Piotr D. Kaczorowski

I am absolutely amazed by the incredible work that has been done over the years towards reproducing these circuits. In fact, today's tools could potentially leverage AI to assist in designing and reproducing these circuits. I remember when I was the Chief Operating Officer of the largest Polish instant messaging platform Gadu-Gadu from 2003 to 2008, creating such a platform took years of development so that 1.5 million people could be online and chat with each other. Nowadays, setting up such a solution takes an evening or a few evenings, mainly utilizing a credit card and Amazon servers Technology is progressing rapidly in such areas.

I won't argue on this matter, but if I may share my comment once... I am here in Poland, specifically in Warsaw, so these stories are quite close to me. It's somewhat funny, and somewhat tragic. Looking at it entirely objectively, as someone relatively new to this community (my Atari history spans from 1986-1991 and now 2020-), I would say that a manufacturer is a business person and basic disputes usually revolve around publishing purchased projects, which contradicts the manufacturer's interests, delays in delivering commissioned projects, and not following through with support. On the creators' side, the main issue is usually finances and a lack of business acumen. However, the overarching theme should be that the project is not created for oneself or the manufacturer, but for the community. Unfortunately, these issues also apply to other projects like SIDE, Rapidus, or VBXE. Of course, these encompass both problems and opportunities for new projects to emerge. Let me put it this way, in relation to designing a new turbo card that will replace Rapidus, I had to undergo an apprenticeship in familiarizing myself with clock-related issues and the instability of expansions interacting with each other. The result of my work (or perhaps more accurately, my passion) is a small circuit called O2/Fixer. It's so small and budget-friendly (it costs 29 PLN in Poland, which is 7 USD or 6.5 EUR) that I didn't even want compensation for it. I'm glad to have made a small contribution, something very simple in the final version. The manufacturer even included information about me in the manual and on the board, and when I ordered the first three units myself, they sent me a dozen more. At least SIDE3/3.1 started working in computers, and the Ultimate 1MB finally runs normally with BO2. Either way.. One can do something for oneself, something for the community, and something for money. Currently, financing these projects looks like using crowdfunding services, and there are many people who are willing to contribute a donation monthly for the development of such projects. Based on my calculations, for example, in the case of a project like Rapidus, it's a few hundred times a few dollars a month, which adds up to quite substantial amounts over the course of a month or year. Perhaps even more than the amounts currently exchanged between the manufacturer and the creator. But... you have to be willing, not just demanding.. In the end, everyone loses. In my opinion, in this whole situation, for example, the author(s) could independently value their willingness to compile the core with just the NTSC palette, regardless of the manufacturer. Otherwise, there will be individuals like me who will eventually create a mini board that can be inserted into the computer, which will work its magic. It will take control of the computer briefly after boot (similar to how U1MB does) and load that darn palette. Furthermore, such a board would cost just a few USD again and sell like SAVO hundreds of times, and... someone else will benefit from it, not the authors of VBXE. Where two are fighting, a third benefits.

@ijor, Is there a well-recreated and redrawn GTIA schematic available? I've seen that diagrams of the entire Antic were uploaded, but I'm curious about the GTIA itself.

expanded GTIA... without CSYNC 😂

Very interesting topic. I'm joining and will be watching 👀

You have mail.

Now, it is here.. on AtariAge @patjomki, Add in the original text, 'This is the place where 'PRESS A KEY TO PROCEED' could appear'

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You need SpartaDOS X, not SpartaDOS. The rest is okay. I've just spoken with Draco. Best, Peter

Here, you can find the VBXE core 1.26 with the alternative Rocky palette: webpage: https://madteam.atari8.info/index.php?prod=vbxe cores: https://madteam.atari8.info/vbxe/rocky_pal.7z

I keep trying to understand why Electron can't compile a version with the NTSC palette, without all that NTSC Artifacting. After all, there is the 1.26 core with an alternative palette, and everyone in the Polish demo scene is using this core. I'm talking about the Rocky palette core.

@flashjazzcat, Is it possible to create a plugin for changing the PAL/NTSC/alt palettes for SIDE3.1, which could work stand-alone without Ultimate 1MB?

Hello everyone! 🖐️ Very interesting topic. I'm joining and will be watching 👀

Dear All, Does anyone have KiCad on hand and could generate a PDF with the schematic from the files on GitHub? It's always easier to quickly check out the layout without running (or installing) specialized software.

@electrotrains Thanx! Wishing you good health!

You're right. My mistake. I simply didn't read thoroughly. I missed that part. As I said, I looked at your GITHUB and I know that you know what you're talking about."

