Rybags

Generally OBJ should be just a module output from an assembler without init/run parameters but the standard isn't really followed. In some cases multiple OBJ segments might be linked together to produce a final program. Xex/Exe is a finished product intended for end user to run.

Modern instruction extensions would probably make no difference unless the program is recompiled and can take advantage of them. With the CPU temps, multiple jobs running total thread count of all jobs to be -1 of physical or logical processors would give good performance but having a round-robin core idle state would knock the temperature down somewhat.

Soft test of Timer IRQ I feel is a good idea. 2nd Pokey options could potentially be various - IRQ sent to CPU or not, POTs connected or not, and FPGA type could have incomplete simulation of some elements such as keyscan or SIO. Timer IRQ would be a fairly simple extension from the normal AUDF restart so likely to be included.

Has anyone created an "RC animator" yet? 16K frames would probably allow a narrow DMA mode with 100, maybe more scanlines with the remainder to do the kernal. Though from looking at some RC binaries a fair while back, there is a fair bit of wasted space in there with long strings of NOPs that could be reduced by using other instructions for same cycle consumption but less memory.

We had a thread years ago on detection techniques. I would guess that problem software might be using a method that's either faulty or not comprehensive enough or that it's attempting the right thing but not doing it properly. Or, alternatively - if it's a Pokey recreation, the device might not behave as expected when certain tests are performed.

You'd be better off using a Ram based memory tester which should properly ID the RAM size and be able to test the area that SALT misses.

Not sure that's filter. You can get cancelling of output when channels are in certain states on notes of similar frequency. It looks to be in 15 KHz mode at that point (the video seems to have an overlay of the Altirra audio graphing maybe?) - though you can mix and match master frequencies applied to voices to an extent.

What is the issue / fix with some flashcarts not working in the older computers?

Timestamp? There seems to be all sorts in that - filters, 1.79 MHz mode on single voice, 15 KHz mode, possibly even 2-tone.

I assume the problem is the cursor appearing "newline" and not moving until you press a key. I mentioned a fix in a previous post. Before the INPUT - print something that's nondisplay. From memory I used to get this problem in the day - ? CHR$(158) ; is a good one - it's the "Clear TAB" sequence that doesn't display or show annoying cursor actions.

I'm fairly sure you can't change the prompt character. But you can do INPUT #16, That will suppress the prompt, so you can just leave it out or create your own.

POS. won't necessarily put the cursor down, screen output is usually needed (either printing or user input) You could fudge it by printing something that doesn't display such as a delete character sequence or cursor forward/back.

I don't quite get it. I'm fairly sure you could just have somethjng like: 30000 SAVE "D:PROG.BAS" 30100 LIST "D:PROG.LST" Unlike other Basics, Atari Basic generally lets you put stuff inside programs that you'd normally only do in immediate mode, and do stuff in immediate that normally only goes inside the program. You can even have ENTER inside a program. And you can construct the text file without line numbers such that it gets executed sort of like a batch file. Some things you do though will terminate, fairly sure LOAD will always initialize first and abort any batch operation in progress before the load commences. The trick I had (generally before 64K and Dos 2.5 with Ramdisk) OPEN #1,6,0,"D:*.* : FOR A=1 TO 9999 : GET #1,D : PUT #16,D : NEXT A to get a disk directory without wiping your work - you could also put that inside a program (need to CL. #1 or END after the Error 136) PUT #16 is a handy trick too - annoyingly Basic doesn't normally allow some operations on IOCB #0 but just add 16 to the one you want and it works.

The master clock is slightly faster for NTSC. This could in theory have effect on the visible display you see on the TV or monitor - it will be further off spec than a stock machine since the scanline and frame durations will be slightly lower. Plus you'll likely have NTSC colour clocking for a "PAL" signal. For the serial IO, the clock speed shouldn't matter for stock speeds but could matter for turbo it likely would for the fastest ones. With a custom SIO routine, my theory is the problem might arise if shorter delays are used in some parts of the operation - the slightly quicker system clock might be enough to throw things off. Emulation - possibly might miss it unless the peripheral emulation simulates the exact latencies you might have with a real drive.

Also you'd need as close as possible to real SIO emulation, so turn off the turbo features and patches.

Does it use stock SIO speed always or does it test for turbo ability? Another theory could be if the delays between command frame, ACK, sending of data etc are too low that the drive misses stuff and gets stuck.

It uses a custom SIO to allow music during loading. Maybe the slight clock speed difference causes it to not function properly.

I also devised an effect using CHACT in conjunction with VSCROL tricks. I'll have to see if I can find it and do something with it - CHACT is somewhat underutilized on our system.

Unlimited (to an extent) You also have CHACT which can be used for effects such as vertically inverting the font and turning inverse video on and off. Would need to check, but fairly sure the v-inversion is an instantaneous thing and just acts on the lower 3 address bits when a character set fetch is performed, ie every scanline during character mode when each character's font data is fetched.

More info needed, like what is it doing? I assume the question relates to attempting to run Arsantica 3 demo on an NTSC machine with PAL Antic installed? In theory it should work, although you don't get PAL colour blending on alternate scanlines in NTSC.

Screenpics can be fabricated. And in any case, digital photo pics almost always make a turd look polished.

129 Euro is way too much. Fair enough to pay a little more than an internal device like Sophia to have portability but not this much. This Ali Express one looks tempting, if they take PayPal I think I'll risk a shot.

Flicker multiplexing maybe? This is one game where having 25 Hz ghosts could actually be acceptable. The question I should have asked earlier - regardless of if you want artifacting or not, you'll be getting it with single pixel vertical lines. Is the maze intentionally designed so that you'll have certain colour/s ?

U1Meg I think allows substituting something alternate to the Missile Command for the XEGS Rom slot. Would need someone like Flashjazzcat to come in on this one, I've got one but I've never altered it. Plenty of modern day flashable carts around also but some only allow showing 8K at a time, some can emulate most known banking schemes.

There's +12V present on both cards and having it go to the wrong place could be a real problem. You'd probably have to find pinouts then work out where the +5 and +12 ended up. Just a guess but putting them back in the proper way then testing isn't likely to make them any worse. Running without RAM - any Atari can do so but the only way you could get any sense from the machine would be to have a diag mode cart inserted. Even then the cart would need to be able to do something without RAM (not sure if any exist) What could be done is something that sets screen colours and even a display that's in the ROM and maybe play some sound. It could be useful to find signs of life in machines with the memory taken out.