes, well this is priority number one! Attached is a picture to see just how discoloured this ST has become. In fact, I daresay that it's not gone yellow or brown, but positively gone a shade of Pantone 448C, a.k.a the ugliest colour in the colour spectrum! Compare that to the XEGS keyboard I have which is still looking good. The case is going to get retrobrited (assuming this does not bleach the case), and the keyboard is probably going to get an overhaul - starting with cleaning up and retrobriting the keys, and possibly getting the mylar replaced and given best touch key rubbers. Having overhauled an XE keyboard before, this should be relatively easy. Will check out the motherboard version and what's in the unit. I don't think it's ever been opened before, so it's likely a standard PAL 540STFM as you would find out of the box. Upon boot the Desktop Info doesn't tell me which version of TOS it is, but the Atari logo is black (which appears to mean something) A question about hard/flash drives: I notice that the Lotharek Ultrasatan gets a few mentions. Do most games work on this device, given that it appears as a hard drive? I'll likely be padding out the flash cards with disk images off the net, but I would still like to keep the floppy drive intact in case the odd original comes my way. Also there's some add on Language disk for the TOS which I don't have, I believe. Looks like I should upgrade the TOS to 1.04 anyway. Now the decision is whether I internally mount RAM or use an add-on board to go to 4MB, although with 4MB it seems that I need to drill a switch in the case to switch it between 4MB and 1MB for compatibility.

Thanks for the tips. How about upgrading the TOS in the STfm? What is the latest version you can install into one, and can I burn my own eeproms?

I'm new to the Atari ST line of computers, but I don't know too much about them. I recently picked up a used 520STfm along with a monitor. The case of the ST was so yellow that it's almost brown. When I powered it on the for the first time, the screen went white and the disk drive made a few noises searching for a disk. After a while I got a desktop. Without a mouse or any disk, I can't do anything with the computer at the moment it seems. Good news is that it doesn't seem broken so far. So what advice would you give a newbie to the machine? I want to do it up and make it usable for gameplaying and whatever else. Does the case respond well to retrobrite? Are the keys easy to clean up? (if they are anything like the Atari XE keyboards?) What are my options to upgrade the computer? From what I understand, there are disk drive replacements and RAM upgrades up to 4MB, but which are the best? Is the 520STfm missing anything the 1040STfm is? ...and I'm clearly going to need a mouse. I think Best electronics has me covered there.

XEGS chips are not socketed (it's a cheaply made console). Anyone tried buring an XEGS eeprom before? I have a spare. I think a lot of people do that have modded their XEGS with an Ultimate 1MB unit.

Yep, they're all interchangeable.

Another day, another type-in Uranium Core from C+VG http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-uranium-core_16754.html Sort of a weird collect them up game for a player using two paddles simultaneously.. where graphical glitches are a gameplay element. I dunno, WTF! The time and score also seem to scroll down the screen, but it looks like a bug. Not sure how to fix. Enjoy (?) URANIUM.BAS

I've done hundreds, possibly even over a thousand type-ins for the Gamebase 64 project. What I can say about managing type-ins for people to help out with is: 1. You need to have a collection of type-in listings available in PDF or JPEG form for people to easily access 2. People who do them need to know that someone else isn't working on the same type-in and wasting effort. 3. All submitted type-ins need to be double-checked by the author to ensure that there are no typos. 4. Where there are bugs, they need to be noted. They can be fixed, but the fixes should be documented in the program (a REM statement will do) 5. If the program is horribly bugged beyond casual repair, then whoever typed it in has a free licence to edit it how they see fit.

Another C+VG type in: Air Attack http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-air-attack_16991.html A poor man's "Air/Sea Battle", without the air bit. At the end of the game you are asked Y/N for another game. It doesn't seem to work and just dumps you out to BASIC. I always double check my typing before sending off type-ins. A bug? AIRATT.BAS

There was an Atari XEGS there.... And the lynxes were on the other side of the room. Are you not satisfied?

Don't look now, I've done another type-in. Snakes from C+VG http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-snakes_16992.html I must ask forgiveness for foisting upon the world yet another bloody tron light cycle game SNAKES.BAS

Good to meet you at that event CJ. I didn't think Rebooteroids was a WIP. Looks pretty finished as far as I could tell. "Rock beats spaceship"

Urgh.... never mind. I left BASIC enabled.

Without another SIO device, is there any solution to playing a movie? I only have the SIDE2 for storage on my system. Would be nice if the player has an option to rescan the IDE before starting....

Any update on an updated XEX?

OK, this is weird. Pac-man arcade XEX used to boot OK on my XEGS with SIDE2 and U1MB. Now, since the BIOS update, I've noticed that it doesn't. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/196992-8bit-pac-man-arcade-final-version-accepting-orders/ Not saying that the two are related... but are they?

Oh s&^*t that ain't good. Never had that before, but I have had a C64C late revision motherboard with solder that was seemingly impossible to melt properly. It caused me no end of grief.

That's amazing. I found the movplay.xex file and some video,bin files. Got it working on Altirra. Now I want to try real hardware. I only have a SIDE2 as a storage device. I wrote the video bin image using a windows image writer directly onto another CF card. I then tested this card by having Altirra access it directly to play the video - which worked. So on my U1MB XEGS, I booted the movplay.xex off one CF card, and then hot swapped with my other CF card that had the video. When I hit any key to start, I just got a high pitched screech with a blue background and flashing junk. Wut?

I use a large pump action solder sucker. Seems to do the job OK at removing chips. I think it's all in the technique. I've done work on an XEGS board, so it's similar quality. I haven't experienced any problems working on it. Heat up the pin with the iron until you can start to see the solder liquefy, and the trigger the solder sucker over the pin at a 45 degree angle as the tip of the sucker rests on the iron. Done properly, there will be a visible hole. The trick with removing chips from a circuit board is to ensure that each chip pin is free from the edges of it's hole in the board BEFORE you attempt to remove the chip. After sucking solder out and seeing the visible hole, use the tip of the soldering iron to push the pin back and forth to ensure that any lingering solder is not still connected to the pin. If it is, I try sucking the solder again until I can see a visible hole. Done properly the pin should be able to "bounce" as you tap it with your iron. You NEVER attempt to remove the chip until you can verify that each pin on the chip is loose. Otherwise you have more work to do sucking the solder out. Attempting to pull out a chip that isn't completely desoldered can DESTROY your motherboard as you may end up ripping up the tracings connected to each pin of the chip. Often times there is one pin that just won't seem to desolder and is holding up the chip removal (pin 1 usually). You can get away with removing the chip with heat applied to that pin so you can lever the chip out. After removing the chip, make sure you replace it with an IC socket so you never have to do this again! Solder in the socket pins (make sure you line it up the right way with the chip indentation), and let the socket cool down for about 10 minutes or until cold before reseating the chip. If you don't give the socket time to cool down before re-inserting the chip, you can often end up warping the socket and the chip may not seat properly -- even possibly falling out of the socket! It's a good idea to practice desoldering chips on an electronics board that you don't care about first - before you apply your skills to a board that you DO care about.

I have a PAL XEGS, and it doesn't have that HL channel switch for some reason