Correct. I agree with you on that matter. Really, I don't know why csync is not provided by VBXE. It should be. I wonder which Atari they're talking about... Is it the Atari Warner Bros., the one from Jack Tramiel's time, or the new one recently...? Of course, it's not a stock Atari, but an extended Atari. For such people, 'Super VGA' is also not VGA There's no point even mentioning how much the new NVIDIA/AMD have in common with a VGA card... Actually, Sophia 2 users could also be offered to purchase VBXE. It will be simpler and faster The cost will also be lower (I'm talking about the price of one's own time)

@woj At the moment, SAVO CASSIC, SAVO+, SAVO MAX, and HAVO boards support VBXE. The first thing is that Sophia 2 is a niche solution for now, and VBXE is produced by an electronics manufacturer - and that's a huge difference. The second issue is that VBXE is fully compatible with GTIA, and as far as I know, Sophia 2 is not. The third thing is that VBXE has additional graphic and text modes, and that's looking to the future, not patching up the past. The fourth and last thing is that I don't think I could gather around 200-500 orders for HAVO for Sophia 2 right now, and that means it's a waste of time from a business perspective. As for the synchronization signal issue, it is indeed a problem. I am currently analyzing various options for noise removal from this signal, without going into specific details. GTIA is preserved for several different reasons. The first thing is the clock signals, the second is the generation of an analog image, from which composite/cvbs and luminance+chrominance (aka s-video) are created. Not every user wants to get rid of the original signals.

rotfl... It's a waste of money, because another company can do something similar by bypassing IP just like RM bypasses the rights of Atari or other companies that have acquired additional rights. In Poland, we have two types of investors: those who say they have money, but "have" to have money those who have access to public funds - this is the case (as far as I know) The problem with public money is that it must be skillfully spent and later accounted for. I'm curious whether this will be an investment in burning capital, or an investment based on risk management, and the investor will actually get a return on investment. If the subject turns into burning money, it will be a noble, enviable patronage.

A few people here and on Facebook have asked about the installation of VBXL in Atari 600XL. So I am providing information that supplements the documentation on Lotharek's page. NTSC 600XL motherboard and elements that should be removed: PAL 600XL motherboard with removed elements and connected (red) clock and (black) GND to VBXL:

Here is a short video about the Spectre AV product, manufactured by Lothark and reviewed by FJC. Some time ago, a few people were talking about whether Spectre AV works in 600XL. They actually even bought Spectre AV and couldn't configure it properly. There is no specific information on the manufacturer's website. The creator of Medusa (acidmaker) installed SpectreAV in his 600XL, and I made an update to the assembly instructions. Maybe it will be useful to someone.

I wasn't there, but I got information from colleagues: - they are waiting for the production of the first PCB prototype - the end-of-year 2024 deadline has been confirmed I can ask Larka if that's exactly it, or if there's anything else.

@ijor, I've checked your page: https://github.com/ijor Nice work! Congrats!

Without the manufacturer's specification, we don't know. On the website, there is information '65C02C 4Mhz'. I understand that you assume it's CMOS and not Sally. I'm just not sure. You may be right, you may not be. The fact is that NCR heats up less, and that's the most important thing for me. You may be right, and indeed the number 14806 may indicate whether it is Sally. It makes sense. People commonly consider processors with the inscription 6502C to be Sally, but I can also assume that this is more of a superficially established knowledge. I laughed a bit when I read this. So, just as you want to be very precise and recognize Sally by the code 14806, and not by the designation 6502C, you are also a bit wrong here. There is no such thing as so-called undocumented instructions. The truth is that Sally has a simplified address decoder without additional protection to reduce costs. As a result, machine codes outside the standard list perform certain unplanned actions. Over time, people have determined what these actions are and have called them undocumented commands. It's also not the case that software normally uses them. People use them while writing software, which they shouldn't do. However, there is a main design difference that makes Sally different from a regular 6502 processor, namely, it has an internal HALT, which does not need to be implemented externally, as is the case with Atari 400 and 800 computers. So... the fundamental question remains, whether any of the manufacturers produced a processor that has HALT and 4Mhz. Unfortunately, we probably won't find out now, except for the possibility of experimenting.

This, of course, applies to all systems that are not 'Sally'. Nevertheless, you can have a mix between technologies. Today at Mouser, you can buy a WDC PIA, which is certainly not NMOS inside, but is signal-compatible with NMOS. We don't exactly know what the 65C02C chip presents if we don't have the specifications of the chip. It might be a mix, meaning CMOS technology, and the chip itself might be 'Sally'. Essentially, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that it has been determined that NCR heats up less, which means that internally they may be designed using slightly newer technology.